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What Else Are You Reading?
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What else are you reading - September 2020
Currently reading Annihilation Aria by Michael R. Underwood, and I like it quite a lot. So far it’s a fun Space Opera romp, reminding me of Farscape with a little bit of Guardians of the Galaxy and a soupçon of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.Also reading Harrow the Ninth, but I’m not as entranced by it.
Currently reading Quillifer the Knight by Walter Jon Williams. After that, although I don't have the precise order mapped out, probably some combination of Karl Edward Wagner, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Philip José Farmer.
Just started reading the absolute chonk that is The Mirror & the Light, which I’ve had on my shelf since March but not felt up to reading before now. The third volume of Hilary Mantel’s epic series about the life of Thomas Cromwell.In audiobook I’m reading Black and British: A Forgotten History, read to me by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (familiar to urban fantasy fans as the voice of Peter Grant). It’s a surprisingly gripping and lively account of the relationship between Britain and the peoples of Africa, from the Roman age until now. It’s set within the international context but still with plenty of personal stories to help bring it all to life.
So September is shaping up to be a history-heavy month for me!
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is a terrific narrator. I didn’t even know he was British until I heard him read Midnight Riot/Rivers of London, because I first was aware of him as the physical therapist in Doctor Strange.
The Twitch channel, HyperRPG, is embarking on a month long road trip across the country next month in search of America in this time of COVID and social unrest, live streaming the whole trip from their mobile studio (the HypeRV is what chat has dubbed it). A trip inspired by John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley: In Search of America. So I started it earlier today. 
I might get some grief over this but I just finished reading Midnight Sun. I really enjoyed it. Twilight is a favorite of mine. I have moved on to Where the Crawdads Sing, which has been waiting for me for quite awhile. I am thinking of reading The Dragonbone Chair next.
^If you get grief I'll be right behind you. Well, about six weeks behind you - I have it on library hold. While I'm not the hugest fan of Twilight I enjoyed reading them. They are a cultural phenomenon. My wife bought the set of four some time back and I read them. I still remember the day I went to "parent child donut day" at my daughter's school when she was in grade school. I mentioned that I had read Twilight and suddenly I was the center of a bunch of school moms wanting to talk about it.
Just finished Ink & Sigil. It was fun. I really like this new protagonist. I'm going to start Chaos Rising as soon as I pick it up from the post office.
Just burnt through Peace Talks and finish listening to One Good Turn as a crime palette cleanser. Peace Talks is exactly what you expect from a Dresden book. Not his best but a worthwhile addition to the series that finishes on a cliff hanger leading into Battle Ground so if you are a quick reader I would wait until the end of the month.
Staring in on The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Just One Damned Thing After Another hoping for some enjoyable reads.
Over the last few weeks I have also read The Human which is an interminable fight scene that ends in his typical twist (which is no longer a twist...(view spoiler)) Not his best work and it appears Asher is too far down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole to escape (his bat shit theories are beginning to obviously infect his writing).
Sunglasses After Dark was a fun bit of dark urban fantasy/horror and I will probably read the other books in the series.
The Ballad of Black Tom was a great reinterpretation of Lovecraft... Highly recommended (if you like Lovecraft Country this is right up your alley).
Neal Asher is a full-on conspiracy nutter. There is no way to redeem someone from the level of crazy that dude has descended to.
Louie, I read Travels with Charley a few years back and thoroughly loved it. I'll probably read it again sometime.As someone who never feels pressured to keep my reading up to date I'm just about through the forth Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) book, A Feast for Crows. This will be my last George Martin epic, though. I think he lost his steam after three books.
Iain wrote: "Staring in on The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Just One Damned Thing After Another hoping for some enjoyable reads."Will be interested to see your take on the Jodi Taylor book. This series is constantly being shown to me by the algorithms at Amazon and Audible and I've been tempted to give them a go myself.
Has anyone else here read them?
Colin wrote: "Iain wrote: "Staring in on The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Just One Damned Thing After Another hoping for some enjoyable reads."Will be interested to see your take on the Jodi Taylor book. [....]
Has anyone else here read them?"
I have 12 minutes left in the second Jodi Taylor book in the Chronicle of St. Mary's series. I've found the first two books predominately silly, light, and fun in audible. Narration is excellent.
I have not spent a lot of time thinking about any holes in their time travel philosophy, etc. I found the second one had some rather annoying bits, but still overall fitting the tone of the first. There are some more serious bits in both of them, but the overall tone to me is very light and fun.
I'm simultaneously reading the 3rd Baru Cormorant book in print, and it makes for good balance.
Finished Network Effect. A good example of how you can set up a sequel yet have a very satisfying resolution the the major arcs in the book.Starting Blood of Elves.
I just started The Steerswoman. I remember reading the second book in this series some 25 years ago. I’m excited to revisit.
Nicholas wrote: "I just started The Steerswoman. I remember reading the second book in this series some 25 years ago. I’m excited to revisit."I liked that book quite a lot. Rosemary Kirstein's stuff is interesting.
I’m about to start reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes. Ishiguro is an incredibly hit or miss author for me - The Remains of the Day is one of my all time top five novels, but When We Were Orphans is one of my least favourite and Never Let Me Go was just meh - so I never know what to expect with him. I’m optimistic though!I’m also listening to Agatha Raisin and the Witch’s Tree by M.C. Beaton - I love the Agatha Raisin books even though they are objectively bad, and they are what I listen to whenever I want something silly and fun. The audiobooks are narrated by Penelope Keith from The Good Life and they are extremely reliable entertainment.
Started Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes last night, which is straight-up non-stop Space Opera action adventure. It’s Firefly with telenovela overtones. (There is a section that is hilariously straight out of a telenovela, except with bird-dino aliens.)
Tommy wrote: "Still reading Judgment at Proteus to finish the Quadrail series. Taking longer than I expected because I keep getting distracted by helping take care of 2 new grandchildren."Don’t you hate it when babies just randomly show up, calling you gramps and demanding jello? Boy, if I had a nickel...
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I'm reading The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, which is horror/dark fantasy."Really enjoyed that one
Finished Heretics of Dune and all I can say is, thank God it's over. 670 pages of self indulgent navel gazing. There's barely a plot to be seen in the endless palace intrigue.I started out with the intent of reading the six books written by Frank Herbert. Think I'll stop here for now. It's a cliffhanger but I have little desire to go on. Plus, this was supposed to be the start of a trilogy. Frank Herbert finished the sequel before he died but not the third book. Brandon Sanderson was brought in to write that one along with Brian Herbert and of course Sanderson being Sanderson they bumped it up to two books. So I'd have to read three more self-indulgent novels to get the end of the story. Maybe later.
I distinctly recall my college roommate reading this and loving it. He said it was the fifth book so that has to be this one. I just don't get it.
Should probably spoiler protect the rest....
(view spoiler)
Other things that annoyed me: First, the egregious Star Wars reference. Three kinds of futuristic materials that start with "PO" so Herbert can make a 3-PO pun. Second, the use of "universe" without seeming to actually refer to a universe. It was stylistic in some of the SF I read in younger days to call a solar system a "galaxy" and a galaxy a "universe." Well, it might be stylistic, but it's still confusing. Who knows if that's what Herbert meant, he never gives enough information to clarify. And finally, a reference to holding a weapon with the finger on the trigger. Anyone with so much as a single lesson in firearms knows you don't put the finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
Welp, I'll be stopping here. The other Dune books are available for immediate reading but nah. I've got a Mike Baron book featuring the comics character Nexus where he takes on the "Gourmand," a spoof of Galactus. Kate Danley has done another Maggie for Hire book plus some shorts. The book of the month should come in off library hold soon. First those.
Then, if I'm short of reading material, maybe then more Dune books. But Lord are these Dune sequels getting tedious. It's as if Herbert deliberately mocked his own work. But, there are Dune fans who love those so I have to conclude he was serious. Well, I will let them enjoy.
I believe I read both heretics and chapter house when I was 19, so almost 25 years ago. So my memory may not be great, but I remember liking them more then god emperor. I also believe I thought chapter house was the strongest of the last 3. But it also ends with a lot of unanswered questions, so you seem at as good a stopping point as any. Like your roommate, it may have been the age, and time, I was reading them that allowed me to enjoy them, and they probably don’t hold up as well as I remember.
I, too, read them 30-something years ago and I distinctly recall thinking, “Will someone *please* invent the Internet to warn me not to read past Dune???”
I liked the latter Dune books well enough when I was initially reading them. And then about 10 years ago, when Brian Herber & Kevin J. Anderson were releasing the "no, really, we promise it's based on Frank Herbert's long-lost manuscript" final Dune book(s), I sat down and read all the Dune books from the Butlerian Jihad trilogy and the prequel trilogy through Frank Herbert's original six and then the two concluding BH/KJA volumes, and boy howdy did that give me a renewed appreciation for only ever reading the books that Frank Herbert wrote.
John (Taloni) wrote: "...Frank Herbert finished the sequel before he died but not the third book. Brandon Sanderson was brought in to write that one along with Brian Herbert and of course Sanderson being Sanderson they bumped it up to two books. So I'd have to read three more self-indulgent novels to get the end of the story. Maybe later..."I don't think this is right. The immediate sequel to Heretics of Dune is Chapterhouse: Dune. The "sequel" in two novels is Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. These are both authored by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, "based on notes ..." Some quick Googling and Wikipedia'ing shows no signs of Brandon Sanderson writing any Dune works, though perhaps I just missed something?
Geoff I believe John (Taloni) would have put a ;-) in real life at the end of that statement. He was comparing it to how Sanderson finished up the "Wheel of Time" books after another very similar circumstance happened to Robert Jordan. And internet translation once again claims another well meaning joke. ;-) I don't know how many times I've been bit myself.
Finished Quillifer the Knight and decided, for a multiplicity of reasons (not least being that ERB, Inc. is reissuing all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' books in uniform hardcover editions) to go back to Tarzan of the Apes for the first time in many, many years. We'll see if this is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing.
^^ Haa, yeah I did whiff the Anderson / Sanderson names. I read through Brian Herbert's intros a few books back and brain went to "Sanderson" and I didn't check when writing. And yes, I was making the "Sanderson overwrites" connection from Wheel of Time.I could edit but it's more fun to just leave it. Thanks peeps!
I've started the book of the month. I'm about a third into it, I think.I also just finished How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender, and I guess I am one. Well I'm not sure exactly. But maybe?
I'm also reading Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story for a work Women in Engineering book club.
I'm looking for a side read otherwise, because the work book club will be slow-going. But I'm kind of waiting until I get my next Audible credits (4 days). I'm thinking I might do the next in the series I started last month, about an FBI SAR dog. I realize it's not in-genre but with my history, it's fun and puts me in a place I kind of miss. The next book in the series (FBI K-9) for me is Before It's Too Late.
terpkristin wrote: "I've started the book of the month. I'm about a third into it, I think.I also just finished How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender, and I guess I am one. Well I'm not sure exactly. But maybe?"
So what was it. Here are some examples from the description.
"Have you ever clogged a toilet in a national forest? That could get you six months in federal prison. Written a letter to a pirate? You might be looking at three years in the slammer. Leaving the country with too many nickels, drinking a beer on a bicycle in a national park, or importing a pregnant polar bear are all very real crimes."
I'm guessing you wrote a letter to a "maybe" pirate. Drinking a beer on bike in a national park would be way too on brand for you. And since we know you travel in style you are way more likely to have quarters then nickles when going international. ;-)
John (Nevets) wrote: "Geoff I believe John (Taloni) would have put a ;-) in real life at the end of that statement. He was comparing it to how Sanderson finished up the "Wheel of Time" books after another very similar c..."Although Taloni just corrected you, I am going with the Nevets version in my head canon. A much better story.
John (Nevets) wrote: "So what was it. Here are some examples from the description."I got busted for speeding on a public road that goes on the edge of Fort Meade military base. I don't remember if it was MD-175 or 32 that it was on (I think 175), but the speed limit changes every 1/2 mile or so. I lost track of the speed limit and got pulled over by an MP for going 45 in a 35. I was 19 at the time.
I went to court to seek a probation before judgment because I had a clean driving record. I forgot that federal judges are appointed and can be...not nice. The judge gave me the PBJ on the condition that I saw a probation officer for a year. Every month I had to check in with her, as well as whenever I left the state. Given that I lived in College Park at the time and went to DC and WV a lot...well...yeah. Federal probation officer. For a speeding ticket.
However it must have done the trick. The only "speeding" tickets I've had since then were in 2001 (camera ticket) and in 2008 a "failure to observe a traffic sign with respect to speed" (a lesser charge since the cop saw I had a good driving record).
And yet. With the industry I work in, I have to declare my probation officer one every piece of paper I fill out, every security form I ever see. 🤣At least I got a good story out of it.
Well apparently @Sheila Jean is a good recruiter. I guess my next read is going to be the beta for a Michael J. Sullivan upcoming book. This should be interesting. I've heard good things about his books in the past, just never picked one up. The timing was also very good, I submitted the application last night, and this morning got the invite. Now I have 21 days to read and react to "Nolyn".
terpkristin wrote: "I'm also reading Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story for a work Women in Engineering book club."
Ooh this sounds good for #scienceseptember
John (Nevets) wrote: "Well apparently @Sheila Jean is a good recruiter. I guess my next read is going to be the beta for a Michael J. Sullivan upcoming book. This should be interesting. I've heard good ..."That's fantastic!!!
Ruth wrote: "In audiobook I’m reading Black and British: A Forgotten History, read to me by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (familiar to urban fantasy fans as the voice of Peter Grant)."Added to my To Be Listened to queue :)
I just finished The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. I was confused a bit because I thought it was the third in a trilogy, even after finishing. Then, researching a little, I now realize that it is the third of four in the series. That may have crimped my enjoyment of the book a bit, unfairly I suppose. I will finish the series, though, now that I've come this far.Next up, Axiom's End.
I finished: 
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading:
Books of Blood: Volume One by Clive Barker
Reading The Quantum Magician for my zoom book club, enjoying the heist but not so much the Puppets subrace; and listening to The Water Dancer which starts with a depressingly realistic depiction of southern slavery.
I'm in the Nolyn beta reading as well. I'm looking forward to it as I've not read Michael J. Sullivan's work, but it seems to be right up my alley after reading the first chapter. I just hope I can read it all in time.
Since the Burroughs estate has started reissuing them in new, uniform editions, I read Tarzan of the Apes and started The Return of Tarzan: Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library #2, both for the first time in about 30 years.
Trike wrote: "I, too, read them 30-something years ago and I distinctly recall thinking, “Will someone *please* invent the Internet to warn me not to read past Dune???”"*squints* Pretty sure early AOL was around back then as were bulletin boards. You just needed to get with the times, bud!
Also: Spotted this on Twitter yesterday...
I realized I had book 2 of a lots of series I liked but have yet to read. So the next two months will be attempt to fix that. Joe Abercrombie hits my Kindle app with The Trouble with Peace Sept 14 , 9 pm PST. My Self Published read will be The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids. Interference the follow up to the great Semiosis.
I finished: 
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading:
Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
I've been on a bit of a "Sword" kick this monthOutlander by Diana Gabaldon
This is a marginal "Sword" as, I believe, you never find out how the time travel works. Didn't enjoy the experience and found the sexual outlook dodgy.
Among Others by Jo Walton
Loved the voice of the protagonist (and audiobook narrator) in this. Also a good list of Science Fiction and fantasy books from the late 1970s.
Borderline by Mishell Baker
Took a very long time for me to begin to sympathize with the protagonist here, although the overall story and world building were very good.
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
I've read a lot of this writer's stuff and found it fairly typical. Overall I enjoyed this post-Arthurian story.
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
Georgette Heyer (and a bit of Jane Austen) crossed with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (and a bit of Stardust), All mixed in with a South East Asian sensibility and outlook on Britain and Empire in the early 1800s.
Best of the bunch. Recommended
I wasn't able to lug my current read the other day while waiting for my mom's pre-op appointment. So I loaded up The Night Masquerade on my phone.
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The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Great Hunt (other topics)The Eye of the World (other topics)
A Head Full of Ghosts (other topics)
Attack Surface (other topics)
Battle Ground (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert Jordan (other topics)Brandon Sanderson (other topics)
John Scalzi (other topics)
Jodi Taylor (other topics)
Seth Dickinson (other topics)
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Ugh 2020.
What does everyone have on their reading pile this month?