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What Else Are You Reading?
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What else are you reading - September 2020
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Parent: I will have another child?Descendent: No, you already have a son.
Parent: *freaks out*
"
Yeah, the meme is stereotypical but the "chapterhouse" bit made me laugh. On the subject of parent / child, my first thought is that that's a very different conversation if the parent is a woman versus a man. Then I check your link and see in the description "stories that foreground queer relationships and transgender or nonbinary characters. That opens up quite a bit more in the way of possibilities.
I just finished Axiom's End. I enjoyed it. Sort of a cross between ET and the X-Files.Not sure what's next. Maybe European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman.
Just finished my annual Heinlein reread. This year it was Glory Road. I think the last time I read this was over 40 years ago when I was a teenager and while I know I loved it then, in retrospect I probably didn't understand a lot of the political, psychological, or sexual discussion back then.This is often described as his "only fantasy novel" but it's really SF in a Clarke's Law sort of way. It's a fun book for the most part but gets a little morose towards the end. It was interesting for me to read this so soon after The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes as they both explore the idea of parallel universes.
Like the other one though, I wouldn't recommend this unless you're a big Heinlein fan because some attitudes and phrasing may be a little off-putting to modern sensibilities.
Just finished Just One Damned Thing After Another and it was brilliant. If you like Gail Carriger orThe Invisible Library you are going to love these books (Tea and Chaos would be a good description)..
Silvana wrote: "Currently enjoying The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez."Just finished this. The best SFF book I read this year, period. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am now waiting for Joe Abercrombie's latest First Law book: The Trouble with Peace, should be out tomorrow.
Before I had a chance to start in on European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, two books came in from order: Piranesi and The Trouble with Peace. I think I'll read Piranesi first, since Trouble is the middle book of a trilogy, and, you know, sixteen years. However, I'm a little trepidatious since it sounds really weird, and very different than Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (one of my very favorite books).
Read two books recently, both Indie.First one is the Nexus novel by Mike Baron. Comics fans of the 80s/90s might remember the character. In the novel, Nexus takes on "Gourmando," a stand-in for Galactus. An ersatz Silver Surfer also makes an appearance.
It's mostly played for laughs, but the subject matter can be grim. Gourmando is really just in the first and final quarters of the book. The remainder follows Nexus in his ongoing compulsion to kill one mass murderer every fortnight. That's a compulsion put on him by the Merk, an alien entity that lives in Ylum (short for asylum), the planet where Nexus' parents escaped to from the Sov empire (later centuries USSR) and where Nexus was born.
Even the grim parts are played for humor, as while he is on the hunt for a particularly noxious murderer Nexus visits a shop dedicated to merchandise based on him. It's all pirated of course as he wouldn't license such a thing. Some poignant scenes about abused children and the revenge they may take, with a moral judgement based on how they took that revenge.
Pretty much all of the series characters make an appearance, so we've got Judah Maccabee coming in from a Big Important Mission that explains why he wasn't there for the first half, or the chef / banker of Ylum and, well, it's all hilarious except for when you're wincing at the scalpel-edged social commentary.
I bought this off a Kickstarter and it's now available on Amazon. Well worth the read.
Next was Moons Over My Maggie, a cryptic reference to events taking place while the Moon appears in two worlds. They don't get anywhere near Miami despite the pun.And...it's another Maggie for Hire book from Kate Danley! About. TIME! I love this series. Always fun wordplay, whacky situations and plenty of action. In this one Maggie and her elf-colleague Killian have to attend a Tiki convention in San Diego while on the search for a mystic artifact.
The Queen of the Elves is determined to mess them up as she is impatiently waiting for Killian to return to the next-door dimension and become her husband. Killian, tho, isn't interested. So we have a running fight between two groups of baddies and some neutral-good characters who may or may not want to intervene.
A'course there's going to be a world-threatening crisis, Maggie being Maggie. There's a threat to dimensional order which, if not addressed, will lead to Earth being invaded by hungry Fae and voracious vampires. And those are the identifiable threats!
A bit of an odd crossover with the Miss Spell series, set in the same universe. It felt like a Marvel event where I was lacking the other comics. I am thinking Kate will fill that in with the next Miss Spell book. For which I will be impatiently waiting!
Lots of Maggie style fun in this one. This is the 11th book in the series. You could understand it as a standalone but it works better if you know the series. And the first one is permafree on Amazon! Fair warning tho, if you read that one you are likely to be out 40 bucks as you buy the series one after the other.
Finished The Time of Contempt on Audible. Ugh, cliffhanger! Guess I'll be downloading the sequels for the foreseeable future.I found Firefly: Big Damn Hero, which is one of the new "included books" thing they have going. It's been fun so far. Word to the wise. Never insult Jayne's hat.
I recently read this series : I really enjoyed it. Embers of War
Fleet of Knives: An Embers of War novel
Light of Impossible Stars
I am now reading Under the Skin
I finished The Wrong Stars. It was fun. It's sort of comfi space opera. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Tamahome wrote: "I finished The Wrong Stars. It was fun. It's sort of comfi space opera. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."I liked it, too, despite its somewhat awkward style.
Not having the best time with my book picks at the moment.Struggled to the end of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Walking to Aldebaran - a sort of sci-fi horror tale. It's only novella length, but felt much much longer. There's lots of clever quips in the text, but I failed to connect with the story on any level.
Similarly struggling to get through A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. Half way through and just not particularly excited by the story yet.
On the positive side, I did enjoy this months pick and am about to re-listen to Scalzi's The Dispatcher (it's short) as set up for the next in that series - Murder by Other Means.
After reading a whole slew of Tarzan, I've moved on to Philip José Farmer's Hadon of Ancient Opar (a sword & sorcery story set thousands of years in the past in Opar, the lost city that Burroughs first introduced in The Return of Tarzan).
Colin wrote: "Not having the best time with my book picks at the moment.Struggled to the end of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Walking to Aldebaran - a sort of sci-fi horror tale. It's only novella lengt..."
You might want to try Velocity Weapon or Providence.
Trike wrote: "You might want to try Velocity Weapon or Providence."Thanks for the suggestions. It's not as though I'm short of stuff already on my TBR list, just slightly bummed out by two less than great choices in close succession.
Velocity Weapon looks somewhat intriguing, although I noticed your own review wasn't without caveats.
Colin wrote: "Velocity Weapon looks somewhat intriguing, although I noticed your own review wasn't without caveats."True, but the sequel is out now, so you won’t be left hanging if you like it. Chaos Vector.
I liked Velocity Weapon quite a lot. It's the kind of book I'd like us to read more during SF months.
Recent reads:.
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👍🏻
The Mother Code - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Alien: Sea of Sorrows - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Zone One - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Six of Crows - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chilling Effect - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
👎🏻
Harrow the Ninth - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
All These Monsters - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rare Earth - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished Piranesi. Excellent. Not at all like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (though now I want to go and re-read that).Next up: The Trouble with Peace.
I was in a reading slump and recently read The Vagrant and am halfway through with The Malice... hopefully will finish the series out by next week.
My husband and I are trying to listen to Murderbot together, because I want to be the kind of couple that listens to audiobooks together. Hahahaha.(Does anyone else do this? How much do you listen to at a time?)
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "My husband and I are trying to listen to Murderbot together, because I want to be the kind of couple that listens to audiobooks together. Hahahaha.(Does anyone else do this? How much do you liste..."
Only time we've shared audio books is on a long car journey, where you could listen to several hours at one stretch. Would never do this in the house, which is strange because it's not so different from sitting down to watch TV together really, is it?
Just listened to Scalzi's Murder by Other Means. An enjoyable follow-up to The Dispatcher which apparently came out 4 years ago. Doesn't time fly!?It's very much a case of more of the same. If you enjoyed the first instalment there's a high chance you'll like this too.
Next up on Audible? Well I notice there's new book pick announced on the Patreon ...
Colin wrote: "Only time we've shared audio books is on a long car journey, where you could listen to several hours at one stretch."Same with me. We tried it once with filling in smaller bits of time around the house, but it just didn't really take.
Colin wrote: "Only time we've shared audio books is on a long car journey, where you could listen to several hours at one stretch. Would never do this in the house, which is strange because it's not so different from sitting down to watch TV together really, is it?"Same here with long car rides. (Southern NH to southern OH, ~900 miles, about 15 hours.)
The problem is finding books in common because our fiction tastes are wildly divergent. But writers like Christopher Moore and books about recent history land in the overlap of our Venn diagrams. Last trip, though, it was a series of podcasts I’d saved up.
Colin wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "My husband and I are trying to listen to Murderbot together, because I want to be the kind of couple that listens to audiobooks together. Hahahaha.(Does anyone else d..."
That’s what I was thinking... after months of covid we’ve exhausted any mutual tv shows, and there are some areas of crossover for audiobooks (and both of us miss our audiobook time.) But I definitely got to a point of okay, moving on... you see, he listens at 1x speed, a hiccup I did not anticipate.
Just finished Chaos Vector. Aptly named. I couldn't make any sense of the first 20% of the book and considered lemming it. It's the second book of a trilogy. The book doesn't reintroduce the characters well and I didn't remember everybody from the first book, so I couldn't tell what was going on.It picks up after that and becomes more clear. Plenty of action but not a lot of reason for the action. Last book's mystery is done and this one picks up entirely new ones, but they don't particularly follow from the previous book. There's a pretty much out of the blue heavy duty accusation later in the book.
Major plot points hinge on actions by characters that don't fit them. I can understand an author wanting to just get on with the story, and I'll generally grant one of these per book. As, for instance, Protector asks us to believe humanity didn't evolve on Earth. Er, sorry Niven, no, but still, great book. Ringworld, couldn't possibly engineered, but still love it. Chaos Action has so many I lost count and it detracted from the overall story.
There's a good book in here but it's not the one presented. I feel like a Hollywood producer stereotype, script in hand, wanting to shout "rewrite!"
Just finished The Library of the Unwritten which I liked a bunch. Setup - Unwritten books are contained in a special library just for them. This library is in Hell. Sometimes, books escape. The next book is out in October. While this is a series, the first book at least is self-contained.
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "you see, he listens at 1x speed, a hiccup I did not anticipate."Do you need a good divorce lawyer?
Rick wrote: "Just finished The Library of the Unwritten which I liked a bunch. Setup - Unwritten books are contained in a special library just for them. This library is in Hell. Sometimes, books..."Wouldn’t unfinished books reside in Limbo?
I’m just sayin’.
Joseph wrote: "Finished Hadon of Ancient Opar and started Flight to Opar."Fraternity hazing is really getting out of control this year.
Finished up next month's pick Finder a little early, naughty me for not waiting. Book is an adequate adventure tale. Good description of life in low gravity. Plot a little heavy on all action all the time. It starts off partly humorous and then takes a "Chasing Amy" style turn into heavy themes.Part of why I didn't rate this better is the use of religious characters as cardboard cutout villains. It's fine to use religion as a foil, but it matters if you do it well. Even the same author can vary, as when Heinlein did a bangup job in Job: A Comedy of Justice and a poor one in Sixth Column. Piers Anthony was also alternately good and ridiculous in the Incarnations of Immortality series.
Will save any other comments for the monthly discussion.
I’m reading The House in the Cerulean Sea. I recently finished Jemisin’s 3rd book in the Inheritance trilogy.
Started Conan: The Road of Kings by Karl Edward Wagner, one of the top tier of Conan pastiche stories.
I just finished The Trouble with Peace. It was excellent, can't wait for the final book in the trilogy.I'm trying a new thing, re-reading a book once a month. We'll see how it goes. Off of Piranesi, which I loved, I decided to go back to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I'm only few chapters in, but no surprise, it's excellent!
Listening to Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler on Scribd and I'm hooked! Its a dystopian story written in 1993 and taking place a few years into our current future. Looking forward to checking out Piranesi and Finder next month.
Melina wrote: "Listening to Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler on Scribd and I'm hooked! Its a dystopian story written in 1993 and taking place a few years into our current future. Looking forward to checking..."One can never have enough Butler.
I've read some stuff this monthFinished
A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor - Fun audiobook listen. Had some trying parts but overall I enjoyed it.
The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - I remain intrigued by this series but it can definitely be dark and difficult.
Head On by John Scalzi - Enjoyed this second book, in some ways more than the first because it doesn't spend as much time on how we got to the present day environment.
A Blight of Blackwings by Kevin Hearne - Lots of characters but I'm enjoying the mystery of it.
Crush the King by Jennifer Estep - Third in the series, seems to basically end the arc. It's a bit outrageous but I enjoy that about it.
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth by Paul Hoffman - Nonfiction. Someone mentioned it in another online community and I decided to read it. Interesting perspective on people who are much much smarter than me.
The First Girl Child by Amy Harmon - I really liked this. Did the audio version which is very well done. Complicated characters and relationships and compelling narrative.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune - I'm in agreement with what Gail Carriger said in a tweet, "the best warm hug of a book."
Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth - Read this over the weekend. Found it to be a quick read and interesting world.
Currently Reading:
The October pick in audio.
Daughter from the Dark by Marina Dyachenko - About of a third of the way into this one. A strange girl and her stuffy enters the life of radio DJ Aspirin. Something is clearly not normal.....
Wow, do you just have a cable that downloads the books to your brain?
Tamahome wrote: "Wow, do you just have a cable that downloads the books to your brain?"Ha, no. That would be something.
The three audio books were consumed during daily walk/exercise times (the third was the Wil Wheaton reading of Head On). For the rest, other than a couple hours after work across the entire week, I read mostly on the weekends between loads of laundry and meals since I'm still spend all my non-exercise time inside the house. I generally don't turn on the TV or watch movies unless my spouse puts on something that catches my attention.
Tamahome wrote: "Wow, do you just have a cable that downloads the books to your brain?"Ooh, yes please, I want that.
If it’s 5G, even better! I can download while walking the dogs.
Sheila Jean wrote: "The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune - I'm in agreement with what Gail Carriger said in a tweet, "the best warm hug of a book." Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth - Read this over the weekend. Found it to be a quick read and interesting world."
I liked Chosen Ones, too, and likewise found it to be a quick divertimento.
The House in the Cerulean Sea I hadn’t heard of before you and Ruthifred posted about it, but it sounds interesting. Maybe a bit X-Men-ish, even. And warm hugs sound pleasant just about now, so onto the TBR it goes!
Edit: library hold for the audio is 12 weeks, so I’m doing that. You lot are bad for my fiction addiction.
Battle Ground Just hit my Audible App so everything just got put on pause for a couple of days . It snuck up on me .
Slogged to the end of A Head Full of Ghosts. Did not enjoy. Nice little twist at the end that would have finished off a short story perfectly but did not justify the rest of this un-gripping novel.Started listening to this month's pick, which seems like it could be entertaining, and looking forward to starting on Cory Doctorow's latest - Attack Surface, which should land on my Kindle shortly after midnight.
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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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*squints* Pretty sure earl..."
Interestingly I finished a book of short stories last night that had a time traveling story where it was more like,
Descendent: I am your son
Parent: I will have another child?
Descendent: No, you already have a son.
Parent: *freaks out*
(It's from a story in Homesick: Stories which is a great read!)