The Sword and Laser discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - February 2015
Lindsay wrote: "That one's been on my to-read list forever. I think the Vaginal Fantasy people liked it too. She also just had a new release with Echo 8."Thanks for the heads up! I'll put it on my wishlist! ^_^v
Also, yeah, the Vaginal Fantasy people liked it especially Veronica Belmont. I have to say I was pretty impressed myself. Looks like this other book Echo 8 seems like it's from the same world. Can't wait to read it! XD
Just finished Glamour in Glass. Loved it even more than Milk and Honey. Definitely reading Without a Summer next. And, probably Valour and Vanity after that lol
I'm about 1/4 of the way through Control Point by Myke Cole and it is suffering New Writer Syndrome. The first 99 pages could have been dealt with in 3 pages of backstory and he really has a lot of "procedure porn." I need a little less of "This is how we check into the containment facility" and "these are the regulations governing our order of operations." Just blow stuff up already, dude.
Trike wrote: "I need a little less of "This is how we check into the containment facility" and "these are the regulations governing our order of operations." Just blow stuff up already, dude."Lol!
Finished Half the World...Much better than the first book, in my opinion. Still working on An Unwelcome Quest, started it first but put it on hold to finish Half the World. Starting Gardens of the Moon on the 21st.
Sky wrote: "Finished Half the World...Much better than the first book, in my opinion. Still working on An Unwelcome Quest, started it first but put it on hold to finish Half th..."Glad to hear that, I'll be starting Half the World soon. I liked but didn't love Half a King and was on the fence for Half the World until I learned it had a different protagonist.
Yarvi is still there the entire book, but the story is told through the eyes of two young warriors Thorn and Brand.
Trike wrote: "I'm about 1/4 of the way through Control Point by Myke Cole and it is suffering New Writer Syndrome. The first 99 pages could have been dealt with in 3 pages of backstory and he rea..."I agree with you on all points. Myke's writing gets SO much better as the books progress. Also Colonel Bookbinder is a much better protagonist in book 2.
I just finished The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig, a forthcoming post-apocalyptic series. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would when it started, and my review explains why. It's funny. I recently read Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm. My review was slightly negative, I didn't like it much, but as I read The Fire Sermon I kept thinking about how similar they were, and how much more I liked the Wilhelm. How much more I knew about the characters and the world. So I went back and gave it another star. Ha!
I have an embarrassment of riches. Now reading the Long Earth series from Pratchett / Baxter. Waiting for the first book of The Expanse to come in on Overdrive but that should be very soon. Meanwhile the next trade paperback of Fables has come in to my library, along with The Goblin Emperor. What to read first, what to read first...
Trike wrote: "I'm about 1/4 of the way through Control Point by Myke Cole and it is suffering New Writer Syndrome. The first 99 pages could have been dealt with in 3 pages of backstory and he rea..."Every book in that series gets better and better though. The third book is my most favorite of all his books.
This is the first of 2 posts. At the start of this month I read Ready Player One. About 5 percent in I had to look up more about Earnest. Let me explain. We grew up about 10 miles apart at the same time. We had a lot of mutual friends which is clearly evidenced by bits of the story. If I had to hazard a guess we probably knew each other from church. There are just too many coincidences otherwise. That said, the book made me relive my childhood. I live in Oklahoma now and I'm quite familiar with the area of OKC the stacks are in.
Those factors alone wouldn't make me gush about the book any more than does Dun Lady's Jess just because it's set in my home town.
What makes this a new all time favorite is the solid story line. I do question what would have happened if the story ended the other way. Either way, what a ride.
Currently I'm finally reading the Sword & Laser Anthology. I have read the first 2 stories so far and let me just say we have some amazingly talented people in this group. My submission didn't even come close to the quality shown in this book. I keep trying though.Patrick Rothfuss, you are so right. I see myself among the mediocre.
Nicole Feldringer, I love how you took a simple premise and spun it into something much greater.
Aiden Moher, although I found your story extremely dark I enjoy that you tell the story from many different angles.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the stories
Kristina wrote: "Every book in that series gets better and better though. The third book is my most favorite of all his books. "Should I skip the second one? I'm halfway through the first one and it's boring as hell, like a first draft fanfic mash-up between Avatar and X-Men 2.
As absolutely preposterous as Jeremy Robinson's books are, they are at least kinetic, like carbon rods launched from orbital weapons platforms. Control Point is like Tuesday night cosplay by comparison.
Recently finished The Girl on the Train (review) and Lord of Emperors (review). The Girl on the Train was good but it was my 2nd in two recent disappointments from the mystery genre. Lord of Emperors finished off the duology from Guy Gavriel Kay. I'm looking forward to more from him in the future. Currently working on The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Its different.
Gonna start The Goblin Emperor soon.
Just started The Goblin Emperor. I really like it so far.
Geoff wrote: "Recently finished The Girl on the Train (review) and Lord of Emperors (review). The Girl on the Train was good but it was my 2nd in two recent disappointments from the..."I really enjoyed Three-Body. Have not read Sarantine yet but I loved Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan.
Since I've already read (and loved) The Goblin Emperor, I need to read .. something else now that I've finished Annihilation. Perhaps The Invisible Library?
After a couple of questionable S&L books I had to get back to some classic 'L' with David Weber's The Honor of the Queen. Hopefully The Goblin Emperor will provide some enjoyment on the 'S' side of things.
Trike wrote: "Kristina wrote: "Every book in that series gets better and better though. The third book is my most favorite of all his books. "Should I skip the second one? I'm halfway through the first one and..."
Oh my I'd never say skip a book in series! I totally believe in lemming if a book isnt doing it for you... I was just putting it out there, that from my experience-each book is better and better. I liked the first one.. but I loved the last one.
I finished An Unwelcome Quest. I enjoyed it more than book 2, and as much or more than book 1. Starting on Gardens of the Moon now, and will finally try to finish up some of the non-fiction I am doing in audio.
Finished Sword & Mythos and, since it just came out on Kindle, I'm revisiting one of my all-time favorites: The Man of Gold, the first of M.A.R. Barker's novels set on the world of Tekumel.
Currently reading The Place of Voices by Lauren Lynch. A solid YA Fantasy that was definitely inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia.Marion
I unexpectedly finished The Three-Body Problem last night.my review
It definitely deserves the Nebula nomination it received yesterday.
Finished The Autumn Republic good end to a trilogy. 4/5Read Off to Be the Wizard very good comedic portal fantasy 4/5. I'm about 1/2 way though the second I'm not enjoying it as much probably a 3/5.
Read Vicious I didn't like this book 1/5, characters were some of the most one dimensional and unbelievable characters I have read and the book kept telling me things about them that were blatantly untrue. and the writing felt like early attempts at a web novel. I'm not sure how this got published.
Almost done with A Soldier's Duty I'm liking this book but WOW the reviews are dead on when they say Mary Sue, 3.5/5 for me it's more guilty pleasure then actual quality though. Hopefully it gets better as the threat becomes more clear and the author improves at writing combat scenes, but I'm comparing them to Correia and Sanderson so that's probably not very fair.
Mod
The Cuckoo's Calling (My Review)
Annihilation (My Review)
Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome (My Review)
The Human Division (My Review) - Might be my new favorite book in the OMW series.
The Autumn Republic (My Review) - Best book I've read so far this year. Excellent ending to the trilogy.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Primary Phase (My Review) - This is really a radio play rather than an audio book, but close enough!
Just devoured Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman, with a side trip to listen to The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains. As with most short story anthologies, some of them I really liked. Some of them I had read before.Black Dog was amazing, and the intro hints at another Shadow novel (a la American Gods.)
Decided to continue with Long Mars. Mediocre plot but the setups are good. I keep hoping something will actually happen, but given the past two, that's not likely. I'm a completist so I'll finishe the trilogy.
I finished Mad Ship over the weekend. It was stunning. My review (which is mostly me raving about how awesome Robin Hobb is). Finishing the series with Ship of Destiny.
Finished reading The Mirror Empire. I liked it more than Dara did, apparently. Here is my short review. Started on Half the World now because I'm just going full Grimdark for February, I guess.
Brendan wrote: "Finished reading The Mirror Empire. I liked it more than Dara did, apparently. Here is my short review. Started on Half the World now because I'm just going full Gri..."I'm glad you liked it! It's quite the divisive book.
I suspect that enjoyment of the book comes down to whether you're willing to spend time with some rather unpleasant characters. Even the good characters of the book could be downright nasty at times.
Since my last post, I indeed read Soulless, which I thought was so much fun that I started Changeless a few days ago. They're not my normal fare but Carriger is so charming and infectious that they're just plain fun.I read The Emperor's Blades in between, along with The Autumn Republic. I thought The Emperor's Blades was a great entry into a new series - I enjoyed the world and am very curious about the central mystery. The Autumn Republic was a rousing finale to the series, and by far the best book of it. Very action packed.
(Also, I have just realised Goodreads will do the html for you on book links! And to think for the last year I've been typing out "a html=" etc, etc. I should click on things randomly more often.)
I have decided to try my first agatha christie novel, so far I'm really enjoying it plus I was glad to find that the writing style has aged very well too. I'm reading Cat Amongst the Pigeons.
I've been reading a lot of older H.P. Lovecraft stories lately. But on top of that I picked up Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. It is exceptionally good. I was surprised how much I've enjoyed it. A real page turner for me.
Reading Camber of Culdi by Katherine Kurtz. Read several of the Deryni books years ago, but I'd forgotten how Kurtz used her deep knowledge of the medieval world to enrich her fantasy novels. Although the book is freezing me--the characters are constantly riding through deep snow to reach some remote monastery. Brrrr.
Tassie Dave wrote: "Just started the latest Powder Mage Novella Murder at the Kinnen HotelLindsay wrote: "Fair warning: the Australian slang/dialect quirks that Australians would refer to as "strine"..."
Sounds like when I tried to read Trainspotting and just got lost in the slang and wordplay. Probably why I haven't tackled James Joyce either.
I finally read Skin Game and boy was that one fun, more fun than he's been for years and almost as good a book as Changes.
I'm in a period where I just keep on picking up books to read and don't finish any of them...The books I'm reading are:
Mistborn: The Final Empire - This one I'm almost done with. It's pretty good, although the hype may have misled me a bit
The Bell Jar - I'm going through a bit of a rough time so I felt like reading something "depressing"
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - This one I'm reading together with a friend, we're reading it out loud to each other so it takes a while to finish :)
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers - Really interesting, since I'm interested in medicine and how the body works, although ironically it makes me a bit stressed xD
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty - Reading it for school. It's pretty interesting, although I'm not thoroughly into it yet.
Dark Lover - I enjoy it actually, although I have to leave my brain waiting on the nightstand ;)
Bell Jar is probably not a good idea if you're down. That sort of thing tends to reinforce the mood for a feedback loop.
I just started Recovery Man by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It is Book 6 of the wonderful Retrieval Artist Series. Will post a review when I'm finished.I'm still campaigning for Tom and Veronica to choose a book from this series as one of their book club picks. Please join my campaign! LOL!!
Marion
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The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Providence of Fire (other topics)Saga, Volume 4 (other topics)
The Emperor's Blades (other topics)
The Goblin Emperor (other topics)
Deadhouse Gates (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Sharon Lynn Fisher (other topics)Melinda Salisbury (other topics)
Becky Chambers (other topics)
Harry Connolly (other topics)
H.P. Lovecraft (other topics)
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Also read Glory Main by Henry V. O'Neil because the second book in that series just came out and looked interesting. I won't be moving on to the second book. I have a strange relationship with military SF; I keep reading the books, but I only enjoy a handful of them.
On a more pleasant note I also read Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells which is a self-published book that has been getting a lot of good attention over the last few months. A cross between a BDO story and about every classic SF trope from the 70s and 80s (and probably earlier). It was a fun nostalgic read.
I'm just starting The Way Into Chaos by Harry Connolly.