What Else Are You Reading - February 2015

[John (Taloni)]

Finished up the Long Earth / War / Mars series - disappointing, but good enough to bother finishing. Slogged through Age of Apocalypse (comics) and am now on to The Goblin Emperor.

[Aaron]

Goblin Emperor is really good if you like court politics(I do)

Read Clockwork Planet クロックワーク・プラネット１ (講談社ラノベ文庫) Sadly all setup, and fairly generic otherwise. However the setup could turn vary interesting I just hope it turns into a more out-thinking crazy strategies like in his NGNL series while the first book was kind of just too easily solved, like ohh hey we make a great team...well okay fine. I'm just worried the main character is going to be more thrown around the wacky world then use his super hearing occasionally to solve problems and otherwise be kind of boring. Who am I kidding I just want more NGNL.

Reading An Officer's Duty beginning was a bit rough with the main character the largest Mary Sue in Military Sci-fi explaining to multiple people why they need to fucking listen to her...over and over again. Thankfully it seems to have moved past that and moved back up to a 3/5 in my mind. I got the next book ready to go after I finish this one.

[Whitney]

Because of heath problems and a busy writing schedule I have been reading off of my e reader. I read The Return as well as some romance/ erotica. I did review The Return. Warning this is a spin off series in the fashion on Bloodlines meaning you will be spoiled for the series that comes before it.

[Scott]

Just finished Valour and Vanity. Loved it but now I have to wait til April for the next one so I think I may just start Goblin Emperor a few days early. Although, I ordered Myke Cole's trilogy and they were supposed to arrive today, so maybe I'll move on to his books.

[Joseph]

Finished The Man of Gold -- still just as good as I remember -- and decided it was time for The Goblin Emperor (partly for obvious reasons; partly just because I keep hearing good things).

[Sky]

I ended up lemming The Desert Spear about 3 hours into the audio. It just wasn't working for me. It was a feeling I got about 3/4ths into The Warded Man...Too much teenage testosterone, not enough subtlety...I was hoping it would go away in book 2 but it kept bugging me. I think the narrator annoys me too. Anyways that frees some things up since I wont need to read book 3 and won't be reading The Skull Throne when it comes out at the end of next month.

I am still doing the kindle print version of Gardens of the Moon and am about half way done. I am absolutely loving it and feel it is the best book 1 of SFF I've read so far.

Since I lemmed The Desert Spear, I started The Goblin Emperor in audio and am having a blast with it.

[Dara]

Sky wrote: "I am still doing the kindle print version of Gardens of the Moon and am about half way done. I am absolutely loving it and feel it is the best book 1 of SFF I've read so far."

Wait until you get to the next few books, particularly Memories of Ice and The Bonehunters.

[Rob, Roberator]

Dara wrote: "particularly Memories of Ice and The Bonehunters. "

Those two are my favorites, though in reverse order.

[Dara]

Rob wrote: "Dara wrote: "particularly Memories of Ice and The Bonehunters. "

Those two are my favorites, though in reverse order."

Samsies, I just posted them in series order. The Bonehunters was so damn good.

[Kevin]

Just finished Scalzi's Lock In. Solid and enjoyable techno-thriller, though a bit predictable. Great concept.

One thing that's interesting, and that I only even became aware of 2/3's in and then threw me for a bit, is that the first person PoV character's sex or gender is never mentioned or disclosed to the reader even once in the entire novel. I read him as male at the start because, well, that's my default I guess, but objectively there's entirely no reason why she couldn't be a woman (or well, something else even). Apparently the audiobook has 2 versions too: one with a male and one with a female narrator.

[David H.]

Yep, that's a thing, Kevin! He has a blog post on the subject somewhere. I'm jealous you even caught it--I didn't even realize it until I saw a comment online after I finished the book. I think it's gotten optioned for a TV show, and there's definitely the possibility that we could get some sequels in the series. However, Scalzi's mentioned online that once he finishes The End of All Things (the latest Old Man's War book), he doesn't have any more contractual obligations with Tor. So Tor needs to send him some new contracts ASAP.

[John (Taloni)]

^Or he can sell online and keep the cash. I've heard that some established authors are going to a model where they do a print-only deal with a publishing company and keep the ebook rights. Meanwhile, one of my faves, Kate Danley, sells exclusively online and does just fine.

[Kevin]

David wrote: " I'm jealous you even caught it--I didn't even realize it until I saw a comment online after I finished the book"

It was a small thing that made me catch it. Chris refers to him/herself as "rich person" or something somewhere, and that "person" just sounded a bit oddly phrased there to me. Why wouldn't Scalzi just say "rich man"? And then it occurred to me that it was nowhere actually said that he/she was a man. Which was a bit of a "Huh, well look at that!" moment.

[Kevin]

John (Taloni) wrote: "^Or he can sell online and keep the cash. I've heard that some established authors are going to a model where they do a print-only deal with a publishing company and keep the ebook rights. Meanwhil..."

Scalzi has said on a couple of occasions on his blog that he likes working with publishers, because he likes being a writer, not dealing with the hassle of publishing a book. Maybe he does the print-only option, but I doubt he's going full "self-published author" unless he has too. He also has reached that point in his career where he can dictate at least some terms to publishers who want to publish his books, so I doubt he will be in that position where he "has to" anytime soon either.

[Aaron]

Sky wrote: "I ended up lemming The Desert Spear about 3 hours into the audio. It just wasn't working for me. It was a feeling I got about 3/4ths into The Warded Man...Too much teenage testoste..."

Desert Spear is certainly the worst of the 3 about that by a decent shot mostly because of who it is focusing on, it doesn't go away in the next one either and is probably worse then the first in that respect as well.

[Sky]

Aaron wrote: "Desert Spear is certainly the worst of the 3 about that by a decent shot mostly because of who it is focusing on, it doesn't go away in the next one either and is probably worse then the first in that respect as well. "

Thanks for the feedback. In that case I don't feel too bad about bombing out of the series. I did enjoy most of The Warded Man, so I will just let my memories stay in the semi-pleasant state they are in now about it and avoid further soiling :)

[Trike]

I actually enjoyed both Desert Spear and Daylight War because we got to see the same events unfold from three different perspectives. That can be a writerly indulgence, but in this case it helped deepen the characterization immensely for me.

It's an interesting construction because Brett is basically structuring the books into two halves: backstory and present day. The first half of each book covers the same general amount time frame while the second part moves the story and plot forward from the previous book.

The cover of the fourth book The Skull Throne features Arlen's wife Renna, but I'm hoping Brett doesn't use the same structure with this book, because so far she has been wildly uninteresting and I know enough of her backstory to get me through the rest of the tale.

Now that I think on it, each book delivers the backstory of a major character and a minor character. Arlen and Leesha, Jardir and Rojer, whatsername and whatsisface.

[Brendan]

Finished Half the World really quickly because I enjoyed it so much. Cost me half a night's sleep but I really wanted to finish it. I wrote a review because I'm trying to do reviews for everything I read now but tldr is go read the book its really good.

Started reading Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm and thoughts are so far through the first chapter is that this kid likes his cousin a bit too much.

[Trike]

Brendan wrote: "Started reading Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm and thoughts are so far through the first chapter is that this kid likes his cousin a bit too much."

Heh.

Wait for it....

[Brendan]

Trike wrote: "Brendan wrote: "Started reading Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm and thoughts are so far through the first chapter is that this kid likes his cousin a bit too much."

Heh.

Wait for ..."

Oh no, what have I gotten myself into here...

[David H.]

The Dagmar Shaw series by Walter Jon Williams: This Is Not a Game, Deep State, The Fourth Wall. I thought the first one was probably the best, the second was interesting especially since it came out in 2011, and the third was a good change of pace. I don't know if he'll write any more, but I'm not really sure where it could go; Williams really took it in an interesting direction at the end.

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov. The first of the "new generation" in the overall Foundation universe, and the third Robot novel. Something that's been semi-frustrating with the Robot mysteries is how I have a hard time figuring out where the story is going to go. Either I'm a dumb reader, or the perpetrator in this book was outta left field. It's also twice as long as the earlier books, whew.

I started the Star Rigger books by Jeffrey A. Carver: Seas of Ernathe, Star Rigger's Way, and stopped with Panglor. These are set in the same universe but don't share the same characters. "Rigging" is weird method of traveling Flux space (i.e. hyperspace) since your pilots need to be "dreamers" and have to visualize their routes in Flux space. The problem I've had with these is that a lot of the protagonists are unlikeable and frustrating and the descriptions are "dreamlike." It just got annoying by the 3rd book, where I gave up. (Note: The first book is them trying to rediscover rigging; it's set the latest in the series despite being written first.)

Haruki Murakami's Trilogy of the Rat: Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, 1973, A Wild Sheep Chase. The first two books aren't officially published outside of Japan, apparently, despite being translated into English locally. Having read them, I agree with Murakami's decision. The characters and plotting are just all kinds of weird; I don't know if it's a cultural thing or a Murakami thing. However, A Wild Sheep Chase was definitely more enjoyable, probably because you had a bit more of a plot with the sheep thing, even if you had interesting detours along the way.

R.U.R. by Karel Čapek is of course the famous 1920 play that introduces the world to the word "robot" (even if his robots are more organic). Not bad for something that started it all (and similar themes we still see today).

[John (Taloni)]

About Robots of Dawn: I find the post "End of Eternity" followups to be somewhere between tolerable and lame. They're acceptable as add-ons only, when you don't have anything better to read.

I also liked RUR, accounting for its datedness of course. It may have helped that Forry Ackerman liked it, and I enjoyed his largesse on his house tour several times. He always bought lunch for fans that stuck around to the end. What a gracious man.

[David H.]

Hey John, that's what I figured. I'm still going to read the Asimov additions to the series, but I've been interspersing it with a lot of other books I'm working on.

[Louie]

Yesterday, I started The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, which is being made into a film by Alejandro González Iñárritu with Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead, with the intentions of finishing it before the end of the month. - And, to that point, I am about 50% through, which I read all in one sitting. There were some difficult passages to slog through, which I attribute to this being the authors first work of fiction (it looks like his previously published books were non-fiction tomes about the era in which this novel takes place [e.g. 1820s America, Rockies area]). I am curious to see how the second half of this tale of revenge develops, since the first half was a mix of plodding action and flashbacks to how the protagonist got to this place, as well as detailed background flashbacks. I just hope the momentum picks up from here. Also, can't wait to see DiCaprio as a grizzly frontiersman.

[Lindsay]

The Way Into Chaos by Harry Connolly was excellent. Imperial fantasy culture struck by a cataclysmic magical attack from another world. World-building is amazing, magic system is cool and the two main characters are interesting. I'll be starting The Way Into Magic shortly.

The Ophelia Prophecy by Sharon Lynn Fisher was a good read as well. Sometimes I find writers of SF/Romance are about as well-versed in SF as someone who has seen Star Wars once. Fisher is not one of these. This one is about an Earth devastated by rampant biotech and the fragile peace between pure-blooded humans and a varied race of insect/humanoid hybrids. It's not exactly Greg Egan, but it's not directly insulting the reader's intelligence either. Her Echo 8 book is now on my to-read list.

The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury is a YA book with an intriguing premise that attracted my attention. A girl with poison skin used by her Kingdom as an executioner. I don't think it was taken far enough, but I'll still probably read the next one.

Next up with either be the next Harry Connolly book or maybe The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I've been hearing good things about it, Rocket Talk said nice things about it and it's on the nominee list for the Golden Tentacle.

[Keidy]

@Lindsay: Have you read Ghost Planet by Sharon Lynn Fisher yet? This was the first book that I've read of this author and enjoyed it so much that I put her newest book Echo 8 in my wish list. I guess I'll have to put in The Ophelia Prophecy as well. You're right about her being one of the better authors writing in the SciFi Romance category. I wish there were more of those around.

[Dara]

I finished Ship of Destiny yesterday. Liveship Traders is one of the best series I've ever read. My review.

I might take a short break before diving into Tawny Man.

[John (Taloni)]

Working my way through Goblin Emperor right now. The first 100 or so pages were so engaging that I dove right into the next part. That actually slows down a bit. The interesting parts are still there, but the court intrigue took on a sameness. I kept expecting some plot to occur, but really, this is a character driven book. So instead of binge-reading like I would through a plot-heavy book I'm going to slow down and read in pieces. That way I'll take the court intrigue in manageable chunks and not miss out on some interesting twists. Got some trades of Fables plus the first book of The Expanse, I'll work those in.

[Phil]

Just finished Bloodlines by Karen Traviss. It's a Star Wars novel and while some of the philosophical and political plot points were quite interesting the writing was a mess and she could have used a good editor. I wouldn't recommend this one.
Starting The Goblin Emperor.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Whoops finished The Goblin Emperor and it's not March yet.....

[Stephen]

Starting Ancillary Justice as I am still a newbie and need to catch up with the past picks.

[AndrewP]

Finally got started on The Goblin Emperor. So far so good.

[Aaron]

Finished An Officer's Duty about as good at the last one...enjoyable candy 3/5.

Read Gifting the Wonderful World with Blessings! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz the most generic light novel ever 2/5.

My friend is yelling at me to read Dwarves next but I have the 3rd book in that above series right now, and Devil's Cape just came in...so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Trike wrote: "I actually enjoyed both Desert Spear and Daylight War because we got to see the same events unfold from three different perspectives. That can be a writerly indulgence, but in this case it helped d..."

I may of worded that wrong, I really enjoyed those two books as well. But in terms of the specific complaint that was being made, I believe the Desert Spear has the most concentration of it.

[terpkristin]

I just finished Theft of Swords and really enjoyed it. I'm about halfway through The Grace of Kings and also enjoying it...I hope that they make an audiobook of it, as I think that will work really well.

Next up in audio is Mountain of Black Glass, a new audio for a book that's about 15 years old but insanely prescient. I'm looking forward to starting it.

[Sky]

I just finished Gardens of the Moon. I haven't read a fictional work this closely or critically since English II in college, and that was never this much fun. Look forward to starting Deadhouse Gates in a week.

I am about halfway through the audio of The Goblin Emperor, which I am also enjoying, though it is scratching an entirely different itch.

Starting on the print edition of The Grace of Kings now.

[Rob, Roberator]

Finally got my hands on Saga, Volume 4 (My Review)

I also finally got my hands on the audio version of The Providence of Fire. Probably better than the first one, but I was a still a bit disappointed because I had higher exceptions for it than The Emperor's Blades. (My Review)

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Hey hey hey it's March.

[Trike]

Busted.

[Rob, Roberator]

Haha. I'll fix it. Damn time goes by too quick.