What else are you reading - August 2021

[Robyn Russell]

Finally getting around to reading Gideon the Ninth. And it’s just as fantastic as everyone said it would be!!!
Otherwise, I’ve gone through an assortment of historical romances while at work. Listening to those improves even the most boring day.

[Brad]

I got out into the middle of the woods with nothing but my bike and kindle this weekend. Found a nice bench with not a sound of human habitation. Managed to get in a good chunk of reading there. I guess I need absolute peace to read.

I was reading Salvation Lost by Peter F Hamilton and I’m really liking it. Portal technology is one of the most interesting sci-fi space opera concepts to me and it seems pretty much no other author is using the concept so it’s nice to see him writing another series using the concept.

[John (Taloni)]

Read Young Flandry, a compilation of three books by Poul Anderson starting with Ensign Flandry. It's most easily described as "James Bond in Space" altho both characters emerged at about the same time.

Outstandingly good worldbuilding. Anderson creates a planet from the ground up and populates it with creatures evolved to that planet's conditions. There are at least two different planets each book. In the second book we have a form of robot evolution.

That's the great, beautifully done part. Decently done is the interstellar setup: A human empire spanning 400 light years and about 100K inhabited planets. Nowhere does this answer the Fermi Paradox, but hey, Star Trek did much the same.

Then there's the social attitudes, most charitable described as "dated." Flandry is hot for a courtesan in the first book. In the second he whimsically demands a prostitute accompany him on a long mission. And in the third...well, it's more complex there but similarly bleah. There's a distinct lack of women in anything other than subservient roles, with the possible exception of a female-led alien race in the first book. Tho later written and in a better style, these books manage to be even more unreconstructed than the Nicholas Van Rijn works, which at least featured a female royal in a leadership position.

Read these for excellent, science based world building, and bring a large salt shaker for the social attitudes. Probably Anderson was only reflecting the media and attitudes of the day. Still bleah.

[Janet]

Robyn wrote: "Finally getting around to reading Gideon the Ninth. And it’s just as fantastic as everyone said it would be!!!
Otherwise, I’ve gone through an assortment of historical romances while at work. Liste..."

I started it too and the writing is amazing. The story is unique and pulls me in effortlessly. Surprising.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the second half of the duology started by Blackout in the Oxford Time Travel series


All Clear by Connie Willis
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the "authorized" sequel to the late Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain


The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson

[Sheila Jean]

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I finished the second half of the duology started by Blackout in the Oxford Time Travel series


All Clear by Connie Willis..."

You are much kinder in your review and rating of the second book than I was. I really enjoyed Blackout, but as much as the end of All Clear picked up at the end, I spent most of this book (2/3?, 3/4?) frustrated and "done" with the historians and their inner monologues. .

[Joseph]

Finished Empire of the East and decided it was time to revisit a childhood staple, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, first of C.S. Forester's Napoleonic-era British naval adventures.

(Unrelatedly, am I the only one who's not getting any kind of email notifications from Goodreads when something new is posted in a thread I'm following?)

[Trike]

Joseph wrote: "(Unrelatedly, am I the only one who's not getting any kind of email notifications from Goodreads when something new is posted in a thread I'm following?)"

I opted out of email notifications, but I find Goodreads notifications wonky.

[Chris K.]

According to the help forum, Goodreads has temporarily disabled comment notification emails because they had "detected a suspicious pattern of comment activity from some accounts".

Nothing about when (or if) comment notification emails will be restored.

[Joseph]

Chris wrote: "According to the help forum, Goodreads has temporarily disabled comment notification emails because they had "detected a suspicious pattern of comment activity from some accounts".

Nothing about w..."

Thanks! That explains it, I guess.

[terpkristin]

Chris wrote: "According to the help forum, Goodreads has temporarily disabled comment notification emails because they had "detected a suspicious pattern of comment activity from some accounts".

Nothing about w..."

Thanks for this. I didn't even think to check if GR had a help forum. Maybe we should switch to discord entirely. hehehe

[John (Taloni)]

I am on Discord but am having the hardest time figuring truly basic stuff. Took me weeks to realize who "acedtect" was.

[Colin]

John (Taloni) wrote: "I am on Discord but am having the hardest time figuring truly basic stuff. Took me weeks to realize who "acedtect" was."

It's the same as his Twitter handle. I'm sure he's mentioned it on the show a few times.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

John (Taloni) wrote: "I am on Discord but am having the hardest time figuring truly basic stuff. Took me weeks to realize who "acedtect" was."

Just decided to have a look at the S&L discord. Looks like it would be a bit messy for a permanet switch, like John, I'm not a big discord user.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Sheila Jean wrote: "You are much kinder in your review and rating of the second book than I was. I really enjoyed Blackout, but as much as the end of All Clear picked up at the end, I spent most of this book (2/3?, 3/4?) frustrated and "done" with the historians and their inner monologues."

You're not the only one. A lot of readers have had this issue with Willis's writing style. I had the biggest issue with it in Doomsday Book. Since then I've either gotten used to it or more forgiving or numb or something. I have just accepted it for what it is I guess. I still enjoy her books but I do wish her editor would help her eliminate a lot of the repetition that gets so distracting at times.

[terpkristin]

On the topic of discord, you can change your nickname in the server to be whatever you want so I endorse people using the names that they use here.

HOWEVER back on topic...I'm not actually reading anything sword or laser. Well I guess I am, I'm listening to Unnatural Magic and am enjoying it well enough. But life has been exceedingly hectic and what I've found myself wanting is cozy mysteries so that's what I've been reading. Started and finished half of The Tell-Tale Tarte (which I have in an actual physical copy) while waiting in assorted visitor waiting rooms recently and started another cozy mystery, Death by Tea in audio while driving to/from said waiting rooms.

I look forward to things becoming less hectic, hopefully soon.

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

The handle confusion is why I added (Ian) to my name on Discord & (RebelGeek) to my name on here.

[Colin]

The Audible Plus catalogue has belatedly arrived in the UK, and while I couldn't find very much of immediate interest to me I realised that there are several of Robert Rankin's comic fantasy novels. He is, perhaps, an acquired taste, but I dip into his books every now and again and just listened to The Dance Of The Voodoo Handbag.

I was quite amused by one of the reviews on this site - "like trying to read a Steven King novel through a kaleidoscope filled with bees"!

Next up in audio is Terra Nullius.

[Calvey]

I just finished A Psalm for the Wild-Built and as I noted on Discord, it is the best 2021 book I have read this year. I know there are quibbles over the novella money grab, but I feel like this ended where it should have and was just the right size.

[Rick]

Yeah, Psalm was quite good but I'll check new novellas in the series out from the library. I preordered it not realizing it wasn't a full novel and while the few dollars aren't a big deal, I dislike the recent trend to charge $10+ for a novella. It's honestly not even the money difference (I'd pay $5 so the difference really is pretty minor) it's the principle of the thing. But then, am I really wanting to pay for quantity? Gahhh.

[John (Taloni)]

Calvey wrote: "I just finished A Psalm for the Wild-Built and as I noted on Discord, it is the best 2021 book I have read this year. "

Thanks, I tagged it in LA Public Library. 18 weeks expected wait but I'm fine with that.

TBH I tuned out of Becky Chambers after the second book in the "Long Way..." series. Not out of dislike but more like it was okay but I was interested in other books first. This one looks interesting, and the "Novella price" isn't relevant since it's for the library price of free, the only requirement being that you read it when they're durn good and ready to supply it to you. I feel the same way about Adrian Tchaikovsky, sometimes he's great and sometimes I'm glad I didn't pay anything.

[Calvey]

Yah I got it from the library. I think I was the first, I had been waiting on the list until it got there.

I didn't read the last Wayfayer series, I think its on my list...just got on another track. Must remember to go back.

[Rick]

John (Taloni) wrote: "TBH I tuned out of Becky Chambers after the second book in the "Long Way..." series. Not out of dislike but more like it was okay but I was interested in other books first. ..."

This is still Chambers... nothing really happens in terms of a plot and in fact there really isn't a plot. But the characters are drawn well, they have interior lives and the world is similarly vivid.

I liked A Closed and Common Orbit quite a lot, DNFed the third book and really liked the 4th and last Wayfarer book, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. This isn't quite up to the latter for me but it's very good if you like Chambers' work.

[Trike]

I’ve been working and playing video games mostly, so not a lot of reading. I did finish Gearbreakers this morning, which had promise but doesn’t deliver.

It did get me to rewatch Pacific Rim: The Black, which I enjoyed just as much the second time.

[Silvana]

Currently reading Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur. Looking great, 20% into the book.

[Ruth]

My end-of-the-month roundup:

In hardcover, I’m now about 2/3 of the way through The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow and enjoying it very much- even more than The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

In kindle, I’m reading Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing which is a nice palate cleanser with some good insights into the mind of one of the genre’s greatest writers.

In audiobook I’m still listening to Mansfield Park and hoping to finish within the next few days so I can start listening to our September BotM in good time.

And I’m also reading When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo, a Tor novella with some neat world building.

[Misti]

I'm trying to read A Psalm for the Wild-Built on Kindle but my ADHD is failing me from getting much reading done. Ugh!

I just finished listening to Stephen Fry's Edwardian Secrets on Audible which is excellent if you are a history nerd. Now I'm starting Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse which was written and is read by Alex Kingston.

[John (Taloni)]

Two fairly fast reads recently. Started with The Stainless Steel Rat. I read at least the original trilogy in my youth. Little memory remained except that they were fun.

And memory has served correctly! The MC is a criminal in a society where such tendencies have been squeezed out of the population. His larcenous tendencies extend only to the joy of the caper, and he eschews violence. It's set against the backdrop of an interstellar human civilization that has fallen at least once, later slowly integrating planets back into the Federation. The varying technological levels of the planets leaves a wide variety of criminal enterprises possible.

It's all in good fun until the MC is captured by a police organization - made up of reformed criminals. Their job is catching the truly violent.

There's wonderful world-hopping and larcenous intent expressed in amusing capers. There's a more serious side where the villain of the piece engages in actual violence, but it never arises to higher than early comic book level. Much of it feels like a 1960s Batman cartoon with, say, a reformed Riddler in charge. In fact many of the social attitudes stem from that era, which makes it a bit dated. Still, there's commentary on bullying that I found still applies today.

[John (Taloni)]

From that on to the next instalment of the St. Mary Chronicles of time traveling historians, And the Rest is History. This one was...okay. Still the same formula, with lots of action and at least one time travel sequence gone horribly wrong. Didn't mind that, but as for Max's child, (view spoiler)[I really hated how they had him gone for the first eight years of his life. (hide spoiler)] Would it have been so wrong for Max to be a happy mom? Plenty of room for conflict elsewhere in her life.

The Constantinople sequence is well done and brutally portrayed. Yep, stuff like that actually happened. And stuff like that still goes on today. Not sure I need QUITE that level of brutality in my fiction, but it is effective.

And from there, now diving into a reread of The Probability Broach, in memorial of L. Neil Smith who recently passed. I loved that book when it came out and I have no doubt I'll love it again. A cross-time mystery that includes apes that talk with wrist voders? Gimme.

[Brian]

John (Taloni) wrote: "This one was...okay. Still the same formula..."
I like the series, but got burnt out after a while with something major always going wrong.

[John (Taloni)]

Brian wrote: "John (Taloni) wrote: "This one was...okay. Still the same formula..."
I like the series, but got burnt out after a while with something major always going wrong."

Yeah. The formula clearly works, the author is making plenty of money on the series. Maybe I shouldn't have binge read so quickly, that made the formula really apparent. If you were reading as they came out there might have been anticipation that overcame that.

OTOH I binge read both Dresden Files and Rivers of London, and for both all I can say is MORE!

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Two fairly fast reads recently. Started with The Stainless Steel Rat. I read at least the original trilogy in my youth. Little memory remained except that they were fun...."

Nice! I have been wanting to get around to that for a while.

[Rick]

Finished up The Outside which I liked. This is one of those books that I would have said I didnt love but kept picking it up and finished it over 3 days, so....

Lovecraftian SF with an autistic protagonist who seemed to me a good portrayal of at least one style of autism. It had a nice balance between showing her internal struggles as she faced the repercussions if a disaster she unwittingly caused and which alters her perceptions of what reality really is. There's a sequel but apparently it ends on a cliffhanger so I'll probably wait until the third book is out to continue.