What else are you reading - November 2021

[Rob, Roberator]

Halloween has come and gone, what will you be reading this month?

[Leesa]

I started a re-read of Gideon the Ninth with my husband but he'll likely continue on and I'll join back in when we are in the car together.

I'm also re-reading Dune.

[Chris K.]

I'm reading House of Chains, Under the Whispering Door, and All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told.

[Ruth]

I’m reading The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch, a novella set in the wine-producing region of Germany and the world of Rivers of London/ Midnight Riot. So soon after Mexican Gothic, another story in which (view spoiler)[ fungus (hide spoiler)] plays a prominent role.

I’m also reading Silk and Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology which features stories by some great writers, including Aliette de Bodard.

Outside SFFH, I’m reading the historical epic Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott, book 1 of her series about Boudicca.

[Misti]

I'm reading Poison or Protect. I've missed Gail Carriger's world and wanted something fun to read.

[John (Taloni)]

Misti wrote: "I'm reading Poison or Protect. I've missed Gail Carriger's world and wanted something fun to read."

I don't know if I would call that one fun. I tend to find the Finishing School followups a little difficult when examined closely. But the next one, Defy or Defend, is pretty much a hilarious romp throughout. There is a dance sequence that...well, just read it!

[Misti]

Defy or Defend is definitely on my to-read list. :)

[Trike]

After a bunch of non-fiction, I’m doing shorter SF books.

Fugitive Telemetry, which I’ve had for months but not read. Murderbot! First 2 chapters are great.

As She Climbed Across the Table which was recommended by someone here at some point. Decent start, as well.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I'm reading Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang. I'd read two of these before in various Two Lines Press compilations, one in That We May Live.

Interestingly our September book is mentioned, at least the phrase the title borrows. I love those little connections.

"Lucia leaned closer, pupils narrowing as she stared, rapt. The jar seemed like something from a perfectly still universe where nothing had happened yet. Terra nullius."

[Trike]

That’s neat.

[Silvana]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I'm reading Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang. I'd read two of these before in various Two Lines Press compilations, one in [book:That We May Live|486950..."

Looking forward to what you think about this one since I have it in my wishlist.

[Iain]

Just finished The Once and Future Witches which is stunning. Alix Harrow has now found a place on my must read authors list (two very good books in a row does that). The use of fairy and folk tales with na twist as magical spells is a brilliant conceit.

Finished listening to the second instalment of the Shadows of the Apt, Dragonfly Falling, which is suitably sprawling with decent voice acting.

Started listening to Cetaganda which is much shorter and a lot more fun. Miles neck deep in trouble again (mind you neck deep isn't difficult in his case).

I have a IRL book club pick The Lying Life of Adults which I am struggling to get started. Words on a page seem to defeat Cancer brain (and I haven't started the bad treatment yet).

Looking forward to Invisible Sun for some complicated cross world politics.

[Rob, Roberator]

Started reading Reaper.

I haven't been reading much, just audio. This is only my 4th book this year, and the last book in the series Bloodline, is one of the other 3 I read.

[Trike]

Rob wrote: "Started reading Reaper.

I haven't been reading much, just audio. This is only my 4th book this year, and the last book in the series Bloodline, is one of the other ..."

I though you were reading all of the Expanse? Isn’t that like 7 books now?

[Ruth]

Iain wrote:

I have a IRL book club pick The Lying Life of Adults which I am struggling to get started. Words on a page seem to defeat Cancer brain (and I haven't started the bad treatment yet)."

You buried the lede here Iain - I remember you talking about surgery elsewhere but I didn’t realise it was the Big C. I’m gutted to hear about that. Chemotherapy (which I assume is the “bad treatment” you refer to) really sucks :( sending you best wishes for a full recovery.

[Trike]

Iain wrote: "Words on a page seem to defeat Cancer brain (and I haven't started the bad treatment yet)."

Yes, what Ruth said. I hope you have a speedy recovery, Iain.

[Iain]

Ruth wrote: "Iain wrote:

I have a IRL book club pick The Lying Life of Adults which I am struggling to get started. Words on a page seem to defeat Cancer brain (and I haven't started the bad treatment yet)."

..."

Thanks for the best wishes. Prognosis is about as good as it can be for a cancer that managed to start spreading. Thankfully I am in a health system that has not been hammered by Covid and it is moving very quickly.

Doing all I can.

[terpkristin]

Iain wrote: "Thanks for the best wishes. Prognosis is about as good as it can be for a cancer that managed to start spreading. Thankfully I am in a health system that has not been hammered by Covid and it is moving very quickly.

Doing all I can."

I have another friend going through this, too. Sending you all the healing vibes I can spare, and best wishes.






Back on topic, thanks to Ruth, I've started The Thursday Murder Club, which i'm enjoying so far. And going to start The Prefect soonish.

[Rob, Roberator]

Trike wrote: "I though you were reading all of the Expanse? Isn’t that like 7 books now?"

I'm doing the expanse in audio. I use re-reading for audio because re-listening just sounds strange.

[Rob, Roberator]

Sorry to hear about your cancer Iain. It's been a huge problem in my family. Wishing you the best in your treatment and recovery.

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

@Iain What they said. Sending good vibes your way.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Silvana wrote: "Looking forward to what you think about this one since I have it in my wishlist. "

I would say I pushed through a slightly stagnant spot and was glad I did. The introduction of beasts is a bit repetitive for me but there is a solid underlying story that gets more interesting.d

[John (Taloni)]

Wow Iain, that sucks. Crossing fingers for your recovery.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Best wishes Iain.

[Sheila Jean]

I'm in the middle of my last Astounding Award nominated author Micaiah Johnson (The Space Between Worlds), and I think I have 3 or 4 more Novellas to read in the Hugo Packet. I won't get to the Novelettes or Short Stories. I wanted to read a few more October Daye novels as part of the series nomination, but I probably won't get to it (I'd previously completed all other series (or at least the Novels in those series))

Which will bring me to the middle of the month, and I'll have to see what the library has ready for me :) I have a feeling I'm going to get like 4-6 books from the library all at once and have dilemmas.

[Stephen]

Best wishes Iain on your treatment. I will be reading the last Expanse BookLeviathan Falls this month along with BOM Aurora Rising although Audible has it by its old title.

[Tamahome]

It will always be The Prefect to me.

[John (Taloni)]

I decided on some Bradbury for Halloween. Something Wicked This Way Comes was a great choice. Got another book after that, Inhibitor Phase IIRC. Was almost done with that and was wavering on another Bradbury or not and while I was dithering, The October Country came in off library hold. I shrugged and decided to read it.

Bad choice. Not that the book is bad overall or even any of the individual stories. It's just that I wasn't in the mood for the book. It's not a good insomnia read and that's where I do most of my reading now.

After a decent morality tale set in a carnival, we go to 1940s Mexico and a road trip that ends up in a town with an underground crypt. Seems the locals whose families can't afford the payment plan on a burial plot get dug up and stored underground, then shown off to anyone who will pay. As a younger person I found it macabre and interesting. Now I found it grotesque.

It went on like that. One of my fave Bradbury stories, about someone who disliked his own skeleton, was just too nauseating for 3 AM. The baby that was intelligent from birth and went around killing, now too over the top for me. Character studies that seemed interesting at the time now came across as stereotypical.

The whole book went on like that. I finished it but was glad when it was over. Halloween is about fun creepy horror, or at least it is for me. This was just too much and at the wrong time.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I gave up on the histrionic Russian fantasy


The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
Rating: 1 star (did not finish)
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Not sorry.

and I started reading the "other book" by that Neverending Story guy


Momo by Michael Ende

[Robert]

Yesterday I finished The Weight of the Stars.

Ryann is a teen who looks rough, and sometimes is, but helps misfits like herself. A teacher asks her to help out a new student, Alexandria. They don’t get along until an accident forces them too. As it happens, Alex is the daughter of a woman sent into deep space, and desperately wants to hear her mother’s messages back to Earth.

This is a great little book about being broken and becoming better through friendship. It’s engaging, the cast is diverse, and it’s a good story.

[Ruth]

I’ve started reading The Magician's Land, the final part of the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman.

[Chris K.]

Ruth wrote: "I’ve started reading The Magician's Land, the final part of the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman."

I love these books!

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

Damn good stuff!

[Stephen]

If you want a cheap Russian inspired novel, try Norylska Groans which is $4.99 or free if you have Kindle Unlimited. A grim tale set in a Siberian type dismal city full of soot and deception.

[Ruth]

Chris wrote: "Ruth wrote: "I’ve started reading The Magician's Land, the final part of the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman."

I love these books!"

I think The Magicians series is, in a weird way, a uniquely realistic fantasy story- it’s like “what if Hogwarts and Narnia were both real but that didn’t actually solve any of your problems?” I find the characters very relatable!

[Chris K.]

Ruth wrote: "I think The Magicians series is, in a weird way, a uniquely realistic fantasy story- it’s like “what if Hogwarts and Narnia were both real but that didn’t actually solve any of your problems?” I find the characters very relatable!"

Exactly! Magic just causes different (usually worse) problems when used to try and solve life's problems.

[Jerimy]

Finished this month:
1. Hondo, a western by Louis L'amour.
2. The Regulators, a horror by Richard Bachman AKA Stephen King
3. Montana Bullwacker, Non-Fiction by C.C. Rouse
4. The First Quarry, a Hard Crime by Max Allen Collins

Currently working on:
1. The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

Who knows what else I will read this month. Hoping to finish eight books by the end of it.

[TRP]

I recently read Lore by Alexandra Bracken.
The book was OK but I'm finding YA Fantasy very samey (along the lines of girl with a guilty secret, is abused and gas-lighted before discovering that she the most powerful being in the universe. But she probably gives it all up for love)
I'm really really beginning not to like YA Fantasy. Luckily it is "hardly ever" a "Sword" pick

[Colin]

Recently finished Charles Stross' Invisible Sun. A solid conclusion to the Empire Games trilogy, which itself is a follow-on from his Merchant Princes series. I've been invested in this story for quite some number of years now. Glad to see it getting a mostly neat and tidy conclusion.

From the author's blog "I have finally achieved my genre-shift holy grail: a series that began as portal fantasy, segued into spy thriller, and concluded as space opera!" Don't think I'd actually describe it as 'Space Opera', but still a neat trick to pull off.


In it's place, I've started on The Man Who Died Twice. Follow up to the ridiculously popular (in the UK, at least) Thursday Murder Club.

[Ruth]

Colin wrote: "Recently finished Charles Stross' Invisible Sun.
In it's place, I've started on The Man Who Died Twice. Follow up to the ridiculously popular (in the UK, at least) Thursday Murder Club."

I recently read (and enjoyed) The Thursday Murder Club, I'm anticipating getting the follow-up as a Christmas present so I'll be reading it some time in the new year. For a guy who's mainly famous as a game show host, Richard Osman seems a pretty decent author.

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

Finished The Prefect & I'm about to start The Last Graduate Scholomance #2!

[Chris]

Finished The Prefect - I think that I started this once before but did not get far, but enjoyed it this time around. Looking forward to reading Elysium Fire, which is in my queue to read.

Some November reads for me so far include Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman (loved this, and think would make a great anime series) and Earthlings (same author, not quite as good but definitely more out there, still really liked it), Dave Grohl's highly enjoyable autobiography The Storyteller, Elvira's not quite as enjoyable autobiography (was at times sad and upsetting), Mexican Gothic (read after seeing others alt this for last month's book and liked much better). Also The Troop and The Luminous Dead, were two other horror leftovers, both very enjoyable and both felt like they could be movies, and several Asimov Foundation Universe books. I enjoyed Asimov's Robot and Empire titles, plus the two prequel Foundation titles, but Foundation just really does not do it for me at all.

I am currently reading A Touch of Jen and The End Is Always Near. A Touch of Jen is weird, a bit creepy, but 100% fascinating. So far, The End Is Always Near is a bit of a disappointment, although is exactly what I expected, briefly covering points in history where I am always sort of left wish I was reading a book focusing more specifically and deeply on whatever chapter I'm currently on.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the interesting-yet-dull "authorized" sequel to Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain:


The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the third book in the Old Man's War series by the Master of Snark:


The Last Colony by John Scalzi

[Cody]

Rob wrote: "Halloween has come and gone, what will you be reading this month?"

I am now in my mad dash of reading 2021 releases before the end of the year. Currently working on Klara and the Sun and wow I am impressed. Had to get the audiobook from the library so I could keep reading at work.

[Robert]

Yesterday I finished Searching for the Fleet by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the seventh novel in her Diving Universe series.

It follows on from the last two novels, with a couple characters finding out about a Fleet starbase that might not have been completely shut down. This is a mystery they want to solve. It’s an good mystery, but towards the end the action ramps way up. I liked this book and I’m digging this series.

[Tina]

Cody wrote: "Rob wrote: "Halloween has come and gone, what will you be reading this month?"

I am now in my mad dash of reading 2021 releases before the end of the year. Currently working on Klara and the Sun a..."

Oh, that’s on my TBR list. Would you consider it more sci-fi or fantasy?

[Trike]

Tina wrote: "Cody wrote:

I am now in my mad dash of reading 2021 releases before the end of the year. Currently working on Klara and the Sun and wow I am impressed.

Oh, that’s on my TBR list. Would you consider it more sci-fi or fantasy? ..."

I slotted it as sci-fi. It’s okay, nowhere near as good as the similar A Calculated Life.

My super-short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Cody]

Tina wrote: "Cody wrote: "Rob wrote: "Halloween has come and gone, what will you be reading this month?"

I am now in my mad dash of reading 2021 releases before the end of the year. Currently working on Klara ..."

I placed it into sci-fi/dystopia for sure. Ended up really liking it and voted it top scifi for the goodreads awards. Also I read the later half of the book on audio which was really good and would recommend. Now I am onto Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

[John]

I have been hunkered down over the last month or so making my way through Black Sun ( great world building ) , Harrow the Ninth ( a worthy follow on from Gideon the Ninth ), The Relentless Moon ( I really like this series and can't wait for the next entry ) and currently chugging through The City We Became ( which is making me wish I was a New Yorker... )

[John]

Much more importantly big hugs to Iain.

I enjoyed our SL voice meetups last summer in the depths of lockdown in Covid year 1.

Hope the treatment does the do and you get to enjoy many more years of swords and lasers. :-)