What have you been reading this October?

[Audrey]

Ended up with two romances, which I never read, To Sir, with Love and A Proper Scoundrel. Started Winter's Orbit and Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a Csi.

[Mary]

Michelle wrote: "I'm reading Dauntless by Jack Campbell. A little over 100 pages in, and I like it."

Cool.

[Michelle]

Have you already read it, Mary? I'll tell you something, I'd really like to throttle the "new & improved" military Alliance!!

[Mary]

Michelle wrote: "Have you already read it, Mary? I'll tell you something, I'd really like to throttle the "new & improved" military Alliance!!"

Read the whole series, the next series, and the prequel series. It's worth it.

[Audrey]

Michelle wrote: "I'm reading Dauntless by Jack Campbell. A little over 100 pages in, and I like it."

I read that last year; it was fun. You definitely want to throttle some characters.

[Michelle]

Oh good! Thanks Mary and Audrey!

[Tony]

I have started reading Shadow Corps, which is the first book in the Shadow Corps series. What I didn't know when I started it, is that there is another whole series of 5 books that precedes this series, and would undoubtedly answer some of the questions I have had so far.

[Pierre]

Speaker for the Dead was a DNF at about 60% of the book. I tried hard but could not really get interested in the story.
I am a little concerned about the number of books that I did not finish and the number of series that I abandoned before the end, in the recent period.
Next I will start Outpost by W. Michael Gear.

[Bryan]

I've read , a collection of short stories written around 2000-2004.
As expected from this author it's very imaginative, there's even a story with a hollow Earth and sentient dinosaurs (couldn't stop thinking about that recent Rick & Morty episode). The one I least liked is more of a war story with an SF element: it's about a war between NATO forces and Russia and, being written by a Chinese author, the Russians are the good guys so it feels very weird.
(How do I keep randomly picking decade-old books that are eerily similar to current events?)

I'm now reading and .

[Audrey]

Speaker for the Dead had a really fascinating ending.

[Andrea]

And if you don't finish, you can't continue with the next two, they are all one continuous story thread, though you could read Ender in Exile which actually takes place before though published after. You can also jump to the Shadow books and follow Bean instead.

[Pierre]

Thanks for your advice, Andrea. I'll put Ender in Exile in my to-read list, and I'll also consider the Shadow books.

[Andrea]

I didn't like the Shadow books as much as the Ender ones, but maybe that difference will mean you'll like the Shadow books more :)

Finished The Fall, still surprised I'm liking it as much as I am. The blurb says Stoker (there's a kind of Dracula figure) meets King (it at least starts with a 'Salem's Lot vibe) meets Crichton (we've got CDC guys trying to figure out a virus)...so that's kind of accurate for once.

Ok...so I have 6 books (2 in progress) and one week left. Clearly not going to get them all. So jiggling the order a bit and I'm starting now on The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. This will fill one of my BINGO slots so wanted to be sure I got it in, and it also completes the three Folio Society Wells books I have.

[Jevon]

I'm finishing up book 3 of the Passage, The City of Mirrors.

At first I thought it was the typical post apocalypse zombie virus but things got interesting when psychic overlords got involved. There are many adult themes here so the story gets dark. Some things are annoying but overall it's pretty good.

[Barbara]

The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard a Ufo: The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill by John G Fuller

Probably one of the most publicized incidents of a (purported) alien abduction involved a married couple named Barney and Betty Hill. This book tells their story.

Interesting story. 3.5 stars

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Audrey]

The Shadow books are very different from the main series. I can see some people preferring one and others preferring the other.

[Andrea]

Finished the Olympus Mons graphic novel series. It was pretty good up until the last book or two where I got completely lost as to what was going on.

Also finished The Invisible Man. It wasn't as good as The War of the Worlds but I liked it better than The Time Machine.

Starting on Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw. It was a random thing I picked up in the library. I don't usually go for ghost stories, but it's a novella and it was Halloween, and the cover is particularly creepy so nabbed it. I was going to read it Halloween night but decided if it really was too scary I might not be able to sleep so I'll read it during the day instead.

[Georgann]

@Andrea: good plan!

[Andrea]

Was able to read Nothing but Blackened Teeth in almost one sitting. It wasn't quite a scary as I was worried it might be, but still probably would not want to read it right before bed. I love the fact it has a Japanese setting which is why I grabbed it.

Now to the final book of the Strain trilogy - The Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro

Also reading some Ender based graphic novels, this is the second one - Ender's Game, Volume 2: Command School.

[Robin]

Hi Andrea, have you tried any of Lafcadio Hearn's translated Japanese folk tales/ghost stories? His most famous one was Kwaidan (more or less Japanese for ghost story) part of which was beautifully filmed in Technicolor in the 60s by Masaki Kobayashi. You can usually pick up a kindle edition from about 50p upwards, sometimes free (The copy I own was a free one). They are splendidly atmospheric and read like a kind of Japanese M R James. ☺

[Andrea]

Funny, when you wrote Hearn I thought immediately of Across the Nightingale Floor, which I have yet to read but plan to...eventually. And with a little Googling, I find out Lian Hearn is not her name, and Hearn came from Lafcadio. Will have to look them up.

*edit*

OpenLibrary and Project Gutenberg have it if anyone is looking.

[myla]

I recently finished Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge, and it might be my favorite spooky read this October. Super underrated and very unique, although i do think the creepiness was a little overhyped. It was just a great, atmospheric story that blended several different themes really well.

Also read Jackaby and The Whispering Skull, which were both very enjoyable. Currently reading Bridge of Souls, which will probably be my last Spooktober read.

[Kivrin]

Andrea wrote: "Funny, when you wrote Hearn I thought immediately of Across the Nightingale Floor, which I have yet to read but plan to...eventually. And with a little Googling, I find out Lian Hearn is not her na..."

FYI, Across the Nightingale Floor is very good. I've read the first three books in that series.

[Andrea]

Right before bed, finished reading The Night Eternal, completing The Strain trilogy. Surprised I liked it as much as I did, del Toro is apparently good at coming up with interesting monsters even in book form.

Also finished the Eternum trilogy of graphic novels, the same tale could have been told without the rape, nudity and sex...it sort of justified the rape as in the guys couldn't help themselves because of some pheromones in the air...and they took WAY too long to figure out that the artifact should be guarded by women only then. I would have figured that out from the moon base, and if not then from the ship, and yet still on the earth base it was allowed to go rampant...too bad, as otherwise the art and underlying story was very good, but it was clear the violence was for gratuitous purposes :(