What are you reading right now? For 2023

[Caitlin]

The Pride of Chanur was great. The middle book, Chanur’s Venture, was a bit more muddled, but the author makes up for it in The Kif Strike Back. According to Cherryh, books 2-4 of the series were conceived as a single book, but the publisher split them up.

[Nick]

I recently finished reading Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski and Alien: Covenant Origins by Alan Dean Foster.

Currently, I am reading Skyward by Brandon Sanderson and Hellspark by Janet Kagan.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished rereading A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber. Decided it was too soon to reread the rest of that series. Read a new fantasy.

Now I’m going back to ToeHold space: rereading Home Run by Nathan Lowell.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished rereading Home Run. Mentally still in the ToeHolds so I’m going to reread To Fire Called by Nathan Lowell next.

[Melvin]

The Blade Within by Jackson Lear. First in a trilogy. Sofar a serviceable fantasy but I'm only about a quarter of the way through it so haven't decided about the rest of the series yet.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished rereading To Fire Called last night. Currently reading a new fantasy, just out Gryphon in Light by Mercedes Lackey.

Edit: Bob and Nikki book #36 just dropped. Will it lure me from finishing Gryphon in Light? Not sure.

[Karl]

I skimread Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley again, after one of my fans said they'd enjoyed the gooey bits of Chasing soalce because it reminded them of Hurley's book.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Gryphon in Light. Readable but not one I’ll reread very often unless the sequel is more gripping.

Currently reading the new Jerry Boyd book Hannah Comes Home by Jerry Boyd. It’s #36 of the Bob and Nikki series. I’m about 2/3 through. It’s one of the slower books. Multiple minor action scenes but mostly setup for some major action in a later book.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Hannah Comes Home. The next book or possibly the one after it should be very interesting.

There’s a new Nathan Lowell book coming out in early August. Odds are good after I read it I’ll want to reread Working Class so I’m holding off discussing Working Class on the August Limited Pick thread until then. In the meantime I’m rereading By Darkness Forged which is the last Ish book of the previous story arc. Also sort of reading a new fantasy but it isn’t holding my attention very well - I’d rather be in the ToeHolds.

[C. John]

Just started an odd one . The material was originally published by Marvel Comics but this book was published by DC Comics. I presume when DC had the license from Conde Nast it included any material published by other companies. Wonder if that included the Archie material from the sixties, though I don't fault DC for not reprinting that.

[Trike]

Currently reading the second book featuring the Trouble Dog and its crew, Fleet of Knives by Gareth L. Powell. This series is Space Opera and no mistake. I quite liked the first one Embers of War, and so far so good on part two.

I also listened to the Gareth L. Powell/Peter F. Hamilton novella Light Chaser which was really great.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

About 75% through By Darkness Forged. I’d forgotten how much fun it was, particularly the part with the pirates thinking they were in charge of the ship.

[Betsy]

Teresa wrote: "About 75% through By Darkness Forged. I’d forgotten how much fun it was, particularly the part with the pirates thinking they were in charge of the ship."

I just reread this too. I loved that episode.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished By Darkness Forged. Reread a couple of fantasy books. Today Hard Knocks by Nathan Lowell dropped, so putting aside all my other books for that one.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Hard Knocks was excellent. Back to rereading fantasy until I either need a dose of aliens or some new book catches my attention.

[Trike]

Teresa wrote: "Hard Knocks was excellent. Back to rereading fantasy until I either need a dose of aliens or some new book catches my attention."

Have you read Gareth L. Powell’ s books? I think those are up your alley… or starship, as the case may be.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’ve tried free previews of Powell’s books before and they didn’t grab me.

[Kay Dee (what is your storygraph name?]

Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro



asking the age old question about artificial intelligence- What is a person?
if an android has a personality stolen from a human is it a machine or a human?

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’m on book 5 of rereading a fantasy series that has 6 books (so far anyway), however Bob and Nikki book 37 just dropped, so I’ll be switching to that this evening. Name is Bob Has a Tantrum, by Jerry Boyd.

[Audrey]

Salvage Right by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I just finished "Worlds of Honor" (apparently the second anthology book in a series of that name but my edition was just named as indicated), an Honorverse anthology, which was mostly good except for the final mess of a story.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Bob Has a Tantrum by Jerry Boyd was fun with some unexpected twists. The next book is likely to bring us some pirate action (educated guess) which will also be fun.

So now I’m going to finish my reread of that fantasy series then probably start wading through my pile of free previews which is getting rather long.

[Robin]

Reading Asimov's Robots through to Foundation series. I'm trying to stick to the timeline order, but I've already missed one right out the door (I, Robot). I'm skipping the short stories. I read Caves of Steel in which Daneel Olivaw is first introduced and now about to finish Naked Sun in which Daneel and Elijah Bailey team up again to solve...a murder. I love re-reading Asimov now, 30 years after I first read them at the opening of my journey into Hard SciFi. Now they have this sort of steam-punk feel in that some of the tech he envisions is somewhat out of date. I had to laugh when in Caves of Steel he described Earth's 8 billion people as an unsustainable population. I have the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells awaiting a second read to prep for her newest addition to the series in November.

[C. John]

Currently wworking on two books, neither sci-fi. One is a history of the Stampede Wrestling promotion and the other is a collection of some of the Justice League/Justice Society team-ups DC Comics use to publish every summer. After that it will be back to SF, either the Poul Anderson collection I started some time ago or the fourth (and final) Skylark novel.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Currently rereading Hard Knocks by Nathan Lowell which is the September Limited Pick. “No immediate danger”

[Betsy]

I became quite sick on Saturday. I'm recovering, but it really knocked me off my game and I didn't feel up to any of my normal pursuits. Even watching news on TV. I needed something to engage me when I wasn't trying to sleep. So I decided to reread the first three Ishmael Wang books. Quarter Share, Half Share, and Full Share. Of course, I've read then all several times before, but it's been a while. And they're perfect for what I needed. Nothing too complex to tax my brain, nothing too harrowing to upset me. Enough action to keep me engaged. And heartwarming. Pablum. Just what I needed.

I'll probably continue and reread the other two in the series soon, but maybe not quite yet. They just don't have the same heartwarming and easygoing flavor.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’m glad you are feeling better!

[Trike]

Betsy wrote: "I became quite sick on Saturday. I'm recovering, but it really knocked me off my game and I didn't feel up to any of my normal pursuits. Even watching news on TV. I needed something to engage me wh..."

I’m also glad you’re feeling better. Although I did have the amusing thought that this might not be the sort of blurb Lowell would be looking for: “When you’re too sick to think, turn to this pablum!” 😁

We’ll just spin it as: “These books healed me!”

[Betsy]

Trike wrote: "Betsy wrote: "I became quite sick on Saturday. I'm recovering, but it really knocked me off my game and I didn't feel up to any of my normal pursuits. Even watching news on TV. I needed something t..."

😁

[L J]

Betsy wrote: "I became quite sick on Saturday. I'm recovering, but it really knocked me off my game and I didn't feel up to any of my normal pursuits. Even watching news on TV. I needed something to engage me wh..."

Glad you are feeling better.

Reading favorites can be comforting which can help with healing.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’ve been on a fantasy kick, but today I started rereading Dragon in Exile by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. There are several fantasy books due to drop in the next week that I’ve had my eye on, so I’m not positive that I won’t get distracted from my reread, but I enjoyed the book the last time I read it and it’s been several years so I’ve forgotten the plot (so far).

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Dragon in Exile last night. Most of the scenes take place on Surebleak, but there are a few scenes on various ships, particularly on Uncle’s ship with the amusing name. Rereading it held my attention strongly enough that I wasn’t tempted to switch to one of the half dozen fantasy books that dropped this week. Unless a new space opera drops in a series I follow, I’ll be off on fantasy again assuming one of the free previews grabs me.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

New Jerry Boyd book just dropped! Title is Sheriff Bob.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Sheriff Bob by Jerry Boyd was very good. Lots of action. I do wonder about (view spoiler)[how a Commonwealth warrant for arrest could be valid for arresting someone who is neither a Commonwealth citizen nor in the Commonwealth, and the supposed crime took place outside the Commonwealth too (hide spoiler)] though.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’m almost finished with a fantasy book I’ve been rereading, but The Long View by Mackey Chandler dropped today. This is #14 in his April series. I’ll be reading The Long View by tomorrow if not later today.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

The Long View was quite good, and hard for me to put down. You probably need to have read at least the first several books in the series or you’d get lost because the POV bounces frequently between a bunch of different characters. There is definitely room for at least one more book between this one and the first of the Family Law series. One of the very minor characters in The Long View is named Jack Anderson. I’m wondering whether that is Lee Anderson’s father, who dies at the start of Family Law.

[Nicholas LaMarca]

I am on the 8th Expanse Book "Tiamat's Wrath"...I was going to read something in between the 7th and 8th book but I just couldn't bring myself to not finish the series...

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Yesterday I finished Granola Bars and Spaceships by Geneva Vand, and today I’m reading the sequel Roommates and Space Trees. Fluff but it holds my attention. Some of the world building is good, but why the heck would an alien use typical American gestures to communicate when there are cultures right here on Earth that don’t nod for yes, shake head for no, or rub stomach to indicate hunger?

[Trike]

“Geneva Vand” sounds like a Star Wars character.

[Caitlin]

Currently reading The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal, the final book in the Lady Astronaut trilogy. Longer than the other volumes, but it's a real page turner about the lunar colonists racing to uncover a saboteur in their ranks.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

After finishing Roommates and Space Trees I got stuck in a fantasy series. I’m not finished with that series but I was distracted from it by a random memory of a scene in one of the April or Family Law books, so I started searching through until I found the scene. It is in A Hop, Skip and a Jump by Mackey Chandler and gives details of an encounter between spaceships of three different political groups: an unknown alien group, United States of North America, and a colony of Central. The encounter takes place in the colony’s solar system.

[Trike]

I’ve read the first two installments of Kevin J. Anderson’ s Saga of the Seven Suns epic space opera, Hidden Empire and A Forest of Stars. This is some genuine widescreen Space Fantasy stuff, so if you like Star Wars and Mass Effect, you’ll probably enjoy this. Solid 3 stars for me.

I also read The Misfit Soldier by Michael Mammay, which is a terrific romp. It’s a sci-fi version of “soldiers running a scam during war”, and I laughed out loud several times. An easy 5 stars from me. I hope he writes more about these characters.

And Frontier Corps by Joe Kassabian, which is basically battleporn, a Vietnam-War-in-space story. By-the-numbers MilSF but fine. 3 stars because I’m feeling generous.

[C. John]

What is battleporn?

[Trike]

C. John wrote: "What is battleporn?"

Pew-pew-pew!

Aaah!

…for 117 pages. Then 4 pages of dialogue, followed by another 6 chapters of battles.

[C. John]

Ah, I see.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I finished reading A Hop, Skip and a Jump from the point of that scene to the end, then decided I wanted to continue so now I’m rereading Friends in the Stars which is the next book in the Family Law series. Odds are that I’ll want to stay in that universe for a while, and I might end up rereading the last book of the April series just to check that the scene that started this reread wasn’t in that book too from a different point of view.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished rereading Friends in the Stars. Now rereading the current last in the series Another Word for Magic

[Trike]

I read Quantum Space by Douglas Phillips, which was really good. It’s nice to dig into an old school Hard Science Fiction novel after so much Fantasy and Space Opera that has been on the goofier end of the spectrum. Turns out there’s a whole series of these Quantum books, so I shall be continuing.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’m still reading Another Word for Magic. New Bob & Nikki book by Jerry Boyd just dropped. Title is Cleanup in Aisle Squatch. I’m attempting to ignore it until after my workday finishes.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Another Word for Magic by Mackey Chandler was good enough even on a reread that I could resist switching to the new Bob and Nikki book. After finishing it, Cleanup on Aisle Squatch by Jerry Boyd started a bit slow but packed in quite a bit of action, including space battles and dealing with complicated booby traps. I just finished it a few minutes ago.

[Nick]

I just finished reading The Valkyrie by Kate Heartfield. The story revolves around a fallen Valkyrie named Brynhild, exiled to Midgard by Odin. What comes is a tale involving Norse Gods, the Roman Empire, Atilla the Hun, and many fantasy and Norse mythology elements that resonate well with me. It's an excellent pick for anyone interested in Norse mythology.