What else are you reading - February 2023

[Rob, Roberator]

new month. book dis?

[Trike]

Currently: Infomocracy and The Spare Man.

On deck: Stars and Bones, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words and Spaceships: An Illustrated History of the Real and the Imagined.

[Ruth]

Currently I’m reading the next book in my big Discworld read, Pyramids, as a bit of a palate cleanser between more serious books.

I’m also reading King of Assassins by R.J. Barker, the final book in his first fantasy trilogy. Barker is a British writer who I don’t think is super familiar to the S&L crowd but I definitely recommend his books if you like your fantasy action-packed yet character-driven.

[Clyde]

Trike wrote: "Currently: Infomocracy and The Spare Man..."

I just finished The Spare Man. Super cute and good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected to based on some of her earlier books. (Still, you really can never go wrong with MRK.)

[Stephen]

Listening to Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution. Enjoying the narration.

[terpkristin]

Finished Tress of the Emerald Sea and loved it. I have some non-fiction books that I have my eye on to read (or listen to). Also have Seveneves to get back to (I paused it when he started describing ephemerides...too close to work). And I do plan to try to join the book of the month.

[Leesa]

I have been reading cozy/cat/Cotswold mysteries and various The Great Courses. Currently Iliad for the latter and Cat Got Your....ana Agatha Raisin. All free on Audible Plus for members.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the very likeable "Cozy Sci-Fi" book


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Chris K.]

Just started the latest in the Wayward Children series, Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire.

[Tamahome]

Finished Saturn Run. A space engineer's dream of a book. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Ruth]

Having recently finished the audiobook of David Copperfield, and then listening to our BotM as a kind of palate cleanser, I’m just about to start another chonker of a historical book: A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel

[T.T.]

Chris K. wrote: "Just started the latest in the Wayward Children series, Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire."

Have you read her Alien Echo under the pen name Mira Grant? So good!! It's a Alien universe YA novel.

[Chris K.]

T.T. wrote: "Chris K. wrote: "Just started the latest in the Wayward Children series, Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire."

Have you read her Alien Echo under the pen name Mira Grant..."

No, I've never read anything but her Wayward Children series. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Iain]

Finished the months pick and finished the last book in the Rosewater trilogy. It is a monster of an alien invasion story that is an intriguing modernisation of War of the Worlds from the perspective of the colonised ((view spoiler)[it even uses a "virus" to wipe out the invaders (hide spoiler)]).

Now taking a break from SFF with two Australian books, Exiles in print and The Living Sea of Waking Dreams in audio before jumping into The Terraformers in audio.

[Jonathan]

Reading Inhibitor Phase.

[John (Taloni)]

Read Captain Flandry, the fifth book in the collected "Technic" stories. Perhaps the most amusing part is that Flandry doesn't appear in the first 60% of the book, those being non-Flandry Technic Civilization books.

It's cold war adventure of the unflinching variety. The Terran Imperium takes bloody, necessary actions to forestall the Merseian Empire, which is determined to dominate the galaxy. Millions die so tens of billions can be saved. I found it more than a little overviolent.

There's blatant parallels to native Americans and how a tribal culture could have beaten the incipient US. A racist take on Caribbean culture, oh, but it's okay - Flandry is in love with the princess, altho they can never be, because plot. So he arranges her a marriage with a good local and - GAG! BARF! BLEAH!

Well, I didn't actually hate the book that much, but LORDY some parts were hard to read. Anderson makes decent points about Terra, or is it Rome, and the darkness that follows the collapse of any large civilization. Flandry's motivations are admirable, his actions less so. All in all I much preferred the earlier "Merchant Captain" part of the Technic saga.

[John (Taloni)]

In a totally different vein I finished the book of the month. Won't discuss it here, plenty of threads for that. I do want to say that it was really awesome and definitely worth the read. Bring on Bonedog and the demon chicken!

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Read Captain Flandry, the fifth book in the collected "Technic" stories. Perhaps the most amusing part is that Flandry doesn't appear in the first 60% of the book, those being non-Flandry Technic C..."

So… not Spacecozy?

[John (Taloni)]

Trike wrote: "So… not Spacecozy?"

Hah! No. If anything lost family, huge stakes, and lots and lots of warp drive. In one of the stories there's a doglike empath animal, but it's destructive in nature. Maybe call that one "Meandog."

Was thinking in the other thread tho, is there a term that would satisfy Trike? Perhaps found family, magic, low stakes, happy ending could be "Hard Cozy." Especially if there's a cat. But if it's a warp cat? Or any even halfway plausible science? We'd have to call it "cozy soft fantasy."

[Joseph]

Finished Warriors and started horror collection In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner, back in print for the first time in almost 40 years.

[Mark]

Watched The Gray Man on Netflix a couple of weeks ago. It is an over the top action thriller. Now reading The Gray Man by Mark Greaney. It is an over the top action thriller without a hint of Ana de Armas.

[Tamahome]

That first fight scene on the plane is great. I learned about it from Brian Lee Durfee on youtube.

[CountZeroOr]

I am almost done with my re-read of The Lord of the Rings, and will be moving on to Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future afterward.

[Joseph]

And I guess I'm just in a short story collection mood -- next up is The Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure: Classic Tales of Dashing Heroes, Dastardly Villains, and Daring Escapes, edited by Lawrence Ellsworth.

[Chris K.]

I've finished Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire. Now I'm starting Low Chicago, next up in the Wild Cards series.

[Oaken]

Just finished Catalyst Gate, the last book in The Protectorate series by Megan O'Keefe. Pure space opera. Some parts of it bugged me (view spoiler)[- including the deus ex machina ending and the oh-so-obvious-and-repeated enemies-to-lovers trope- (hide spoiler)] but overall an engrossing read.

[John (Taloni)]

Read Children of Memory. Was somewhat looking forward to it, but found the book disappointing.

I expected a retread and got that. Third go-round of terraforming, new intelligent species introduced, etc. It's starting to feel like The Interstellar Colonies of Dr. Moreau but hey, why not. The second book had significant similarities to the first with a somewhat different ending, and I expected more of the same. So far so expected, and it was fun enough the first two times.

This one has a bizarre rip on farmers and rural life that almost made me drop the book. It was as if Tchaikovsky's only exposure to rural life was The Lottery, and he went on to say "let's do that, but ten times worse!" As I thought about it Tchaikovsky had a similar altho much shorter bit in the second Shards of Earth novel. I wind up wondering what exactly Tchaikovsky has against the people who grow his food. For me it came across as overweening intellectual snobbery, a city dweller looking down on the sticks. Huge negative for the book that thoroughly diminished my enjoyment.

[Iain]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Read Children of Memory. Was somewhat looking forward to it, but found the book disappointing.

I expected a retread and got that. Third go-round of terraforming, new intelligent species introduced..."

I read what was happening to the colonists as a commentary on our response to climate change and the stresses on a failing society as opposed to to having a go at farmers.

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Read Children of Memory. Was somewhat looking forward to it, but found the book disappointing.

I expected a retread and got that. Third go-round of terraforming, new intelligent species introduced..."

I just finished this book and I hated it. Not for the reason you mention, but for the sheer stupidity of the ideas and the inept way Tchaikovsky handled them.

I don’t know if he was making some commentary on City life versus country life — I kind of think he wasn’t, more that he was commenting that citified people going out into the wilderness unprepared are going to get eaten pretty quickly. Regardless, it’s such a minor point compared to the sheer inanity of the rest of the story that it gets lost in the noise.

[Jonathan]

Finished Inhibitor Phase! It is a fantastic addition to the Revelation Space books by Alastair Reynolds. If you enjoy the other books in that universe you will enjoy this one. It adds a lot to the story.

Currently reading Caliban's War and Master Assassins.

[John (Taloni)]

^^ Haaa, I am getting a vision of the Handshake meme, the one where two people on different sides agree on one issue. Anyhoo, I found the discussion of the nature of consciousness moderately interesting. It was just presented in such a grating fashion that I couldn't get much into it. Plus, it covered some of the same ground as Blindsight but at a much lesser depth. I wanted Tchaikovsky to take the concept further and he didn't.

[Ruth]

For a change of pace, I’m reading an autobiography- of Veronica’s friend (and everyone’s favourite geek girl) Felicia Day. It’s fun and full of interesting stuff about her eccentric upbringing.
You're Never Weird on the Internet
For an even greater change of pace, I’m also reading a book of poetry: The Backwater Sermons by Jay Hulme.

[Chris K.]

I'm reading Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews. A new novella in their Kate Daniels urban fantasy series.

[Jo]

I just finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Has anyone read it? I also just read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. Two very different books, both highly recommended.

Sorry - I’m crap at linking and I hardly ever post.

[Stephen]

I read The Library at Mount Char. My S&L local group decided to do an alt-read of the book. It was a WTF book, but everyone who read it liked it.

[Misti]

I listened to Black Stars: A Galaxy of New Worlds. It’s a compilation of stories by black authors. There were a few that I was disappointed weren’t longer. I wanted to know what happened next!

Maybe I’ll get around to finishing The Spare Man soon. Not having much free time to actually read these days.

[Calvey]

After reading our monthly pick Nettle & Bone, I really want to read another Kingfisher book to see if this was an author I could read through. Thanks to S&L peeps, I picked up Paladin's Grace and it was good. It's funny, great character building and a great story overall. Looking to get book 2.

[Trike]

Calvey wrote: "After reading our monthly pick Nettle & Bone, I really want to read another Kingfisher book to see if this was an author I could read through."

Nettle & Bone was 5 stars for me.

The Hollow Places was okay; I gave it 3 stars.

What Moves the Dead was a tedious rewrite of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher: An Edgar Allan Poe Short Story and I begrudgingly gave it 2 stars.

I’ll probably try something else by her, but right now her stuff is all over the place for me.

[John (Taloni)]

I read Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and found it good, not great. There's some oddities to her plotting that I find offputting. World building is great tho.

Also read Nine Goblins which is decent for middle grade fiction. Enjoyed it for what it was, but while I'm fine with YA, middle grade seems a step too far for me.

[Rick]

Finished the March pick Under Fortunate Stars whose title is.... appropriate. More next month.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Jo wrote: "I just finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Has anyone read it?..."

Yes. 5 stars. More like that please.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the Soviet Sci-Fi classic:


Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Chris K.]

Jo wrote: "I just finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Has anyone read it? "

Yes, I've read it. It was amazing.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Chris K. wrote: "Jo wrote: "I just finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Has anyone read it? "

Yes, I've read it. It was amazing."

If we ever read this for S&L it would have to come with trigger warnings.

There are very explicit scenes of violence and torture against children. Disturbingly so at times.

I enjoyed the premise of the book and what it was trying to do, but I did mark it down a full star for those scenes.

[Trike]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Chris K. wrote: "Jo wrote: "I just finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Has anyone read it? "

Yes, I've read it. It was amazing."

If we ever read this for S&L it would have to come with trigger warnings.

There are very explicit scenes of violence and torture against children. Disturbingly so at times.

I enjoyed the premise of the book and what it was trying to do, but I did mark it down a full star for those scenes...."

Thanks for the warning. I was considering this one but knowing this it’s a pass.

[Trike]

Just finished Drunk on All Your Strange New Words, which is a quite interesting Science Fiction Mystery. The author has found a new way to tell the story using familiar tropes, while adding new stuff to it. The title refers to how humans feel when employed as telepathic translators for visiting aliens. I’ve never seen anything like that before.

4 stars.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

For those who like their Fantasy on the dark side, I started re-reading this re-telling of the Faustian tale


The Damnation Game by Clive Barker

[Joseph]

More historical fiction: Aztec Autumn by Gary Jennings.

[Misti]

About to start Broken Homes in dead tree version.

[Jonathan]

Finished Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate. I loved Caliban's War and give it 5 stars. This series is not deep sci-fi, more like popcorn space opera, but I really enjoy it. I gave Abaddon's Gate 3 stars. I just did not connect very well with the new set of characters and had a hard time buying into the motivations of the antagonists in the story. I am now reading Cibola Burn and Tress of the Emerald Sea.