What else are you reading - February 2023

[Geoff]

I'm reading Children of Memory, and I disagree with Trike and Taloni; I think it's great!
I'm choosing to read the farm part as literal, instead of a commentary on today's society, or climate change. In this case, a small population, trying to survive after an aborted terraforming operation, faces a real tough road for a variety of reasons.
I haven't gotten to the "big reveal" yet, so maybe that will turn out to be dumb and annoying; we'll see.

[Ruth]

I’m reading Legends & Lattes after seeing lots of buzz on here and Twitter, I’m also expecting it to make a strong showing in March Madness.
The opening scene features an orc warrior killing a monster and then massaging her sore back, which I enjoyed #relatable

Interested to read the different opinions of Children of Memory, I haven’t picked it up yet but I loved the previous two books in the series so I’m intending to get the audiobook soon.

[Trike]

After Drunk on All Your Strange New Words I followed it up with Wormhole, which is also a Science Fiction Mystery. That’s two in a row just coincidentally, and I’m still reading The Spare Man, which is yet another SF Mystery.

Weird how that happens.

[DAWN]

I just finished up legends and lattes and I’m almost done with the Terraformers. Legends and lattes is an enjoyable read, and the character development/personal philosophy of the MC is kind of different from what I’m used to encountering. It’s really refreshing. The Terraformers is another very philosophical work. I’m really enjoying it and finding it quite interesting but I kinda wish I’d played animal crossing at some point.

[Tamahome]

Trike wrote: "After Drunk on All Your Strange New Words I followed it up with Wormhole, which is also a Science Fiction Mystery. That’s two in a row just coincidentally, and I’m still reading The Spare Man, which is yet another SF Mystery.

Weird how that happens...."

The Justice of Kings is supposed to be a good fantasy-mystery too.

[Trike]

Tamahome wrote: “...."

The Justice of Kings is supposed to be a good fantasy-mystery too."

Looks interesting.

[Oaken]

Reading Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I enjoyed her next book, Mexican Gothic, although I would label it horror more than fantasy. This one is a straight up fantasy though; woman accidentally frees the Mayan god of death and helps him reclaim his throne from his scheming brother. Has been a good read so far, roaming through Mexico of the early 20th century.

[Tamahome]

Kloos's Citadel (Palladium Wars #3) was quite good milsf, although the end of the series isn't here yet. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Gary]

I finished reading Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. It is the first of four books released in 2023 from the Kickstarter campaign of 2022 called the four secret novels. The novel is also from the Cosmere series. Great book. I also read The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip. It is a great fantasy novel featuring a sorceress that gets a baby to raise and the complications of that situation over many years. I am reading The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. It is about a nanotech future set in Shanghai. I plan to read Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is the third book in the Mars trilogy.

[Joseph]

Swallow: A Tale of the Great Trek by H. Rider Haggard.

[John (Nevets)]

Gary wrote: "I finished reading Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. It is the first of four books released in 2023 from the Kickstarter campaign of 2022 called the four..."

I really enjoyed the last two you listed, but it has to be at least 20 years since I read Blue Mars, may need to revisit that series at some point. I don’t know how you are consuming Diamond Age, but the very nature of the story makes listening to the audio book a bit meta. I liked how that worked out, and really enjoyed the main story as well. Not all the side plots worked quite as well for me, but they were there. And it was a Stephenson novel, so you are there for the journey not the destination anyway.

[Trike]

Clyde wrote: "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 ba..."

I didn’t like it either. Very disappointing.

[Trike]

Also just about to finish Space Opera-ish No Honor in Death on audio, which is a solid 3 stars so far.

About 10% through Bluebird, also a space adventure, maybe going to be a Space Opera. Has a videogame feel to it with the galaxy divided amongst three factions.

The Claire North book Notes from the Burning Age came in to the library, but I extended the hold, having too many books going right now.

[Silvana]

Reading / listening to Brian McClellan's new-ish book In the Shadow of Lightning. Not as action packed as his Powder Mage stuff, but I like the magic system. It's just that listening a 20-hour plus book is a bit... well, long. This would be my personal record if I could finish it ;p

[Silvana]

Tamahome wrote: "Kloos's Citadel (Palladium Wars #3) was quite good milsf, although the end of the series isn't here yet. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

I almost gave up on this series. But I said the same thing for his Frontline one and I ended up finishing it.

[Seth]

I jumped back into the Bone Ships trilogy after someone mentioned it here and reminded me it existed. The second, Call of the Bone Ships, is really good so far, but the world surrounding the action is seriously bleak so it's hard to go fast. Otherwise I've been reading mystery books and I can't figure out exactly why.

[John (Taloni)]

Finished the upcoming book of the month, latest Seanan McGuire book came in (novella length) and will read Eyre Affair when it comes in. That's the bottom of my informal TBR.

Feeling a distinct lack of Neal Asher / Peter Hamilton / St Mary's Chronicles / Rivers of London / Dresden Files / Alastair Reynolds. Where my mainstays at?

[Tamahome]

I wanted to read a book like Firefly, so I'm reading The Magnificent Nine from the Firefly series. Does Jayne have a daughter?

[Chris K.]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Finished the upcoming book of the month, latest Seanan McGuire book came in (novella length) and will read Eyre Affair when it comes in. That's the bottom of my informal TBR.

Feeling a distinct l..."

Ben Aaronovitch has a new Rivers of London novella out Jun 8 called Winter's Gifts.

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Feeling a distinct lack of Neal Asher / Peter Hamilton / St Mary's Chronicles / Rivers of London / Dresden Files / Alastair Reynolds. Where my mainstays at?"

Have you read stuff from Stephen Baxter or Greg Egan? They’ve got an Asher/Hamilton/Reynolds vibe.

[Tamahome]

I just read Baxter's Ring. One of the Xeelee books. Pretty out there. I dig the sun chick.

[Mark]

Finished Bad Actors by Mick Herron and that's the last currently available novel in the series. I binged the remaining Slough House novels and novellas January and February, and found them all very entertaining. I guess the waiting game for #9 has begun.

[Tamahome]

Brian Lee Durfee read the first one, I'd like to think at my suggestion. I like the Apple tv show with Gary Oldman.

[John (Taloni)]

Haaaa, thanks for taking my whinging seriously! Will keep an eye out for Winter's Gifts. LA library has no idea what it is so I can't do my usual dodge of "tag and forget" and then they remind me when it's out.

As for Baxter, I found Titan unutterably depressing, yet still came around for the Manifold trilogy. Finding THAT depressing, I stopped. Well, except for the Long Earth books where he was Pratchett's assembler.

So, Ring. Maybe. I see it's the 4th book of a five-ology and not all are available in Kindle. Amusingly for this one, I don't believe in dark matter since falling in the orbit of physicist Mike McCullough, who has an enticing theory about Quantized Inertia that does away with the need to fudge physics with dark matter. I know, it's all made up, but here we are. Is it understandable without the other books?

Anyway, looking at some of the Baxter books at the LA Public Library Overdrive, I see Proxima. Ooh, the Centauri System! Let's look at the blurb. "There is only hardship...loneliness...emptiness, even as war brews in the solar system." Oh. Well. Not depressing, then! Eh, I may check it out as the sequel gets into possible pasts in a way that might even be a deliberate take on the Roger Waters song.

As for Greg Egan, I know little. Want to pick a title? Looking at the library listings, I've read two of the Arrows of Time. Wasn't motivated to go on. He looks like the kind of author I should be interested in.

Anyway, appreciate the suggestions. (Bearded Spock voice) I shall consider it!

[Tamahome]

I've only read Xeelee #4 - Ring, and understood it well enough, except for occasional crazy science stuff. Some people say to read at least 2# first.

[Joseph]

Yeah, Xeelee #2 is not ... necessary for #4, but potentially helpful. #1 and #3 (Raft and Flux) are kind of big idea intellectual exercise books set in the Xeelee universe without much connection to the overarching story, although I think they might get a callback at one point or another.

[Joseph]

I also enjoyed Baxter's The Time Ships, a sequel to Wells' The Time Machine that ups the scale to the biggest extent imaginable.

[Tamahome]

I haven't read it, but Baxter has a Nasa trilogy similar to the tv series For All Mankind, an alt history of the space race. There's a BBC audiodrama of it somewhere: https://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Stephen...

[Joseph]

Tamahome wrote: "I haven't read it, but Baxter has a Nasa trilogy similar to the tv series For All Mankind, an alt history of the space race. There's a BBC audiodrama of it somewhere: https://www.amazon.com/Voyage-..."

It's more of a thematic trilogy -- the books (Voyage, Titan and Moonseed) don't have any direct connections, but are all variations on what if we'd done more with NASA and Apollo-era tech. And they (Titan in particular) are grim, although I did enjoy them.

[Rick]

Baxter's Xeelee sequence has a lot of big ideas but is ultimately pretty depressing. It's fine and if you like Benford etc you might like it.