What else are you reading - August 2023

[Ruth]

Finished Hell Bent which was my unofficial book of the month. Now I’m starting The Bullet That Missed, another cosy crime mystery by British TV quiz show presenter turned author Richard Osman.

[John (Taloni)]

Finished Demigod 12, the second in the "Tinkered Stars" trilogy by Gail Carriger. Gail has inexplicably given up her trademark wit and charm to do a futuristic riff on creation of a K-Pop type band. There's some modestly interesting worldbuilding and a whole lot of references to a musical environment I know nothing about and don't care. It's not at all like Menolly in Pern, beckoning us into a world of music.

Anyhoo, there's enough Gail-style character interaction and indirect plotting where you realize later what's been set up, to keep this at a three star read. But only that. As I read I wondered where Gail's usual sense of fun has gone. There's no snarky commentary, no witty banter. I'll probably read the third, but won't rush out.

...Oh! But if you love Gail, she has mentioned that she gets the majority of her income from Indie sales now. She'd love it if peeps bought direct from her website. That way she gets all the money.

[John (Taloni)]

And then, with my next choice, the Beginning Operations trilogy by James White out on loan, I had a hole in my TBR. The Ringo quintology didn't work out and I didn't want to burn the last two Fred the Vampire Accountant books. Nothing new from Neal Asher (War Bodies inexplicably not available yet), Peter Hamilton seems to be on hiatus, Alastair Reynolds nothing, Tchaikovsky has already done his duty for the year, well anyhoo, TBR hole.

So I gritted my teeth and took Book 4 of the "Thursday Next" series by Jasper Fforde. That's despite misgivings about his overly precious style of writing and inability to address major plot points over the span of two books. He insults Romance writers in the Dramatis Personae and mocks pulp writing early on. "Poor prose outnumbers good prose" for Westerns. Er, Fforde, didja ever think more people read that "poor prose" because they enjoyed it more than your effete style? "Literary" is not the same as "good." And mocking Romance writers is just silly because he came to prominence riffing on Jane Eyre.

Well anyhoo, I downloaded it and am gonna read it. And may God have mercy on my soul.

[Chris K.]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Finished Demigod 12, the second in the "Tinkered Stars" trilogy by Gail Carriger. Gail has inexplicably given up her trademark wit and charm to do a futuristic riff on creation of a K-Pop type band..."

I also gave this one three stars for the same reasons. I'll read the third one because I have an idea of what the Dyesi are up to and I want to know if I'm right.

[Oaken]

I just finished Arboreality; it's a series of connected short stories - kind of like How High We Go in the Dark - except instead of being about death and loss and grief, these stories are a near-future narrative about people living through the effects of climate change. I'm sure the climate-change-denialists are sitting in their living rooms drinking coffee and avoiding any news about wildfires ravaging N. America

but for the rest of us its been a sobering summer and this book pulls at those same strings. Not completely without hope but oy.

[Seth]

I've been re-reading because I bought a pile of books that I'd first read (and loved) as library loans. Years ago, I think I bought too many books leaving many unread and turned to the library. I think I may have over-corrected and should be buying more now since books are my main hobby.

Anyway, Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy is still really great. And now I'm into the follow-ons to Goblin Emperor, starting with The Witness for the Dead - I really like those, I could probably read them once a year.

[Oaken]

I really liked those. They are like agatha-christie-cozy. If that's a thing.

[Iain]

Finished What Moves the Dead which is a really creepy retelling of the The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales. A novella that hits the mark and has a strong voice. I listened to the audio and really loved it, sounded very Victorian while being modern at the same time.

Listening to Hell Bent. Alex's life really sucks.

[John (Taloni)]

Something Rotten, book 4 of the "Thursday Next" series wasn't half bad. We finally got resolution on the (view spoiler)[missing husband (hide spoiler)] plus some unexpected development for a major side character late in the book. Croquet-as-Football was pretty hilarious. I'd never heard of George Formby, a 1930s actor somehow President of Britain in 1988, but having looked up the "unofficial national anthem" of him playing a ukelele and spouting some silly lyrics, it worked. Plenty of Shakespeare riffs and there's even a "Will Speaks" or two.

This seems to be the capper for the early series. Everything comes to a good resolution. There's more, which I suppose I will get to eventually.

In the meantime I am reading book 7 of Fred the Vampire Accountant. There's been a distinct lack of accounting the last few books but it is now showing up again. God I love these. Only this and book 8 left.

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "In the meantime I am reading book 7 of Fred the Vampire Accountant. There's been a distinct lack of accounting the last few books but it is now showing up again. God I love these. Only this and book 8 left."

These are super great. The audiobooks narrated by Kirby Heyborne are amazing. His voice is perfectly suited for the unassuming, polite, smart, tough as nails Fred.

[John (Taloni)]

^ Any info on if there will be more? I would gladly continue on. Got this one and book 8 and then no more left!

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "^ Any info on if there will be more? I would gladly continue on. Got this one and book 8 and then no more left!"

The story is constantly refillable, so there could be more. I expect there will be. #8 came out Dec 2022, so I’d expect any new book would probably be released between Dec 2023 and May 2024 if he keeps to his schedule.

[John (Taloni)]

HE NEEDS TO WRITE FASTER! *squints* ...okay, eight books really is a lot.

EDIT: Seems the author has a page. Fred TVA is listed as "ongoing" but he's writing something else right now. OTOH this makes it easy for me to look up his other works. Which, if they're half as good as Fred, will make good insomnia reads. (not a lock, I love Dresden Files but not Butcher's other books.)

Anyhoo, the site:
https://www.drewhayesnovels.com/serie...

[Joseph]

Started Gardens of the Moon. I'm guessing I know what I'm going to be reading well into next year.

[Pumpkinstew]

Joseph wrote: "Started Gardens of the Moon. I'm guessing I know what I'm going to be reading well into next year."

Couldn't resist the Malazan Humble Bundle? ;)

This month I read Mother Speaks which is not your typical rote fantasy IP tie in. It's really, really dark in places. The conceit is that it's an epistolary of a mother explaining to her sons why their father is utterly broken inside and can't love them. Along the way she realises that, no, she's not in a great place either. Kubasik clearly took Larkin's This be the Verse to heart.
It surprised me. Because of the darkness. But I also can't reccommend it. Because ... daaarrk.
*** (in the darkness).

I also read The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation. There's very little I don't like about Hannah Fry but this grand title for a lightweight review of other peoples studies on applying statistics to finding a partner might go on to that short list. The abstract is 'It's a numbers game, you might have to kiss a lot of frogs and be prepared to lower your standards.'
Has graphs: ***

I'm now reading The Princess Bride. I'm about 100 pages in and so far I must doff my cap to Rob Reiner for excavating the rich vein of charm from the snarky bedrock of Goldmans writing. A rare example of the film surpassing the source material?

[Joseph]

Pumpkinstew wrote: "Couldn't resist the Malazan Humble Bundle? ;)"

Ironically, the bundle dropped just days after I finally got around to picking up the last of the 10 mainline books on my Kindle; but I still got the bundle because it was a cheap way to get the Kharkanas and Bauchelain & Korbal Broach books.

[Pumpkinstew]

Ruth wrote: "So for me it’s less Whale Weekly, more Dick Daily 😜"

This did not get the chorus of fnarrs it deserved.
So here's a KW seal of approval.

[Kevin]

I'm reading Babel by R.F. Kuan. I'm about half way through - absolute genius. I cannot believe Kuan is only 27, her writing is amazingly good. It's time to ditch the "we only do one book from an author" policy. This book deserves to be read by this group more than anything else I can think of.

[Misti]

I finished Foxglove Summer this morning. I enjoyed it. So since September's pick isn't available on Audible, I'm diving straight into The Hanging Tree.

[Ruth]

Pumpkinstew wrote: "Ruth wrote: "So for me it’s less Whale Weekly, more Dick Daily 😜"

This did not get the chorus of fnarrs it deserved.
So here's a KW seal of approval.

"

Thank you Pumpkinstew! Glad someone appreciates my efforts

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished an anthology containing 26 of the most notable Science-Fiction short stories from the time period 1929-1964


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 edited by Robert Silverberg
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started on the first half of the second volume of the anthology which contains the 23 most notable classic Science-Fiction novellas from roughly the same time period (with one notable exception - The Time Machine by H.G. Wells from 1895) - this volume, Part II-A, contains 12 novellas


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of The Science Fiction Writers of America edited by Ben Bova

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Reading Gardens of the Moon which I got as part of the Malazan Humble bundle.

I am enjoying it. Though remembering the 'telephone book' sized list of characters is a challenge. Especially when several change names and/or go by nicknames as well 😕

This is deep. But I'm up for the challenge 😎

[Joseph]

And this is the shortest book in the series.

I actually just finished it and started Deadhouse Gates. Not 100% sure I'm actually going to get through all ten in one go, but I'm sure going to try.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Joseph wrote: "And this is the shortest book in the series."

I've only got about 11,000 pages to go 😉and that's just for the 10 book series. There is also another 7 books in the bundle 😕

Not to mention many other books in the overall Malazan story.

I may have a break in between books. They do span many generations.

[Joseph]

Yeah, by the time they announced the bundle I already had picked up all of the mainline novels individually, but I still sprang for the bundle because it was a cheap way to get the rest of the books.

[Iain]

I will be reading Gardens of the Moon soon, possibly while on annual leave... I am a;lso tempted by the Seanan McGuire humble bundle...

I am n ow listening to Translation State and enjoying the shows one of the characters is consuming which seems to be a shout out to Murderbot, great fun.

[Joseph]

Iain wrote: "I will be reading Gardens of the Moon soon, possibly while on annual leave... I am a;lso tempted by the Seanan McGuire humble bundle...

I am n ow listening to [book:..."

Fair warning: It looks like the McGuire bundle is another Kobo-only deal like the Mercedes Lackey Valdemar bundle a few months back.

[Iain]

Joseph wrote: "Iain wrote: "I will be reading Gardens of the Moon soon, possibly while on annual leave... I am a;lso tempted by the Seanan McGuire humble bundle...

I am n ow listen..."

There is a Kobo app on an ipad and you can "backup" your books with calibre.

[Ruth]

Thanks to my regimen of Daily Dick I have finished Moby-Dick or, the Whale before the September deadline (when the audiobook stops being available in the Audible Plus catalogue). Still listening to another classic, The Odyssey, and a non-fiction book about motherhood, Matrescence, and then I’ll get onto the new book from Shelley Parker-Chan, He Who Drowned the World.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started a book by a Goodreads author friend, and although it is said to deal with time travel I'm not sure whether or not it will really be Science Fiction


In the Shadow of Time by Kevin Ansbro

[Trike]

I listened to Chain-Gang All-Stars which is very much preaching to the choir. 2 stars.

Listened to the GraphicAudio production of The Warded Man (1 of 2)/The Warded Man, 2 of 2) which was excellent. They really do a good job adapting books, and this had the biggest cast yet. 5 stars. Have moved on to The Desert Spear, 1 of 3.

Currently reading Star Trek Designing Starships: Deep Space Nine and Beyond, which is a superb behind-the-scenes look at making Trek ships.

[Pumpkinstew]

I confess I bombed out of Malazan after the second book, Deadhouse Gates.
There were things I really liked about both books. The scale is impressive and some of the set pieces are great but ultimately there were too many narrative threads that were either resolved in an unsatisfying way or left dangling or required some manner of deus ex machina or didn't actually have any bearing on what seemed to be the main narrative.
I figured after ~2000 pages I'd given it a fair shake and it wasn't for me. I hope you have a better experience with it. :)

[Pumpkinstew]

Trike wrote: "Currently reading Star Trek Designing Starships: Deep Space Nine and Beyond, which is a superb behind-the-scenes look at making Trek ships."

Ooh. How many pages does the Federation Quality Management Plan run to? Also, do they have a single source supplier on holodeck systems? They seem to have a lot of trouble with those. ;)

[John (Taloni)]

Finished Something Rotten, and Jasper Fforde does finally get it together. A decent finale to the storyline. This is apparently the end of this particular arc, and later books start a new one. I really cackled over the "Croquet as Football" stuff. Blissfully little of the self-indulgent Bookworld theme.

Then book 7 of Fred the Vampire Accountant. He's always good but this one knocks it out of the park. House of Fred faces an existential threat and they deal with it in a very Fred fashion. He stays true to himself throughout.

[John (Taloni)]

Then, some angst. I picked up a compilation of the first three books of the "Sector General" interstellar hospital series. It's...adequate. The foreword starts off with a nauseatingly endless paean to how great the author was, but a careful read shows that he was a hobby writer published in second-tier magazines. The "books" are mashups of related short stories, often called a "mosaic novel" now. Then the book starts with a prequel intended to address plotholes in later stories which, of course, as a first time reader I know nothing about. The prequel is pedantic at best. Then it's on to an SF story written in the 50s, which is fine, but does show its age.

Anyhoo I'll probably read all three because it's easy, but this is not a great book. Then I've got only Fred the Vampire Accountant 8 left on things I want to read. Then...I dunno. Maybe look into other Drew Hayes (Fred's author) works. A second look at the Ringo Posleen series? More Silo? Something completely new? Not sure.

[AndrewP]

John (Taloni) wrote: " Then...I dunno. Maybe look into other Drew Hayes (Fred's author) works. A second look at the Ringo Posleen series? More Silo? Something completely new? Not sure."

Have you read Jack Campbell's 'Lost Fleet; series? Lot's of spaceships and things blowing up, probably right up you alley.

[Tamahome]

Words in Time says Redemption Ark is a great space opera. I'm checking out the ebook sample. It's somewhat long at a 20 hour audiobook.

[John (Taloni)]

^^ LAPL has some Lost Fleet, thanks. I'll give it a look. First book will take ~4 weeks according to LAPL. Will check out KU later, if it's on, page reads a-comin' for Mr. Campbell.

Not sure if the Redemption Ark post is for me...I've read it and so far as I know, everything Alastair Reynolds has written.

[John (Nevets)]

Tamahome wrote: "Words in Time says Redemption Ark is a great space opera. I'm checking out the ebook sample. It's somewhat long at a 20 hour audiobook."

If that is for yourself, I think you will like it based on the other stories you seem to enjoy most. It's fairly hard Sci-FI, got a good amount of action, mostly morally grey characters, and is a meaty book to boot. And While "The Prefect" (or what ever the name was changed to) that we read a while back is in the same universe, it is a very different type of story from that.

[AndrewP]

Redemption Ark might not make much sense if you haven't read Revelation Space first, It's the middle book in a trilogy.

[John (Taloni)]

Or third of a quadrilogy? Revelation Space, Chasm City, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap.

Altho realistically I'd just read them in publication order. The non-main-sequence ones still have relevant worldbuilding in them.

[AndrewP]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Or third of a quadrilogy? Revelation Space, Chasm City, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap."

Your missing the last one, 'Inhibitor Phase', which makes it a pentalogy :)

[Tamahome]

I understood them to be fairly standalone…

[John (Taloni)]

Yeah, you can do it standalone. It's a fine entry point to the Revelation Space universe. Fair warning, Reynolds is dark and there's some grotesque noir in all his works. I put up with the dark and twisted stuff, others love it. Reynolds is pretty excellent with the "known laws of physics" storytelling. Anyhoo, expect to miss a little bit by jumping in there, and if you like it, head straight on back to the first one, Revelation Space. (For me that read like a straight rip of Niven; later on Reynolds developed his own style.)

EDIT: Oh, and lest I forget the "entry point" distinction: This novel is based partly on some short stories Reynolds wrote back before he, well, was any good. I read those after the book. They are okay for context. TBH the "resolution" of the Revelation Space plotline which IIRC is at the end of Absolution Gap was so ridiculously shoehorned into his previous work that I was desperate for an alternate timeline.

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Something completely new? Not sure."

Times like these I go with short stories or comic book. Not much commitment and you might find something that gets your motor running.

[John (Nevets)]

AndrewP wrote: "Redemption Ark might not make much sense if you haven't read Revelation Space first, It's the middle book in a trilogy."

My bad on forgetting the order. I would recommend starting with Revelation Space. If I remember right, there are some through lines that make more sense when read in order. But I still think this series has Tamahome name on them. Just knowing his past likes, I really think he will dig it.

[Gary]

I finished reading Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. It is the third novel of four in his secret novel series. Interesting mix of genres. Great ending. I am reading The Dark Half by Stephen King. And the Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (Book #10 of the Wheel of Time). It’s been called the sloggiest of the novels of the series. So far, it feels slow, but the writing is great. I plan to read Starter Villain by John Scalzi next.