What Else Are You Reading in 2024? Showing 1,501-1,529 of 1,529

[Richard]

Alexandra wrote: "Currently reading Odin's Child for my book club. The setting is inspired by Norse mythology, and it's great. Unfortunately, the characters are generic YA people, things just keep ha..."

I love Norse mythology too, but yeah that's a shame the characters are rather generic. I quite liked Neil Gaymain's Norse Mythology if you are looking for something more myth focused.

[Richard]

I just finished The Familiar, went in unknowingly thinking it was a regular fantasy and the familiar would be some kind of dragon or something, turned out to be a steamy romantasy. I still liked it though. Soon gonna read A darker shade of magic from Schwab, my family gave me a copy of it twice for Christmas, so seems like it is a must-read.

[Economondos]

Read Battle Luna by several authors including Travis S. Taylor over the past few days.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three interesting stories and four mediocre ones.

Working link to my review:
My review here

[Kaia]

I just finished Karen Lord's The Best of All Possible Worlds, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's a very quiet story with great characters and relationship-building, which I was in the mood for.

I'm currently trying to read The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, but I keep having to set it aside because I get too worried for the characters. The strength of the writing keeps bringing me back, but I'm not much of a horror reader anymore, so I have to pace myself.

I also just started a nonfiction book yesterday - The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan, which is very interesting so far.

[Alexandra]

Richard wrote: "I love Norse mythology too, but yeah that's a shame the characters are rather generic. I quite liked Neil Gaymain's Norse Mythology if you are looking for something more myth focused.

I really liked Neil Gaiman's take on Norse Mythology as well! I listened to an audio book narrated by the author, it was lovely.

[Kaylee]

For the end of 2024 I’m trying to finish up the Children of Blood and Bone series. (200 pages left 🤞)

[Colin]

A quick read was Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker. The story revolves around a reality TV show in which the crew works with homeowners renovating their recently acquired houses, the unique feature of this show being that these are haunted houses. Naturally, the "haunting" is supplied, unknown to the owners, by the TV crew until, one day . . . it isn't. This is a cozy fantasy ghost story. I would not call it horror, because it isn't scary (to the reader). It is fun to read and has a sense of humor. If you like cozy fantasy, go for it.

[[deleted user]]

Kaia wrote: "I just finished Karen Lord's The Best of All Possible Worlds, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's a very quiet story with great characters and relationship-building, which I was in the moo..."

I am the same way while reading The Reformatory. The narration is outstanding . I am on chapter six and I had to put it down and go back to my comfort read of At Home in Mitford.

[Richard]

Alexandra wrote: "I really liked Neil Gaiman's take on Norse Mythology as well! I listened to an audio book narrated by the author, it was lovely."

I didnt know he has audiobooks he narrated himself! I should check it out for on my way to work, thank you!

[CBRetriever]

I'm reading The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan which is the end of his Power Mage Trilogy
and
The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart which is the end of her Drowning Empire series

very similar as both have unique magic systems, people with extreme powers, and have overthrown their emperors in the first book and struggling with endings/sanity/stability afterwards. Both also have chapters focused on certain characters who are often quite separated from each other. However, the writing is different enough that it's not a problem reading them at the same time.

[Colin]

Hector wrote: "Sheska wrote: "CJ wrote: "I have been wondering why SFF fans don't seen to talk about Cherryh but have noticed a big uptick in interest in her works in the past few months"

This is just a specula..."

It is hard to pick an entry point for CJ Cherryh's books since her work spans half a century and runs the gamut from epic fantasy to hard sf. I will stick to the Company Wars period of her Alliance/Union universe and suggest Downbelow Station and Rimrunners (1981 and 1989 respectively).

One note about Cherryh: her books are really focused on her characters. No matter the setting or genre, her stories are about people, how they manage themselves, their relationships with other people, and how they cope with the strange (and amazing) universe that she constructs. I think this is why she has remained one of my favorites over such a long period. (I have hoped for years that she would write a book with Mazian as the central character - even find a way to present him in a sympathetic light - but I don't think that will ever happen.)

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

[Jabotikaba]

Colin wrote: "Hector wrote: "Sheska wrote: "CJ wrote: "I have been wondering why SFF fans don't seen to talk about Cherryh but have noticed a big uptick in interest in her works in the past few months"

This is..."
I've only read the Chanur series. But I really liked them.

[Michelle]

The Faded Sun Trilogy was excellent.

[CBRetriever]

Jabotikaba wrote: "Colin wrote: "Hector wrote: "Sheska wrote: "CJ wrote: "I have been wondering why SFF fans don't seen to talk about Cherryh but have noticed a big uptick in interest in her works in the past few mon..."

her Fantasy books are good too

Morgaine Cycle
Russian Stories

[Aura]

Just finished The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman and I loved it! It's a great, modern (re)telling of Arthurian legend, would recommend giving it a read.

[CJ]

In the home stretch to 2025! I have nothing to do until after Jan 1 but sit around and read (and maybe play video games), and that's exactly what I've been doing.

I just finished Finder by Suzanne Palmer, a kind of low-stakes space opera adventure about a space repo man with a kind heart and desire the avenge the death of a working class family's matriarch. A fast read with a little cliffhanger at the end, so now I'm onto the second book, Driving the Deep. I hear the series ramps up in the second book, so I hope this will be fun. Palmer really wears her influences--Martha Wells, John Scalzi, popular scifi TV shows like Firefly and Babylon 5--on her sleeve, so her writing has a kind of familiar vibe for me.

I also started a couple of SF classics--a reread of I, Robot by Asimov and a first read of The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. I'm not the biggest Asimov fan, but I'm finding I, Robot much more enjoyable this time around than the first time I read it. The Shockwave Rider kind of took me by surprise--it's a proto-cyberpunk novel (credited for giving us the term "worm" for computer malware) from 1975, but what I wasn't expecting was how experimental the writing is. I do love some experimental fiction, so that was an interesting surprise. I've only read up to the 2nd part and supposedly it gets more normal after this point.

I also recently finished a reread of Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler and it still slams hard. And to end the year on a cheery note, I want to reread another fav of mine, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, which I haven't read in years.

[Jabotikaba]

CBRetriever wrote: "Jabotikaba wrote: "Colin wrote: "Hector wrote: "Sheska wrote: "CJ wrote: "I have been wondering why SFF fans don't seen to talk about Cherryh but have noticed a big uptick in interest in her works ..."

Thank you for the recommendations. I've heard of the Morgaine Cycle and will definitely give it a try.

[Sheska]

Hector wrote: "Expanse was a great read for me, and I like the idea of digging into the influences. Any particular Cherryh book you would recommend as a starter?"

I'm yet to read anything by Cherryh but I recently got her Downbelow Station, so if you read that one I'd love to compare notes.

Hector wrote: "I also really enjoyed Hyperion. It definitely feels like a collection of fantastic short stories woven into each other with some larger piece of intrigue."

Hyperion was my introduction to sci fi. I don't know how I've lived my life without getting into the genre. I hate how much time I've lost :) so trying to make up for it now. I think because of this Hyperion will always be very special to me.

[Economondos]

Just finished Cobra Alliance by Timothy Zahn.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jasmine 'Jin' Moreau goes back to the planet she barely escaped 30 years before in order to deal with an unknown crisis based on an unsigned note. I didn't find the deeper motivations for the characters that are in Zahn's other works. Hopefully later books in this series add that depth.

My review here

Based on a mention by my wife, I started The Voyage of the Space Beagle this morning.

[Sheska]

I finished the following:

• The Star King by Jack Vance. My first Jack Vance book. I know it’s probably not the best start but I really enjoyed his style of writing. As a sucker for any kind of revenge plot, I was perfectly happy with the book, even if it was pretty damn simplistic. I do wish more space had been given to that special planet/star and its ecosystem. It reminded me so much of Scavengers Reign, I was quite disappointed I didn’t get to read more about it.

• Past Master by R.A. Lafferty. I’ve had a really mixed reaction to this book. On the one hand, I really hated the fact that the author appeared to have plagiarised certain plot characteristics of Franz Werfel's Star of the Unborn and then lapped up the praise for his "unique vision" etc.., without any kind of credit to the source material. On the other… he did a really good job of it and I'm annoyed to have enjoyed it more than the original. Weirdly, the things Lafferty cut out made me appreciate Werfel's book so much more I’d actually changed my rating of it from 2 to 3 stars. In fact, I'm now itching to read it again.

[Bobby]

Not sure if I will finish this in 2024, currently reading Neuromancer

Got these two Hugo award winners as presents:

The Forever War
Rendevous With Rama

Also, got this as a present - praised by booktubers:

Gardens of the Moon

I don't think I'll finish any of the presents in 2024 but could do Neuromancer. It's fun but a bit hard to follow. Kind of like Blade Runner/Ready Player One/other more recent sci fi.

[Mary]

The Exorcist

[Alexandra]

I finished Odin's Child yesterday, and it was a relief. The plot was messy, the characters were generic. It's a shame, because the world was cool and interesting.

My review is here ;)

To make my life better, I started reading Bee Sting Cake in parallel. I am now focusing on it - Victoria Goddard's books are rewarding, as usual :)

[Michelle]

Have you ever had a bee sting cake, Alexandra? Some regions just call them bee cakes. They are ridiculously delicious.

[Beth]

Once again, since there's no way that I'll be finishing another book this month, I'll do my monthly recap now. What a dismal couple of months it's been, with a single audiobook and a single, rather short and simple eye read between them. No real excuse except that I couldn't keep my attention on anything for more than about 100 pages (or an hour, with audio) before flitting off to something else.

Thankfully, the earlier ten months of the year went much better--in total, I've read 33 full-length books, as well as a small handful of shorter works, and 183 manga (likely up to 185 come year's end).

I’d Rather Have a Cat than a Harem! Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game as a Cat-loving Villainess Volume 1 by Kosuzu Kobato: I really liked Kobato's standalone book about ayakashi (Japanese spirit creatures), and decided to try another of hers. This one was all right, very cute, but didn't do enough to distinguish itself from the many, many other "reincarnated into an otome game" stories out there. (review)

[Alexandra]

Michelle wrote: "Have you ever had a bee sting cake, Alexandra? Some regions just call them bee cakes. They are ridiculously delicious."

Unfortunately, I haven't! Now I want to very much :)

[Esther]

Michelle wrote: "Have you ever had a bee sting cake, Alexandra? Some regions just call them bee cakes. They are ridiculously delicious."

A couple of years ago they were quite the fashion here but a a bit complicated to make so only high class, and expensive, patisseries made them.
I made my own for my birthday and although it wasn't perfect it was so yummy.

[Michelle]

Esther wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Have you ever had a bee sting cake, Alexandra? Some regions just call them bee cakes. They are ridiculously delicious."

A couple of years ago they were quite the fashion here but ..."

I used to be able to stand in the kitchen and make elaborate desserts like this, but that ship has sailed :)

[Esther]

Michelle wrote: "I used to be able to stand in the kitchen and make elaborate desserts like this, but that ship has sailed :)..."

I love preparig large family meals which often involve long hours standing in the kitchen. A while ago I began noticing how much my legs ached after a cooking session.

Totally unrelated I sufferred some knee issues and tried several 'lazy workouts' (the ones you do in a chair or lying down) to strength my leg muscles and provide support for my knee.

And then the other day after a long cooking session I noticed my legs hardly ached. The excercises seem to be doing their job!

Once upon a time I could bounce around, no stress.
Now I need a training routine just to manage some cooking!!