The Sword and Laser discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - April 2015
I've started On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Le, a near future dystopia set in Baltimore. I'm hoping to see the author speak next week!
I just read Hidden Empire by Kevin J Anderson because of his Hugo nomination (not trying to start anything by mentioning it) and really enjoyed it. The characters are a little thin and the romances are AWFUL but sometimes I want a plot-driven space opera and this hit all the buttons for me. I also read V. E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic and LOVED it. Also dug Harrison Squared. I read some great books while on holiday in sunny San Diego.
Just finished Skin Game and just started The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry.
Mod
I finished The Rebirths of Tao and really enjoyed it. (My Review)
I also listened to The Grace of Kings and it was pretty good. (My Review)
Then I listened to Starship Troopers which was OK, but a bit too slow for my liking. (My Review)
Finally I finished Sourcery, which was OK, but not as good as the last few Discworld books. (My Review). Finally set to start Wyrd Sisters for S&L.
The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated PrimerHalfway though and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Kind of picks up and then slows down all over the place. Ah well, we'll see...
Picks up and then slows down describes my entire experience with Stephenson. That man refuses to be hurried. I still ended up loving Diamond Age in the end, though.
Finished up Guards! Guards! Now on to some Gail Carriger, Etiquette and Espionage. Saw Gail at ConDor a year ago. Gracious lady and also dressed as if she was from the era of her books. Fun to listen to at a panel.
Thane wrote: "The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated PrimerHalfway though and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Kind of picks up and then slows down all over the place. Ah well, we'll see..."
I felt the same way, but I quite liked it in the end.
OK *cracks knuckles*...since I last posted here, I have read: Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
The Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks
Split-Level Dykes to Watch Out For, Post Dykes to Watch Out For, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, and Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
Now I'm reading Cairo by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker.
With A Little Help listening to this - the people he lined up to read are pretty great. I think there's only one I didn't fully enjoy so far.The Beautiful & the Damned I'm enjoying this one more than the first book in the trilogy
I started Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds. This is my first Reynolds book. I really like it so far. It's a nice change of pace for near-future SF. Africa is a superpower and there's no violence. It's refreshing.
Just started Midnight Riot and liking it a lot more than I did Fool Moon! I can see that some of the descriptions and language would not make a lot of sense to non-brits. Gave me a desire to track down some classic 'London' TV and I found some 'Sweeney' and 'Minder' online. Well worth a look if your into that sort of thing.
I just finished Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson. It's a very quick read and if you're a fan of her series, it's a satisfying collection of stories. my review
I finished The Grace of Kings. It was a really enjoyable read, but I had very high expectations for the book, so was a little disappointed in the end (ended up being 4 star instead of 5).I still need to catch up on The Deaths of Tao and The Rebirths of Tao, but I don't want to be behind in Nexus when Apex releases May 5, so I will read Crux next.
Comic-wise, I am still working through The Walking Dead, Compendium 1 and started Attack on Titan, Vol. 1 this morning - picked up the print version when it was on sale last week (thanks Dara!)
A darker shade of magic by V.E. Schwab It's been cool so far. :)
Benjamin wrote: "A darker shade of magic by V.E. Schwab It's been cool so far. :)"
The editor for that one is a friend of mine. I've been hoping to read it soon, trying to finish some other reading tasks first, though.
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I've started On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Le, a near future dystopia set in Baltimore. I'm hoping to see the author speak next week!"Looking forward to what you think of that - it's on my TBR list.
I've recently finished Tower Lord, which I loved, and am in the middle of The Grace of Kings, which I think is a good book but isn't yet doing it for me.
Finished Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight: (previously titled Cugel's Saga) and am finishing my time on the Dying Earth with Rhialto the Marvellous.
A past book of the month author, Mary Doria Russell has done a retelling of the story of Doc Holliday and the Earp Brothers, Doc and Epitaph, And one of my favorite book of 2014 Prince of Fools is only a $1.99 ebook. Book one of a new series with the second coming out later this year. Hopefully Tom & Veronica will get Mark Lawrence on the show to promote his work & world.
Just finished The Book of Strange New Things and found myself really disliking Peter and losing steam on it about halfway through. I really needed some voice counterbalance to Peter, but I felt like those character / situations were too few and far between. I've moved onto The Three-Body Problem and so far so good.
Mod
Looking forward to see what you think.
It looks like I haven't posted an update of what else I was reading since mid-February! Here's a quick run down in alphabetic orderThe Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Maia is awesome)
Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov (robots!)
Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov (foundation!)
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov (foundation?)
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov (foundation...?)
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (how do you make serial killers boring)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (power of positive thinking)
A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias (space lobsters are fucking awesome)
The Broken Road by Teresa Frohock (I hate wasps)
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko (balance to an extreme!)
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami (great mystery that takes time)
Antipodes: Stories by Ignacio Padilla (nice weird fantastic stories)
The Buried Life by Carrie Patel (underground post-apoc mystery)
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (much better than rincewind)
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (pretty amusing)
The Inverted World by Christopher Priest (weird lil fucker)
Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer (fun aliens, with a boring mid-life crisis)
Reincarnations by Harry Turtledove (fun stories)
Between Worlds: The Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories by Martha Wells (more stories, including brand new Nicholas story, from before Death of the Necromancer).
Currently (re)reading Oath of Swords by David Weber. I needed a comfort read, and the Bahzell stories are always fun.
One thing I will say: The later Foundation stories definitely end up a little disappointing. I will probably read the last one, Forward to Foundation, in a couple weeks, but what a weird turn the series has taken. I wonder if this is the sort of thing Asimov always envisioned for it or what. (view spoiler)
It's still april: I just started to listen to "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea".My library got very modern with their new audiobook app! They don't have much compared to audible, but I noticed a lot of classics that I have never read.
Finished The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. It turned out to be more a history of statistics than I was expecting but was still interesting. The main message was that the success or failure of any endeavor (or product or person) has as much or more to do with random chance than skill or ability or quality.Maybe that's something to keep in mind in the debate about the Hugo's.
Starting The Sword of Rhiannon. I'm pretty well versed in older SF but haven't heard of this one. I have read others by Brackett and enjoyed them though.
I'm reading The Buried Giant by Ishiguro. Considering all the controversy surrounding the book (which is overblown and unnecessary), I wanted to try it out. It's slow, contemplative and well-written so far. I'm 1/3 of the way through it. There will be a lot to discuss when I finish.Marion
Just finished The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu. A quick, fun read! Next I'm doing the second in the Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne, The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley. First one was a solid start to an epic fantasy series, some well-known tropes used in an interesting way with pretty good characters. There were some viewpoints stronger than others in book 1, but I'm hopeful and excited to read book two.
Wrapped up Rhialto the Marvellous and am moving on to something brand new: The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu.
Mod
Nexus is one of the most interesting books I've read in awhile. (My Review)
Wyrd Sisters is another good Discworld, though probably not going to be one of my favorites. (My Review)
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal is a pretty good start to a new series. I'll be curious to see how it develops from here. (My Review)
Finished The Farthest Shore. Hardly needs saying that it was great.For the first time in a couple months I don't already have another book ready to go. What to read now? Maybe a KJ Parker, given the recent news about him, but which one?
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. CareyAssassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
Brendan wrote: "What to read now?"Random thought, I'm enjoying some Gail Carriger books, and you're likely to find one in your local library.
Either that, or bone up on SF history with some Olaf Stapledon. Star Maker is a fave, although the style is admittedly dated. It was good enough for Clarke to steal the ending of his Rama series from, why not?
Brendan wrote: "Finished The Farthest Shore. Hardly needs saying that it was great.For the first time in a couple months I don't already have another book ready to go. What to read now? Maybe a KJ P..."
Hmmm ... For Parker, I find myself in the strange position of recommending stuff I haven't read yet -- all I've read is his first three trilogies (Fencer, Scavenger, Engineer), all of which were quite good but were also substantial investments -- you might want to start with one of his standalones (pretty much anything from The Company onwards). If you do want to start with one of the trilogies, I'd suggest Engineer, Fencer or Scavenger in that order.
Gave up Girl With All the Gifts. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't for me.Now moving on to something I know I will enjoy. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. I really enjoyed Half a King, and I have heard from a lot of people that they enjoyed the second one more, so I am really excited.
Finished Etiquette and Espionage and went straight on to Curtsies and Conspiracies. After that will be Sea-Kings of Mars. There's a plethora of quality books to read right now, no difficulty picking a good one out.
Just finished The Rebirths of Tao. Loved it but I'm kind of sad that it's over. Now I'm going to try to squeeze in Intrigues before getting started on next month's pick.
Mod
At least there will be a sequel trilogy.
I finished Wyrd Sisters (enjoyed it, haven't posted my review yet) and have made more progress in Sea of Silver Light. I'm returning to The Goblin Emperor to try to finish it before starting the May pick in earnest. I have actually listened to the first 2 or 3 chapters of the May book. Not really my thing, but it's short and I feel like I "should" finish it.Have a lot of half-finished books I am wanting to finish in May, so am thankful that the May pick is so short. I guess I still also need to read Annihilation, though based on reviews and comments here, I'm not really looking forward to it. Been dragging my heels on getting to it.
Rob wrote: "At least there will be a sequel trilogy."And the wait begins, lol.
AndrewP wrote: "I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife, which I thought was excellent. Now on to Ship of Magic which seems to be getting quite a few mentions here of late."I loved The Time Traveler's Wife as well. It's often referred to as a 'Romance', but for me it doesn't really fit that description, at least in the genre sense. Got it for my wife for Christmas, and ended up reading it myself, after seeing it on multiple 'best of' lists.
Now reading 11/22/63. Was hesitant at first, because I thought it was going to be completely about the Kennedy assasination, but was told this is not the case.
I have finally got round to The Sparrow. My past experience with literary scifi is that despite rave reviews and the fact that it thinks it is so great it is in fact only mediocre and often feels dated.
So far The Sparrow seems to be the exception. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Finished a bunch this month, even more in the light novel area but I'll skip those.The Three-Body Problem:disappointing, but 3/5 it was still good and I liked it overall. I hated every character except for the gruff policeman. It was basically a story about a bunch of high minded intellectuals that in their sheer arrogance believed that because they were more educated then everyone else that their feelings mattered more then anyone else's as well. Any time the hard-science got into a field I knew a good bit about it started making painful mistakes that I felt it could of avoided. It was also entirely too much tell and very little show...and this is coming from someone who enjoys David Weber books. All those complaints being said it was still good 3/5 I do recommend a read I just wanted more.
The Lives of Tao: A very strong 3.5/5, I really don't have any complaints except it just feels like the opening book in a good series. It feels like it suffers from 2nd book in a trilogy syndrome where it's all setup. I expect the next book to be better.
Devil's Cape: Very disappointing 1.5/5, I just didn't care the entire book which is pretty much a death sentence. I can't really rage about it endlessly because I don't feel the book was bad, it was just there and I didn't like it.
The Emperor's Soul: 4.5/5 fantastic best Sanderson short yet.
Legion: 3/5 Entertaining but overall just wasn't enough for me.
Skin Deep: 4/5 Better execution then Legion and had a way more intriguing story.
Terms of Enlistment: 3.5/5 Solid Mil-scifi not too much else to say. It's nice to see a Mil-scifi from someone who isn't just a grunt...but also isn't a Starfleet captain.
Lines of Departure: 4/5 I enjoyed this a good bit more then terms of enlistment the speed at which the plot is moving is very entertaining and the finale was a blast.
Fire with Fire: 4.5/5 Holy crap sound the alarms this book started slow then over time turned into one of my favorite Space Opera books of all time. I don't want to reveal much about it because every time I thought I knew where the plot was going it made another shift truly great. I'm working though the 2nd book now, it's great as well so far.
Currently more than half-way through Pocket Apocalypse the 4th book in the InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire. So far this series is good but it is an urban fantasy so that might change, I hope it won’t but you never know.Also reading Resistance. A star trek novel, so far it isn't rocking my world. It takes place after Nemesis so some characters are missing.
Finished The Sword of Rhiannon. It was a nice, old school adventure. A lot of people have compared it to the Barsoom novels but I think it was better.Starting The Broken Sphere by Nigel Findley.
Long time reader first time post! Just finished Wyrd Sisters great book!! Next up... The Deadlands...
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The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
Station Eleven (other topics)Return of the Crimson Guard (other topics)
Wyrd Sisters (other topics)
The Sword of Rhiannon (other topics)
The Broken Sphere (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ken Liu (other topics)Mary Doria Russell (other topics)
Alastair Reynolds (other topics)
Charlaine Harris (other topics)
Lord Dunsany (other topics)
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I completely agree."
I agree it was a slog, but the ending justified the journey. The thing about that book is that you need all of that stuff in order to understand why the climactic payoff is so good. My review.