The Sword and Laser discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What else are you reading - August 2024
Currently:A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. Quite humorous so far.
Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine
Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey
Trike wrote: "Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey"I'm excited to read this one... I've been waiting for the sequel (and series finale) to come out before diving in. Thanks for the reminder that it now has been published!
Finished my first Dean Koontz, Intensity. A straight thriller a la Silence of the Lambs. Looks like it was adapted on tv years ago.
Finishing up The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei in print, which I have mixed feelings about, and I've just started Black Water Sister by Zen Cho on audio, which I'm really enjoying so far.I plan on starting The Saint of Bright Doors by Vadra Chandrasekera, which I'm hoping lives up to the hype. I heard an interview with the author, and it really peaked my interest in the book.
Also, I'm going through stories in the collections Forward: Stories of Tomorrow and Communications Breakdown as pallet cleansers in between books/audiobooks. Lots of gems in these collections, especially Jemisen's story in Forward, Emergency Skin.
My friend turned me on to Blake Crouch, and I'm nearing the end of Recursion- it is EXCELLENT! His Dark Matter (now an Apple TV series I haven't watched) was a great book, too. Both of them dealt with multiverse stuff, and the crazy consequences of it. Also, his descriptions are quite nice - dude can write!
I read The Ministry of Time in a day or so because I'm home from work while ill. I really liked it. Has a classic sci-fi set-up - the government is experimenting with time-travel and needs people to babysit expats from the past while they adjust to life in near-future Britain. But then the government functionary gets enamored with her expat (rescued from the Franklin expedition) and there's weird timey stuff going on in the background and the author has kind of a literary bent and puts little humorous gems in her sentences. Good fun.
Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade. Continues on with mostly competent LitRPG adventure. A bit overcomplicated and too many characters for me to keep straight, but Dinniman drops enough character callbacks for me to eventually remember who they are. Probably hurt by my reading this on insomnia time.I say "mostly competent" because there is an oh-my-god hilarious bit involving several of the characters in a talent show. The cat character Donut features in a fantastically funny bit. It took a while to set up but the payoff is *chef's kiss*.
Geoff wrote: "Trike wrote: "Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey"
I'm excited to read this one... I've been waiting for the sequel (and series finale) to come out before diving in. Thanks for the reminde..."
This is next. EDIT: The second book, that is.
After a puzzlingly long stint at position 8 on 9 copies, it came in. Just in time for me to rotate before Dungeon Crawler Carl book 6. Which is all the Carl books available to date, but not the end of the series. Sigh. I'll be waiting this out for years just like the Sarah J. Maas books. Oh well, it was literally decades for Pern.
Well next week one of my most anticipated pre-order of the year will come in, James S.A. Corey's The Mercy of Gods . Hope to get the BOM from the library but the book may come in too late. Wiil start the first of Dungeon Crawler Carl. The price is right for the series, which I like.
^ We're on Amazon Prime which comes with Kindle Unlimited, so I've been giving him page reads. The last book was 700 pages so I think he's doing better with that.
Jumping on the Maas train with A Court of Thorns and Roses. Although, if there are any heaving bosoms, I may have to jump back off.
I started Koontz's Watchers. I couldn't resist the sentient dog. The other loner characters are interesting too. There's also a big creepy psycho guy like in Intensity.
I'm currently reading Lost in Time, which is a popcorny time-travel story. I'm going with it for the time being, but at the 50% mark it is stretching credulity, even by the standards of the genre. The Triassic scenes have a distinct whiff of The Land That Time Forgot/Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. It also appears there is a very predictable Major Plot Twist looming. Anyhow, as I say, it is sufficiently popcorny for me to keep going, but at this stage this isn't a Work For The Ages. Hopefully the author will pull off something spectacular in the closing stages to really pull this all together...
I’m nearly done with House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky and then I’ll be able to start listening to the audiobook of our August BotM.I’m also reading the fourth book in the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command. I last read it on honeymoon twelve years ago - in Mauritius. I’m sure it will be just as good reading it in the tropical climate of Liverpool and Glasgow.
And I’ve just started reading the anthology from my other favourite podcast, Worldbuilding for Masochists, Traveling Light: Tales of the Magical Gates. The stories are all set in a world where locations are linked by the “magical nude gates” (ie portals that allow instantaneous travel - with the catch that you can’t take anything with you, not even your clothes).
Ruth wrote: "the “magical nude gates” (ie portals that allow instantaneous travel - with the catch that you can’t take anything with you, not even your clothes)."Sounds like The Terminator.
Silberman: “Why didn’t you bring weapons? Something more advanced? Don’t you have, uh, ray guns?”
Reese: “You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.”
Silberman: “Why?”
Reese: “I didn’t build the f****ing thing!”
https://youtu.be/yyel3Jxb_fU?si=mLSmF...
Trike wrote: "Sounds like The Terminator.Silberman: “Why didn’t you bring weapons? Something more advanced? Don’t you have, uh, ray guns?”
Reese: “You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.”
Silberman: “Why?”
Reese: “I didn’t build the f****ing thing!”"
As I recall, there was a Terminator comic book in the early 90s where they sent back a Terminator with a civilian, and the civilian had a ray gun surgically implanted in his torso, which the Terminator removed by grabbing and yanking.
Came down with a bad summer virus, so I have been binging a series of cozy murder mysteries featuring Beryl and Edwina in early post WWI English countryside. Lots of fun, very light, almost all available for free if you have Audible Premium. I think the last book is not, but the first five are! Fast moving, Short - less than 10 hrs each. And no trigger warnings. Not Sci-Fi or Fantasy, but fun reading anyway!
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I'll be taking a break from the series though to listen to The Mercy of Gods
I just finished The Alienist by the late Caleb Carr. Really loved this book. Hope to read Angel of Darkness soon but I had to start The Mercy of Gods. Great so far.
The Expert System's Brother Pretty easy going so far, had to reread a bunch of descriptions of the animals.
I blew through The Apprentice (Rizzoli & Isles #2) really quick. It's an equivalent of 210 pages, being a 7 hour read. Maura Isles isn't in it that much. I probably shouldn't have skipped the first book, The Surgeon. The tv show is pretty silly by comparison.
I considered creating a Spear Cuts Through Water side-thread for this but thought I would drop it in here. I read the BotM 6 months ago so I’m not doing a re-read. I picked up ”The Vanished Birds” from the same author instead. I had no idea what it was about but I really like the BotM so was looking forward to it.Wow. It’s great. It does not have the complex narrative structure of ASCTW but is very well written on its own. And it is a SF novel, not fantasy. It has FTL playing a significant background role but the FTL is still relativistic so the novel skips around at the beginning through a few foundational stories and characters - because time dilation - before it finally settles in with the main character. I think - i’m still reading so it might change again but I feel like we’re with who we need to be now.
It was nominated for a few awards including Locus and AC Clarke and I can see why. It is not hard SF though - as you might expect from this author. It reminds me of 1960s/70s SF with its focus on man’s place in the universe.
I started Alaskan thriller Arliss Cutter #6 Bad River because Grumpy's Rules (I wish they were compiled somewhere). The end of the book usually has recipes.
Just finished Matter by Iain M. Banks. I don't have enough praise to sing about Banks. Each of his books is stuffed with more Big Dumb Objects than Larry Niven could use in a lifetime.
This one started like it was going to be an epic fantasy and quickly expanded beyond that and ends with a literal Deus Ex Machina. The story doesn't end the way I anticipated but the epilogue was a nice touch.
Needless to say 5 stars.
Next is The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal.
I picked up Samantha Mills's The wings upon her back recently at the Toronto Sci-Fi & Fantasy book store, and am really enjoying so far. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
I'm invoking the "Tanmaster Hamilton" principle here. Anything after Ringworld is inspired by Niven's juggernaut.
Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride. This one was pretty great. They've been creeping up in quality from decent insomia easy reads to intricate quality LitRPG. Always big on the gaming, D&D and pop culture references, but now heavier and heavier into the internal politics of the series. Carl has more and more agency over time.Some hilarious bits here. Samantha the indestructible head-of-a-sex doll former god drops killer line after killer line. But none beat the (not really a spoiler, but for good form) (view spoiler)
Big huge ending scene well set up throughout the book and really the series itself. Some peeps are definitely not what they have seemed to be. Nice twists. Sets up the next book but is not a cliffhanger; this book resolves the action of this particular story.
And now that I've caught up it will be a book a year. Sigh. Next one is due out late this year and then I suppose I'll go back to waiting. Like I do for further St. Mary's books, or Fred the Vampire Accountant. Those two at least had a decent resolution before continuing. I really hope Dinniman can land the ending when it does come. Not sure how many more books that will be.
Before that, the second and final book in the Pandominion duology, Echo of Worlds. Good book, decent characters and an okay-not-great ending. All in all a decent insomnia read.What was weird about this book was how it was so obviously based on previous works, stuff I've read and enjoyed. Some a bit obscure. It's as if Carey ran a trawl of my brain and used it as a framework for the novel.
First up is the obvious riff on Laumer's "Worlds of the Imperium" trilogy which I have frothed about here before. We have the myriad of crosstime worlds and a Scour standing in for the Blight of "Imperium." Eventually "Worlds" solves the problem in a way reminiscent of Laumer's solution, (view spoiler)
There's small references as well. "Worlds" has an entity try to use large scale architecture to overawe the MC, and failing. Just as the Robot Regent of the Arkonide Empire in the Perry Rhodan series tried to intimidate Rhodan with a similar ruse. Probably obscure to most here, but it stuck out to me. Or maybe both are referring to a common older reference, but I first saw it in the Rhodan series.
The characters work and that's the best part of the series. Yes, I feel the framework is derivative, puzzlingly so as Carey did great work on Lucifer, playing in Gaiman's world and coming up with new ideas.
All in all not bad, I could wish for better. There is a sense of events coming to a conclusion abruptly, and from the afterword it seems Carey was just out of ideas. Had he developed it more I would have gladly read a third book.
John (Taloni) wrote: "Before that, the second and final book in the Pandominion duology, Echo of Worlds. Good book, decent characters and an okay-not-great ending. All in all a decent insomnia read."
I’ve stalled on the first book, a combination of vision issues and not finding the story compelling.
It continues on like that and is essentially one long book. If it hasn't grabbed you by now it likely won't.I'm tempted to say "go read Worlds of the Imperium instead" but freely admit that my love of that series is clouded by the nostalgia of remembering the first read. It is dated, but for me not in that bad way. (Currently reading Adam Link, Robot which IS dated in that bad way.) Anyhoo, for me even a mediocre book is okay if itis a good insomnia read. I regularly use reading glasses. Not sure if anything will help you at this point. Just mebbe some more rest and recuperation.
John (Taloni) wrote: "It continues on like that and is essentially one long book. If it hasn't grabbed you by now it likely won't.I'm tempted to say "go read Worlds of the Imperium instead" but freely admit that my lo..."
I recall enjoying the Bolo books back in the 70s/80s. What do you think of this collection? https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Works...
^ Interesting thing is that despite being a huge Imperium fan I did not otherwise branch out into other Laumer books. Just weren't around when I was young I suppose and if I were to head back into it, this would be a good collection. I am not particularly into MilSF, which I think most of these are (another reason I never made the jump) but AM a fan of bombastic space opera and the distinction is not always clear.My next thought is that the collection is way too cheap to be legit. A quick squint at Laumer's bio shows he died 30 years ago so much too soon to be out of copyright. Unless he didn't defend copyright, I dunno and didn't check. His estate does not seem to be up in arms. So if you like the idea, buy this, and if you wanna later give something back to the estate there's gotta be ways. It would probably be a fun nostalgia run if you liked his earlier work, and I do love Imperium. But for any / all of it, have your "of its day" glasses on.
^ Interesting thing is that despite being a huge Imperium fan I did not otherwise branch out into other Laumer books. Just weren't around when I was young I suppose and if I were to head back into it, this would be a good collection. I am not particularly into MilSF, which I think most of these are (another reason I never made the jump) but AM a fan of bombastic space opera and the distinction is not always clear.My next thought is that the collection is way too cheap to be legit. A quick squint at Laumer's bio shows he died 30 years ago so much too soon to be out of copyright. Unless he didn't defend copyright, I dunno and didn't check. His estate does not seem to be up in arms. So if you like the idea, buy this, and if you wanna later give something back to the estate there's gotta be ways. It would probably be a fun nostalgia run if you liked his earlier work, and I do love Imperium. But for any / all of it, have your "of its day" glasses on.
John (Taloni) wrote: "^ Interesting thing is that despite being a huge Imperium fan I did not otherwise branch out into other Laumer books. Just weren't around when I was young I suppose and if I were to head back into ..."Not into MilSF, didn't you Just read the whole Lost Fleet series last year? I think that is about as MilSF as it gets. Well, maybe tied with the Honor Harrington series.
Haa, guilty! I've never been able to get into Honor Harrington and have read only scattered John Ringo stuff, despite mutuals telling me I should like them. Mebbe Lost Fleet was just...better. Or was bombastic-y space opera-y enough for me.
I do feel that both series, while having military style battles in them, feel more like adventure stories to me. But I just felt I had to give you a bit of crap on that line.
Finally getting around to Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan. (ebook)My current library book is True Grit by Charles Portis. (paper)
And my current nonfiction book is Task Force Hogan: The World War II Tank Battalion That Spearheaded the Liberation of Europe by William R. Hogan. (audio)
I just finished The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. I had previously read some of the author's Master of Djinn stories. It was a mostly light-hearted romp, similar to those, but a different setting. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and like many novellas it did not overstay it's welcome.Next up: continuing T Kingfisher's Saint of Steel series with Paladin's Faith.
Finishing up The Daughters' War. Same feel, maybe just a bit darker, as Blacktongue Thief which this is a prequel to.
Tamahome wrote: "Author Donna Tartt did the audiobook."She also did the "Afterword" to the edition I read. (She really likes Charles Portis's work.)
Aside -- I have been eyeballing her The Goldfinch but haven't yet convinced myself to commit to it.
Read "Adam Link, Robot" which was...really dated. Not sure why Isaac Asimov promoted it. Definitely of its time and not in any kind of enlightening way. Just scifi by the yard. Robot, inventor dies, he gets accused of murder, makes way through society, builds partner, has adventures. Prose that would barely be fanfic today. Welp, I've read it. It's a fixup novel of stories written in 1939-1942. Historical in that sense I suppose.And then...the latest Time Police book is in! Thank you St. Mary's spinoff. Moved Killing Time right to the top of the queue.
Just started Beware of Chicken. It is funny and a lot different from the normal stuff I read. Not sure yet how I feel about it, but continuing through.
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The Sword and Laser
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I'm continuing on my Rise and Fall read with Farilane