The Sword and Laser discussion
What Else Are You Reading?
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What else are you reading - 2024
Working the book of the month. I can take guesses where it's going. Also going to start House of Sky and Breath shortly and found another cozy mystery series that I'm about to binge the 2nd and third on, the Record Shop Mystery series (I finished Vinyl Resting Place this morning). I had picked up what is apparently the 3rd book in the series on a whim at a boozy bookfair (for NoVA local peeps https://www.instagram.com/p/C_ORH6kM6...)).
I have 3 pre-ordered book In September of 2024. First up is a new Bobiverse audiobook, only available via Audible, Not Till We Are Lost. The 2nd book in the Tales nof the Plaines series by David Wragg The Company of the Wolf came out last week which I am excited about. David Wragg's book covers are some of the best in Fantasy. Then Mid-Month The Land of the Living and the Dead: the epic new fantasy novel based on Irish history, myth and legend by Shauna Lawless comes out. Finally for September one of my favorite authors Anthony Ryan has a new series starting off with A Tide of Black Steel,
Read Les Johnson's "Saving Proxima" which was...a book. My only real emotion while reading it was at the "end" which resolved nothing and wasn't even a cliffhanger. It just ended in the middle of the story.As a storyteller Les Johnson makes a good scientist. I'm vaguely aware he's a NASA staffer of some high level. The book contained large amounts of tell-not-show done with bland, trope-filled characters. There are stereotyped plot points so obvious I just skimmed dozens of pages. And as for saving Proxima, they take 80% of the book getting there. It's chock full of instruction manual SF and while I do like hard SF, this one skips the story part. I despair of finding anyone with the breadth of Niven these days, capable of delivering both science and character. Alastair Reynolds comes closest but his works are filled with grotesque violence and shoehorning in continuity from his earliest short stories.
I may buy the sequel when it comes out in November, just to get the end of the story. Or I may still be peeved and not want to pay the $10 for it.
I finished The Light Fantastic and enjoyed it. I'm almost done with this month's selection and when I am I'm going to finally finish the third title collected in The White Wolf, called the White Wolf's Son.
Finished the audiobook of Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky, superbly narrated by the author. He definitely has the chops for a side gig if he wants it. Lots of deadpan British humor. 4 stars, easy.
I’m continuing my voyages with Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin - finished The Mauritius Command and moved straight on to Desolation Island. I’m also reading a sickly-sweet romcom about a pair of “friends” on a food and wine tour called The Pairing, which pairs oddly with the significantly more bitter-tasting BotM.
Finished The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey. Ended up liking it quite a bit. It seemed so different from The Expanse that it took me a while to get into it - but I'm coming away from it admiring the range of the author. They took a whole new idea in a whole new direction.
I started Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg -- first time I've read this one since probably the early 1990s.
Joseph wrote: "I started Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg -- first time I've read this one since probably the early 1990s."This is one perennially on my TBR. I hope one day our kind overlords maybe pick it. 🙃
Just finished The Mercy of Gods. I thought this book depicted a frightening and depressing concept. I didn’t feel a lot of hope for the future by the end of it. I will most likely read the rest of the series due to how much I enjoyed the expanse series but I am hoping the overall feeling of hopelessness doesn’t continue. Without giving a spoiler, one statement near the end by a main character about what they are going to do about everything in this hopeless situation isn’t enough to convince me that anything can really change and make me want to read the rest of the series. For me, I like to see a light at the end of the tunnel and I didn’t get that from this book.
Isn't there something hopeful at the very beginning?
Dana wrote: "Just finished The Mercy of Gods. I thought this book depicted a frightening and depressing concept. I didn’t feel a lot of hope for the future by the end of it. I will most likely read the rest of ..."I also just finished it. However, I don't find it as depressing. (view spoiler)
Some might find a recent interview with Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck (AKA James S.A. Corey) interesting. Among other things they give some insight into the seed ideas from which this new series sprouts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQsE_...
I just finished The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. Absolutely fantastic - fantastical Arthurian age story with characters that feel like real people. I didn't care for the Magicians but I love this book!
Kevin wrote: "I just finished The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. Absolutely fantastic - fantastical Arthurian age story with characters that feel like real people. I didn't care for the Magicians..."Absolutely agree! Loved this book.
Just finished Masquerade in Lodi.I am really enjoying Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona series. I highly recommend the audio versions. Grover Gardner brings the series alive.
Read On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness because the title is good and it's in demand at the library, so I figured it was worth a try. It's a YA book that really is like a middle grade book with some fighting/death. It was fine, but not really memorable.
I finished The White Wolf. This was my favorite of the three collected works of Moorcock.I also listened to Ben Aaronovitch's latest, The Masquerades of Spring. I loved it. 5 stars.
I've started to listen to Equal Rites. Great so far.
I'm reading Long Live Evil. Sigh. I'm so torn. There are times when I'm reading it and I lose track of time I'm so lost in the story and then there are times when I can't seem to read a page without being frustrated. I can't figure out why.
I loved her In Other Lands and was greatly looking forward to Long Live Evil so I'm a bit bummed. I'll finish Long Live and hope the ending is great but since it's the first in a series, I'm expecting a cliffhanger.
Just finished Payback's a Witch, a book about 20-something bisexual witches in a small town in Illinois. I’m not the target audience but it’s a decent standalone story.
Hmm, I’ve already read as many books (6) as I struggled through in August, so that’s good. My library holds on clubs books are still weeks out.
Finished Masquerade in Lodi -- five stars.The Penric and Desdemona series is quite wonderful. I highly recommend the audio versions. Grover Gardner brings the series alive.
Also just finished Theft of Swords, which I quite enjoyed. Now, I will have to find time to read the rest of the series. 😊(Sigh … so many books, so little time.)
Clyde wrote: "Finished Masquerade in Lodi -- five stars.The Penric and Desdemona series is quite wonderful. I highly recommend the audio versions. Grover Gardner brings the series alive."
I've been reading (like holding a paper book kind of reading) them and really like them too. The last two in the series seem to be audio-only, however, which bums me out. I don't really want to get 2 months of Audible to grab novellas and they're available on OverDrive but would cost the library $45 each to buy which seems like too much. I guess I'll just suck it up and pay Bezos.
Seth wrote: "I've been reading (like holding a paper book kind of reading) them and really like them too. The last two in the series seem to be audio-only, however, which bums me out. I don't really want to get 2 months of Audible to grab novellas and they're available on OverDrive but would cost the library $45 each to buy which seems like too much. I guess I'll just suck it up and pay Bezos."Audible had a deal last month that was 99 cents per month for 3 months, so I took it. I’ve seen that deal before, so it will likely come around again. Add a note to your calendar to look for it around Black Friday.
Just finished The Blackbird Oracle by Deborah Harkness. It is the fifth book in the All Souls series. I love this series and this latest book didn’t disappoint. The story takes place several years after the events of book six and center around Diana getting acquainted with her father’s family. I also love the related Discovery of Witches television series that is now on Netflix. If you like fantasy books dealing with vampires, demons, witches etc., I would recommend reading these books.
Just started Liberty's Daughter by Naomi Kritzer (ebook) and Bluebird: A Novel by Genevieve Graham (audio).Both seem very promising.
I finished Long Live Evil. I gave it three stars. The mix of the comedic and serious didn't quite work for me.I also finished Equal Rites. Four stars. Really liked it.
Now I'm reading A Brightness Long Ago. It's one of only a few Guy Gavriel Kay books I haven't read. I was inspired to catch up by the announcement of a new book coming in May, Written in the Dark.
Finished listening to the audiobook of the fifth Aubrey/Maturin book, Desolation Island, and moved straight into the sixth, The Fortune of War. My Patrick O'Brian binge continues…
Ruth wrote: "Finished listening to the audiobook of the fifth Aubrey/Maturin book, Desolation Island, and moved straight into the sixth, The Fortune of War. Oh my. You are so fast! 😊
I will never catch up with you. But, Desolation Island is in fact the next up reread for me.
Finished Service Model. Liked almost all of it, but for some reason was never really compelled to read it.Now on to Mal Goes to War, not because it seems to have similar themes, but just because it's due next at the library.
Also, listening to The Goblin Emperor for about the fifth time because it's nice and I don't have anything else in audio I'm compelled to read.
Reading again the Abhorsen/Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. Love this series!Sabriel / Lirael / Abhorsen
Clyde wrote: "Ruth wrote: "Finished listening to the audiobook of the fifth Aubrey/Maturin book, Desolation Island, and moved straight into the sixth, The Fortune of War. Oh my. You a..."
Don’t worry, I’ll probably take a break from Captain Aubrey’s adventures after this, so you’ll have a chance to catch up.
I’ve started reading an anthology of short fantasy fiction about the sea: From the Depths. I’ll freely admit that the reason I’m reading it is because it includes a story by my writerly alter ego, but I have to say, I started reading this afternoon and I’m already halfway through. Every single story so far has knocked it out of the park (and into the ocean) and I’m really looking forward to reading the rest.
Just finished my annual Heinlein reread. This year it was Job: A Comedy of Justice. It was written in 1984 and has probably been 30-35 years since I last read it. It concerns Alec (sometimes Alex), an ultra-rightwing conservative minister from an ultra-rightwing conservative version of Earth. In the first chapter he starts uncontrollably multiverse hopping while on vacation. He meets and fall in love with a woman in the first "hop" and together they try to make their way to his home in Kansas. Every time things start to look up they hop again and lose everything they're not wearing. As they go he's also trying to save her soul by converting her to his version of Christianity from her Norse god worship.
(view spoiler)
This is my favorite of his last half dozen books and his only "fantasy" novel. There's lots of bashing of conservative Christians which I enjoyed (no offence meant to my fellow readers) but it did drag a bit in the middle.
^ I love that book! Have searched and searched for an ebook version as my eyes no longer do small print. How did you read it?
I've still the got the paperback I bought when it first came out. The pages are starting to get pretty yellow and the last couple pages are a little loose.
Yeah, I've still got my paperback copy too. It taunts me with its tiny text. Same with Wizard of the Pigeons, and I was glad to pay for the ebook release a few years back so I could finally reread it. Then there's my copy of Protector, which still has the mint $2 bill I put in it in 1977...
The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press has started releasing its collections as eBooks, so I read Pirate Adventures and started Spicy Adventures.
Started listening to Third Eye this morning. The humor is giving me Buffy vibes which I dig. Also reading the physical copy of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder after watching the Netflix series. Then I have The October Man loaded on my Kindle app for when I don't have my physical book handy.
I saw A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on Netflix too.
Tamahome wrote: "I saw A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on Netflix too."I really liked the series. There are some differences in the book and even though I know the ending, I still have difficulty putting the book down. XD
Just finished The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis. Politics, religion, spies, alchemical robots; this book has everything. It's actually pretty well written too. The style reminds me a little of Iain Banks.Set on an alternate Earth in 1926 where Huygens, in the 1600's, invented an alchemical process to make "clakkers", essentially robots controlled by magic. The Netherlands have used the secret of their manufacture to dominate the rest of the world and have been in an ongoing war with France and Catholics, who have fled to "Marseille-in-the-West", Quebec.
The story is told through 3 characters' POV; Jax the Clakker, Berenice the French spymaster, and Visser the Protestant priest who is secretly Catholic and spies for the French.
This is book one of a trilogy and doesn't really stand alone.
There is some substantial body-horror which may be a trigger for some.
Overall I thought it was worth 4 stars.
Next for me is The Rose Rent by Ellis Peters.
I finished Somewhere Beyond the Sea. It was pretty good. I'm not sure The House in the Cerulean Sea needed a sequel but I enjoyed it.For Halloween season I'm going to read some Edgar Allan Poe short stories. I haven't really read a lot of Poe. Also I'm going to read The Picture of Dorian Gray.
I mentioned in today's OC group meeting that I wanted to froth about some L. Neil Smith books I read. So in reverse order...Her Majesty's Bucketeers. A truly weird tale of an alt-London. Features tripartite (three way partition) crab creatures with three stalks that break into three arms and those into fingers/paws. The MC is an ersatz Watson to the Holmes character. There's three sexes also, and the "Watson" is a surmale. Which kinda fits Watson well.
There's a murder of the Darwin stand-in which the "Holmes" investigates. He is also pioneering the detective principles that Holmes was known for. Along the way is a cornucopia of budding science done by all levels of society, but mostly the upper class as they have the money.
The "Bucketeers" bring buckets of sand to put out fires. This species loathes water and absorbs what little it needs from the air.
Plenty of social commentary along the way. The characters are so human in feeling that you get jolted back to their differences as Smith refers to their actions, as for instance, "handcuffing" all nine hands above the carapace.
Loads of great Libertarian stuff too. Three fave quotes.
"To us, liberty is the central issue, and, although we tend to see the Lower House (their parliament-JT) as useful obtaining that end, we place little faith in any political process and more upon the people whom we know and trade with, love and live with."
"In the end, only we can win peace and freedom for ourselves."
"Lamviin (their race-JT) are a thinking race, and we should be guided by our thoughts, and by our thoughts about our feelings."
Along the way Smith pursued a Libertarian philosophy throughout the book. Some came off better than others. There is a Madam character who runs what has to be the cleanest brothel in the history of the World's Oldest Profession, likely a model for Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Lady" brothel books. Really not the topic I'd go for but hey, entertaining book anyway. Smith also has the Madam as a recovering street urchin who earned her way to respectability while her fellow urchin, given the "same" opportunities, went bad. Except this reads more like a description of how the physically attractive have an easier time in life and more options at every stage. TBH the "villain" involved seemed to me to be justifiably pissed off at inequal treatment and correct in his motivations if not his actions.
The book had a strange effect on my subconscious. One night I dreamt of the characters being trapped in the London Fire, no matter how much my almost-waking mind insisted that was 200 years too early. (I may have been subconciously incorporating an animal fight in the back yard.) Another night, as I fell asleep from my insomnia read at exactly the 50% mark, my dreaming brain insisted that the tie-in to the rest of the Probability Broach came just pages later (and that I had read them.) Actually, there is only a small tie-in, and at the 98% mark.
Weird throughout, obviously effective, well crafted if strange to read. I liked it but not as much as...
...The Venus Belt, the second Probability Broach book. (These are actually called the "North American Confederacy" books, a description I find inapt but Smith was probably tweaking sensibilities.) It starts on Earth which is where I remember it from ~30 years but actually most of it takes place in the Asteroid belt.MC is Edwin "Win" Bear, a refugee from our Earth (or close to it) choked by bureaucracy and overbearing government. (Perhaps Smith was just a few decades early.) Win was a police detective and is still a detective, just for hire now. Until his cross-universal twin gets kidnapped and off he goes to the rescue. With, in tow, an uplifted Great Ape, the niece of the current President of the Confederacy, representing what little government the NAC has.
It's chock full of Libertarian philosophy, and nary a plot point happens than Smith is off and running with the implications. In fact I was enjoying the romp so much I was a good 3/4 of the way through the book before I realized that very little had actually happened. And what little had gone on plot wise had not been affected by the MC or the side characters. They were more passengers in the train of events.
That continued on with a Bond-style supervillain all the way down to the description of the villain's plan. A major plot point gets resolved by all of the characters having secreted on themselves significant weaponry.
As for the Venus belt itself, that is introduced as an after thought in the last few pages. Smith opines that as thinking species the sapient animals of Earth (including apes and dolphins) will leave their imprint on the Universe, and that to leave it alone would be a disservice to their sapience. Well. That's a point anyway. Not sure I agree but I am fine with Smith making the argument. Who knows, maybe I'll be convinced.
My recollection is that it is downhill from here, though I would swear that the onboard AI that is in love with its pilot in The Nagasaki Vector was the inspiration for Beta Ray Bill's companion in the Surtur Saga in Thor. I'd ask Walt Simonson, but I did ask him about something he had actually described for the opening pages with Surtur, and he responded that it had been a long time and he didn't recall. I'll have to go with my own interpretation then as it works for me.
^ I don't know why this is posting twice. I'd delete but am afraid the "ghost" would also delete the real one. Hope peeps don't mind. Just skip the double.
Mod
You double posted on your post in the book announcement thread as well. I fixed that as well.
about a third of the way through Anthony Ryan's new book A Tide of Black Steel. Set in the same world as his Covenant of Steel series about 20-30 years after the events of this series. It focuses on different cultures and peoples than the previous trilogy, but references to characters in the original trilogy. I am really enjoying it so far.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
Too Like the Lightning (other topics)Heavenly Tyrant (other topics)
Wind and Truth (other topics)
Time of the Cat (other topics)
Midshipman's Hope (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Brandon Sanderson (other topics)Marko Kloos (other topics)
Andrea Stewart (other topics)
Neal Stephenson (other topics)
Patrick O'Brian (other topics)
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So with 4 months remaining in 2024, what are you reading?