What Else Are You Reading in 2025?

[Michelle]

Happy birthday Economondos!

[Beth]

All I can lay claim to for August is a 140-page novella I read with one of my "bad book" podcasts. I'm not finishing anything else this month, and would be surprised if the next couple months are any better.

Night of the Crabs by Guy N. Smith: a very silly book about a Welsh seaside resort attacked by giant crabs, and the marine biologist who discovers how to destroy them, and who also rather abruptly finds love. (review)

[Sherene]

At a minimum in September I plan to read The Eyre Affairfor a book club, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrellto finish the Magical City Prompt in the Scifi- Fantasy combat challenge.

[Economondos]

Thank you for the birthday wishes. It was a good day filled with wonderful food and playing Divinity: Original Sins 2 with my wife.

[Michelle]

Economondos wrote: "Thank you for the birthday wishes. It was a good day filled with wonderful food and playing Divinity: Original Sins 2 with my wife."

Excellent! I love quiet relaxing birthdays most of all.

I'm re-reading Diplomatic Immunity at the moment. I never grow tired of this series.

[Economondos]

The Vorkosigan series is one of the best ever!

[Michelle]

Economondos wrote: "The Vorkosigan series is one of the best ever!"

It really is. I usually reread it every 3-4 years and it is always absorbing. I could probably recite it by heart if I tried 😂

[Colin]

Read The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This author genre hops; this book is a horror story focused on mysterious deaths and disappearances. It is rooted in Mexican lore of witches and witchcraft, although much of the book is set at a private college outside of Boston. The events and characters are connected across three time periods: 1908; 1934; and 1998. (And 1998 seems so far in the past when a character slams down the phone receiver!) The mystery is a bit on the light side, but the main characters are well-drawn, the tale hums with dread, and the prose is, well, bewitching. Definitely recommended if you like horror.

[Randy]

Colin wrote: "Read The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This author genre hops; this book is a horror story focused on mysterious deaths and disappearances. It is rooted in Mexican lore of wi..."

I'm looking forward to that. I enjoyed her Certain Dark Things, Mexican Gothic and Silver Nitrate, too.

[Colin]

Randy wrote: "I'm looking forward to that. I enjoyed her Certain Dark Things, Mexican Gothic and Silver Nitrate, too."

I liked all three of those as well. Hope you enjoy this one!

[Layney]

I just started Neuromancer yesterday, and I have to admit that I'm somewhat disappointed. I've heard such great things about it and I liked the first 50 pages or so but it's starting to lag right at what's supposed to be the rising action of the narrative. I felt like I had a good understanding of the world up to this point, but they're introducing several new concepts all at once and they've lost me. Maybe it's just me but there's nothing really driving me to want to understand lol

[Faith]

My review of The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Peter]

Layney wrote: "I just started Neuromancer yesterday, and I have to admit that I'm somewhat disappointed. I've heard such great things about it and I liked the first 50 pages or so but it's starting to lag right a..."

I don't think you're alone in this sentiment. I think we readers of today have the benefit of time; we've seen so much of this technology played out, while many alternatives imagined in all forms of media. I ultimately appreciated this novel from the lens of history. I can only imagine how excited someone might have felt reading about cyberspace for the first time in the 80s and letting their imagination run with it.

[DivaDiane]

I just finished reading a really great Star Trek novel: Uhura's Song.

It follows our friends from the original series and is a completely new story (not a novelization of an episode). If you like those types of books, this is a very good one. Well written with plenty of interesting things to dig your claws into. If you like cats, you might get a kick out of the sapient species they meet, who are feline. Trigger warning (view spoiler)[for suicide as a brief topic (hide spoiler)]. Other topics include exile, shame, maturity, responsibility, independence, autonomy, collaboration and the inevitable logic vs. emotionality.

[Tracie]

I just started Will of the Many. Excited to read this book.

[Peony]

Finished The Fifth Season, and posted my review.

^The Will of The Many is on my to-read. Tell us how you like it!

[Richard]

I never really understood why Cuban SF biggie Yoss never really caught on in the US. He's angry and bitter, but funny with it. I finally reviewed two (both translated by David Frye) set in the same Xenoid universe: Red Dust , under 200pp so perfect for Shortie September:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
–and–
A Planet for Rent, a bit longer but really worth catching up to:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[DivaDiane]

Richard wrote: "I never really understood why Cuban SF biggie Yoss never really caught on in the US. He's angry and bitter, but funny with it. I finally reviewed two (both translated by David Frye..."

Thanks for the recommendations. Those sound right up my alley.

[Beth]

in re: The Waking of Angantyr

Colin wrote: "Peony wrote: "One, with the cover in Peony's post, is from Titan Books with a release of October 2023, paperback only and 488 pages. Then there is one with a different cover from Book View Cafe with a release of November 2023, paperback, kindle, and audiobook, and a page count of 324. Anyone know, or have any thoughts, about what may be going on here?"

Book View Cafe is a writer's collective that was started by Ursula Le Guin, and a number of other authors. They primarily deal in ebooks. Some are digital versions of older print titles, and some are new, exclusive publications. In this case, while I don't know the details, I assume that Brennan retained the ebook publishing rights and published it through BVC.

[Beth]

DivaDiane wrote: "I’m reading a StarTrek novel, Uhura’s Song. Obvs, it’s a TOS cast and is really fun. There are big sapient cats!"

My partner has a paperback edition of that one, along with a number of other ST and SW novels from the 70s and 80s. :)

[DivaDiane]

Beth, mine was a paperback (horrible drawings of Spock and Uhura on the cover!) from the 80’s! Yellow paper and small print make reading paperbacks difficult these days!

[Beth]

I think the cover design of our copy is slightly different, but this is almost certainly the cover illustration you're talking about. (Including the cat!)

[Ozsaur]

The Scrivener's Apprentice - I'm enjoying it, but the magic isn't very prominent so far.