What Else Are You Reading - May, 2015

[Joseph]

Finished Ancillary Sword, which I enjoyed just as much as Ancillary Justice. While I wait to see whether the other novel nominees are in the Hugo packet, I decided it was finally time for Martha Wells's Raksura books, beginning with The Cloud Roads.

[Rob, Roberator]

This week's reviews:

Sea-Kings of Mars (My Review)

The Magicians (My Review)

The Magician King (My Review)

[Adam]

Going to shoot for Lover at Last, The Once and Future King, The Mists of Avalon & King Arthur And His Knights

[Lindsay]

Stephen wrote: "Not a stickler for exact science, but "relentlessly wrong " ? Post apocalyptic tales have a long storied history in the genre and Station Eleven has been nominated for both the Nat..."

As I said, it's a great enjoyable novel, and that it's getting nominated for all sorts of literary awards is no surprise.

But it gets a D on the science, so it doesn't surprise me that it hasn't made a bigger splash in the SF realm. There's a higher number of people in our field that are sensitive to failure of suspension of disbelief.

As for relentlessly wrong: (very mild spoilers for Station Eleven follow)
(view spoiler)[- Pandemics don't work like that. The disease here has high lethality, high infectivity and a three day incubation period. That's worse than ebola. Note that the latest epidemic strain of ebola had to evolve to be significantly less dangerous than previous outbreaks to infect so many more people.

- Pandemics don't work like that in populations. Many populations are isolated enough that they won't get outside visitors in the incubation period of this disease and there would be enough information of it happening that they would have sufficient time to exclude visitors.

- Twenty years is a long, long time. Even at a kill rate of 299 in 300 you'd expect enough STEM survivors to be able to get stuff like electricity back online in a matter of weeks if not months. In twenty years, you'd expect manufacturing to be well and truly back as well. It might be a much simpler society, but we wouldn't still be stuck at subsistence farming and hunter/scavenger.

- Epidemics don't wreck infrastructure. Solar panels alone are going to ensure access to electricity at least for decades after things go wrong.

- Don't even get me started about the plumbing ingenuity alone that it would take to keep a airport going as an inhabited building without electricity. (hide spoiler)]

In summary the whole book reads like it was written by someone who doesn't know any scientists, engineers or tradesmen and hasn't bothered to do the basic research required before writing it. Even to the point of reading any other post-apocalypse book.

[Stephen]

If you thinks so, but ebola is not an airborne virus, if it was...

[Marcelo]

I've finished Inherit the Stars and was so enthralled that hit the follow-up, The Gentle Giants of Ganymede and now I'm halfway through the third book in the series, The Giants' Star. It's the best SF I've read in a long, long time.

Thank you John (Taloni) for nudging me into not putting down the first book.

[John (Taloni)]

^Welcome! I am actually not such a big fan of the Gentle Giants of Ganymede, but do dearly love Inherit the Stars. I recall the trilogy being worthwhile although I found the first the best.

I may need to re-read that book soon. Lost my copy ages ago so Hogan can have some more of my money, and welcome to it.

[Alan]

I just read The Slow Regard of Silent Things and I liked the vignette but (view spoiler)[I thought it was too Kvothe-centric even though he doesn't appear in the story. It made me sad that he figured so prominently in Auri's thoughts between meetings. (hide spoiler)]

I'm now reading The Magician King and, through book 1, Quentin still bugs me.

[mewt]

Just finished Kushiel's Avatar and Light My Fire

and starting Poison Fruit and Dragonfly in Amber

[Dara]

Started Outlander over the weekend and I'm really enjoying it.

[Aaron]

Stephen wrote: "If you thinks so, but ebola is not an airborne virus, if it was..."

You can't really be airborne infectious until you start having symptoms.

[AndrewP]

Zipped through Citadel in a few days and am now attempting to get through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell before the TV Mini Series starts next month.

[Marion]

I just finished reading The Buried Giant and posted a review.

http://marion-hill.com/book-review-64...

Marion

[Brendan]

Marion wrote: "I just finished reading The Buried Giant and posted a review.

http://marion-hill.com/book-review-64...

Marion"

Interesting, sounds like you came to the same conclusion Ursula Le Guin did.

[Marion]

Brendan wrote: "Marion wrote: "I just finished reading The Buried Giant and posted a review.

http://marion-hill.com/book-review-64...

Marion"

Brendan,

Yeah it took me a long to read the novel. I felt like that Ishiguro was trying to decide how much of the fantastic he wanted in the novel. Or it could have been his editor. It seemed to me there were 2 separate stories in The Buried Giant that did not quite come together. I applaud him for taking the risk though.


Marion

Interesting, sounds..."

[Robobobo]

Just finished The Liminal People by Ayize Jama-Everett. I'm not usually into superheroes, but this story gripped me. Definitely looking forward to the next books in the series.

[Molly]

I finished up the Liveship Traders trilogy in April, and now I'm re-reading the Farseer trilogy. It's been a very Hobb-full few weeks. Planning on doing Tawny Man next!

[Madelyn]

I just finished Lumberjanes, Vol. 1

[Madelyn]

I just finished Lumberjanes, Vol. 1

[Viola]

The Man in the High Castle and The Fall.

[David Sven]

Finished Pines. Can't wait for the tv series now. Review

Started reading Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer

Also listening to the Audible version of The Vagrant - which I'm really enjoying so far.

[Michele]

I finished Soulless, it was fun enough, but didn't really wow me.

I had to return The Slow Regard of Silent Things before I finished it. I liked it, but it didn't really grab me - eventually I'll buy it and take my time with it, but lacking a plot - I didn't feel compelled to keep reading.

I read It Takes a Witch which was a silly little UF with a bit of romance and mystery. Fun fluff, I think I liked it more than Soulless.

Then I read/listened to The Disappeared which I really liked and I'm already into the 2nd book Extremes.

And I'm reading Queens Walk in the Dusk and I'm really liking it. I don't remember how I found it, but I'm glad I did.

[Rob]

I just finished listening to Dark Places which was fantastic and finally caught up a little by reading theThe Goblin Emperor. I liked that quite a bit as well. Ia lso read and finished Saga, Volume 4 and The Walking Dead, Vol. 22: A New Beginning. I am reading and listening to The Hero of Ages depending upon where I am right now.

[Misti]

Just finished Intrigues, which I put on temporary hold to read this month's pick. Going to read The Final Empire next.

[Walter]

Reading The Pilo Family Circus for another book club.

[David H.]

Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I felt like this ended up being a weird cross between The Hunger Games and Camp Half-Blood. I felt like the narrator voice was kinda of weird or stilted in some ways (I think because I had a hard time believing that a slave would have the vocabulary that Darrow had).

Shades of Milk and Honey and Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal. These were both pretty fun. It's nice to read a small-scale story where we're just concerned about finding love or figuring out magic, as opposed to saving the world/universe from destruction. :)

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells. A reread for a book club, I still love the characters in this book.

[Keidy]

@David H.: Thanks for listing that one book from Martha Wells. Because of that I've not only looked into the book you listed but all of her other books as well. There are a number of her earlier works on deep discount sale on Amazon by the way. Anyways I've never heard of her but I feel like I should. She seems like she writes the kinds of stories I like to read. Thanks for the heads up! ^_^

[Louie]

I finished The Children of Men today. I've been meaning to read it ever since the author's passing back in November 2014. I had some difficulty staying interested in the plot/characters in the first half, but then with the last 100 pages or so the forward momentum finally kicked in and held my interest right up to the end. I am curious to re-watch the film adaption now, since I have not seen it in nine years, when it was originally released.

[Brendan]

Picked up The Magicians for $2.99, so I won't be too upset if I don't like Hipster Harry Potter.

[Fredrik]

I'm reading The Improbable Rise of Singularity Girl. I was for lemworthy amount of time put off by the agressively whimsical and pop-culture peppered style, but it has a core of solid science-fiction, and when it got serious... well, it has its hooks in me now!

[Joseph]

Finished The Cloud Roads so now it's on to The Serpent Sea, also by Martha Wells.

[David H.]

Joseph wrote: "Finished The Cloud Roads so now it's on to The Serpent Sea, also by Martha Wells."

Glad you're enjoying the series so far! Martha is great.

[Whitney]

I've been in final term paper hell so now I'm reading The False Prince

[Joseph]

David H. wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Finished The Cloud Roads so now it's on to The Serpent Sea, also by Martha Wells."

Glad you're enjoying the series so far! Martha is gr..."

She is! At some point I need to go back and read the last couple of Ile-Rien books. (Which probably means rereading the first several Ile-Rien books.)

[David H.]

On the off chance that you aren't aware of it, Joseph, as part of a Kickstarter, Martha Wells put out an ebook collection of all of her Ile-Rien/Cineth stories (most of which were already on her site, but there's a brand-new Nicholas story that's set before Death of the Necromancer). The collection is called Between Worlds: The Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories.

[Joseph]

David H. wrote: "On the off chance that you aren't aware of it, Joseph, as part of a Kickstarter, Martha Wells put out an ebook collection of all of her Ile-Rien/Cineth stories (most of which were already on her si..."

Thanks! Yeah, I backed the Kickstarter for that one -- lots of great stuff! But the more people who hear about it, the better.

[Sean]

Since the second collection of Witcher short stories is coming out next week, I decided to reread The Last Wish, which I haven't read since buying it way back in 2007(?). Generally good, and I didn't notice how the framing story connects to the other stories. However, I was a little bothered by the fact that (according to the framing story) the first story (The Witcher) is the most recent, which kind of clashes with the other stories that supposedly happened earlier.

Anyway, now I'm reading K.J. Parker's serial novel The Two of Swords: Part One. The main part is a bit iffy, but the prologue is good. Hopefully the story gets better in the next part, probably by switching POVs (and hey, at least it's short).

[Walter]

Knocked out the BotM. Now reading The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London.

[Rob, Roberator]

Been a bit of a light week with a lot of other things taking up my reading time, especially this weekend. Hopefully I'll finish up Apex in the next few days.

Blew through The Magician's Land in audio though. Really enjoyed it. (My Review).

[Phil]

Just finished The Broken Sphere by Nigel Findley.
This is book 5 of the 6 book Cloakmaster cycle set in the D&D Spelljammer universe. I thought it was really well written although it doesn't seem that the plot advances very much. Findley was one of the best RPG based writers there was but unfortunately died in 1995 at the age of 35.
Starting Reamde by Neal Stephenson.

[Aaron]

Musouku Tensei ended this week, over 2 million words long. Easily one of the best Web Novels written, I'm looking forward to the published novel version now that it got picked up, it was surprisingly good for no editor...but it could still use some work.

Finally got around to reading The Alloy of Law it was fantastic 2nd favorite Mistborn book after the first one. I can't wait for the next 3 with Wax and Wayne.

Read Angles of Attack, I think I'm getting a bit tired of this series it felt just as good as the last ones I just didn't enjoy it as much 3/5.

I'm starting up the The Lies of Locke Lamora again I lemmed it last time around page 100 something, I'll power past it this time.

[Kevin]

I just got back from two months in Vietnam/Cambodia/China so this list includes everything I read on the trip:

Half the World - Awesome
Half a King - Awesome
The Buried Giant - Can't decide if I liked it or not
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Awesome if you like Murakami
The Mechanical - Awesome! Alt history, steampunky goodness with sentient slave robots. Should be a book club pick.
All the Light We Cannot See - One of the best books I have ever read.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage The most recent Murakami and terrific as usual
Ha'penny Alt History from Jo Walton (who I love), half way through but not really grabbing me.

Next two books on the list:
Broken Monsters - I LOVE Lauren Beukes so really looking forward to this. How have we not read anything from her in the club? Huge oversight.
The Book of Strange New Things Sounds similar to The Sparrow , was on many literary "Best Of" lists from last year.

[Tamahome]

Checking out Neal Stephenson's Seveneves (did I write that backwards? ha ha) Great first line: "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."

First chapter at io9: http://gizmodo.com/read-the-first-cha...

[Trike]

Kevin wrote: "The Mechanical - Awesome! Alt history, steampunky goodness with sentient slave robots. Should be a book club pick."

My complaint with Tregillis' WWII superhero book was that the writing was lovely but not much happened. Does more stuff happen in this one? I looked at it at the library yesterday but put it back.

[Dharmakirti]

I started The Familiar Volume 1 by Mark Z. Danielewski and I'm loving it.

[Dara]

Finished Outlander yesterday. I really enjoyed it. My review.

Now reading Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster.

[Joel]

Finally giving Wool by Hugh Howey a try. I am enjoying very much so far.

[Ethan]

Finished Cibola Burn just in time for Nemesis Games! I love this series, fantastic characters and interesting, though not revolutionary, sci-fi ideas.

Just started God's War by Kameron Hurley - I loved Mirror Empire and some short fiction I've read of hers, so this should be awesome - the first two chapters are great. Distant-future on some sort of quarantined colony world with racial and gender tensions, assassins, and cool bug magic/tech. Looking forward to how this trilogy plays out! The writing is top-notch.

[Kevin]

Trike wrote: "Kevin wrote: "The Mechanical - Awesome! Alt history, steampunky goodness with sentient slave robots. Should be a book club pick."

My complaint with Tregillis' WWII superhero book was that the writ..."

The pacing in The Mechanical is definitely faster than in The Milkweed Trilogy. Try it, I think you'll like it.

[Brendan]

Finished The Magicians. Quite engrossing, I stayed up some of the night to finish it. Really shocked at all the low review scores for what I thought was a very popular novel? Maybe the problem was that adult fans of Harry Potter were told to read it and didn't like it? Well, I thought Harry Potter was a bit crap and I enjoyed this book quite a bit. So maybe the opposite is true; you will probably enjoy The Magicians if you DIDN'T like Harry Potter.