What are you reading in May 2015?

[Michele]

So, I'm gradually emerging from a non-reading slump by reading some lighter, fluffier fare and some old standbys.

Libriomancer - liked this one ok, wasn't hooked though

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man and Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon - rereading the series since the next book comes out in August I think

The Initiate Brother Duology rereading this on audio, an old favorite

Soulless - a few chapters in, I bounced off it the first time because the MC is a bit annoying in her upper-class Victorian prissiness. But I'm getting used to it now, and the plot is interesting.

Slowly reading The Slow Regard of Silent Things - I like it, I just can't take too much of it at once, kind of like poetry and stream of consciousness.

[[deleted user]]

(I took the liberty of changing the month in the title to May.)


Those looking for new stuff to read will find SF Signal has a cover gallery of SF&F releases in May.

Tor offers:
May releases in Fantasy
May releases in Science Fiction

Kirkus reviews offers: The Must-Read Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Books Arriving in May

IO9 suggests The May Science Fiction And Fantasy Books Everyone Will Be Talking About

[Bobby]

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand

So far it's very dense but intriguing.

[Michele]

Oops! I time-travelled to the wrong month!

[[deleted user]]

I am going to spend the month with those old pulp scans I found/stole off the web....I plan to read the old lettercols and editorls, in particular the ones by Gernsback and Campbell, taking notes all the way....

[Deeptanshu]

I am reading the Lost fleet series by Jack Campbell.
I am also catching up on whats being going on in the Marvel comicverse. I tried out Moon Knight and was surprised at how good a series it was considering he an extremely obscure hero.

[Rose]

After literally years of Amazon recommending John Scalzi to me, I'm reading Old Man's War.

[[deleted user]]

Rose wrote: "After literally years of Amazon recommending John Scalzi to me, I'm reading Old Man's War."

Amazon isn't the only one who'd recommend Scalzi. We had a Discussion of Old Man's War two years back, so please add any comments as you read.

The sequel, The Ghost Brigades, has a TV deal with Syfy, one of three Scalzi novels currently in development.

[Bryan]

I'm reading Station Eleven and I'm loving it so far. A fantastic writer.
Then I hope not to be too late for this month's discussion of The World Jones Made.
Then probably a light read like Seven Wonders before tackling Endymion with maybe a non-fiction tossed in, and that should get me through June.

[Jim]

Rose wrote: "After literally years of Amazon recommending John Scalzi to me, I'm reading Old Man's War."

Excellent writer. He has other books not part of that universe that are good, too.

[Rose]

G33z3r wrote: "Amazon isn't the only one who'd recommend Scalzi. We had a Discussion of Old Man's War two ..."

I'm only a few chapters in and so far I'm really liking it. Maybe I should listen to Amazon more often. They often recommend books to me that end up being our contemporary picks

[Rose]

Bryan wrote: "...Then probably a light read like Seven Wonders before tackling Endymion with maybe a non-fiction tossed in, and that should get me through June. "

I don't know about the others as I haven't read them yet but Endymion was really good. I didn't like it quite as much as the others in the Cantos but I still gave it 4 stars. That series is one of my all time favorites.

[Rose]

Jim wrote: "Excellent writer. He has other books not part of that universe that are good, too."

I really wanted to read Lock In with the group but with the amount of books I read, I can't afford to be spending $10+ on any book unless I know I'm going to love it. I have a 2-3 book a week habit. Scalzi is rarely on sale.

[Michael]

About 20% through Abaddon's Gate with Grave Peril on deck. After that, I have a few non SF/F books on my shelf and a wishlist of stuff still out there to buy. Cibola Burn is probably at the top of stuff on the list, since Nemesis Games will be out next month, and continuing along in The Dresden Files is still a top priority. Beyond that, I'm not sure where I go, all this Scalzi talk has me interested to get into him. Also, I read the first Culture book, so I'll probably pick up The Player of Games and see if I want to keep going with that series.

[Jim]

Rose wrote: "I really wanted to read Lock In with the group but with the amount of books I read, I can't afford ..."

I sympathize. Book budgets are never big enough!

[Andreas]

The Day Before the Revolution - a short story which is a kind of prologue to The Dispossessed which I'm currently re-reading. Here's my review.

[Sarah]

Rose wrote: "After literally years of Amazon recommending John Scalzi to me, I'm reading Old Man's War."

I just started reading it too. Really like it so far.

[Sarah]

Just finished rereading Caves of Steel, which I read a really long time ago. Before that I was reading some old Ray Cummings novels. I do like the classics.

[Rose]

Sarah wrote: "Rose wrote: "After literally years of Amazon recommending John Scalzi to me, I'm reading Old Man's War."

I just started reading it too. Really like it so far."

I thought it was fantastic. I hope you like it as much as I did!!

[Andreas]

Just finished Nicodemus. Nice YA high fantasy, here is my review.

[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.

[[deleted user]]

I took time out from the stories in our monthly anthology read, Edge of Infinity to read the latest installment of Parker's serialized fantasy The Two of Swords #4, which continues to be addictive despite showing no sign of coalescing into a unified plot.

[Rose]

Since I loved Old's Man's War, I decided to move on to The Ghost Brigades and for my girly fantasy side, I'm finishing up the Penryn and the End of Days series with End of Days

[[deleted user]]

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

I had the same impression. I wasn't sorry I read it, but didn't motivate me to read the rest of the series.

[[deleted user]]

Shari Kay wrote: "Finished Fortune's Pawn series... third book was not as good as the first two... but a very fun and entertaining adventure none the less."

Definitely high action series; only a few timeouts for polishing power armor and then off to the next fight. I liked it, didn't love it. I give it credit for actually resolving the plot points and delivering a solid conclusion.

(Also, though it's not really relevant now, I like to then when it was released to the novels were published only a few months apart. Bach isn't one of those, "I'll get back to that story when I get a round tuit," authors.)

[Brendan]

Have gotten lots of reading done so far this month. Read The Algebraist (my review) and it was super, super good. I love Banks's space opera and this is one of his spaciest and opera-ist, except for that culture novel with a literal space opera. Read The Sword of Rhiannon for a group read. It wasn't bad but I was glad it was short. On the subject of short stories I found Sultana's Dream, a very cool Bengali sci-fi story published in 1905.

Finished Who Fears Death (my review), which was fantastic, definitely made me interested in seeking out more of Okorafor's work.

About to begin A Princess of Mars, was convinced by goodreads people to give it a try and I'm not expecting much but who knows maybe it'll surprise me and be decent.

[Michael]

I started in on Grave Peril. I also went and purchased The Man in the High Castle, Old Man's War, Cibola Burn, and Sand Omnibus. I also just ordered Player's Handbook as a bunch of us are going to start a very casual monthly campaign.

[Leo]

Brendan wrote: "About to begin A Princess of Mars, was convinced by goodreads people to give it a try and I'm not expecting much but who knows maybe it'll surprise me and be decent. "

A Princess of Mars is a classic, it influenced HEAPS of 20th century sci-fi writers. I read it to understand the references and enjoyed it. However, I feel that you need to keep in mind when it was written to appreciate the almost-Western tone (and not pay too much to the casual racism, though race is fairly important in the books). It's fun and straightforward pulp fiction - the link between John Carter and Tarzan is beyond evident (Burroughs liked his Superman roles). Very Lone Ranger, in my opinion.

[[deleted user]]

Yay. Just received & started reading....

Rat Queens, 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth

This compilation of 5 issues of the Image Comic was originally scheduled to ship in December, 2014. It then slipped to January, 2015.

Until last week, Amazon continued to list my pre-order with a "guaranteed delivery date" of January 20, 2015. I took that as an sign Amazon was working on hybridizing time travel with their delivery drones for the 2023 introduction of Amazon Previous Day Delivery™.

Then last week, Amazon told me they were pleased to provide me with a new arrival date of May 20, and Friday I got an e-mail that it had just shipped, then 4 hours later it was at my door. (I still do graphic novels in physical compilation bindings. Not a fan of reading comics on the Kindle, even the 8.9" screen.)

I don't follow the comic biz enough to know why all the changes; I thought Image was a pretty stable publisher.

Anyway, after all that, I felt it incumbent on me to start reading right away!

[Hillary]

I'm reading Seanan McGuire's InCryptid books; started last week w/Discount Armageddon. Found this urban fantasy readable but really only OK -- doesn't add too much to the urban genre and while it seems to try to play up the protagonists' ballroom dancing background, it's mostly addressed through expo rather than really bringing the action into the ballroom scene. The third book, which I've just started, shifts to a male herpatologist's POV. Overall, I prefer McGuire's October Daye books.

I thought Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books where a lot of fun back when I read the first 2 or 3 -- I'm a little skeptical of the recently published prequel series, but I enjoyed Soulless + sequels enough that I'm planning a reread now that the story arc is apparently complete.

[[deleted user]]

I have some home improvement projects underway, so I've been listening to the audiobook of Bowl of Heaven, the Benford/Niven collaboration from 2012.

It seems strange that this book (and its continuation, Shipstar) didn't attract a lot of buzz.

Larry Niven was a sci-fi God of the 70's & 80's, with Ringworld and its many Known Space stories, Lucifer's Hammer, The Mote in God's Eye, Dream Park, The Integral Trees, etc.

Benford, a working astrophysicist, was a hard SF maven with In the Ocean of Night & Timescape.

Yet the result of this collaboration is kind of bland, a Big Dumb Object story not dissimilar to books they've each already written on their own.

[Garyjn]

Rose wrote: " Endymion was really good. I didn't like it quite as much as the others in the Cantos but I still gave it 4 stars. That series is one of my all time favorites. "

I'm on a break from the world of Hyperion after reading and enjoying the first 2 books. I'll probably tackle Endymion in a month or two. In the meantime I just started White Devils by Paul McAuley, my first book by him. After 60+ pages I'm optimistic. Reminds me a bit of Crichton.

[K.S.]

The Name of the Wind and Red Seas Under Red Skies. Very good books...hanging out on these forums have really given me some good recommendations and I've been pleased with my fantasy reading this year so far.

[Andreas]

Deathbird Stories, a story collection from Harlan Ellison. I highly recommend it - my review is here.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick. (It was included in the Hugo packet, since it's a nominee in the Graphic Novel category.) You know those stories were someone figures out how to make time stand still? Like Clarke's All the Time in the World, or The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything, or Zelazny's bottled time, or Hiro in TV's Heroes? Or Clockstoppers?

Like that, but with kink added: young girl discovers puberty, and adding to her sexual confusion is the fact that for her, sexual activity freezes time. Years later she hooks up with a young man who has the same bizarre trait, and may take to a life of planks and crime during the time freeze that follows their lovemaking.

I thought the story was more fun when the heroine was still young and baffled.

[Hillary]

Just finished & enjoyed Max Barry's Jennifer Government. In a small-government future run by corporations, a sneaker company employee is offered a coveted job in marketing, only to find out the campaign involves targeted killing of teenage customers. I feel like the extremely-short-chapter style both helped the books readability and perhaps held it back in a way. (It's also too bad that (view spoiler)[a single, sociopathic person emerges as the central villain, which seemed to take the focus off the premise of capitalist corporations as inherently sociopathic and corrupting (hide spoiler)].) Overall, though, a good read. I know I have a couple other recent corporate-takeover-distopia books on my TBR pile; maybe I'll move a few higher up the stack so I can compare.

I'm about halfway through The Silvered, which I'm liking. I tend to be a fan of Huff's, but I've been finding her Enchantment Emporium books very meh.

[[deleted user]]

I have to get on the stick and start re-reading Way Station by Clifford Simak...it's our classic novel discussion for June!!!