Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Back to fiction with Swordheart by T. Kingfisher.

Which was a delightful romantic fantasy. With attention paid to both parts.

Next up: The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper. I bought this one way back in 2008!

[acprinter]

It has been a few weeks since I finished The Black Wolf by Louise Penny.

I gave it 4 stars but I was left somewhat disappointed by this book. I have read all her books in order as they came out. I don't feel that it is absolutely necessary to read them in order, but if you did not read The Gray Wolf first, you would be lost.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by issybird

For my next novel, I've started Nonesuch by Francis Spufford. Dark magic can be problematic for me, but his Cahokia Jazz was one of my favorite books of last year so I'm chancing it.

Still not a fan of dark magic. This was... ok. I've now read four novels by Spufford, a British author; two of them were set in America and were terrific; two were set during the Blitz and were kinda crappy. I wish he'd stick to this side of the pond.

[issybird]

I've started May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry.

I read an intriguing review at the NY Times and stopped reading when I thought I'd like it, as you do. I'm about halfway through and I'm liking it well enough, but there needs to be a payoff. With my last novel (see above) the payoff was somewhat of a damp squib; I want better.

[Tarana]

Finished book 1 of Sandhamm Murders by Viveca Sten. That was Still Waters and still excellent. Currently on book 2 entitled Closed Circles.

[DiapDealer]

Still enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, but man... are they getting long! The audio book of The Butcher's Masquerade is over 24 hours long (and the next one is over 28)! They're still providing many laugh-out-loud moments for me, so thank goodness for the ability to speed up the narration without making everyone sound like munchkins!

[acprinter]

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict. A good book I enjoyed reading this.

[Fbone]

Finished The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly.

An interesting time travel/alternate world fantasy. Well written with good pacing. The computer programming references are quite dated. Nostalgic. Descriptive sensible character development. I enjoyed this overall, but it ends on a cliffhanger. It loses one star for that. Rated C [3 stars].

[nana77]

Originally Posted by nana77

Btw, on the intro of "The Long Tomorrow" by Brackett (that I'm still reading ) it's mentioned how's difficult and challenging even to remain on the same genre (SF in this case) but write something within serious intents (contrarily to some hers others novels that are more clean space operas).
It's quite different this one, several reviews mention it as her masterpiece; to be honest at the moment I'd liked the more coloured other hers stories.

Finished and, yes tought is another very nice one from her, although very different.
Followed by hers "The Sword of Rhiannon" (fantastic), "The Secret of Sinharat" and "People of the Talisman".
I'd liked her so much, and I will follow with other novels from her.

"1Q84: Book 3" by Murakami seem mandatory after the first two ones, which end on a so cinematic moment that it's better to have the third part already.
Liked it much, too.

Now on "Downbelow Station" by C.J. Cherryh.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper. I bought this one way back in 2008!

Which was a very good self-contained SF novel. Spoiled a bit by a massive literal info-dump of places, names and relationships right at the start, which I very sensibly ignored and didn't miss. It should all have been relegated to an appendix, as the story is well-written enough to not need it.

Next up was Merlin's Mirror by Andre Norton. Her usual kind of SF with powers and telepathy, but set in dark ages England, retelling Merlin and Arthur.

Fun.

And now I'm on to: The House of Saints by Derek Künsken. I'm looking forward to this one, as it's a follow up to The House of Styx. Hardcore SF, with enough extra about it to be excellent.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Currently:

• Kobo - The Books of Earthsea, complete illustrated edition, by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Paper - A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
• Audio - Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking

Since this post I have completed Dorothy Tse's City Like Water, an excellent novella about the politics of Honk Kong wrapped up in a very trippy narrative. I also had a long road trip on Monday and my wife and I listened to the whole of Jane Austen's Lady Susan (a first for my wife). I also finished Hawking's memoir-essay piece.

Currently:

• Kobo - The Books of Earthsea, complete illustrated edition, by Ursula K. Le Guin - in the last book now!
• Paper - A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
• Paper - Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo translated by Charlotte Whittle
• Audio - The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths - an in-between listen while I wait for a hold to come in.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm on to: The House of Saints by Derek Künsken. I'm looking forward to this one, as it's a follow up to The House of Styx. Hardcore SF, with enough extra about it to be excellent.

And it was very good. It kept me up to 1:30am to finish it!

Next up: Femina by Janina Ramirez. This month's pick from my in-person book club group, which meets next Tuesday. A history of the middle ages from the women in it, rather than just the men.

[taosaur]

Hello, just a stranger wandering in off the street...

I've been on a long Adrian Tchaikovsky run. The City of Last Chances fully got its hooks into me: satirical dark comedy with a humanist warmth at its core (or occasionally deitist, demonist, or revenantist, as the case may be). The audiobook narration is brilliant, particularly for the "odd couple" featuring prominently in the first two books. The series is set up as standalones, each book introducing a different magical city under siege, while the large-scale politics of the conquering empire advance off-stage and in the background. Through-characters are re-introduced, often living a new life under new names or titles as they struggle to stay on the margins of an expanding world war. I was already quite fond of Tchaikovsky's work, but this series is beyond anything I would have expected of him.

After catching up on The Tyrant Philosophers, I rolled on into the last two Children of Time books. Children of Memory is in many respects an extended episode of Star Trek the Next Generation, which is by no means a bad thing. I'm well into Children of Strife now, which has strong Southern Reach vibes, while also romping gleefully in the lore of the series, including a closer look at the uplifted mantis shrimp introduced briefly in the first book.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Still enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series,

Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, one of us, one of us!

The lion's share of my eyeball reading for 5-6 years has been litRPG and Progression Fantasy (though DCC always merits an Audible credit). I tear through sometimes a dozen books per month on Kindle Unlimited. Some other well-edited and well-written series I'd recommend are Plum Parrot's Cyber Dreams (a finished cyberpunk litRPG) and Victor of Tucson (I love it, but it's decidedly a male power fantasy with strong shades of Conan, no kink unless you count the MC's ardent but platonic bond with his axe). Cradle by Will Wight is another -- the introductory chapters can feel bland and the overall flavor is more Eastern than Western fantasy, but it scales into something unique and surprisingly character-driven. There are many other series I greatly enjoy, but for which you will have to anesthetize your inner editor.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by taosaur

Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, one of us, one of us!

God d*** it Donut!!