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

[bert501]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I haven't yet read the other two (although I want to) but yeah, I can very much see "generic Doctor with some of Twelve's physical characteristics thrown in" being a common thread in all of them.

I actually really like Clara in the new series - I gave up watching new!Who mid-season 6 and only watched the very occasional episode since then, but she didn't impress me at all in the few Eleven episodes with her that I saw. Now though ... I don't quite care for the specialness of her character, but I really feel Coleman has a lot of chemistry with Capaldi and I've been enjoying all Twelve & Clara interaction on screen so far. This is missing from the book, though, although granted, it'd be very difficult to show a similar level of interaction, with the same kind of chemistry, in a book.

My son LOVES Clara and tells me I "miss the point of her character" ! Capald seems to be settling into the role so I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. I'm on the hold list for the other book-The Blood Cell. I wish I hadn't read some of the reviews since it seems darker & bloodier than I probably am going to enjoy

[Luffy]

These days I've been reading The Historian, a book that I'm liking very much. It's a big book, though, and somehow I skipped reading the 15% that I usually cover, yesterday. Instead, I did the next best thing and read a bit of Fall of Giants, for a group read at Goodreads.

Today I'm psyched to be able to reach the 75% mark of The Historian. I'm always excited when nearing the end of a book, doubly so when it's a chunkster. There's the fun of choosing the next book as well. It's all part of the reading experience.

[Yapyap]

I finished The Crawling Terror and other than the somewhat generic feel of the Doctor, I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It had a touch of a nice old-fashioned Classic Who feel to it, what with the picture-perfect English countryside village taken over by alien monsters feel (and especially with the inclusion of a very UNIT-feeling army, plus a number of references to reversing the polarity of various things, it could have worked well as a Third Doctor story, which I didn't mind at all!).

Originally Posted by bert501

My son LOVES Clara and tells me I "miss the point of her character" ! Capald seems to be settling into the role so I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. I'm on the hold list for the other book-The Blood Cell. I wish I hadn't read some of the reviews since it seems darker & bloodier than I probably am going to enjoy

Dark and bloody sounds perfect to me so I'm looking forward to that one.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Another Baen recent publication, Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer.

Which I liked very much indeed. Although it does make me want to re-read the other books so that I can fit the events into the time-line better. Another excellent novel from Wen Spencer.

Next up: The Martian by Andy Weir. I bought it a little while ago, after all the discussion there was of it on MobileRead. Looking good so far.

[GypsyJon]

Under The Red Sea Sun. True tale of ship salvors on the Red Sea during WWII. Good read.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Tunnel Vision turned out to be an exciting, interesting and entertaining reading experience!

Next up The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie.

The Murder on the Links was a really really good read.

Now on to a new (for me) author, Seanan McGuire with an urban fantasy series called October Daye. The first one of 8 books so far written is Rosemary and Rue.

The world of Faerie never disappeared: it merely went into hiding, continuing to exist parallel to our own. Secrecy is the key to Faerie's survival—but no secret can be kept forever, and when the fae and mortal worlds collide, changelings are born. Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, these second-class children of Faerie spend their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. Or, in the case of October "Toby" Daye, rejecting it completely. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating into a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, Faerie has other ideas.

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose, one of the secret regents of the San Francisco Bay Area, pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby is forced to resume her old position as knight errant to the Duke of Shadowed Hills and begin renewing old alliances that may prove her only hope of solving the mystery...before the curse catches up with her.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Now on to a new (for me) author, Seanan McGuire with an urban fantasy series called October Daye. The first one of 8 books so far written is Rosemary and Rue.

Y'know, that's the one series of hers I've stayed away from. Not due to a bad experience or anything; it just hasn't called to me.

I'm currently about halfway through my last Star Trek: Myriad Universes book, and after that I might try something funny. Toby Frost's Space Captain Smith books - four on Kobo so far, with a fifth currently Amazon-only - look delightfully silly, but the EPUB versions required a good deal of reformatting to whip 'em into shape. (Random paragraph breaks, web-style paragraph formatting instead of book-style, inconsistent punctuation styles, and even hard-hyphenation...these were a mess. Looks like a PDF-to-EPUB program was used to generate at least the first two.) At any rate, now that I've got 'em prepped, here's hoping the effort was worth it.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Y'know, that's the one series of hers I've stayed away from. Not due to a bad experience or anything; it just hasn't called to me.

You might take a peek at Priscilla Spencer's GoodReads rating and review of book 8 of the series (it's what made me aware of the series and decide to give it a whirl). Her rating and review is included in this post in The Dresden files thread in this forum.

[Yapyap]

The October Daye series is so far my favourite of everything by Seanan McGuire / Mira Grant that I've read. The first books were sort of average-but-enjoyable-enough UF, but the last few that I've read (haven't quite caught up yet) have been great, at least for me.

I started Lockwood & Co: The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud last night. Didn't get very far yet. After loving Stroud's Bartimaeus series to bits, I really had high hopes for Lockwood & Co. but the first book, while being okay enough, didn't really grab me (not in a "wow" way in any case) last year and this one seems to be much the same way, although there are now hints at some deeper plot that may, if I'm lucky, turn out to be what I need... Still, I don't think this series will make it to my top ten unless something really remarkable happens either in this book or the next.

[bfisher]

Currently reading "The Embrace of Unreason: France, 1914-1940" by Frederick Brown. Brown uses the careers of the writers Maurice Barrès, Charles Maurras, and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle to illustrate how many of the French intelligentsia through the lifetime of the Third Republic moved away from the ideals of the French Revolution (liberty, equality, inclusiveness) towards dictatorship, hierarchy and racism, until by the late 30s many prefered Hitler to the Popular Front and were willing to collaborate with the Nazis as ideological BFFs.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

I haven't made any new progress with True Honor. The two main characters are a Navy SEAL and a CIA agent and it's set in the days and months following 9/11, and I'm having trouble settling my mind back into the story.

<SNIP>

I'm now reading Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, which is shaping up quite nicely. I'm trying not to rush it so I'll have to cast about for something short to read in between.

I finally completed True Honor and I liked it. Just one more book (True Courage) to complete the Uncommon Heroes series.

The highlight of my reading week was Rebecca and Jamaica Inn, both by Daphne du Maurier; such good stuff! I started My Cousin Rachel right after and it's shaping up to be equally enjoyable.

I'm also halfway into the Father Brown Omnibus; the average length of the stories fits well into my short commute. I picked up the excellently crafted ebook right here at MobileRead; HarryT!

[trichobezoar]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Currently reading "The Embrace of Unreason: France, 1914-1940" by Frederick Brown. Brown uses the careers of the writers Maurice Barrès, Charles Maurras, and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle to illustrate how many of the French intelligentsia through the lifetime of the Third Republic moved away from the ideals of the French Revolution (liberty, equality, inclusiveness) towards dictatorship, hierarchy and racism, until by the late 30s many prefered Hitler to the Popular Front and were willing to collaborate with the Nazis as ideological BFFs.

That sounds like a very good book. I might read it at some point. It's always good to know the reasons behind political/historical events... in my opinion.

I'm currently reading Four: The Son: A Divergent Story by Veronica Roth. It's a short book--only one chapter long. lol I should be done with it soon if I don't watch Netflix the next few days... It's very difficult for me to stay away from Netflix. >.> That's one of the reasons I joined this forum--to immerse myself in a virtual book club. Hopefully I'll get more reading done now.

I've already read the Divergent trilogy and am making my way down the short stories list. It's easy-peasy reading really. : )

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Martian by Andy Weir. I bought it a little while ago, after all the discussion there was of it on MobileRead. Looking good so far.

And a most enjoyable story it was, too. I can't comment on the technical accuracy, but it was a much better and more enjoyable story for me than similar-theme recent reads Back to the Moon by Travis S. Taylor and Les Johnson and Rescue Mode by Ben Bova and Les Johnson.

The praise heaped on it earlier in this thread was justified. Very much recommended.

Next up:
The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen. Very bad formatting that somehow lead to the right margin being off the screen of my nook. A quick ePub to ePub conversion in calibre fixed it, but it is a shame that this authorised re-issue of the late Fred Saberhagen's work is done so poorly.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A quick ePub to ePub conversion in calibre fixed it, but it is a shame that this authorised re-issue of the late Fred Saberhagen's work is done so poorly.

A shame indeed. Do these publishers not even proof their ebooks?

[HarryT]

Just finished "Demon Blade", by Mark A. Garland and Charles C. McGraw. I bought this from Baen some time in the late 1990s, although it's one of the many books that are no longer available from Baen, presumably due to rights issues. Its sequel, "Frost", is still available.

A very good fantasy novel. Madia, the daughter of the King of Ariman, is exiled from court due her wilful disobedience of her father. While she is absent from court, the kingdom is taken over by the Grand Chamberlain, Lord Ferris, who is in fact a Demon Lord in disguise. Madia must seek the aid of the Wizard Frost to try to regain her kingdom, but in order to defeat Ferris, Frost needs the aid of the Demon Blade, a sword forged in the distant past in the demon wars, but now lost.

Recommended.