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

[Rumpelteazer]

Currently reading the latest Ruth Galloway, by Ellie Griffiths, The Ghost Fields. I'm really liking it. After reading the first six books last year I felt that it was starting to be a bit repetitive, but the story is set a little while after previous book. It's still the same cozy-ish series but so far it feels a bit different than the previous books.

[HarryT]

Two books completed:

"He Shall Thunder in the Sky" by Elizabeth Peters. The 12th book in the "Amelia Peabody" series of Egyptological mysteries. The First World War has broken out, and Cairo is a chaos, with rumours of a Turkish invasion and an uprising by agitators for Egyptian independence. Largely against their wishes, the Emerson family get caught up in the intrigue. Extremely good and highly recommended.

"Callahan's Lady" by Spider Robinson. Baen SF bought in 2001, although the SF elements in this particular book are fairly minor. The narrator of the book is a Brooklyn prostitute who unexpectedly finds herself working in "Lady Sally's" brothel, which attracts an unlikely range of customers. Good, but don't read it if fairly explicit sexual references would cause you offence.

[Hampshire Nanny]

I'm listening to The Hit by David Baldacci and read by Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy. Really enjoying it -- 9.5 more hours of listening.


Reading Forgotten Suns by Judith Tarr. Just started the last/fifth section, about 80% of the way in. Fantastic SF book.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now: Lightspeed Magazine #61 for June 2015, a special "Queers Destroy Science Fiction" issue.

A very good collection of SF stories.


Now for: Mirror of Worlds by David Drake. The second in his Crown of the Isles trilogy.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

"Callahan's Lady" by Spider Robinson. Baen SF bought in 2001, although the SF elements in this particular book are fairly minor. The narrator of the book is a Brooklyn prostitute who unexpectedly finds herself working in "Lady Sally's" brothel, which attracts an unlikely range of customers. Good, but don't read it if fairly explicit sexual references would cause you offence.

One of my all-time favorites, along with the sequel, Lady Slings the Booze. And, to be honest, most of the "Callahan's" books, although the last one was a real downer.

I just finished Saving Mars, first of six in the series. I was irritated by some formatting and copyediting goofs (such as not italicizing ship names, when the included excerpt shows that they're italicized in the second book), but that's pretty minor. More importantly, it reminded me of what The Moon is a Harsh Mistress might have looked like as a modern Heinlein juvenile. I quite enjoyed it, and I've already started the sequel. Oh, and the main character's brother is on the autism spectrum, but he's not trivialized. He has significant things to do, and the depictions of his behavior ring true to me.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

... Oh, and the main character's brother is on the autism spectrum, but he's not trivialized. He has significant things to do, and the depictions of his behavior ring true to me.

Have you read Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark? The protagonist is in the autism spectrum and has to decide on whether to take the "cure" or not.

I'm currently enjoying John Scalzi's Old Man's War. Guy can certainly turn a phrase...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

One of my all-time favorites, along with the sequel, Lady Slings the Booze. And, to be honest, most of the "Callahan's" books, although the last one was a real downer.

I agree. It's a great pity that some of the early books in the series aren't currently available as ebooks.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by samhy

I've been reading some short novels by Steinbeck lately and while I enjoy them in a way, I'm stalling in my reading. To get out of this slump I've started a novella by Maia Sepp. I really liked her book The Sock Wars, so now I'm reading An Etiquette Guide to the End Times. It's a nice change before going back to the next Steinbeck short story

It was nice a nice story.
Right after, I've started The Shell Collector by Hugh Howey. As always I love the way he writes and as an additional point the story isn't too different from the novella I was reading just before

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Well, once started on the Solar Clipper series, I just blew through the entire 6 volume series. And I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it once again. Nathan Lowell's strength is that he knows how to tell a good story, and these are good examples of that. Recommended. One hopes that someday he's able to give us more adventures of Ishmael Wang, but even if he doesn't, these are well worth the read.

Next up: Marjorie Allingham's More Work for the Undertaker, which is #13 in the Albert Campion series.

Meanwhile, listening to Sharpe's Prey, by Bernard Cornwell, and read by Patrick Tull.

Finished More Work for the Undertaker and sent it back to KU. What a strange Campion. Allingham often has quite bizarre characters in her Campion books, but this one seemed to go well beyond even for her. Next up in the series is Tiger in the Smoke, but I probably will read something else first. Maybe the 2nd Chanur book?

Also finished Sharpe's Prey, and now listening to Magic's Price, the third and final book in the Last Herald Mage Valdemar series from Mercedes Lackey.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I finished reading The Ace Of Skulls last evening. Sadly, this book was the last of the series, a series that I thoroughly enjoyed.


Now on to

Don't Dare a Dame (Maggie Sullivan Mystery #3) by M. Ruth Myers. I was worried that this book was also the last of its series as is The Ace Of Skulls, but it is not, as there is a book #4 to be released this Fall

I really enjoyed Maggie Sullivan Mystery #3 and am looking forward to the release of book #4 this Fall!!

In order to continue my preperation for The Cinder Spires series I just bagan reading

Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century #1) by Cherie Priest.

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by alansplace

In order to continue my preperation for The Cinder Spires series I just bagan reading

Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century #1) by Cherie Priest.

I enjoyed this one.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Have you read Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark? The protagonist is in the autism spectrum and has to decide on whether to take the "cure" or not.

I have not...

This series has an odd sociological/technical development called rebodying, in which people live to 72 but not in biological order. Instead, they go through four distinct 18-year life stages - being raised, apprenticing to a career, having that career, and finally retiring into a biologically 18-year-old body. In other words, they felt that life truly was wasted on the young and set out to do something about it.

[Dngrsone]

Finished Old Man's War. Much as I enjoyed it, I don't want to pay $5 for the next book, so I will switch to something in my TBR. Mayhaps The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now for: Mirror of Worlds by David Drake. The second in his Crown of the Isles trilogy.

Which was OK. But events seemed a little bit more arbitrary than usual.

I then tried reading some books I bought back in 2006 by Ed Howdershelt. Clearly, the lack of mainstream publisher ebooks (at least, drm-removable ones) lowered my standards a bit back then. They're OK-ish, but not worth wasting my time on now, when I have loads of much better books to read. 8 ebooks discarded from my TBR pile.

Next up: Denner's Wreck by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Another early purchase (2005), but I expect to like this one a lot more.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

Reading Forgotten Suns by Judith Tarr. Just started the last/fifth section, about 80% of the way in. Fantastic SF book.

An excellent book. Highly recommended.

Now I'm reading The Pilgrim of Hate, tenth Brother Cadfael mystery and Notes from the Internet Apocalypse by Wayne Gladstone.