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

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by silverraven

I'm actually reading her Thomas Pitt series right now. I think I"m on number 4 or 5? I never can remember. But, I am really enjoying them! I would label them historical cozy mysteries.
I also want to read The Gaslight Mysteries Series by Victoria Thompson.
S

Thanks silverraven. I will add the author to my TBR list.

[orlok]

Currently catching up on Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series. I had read the first 3 novels, but am now reading all the various shorts, and am soon to embark on #4 A Trail Through Time.

This is a fun series about time-travelling historians who go back to significant events in history to chronicle what really happened. Inevitably, their trips do not go as smoothly as planned and they get embroiled in the action, sometimes with tragic consequences.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by orlok

Currently catching up on Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series. I had read the first 3 novels, but am now reading all the various shorts, and am soon to embark on #4 A Trail Through Time.

This is a fun series about time-travelling historians who go back to significant events in history to chronicle what really happened. Inevitably, their trips do not go as smoothly as planned and they get embroiled in the action, sometimes with tragic consequences.

I got the first one of those as a freebie in 2014. I think I'll read it next and see if I want to buy the rest, which all seem to be under £2 at Amazon at the moment.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I'm reading Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani. This is my second book from Iran. I completely agree with the usually over-the-top one-liners in that this is a beautifully written book. I don't think it is a searing indictment, but it is harsh in a quiet way. Very well balanced.

[Dngrsone]

Finished The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes, and then tore through Prescription: Murder! volume 1: Authentic Cases from the Files of Alan Hynd by Alan and Noel Hynd.

The first was a decent thriller, leaning on the misfit gang pulling the ultimate heist trope, with a few LOL moments, placed in a fantasy setting.

The second, a precursor to the eponymous criminal procedurals of the modern day, though these crimes all occurred in the first half of the twentieth century. The individual stories appear to be essentially reprints of stories originally published by Alan Hynd over the years, but his son, Noel, states in the intro that he had made some changes. I have issues with the quality of the ebook: there are a few spots where the editing was mangled, though the incidents of bad OCR are very low.

I may go next with The Oddfits which is the other freebie of the month I got in January...

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

Started A Scrapbooking Mystery series by Laura Childs
I finished book one last night and started book two. This was a nice fast past book. Looking forward to reading this series.

Finished the second book Photo Finished by Laura Childs. This has turned into a very good series. With this series based in New Orleans I do miss the small town feel other mysteries have but I feel the author pulled it off nicely.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Still working on Judas Unchained but decided I needed to get 2016 started faster so I read The Last Question by Isaac Asimov on New Year's Day. Apparently it was one of his personal favorite stories and I did enjoy it quite a bit. One of these days I will try to read some of his longer fiction.

I have finally finished Judas Unchained. It was an excellent conclusion to the Commonwealth Saga. I will need to check out the Void trilogy sometime soon too. It will be interesting to see how things have progressed.

Yesterday I read Turntables of the Night by Terry Pratchett which although set on Earth featured DEATH from the discworld. Interesting little story.

Next up is either Eric by Terry Pratchett or Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie although I may wait until I can get a new Kindle. I don't want to keep reading on my phone.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I got the first one of those as a freebie in 2014. I think I'll read it next and see if I want to buy the rest, which all seem to be under £2 at Amazon at the moment.

I enjoyed the first two, and a short or two. But the third had me totally bogged down and not enjoying it. Finished it, and have no interest in reading the rest, even though I have them in my Calibre.

[AndrewMowere]

Kristian Hall's "Rise from darkness" deserves a shoutout!

As one who'd neither a self help book nor suffered from depression, I can honestly say it was a fascinating well written thing. It creates this strange sense of kinship, like the author actually cares for you being the best you can be. Also, it's like a fusion between scientific techniques, good old common sense, and trial and error. Can't recommend it enough.

Despite being given a free copy I ended up buying a physical copy.

[WT Sharpe]

I read the first one and it was quite bloody. A lot more violent than I expected.

[Rumpelteazer]

I finished Asylum Lake by R.A. Evans today. It was a surprisingly enjoyable horror story. A nice quick read, with characters that are more dimensional than I would expect from a quick and easy horror story. For me it wasn't scary, although not many horrors scare me. The only thing that is a shame is that at the end of the book a sequel is promised. However, after a quick search it's looking unlikely that this 2010 book will get a sequel; the author has a blog but the one and only post dates back to 2013 and since publishing a short story set in the same world in 2012 he hasn't published anything. A shame, really.

[ATDrake]

So I finally got caught up with the Pern series, incidentally also providing me with the first re-read, first fully new read, first paperback read, first hardcover read, and first library book read(s) of the new year.

When last I went and had a look at the newer books I'd missed in the series, it was several years ago, and the next-to-last of the collaborations by Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey had just come out. Last year I was feeling nostalgic and started a reread of Anne's original books, and checked out The Skies of Pern to refresh myself on what the latest developments in the original Ninth Pass continuity were, and thought I might as well also have a look at Sky Dragons, which supposedly wrapped up the cliffhanger from Dragon's Time just prior to the Third Pass.

I say "supposedly", because it doesn't actually really. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I read DT, so I've probably forgotten things in the meantime, but whatever plot device problems were causing troubles with the time travel aren't explained.

Considering that the characters don't actually have a high enough level of scientific knowledge in their culture to begin to speculate on causes as well as effects, this is somewhat understandable. But the narrative is curiously uncurious about unpacking the things which it made major issues of in the last book, and there's not even any sort of emotional reunion scene when the time-stranded groups are finally reunited. They're just quietly living together after a few timeskips, with not even much in the way of recollection of how purportedly traumatic it was for them to be separated. Instead, this book focuses on a whole lot of domestic fluff.

I mentioned when I originally read DT that Todd McCaffrey's books felt like a not-particularly-canon-compliant fanfic AU of the Pern series proper, and this installment only heightens the effect, as I believe that technically, the story is basically what gets called "curtain fic", which apparently involves a whole bunch of shopping for curtains. It's all about young people setting up their own Weyr and making a whole bunch of mistakes along the way (some preventable with a bit of thought and proper planning, others probably unavoidable), with a side of interpersonal drama alongside the logistics problems of reinventing the wheel.

Because not only does it really feel like a retread of a number of plot points from earlier and better Pern stories, it also feels like the would-be Weyrpeople have also conveniently forgotten a whole bunch of things they should have already known how to do, so that they can dramatically rediscover How To Train Your Dragon®, now with added cutesy wise-before-their-time psychic kid guidance.

Speaking of which, not having learned their lesson from inexplicably screwing up time travel in the last book, there's even more "solving" problems through gratuitous use of time travel, and you'd think that the wise-before-their-time psychic kid would know better than to blab about it to the non-time-travelling locals whose aid one is soliciting, but again it's a convenient dramatic revelation moment which really does nothing for the plot, much like so many of the rest.

While the situations are milked for drama, there's no real feeling of tension to them, because in a way, they're presented as being high stakes while actually being fairly low-risk.

It's established early on that no one who's important will really get seriously hurt in a way that will change their life beyond feeling very sad about things and maybe a little not-particularly-disabling maiming which doesn't truly impair their functionality. And the heroes are so obviously good and true and in the right that any disagreements are going to be resolved in their favour, because the rebels are without a cause with solid grounds and it's a cosmetic breach that will be mended with shows of contrition and forgiveness and Care Bear Hugs™ for the survivors who didn't die of their rash foolishness in straying from the true path.

There may be physical risk, but there's no real emotional stakes, as the characters may angst, but they never have to truly re-evaluate their view of the world or their place in it (or even their views of other characters and their places) or even make choices that are truly hard because of having to weigh and choose between conflicting motivations of equivalent strength and compulsion, rather than mere difficulty in performing actions or the momentary guilt of picking a friend over a stranger.

And finally, after having gone on through the entire book about how all of this was to prepare the newbie Weyr for a particular very important event where they'll prove themselves,

Spoiler:

we don't even get to see it, or even the aftermath. It just goes straight from solving a relatively minor (but occasionally dramatically fatal for the characters who aren't the leads) problem in spotting and thereby combating Thread, to a timeskip which presents the new Weyr as a force to be reckoned with, without even showing them in action.

Maybe this is supposed to thematically echo Dragonflight, but the thing about that is that Lessa's Ride (and by an opposite token, Moreta's Ride as well) is the big dramatic event which caps the story, and the aftermath of its success (or tragedy) is the epilogue that can be skimmed over. Domestic fluff about setting up a Weyr and gradually learning how not to die of preventable mistakes in between having Babies Ever After doesn't quite have the same climactic effect to it, and seeming to cut off before you get to the real triumph undercuts the impression of overwhelming success by resourceful plucky struggling youngsters against doubts and unfavourable odds, and the story really should have gone more for the ending of Dragonsdawn, if that was what they were trying to do.

Apparently Sky Dragons is going to be the last book in Todd McCaffrey' Second Interval subseries, and the last Pern book until enough of Anne's notes for After the Fall in the Ninth Pass are fleshed out and released, which will follow up on the preparations made in The Skies of Pern for how the various Weyrs will adapt to the permanancy of life without Thread.

I'd actually completely forgotten that bit (not to mention the high stakes plot device which was the raison d'être for the convenient development of New Powers As The Plot Demands, not to mention New Personalities As The Plot Demands for some of the established characters, which admittedly is a pre-existing McCaffrey writing flaw). I personally think it would have been more interesting if it turned out that it was a real difficulty that couldn't have been so easily potentially dealt with and given the dragonriders a convenient new niche at the same time, and that all the people of Pern would have had to do a serious re-evaluation of their way of life and ability to work together.

But eh, the books haven't taken major risks for quite some time, so it's only to be expected that everything gets neatly wrapped up with only some not-particularly-disabling maiming that doesn't really change things all that much for the individuals involved, who get compensatory extra hugs. And while it didn't come with the best storytelling, it was nice to see what had been happening with the world post-AIVAS and catch up on old favourite characters and there was at least some attempt to suggest the future direction of Pern (and the expected societal backlash from the hidebound).

Another wallow in mostly domestic fluff, but at least it was fluff that happened with characters who'd built up a sufficient stock of goodwill and had enough genuinely challenging and affecting things happen to them in the past that it felt like a well-deserved retirement. And I did like the portrayals of the surveying and search and rescue and emergency evacuation operations, which seems like by far a more useful niche replacement profession than the thing they came up with instead, if doing regular instantaneous transport is that far beneath them (dragons and their riders sure are snobby).

Despite its myriad flaws, I still love Pern, even in the "modern" age of lower quality stories about it, enough that I'll certainly be checking out After the Fall if and when it comes out. But from the library, as the newer books seem to only merit.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

ANext: 1635: A Parcel of Rogues by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis

Which was good. Nice to see what happened next after the break-out from the Tower of London.

Next up: Just One Damned Thing after Another by Jodi Taylor.

I liked the start of this so much, I went and bought the others in the series that were going for under £2 each. I hope I still like it at the end!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Just One Damned Thing after Another by Jodi Taylor.

I liked the start of this so much, I went and bought the others in the series that were going for under £2 each. I hope I still like it at the end!

I'll be interested to see how you feel about it a couple more books in. That's exactly how I reacted to the first book, I went right out and bought the rest for a very good price.

So 1635: A Parcel of Rogues by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis is the one that ties up the Tower escape. I just might have to read that one.

I got so lost a while back that it's daunting to try to get back in to these books. One too many books by Virginia DeMarce and I lost interest. (Actually, ONE book by her was too many, but I think I read three that she was part or all of.) But the London Tower folks would be fun to catch up with.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

Finished the second book Photo Finished by Laura Childs. This has turned into a very good series. With this series based in New Orleans I do miss the small town feel other mysteries have but I feel the author pulled it off nicely.

One of the things that I enjoyed about this series is that the author includes Hurricane Katrina and its after-effects at the appropriate time in the story.