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

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Finished "Sheepfarmer's Daughter", by Elizabeth Moon. The first book in the Baen omnibus "The Deed of Paksenarrion", one of my all-time favourite fantasy books. This must be the 4th or 5th time I've read this book, and I love it every time. Superb fantasy. Can't recommend it highly enough.

I abandoned this after 90 pages. Did it improve later on?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I abandoned this after 90 pages. Did it improve later on?

The beginning is moderately standard fantasy training beginning, IIRC. I enjoyed it, but it certainly becomes different later on.

[CRussel]

Obviously, we thought so. I think the world building is consistent, the characters well fleshed out, the action sufficient, and it just gets better through these three first books. Exception is the first part of book two. Necessary, but unpleasant.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The beginning is moderately standard fantasy training beginning, IIRC. I enjoyed it, but it certainly becomes different later on.

My memory of it is that Paks was sexually assaulted but her reaction was too nonchalant.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next I am taking up Wars of the Anunnaki by Chris H. Hardy, a mixture of historical facts and fiction.

Finished the Wars of the Anunnaki: Nuclear Self-Destruction in Ancient Sumer by Chris H. Hardy, Ph.D. Drawing upon the work of Zecharia Sitchin, the Book of Genesis, Sumerian clay tablets, and archaeological evidence such as ancient radioactive skeletons, Chris Hardy discusses the ancient nuclear event that destroyed the Sumerian civilization and the power struggles of the “gods” that led up to it.

Next up, The Gods Were Astronauts by Erich von Daniken, another conspiracy (?) theory regarding ancient aliens.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Back to A Wizard's Holiday...

Which had a slightly different ending to one plot than I thought I remembered. It's probably my memory. Still fun.

Next up: Analog SF for November 2016, edited by Trevor Quachri.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Now it is on to Fablehaven.

This series has a very interesting premise, the lead characters are caretakers at a magical creature sanctuary, and the way the world was put together which has an interesting take on some creatures and magic, but I really didn't like the main characters. They were bad enough that I am going to skip the rest of these. I really wanted to like it due to the setting but it just isn't worth it for me.

Next up: Steampunk! a collection of 14 short stories edited by Kelly Link.

[HarryT]

I've been away for a few days, and finished a couple of books in that time:

"Divided Allegiance", by Elizabeth Moon. The middle third of the Baen Omnibus "The Deed of Paksannarion". Paks has left Duke Phelan's mercenary company to pursue her dream of training to be a paladin, but things don't go according to plan. One of my very favourite fantasy series. Excellent.

"Spider Bones", by Kathy Reichs. In this 13th book in the "Temperance Brennan" series about a forensic anthropolist, Dr Brennan gets involved in a mystery when a man is found dead in a lake in Canada, but the records show that he died 40 years earlier in Vietnam. Very good.

[HarryT]

Just finished "Oath of Gold", by Elizabeth Moon, the final book in the Baen "The Deed of Paksannarion" omnibus. Wonderful fantasy trilogy. Highly recommended.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Analog SF for November 2016, edited by Trevor Quachri.

A good issue.

Next up: Asimov's SF for October/November 2016, edited by Sheila Wllliams

[WT Sharpe]

I just started Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. It's pretty good go far, but I wasn't at all thrilled by the $16.99 price at Amazon. I even checked my local library first for the ebook, but that was a no-go.

[elaysee]

I just finished Heather Rose Jones' Daughter of Mystery and enjoyed it tremendously. The book is a very low-key fantasy - there's magic but it isn't visible most of the time. The setting is a Ruritania-type European country called Alpennia, and it's a very lived-in world, with its own inheritance conventions, relationships between royalty/nobility/gentry/clergy, and so forth.

The book is from a small press and unfortunately a bit pricey by modern e-bargain hunting standards, but some of you may have obtained it in a recent Storybundle. I plan to pick up the sequel.

My favorite read of this month was Adrian Tchaikovsky's Spiderlight. This is a short fantasy quest novel with the standard archetypes - cleric, mage, warrior, thief, archer. And, of course, the giant spider. Tchaikovsky has a background in biology and is known for writing "bugs" well. (His Children of Time recently won the Arthur C. Clarke award for SF, and I need to read it too.) Spiderlight takes D&D tropes in some unexpected directions along the way.

[lynmary]

Rereading Sherlock Holmes on the back deck on sunny day with a cup a tea. Perfection

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next up, The Gods Were Astronauts by Erich von Daniken, another conspiracy (?) theory regarding ancient aliens.

Finished The Gods Were Astronauts by Erich von Daniken, more or less a repetition of facts and arguments presented in his earlier books like Chariots of Gods and Evidence of the Gods. But it was a good timepass.

Next I am taking The Portrait of a Lady by Khushwant Singh, a memoir.

[Dngrsone]

Finished The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. Quite different from the movie, but still entertaining.