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

[richvalle]

Finished "The Regulators" by Michael Clary. It's making a nice progression from Zombie books to Zombies vs super human fighters to Zombies and other monsters vs super human fighters.

I also finished "Horizon Storms", book 3 The Saga of Seven Suns. It was a slog to get though and as I said in a previous post not a whole lot seems to happen in 400 pages. I'll give the next book a go as I'd like to see what happens.

I started and finished "The man in a high castle". I read it because I've heard good things about the Amazon series but I didn't find the book so great. I was able to finish it but it's hard to recommend. The best thing about it was the setting.

Starting "Tuf Voyaging" by George R. R. Martin. A pre "Game of Thrones" book of his.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

...I am listening to Jerusalem by Alan Moore on audiobook. The audio is excellent but the story is so big and complex, it can be hard to follow on audio because I'm generally listening while I work. The language is beautiful and I love the bit with the 3-yr-old and the Devil (or a Devil). I need to get the eBook version as well as the eAudio.

If you get a chance (and haven't done so already), try to find a few issues of Alan Moore's graphic series, Tomorrow Stories. They featured various "heroes" each with their own continuing tales. My personal favorites were the Jack B. Quick stories, a series Moore co-created with Kevin Nowlan. Jack was a young genius who lived on a farm and was always getting into trouble because of his inventions.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by cromag

Once again, I found myself mostly reading short stories. One that I really liked turns out to be a "good news, bad news" story. I had Persia Walkers' In Asbury Park, Someone Lies Waiting. I really enjoyed this story! It's a ghost story that takes place in October and is set in Asbury Park, NJ. I know Asbury Park pretty well -- and, if nothing else, you probably know it as Bruce Springsteen's home town.

The bad news is: this story seems to be no longer available as a stand-alone short story. The good news is that it is available as part of a four story anthology over at Amazon as part of Dark Tales: Four Ghastly Tales of Ghostly Murder. As a single this cost me $0.99 -- the four story collection currently costs $3.99 -- so, if the other three stories are as good as this one was, it's a bargain!

Next, I read Dead Madonna, by Victoria Houston. I like the Loon Lake mysteries, and this was an especially good one. I'd say it's tied with the first book in the series, Dead Angler, as my favorite. Interestingly, this ebook had some odd formatting errors. Nothing terrible -- once I read through a couple they became "invisible" -- but the other books in the series don't have them. This book came from Kobo and the others came from Barnes & Noble and Amazon, so maybe it's specific to Kobo.

I've now started Dead Hot Shot, the 9th in the series. It's also from Kobo and has the same formatting problems. But, formatting problems aside, this also is pretty good!

Dead Hot Shot was another very good story marred by formatting errors. The most frequent error that I encountered was paragraphs splitting in two for no apparent reason. The only two ebooks in the Loon Lake Mysteries series that I've seen with these formatting errors were from Kobo, so I'll go back to buying from Amazon and I'll see if the errors are still a problem or if they really are specific to Kobo. I do like the series!

As always, I read a few short stories to fill in minor gaps in my time. One collection I read was The Tommy Two Shoes Mysteries: From Mountains to More, by Thomas Beck. Most of these stories were mysteries that did not involve death or mayhem, which is always nice for a change. The protagonist is a recently retired cop living in Pittsburgh in a cheap apartment. His descriptions of other characters are terse and very cop-like -- he gives the character's height, weight, distinguishing characteristics, etc. And, he gets cryptic clues from the ghost of his uncle. Lightweight stuff, mostly. but I liked them! Available at Smashwords -- it seems to be self-published -- and the retailers they supply, and at Amazon.


Then I read The Shoeless Kid by Marcelle Dubé, the first volume in her Mendenhall Mysteries series. The protagonist is the new Chief of Police at a mid-sized town in Manitoba, Canada. She is new to the job -- a job that everyone expected to go to the man who is now her Deputy Chief. Very well written -- I liked it so much that I immediately bought (and read) the second book in the series: The Tuxedoed Man.

This series is mostly available at Smashwords, etc., and Amazon. For some reason the first book is not available at Smashwords. I'll be picking up the remaining books in the series.


And now ... I'm not really sure what I'm going to read next.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Perhaps unwisely, Eater by Gregory Benford. Another purchase from July 2008.

Which was OK. The speculative part was great. The characters not so much. I just wasn't invested in them.

Next up: Galactic Games edited by Bryan Schmidt. Part of a Baen bundle bought back in June.

[HarryT]

Two books completed:

"The Lizard War", by John Dalmas, bought from Baen a long time ago (probably around 2000 or so). Baen description:

It's a thousand years after World War III and Earth lies supine beneath the heel of a gang of alien sociopaths (they look like snakes with legs) who like to torture whole populations for sport. The Lizards could not have conquered us in our heyday, but our heyday was long gone when they stumbled upon us; the 16th century level of technology they found here was relatively easy to squelch.

What was not so easy to squelch was the mystic warrior sects that had evolved in the meantime. What should have been a simple mopping up operation to pacify the wilderness becomes—

Very enjoyable. Recommended.

"A Nice Class of Corpse", by Simon Brett. The first book in the "Mrs Pargeter" series. Mrs Pargeter moves into the Devereux Hotel in Littlehampton, on the South Coast of England - a small private hotel offering permanent rooms to the better sort of retired people. She's expecting to lead a quiet life in her retirement, but a string of murders and a jewel robbery soon involve her in unexpected events.

A very enjoyable quick read. I've enjoyed all Simon Brett's books, and this one was no exception. Highly recommended.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Finished reading The Thirteen Problems, now I'm reading Where Are the Children by Mary Higgins Clark.

DNF Hero of Ages. What a disappointment. Started off with a big fight, trying to be so breathless with excitement. Instead it made me impatient, bored, and grumpy. DNF at 5%.

I gave Where Are the Children by Mary Higgins Clark, 5 stars. Now I'm reading another book by the same author, A Cry in the Night.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Two books completed:

"The Lizard War", by John Dalmas, bought from Baen a long time ago (probably around 2000 or so). Baen description:



Very enjoyable. Recommended.

If you liked this one he wrote a sequel that was published 14 years later, in 2003. It is The Helverti Invasion.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

If you liked this one he wrote a sequel that was published 14 years later, in 2003. It is The Helverti Invasion.

Yes, I'm reading it right now . I'm reading all my Baen books in order, and I've now got as far as November 2003, which is when I got "The Helverti Invasion", but since I hadn't had read its prequel, "The Lizard War", I went back and read that one first.

I see that "The Lizard War", although it was originally published in 1989, wasn't published on Webscriptions until December 2006, which is why I hadn't read it before on my chronological read-through.

[Apache]

I still have both in paper and read them multiple times. I think it is time for me to get them as eBooks.
Apache

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

My next-ups are Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer, Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer, and The Color of Heaven by Julianne MacLean. I'm working my way through my older paid TBR books, and all of these were bought in 2011.

Before I ever got to my next-up list above I made a good dent in my stash of Irene Hannon books, and read the following: The Best Gift, Gift from the Heart, The Unexpected Gift, and The Heart Remembers. I enjoyed the first three, a trilogy about sisters who're left an inheritance from their aunt but must fulfill certain conditions to claim it. I felt The Heart Remembers was meh and gave it two stars; there were a few scenes that were peculiar to Ms Hannon's writing that I did not enjoy.

Back to my list: I liked Bath Tangle, I gave up on Broken Angel very early (at 13%; I don't think post-apocalypse is my thing!), and The Color of Heaven was cute but very Lifetime Movie Network-ish (plus a big dose of bad theology, IMO).

After all this, I also completed Sylvester (by Georgette Heyer), which reminded me of Pride and Prejudice, and that can never be a bad thing

Everything on my new next-up list is from 2011 purchases: Real Life & Liars by Kristina Riggle, Hemlock Lake by Carolyn J Rose and, because I'm presently on a Janet King binge and wanted to read a mystery/thriller set in Australia, I also put Sleight Malice by Vicki Tyley on the list.

Off I go ...

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, I'm reading it right now . I'm reading all my Baen books in order, and I've now got as far as November 2003, which is when I got "The Helverti Invasion", but since I hadn't had read its prequel, "The Lizard War", I went back and read that one first.

I see that "The Lizard War", although it was originally published in 1989, wasn't published on Webscriptions until December 2006, which is why I hadn't read it before on my chronological read-through.

Originally Posted by Apache

I still have both in paper and read them multiple times. I think it is time for me to get them as eBooks.
Apache

Hmmm. The only one of his I'm showing in my Calibre is Soldiers. Not sure where it sits in the series, but will push it forward on the list a bit.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Hmmm. The only one of his I'm showing in my Calibre is Soldiers. Not sure where it sits in the series, but will push it forward on the list a bit.

I'm not at my PC at the moment, but I think that Baen must have published at least a dozen of his books over the years. "Soldiers" was the first Dalmas book I read, and I thought it was absolutely excellent.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Just started Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit. A sequel to her The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

Excellent! Great characters and a compelling story. One that is told from two different timelines on a collision course with each other. An A.I. struggling to be human, a girl created to be a machine struggling to do the same, and the family they forge along the way.

More of a companion volume to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet than a direct sequel, but I would still recommend reading it first.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not at my PC at the moment, but I think that Baen must have published at least a dozen of his books over the years. "Soldiers" was the first Dalmas book I read, and I thought it was absolutely excellent.

Well, then I guess I'll need to move it from the "when I'm bored" pile (where most Baen bundle books go that don't grab me immediately) to the "I should read this" pile and actually transfer it to my Kindle.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Well, then I guess I'll need to move it from the "when I'm bored" pile (where most Baen bundle books go that don't grab me immediately) to the "I should read this" pile and actually transfer it to my Kindle.

I'll be interested to hear your views on it if you read it.