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

[Rumpelteazer]

In the past week I've finished:

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny.
The third book in the Armand Gamache series. I'm really liking this series. It's a cozy, but one that isn't cutsie or has a gimmick.

Nest by Terry Goodkind.
Although I liked the story itself, I found it a very bleak story. The author didn't cut the main character any slack. Which resulted in a bit of a depressing read for me.

City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.
The seventeenth book in the Agent Pendergast series. This is one of the procedural books, where Pendergast and D'Agosta have to solve a mystery. It isn't one of the books which furthers Pendergasts personal story. A nice and quick read.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Passing by Nella Larsen. The February choice of the New Leaf book club.

It was OK. More than that is for the book club thread.

Next up: Kill Before Dying by Travis S. Taylor. Mil SF.

[Dngrsone]

Alright, I went 27% of the way though Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll before I gave up on it. While I have no issue with female protagonists (just look at my read lists), I could not like this one. Too much analysis of high fashion, the perils of wearing the wrong thing; living beyond all one's means to make oneself appear more wealthy and important than one is. And while I assume there is some suspenseful, possibly murderous revelation coming up soon, it wasn't soon enough to justify me slogging through the vitriolic, gossipy, backstabbing first-person narration.

So, I'm back to Cherryh: Chanur's Legacy.

[Fbone]

Finished a library book, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. Enjoyed it. The book had a good amount of world building and development, just enough without becoming overbearing. A little light on the apprentice's instruction I thought. However, the book's emotional content makes this fantasy stand out. Solid B [4 stars].

Next is The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein .

[HLS]

I am about finished with Year One by Nora Roberts. First time I was able to read a book in less than two weeks.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next is The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein .

A personal favourite. And the May, 2016 selection for the old MobileRead Book Club. You can see the discussion, which included the author by invitation, here.

[HarryT]

Recent books read:

"Disappearing Act", by Margaret Ball. Bought from Baen in October 2004. Baen description:

Maris's work with the local underworld on the huge space station was anything but honest, but life was much more pleasant than it had been before the gang's leader had picked her up from the slums. Then her boss grabbed a visitor to the station who was asking too many questions, only to find out that she was a very important diplomat. Worse, his prisoner had apparently committed suicide by jumping through an airlock into hard vacuum.

To avoid dangerous questions from station security, he decided to let Maris's corpse be found with the diplomat's IDs; but Maris saw through his plot and used those IDs to escape to the planet the Diplomat was about to investigate. Unfortunatley she landed in a hornet's nest of corrupt officials conspiring with a local tyrant. Surrounded by people who wanted her eliminated, the only person she could trust was Gabrel, a young officer who set off with her on a cross-planet trek to get evidence that would expose the tangled web of corruption.

Maris was strongly attracted to Gabrel and the feeling seemed to be mutual. But then, he thought she was a high-ranking government agent. What would happen when he found that she was only a petty criminal on the run

A very enjoyable SF romp!

"Deepsix", by Jack McDevitt. The second book in the "Academy" series, about a team of interstellar archaeologists exploring the remains of dead civilisations in the 23rd century.

It should have been a straightforward exercise; but they were reckoning without mechanical failures, earthquakes and hostile indigenous species.

It’s 2225. Mankind has reached the outskirts of the universe, and discovered evidence of intelligent life on dozens of planets. Nothing still alive, but some amazing archaeological remains. On the distant planet Maleiva III, known colloquially as Deepsix (it’s about to be wiped out by a rogue gas giant, the Jerry Morgan) they’ve found traces of an ancient civilization. With two weeks to go before the gas giant destroys the planet, a team of crack archaeologists lands on the surface to record and salvage as much of this ancient civilzation as they can.

Suddenly, the team is stranded there with no means of getting off it. With the Jerry Morgan bearing down on them day by day, survival is going to require some ingenuity…

Absolutely superb. A real page-turner. One of those books where you want to carry on reading to find out what happens next, but you don't want the book to end. VERY highly recommended!

"Rogue Berserker", by Fred Saberhagan. The first book in the "Berserker" series, in which the human race is being attacked by sentient robots from an ancient war who have the goal of exterminating all life from the galaxy. Enjoyable.

"Come to Grief", by Dick Francis. The third of the four books in the "Sid Halley" series, but all completely standalone. Sid Halley, a former champion jockey turned private investigator in the world of horse-racing, suspects that his best friend may be responsible for a series of attacks in which horses are mutilated. He must be wrong, mustn't he?

Perhaps not the absolute best by Francis, but still very enjoyable indeed.

"Berserker Spy", by Fred Saberhagen. The first book in the Baen omnibus titled "Berserker Man". In this one, the Berserkers try to wipe out the current inhabitants of a planet by attacking key points in history in the distant past, thus changing history. Very good SF.

"Chindi", by Jack McDevitt. I enjoyed "Deepsix" so much that on with the third book in the "Academy" series. Perhaps not quite as good as "Deepsix", but still very, very good indeed. In this instalment in the series, "Hutch" leads an expedition of wealthy sponsors of the Academy on a mission to track down the source of a mysterious alien transmission originating from a neutron star. Again highly recommended!

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by BenG

If you're still in an LGBT mood, I would recommend the fantasy novella Passing Strange by Ellen Klages. It takes place in 1940 San Francisco during the World's Fair. The main character is an artist based on Margaret Brundage who created many of the lurid covers for Weird Tales magazine. For me the historical fiction and the magic didn't mesh seamlessly but I liked it a lot anyway.

And it's half-off right now, at $1.99.

[astrangerhere]

Since my last post, I have read:

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• "The Luck of Roaring Camp" by Bret Harte
• "The Library of Lost Things" by Matthew Bright

Up next is Marilynne Robinson's Gilead in audio and Nella Larsen's Passing, which just came into the library for the book club read.

[HarryT]

Finished "Berserker Planet", by Fred Saberhagen, which forms approximately the second quarter of the very large Baen omnibus called "Berserker Man", which I bought in October 2004. A story about a group of "modern" hunters on a planet which has fallen back to a mediaeval level of civilisation, who find more fearsome prey than they were anticipating! Not outstanding but an enjoyable enough read.

[Blas]

I'm reading Demon Cycle - The Daylight War from Peter V. Brett.
It's my first fantasy serie and I'm just loving it. I used to avoid fantasy a bit cuz I was a bit close minded with that haha.

[astrangerhere]

I sat down with a couple of beers last night and read Nella Larsen's Passing in one sitting. This is the February read for the New Leaf Book Club, and I am ready to discuss as I have many opinions.

[bfisher]

I read Women and Power by Mary Beard last night. It is a repackaging of two essays written for the London Review of Books in 2014 ("The Public Voice of Women") and 2017 (Women In Power).

As a classical scholar, she has some illuminating comments about long running cultural constraints on the voices of women in the public sphere.

It was available on Overdrive at my local library.

[HarryT]

Finished "To the Hilt", by Dick Francis.

Home for Alexander, an artist, is a small bothy on a remote mountain in Scotland. One day, his peace is shattered when he returns home to find some strangers waiting for him. After a scuffle, he is left for dead with only the wind and the words, "Where is it?" ringing in his ears.

An extremely enjoyable mystery/thriller. Highly recommended!

[HarryT]

Finished "Berserker Man", by Fred Saberhagen; the title story of, and third book contained in, the Baen omnibus of the same name. This one didn't particularly grab me. OK, but nothing special.