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

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Tarana

The other is an intro novella for the Hal Spacejock series called Zero by Simon Haynes. I'm hoping I like this series. Got it on discount. A bit in the vein of Bill The Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison.

I hope you enjoy it as well. I like everything I've read so far from Simon Haynes, and in fact, his "gaslight fantasy novel" A Riddle in Bronze (Metal Mysteries #1) was the first book I completed in 2021. I'm a big fan.

[Uncle Robin]

Currently Reading The Hollow Needle, one of the Lupin stories in the Delphi omnibus, and it makes me wonder about France in the first decade of the 20th century. In this story, Lupin's antagonist and near-equal is a 17-year old schoolboy. This reminded me of Gaston LeRoux's Yellow Room, in which the detective hero was an 18 year old who was already established as a star reporter for the paper which employed him. The key difference is that the kid in the Lupin story is tolerable, and does not leave me wishing that he were the murder victim, as the insufferable brat in The Yellow Room did.

That aside, what was going on in France at the time that meant readers would both accept and adore teenage heroes who showed up adult police and judges?

[WT Sharpe]

Of the books I'm currently reading, special mention goes to Tidewater by Libbie Hawker; a fictionalized account of the interactions between the Jamestown settlers and the Powhatan empire as seen through the eyes of John Smith and Pocahontas. So far I'm really enjoying it, although I may be a bit prejudiced in its behalf, as I live but 40 miles from where the actual events transpired. Naturally the novel doesn't hesitate to speculate in those areas where history is silent — as all historical fictions do — but not beyond the bounds of how things may have actually played out. I'm giving this one a firm thumbs up.

[Luffy]

My one star review of Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4) by Brandon Sanderson :-

Spoiler:

Rating this book takes me back to 2008, when I rated the movie The Dark Knight 6/10 stars. And now I'm giving the book of the year for many people, 1 star.

I admit to not understanding the story to even half completion. Lots of chapters are subtle. The epilogue is representative of that. But I can only relay what I could understand.

I found many of the stories in the book to be as unsatisfying as Soulcast grain. The book, for me, was indeed, a dirty trick. But I'll be there when book 5 comes chugging.

I give the 1 star rating after huge deliberation. I understood the most easy conundrums in Rhythm of War. I claim the foreshadowing of Adolin's dead sword as one of the meagre rewards.

This book was incompatible to me. I am glad it pleased so many, and I'm not glad that I can't explain my stance better. But there have been great books that I've understood. There have also been mediocre books that I've worshipped. Thus is the life of this reader.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers. The fourth Lord Peter mystery. Let's see how it goes!

It went very well as a collection of shorts. Although the racism of the time is mildly on show in one or two of the stories.

Next up: Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. I probably haven't read this for 45 years. It will be interesting to see how I like it now. I loved it as a child.

[kyrilson]

Currently reading Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. An excellent read so far, I'm about 40% through it. It is the first part of the Hannibal Lecter series, which is probably pretty familiar to a lot of people (Silence of the Lambs being a well known movie/book).

[Luffy]

Silence of the Lambs is one of 39 movies to which I've given a perfect 10, but the book proved to be read unfinished by me. It was not deviating a lot from the film, but it did lose my interest. Jonathan Demme was a very good director to adapt the book the way he did.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. I probably haven't read this for 45 years. It will be interesting to see how I like it now. I loved it as a child.

It still works extremely well. An excellent children's book, with memorable characters. Templeton is a lot more selfish than I remembered!

Next up: Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident. The second in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.

I read this in paper some years ago when it first came out. I think it's worth a re-read now I have the ebook.

[Uncle Robin]

Tackling a couple of my Reading Challenge goals by reading Gaby Morgan's collection Poems from the First World War" (also trying my library's new app, not awful so far)

As powerful as Owen's and Sassoon's work is, so far, the passage that has impacted me most is this one, from Despair by Olive Lindsay:
When the world went up in fire,
And the soul that was mine deserted
And left me, a thing in the mire,
With a madden’d and dim remembrance
Of a time when my life was whole.
Carry me into the darkness sir,
And let me find my soul.

[Uncle Robin]

And now for something completely different. Moving on from the UK to another one of my Five Eyes targets, New Zealand. Indigenous New Zealand, with Puna Wai Kōrero, an anthology oy poetry in English by Māori. It should provide an interesting change of perspective from my Anglocentric perceptions of NZ and its literature.

[astrangerhere]

I finished up my first book of the year last night, Natsu Higuchi's Takekurabe. The book was originally published in Japan in 1895 under the male pseudonym of Ichiyo Higuchi.

I've three other things going:

• I am listening to the Librivox recording of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd
• I am reading R.O. Kwon's The Incendiaries on my Kobo
• I am reading Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs in paper form. This is the first of my goal to read at least 10 books in our collection that "belong to" or were selected for me by my wife.

[Mikou]

I'm reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I'm up to the 3rd one: The Dragon Reborn.

I'm also participating in a Discord group read-along of Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon (1st of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series).

And for the Kindle Challenge, I've been reading a short story per day out of the Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2019 collection.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by Mikou

I'm reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I'm up to the 3rd one: The Dragon Reborn.

I'm also participating in a Discord group read-along of Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon (1st of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series).

And for the Kindle Challenge, I've been reading a short story per day out of the Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2019 collection.

I have to re-read The Wheel of Time sometime and finally finish it.

[CRussel]

I've been re-reading my way through the Honor Harrington novels, but I had to take a short break when Ian Hamilton's latest, Fortune, the third of the Uncle Chow Tung prequels to the Ava Lee series released on Tuesday. Wonderful, especially as we see the early history of Sunny Kwok. But now, back to HH#6, Honor Among Enemies.

[maianhvk]

I'm reading The Tale of Genji - and it's a slow business. I'm at ~200 pages.

It's a strange experience, to say the least. Half of the time I'm not sure what to think... Stop saying he was handsome! Why was he raping people? Did he do anything apart from thinking about girls???