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

[bizzybody]

Could be David Weber is working on the third Hell's Gate novel, recently added on his Wikipedia page as "The Road to Hell" (TBA) and an untitled fourth novel. Another recent addition is the working title of the next Safehold book, "Hell's Foundations Quiver".

He might also be fiddling around with another book in the Empire of Man series.

The "problem" with Weber is I like everything he's written, and he has written so many different worlds - I want more to read about all of them!

[chookie2]

Have now finished all my Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series plus the four Edge books. I see her no 8 is out in the KD series so will have to get that one soon.
Next on my TBR list is Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews then on to Alafair Burke's Ellie Hatcher series of mysteries for a change of pace...and that's my next week of reading taken care of.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I got just a few pages into Winter's Bone and then was sidetracked by a bunch of Thanksgiving Holiday honey-do's. Finally I got to return to my new Kindle Voyage and lo and behold, magically, instead of Winter's Bone being in front of me, right where I'd left off, Stephen King's new novel, Revival opened. I immediately read the first chapter and, like pretty much all of King's books, I was hooked.

Revival was quite riveting and therefore very hard to put down to do necessary things (like meals, sleep, etc...). I really, really enjoyed reading it. Of course I've enjoyed everything I've ever read that was written by Stephen King! I've even liked the ones that were highly criticized by some fans.

I've begun reading The Last Safe Place by Ninie Hammon which was a freebie from Amazon in mid-November (it's now no longer a freebie but still only $2.99 for the Kindle version).

YOU CAN RUN FROM A STALKER, BUT YOU CAN'T ESCAPE THE DEMONS IN YOUR PAST -- Yesheb al Tobbanoft is Evil with skin on.

Gabriella had been pretty once, before her husband threw acid in her face. Ty had been a happy little boy once, before he did something utterly unforgivable. Pedro had been a distracted parent once--just that one time! Now he carries a staggering burden of guilt for an unthinkable crime. But Yesheb ....? No, Yesheb could never have been anyone or anything other than who he is. His fate was sealed for him before he ever drew a breath, in the womb--when the doctors say he ate his twin brother. Put all these flawed, wounded people together, add terror, mystery, a 14,000-foot mountain, lightning, and a 2,000-year-old tree with "unexplainable" power. And that's The Last Safe Place.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Just went way back in time to read the first "Burglar" book from Lawrence Block, Burglars Can't be Choosers. And I must say I quite enjoyed it. Enough that I'm going to read the next one. A complete break from the sort of thing I have been reading.

And finished The Burglar in the Closet, number 2 in the series. Also enjoyable, but that's about my limit for a while.

I'm really having a hard time deciding what to read. Everything keeps being uninteresting. Time for a Georgette Heyer, I guess.

[DrNefario]

I finished Last Tango in Aberystwyth, the second Louie Knight book by Malcolm Pryce. Not quite as good as the first, I thought. It seemed a bit all over the place early on, but it was fun when it started to come together. These are comic hard-boiled detective stories set in an alternate Wales where the Druids run the organised crime.

That leaves me one book from completing this year's portion of my ABC Murders challenge. Before that, though, I'm reading Bête by Adam Roberts, my second most expensive book of the year, and not-unrelatedly my second brand new hardback of the year. (I really liked the cover.)

I also finished Just My Type by Simon Garfield, a book about fonts and type design. Pretty interesting, and a good job on the eBook given all the images and font samples. (I read the ePub version from kobo.) I probably still can't tell all those sanserifs apart, though.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And so I'm now reading An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer. Another Regency Romance, continuing with the characters from Regency Buck, but (as far as I've got, anyway) set in Belgium, and involving the Duke of Wellington. Looking good so far, although keeping track of all the characters is tricky. A re-read of Regency Buck beforehand might have been a good idea.

It turned out that several characters from earlier books turned up - quite fun to see them again.

But this is an odd book. Some of it is regency romance, and some of it is a quite detailed account of the Battle of Waterloo. The two are intertwined, but I don't think either really helps the other very much.

Next up: The First Misadventure of Fragger Sparks by Steven D. Fisher. My last unread ebook from 2004, bought on 29 December 2004 from Fictionwise for $4.06. Now to find out if it was worth it!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It turned out that several characters from earlier books turned up - quite fun to see them again.

But this is an odd book. Some of it is regency romance, and some of it is a quite detailed account of the Battle of Waterloo. The two are intertwined, but I don't think either really helps the other very much.

I always assumed the romance portion of the book was just there to satisfy her publisher while she wrote the book on Waterloo that she wanted to. IAC, I quite enjoyed it, both the appearance of earlier characters, but more the Waterloo details, most of which were completely new to me when I first read this book, since Americans get almost no actual British history, much less any European, in their schooling. And most of my personal reading to that point had been on the naval side, not the ground war side.

For my own reading, I was going to start another Heyer, but then got caught up by realizing that most of the Campion books from Margery Allingham are now available from Kindle Unlimited. And here I was just thinking I should drop KU.

So, I've jumped back into the world of Albert Campion and Lugg. starting with #5 in the series, Sweet Danger, since I've read the first four fairly recently.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Now for something I bought (95 cents). Wilt by the recent departed Tom Sharpe.

Enjoyed it. There were several laugh-out-loud moments. Some of the British references I didn't get (Harpic, "tech" schools, slang) but it didn't distract me from the story. Rated B [4 stars].

Next, I started Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh but abandoned it after reading the reviews on GR. This was a B&N freebie a few years ago.

Now (taking a cue from Harry and Paul) I'm reading my oldest purchase from Nov 2012 Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Now (taking a cue from Harry and Paul) I'm reading my oldest purchase from Nov 2012 Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers.

One of my very favourite books. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

[covingtoncat73]

Okay, so I finished Revival by Stephen King. I did feel it dragged on and didn't care for the ending. However, it did rather keep me reading as King is wont to do. 4/5 if you are a King fan. 3/5 if you aren't, I would say.

I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I really enjoyed this. It was a different take on the super-flu apocalypse and follows both the life of this one actor who dies on the eve of the pandemic and a group of musicians and actors going around and entertaining the remaining settlements some years after the pandemic. It is all connected. The bouncing between characters and times may not be for everyone but I am a sucker for post-apocalypse and this was really well-written. 5/5.

I then read another King, Mr. Mercedes. It is a detective novel, rather than horror, though horrific things do happen. The plot is really tight and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end. The characters have that full-human complexity that is King's strength and I found it much more satisfying than Revival 5/5.

Right now I'm reading Bad Monkey by Hiaasen.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Now (taking a cue from Harry and Paul) I'm reading my oldest purchase from Nov 2012 Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers.

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of my very favourite books. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Indeed, definitely a favourite and one I re-read this summer with much enjoyment. And then watched the BBC production of it with Ian Carmichael which was equally enjoyable.

Originally Posted by CRussel

For my own reading, I was going to start another Heyer, but then got caught up by realizing that most of the Campion books from Margery Allingham are now available from Kindle Unlimited. And here I was just thinking I should drop KU.

So, I've jumped back into the world of Albert Campion and Lugg. starting with #5 in the series, Sweet Danger, since I've read the first four fairly recently.

Excellent. (As was the BBC version of it with Peter Davison, Brian Glover and Lysette Anthony as Amanda.) On to read the next in the series, Death of a Ghost.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I really enjoyed this. It was a different take on the super-flu apocalypse and follows both the life of this one actor who dies on the eve of the pandemic and a group of musicians and actors going around and entertaining the remaining settlements some years after the pandemic. It is all connected. The bouncing between characters and times may not be for everyone but I am a sucker for post-apocalypse and this was really well-written. 5/5.

I hope this is not a spoiler. Is this revealed in the beginning of the story to the reader? I'm reading this book soon.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Gazella

I hope this is not a spoiler. Is this revealed in the beginning of the story to the reader? I'm reading this book soon.

I don't think so. Any description says it is about a pandemic and I think the one I read before buying even mentions the death. It happens b in the first few pages which, I think, makes it not a spoiler. It is part of the set-up of the book. Even so, you'll note I didn't even give a name or gender.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The First Misadventure of Fragger Sparks by Steven D. Fisher. My last unread ebook from 2004, bought on 29 December 2004 from Fictionwise for $4.06. Now to find out if it was worth it!

Well, it was better than I feared. There were a few typos, but the story wasn't too bad, and not humorous, which I was slightly expecting from the title. A US Special Forces Ranger is reborn in the 26th century as a 'rerun', aka slave.

Not good enough for me to run out straight away for the sequel, but if I spot it for a couple of dollars I might get it.

Next up: Analog SF, Jan/Feb 2015 double issue.

[DrNefario]

I finished Racing the Beam by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort yesterday, having been slowly working through it for a good long while. It's an interesting semi-academic book about developing for the Atari VCS, and how the hardware influenced the games written for it.

Sadly the ebook is one of the more disastrous in my collection. The chapters don't link up - you get redirected to some random page in the middle of nowhere at the end of each section - and at some point someone has done a global find and replace to change "para" to "indent", which has given us the words "seindenttely" and "indentllel". I can only hope this has been fixed since I bought it, but Kobo's policy of not offering updates means I will probably never find out. It's a good thing I got it with a 90% off coupon.