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

[Dngrsone]

Finished Brute Force by K. B. Spengler.

Now reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

[din155]

Just finished 2001: A Space Odyssey. I can see why it is so highly regarded by many. Even though the technologies might sound a bit dated the ideas still futuristic. Highly recommended. I am sure I will be returning to this book very soon.
Now starting To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by din155

Just finished 2001: A Space Odyssey. I can see why it is so highly regarded by many. Even though the technologies might sound a bit dated the ideas still futuristic. Highly recommended. I am sure I will be returning to this book very soon.
Now starting To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis.

Do you know what the name of the HAL computer stands for?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer

Which was quite good. One of her 20th century mysteries. I love that someone with a very good knowledge of history could have twigged what was going on straight away.

Next up: Asimov's SF Magazine for Jan/Feb 2017. A double issue, and it seems they are now switching to being double issues all the time - i.e. publishing bigger volumes six times a year instead of 2 big volumes and 8 shorter ones.

A sign of their declining circulation figures, I think.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

I'm actively reading Shadow of Victory by David Weber, #14 in the Honor Harrington series ...

Well, still haven't finished it. I went crazy on Overdrive, putting lots of books on hold. I currently am holding 6 borrowed books and need to finish them as soon as I can to return them for other readers.

I'm almost finished with Turbo Twenty-three, a Stephanie Plum mystery by Janet Evanovich. Next up is Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey (actually, the writing team of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). It's the 4th book in the Expanse series.

Alongside these, I'm reading Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. It's a highly acclaimed book, winner of the National Book Award and Coretta Scott King Award, and a Newbery Honor book for 2016. I'm not able to read straight through it because it's poetry. I'm not much one for poetry, even though I'm enjoying it.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Do you know what the name of the HAL computer stands for?

I originally believed it was made up of each of the letters before those in "IBM", but I've since read that Clarke denied this, and that it was just a randomly made up name/acronym.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up is The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. I believe this is the first (full length) book he has had published ... except that he has translated several other books including the first and third books of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy I just finished. I have high hopes given how much I enjoyed those two books in particular. (And because his previous short story, The Paper Menagerie, was the first work ever to win a Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award, I should probably try it at some point.)

The Paper Menagerie was a worthy story, very sad but very good. The Grace of Kings, well, I couldn't get through it. I just haven't been in the mood for epic fantasy for a while and can't force myself to engage. I may try again at some point.

I just finished The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which I hadn't read before and then Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science by Dr. William Bass who started the "body farm" at the University of Tennessee. I enjoyed his* fiction debut novel a few years ago and wanted to learn a little more.

*Written by him and Jon Jefferson under the pen name "Jefferson Bass".

Next up is The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. This was nominated for the March 2014 MR Book Club and I put in a request for it then, it just now became available at my library so I will go ahead and read it. I also just received One Second After, an apocalyptic thriller by William R. Forstchen, and I will probably go back and forth between the two.

[din155]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Do you know what the name of the HAL computer stands for?

Actually no. Although I liked the idea of HAL a lot.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by din155

Actually no. Although I liked the idea of HAL a lot.

Move each letter of HAL one letter to the right in the alphabet

[din155]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Move each letter of HAL one letter to the right in the alphabet

Thanks. I hope Watson is not a precursor to HAL

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which was quite good. One of her 20th century mysteries. I love that someone with a very good knowledge of history could have twigged what was going on straight away.

I enjoyed this one as well, and especially for this reason

[Ravensknight]

Heirs of Empire
by Evan Currie
4.5 Stars

This just hit all the right buttons for me. Good stuff.

[DiapDealer]

Just fired up #6 in The Expanse series - Babylon's Ashes - by the entities collectively known as James S.A. Corey.

[issybird]

One of my 2017 challenges is the Victorian classics and I decided to get a jump on it with Vanity Fair, which I haven't read since high school. As it turns out, it's delightful and funnier than I remember. I'm glad I started with this, as it makes me look forward to other reads and rereads that I wasn't confident would appeal now that I'm long past adolescence.

[Ravensknight]

Spiderlight
Adrian Tchaikovsky
2.5 Stars

While Heirs of Empire pushed the right buttons, this one pushed a wrong one.