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

[Paperbackstash]

One of my goals was to read some authors I've collected over the years that I haven't gotten to. I'm reading Harlan Coben's The Woods, and enjoy his writing style so far.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Escape to Challenge by Don McQuinn. First in a freebie trilogy I picked up pack in 2016. Let's see if they're keepers!

They're not. Dull, unconvincing long-post-apocalyptic world, with the injection of some preserved survivors from pre-disaster. With a bit of prophecy thrown in. Not interested, almost abandoned. I'm abandoning the others.

Next up: A Quiet Life in the Country by T. E. Kinsey. The first in their Lady Hardcastle mystery series. I have high hopes for this one. A recent purchase on a £0.99 special offer.

[Uncle Robin]

2/3 through The Lifers' Club by Francis Pryor. I'm enjoying this one more than the Ruth Galloway debut. It's interesting that several of the reviews at The StoryGraph cite the passivity of the protagonist as a problem - stuff happens to him rather an him making stuff happen - but I think that's why I'm enjoying it. The character he reminds me most of is Arthur Dent, except a more competent and less whiny version.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Quiet Life in the Country by T. E. Kinsey. The first in their Lady Hardcastle mystery series. I have high hopes for this one. A recent purchase on a £0.99 special offer.

I'll be interested to read what you think, Paul. They're all on KU here, so worth a try if you think it's any good.

[Luffy]

My 2 star review of Death of a Travelling Man (Hamish Macbeth, #9), by M.C. Beaton:-

Spoiler:

Once more Beaton blunders by making her villain not horrible enough. But obviously many fans of the series are satisfied with the writing.

Kafka this was never intended as. I would have been happy with less padding of the story. There were entire Chapters dedicated to so called investigation.

I'm beginning to think that Hamish spoils the mechanism of any of his stories. He should appear sparingly. But notice how better the book gets when he is not the first person narrator.

[Uncle Robin]

Just started The Two Moons the first two stories in James P. Hogan's Giants series. Having been lured into buying a book in a VIP 60% off sale, this one, not on sale, caught my eye. Cunning Kobo!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Quiet Life in the Country by T. E. Kinsey. The first in their Lady Hardcastle mystery series. I have high hopes for this one. A recent purchase on a £0.99 special offer.

An enjoyable, quick read. I like the relationship between Hardcastle and Armstrong, however unlikely for the time.

Then I read The Canterbury Murders by E. M. Powell.

An excellent historical murder mystery set in late 12th Century England.

And now I'm starting Provenance by Ann Leckie. I really like her other books, so I expect to enjoy this one too.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm starting Provenance by Ann Leckie. I really like her other books, so I expect to enjoy this one too.

Provenance was definitely different for Leckie. I enjoyed it, but it was nothing like her space novels. I don't think it was quite as well received, though I could be misremembering that.

[Uncle Robin]

From Inherit the Stars

The smooth, tanned curve of her leg and the proud thrust of her behind under her thin skirt drew an exchange of approving glances from the two English scientists.

UGH! I had hoped for at least one Golden Age-ish Hard SF writer who wasn't a lech, but yet again it seems to be a vision of the future written by a man whose attitude toward women was rooted in the pre-Neanderthal past. I'm only a third of the way, so I'll keep going for now, but this kind of crass objectification really takes me out of the story, reminding me as it does of all the IRL misogyny, chauvinism and exploitation of women by leading figures in SF of the time.

For a Hard SF book (and it is HARD SF, almost textbookish at times) written 15 years after the Nobel was awarded for research on DNA, there's a puzzling omission too: When trying to determine if the body found was human, why didn't they test its DNA? That capability wasn't even science fiction when Hogan wrote the book, it was well within the capability of the science of his time to test DNA to see if it was human, yet a society almost a hundred years more advanced didn't have that technology?

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Provenance was definitely different for Leckie. I enjoyed it, but it was nothing like her space novels. I don't think it was quite as well received, though I could be misremembering that.

Definitely different. I had mixed feelings about it. I enjoyed it, but was actually hoping for something more in line with her space novels. But we can't always get what we want.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm starting Provenance by Ann Leckie. I really like her other books, so I expect to enjoy this one too.

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Provenance was definitely different for Leckie. I enjoyed it, but it was nothing like her space novels. I don't think it was quite as well received, though I could be misremembering that.

Originally Posted by CRussel

Definitely different. I had mixed feelings about it. I enjoyed it, but was actually hoping for something more in line with her space novels. But we can't always get what we want.

I had read Ancillary Justice and The Raven Tower. I liked this one too. I liked the characters, and I was willing to go with the background which would obviously be more familiar in some ways if I'd already read the other Ancillary novels. (I'm still waiting for them to go on special offer!)

Next up: King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist. The first in a newish trilogy from him that was a random pick from my TBR pile.

[JSWolf]

I'm currently reading The Autobiography of James T. Kirk by David A. Goodman.

The Autobiography of James T. Kirk chronicles the greatest Starfleet captain's life (2233-2371), in his own words. From his youth spent on Tarsus IV, his time in the Starfleet Academy, his meteoric raise through the ranks of Starfleet, and his illustrious career at the helm of the Enterprise, this in-world memoir uncovers Captain Kirk in a way Star Trek fans have never seen.

[Paperbackstash]

I am going through some Audible short stories such as Oh, Whistle, and I'll come to you, My Lad by M.R. James and narrated by David Suchet, Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson - these are shorts but have had for awhile. Also doing two audiobook re-reads of Agatha Christie from Hoopla for first time in between Scribd and Audible oldies. This is a busy reading month for me goal wise and it's nice to have the variety.

I finished The Woods by Harlan Coben, it was good - characters weaker but writing fine and the mystery well done. Have finished some other fun cozies such as the first of a series, State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy and working on The Tea and the Tempest. Most UF I have tried is semi lackluster this month. I need to stick mainly to the mysteries like my original plan, but you know how that goes.

[Luffy]

My 5 star review of The Chewing Gum Rescue And Other Stories, by Margaret Mahy:-

Spoiler:

I don't think I'll read a better book for the rest of the year. This book...I read it in real book form, and I had sworn never to go back to treeware.

But this book about children, magic and sometimes the elderly, is a fantastic book. I absolutely do think that it's better than any Percy Jackson story. Maybe it's better than even that precursor to many subgenres; Tom Sawyer.

I'm feeling reckless enough to compare Mahy to Twain. Go read this. It blows Isabelle Allende's magic realism out of the water.

I do know that Mahy is only human. I tried reading one of her other books. It was garbage. But THIS. Is a masterpiece.

[DrNefario]

I just finished the crime thriller 14 (Taylor Jackson #2) by J T Ellison. Slightly annoyingly it was my 15th book of the year. I wasn't really aiming for that, although my actual reason was just as dumb*, but it is irritating to be so close. The actual book was OK. Readable enough. It did to some extent hinge on the main character not remembering something until it was convenient for the plot. Also, I still don't really understand why it was called 14, the blurb justification doesn't seem to square up with the content. I'd be happy enough to carry on with the series, but I'm not in a rush.

*A few years back I did a consecutive numbers challenge, and got up to 13. I recently picked up books for 15 and 16, so I decided to pick up the sequence and try to bridge the gap.