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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The second in Alan Hunter's George Gently series, Gently by the Shore. I was amused to see that the first was set in a disguised Norwich. I wonder whether I'll be able to recognise this one's location.

Clearly set in Great Yarmouth. The plot was a little bit beyond belief, but Gently's persistence and luck was fun to watch.

Next up: The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe. Bought back in January 2016 for £1.49. I know nothing about it. Let's see if it was a good buy...

[taosaur]

I've been getting more eyeball-reading the last couple months (as opposed to audiobooks). I just finished up the fourth Bobiverse book, Heaven's River, and found it a bit disappointing after the fun of the first three books. For one, there were glaring continuity errors, but also it was freighted with rather dull ideas about life, the universe and everything. It's been a highly referential series from the start, but the "Let's throw every sci-fi idea at the wall" shtick was feeling played out here, and the central trope has been done better any number of times.

[gmw]

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow. This immediately put me in mind of Accelerando by Charles Stross - probably because so much of the time is spent with the characters reciting (in very similar voices) the philosophical arguments being presented by the authors, and very little time actually doing much story-wise. (And it's not like any of it was that complicated, we didn't need the pages and pages of "clever" dialogue.) When I realised I'd rather be working than reading this I decided it was time to put it down, so it's a Did Not Finish.

As a software developer I was very conscious that both Stross and Doctorow as authors sound like the software developers they once were.

[SeaBookGuy]

A nonfiction title: Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams. A series of essays relating more to chemical elements from a cultural and historical perspective than a focus on the chemistry (science) so much.

[WT Sharpe]

I'm reading Dark Shadows: Angelique's Descent by Lara Parker, the actress who played Angelique in the Gothic 60's soap opera. I'm halfway through this 436 page novel, and it's quite good. This back story leads its readers through the tragic events in her early life that led her to embrace the powers of evil. After reading in her diary all she endured, even Barnabas seems inclined to have a bit of sympathy for this devil.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I'm reading Dark Shadows: Angelique's Descent by Lara Parker, the actress who played Angelique in the Gothic 60's soap opera. I'm halfway through this 436 page novel, and it's quite good. This back story leads its readers through the tragic events in her early life that led her to embrace the powers of evil. After reading in her diary all she endured, even Barnabas seems inclined to have a bit of sympathy for this devil.

Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played Maggie, has also written novels and memoirs about Dark Shadows - she writes well, and her reminiscences are very enjoyable to read.
[Tom - we're showing our age!]

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe. Bought back in January 2016 for £1.49. I know nothing about it. Let's see if it was a good buy...

It was OK. An odd early Urban Fantasy in epistolic form. Probably wasn't a good buy, considering how many unread books I had back in 2016.

Next up: The Infinity Link by Jeffrey A. Carver. Bought way back in May 2009, over twelve years ago. Taking inflation into account, it cost me more then than it currently costs at Amazon UK, so definitely not a good buy

Let's see if it's a fun read.

[astrangerhere]

I finished Deronda for the book club and am picking up some LGBTQIA reads for Pride (Happy Pride to those inclined!).

I'm starting with Emma Donoghue's Frog Music. I got it from the library, so it won't make any dent in my TBR, but it started well, so I am glad I reserved it.

[PurpleStar]

I finished Later by Stephen King. Started reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

[frereroy]

Salman Rushdie - Quichotte.

Intriguing!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Infinity Link by Jeffrey A. Carver. Bought way back in May 2009, over twelve years ago. Taking inflation into account, it cost me more then than it currently costs at Amazon UK, so definitely not a good buy

Let's see if it's a fun read.

I'm abandoning it at 40%. There's too much going on that isn't properly explored. FTL communication, for example, which is just so the story can have real-time communication with a remote spacecraft, but no consideration of what an astounding thing this would be, nor anything about its uses on/near Earth.

Next up: Under the Dragon' Tail by Maureen Jennings. The second in her Murdoch Mysteries. I quite liked the first when I read it last year.

[kyrilson]

I DNFed Without Fail by Lee Child. First Jack Reacher book I've managed to dislike. I managed to get about 50% through it before I bailed. It just was going nowhere, they kept just talking about the comings and goings of the vice president, very boring.

Next, I read The Gray Man by Mark Greaney. This was an okay read. The main protagonist seemed to vacillate between an uber-terminator and a normal injured man on the run a lot. The plot was a bit far-fetched, but it was a decent popcorn thriller. 3/5 stars.

On to Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett which most people here likely are familiar with, and also A Study in Crimson by Robert J. Harris - Bringing Sherlock Holmes from the Victorian Era into the dark days of World War II, this imaginative new thriller confronts the world’s greatest detective with a killer emulating the murders of Jack the Ripper.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I finished Deronda for the book club and am picking up some LGBTQIA reads for Pride (Happy Pride to those inclined!).

I'm starting with Emma Donoghue's Frog Music. I got it from the library, so it won't make any dent in my TBR, but it started well, so I am glad I reserved it.

I finished Frog Music, and alas, it was not a good start to my Pride month reading. I am old enough now to have no patience with STILL burying my gays.

Up next is Nghi Vo's The Chosen and the Beautiful. My wife read the entire thing over the course of one day and loved it. So I have much higher hopes here. This is from Goodreads:

Nghi Vo’s debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon [The Great Gatsby] as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Up next is Nghi Vo's The Chosen and the Beautiful. My wife read the entire thing over the course of one day and loved it. So I have much higher hopes here.

Put on hold at the library, but 78th on 10 copies. It'll be a while. But sounds good.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Put on hold at the library, but 78th on 10 copies. It'll be a while. But sounds good.

CR - you might try The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Vo's first novella in a cycle. It came out a while back and might be available. It will give you a good feel for her prose and style. I read it in one sitting and it was in my top ten for that year.