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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Zombies will have to wait a bit longer. I mis-placed my Cybook (now found again), so I started another of the Gideon Oliver mysteries by Aaron Elkins instead.

A little below the others, but still fun. I felt Gideon was behaving a little out of character.

Since I was out and about without my CyBook, I also started F&SF December 2005, another from my backlog of F&SF issues.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I just finished A Fine and Bitter Snow by Dana Stabenow. After reading 12 Kate Shugak books and 2 Liam Campbell books so far, they seem to get better each time. Now on to the 2nd Molly Fyde novel, Molly Fyde and the Land of Light by Hugh Howey.

I totally agree, they just get better. (Though I have to admit that Breakup is still one of my favourites. Just too ridiculous for words, and laugh out loud funny.)

About the time you finish, I'll suggest you try the Audible versions of them. Very well done, and a different experience. Meanwhile, I'm reading #11 right now.

[Marrella]

Finished Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer this week. I liked it, but it was really more like a thriller than a hard science fiction novel. I have to admit that I prefer his hard scifi or his scifi/mystery crossovers.

Spoiler:

The president of the US gets shot and is taken to hospital. During his surgery, an EMP (caused by a terrorist attack on the White House) causes a blackout. During this blackout, the memories of a bunch of people present at the hospital get linked. Much of questioning about how this happened and what will be the consequences follows.

Also finished Lightspeed Magazine #25, June 2012. A good issue, the story I liked most was a reprint by George R. R. Martin: The Way of Cross and Dragon. It's now available for free at the Lightspeed website (also as a podcast).

[alansplace]

Shear Terror (Wool Fanfiction) [Kindle Edition]



Quoting Hugh Howey's Blog

Shear Terror!

Need a WOOL fix while I’m writing about zombies? For a mere dollar, you can grab the best WOOL fan-fiction south of the equator. David Adams has crafted a tale of post-apocalyptic horror where you, the reader, are the thing to be feared.

It’s a short read that you can knock out over a cup of coffee. It’s only a dollar for you and poor David only makes a third of that. I absolutely loved what he did with this, and I think you will too!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

F&SF December 2005, another from my backlog of F&SF issues.

Which had some interesting fantasy in it, but nothing outstanding. I'm definitely going to finish up the zombie short-shorts next.

[carld]

I gave up on Existence and returned it to the library. The print was just too small. Instead I've started reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, on my Kindle this time.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by carld

I gave up on Existence and returned it to the library. The print was just too small. Instead I've started reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, on my Kindle this time.

Was Existence any good before you stopped it?

[ATDrake]

So it's Hugo voting season and I've finished up most of the main packet (just two more novels to go and a couple of the novellas) and I'll probably be able to at least skim the graphic novels and non-fiction sections this year. Maybe even do the fan stuff and the Campbell Award, too.

Novels thus far:

First one I read was Mira Grant's Deadline, which is 2nd in her Newsflesh series of bloggers, zombies, and political conspiracy (I read the 1st in last year's packet and quite liked it). It advances the plot nicely in the aftermath of the first book (which could have ended perfectly well standalone) by deepening the apparent conspiracy involved, and there are some rather surprising surprises which on reflection, are somewhat hinted at and not entirely out of line with what could be expected.

We also get a few more glimpses of how the world came to be the way it was and adapted to what drove it there, and while I think that the author is decidedly more optimistic about what the reception and ultimate fate of developing nations' zombie apocalypse survivors would be in the first world, especially the US and the UK, I'm willing to go along with it, since while some of the social and economic stuff does tend to be on the implausible handwave-y side, it's at least consistently implausible with what's been handwaved before.

Her novella Countdown, which shows exactly how the zombification virus came to be and take over the world, is also up for a Hugo, and while it was a nice explanatory tie-in read, it didn't really strike me as a Hugo-quality nice explanatory tie-in read. Still, it was a nifty background-filling bonus.

Overall, an enjoyable light series for me with occasional moments of depth.

Next up, Jo Walton's Among Others which was one of those retro-nostalgic loner outcast social misfit girl receives comfort and discovers friendship via the magic of science fiction/fantasy books coming-of-age stories. Only, she wasn't always a loner and was perfectly well acquainted with the magic as we find out in a slowly unravelling series of diary references to What Really Happened on the way to her journey of self-realization.

Somewhat sentimental and navel-gazing both from a story-character and a fannish-reader point of view with the setup (much like last year's winning novella/novelette The King of Mars or whatever it was called), but I really liked this.

Recommended for lovers of subtle, low-key, magical realism coming-of-age stories with a big dollop of nostalgia. Probably my 1st-place Hugo vote unless one of the two unreads trumps it.

And finally, read George R. R. Martin's 5th book in his sprawling and possibly never-ending A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance With Dragons.

I'd heard much about it over the years, but never bothered picking it up after also hearing about the long wait times between installments and the accompanying gnashing and wailing of fans. And I've been reasonably thoroughly spoilered for the main points of the plot and character motivations just from reading TV Tropes pages and the various fannish implosions that ended up on Fandom W*nk.

Anyway, since this was over 1000 pages in tiny squinty PDF (pro-tip for Hugo packet content providers: if you make it difficult to read your offering, I spend less time trying to read it, and it makes less of a favourable impression on me come decision time — if I can't read it, I'm not voting for it), and the other books in the series are known cockroach-killer doorstoppers, I opted to skip even trying to catch up with the series before hitting the 5th book.

As it was, it took me a while to get into, but eventually I did get the hang of who the characters were, what had gone before, and where they seemed to be going now. And the overall story seemed compelling enough that I'm curious as to where it will be going and looked up more detailed spoilers on the previous books which I'll probably go read at some point when I have more spare time. Maybe even watch the TV series, since apparently Martin has input on it and they're trying to be reasonably faithful.

But this will be at the bottom of the voting pile, since although it admittedly does advance the plot and we see the changes wrought in characters by their changing situations, it also doesn't qualify as a complete story in any way, not even in a episodic wrap up the minor-focus-plot-within-the-overarching-and-ongoing-main way because aside from the shuffling of individual circumstances and removal of a few characters from the screen via what I assume is Dead For Real, not one single thing is resolved and in fact even more dangling threads and cliffhangers are introduced.

So while it's a fairly compelling and interesting read, it's clearly just a 1000+ page chunk of a terminally unfinished To Be Continued story which IMHO disqualifies it for a "Best Novel" of a single year award.

The other remaining novels in the packet are both PDF, unless the packet's been updated. So, whichever one is sufficiently compelling to overcome the squintiness (which even the Sony's reflow and zoom/crop capabilities aren't helping with much) will probably be the next read, assuming I don't drop them entirely from consideration due to boredom.

[tecweston]

Just Finished:

- Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick - not bad, but I've read better zombie stories. I wish it wasn't the first part of a trilogy but oh well. I probably won't rush out to get the sequel but if my library gets it then I'll check it out.

Currently Reading:

- The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Richard L. Boyer (48%)
- The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (0%)

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by carld

I gave up on Existence and returned it to the library. The print was just too small. Instead I've started reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, on my Kindle this time.

Red Mars was one of the "Discard Sale" books I picked up at a Library discard sale the other day. I gave it to my son and hope he likes it, and he'll probably let me read it when he is done with it. It cost me pennies.

I am currently reading "The Beach House" by James Patterson and my husband and I are reading together (he reads aloud to me) "Looking for Alaska" by John Green.

On my T1 I'm also reading Anne of Green Gables for the xxxxth time.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which had some interesting fantasy in it, but nothing outstanding. I'm definitely going to finish up the zombie short-shorts next.

I've read some more of the zombies, but there are just too may of the short shorts to read without a break.

I'm starting the fourth in C.J.Cherryh's "Fortress" series. Fortress of Dragons.

[kennyc]

Just finished Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

4 of 5 stars -- great little collection of short stories about the characters in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio which is based itself on Anderson's real Ohio hometown.

Available free: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/416

well worth the read IMO

[carld]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Was Existence any good before you stopped it?

It was pretty good, with lots of implied ecological catastrophe (refugees from the Big Kudzu and other disasters resettling Detroit) mixed with near future cybertech. It's a big book, 556 pages of small (for me) print so I only got a bit further than the sample. If it was $7.99 instead of $14.99 I'd buy it.

[carld]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Red Mars was one of the "Discard Sale" books I picked up at a Library discard sale the other day. I gave it to my son and hope he likes it, and he'll probably let me read it when he is done with it. It cost me pennies.

I am currently reading "The Beach House" by James Patterson and my husband and I are reading together (he reads aloud to me) "Looking for Alaska" by John Green.

On my T1 I'm also reading Anne of Green Gables for the xxxxth time.

I read Red Mars years ago. I've got very vague, but good memories of it. When I saw my local library finally started stocking ebooks (about time), the trilogy was one of the few titles I recognized without a waiting list.

I read Anne of Green Gables back when I got my Kindle1. If I'm remembering right it was the first of a series of books, but I've never looked into the rest of them.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by carld

I read Red Mars years ago. I've got very vague, but good memories of it. When I saw my local library finally started stocking ebooks (about time), the trilogy was one of the few titles I recognized without a waiting list.

I read Anne of Green Gables back when I got my Kindle1. If I'm remembering right it was the first of a series of books, but I've never looked into the rest of them.

L.M. Montgomery is a Canadian standard for the "Anne" series. AoGG was the most popular, but yes, there were many more in the series, they're all available here on the MR library. I loved them all, but Anne of Green Gables remains one I shall never tire of. I first read it over 35 years ago (i was not quite 10), and even have used the bookcover of the first copy I ever had owned on paper thanks to calibre.

One of my favorites further down the series is "Rilla of Ingleside" - come to think of it, I think I'll read the whole works again.