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

[Apache]

Read The Frozen Hours by Jeff Shaara. I really enjoyed this one. Historically accurate and shows how the men on both sides had to endure horrible conditions while fighting for their lives. 5 Stars.
Apache

[CRussel]

Currently reading The Chain of Command by Frank Chadwick. The third novel in his Varoki universe, but not a direct sequel to anything else. So far, not up to the earlier books in this.

Also reading Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck. Mostly as an audio book, read by Gary Sinise. Surprisingly enjoyable, and in no small part because of the excellent narration.

[gmw]

So I finished Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy: The Riddle-Master of Hed then Heir of Sea and Fire and Harpist in the Wind. I can only give the trilogy a 3/5: okay but that's all. I think it has dated. I think (but can't remember for sure) that I read it when I was younger and liked it a lot, but these days I expect a bit more. The story is very much a LotR-style fantasy quest, but its big problem is that it feels exactly like that (that the characters are moving around just so they can do a bit of character development and collect a few things before the big finale); it's all very well that this must happen in a quest, but it should not be this obvious. Since I'd enjoyed The Forgotten Beasts of Eld so much just a few weeks ago, I found this trilogy a bit of a let down ... but it was still entertaining enough that I finished all three books.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Still reading this, although I find the order is a bit odd - they have chronological order within thematic sections, so we zip through the decades, and then we're back in the 1940s again. I think it would have been better to be purely chronological.

I've finally finished Grumbles from the Grave.

Interesting, but I still feel that the decision to go for thematic sections was a poor one.

Next up: Asimov's SF for March/April 2019 and also The Holy Thief by Ellis Peters.

[Dngrsone]

Finished reading Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry Loftis. Very engaging book.

Have already started on The Gospel of Loki which promises to be a quick and fun read.

[Rev. Bob]

So, I’ve been away for a while...

Owing to an Amazon credit promotion a little while back, I picked up what looks like the final Honor Harrington novel. I actually hadn’t gotten around to the previous volume yet, or the sixth anthology, or the “Manticore Ascendant” series, so I promptly loaded all of the above onto my reader.

First, though, I had a couple of anthologies to finish: Time Twisters (time travel and alt-history) and Carniepunk (urban fantasy stories set at carnivals). Both were quite good in my estimation, but I think the latter was better.

I was disappointed by only one aspect of Beginnings: Worlds of Honor #6, which was that Zahn’s story appears to have been cannibalized and expanded to become the “Manticore Ascendant” series... by which I mean that random text searches turned up pieces of the short story in both of the first two books. It’s a good story; don’t get me wrong - but I was hoping the novels would complement the story rather than reworking and replacing it.

Anyway, I have now started Shadow of Victory and look forward to finishing it and Uncompromising Honor to complete the saga. After a while (read: long enough for my memory to get a bit fuzzy), I’ll go back to “Manticore Ascendant” and treat it as its own thing - but I have at least 1800 pages between now and then.

[gmw]

Finished Force of Nature by Jane Harper. This was very good, a firm 4/5. This is her second book and like the first is a mystery/crime story featuring Federal Police agent Aaron Falk. I enjoyed the first book, but this second is much tighter. It is a fairly simple tale but structured very effectively to build the tension and turns into a very satisfying story. The first book was a more typically Australian context (drought, dry, heat), but I know the general area of this story, too, and it's quite realistic and well described. While this book does make some reference back to the first, it's simple back-story and not critical, so you can read in any order you like.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Asimov's SF for March/April 2019 and also The Holy Thief by Ellis Peters.

I've also started The Demons of Paris by Eric Flint et al.

It's unusual for me to have three things on the go!

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I was not really enjoying The Children's Book, so I have put it on hold and started listening to Marisha Pessl's Night Film.

I am still reading Ada Palmer's third installment in her Terra Ignota series The Will to Battle on my Kobo.

Also working through Naoki Urasa and Macoto Tezuka's fantastic Pluto series in paper.

Finished Night Film yesterday and started my re-read of The Mystery of Edwin Drood for the the NLBC! I have read Drood a few times, but I had forgotten that the book opened with that lovely hallucinatory opium den scene.

Still working on the Palmer and Pluto.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Owing to an Amazon credit promotion a little while back, I picked up what looks like the final Honor Harrington novel. I actually hadn’t gotten around to the previous volume yet, or the sixth anthology, or the “Manticore Ascendant” series, so I promptly loaded all of the above onto my reader.

...

I was disappointed by only one aspect of Beginnings: Worlds of Honor #6, which was that Zahn’s story appears to have been cannibalized and expanded to become the “Manticore Ascendant” series... by which I mean that random text searches turned up pieces of the short story in both of the first two books. It’s a good story; don’t get me wrong - but I was hoping the novels would complement the story rather than reworking and replacing it.

I kind of stopped liking the series during the human-trafficking segment. Does it get better after that, or should I keep stopping at book eight or whatever?

Meanwhile, I finished listening to The Girl Who Played with Fire, now that my car is back from the dealership...

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

I kind of stopped liking the series during the human-trafficking segment. Does it get better after that, or should I keep stopping at book eight or whatever?

The series has two major antagonists. First is Haven, and Mesa’s human trafficking gets introduced during that conflict to set them up as the second. So, no, the genetic slavery isn’t a minor blip in the series – the forces behind it are the Big Bad of the saga.

[gmw]

I just finished The Lost Man by Jane Harper. This is truly excellent, 5/5! The central mystery is intriguing and unfolds neatly and convincingly, but it is the deep richness behind the main story that makes this book something special. Characters evolve before your eyes. Subjects like suicide, rape and abuse are treated in a matter-of-fact way, not explicit, just part of the fabric of the lives in this story that takes place in the isolation of the remote outback of Australia. It was a book I didn't want to put down, but nor did I want to rush it. This is her third book and so far Jane Harper just keeps getting better.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Currently reading The Chain of Command by Frank Chadwick. The third novel in his Varoki universe, but not a direct sequel to anything else. So far, not up to the earlier books in this.

OK. Not as good as the two earlier books in the Varoki universe, but I wasn't tempted to abandon it. A grudging 3 stars.

Also reading Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck. Mostly as an audio book, read by Gary Sinise. Surprisingly enjoyable, and in no small part because of the excellent narration.

I'm nearly done with this, and I think I've already read all the best parts. I've quite enjoyed this look back at 1960 America. And Charley is a pleasure! A solid 4 stars, with a fifth star for Sinise's reading. Go ahead, spend an Audible credit on it.

Next, I read a short by Ann Leckie. I have really enjoyed her books in the past, but this short was a mess. A bare 2 stars.

Next up - Edwin Drood for the New Leaf Book Club.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm nearly done with this, and I think I've already read all the best parts. I've quite enjoyed this look back at 1960 America. And Charley is a pleasure! A solid 4 stars, with a fifth star for Sinise's reading. Go ahead, spend an Audible credit on it.

I agree that Sinise was worth an extra star; it was one of those books that was even better in audio than it would have been in text. It's a pity that other than Of Mice and Men there's essentially nothing else narrated by him.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

I agree that Sinise was worth an extra star; it was one of those books that was even better in audio than it would have been in text. It's a pity that other than Of Mice and Men there's essentially nothing else narrated by him.

Yes, and I'm not particularly interested in re-reading Of Mice and Men. It is a shame, he's really quite good for American books.