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

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by booklover6

DUST by Hugh Howey!!!! Will start it after the kids soccer games this morning.

Dust loaded onto my Kindle for PC today and now it's on my Kobo. I will read it after I finish Star Trek: From History's Shadow by Dayton Ward. Kind of struggling with this one for some reason, but I'll stick with it.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished. What a great series. I moved on to the second book, Post Captain, which is set immediately during and after the Peace of Amiens, a one year break in the Napoleonic Wars between France and the UK. The scene with the bear suit is absolutely absurd and brilliant.

Finished Post Captain. A great second book, and it foretells a continuing superb series.

Also, reading as an audio book, Antiagon Fire, by L. E. Modisett, Jr., read by William Dufries. A good book in the series, but certainly not the book to start the series with. Overall, the Imager books are ones I find perfectly enjoyable as audio books, but somewhat less so as conventional reads for some reason. IAC, on to Honor Among Enemies on the audio side.

[OldDarth]

Quite a year for the King clan and by extension of Owen King's wife we have:

Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet

One feels guilty when you read in a day, a story a writer put a lot of work into. But it is also sign of a great book and Kelly Braffet has pulled off a particularly difficult feat. She created a very sad world with characters beaten down by events out of their control. Yet Braffert writes the characters in a way that makes you empathize with them. You may empathize with certain characters over others and that's perfectly fine. There are enough characters in the story that more than a couple of them will probably get their hooks into you.

The subtext of the unquenchable human thirst for the hope of being a better person flitters on the edges of every page. The only caveat is the characters end up where you think they will. The surprise is the price they have pay to get there.

[MickeyC]

Just finished The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith AKA JK R. A good read and I did not see that ending coming at all.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I'm currently reading Sleight Malice by Vicki Tyley for my review site. About a third of the way in and it has been OK so far. Interested to see where it's heading.

OK - this one finished. It was good as a murder mystery. This is my second Tyley novel and in both she has avoided the police procedural. Instead she features a civilian woman as an inadvertent sleuth.

This approach allows for some real character development outside of the police force which brings it a bit down-to-earth for readers, but it does have its problems:
- is it believable that this person would go to such an extent over a friend's disappearance?
- is it believable that this person would tend to succeed where the police fail?
- once her actions put her in danger, would this person really continue with her bad ass attitude?

I wasn't fully satisfied with the answer to all of these questions, but I think with these types of stories it's quite hard to keep this aspect credible.

While the mystery was good, and I give the book a pass on the believability issues, there were a few aspects that gnawed at me.

The dialogue, particularly at the start, did not feel natural at all. I'm not sure if it's because I'm also from Melbourne (where the story was based) and that subtle problems with dialogue are going to stick out to me, or just that Tyley didn't do a great job with that aspect, but I found it a bit annoying.

The second aspect of concern made me feel like a bit of an alien. I really got a feeling that Tyley was presenting men in a very stereotyped way, particularly in how they thought about women. Maybe she was spot on and men nearly always have an internal dialogue about women in generalities and their own stereotypes. There was a lot of "because she's a woman" thinking going on with our main male character. I was beginning to feel like I was part of third gender at some points. I started asking questions like:
- Is this how men generally think about women?
- Is this how women generally think that men respond to women?
- Am I an alien?

But the writing itself (other than my problems with the dialogue) was very strong. I can't recall seeing any errors or awkwardness in the prose and that's always a big plus.

All my issues aside, I give the book a strong 3.5 stars, possibly 4.

Now, on to the sci-fi classic, The War of the Worlds by H G Wells. It was on my reading list for this year and it's time to get started.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm reading Danger: Human by Gordon R Dickinson. A collection of his short stories on a theme.

I might have read this one back in 2003, but I'm enjoying it so I'll continue.

I'm pretty sure I did read it. Overall, a very good collection of Dickson's short stories, and worth the re-read.

Next I read Blood and Judgement by Lars Walker. A slightly unsatisfying take on Hamlet and Mythology, but OK.

And now: Firefight Y2K by Dean Ing. Another of my long-ago Baen purchases. I think HarryT read it recently and liked it. Let's see how I find it....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now: Firefight Y2K by Dean Ing. Another of my long-ago Baen purchases. I think HarryT read it recently and liked it. Let's see how I find it....

I enjoyed the fiction in it. Not so much the essays - some of them were over-long and rather tedious, so I skipped them.

[MickeyC]

Just hurtled through High Heat, a Jack Reacher novella by Lee Child. Excellent fast read and it also included an excerpt from the beginning his forthcoming book, Never go Back. Can't wait for that one to come out.

[HarryT]

Just finished a re-read of "Queen of Sorcery", the 2nd book in David Eddings's classic fantasy series, "The Belgariad". Just as good as I remember, and I should add that the eBook version is excellent - I didn't notice a single formatting error in it, which is a welcome for a "backlist" book such as this.

This is one of my all-time favourite fantasy series, and one which, although I've re-read it many times, never loses its appeal.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Just hurtled through High Heat, a Jack Reacher novella by Lee Child. Excellent fast read and it also included an excerpt from the beginning his forthcoming book, Never go Back. Can't wait for that one to come out.

Bought this a couple of days ago, and just waiting to finish The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter (and interesting fictionalised slant on the JFK conspiracy theories) so that I can get to it. I am also waiting with breath fully bated for Never Go Back.

[Grace Elliot]

I'm satisfying my historical romance addiction with Lord and Lady Spy - by Shana Galen - 9/10 so far.

[Dhevi]

Completed Emperor of Thrones and now moving on to The Grim Company. A few chapters in to it so far.

[Apache]

I am half way through The Plantagenets: Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones.
Apache

[bfisher]

Reading Conn Iggulden's Emperor series. Just finished The Gates of Rome. Not strictly historically accurate (Marius died in bed), but a good read. Anyway, Marius is out, Sulla is in and Julius is off on the bounding waves - on to The Death of Kings.

[OldDarth]

Reading Brian Keene's short story horror collection - Blood On The Page.