Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

It's getting cold out there, what books are you snuggling up with to keep warm?

I think I started this one back in January or February this year (when was the group read?)...it's the ominbus collection The Compleat Dying Earth by Jack Vance. The last book is Rhialto the Marvellous. So this one has been sitting on my currently reading shelf for quite a long time now!

I dont know if it's a very wintery book, but I just got out of a reading slump and am now reading A Darker Shade of Magic. So far I really enjoy it. For the holidays I might dig out The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.

I had to finish the third book for the All Souls Trilogy, The Book of Life which was much the same as the first two books, but at least I have the satisfaction of finishing the series.

I feel like I've mostly been reading light fluffy things recently, so I need something a bit meatier to get my teeth into... but my next books sitting in my to read pile on the bookshelf aren't inspiring me. I've got Tales from Earthsea or re-read A Crown of Swords.

Plus, I also need to finish off the last two books for the author geography bingo challenge Killer of Enemies which I'm pretty sure I put down as a to-read in the November discussion, oh well, I'll get to it eventually. I'm also pretty sure it's going to be a light read which is why I'm procrastinating! Plus The Immortals of Meluha to cover the Indian Sub-continent which I really need to put on reserve at the library because it's never there when I go. So I'm really not sure what I want to start with, it's times like these that wandering into a bookshop is dangerous because I come out with far too many books and just procrastinate even more on my to-be reads!

For Christmas-y reads, I might see if I can dig out my old Narnia omnibus and read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, because even though it didn't win the Dec Classics discussion nomination, I still want to re-read it.

Expelliosa wrote: "For the holidays I might dig out The Stupidest Angel..."

That sounds hilarious, might have to see if I can track it down.

Cat wrote: "That sounds hilarious, might have to see if I can track it down."

It is so great! Christopher Moore is a great author. In the interest of full disclosure, I've only read two of his books. Both were hilarious though.

I really want to read the Earthsea books. I have the first one but for some reason I'm afraid to start it.

Just finished two books by Kenneth Oppel. He is such a talented author. His steam punk books are amazing, but I recently finished his fantasies, Silverwing and Sunwing.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. I've blowing through it and I'm not sure what I'll be reading next but my "to read" list is pretty long. I'm almost considering re-starting the Wheel of Time series

Expelliosa, I hope you enjoy your first read of A Wizard of Earthsea. I've reread it many times.

I just finished Under the Pendulum Sun which was interesting for how it combined a Gothic novel approach with a missionary story, considerable discussion of Christian theology, and legends of the Fae. I had some issues with plot and pacing (I'm also
frustrated by the pacing in plenty classic Gothic novrels). I suppose I enjoyed the book rather as one would a curiosity from a goblin market.

Not sure what I'm in the mood to read next.

Susan wrote: "Just finished two books by Kenneth Oppel. He is such a talented author. His steam punk books are amazing, but I recently finished his fantasies, Silverwing and Sunwing."

BTW my next read will be one of Kathryn Lasky's books, Escape; the Horses of Dawn, then it will be Norton's The Jargoon Pard.

This month I'm reading:
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee

And I'm trying to finish them all by the end of the month, along with Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

I’m currently reading A Storm of Swords and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (love!) and plan to read The Answer to the Riddle Is Me: A Memoir of Amnesia (not fantasy/sci-if, but looks interesting).

Susan wrote: "Just finished two books by Kenneth Oppel. He is such a talented author. His steam punk books are amazing, but I recently finished his fantasies, Silverwing and Sunwing."

Been wanting to read that series, I mean it's not often you run into bats as the main characters of a novel!

Old man Kong.

Finally finished Lady of the Lake today, which I started mid-November and felt like I crawled through to the finish line. Gave it 2/5 stars although kind of a weird 2/5 stars. There were definitely some epic scenes and aspects that I did like, plus written in a pretty cool style. But the direction the plot took was just terrible and overshadowed the positive.

Anyway, next up is Dawn. Planning to read the whole Xenogenesis trilogy this month.

Andrea wrote: "Susan wrote: "Just finished two books by Kenneth Oppel. He is such a talented author. His steam punk books are amazing, but I recently finished his fantasies, Silverwing and Sunwing."

Been wanting..."

Exactly and he did it so well.

This weekend finished reading The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson. It had some good stories (including a whole storyline with new characters), and some boring ones, and some cute ones about him writing the book (Purple Mars is definitely worth a read). Must admit I skimmed most of the poetry, not really into that, skimmed it in the Hobbit too :)

Since I've read nothing but SF and Fantasy this year, and since I seem to be unable to go to the library to return something without picking up something new, I wanted to read deGrasse Tyson's new book to go from Science Fiction to Science Fact. Of course all copies were on loan or hold, so I grabbed the earliest of his other books I could find - Just Visiting This Planet

Impure Blood, Volume 4 by Nadja Baer and Nathan Lueth

I am reading Alien Hunters- Daniel Arenson and I am just loving it

:-)

Persepolis Rising aka the 7th Expanse novel *excited

Read Ready Player One, which was like reading an episode of the big bang theory. ★☆☆☆☆.

Ice, which was extraordinary. Plot is straightforward enough: man travels the world trying to "rescue" a girl, while avoiding the walls of ice that are quickly encasing the entire world, but there are sudden transitions into dream sequences/hallucinations. ★★★★★.

California Bones, which was decent enough urban fantasy, i guess. Imagine one of the later harry potter books plus cannibalism. ★★☆☆☆.

Currently reading: You Should Come with Me Now: Stories of Ghosts. Short stories, some are very short, just one page. Weird, surreal stories that all seem set in modern day england.

The Wanderer, which for some reason is taking me a while to read.

The Awful Truth About Forgetting by L. Jagi Lamplighter

I'm finally getting around to reading The Crimson Campaign, second in the Powder Mage series.

Brendan wrote: "The Wanderer, which for some reason is taking me a while to read."

Probably because it's not very good.

I've begun reading "KA" by John Crowley. It started out with such great promise, but I'm halfway through now, and it's bogged down to prolonged scenes where we have to guess what the crow is seeing. He avoids some of the problem of close third person from the POV of a crow by employing a human narrator who has learned the language of crows. There may be a story arc, but I've lost it. Beautiful writing. I'll persist, but not with enthusiasm.

Currently reading The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter and Leviathan Wakes.

Also on this month's agenda:
Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann

So finally finished Vance's four books of the Dying Earth which I started back in Feb. It wasn't because it was so terrible that it took me that long, there were just other priorities to read along the way. If I had read only the first two books I would have given it two stars, but the third got better, and I downright enjoyed the fourth (at least the main character wasn't inherently cruel and he actually had a friend!!) so I bumped it up a star. I just happen to have an anthology (Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery) that includes a related story by Michael Shae called "Hew the Tintmaster" so I'll read that next.

And I just finished reading Warlord of Mars since it took an hour for my Windows update at work to finish so couldn't do anything else but just sit at my desk and stare at the swirly thing. Starting on Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. These books are silly but fun and are really quick reads, great for e-reading during my work commute, no brainpower requires first thing in the morning!

@Andrea Hahahaha, I know what you mean! One time, I got stranded at a mall and had to ride the bus back, so I walked to a nearby bookstore and bought myself Synthetic Men of Mars to read on the way back home. It was worth it. 2 hours of pulpy sci fi

Just finished Moonshine and am about to start Sword-Breaker.

Right now I’m reading Stealing Sorcery by Andrew Rowe; the third book I’ve read by him. Once that’s done, I’ve got Persepolis Rising (next book in The Expanse series) already downloaded.

I am determined to finish The Wise Man's Fear by the end of year. I love it so much yet I'm out of the habit of reading really long books.

I'm also listening to Age of Myth on Audible. It hasn't sucked me in yet, but I love Michael J. Sullivan's other works so I'm sure I'll get into this one, too.

Finished Just Visiting This Planet by deGrasse Tyson. Was a question/answer kind of thing so went quick, especially when some answers were just "no" :) Snarky and funny as well as educational.

So by reading that one I dropped the Fiction from Science Fiction, now I'm going to drop the Science too and read a mystery, the only none SF&F this year, figured I needed to get at least one in! Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs

I took a few minutes to read The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. Le Guin which is a short story prequel to The Dispossessed showing Odo as an old lady before they move to Antarres. I liked it better than the novel, maybe because it was short :)

Krampus: the Yule Lord by Brom!

Finished Version Control by Dexter Palmer. It tells the story of a physicist working on a causality violation device (don't call it a time machine), his wife who works for an online dating company, and their circle of acquaintances. It felt too close to home/present-day to be really enjoyable reading; the microagressions directed by pretty much every character against every other character were well observed but for me fell more on the stressful/bleak side of things than the liberating black humour side.

I really enjoyed Krampus the Yule Lord.

Hi guys, I'm currently reading fourth book in series The Dark Tower, Wizard and Glass. I've watched the movie recently and started reading books afterwards :) I like it, but it's little frustrating cause even in the fourth book I still don't know what the dark tower actually is. Good thing is that lack of data makes me read faster than usual :)
Also started series Song of Lioness, first book Alanna: The First Adventure.

So far this month I finished Oathbringer (I love these books so much!)

and American Gods (a bold artistic choice that I thought didn't quite pay off as I'd hoped).

I'm reading Red Sister still. I keep going between absolutely loving it and finding it too dark for me. This one's gonna have a lot of content warnings, I think.

Also reading Who Fears Death which is sort of funny because I didn't mean to be reading two books about magic school that are just waaaay too dark for tweens (and several grown ups whose names rhyme with Tallison) but I'm enjoying them both, even if it means I can't read them before bed because they're too graphic.

So, before bed I'm reading (skimming? Absorbing into the essence that makes me me? How many times do you re-read something before you just mind-meld with it?) Alanna: The First Adventure and The Once and Future King for a read through with some buddies.

I finished Bones Never Lie, that went faster than I expected it to, it was better than some of the previous installments in the series.

Starting on the group read Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I'm only a handful of pages in and I'm already loving it...."Are you deranged?" Hehehe.

Finished Dawn this morning and moved on to Adulthood Rites on my commute to/from work today. Really enjoying the trilogy so far

Andrea wrote:

Starting on the group read Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I'm only a handful of pages in and I'm already loving it...."Are you deranged?" Hehehe."

I really loved Uprooted, refreshing and quite different. Also one of the best books I read in 2017 :)

Started The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley was a really weird & wonderful read. A GR friend of mine says in his review that, "...Sheckley reads a bit like PKD sans the drug-fueled, reality-warping plot aspects for which the master was known." I found this far better written than anything I've read of PKD's, but there certainly is a resemblance. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished my author-geography bingo challenge! Which I'm really proud of. December, I read Killer of Enemies which didn't do it for me, had some stylistic quirks that annoyed the hell out of me, and The Immortals of Meluha (historical fantasy based on Hindu mythology) which I really enjoyed :)

I also went for a re-read of Heartless (re-telling of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland) which I loved just as much the second time as the first.

I'm currently reading The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror thanks to Expelliosa's suggestion.

I have just finished the audiobook of Joe Haldeman, The Forever War. This is one of the few sci fi works that I have on occasion re-read. Overall, the book has withstood the test of time well. The audio version by Recorded Books, narrator George Wilson was well done.

This is a title well worth revisiting if it has been a few years.

Reading, no...fangirling for Persepolis Rising.

Also finishing up The White Dragon since I read the other two original Dragonriders of Pern books in 2017; I'd like to have all three count towards this year's challenge.

Looking forward to reading the arc of Heart on Fire that just came in the mail! This is the first time I've been gifted a physical arc (usually i just download them from Net Galley) and I'm so excited! Will review honestly and hope they send more.

Finished Thuvia of Mars, because these books are only about 125 pages long so they go quick :) Didn't have any other ebooks with any rush to read so keeping on with Barsoom by picking up The Chessmen of Mars.

And I've been coming down with a cold, sometimes I don't like to read books I'm really enjoying while sick since that kind of ruins the experience so put Uprooted temporarily aside and started into the Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance anthology. Since Vance has such a clear style in his Dying Earth stories it's easy to imitate, out of the three I've read so far they really feel like they are part of the original series.

Picked up my very first Sanderson book this November and I'm completely hooked. Working my way through The Way of Kings after finishing the Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set trilogy, also listening to the audiobook of Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon, Paul Hoffman's The Left Hand of God, and struggling through An Ember in the Ashes by Saba Tahir.

So far, Embers is a raging disappointment. Boring, very little character development, with a plot that's excruciatingly slow. I'll be surprised if I don't end up giving up on it and definitely won't be continuing the series.

Butcher and Hoffman are actually re-reads as I never continued with their series and would like to get through them all completely. I remember Furies being much more mature than it really is. Perhaps because I read it years ago when I myself wasn't as mature in my reading content. Now I find myself trying to plod through repetitious internal dialogue with a plot line that feels like it's full of unnecessary description simply to make the book longer. Which is really sad because I'm a HUGE fan of the Dresden Files and Butcher's writing is normally extremely addicting.

Sanderson's TWoK, however is a complete masterpiece. I'm blown away by his description and his writing style that is completely captivating. I think Sanderson could write about the day-to-day happenings of a rock and I would still soak it up. I went and bought every Sanderson book involved in the Cosmere universe from my local B&N this weekend and can't WAIT to get them all read.

Aleksandra wrote: "Hi guys, I'm currently reading fourth book in series The Dark Tower, Wizard and Glass. I've watched the movie recently and started reading books afterwards :) I like it, but it's little..."

Tamora Pierce is amazing! I hope you enjoy Alanna and her adventures and if you do, check out ALL of her other works in the Tortal universe as they're all spectacular.

If you're new to Tamora's work, she also has another series, The Circle of Magic that is just as wonderful. It continues with The Circle Opens and is followed up by several separate novels, some that have yet to be released. Mrs. Pierce's works are what got me hooked on fantasy as a kid.

Casey wrote: "Tamora Pierce is amazing! I hope you enjoy Alanna and her adventures and if you do, check out ALL of her other works in the Tortal universe as they're all spectacular..."

Thanks Casey for recommendation! I really enjoyed first book, so I'll definitely try to read all of them. Book is even more fun since I read it as part of buddy read, which is also first time for me :)

Finished Adulthood Rites and have since moved on to Imago. Adulthood Rites I think has been the best book in the trilogy so far and would give it 4.5 stars if GR would allow it. I'm kind of sad not to have Akin as the main character anymore. I quite liked him and wanted to see where his adventure went from there.