Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

In like a lion, out like a lamb. Is March genetic engineering or were-critters?

What have you been reading this month?

Last month I finished:

All Systems Red by Martha Wells - 3 stars
Queenpin by Megan Abbott - 4 stars
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - 3 stars
Money Shot by Christa Faust - 3 stars
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman - 3 stars
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman - 4 stars

This month I hope to finish:
Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Nexus by Ramez Naam
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

And I'm also picking away at (but probably won't finish this month):
The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016 edited by Rich Horton
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville
The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

Completed:
Shorts:

Longs:

Just finished Inkspell, plugging away at A Storm of Swords, also reading Take a Thief (Valdemar.

I finished Home today, which I started reading on the second last day of February. Next I'll be starting The Halfling's Gem as I continue on my Forgotten Realms re-read.

Finishing Perdido Street Station, starting The Worm Ourboros, hopefully finish it.

Finished The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin. Stories were mostly very good even though many were re-reads for me. I particularly enjoyed the final story about the generation ship.

Currently reading Jagannath, a short story collection, while i wait for The Strange Bird: A Borne Story to be delivered.

Finished Stranger Tides. Was ok, nothing special for me, didn't feel like it was a waste of time, but also glad it was a library book and I didn't spend money on it.

Starting on the massive The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin, glad to see Brendan describe them as mostly good, sometimes anthologies can be iffy.

Andrea wrote: "Starting on the massive The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin, glad to see Brendan describe them as mostly good, sometimes anthologies can be iffy."

The one story i didn't like was a real-world multigenerational one, which for a novella i thought was a bit too long. Many of the novellas are interlinked as well, so you almost get novel-like narrative arcs and recurring characters.

Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner is one of the Kane novels. Fantastic S&S. Imagine an amoral, immortal Conan who is great with both sword & sorcery. He's found some alien tech that butts heads with sorcery as the swords swing between men & monsters. I gave it 5 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Right now I'm reading James Islington and E.R. Eddison

J.J. wrote: "Right now I'm reading James Islington and E.R. Eddison"

Once I'm done with one of the two, I'm going to read Ursula K. Le Guin

I'm nearly finished 'George Lucas: A Life'.

Since The Found and the Lost is so big, I decided to take some breaks in between every second or third novella and switch to something light, in this case How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. So far I'm surprised at how very different it is from the movie, other than character names and the location, I don't think anything else stayed the same! This is one case where I like the movie more :)

In February I finished:

Children of Time (Really impressive - must read)

Binti:3: The Night Masquerade - solid conclusion

Golden Age and other Stories: if you enjoyed the characters from the Temeraire series this is a nice little trip back - two fun shorts and many 'microfiction' all to fan art

Null States - Following up on the ideas of Infomacracy - could have been a bit shorter but I like her character-building

Now I have the Black Tides of Heaven and Phantom Pains on the Shelf

Rachel wrote: "In February I finished:

Children of Time (Really impressive - must read)

Binti:3: The Night Masquerade - solid conclusion

Golden Age and other Stories: if you enjoyed the characters from the Te..."

Nice! Some books there that are coming up on my own TBR. I keep wanting to read Null States because I liked Infomocracy so much, but I can't seem to find it in paperback in stores over here yet. The same problem I'm having with The Girl in the Tower :( Not sure why it's taking so long. Will soon be reading The Night Masquerade, though and looking forward to that. Really liked the first two books of the trilogy. Also just had Children of Time recommended to me by a friend and now noticing people talk about it everywhere. May have to push that one up my list!

Night Winds by Karl Edward Wagner is the first book in the Kane chronology, at least the first 3 short stories are & then Bloodstone should be read with the rest of the stories following. I did that & was blown away again by KEW's writing.

It was especially interesting to read "The Treasure of Lynortis", the first Kane story KEW wrote back when he was 16 & never published. He later rewrote it extensively into "Lynortis Reprise". A truly wonderful comparison.

The entire collection was fantastic with excellent illustrations, too. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...

Rachel wrote: "Children of Time (Really impressive - must read)..."

i enjoyed Children of Time as well. Sadly The Night Masquerade & Null States are still on my to-read list.

A Betrayal in Winter, second book of the Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham.

And on the side, the first new Black Panther graphic novel. Excellent artwork.

I am unsure of what to read next.

I cant decide between The First Law trilogy, The Traitor Son Cycle, the Riyria Revelations or going with one of Neil Gaimans standalones.

Finished reading Jagannath, Karin Tidbeck's short story collection. A solid collection of New Weird short stories, many of them inspired by Scandinavian folklore. ★★★★☆.

Also read An Unkindness of Ghosts for a group read. I liked it, despite the bad YA-sounding title and an ending that wouldn't have been the direction I went in. I'd compare it to other SF titles that tackle slavery seriously, like Parable of the Talents and The Underground Railroad. ★★★★☆.

For a real change of pace, currently reading Swords Against Death, hopefully it's better than the Fritz Leiber sci fi we read.

I just finished The Bear and the Nightingale and I ended up really enjoying this one.

Joshua wrote: "I am unsure of what to read next.

I cant decide between The First Law trilogy, The Traitor Son Cycle, the Riyria Revelations or going with one of Neil Gaimans standalones."

IMO, if you want dark, then go First Law. Great battles and characters--The Traitor Son Cycle.

Finished The Halfling's Gem I think yesterday (or was it the day before?) and have been going back and forth between starting Homeland or The Night Masquerade. Think I'm going with Homeland though. Have been having that Forgotten Realms itch so wanna see it through another book. Then think I'll be back in the mindset to continue Binti.

Dark Crusade by Karl Edward Wagner is my latest read. It was really good. I think KEW was a better short story author than novelist, but this was still a worthy addition to the Kane saga. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished Borne by Jeff Vandermeer. Lijed it, 4 ★, and will probably read Annihilation unless I see the movie first.
Now starting on All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai. He mentions Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle early and I can see the Vonnegut influence in his style, which should make for an entertaining read.

I started the month off by finishing my Brandon Sanderson binge-read The Hero of Ages, which I think has got one of the best endings.

I'm currently reading On Stranger Tides for the group read which I'm enjoying so far.

Planned next is: The Buried Giant (because it's due back at the library soon and I've already had to extend it once, oops). Then I think I'm going to continue with my WoT re-read with A Crown of Swords.

I finished Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft. My review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Yesterday I had this horrendous headache, which made even the thought of holding the giant Found and the Lost cringeworthy. But you know what was perfect when you brain is barely functional? How to Be a Pirate by Cressida Cowell! I must admit I was disappointed by this series, it's such an amazing movie that is appropriate for all ages and genders, but the book series really has a single audience - little boys. Lots of snot and farting and underwear jokes! But when your head hurts having something simple and easy to read was actually perfect.

I had picked up the first three books from the library, and since I'm going back this weekend to return some other books, I'll finish off How to Speak Dragonese quickly so I can bring it back too.

I finally completed my reading of Judas Unchained by Peter Hamilton, which I had started in late December (!) (By comparison with most other active people in this group, my reading rate is definitely very slow...). Just as I was finishing, The Final Empire, Part 1 by Brandon Sanderson was delivered to my mailbox; I started reading it tonight. I will probably be too late to comment on the currently open discussion about it, but I am sure to enjoy it.

Pierre wrote: "I finally completed my reading of Judas Unchained by Peter Hamilton, which I had started in late December (!) (By comparison with most other active people in this group, my reading rat..."

Don't think you can ever be too late to comment on discussion, the Earthsea one recently revived after the last post on it in 2015, and the thread itself was started in 2011

Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn was a fun YA romp that reminded me very much of one of the Heinlein juveniles. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished reading Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight Archive 2.5) and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne. I am reading Babylon's Ashes (The Expanse Book #6) by James S.A. Corey. I plan to read The Fourth Monkey by J.D. Barker next.

Jim wrote: "Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn was a fun YA romp that reminded me very much of one of the Heinlein juveniles...."

I was thinking of Podkayne of Mars; would have liked Martians Abroad a lot more if the ending/resolution wasn't so stupid.

I read three Marko Kloos stories earlier this month. His latest Frontlines novel (Points of Impact, one of his novella side-stories Measures of Absolution, and a graphic novel side-story Frontlines: Requiem. The graphic novel was a horrid (though technically Kloos didn't write it.) Also, it's hard to shift to an artists visions of what I'd read about. Kloos writes detailed combat scenes, and plot exists mostly to set up the next battle he wants to describe, so it's a popcorn read. (But, got two Bingo squares from the three. :)

Finished JY Yang's The Black Tides of Heaven. Sort-of silkpunk (how much fantasy can you add to Eastern culture before it's so different it ceases to be "silk"? :) Interesting novella, pair of twins, about to start companion novella, The Red Threads of Fortune, following the other twin.

I also just finished Black Tides of Heaven! Interesting take on gender- but can’t figure out how to get a bingo square out if it

Rachel wrote: "I also just finished Black Tides of Heaven! Interesting take on gender- but can’t figure out how to get a bingo square out if it"

While technically I've read JY Yang previously as short stories in various magazines (I was fond of Secondhand Bodies last year), this is my first Yang "book", so I'm making them "New (to me) Author" :)

G33z3r wrote: "I was thinking of Podkayne of Mars; would have liked Martians Abroad a lot more if the ending/resolution wasn't so stupid. "

Yeah, she jumped the shark there, but I was able to just roll with it. I almost dropped a star for it. I would have liked it better if (view spoiler)[she'd gone for Heinlein's original ending & killed her off. (hide spoiler)] Still, it was a good romp up to that point, a type of book I don't read much any more.

G33z3r wrote: "I read three Marko Kloos stories earlier this month. His latest Frontlines novel (Points of Impact, one of his novella side-stories Measures of Absolution, and a gra..."

Silkpunk...hadn't heard that one before.

Andrea wrote: "Silkpunk...hadn't heard that one before. ..."

First I'd heard it was when Ken Liu published The Grace of Kings, so pretty new. Not sure why the "punk" part; with cyberpunk it originated in stories featuring outside-the-law hackers, then it became steampunk (for retro setting with odd technology, which could just as easily have been called Verne-fiction.) Then biopunk for radical genetic engineering or cybernetics,.... we seem to add "punk" to sub-genres these days much like we tack "-gate" onto a political scandal. (Except climate change fiction, because clifi rhyme was irresistible :)

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Finished reading Homeland earlier this week and have started The Night Masquerade.

Finished The Bear and the Nightingale. Now reading The Reader at the request of my 15 year-old. Oh, and he is now reading The Bear and the Nightingale. Love it when we can swap books.

Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

Currently reading 4 books (two with each eye, obviously - perfectly possible if you wear bifocals and hold the books at the right distances), namely:

The Chronicles of the Holy Grail: The Ultimate Quest from the Age of Arthurian Literature

Malory: The Knight Who Became King Arthur's Chronicler

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages

Just read the first bit of the Tom Holt, which is about a pig and is hilarious. Bodes well.

Finished The Found and the Lost by Le Guin. A very solid anthology, there was only one in there that as a SF/F fan I struggled to get through (it wasn't SF/F) but everything else was excellent and a pleasure to read.

Now I can finally get back to Moreta by McCaffrey which I started a while ago but had to put aside to get through some library books that had to be returned (including TFatL)

Almost done with Warbreaker. Sanderson sure does love his appendixes. This is an author's annotated edition, with notes on the creation process each chapter went through. And I think that about 20% of the total book is this bonus stuff.

Finished Children of Blood and Bone, The Invisible Library and Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir.

The first two were not for me. CoBaB is the YA to end all YAs and Invisible Library (yes, Brendan, I know!) was an attempt at expanding my palate that felt more like the orthodontic palate expander, actually. I came to loathe it, but then I was only like 50 pages from done, so I pushed through.

Let's Pretend was just like Jenny Lawson's Bloggess blog, so fun, but also anxiety-producing. I liked Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things better.

Now hoping to finish these before the end of the month:
Dark Matter - so far it's fast but not life-altering
The Dispossessed - life-altering, but my copy is really hard to read and it's already a dense book so I'm taking my time with it.
Carnival - coming soon!
and a comic book TBD

Finished Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by McCaffrey. You know, I'd read this one before and by some spectacular means I had forgotten the ending, must admit I required a kleenex or two.

So, I gave up on the library since there was a big line of people before me and bought my own copy of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden since it looks like the kind of book I'll really enjoy and want to keep.