Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

So, what have you read this month?

I'm reading the Honor Harrington series again. Not sure how far I'll go, but I'm on book 3 now. It's been 5 years since I last read them. Nice reread.

I've been reading the Cazalet Chronicles since February. It's five books in one bundle and contains 3400 pages. But recently, I've been reading more of the damn thing. I'm sure I'll rate it at least 4 stars when I'm done with it. I'm 74% in.

I just finished Aurora Rising I was very impressed at how much it held my attention.

I’ve been binging on Janny Wurtz’s War of Light and Shadow. I’m on book 7, Traitor’s Knot. Sheesh this series is immersive!

I love the Wars of Light and Shadow. 1 book left to come out. Don’t miss the short stories either.

I’ve been binging on the Cosmere, with Arcanum Unbounded just read. Contemplating a re-read of first Mistborn trilogy and Elantris.

Religions of China in Practice by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 and it's sequels by Michael Kotcher enjoyable series, the author needs a better editor than spellcheck and the major criticism, can write good characters, but not good aliens.

Completed:

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Authors: Katherine Arden, Ryan Calejo, Becky Chambers, Michael Connelly, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, Jane Harper, Ann Leckie, John M. Marzluff, Stuart MacBride, Dervla McTiernan, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Louise Penny, David Szalay, Adrian Tchaikovsky, J.Y. Yang
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Still reading Oathbringer and Rise of Empire; finished Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, 1963-1972 and Lakhoni.

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City was a delightful fantasy story, narrated (1st person) by the commander of a military engineering unit who end up the last defenders of the empire's capital when an armed force appears in a surprise attack. KJ Parker applies his dry sense of humor to the improbable tale. Recommended.

Still working my way through The Illearth War and Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

Finished reading The Unicorn Solution by John Lee. For some reason his books are really hard for me to get into, but once I get a certain amount into it, I enjoy them. Must admit though, I was a bit disappointed as to how they defeated their enemy, felt a bit rushed and had so much opportunity to be more than it was, especially with two more books to go. I have to wonder if he first aimed for a trilogy then added more?

Starting on the last Acorna book (not counting the spinoff trilogy) - Acorna's Triumph by Anne McCaffrey

I also finished what was on my eReader, and by chance I discovered a perfect genre blender for my BINGO slot, a romance involving unicorns (or at least a woman who takes care of them or something like that). Not a fan of romances generally but the point of the BINGO is to try to read things you otherwise wouldn't after all - Summer of the Unicorn by Kay Hooper. I suspect there will be a lot of eye rolling on my part but we'll see.

Just finished reading Circe. An interesting story from her point of view.

I finished reading


The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe by D.G. Compton
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading


Crux by Ramez Naam

Monster Hunter Guardian by Larry Correia and Sarah A. Hoyt

I finished Assassin's Fate Friday, thus concludes my journey with Fitz through the Realm of the Elderlings. It was definitely an emotional conclusion to the series for me. Easily 5/5 stars.

I've now moved on to something a bit lighter, Closed Casket a non-Agatha Christie Poirot mystery. It's entertaining so far.

Glass Houses

I finished Closed Casket and rated it 3.5/5 stars (or 3/5 on GR). Was an entertaining mystery, would read more in the same series.

I've now just started Fledgling, Octavia Butler's foray into vampire fiction.

I read The Wrong Stars which I enjoyed for the most part. Nice to get back into space after so many fantasy reads.

I also read Magpie Murders. It's not sci fi/fantasy but it was a really fun mystery with lots of twists and turns.

Now, I'm rereading Cold Iron in anticipation of the next book coming out in September. Can't wait!

Finished the 6th Acorna book, now just have the trilogy about Acorna's daughter.

However my next read will fill in my BINGO slot for a debut novel - Unicorn Highway by David Lee Jones

Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon." (Yes, I know it's not exactly current.) I recently put together a presentation about the Moon landing for our community's commemorative event. One of the points I wanted to make was how the Moon became a place that humans could aspire to visit—meaning I could plug science fiction writers. Of course that meant I had to mention Verne.

In doing a little background check, I discovered that the standard Verne books I was familiar with had been very poorly translated many years ago and only recently updated. After a little searching, I bought a copy of Miller's "The Annotated Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon." To my pleasure, I've found a very enjoyable and readable story!

I finished reading The Rooster Bar by John Grisham and Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey . I am reading A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham. I plan to read The Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley next.

Luffy wrote: "I've been reading the Cazalet Chronicles since February. It's five books in one bundle and contains 3400 pages. But recently, I've been reading more of the damn thing. I'm sure I'll rate it at leas..."

Done with it. And I rated it 5 stars. What's certain is that I shall read it again. My Year 2019 in books will have a book with 3404 pages.

Blackfish City was another of those novels that spends its first half swapping PoVs between characters with no obvious storyline between them until it finally gets on with an actual plot. (I had been hoping the near-future setting would finally fill the Hard Sf square on my Bingo Card, but its not really focused on any actual science.)

BTW, an earlier Sam Miller story of Qaanaaq, his ocean-floating post-collapse city of Blackfish City, has been reprinted in this month's Lightspeed magazine and is online here: Calved. (I found it even more boring than the novel; YMMV.)

Finished Fledgling, 4/5 stars. The beginning was a difficult read but after 70 pages became engrossed in the story. Came out of it convinced more than ever that Octavia Butler was a genius who never got the credit and respect she deserved in the SFF community.

Anyway after finishing Fledgling, yesterday I started Galaxy in Flames, Book 3 of the Horus Heresy series (Warhammer). I was having trouble finding it so had to order it in from the bookstore. Instantly sucked into it as usual.

I finished Leviathan Wakes, I enjoyed it, so that I am now starting Caliban's War, and if I find it as good as the first one I am certain to read all books in the Expanse series.

Finished Unicorn Highway last night. Wasn't half bad actually, coming of age story in 1940's Kansas with a unicorn tossed in to keep things interesting

Started reading The Unicorn Girl by Caroline Glyn which must be so obscure GR doesn't even have a cover image for it, and with only 5 ratings which almost have 1 person per possible rating so seems it's all over the place as far as what people think of it. So far it's got an odd style to it with an odd main character, we'll see, at least it's short.

I finally finished The Illearth War. I'm taking a short break from reading the Thomas Covenant series to read The Rod of Seven Parts

Finished the Unicorn Girl, there is very little unicorn aspect to it, in fact a bit of a stretch to consider a fantasy at all. More a story of an awkward Girl Guide in the 1920's who is trying to find her place in the world.

Starting on book 4 of the Unicorn Saga - The Unicorn Peace by John Lee. Will see if it follow the pattern of my struggling to get into it but then enjoying it by the end.

I’ve started Age of Assassins and an ARC for a book that’s not in the GR database yet.

Sped through Galaxy in Flames today and finished it, another stellar book in the Horus Heresy series! 5/5 stars. Moving on to Book 4 with The Flight of the Eisenstein. Looking like I'll need to get accustomed to a different set of characters in this one :(

There are currently over 50 novels in the Horus Heresy series, and I believe it contains at least 4 different story arcs.

The Hidden Ones by Nancy Madore

In The Hidden Ones Nancy Madore deftly crafts a tale that encompasses present day terrorism, myths about the ancient world, and mystical scrolls found in Qumran in the late 1940s.
Interesting story. 3 stars

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

On my eReader, finished Summer of the Unicorn...clearly I'm not the target romance audience. I didn't find it at all romantic that the girl kept telling the guy to leave, that he'd destroy everything she stood for, but he kept saying that it was so sad that she had to live there all alone without knowing the touch of a man, that she'll never know love, that he's actually doing something good by ignoring her wishes. *shudders* No wonder stalkers think it's ok to ignore a woman saying "No" if they read books like this. I mean come on...unicorns...virginity...of he'd destroy her as "Keeper" of the unicorns. But then, what is a higher calling when you could be having sex instead...sigh. And you couldn't have love if you weren't humping each other every few minutes. Which given the protagonist was a near rapist, the author had to come up with an extremely vile and perverted villain to be worse!

At least I really enjoyed the parts with the unicorns.

Anyhow, at least that completed my genre blender BINGO slot, mixing Fantasy and Romance together...and also SF.

You know, this is the third book I've read where it starts off as a fantasy, but then you realize that behind the scenes that you aren't actually in a fantasy world but are actually on another planet (and thus SF), and that Guardians (always the same name) have rescued the unicorns from Earth. And that any magic involved is either us unknowingly tapping into some advanced tech, or inherited some alien genetics. Kind of interesting!

Now onto my Anthology bingo slot - Unicorns! edited by Jack Dann

Tony wrote: "There are currently over 50 novels in the Horus Heresy series, and I believe it contains at least 4 different story arcs."

Yep, part of my sad react was mostly that I love Loken as a character and could have easily just followed his PoV for 50+ books 😄

Andrea wrote: "I didn't find it at all romantic that the girl kept telling the guy to leave, that he'd destroy everything she stood for, but he kept saying that it was so sad that she had to live there all alone without knowing the touch of a man, that she'll never know love, that he's actually doing something good by ignoring her wishes. *shudders* No wonder stalkers think it's ok to ignore a woman saying "No" if they read books like this. I mean come on...unicorns...virginity...of he'd destroy her as "Keeper" of the unicorns. But then, what is a higher calling when you could be having sex instead...sigh. And you couldn't have love if you weren't humping each other every few minutes. Which given the protagonist was a near rapist, the author had to come up with an extremely vile and perverted villain to be worse!"

I can commiserate. I have tried reading romance books, but they sometimes appear in other genres unbidden. The Hollows series by Kim Harrison are a prime example.

Power of Gods by Nancy Madore


There's a lot on the line in this second book in 'Legacy of the Watchers' series, including possible Armageddon caused by ancient spirits controlling humans at a military research facility in Alaska.
Engaging story. 3 stars

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

My review of The Perfect Wife by J.P. Delaney:

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

I finished The Rod of Seven Parts. Books based on role-playing games are rarely great, and this is no exception. The best game-based books are probably the Warhammer and Warhammer 40K novels. I will now continue with the Thomas Covenant series, next book is The Power That Preserves

Finished reading The Unicorn Peace...apparently wars are a lot more interesting than peace after all, at least if you're going to read about it rather than live it. This one was just one big build up to whatever will happen in the last book. I wasn't entirely bored, but surprisingly little actually happened.

Next on my list should be a quick read - Guardians of the Wild Unicorns by Lindsay Littleson

My review of Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell:

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

Star Trek Memories by William Shatner

In this entertaining memoir, William Shatner shares his memories about making the original 'Star Trek' series.

Enjoyable book for fans. 4.5 stars

My review (with new pictures): https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Reading The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt. I'm going into it being quite certain that there won't be any actual unicorns but I was intrigued anyway when it popped up as something available at my library. Didn't realize it was as old as it was (published 1948) and it's a rather difficult read, I find myself having to re-read sentences to figure them out. But still interesting to read a fantasy that was published 7 years before LotR.

There's more of the old fantasy that you might think but it can be hard to dig up.

Just getting started on the Witcher series, hoping to get through a decent amount before the Netflix show. I'm a big fan of the game.

My review of Very Veggie Murder:-

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

Finished The Flight of the Eisenstein which I enjoyed a lot. Rated it 4/5 stars. It was the fourth book of the Horus Heresy series. I've now decided to move on to A Demon in the Desert. Indie book about an orc demon hunter. Around 40 pages in and having fun with it so far.

Finished The Power That Preserves, which brings to an end The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - kind of. Some 4 years after the final book of the trilogy, Donaldson released Gilden-Fire, a short story detailing an episode which had been cut in the final edit of The Illearth war, which makes it book 2.5 in the trilogy - I have started reading it.

Finished the anthology Unicorns! compiled by Jack Dann. Excellent collection of stories, while not every story was great, there were none that were bad. And it's definitely a collection of famous SF&F authors from Zelazny, de Camp, Le Guin, Ellison, Sturgeon, Niven, McIntyre, Wolfe, White among others

Tony - Donaldson has a story in this one too :) I don't know where you got a copy of Gilden-Fire from but if you are reading as part of the Daughter of Regals and Other Tales you'll find "Mythological Beast" as part of the anthology

My next ebook is The Prophecy by Hilari Bell