Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Happy New Year
New year, new books? What have you grabbed off the stack?

I'll be starting it off with our group read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Happy New Year everyone! I 'm starting 2020 with The Naked Sun.

The new Vandeermeer: Dead Astronauts

I'll be starting the year off with The Goblin Emperor and Fahrenheit 451. Reading other things, too, but those are the priorities.

Happy New Year, all!

I haven't started a new book yet, still reading the one I began on December 29, Sword of Kings. Its the latest Saxon Stories book published earlier this year. So far I'm enjoying it as usual, but I found something about the dialogue between Uhtred and Finan feels like Cornwell is writing it more like the TV series than the way its usually written in the books. Just a weird feeling I have that he's allowed the TV show to influence him a bit. Still really enjoying it though.

The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by Antonin Sertillanges

January 2020

Completed:

=============
Authors:
Jennifer Ackerman, L.X. Beckett, Chanelle Benz, Sue Burke, Roshani Chokshi, Hafsah Faizal, Theodora Goss, Dean Koontz, R.F. Kuang, Derek Künsken, Alex Michaelides, Erin Morgenstern, Téa Obreht, Ann Patchett, A.G. Riddle, V.E. Schwab, Tara Westover

I read a review book yesterday, Freeing Finch


YA about a gender-different kid. Not SF&F.

I have started with Stephen Kings "The Institute" and it is soooo good

Okay, I have to say this: Almost 20% of the 21st century gone and we have no real robots, flying cars, or space travel. Nothing but these damn cell phones!

Anyway, I just finished Fahrenheit 451.
I'm reading It and I, Jedi.
And I have my yearlong H.P. Lovecraft reading.

Finished Sword of Kings rated 4 or 4.5/5 stars. A lot I loved about it as I always do with Cornwell but this one felt different. And wasn't thrilled with the way the last page of the book went down. Certain things just felt inconsistent with Uhtred's character in this book. Still enjoyed it a lot though.

Now going for some general fiction with Medicine Walk

A Game Of Thrones

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

Finished Fahrenheit 451, definitely scares me more now than when I first read it...

Now, I had this nice pile of books I pulled out for the next couple months, but instead of picking something from there, my sister came home from visiting a friend with a couple borrowed books. Seeing as she can't read two books at the same time, she offered to let me read Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. My first reaction was "No, can't *start* another series when my goal for the year is to complete already started series" but in the end, since I'd heard a lot about Mieville and I've never read any of his books, I gave in. I just can let a book back out of my house without reading it first :)

Going to be a dark start to the year, along with F451 I had Divergent and Dark Tower and now Perdido Station, as well as a Kathy Reich mystery which usually involves the gruesome dead. Wasn't that I particularly wanted to be morbid but just worked out that way.

Undeading Bells by Drew Hayes

I finished Tiamat's Wrath yesterday evening. I will be looking forward to the ninth and last book in the Expanse series, that is supposed to be released this year. Meanwhile, acting on G33z3r's good advice (for which, very belatedly, I thank him a lot!), I decided to read some, possibly all, novellas in the Expanse realm, starting with The Butcher of Anderson Station. This was started this morning.

I finished Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese and loved it. 5/5 stars. Now trying out Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer. I was going through some books to see which one would catch me next and the way it's written dragged me in even though the utilitarian philosophy aspect isn't my thing. Before I knew it was 50 pages in so think it decided that this is my next book lol

Task Lyst

The cover looks like the book's about hackers but it actually isn't; the tale reflects ways to use and abuse the gig economy with an amoral net platform.

And In the Shadow of Vesuvius

A great fun 1902 murder mystery in the ruins of Pompeii.

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

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

The Kraken Project by Douglas Preston

When an artificial intelligence program gets loose and runs amok, it's creator enlists the help of a CIA agent to try to stop it.

Thin plot. 2 stars

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

Reading Nemesis Games

Recently finished A Feast For Crows, not the best in the asoiaf series but still a good read and important events to occur.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Don wrote: "Recently finished A Feast For Crows, not the best in the asoiaf series but still a good read and important events to occur.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

This pointed to your review of The Rats.

On my eReader finished The Apocalypse Troll by David Webber. It started off kinda cool with a kind of transdimensional/time travel space chase that ended up with one of the good guys and one of the bad guys being stranded on present day Earth. Then it wasn't so interesting but still decent, and then the final battle to deal with the bad guy was just a series of military acronyms I couldn't keep straight. Probably awesome for someone who knows the difference between a LAV and a LAW but I just skimmed it to the end.

Also, I really hate when a truly evil character with no redeeming features gets his own POV/thoughts exposed, not because I don't want to be in their head, but it's just so two-dimensional, all they can think about is drowning kittens and stealing candy from kids while wringing their hands and cackling evilly at how wonderfully evil they are. Always comes off as a cartoon character. I recommend writers be really, really careful when they choose to go inside their villain's head...

Now as I was figuring out what series I had started but didn't finish I had my shelf sorted alphabetically and found that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is actually a huge series. They were all free on GR itself so thought it might be fun to see what I missed as a kid, starting on The Marvelous Land of Oz. Plus kids books are great when commuting since doesn't matter when you are forced to interrupt your reading because you get to your stop :)

Andrea wrote: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is actually a huge series. They were all free on GR itself so thought it might be fun to see what I missed as a kid, starting on The Marvelous Land of Oz...."

It always used to surprise customers in the bookstore I worked in to discover that there were a series of Oz books. They are all free on Project Gutenberg as well, along with all the rest of Baum's works.

It would also probably surprise people to see how different the original book is from the movie

Andrea wrote: " found that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is actually a huge series..."

I've had it as a low-level goal to check out the Oz series beyond that first book for a couple of years. There were a couple of motivations, but one strange thing that sparked my interest was the Wearing the Cape superhero series. Several Oz characters leak thru into it, reminding me how ignorant I am of everything beyond the 1st book.

However, one of my goals for this year is to get back to reading non-fiction, which I've not done much of in the past couple of years. So my TBR list gets ever longer.

Just watched the classic movie of Oz and finished reading the book with my girls (kindergarteners)
Someone let me know if it’s worth continuing the series with them 😊

Recently finished The Waste Lands, decent read not my favourite of the Dark Tower series

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

Of course, the fun thing about the Oz books was that Baum was not able to keep the world-building consistent for the first two books. Glinda has no problems with returning the Scarecrow to the Emerald City to rule in the first -- in the second, she refuses because Ozma is the rightful heir.

I didn't mind so much that Oz The Great and Powerful was inconsistent with any of the books because of that.

Finished Quantum Night yesterday and rated it 3.25/5. Sawyer really does know how to write a captivating book, I could barely put it down...which says something because the basic premise really was super one-dimensional plus the MC's obsession with utilitarianism. But regardless it was still a very captivating read for me.

I'm now reading the first Detective Perez book by Ann Cleaves, Raven Black. 100 pages in and liking it. Like that it takes place just after New Year's. It's been a while since I watched the first Shetland season so I can't remember what the conclusion of the first mystery was and not sure if there are differences with the show.

Andrea wrote: "It would also probably surprise people to see how different the original book is from the movie"

Some of the changes should have been done more whole-heartedly or not at all. If you want Dorothy to learn in the course of her adventures that there is no place like home -- a sentiment she expresses in the opening of the book -- you need her to, say, go see the Wizard because he can get her permission to stay in Oz.

The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers

Mary wrote: "The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers"

That's a pretty good one, especially if you've previously read The Lore of the Unicorn

I finished reading The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells. I am reading Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey. I plan to read East of Eden by John Steinbeck next.

Hi Gary, those are all fun books!

I am just finishing off Bujold's Knife series...
it's been entertaining to see how she unfolds another chapter of the long tale. So I also purchased the novella, Knife Children...and shall finish it today (only 20% to go).

Pierre wrote: "I finished Tiamat's Wrath yesterday evening. I will be looking forward to the ninth and last book in the Expanse series, that is supposed to be released this year. Meanwhile, acting..."
I enjoyed the individual stories in those novellas! For me, their tales fleshed out much more than the characters' causes in the overall story.
And, o yes! I'm looking forward to the final book.

I finished Fahrenheit 451 and will now continue with my much-interrupted reading of White Gold Wielder

Finished Raven Black and enjoyed it, 3.25/5 stars. Would have liked it more if it was single pov or mostly single pov of Perez. I tend to like to be in the heads of my favourite fictional detectives more, especially in those sorts of more atmospheric settings.

I'm now reading another mystery Black Skies which is an Detective Elrendur book without Erlendur. I've already read all the books in the series with him as the MC and now the only to remaining are this one (which has his colleague Sigurdur Oli as the MC) and one other that also has another of his colleagues as MC. I'll have to reread all the Erlendur books at some point, I really enjoy his character a lot

Ordination by Daniel M. Ford

Mary wrote: "Of course, the fun thing about the Oz books was that Baum was not able to keep the world-building consistent for the first two books. Glinda has no problems with returning the Scarecrow to the Emer..."

There is no internal consistency in those books. Most of them were pretty bad, honestly.

I am starting another Discworld book, Witches Abroad. Then I have Off to Be the Wizard and hopefully Starsight after that.

Finished reading A Dance With Dragons, not the best in the series but still very good in parts
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I’m currently reading The Burning White, book 5 of the Lightbringer series. I am not particularly enjoying it. I quite enjoyed the first 4, but this almost seems like it’s written by a different person. It’s becoming the definition of purple prose, all of the characters seem to be having long periods of intense internal reflection, and nothing is actually happening.

On a brighter note, also finished the Gods of Blood and Empire: really enjoyed both of McClellan’s trilogies.

I read Bright Steel. I enjoyed Cameron's Masters & Mages trilogy. Not nearly as dense as his Red Knight series so I found myself wanting a few more details, but overall a good read.

Currently reading The Last Wish as I begin my journey into the Witcher world.

Audrey wrote: "There is no internal consistency in those books. Most of them were pretty bad, honestly. "

Yeah...even in just this second one, everyone seems rather mean to each other, then they realize it and tell each other not to be mean. But then I thought of the old Disney cartoons where everyone was beating everyone else to a pulp and that was supposed to be funny or at least entertaining so "being mean" was viewed a little differently then. I'm guessing there's a reason people know there's the first book (and not just because of the movie) but unaware of the 13 others.

Finished Perdido Street Station, I see why it falls under the "weird" genre (not a spoiler...the character Lin doesn't have an insectoid head, she has a whole insect for a head, with all it's legs and a butt that exudes stuff, etc, and that was one of the more normal creatures wandering about). However, I see why it got nominated for a bunch of awards and won a few (yay, filled that BINGO slot). I liked that the main character was this overweight absent-minded inventor kindhearted kind of guy. I'll read the rest of the trilogy.

Started on Divergent so that I'll eventually be able to watch those movies I recorded ages ago :)

So far not doing good on "finishing series I started" but doing really well with "starting new series" which was not my plan for the year, oh well LOL

Hmm...I wonder if I could use Perdido as "Magic/Tech" run amok, since while it was neither exactly magical nor tech (in fact the two are more or less the same or at least intimately connected, in this world) it was definitely an "amok" kind of story...

After all I discovered that the Sorcerer's Apprentice was only about 50 lines long, if that, so I wasn't sure I wanted that to count as having actually read something :) I mean took only a couple minutes, seemed too easy for a reading challenge.

I read all the Winnie the Pooh stories some years ago, and Tigger is a total sociopath. There's one where Kanga and Roo move in, so Tigger decides he'll kidnap Roo and hold him for ransom until Kanga agrees to leave. Didn't see THAT one in Disney.