Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This morning I saw my shadow and so I predict six more weeks of reading. (Does it count if the shadow was from a streetlight? 'cause I get up pretty early. I like to watch Jupiter rise.)

February is the shortest month, so what are your reading quickly?

It's a leap year so we get one extra reading day!

Andrea wrote: "It's a leap year so we get one extra reading day!"

Well spotted!

My target for this year is only 7 books because I'm targeting only very long books.

The Auditing Department reports that I have finished re-reading...

The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson

an old favorite from 1976 in which a modern man's mind gets dumped into the body of a dragon in some alternate fantasy world. It's interesting how older sword & sorcery has so much simpler plots: rescue damsel, fight Dark Powers, have fun storming the castle.

In my memory I had thought the Auditing Department a more omni-present role, probably because for 40 some years it's been a running joke among my geeky friends. I was happy to see I hadn't been badly mangling my favorite quote: "The thought of gold rang in his head like the thought of a fountain of water to a man dying of thirst in the desert."

Now debating whether to read the sequels, which would all be new to me. Andrea, did you read these during your year of the dragon?

(But first, my goal this year is to read more non-fiction again. Also, re-read more old favorites like The Dragon and the George. :)

G33z3r wrote: "Andrea, did you read these during your year of the dragon?"

I didn't since I didn't have all the books in the series at the time, I gave priority to those where I did :)

To fill my "Translated into English" BINGO slot, I'm actually reading something that was originally Italien but translated into French (figured I'd tweak "english" to be "a language I understand"), especially since this book isn't available in English. It was also a series I started in that year of the dragon G33z3r mentioned but I never got past the first book, not because it was bad, it's enjoyable, but just ran out of time. So now in my "finish what I started year" I can finally get back to it.

L'arbre d'Idhunn by Licia Troisi

I'm nearly finished The Second World War: WW2 - An Alternate History. The premise is interesting - what if FDR found out about the attack on Pearl Harbor and sent the Pacific fleet out to meet the Japanese. I don't agree with all of the assumptions the author makes, but I will see it through to the end.

I am starting to read some of Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle Dorsai books. I have the 1st, 3rd, and 4th, which I read long ago and I have the 2nd on order. I will decide after 4 if I want to go on or move on to something else. the 1st book is Dorsai!.

February 2020
Completed:

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Authors:
Katherine Arden, Leigh Bardugo, Patricia Briggs, Becky Chambers, James S.A. Corey, Sarah Gailey, Kate Heartfield, Vylar Kaftan, Rachel Kushner, Mark Lawrence, Ann Leckie, Seanan McGuire, V.E. Schwab, Michael J. Sullivan, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tade Thompson, Peter Watts, J.Y. Yang

Next book in the Divergent series - Insurgent by Veronica Roth

State Tectonics the third book in the Centenal Cycle trilogy by Malka Older. Rated it 5/5 stars. I've overall enjoyed this trilogy a lot, but this one was the best of the bunch imo. Very well written and an interesting read, and very in tune with global politics.

I've now started reading Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse. I was originally going to start the third Copper Cat book, but think this more where my brain's at right now.

Zero-G by William Shatner & Jeff Rovin was really good, better than I expected after reading a couple of the Tech books Shatner did with Goulart. Every bit as action-packed, though. It was narrated by Shatner, which is always a plus. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Recently finished Come Tumbling After - or whatever the title of the new Wayward Children book was. Continues Jacks story and I think finishes it.

Now working through my UF series I’m on - FoxgloveSummer (rivers of London)

I finished The Second World War: WW2 - An Alternate History. Interesting premise but ultimately a disappointment - partially due to problems that should have been picked up in proof reading, but mostly due to internal consistency errors.

I'm still plugging away at the Oz series, though perhaps the most amusing part is the intro to each book. It starts off with "well, you guys wanted another one so badly I went ahead and wrote it but this is the last one" to "you guys give me such great ideas I have plenty for a whole bunch more books, I can't wait to write the next one" :) Wonder if he was reluctant at first but eventually became resigned then actually started to enjoy it?

I'm on book 6 (wow, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in Oz!) so we'll see how his intros continue to evolve.

I have started the first book of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - The Runes of the Earth. Hoping (but not really expecting) that this series will be less of a chore than the Second Chronicles.

Still working on series I've started, I've just finished

which I thought was great.

This year I also plan to read from authors whose work I loved but for some reason have not read more of, I've started on

I finished reading Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey. I am reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I plan to read The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks next.

Cybernation

to take my mind off my other current reads.

I'm slogging through Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. It will take me some weeks to finish it.

Bryan wrote: "Still working on series I've started, I've just finished

which I thought was great.

This year I also plan to read from authors whose work I loved but for some ..."

I loved Claire North's Harry August, but I didn't much care for this one.

I finished off the Penric and Desdemona adventures by Lois McMaster Bujold. There is only one book, a novella, of hers that I haven't read yet.
But it is time, at long last! (whew, Bujold is prolific!) to read other authors.
Currently, I am enjoying The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge.
Easy to see how this book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1981.

Janet wrote: "I finished off the Penric and Desdemona adventures by Lois McMaster Bujold. There is only one book, a novella, of hers that I haven't read yet."

And here I'm still working on the Vorkosigan saga, I plan to read the third omnibus this year. Interesting how they got published in pairs of books with one short story but it works well for this series.

I finished Insurgent last night, as I got to about 100 pages from the end I didn't want to put it down because seemed I was finally going to figure out the "secret" behind this weirdly set up society. Not sure I completely understood it though if it is what I think then that explains things. There's still one more book to see if I'm right or not.

But not reading that yet, first, going to take another SF/F break and read The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier, which sounds like it might be a fantasy but is actually a fictionalized historical tale of the creation of one of the famous unicorn tapestries. It is the same author that wrote The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

I seem to have failed to record reading Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman on Goodreads back when I read it, which may well have been January. Possibly it slipped my mind because I found it dull. It's like an expanded entry in Bulfinch's Mythology, a collection of short stories with no flesh and no connecting tissue.

Finished Storm of Locusts earlier tonight. Fantastic follow-up to Trail of Lightning and with a stronger conclusion. Great worldbuilding, quite a high pace like in the last book, love Maggie as a character and also the way things developed with her and Rissa.

Have pretty much decided to start my Drizzt re-read back up again with The Two Swords (Forgotten Realms/Drizzt Book 17, Hunter's Blades Book 3), after several months hiatus following The Lone Drow.

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

Science fiction writer Asimov wrote this fusion sci-fi/detective story. A bit light on the detection but an interesting venture. 3 stars

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

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The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

The solution to the 'murder' of a humanoid robot may determine the future of humankind. 4 stars

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

I finished beta reading Age of Empyre and am just about done with Off to Be the Wizard and Grip of the Shadow Plague. I just started The Goblin Emperor. In nonfiction I'm reading Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, and I plan to start Starsight next.

After recovering from the horror show that was the final book of Lightbringer, picked up book 2 of The Traitor Son Cycle. I like Miles Cameron’s style, and he has some really well written characters.

I went to see Colour out of Space last night, so I have started rereading the Lovecraft short story to see how closely they followed the plot. The movie was pretty good.

I just finished reading The Raven's Cry: The Chronicles of Adalmearc which is a sequel to The Eagle's Flight: The Chronicles of Adalmearc. Both are excellent epic fantasy novels.

Ghost in the Council by Jonathan Moeller

Kivrin wrote: "I loved Claire North's Harry August, but I didn't much care for this one."

That was one of my favorite books in recent years. I really liked her "Sudden appearance of Hope" too. As for "The End of the Day", so far I like it but it's certainly different from these. I guess the British humour and tone may not be for everybody, too.

Finished To be Taught , Of Fortunate
Enjoyed it pretty well, especially the varying planets. But it’s really character focused in the end with some deep philosophical questions thrown in. So in line with other Chambers

Finished The Lady and the Unicorn, wasn't decent, a quick light read, I'll need to see some pictures of those tapestries again, now that I know the process by how they were made.

Now to fill the Colony BINGO slot - Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. My sister warned me that "there's an old lady that runs around naked a lot of the time" but I'll risk it...

I also finished The Emerald City of Oz. Baum was clearly very hopeful it would be the last book, even going so far as to close Oz off from all access to the external world, making it invisible to anyone potentially difting by in a balloon or a house as the case may be. The book felt a lot like Piers Anthony's period where his Xanth novels were nothing more than a series of puns, the exact same thing happened here as Dorothy wandered randomly from one group of odd beings to another (who were definitely punny).

But he had to find a way in book 7 to "contact" Oz to get more stories, using the convienently recently invented wireless :) Wonder if he was wishing Marconi had waited a few more years to come out with his invention.

Poor guy clearly wanted to stop writing these books but wasn't allowed. Like Doyle trying to kill of Holmes at Reichenbach Falls and then going "Gotcha! That was just a trick, he didn't *really* die".

Company of Strangers by Melissa McShane

ShatterdayDiscovered Harlan Ellison this year, and really loving his collections of short stories.The introductions to the stories are almost as interesting as the stories themselves.

My Notorious Life by Kate Manning

finished reading this month. found this story a fascinating recreation of a midwife's life in New York city of the late 1800s.

Just finished The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday (wish I could link - stupid IOS!! )
Really fun story about a Djinn 🧞‍♂️

This was my review:


Read this on advice from a Locus Mag reviewer and I’m glad I did.
This stayed a fun read all the way through. On its face it’s a fun little tale about a Djinn King who’s been ‘asleep’ for thousands of years. I actually found it legitimately funny. However it actually has some interesting things to show about how capitalism can ‘social capital’ might play out, as well as climate, nanotech etc.
The more things change the more they stay the same?
Loved how a SF leaning book explained Djinn powers!!

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

I finished Sword of Destiny, the second book of short stories in the Witcher universe. Now, I'm ready to jump into the trilogy. I'm following the suggested order for reading the books since I watched the show but never played the game. Thoroughly enjoying these so far. The stories in this book were longer than the ones in the first book and were more connected to the show.

Howling Dark, great continuation from Empire of Silence, Hadrian Marlowe's space odyssey is well worth the hours of listening.

I finished The Two Swords (Book 17 Forgotten Realms/Drizzt series and Book 3 of Hunter's Blades trilogy) and rated 2.75/5 stars. Was rather disappointing and I hope things pick back up with Promise of the Witch King and The Orc King. Will be putting this re-read back on hold again for a bit though.

Next I plan to read The Winter of the Witch which is Book 3 of the Winternights Trilogy.

Kivrin wrote: "I finished Sword of Destiny, the second book of short stories in the Witcher universe. Now, I'm ready to jump into the trilogy. I'm following the suggested order for reading the boo..."

I hope "trilogy" was a typo because if not you'll either be sorely surprised or miss out since there are six more books (including Season of Storms) in the series after Sword of Destiny 😋

Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth by John C. Wright

Just finished A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan.

Listening to Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter which I picked up as a freebie last month from Audible. The book runs about 5 hours and has been pretty enjoyable so far. I am at the halfway point.

I've finished The Gods Themselves by Asimov, and The Blade Itself by Abercrombie (I just realized the similarity of the titles...) Both great reads.

I hope I'll have also finished Robin Hobbs' Assassin's Quest by the end of the month.

Finished Remnant Population. I found I had trouble getting into it, but as it went along I became more fascinated with it. This fills my "colony" BINGO slot. It was a bit of a different take on the topic since it wasn't really about setting one up, or making it viable, but rather that it was run by a corporation and they could come and uproot you anytime they felt it would be more economical to dump you somewhere else to start all over again. Although it's also a background thing, the story is more about the value of elderly women in society. But it takes place in a colony so I'm using it!

Next up is And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer because it "completes" the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and frankly I'm just curious what someone felt the urge to say about this already weird and a tangled trilogy of 5 that it needed one more installment.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is an impressive scifi novel of politics and relationships, from PoV of a new ambassador from a small, independent republic to a huge, expansionist interstellar empire. Her job is to somehow convince the Emperor that her republic isn't worth annexing. Interesting explorations of two different cultures. Perhaps because it centers on an ambassador and focuses on politics over action, it reminded me of some of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle stories.

Currently reading a big one... Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson about 30% done.

Darby wrote: "Currently reading a big one... Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson about 30% done."

Oh, that one is awesome.