Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So, after you've celebrated the odometer rolling over and put away the festive holiday decor, what are you reading?

I've been reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver but I'm not sure I'm going to finish it. It's interesting but she takes so much time detailing everything that I'm finding it a bit slow.

Started in 2020 but finished in 2021 (although Goodreads still wants to class it as 2020 because the new year hasn't completely rolled across America yet) - The Nano Flower

I finished Rogue Protocol this morning and went immediately to Exit Strategy.

I've finished up my 2020 on Goodreads & it was another great year of reading even though I read fewer books. Most were nonfiction, amazingly good with some stranger than fiction; mostly those on parasites, but some history makes the mark, too.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Though I read over 200 books last year, it was because of 75+ manga books read so I won't be nearly so ambitious. But I suspect I will read some online magazines, short stories, novellas and the like so I gave myself a goal of 150 books.

My reading theme for the year is Gods/Angels/Demons and I dug up a surprising number of books from my shelves, I guess I couldn't resist picking up stuff based on mythology, and angels were really popular in YA fiction for a while so have a bunch of those too, not being into horror, demons were pretty rare but there were a few of those too.

I'll have a slow start to the year with some heavy reading, I decided to start with "source" material, like for Greek mythology will read Homer first (before going to what it inspired liked Circe). Of course, I had to pick something to start with. Decided to just grab the physically largest book which happened to be a coffee table illustrated version of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Of course I'll mix up the heavy stuff with some easier reads, in particular books that don't have "source" material, worlds and pantheons invented by the author.

And then there is the BINGO challenge, I should actually be able to get all 25 slots with these books with only needing to buy one for the Published in 2021 slot, assuming it actually gets published (it got pushed from 2020) I already have one in mind.

I was also digging through books I've inherited from various family members over the years, things I probably don't want to keep but hate getting rid of unread. So I intended to read about one of those a month. Hopefully there will be some bookfairs this year I can donate them to!

My eReader will provide me with the most variety, since I only have about 3 or 4 books that match my reading theme. Still working on A Logic Named Joe which I started last year. I figured Joe must be the kangaroo on the cover but turned out that wasn't the case :)

I am going to try to limit my reading of fiction dystopians in 2021, IRL 2020 is enough for a while.
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Completed:
text:

audible:

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Authors:
Michael Connelly, James S.A. Corey, Alix E. Harrow, Kevin Hearne, Emily St. John MandelK.J. Parker
Narrators:
Jefferson Mays
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Bones of the Past by Drew Hayes Still plugging along (It is, after all, 840 pages.)

I just started This Is How You Lose the Time War. I wasn't interested in it when it was being promoted, but then I actually looked to see what it was about, and changed my mind.

Finished Senlin Ascends on January 1. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Working in Oathbringer (1200 pages to too many!) When fox is 1000, and Lies Sleeping (rivers of London)

Simon & Shuster has a couple fantasy books for free on their rivetedlit.com site so I'm reading Shatter the Sky. Though it's the start of yet another series, at least it's just a duology.

I just finished Exit Strategy and downloaded to my tablet Network Effect, and I will start reading it later today.

Pierre wrote: "I just finished Exit Strategy and downloaded to my tablet Network Effect, and I will start reading it later today."

They're great books.

I'm really enjoying The City of Brass

I just join this group today, I love sci-fi and fantasy books!
I just finished the 3rd book, in the Cycle of Arawn trilogy yesterday.
And just started a new book, the Red Sea, bk 1- Cycle of Galand series by the same Author, Edward W. Robertson.

Knight Watch by Tim Akers

Attack of the Mammary Clans by David Blake

In this first book in the comical 'Space Police' series, a detective wakes up 450 years after he was cryogenically frozen, returns to the police force, and is tasked with finding a missing cow.

Fun story. 3.5 stars

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

happy new year to all !!
I just completed one of the best book on this new year

"Evolution cradle : The aryan origin " by Charith venkat

Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert

Finished reading Shatter the Sky which was a free read, my first completed book of the year.

I'm debating whether to start the other free read, Crown of Feathers since it will only be free until the 15th so I'd have to cram it in which sometimes I can do but sometimes not, don't want to get stuck half read.

I finished This Is How You Lose the Time War (4 stars!) and now I'm starting Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? because it's set in the future of January 2021. So far, it's completely different from Blade Runner aside from the main character's name and the existence of offworld colonies!

Finished reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson. I am reading Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan. I plan to read The Last Colony by John Scalzi next.

I read some more of the anthology Rogues and the non-fiction Norse Myths, and I am now continuing with my Foundation reread with Forward the Foundation.

My review of Master of Sorrows by Justin Travis Call

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

somehow I still haven't finished one book in the new year! I blame starting the year with the 1200+ page Oathbringer and stopping that to read some library holds such as Invisible life of Addie La Rue and When Fox is 1000

Rachel wrote: "somehow I still haven't finished one book in the new year! I blame starting the year with the 1200+ page Oathbringer and stopping that to read some library holds such as Invisible life of Addie La ..."

Hehe, I did finish one, but it was only available for free for two weeks so I made sure to read it fast, plus was YA and a fairly light read so went quick.

On the other hand I'm still working my way through the Divine Comedy, the first book that was on my original to-read list...should finish today actually. Obviously not the kind of book to breeze through, I mean sure you could try, but then you wouldn't understand *anything* LOL I'd find myself where maybe I would hear other people in my house talking, the tiniest distraction, and then realize that the past five stanzas, though I read them, I didn't understand a single thing.

Sometimes even when I did pay attention I didn't understand a thing but then I'm not an expert in either ancient Greek references nor even less, Italian contemporaries of Dante's. I mean when a person is described as the guy that lived between the two hills at the end of the river where Dante was born...I guess that would be obvious to someone from that time period but yeah, not me :D In the end figured it wasn't important, just some other Florentine noble that was either being accused of sin or praised as a good example, wasn't going to sweat the details.

Fortunately there was a little blurb describing what happens and who appears in each canto or else I would have been completely lost :D Sometimes I'd flip back to it going, "now what did I just read"?

I admire your tenacity, Andrea. I had to read parts of it in school & don't remember a thing except being completely bored & bewildered. it's the sort of book Cliff Notes were made for, IMO.
:)

The Divine Comedy filled my first BINGO slot for Alternate Form (poem), first time I'm not using a graphic novel so that's good.

Inferno wasn't so bad, it's got the shock appeal of the various punishments and you run into unexpected things like centaurs (Hell is more pagan Greek than Christian apparently). Also the imagery of climbing down Lucifer's hairy legs and then having to turn around half way since you pass the middle of the Earth and gravity switches direction...that was more than bizarre.

Purgatory could also keep attention because again there are the various punishments, but at this point one starts to get tired of the difficult reading.

By the time you hit Paradise, not only are a mentally exhausted just figuring out what a sentence means since it's half backwards with twice as many words than it needs, but honestly, paradise is kinda boring. Sure, if I had to spend forever in one of the three levels I'd pick paradise, but it's just angels floating around doing air displays (even writing words in the sky) and singing about how great god is, with all the souls just sorta sitting around smiling. Kinda boring to spend hours reading about. Now, if there were a giant library there where I could read instead of sing... :)

The artwork from Gustave Dore was nice, and there were a lot of them, so that made for nice breaks.

Next I picked something very short and light, an anthology of angel stories and poems - Here There Be Angels by Jane Yolen. I'd previously read her Dragon and Unicorn anthologies and yes, this one help inspire my choice this year so I could progress in that series (apparently there's a Witch one too but I don't have it). There were a couple of really good short stories. In fact I think I learnt more angel lore from this book than I did from Dante's :)

With that brief respite I'm on to my next heavy duty Classic Lit book, The Iliad by Homer. This is another where one must struggle through complex wording, but at least it's prose! Technically I should have read this one first since Dante referred to its characters several times. Must admit I didn't expect it start 10 years into the war with Troy, is the tale of Paris taking Helen to start the war in the first place not written down, or it gets covered in flashbacks? It's like jumping into the middle of movie that's already half over and you're supposed to know who everyone is (which I more or less do at least).

On the positive side, while I had to do interesting things to hold the Divine Comedy it was so huge and heavy, at least my Collector's Library version of The Iliad is smaller than a mass market paperback with tissue thin paper, doesn't weigh anything!

Andrea, I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy the Iliad when I read it last year. No, it's not covered in flashbacks. Like you mentioned, you're expected to already know what's going on and who everyone is, so have annotations at the ready. I think I'll like the Odyssey better.

I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and it was good. A little weird sometimes, but maybe not as much as some of the author's other work. Very different from the movie adaptation, but recognisable.

Next is Every Heart a Doorway!

I haven't read a long/thick/heavy SF book in years... but after reading a review here on GR of Great North Road by Peter Hamilton I decided to buy it. In print. It didn't fit through the letterbox and the mailman was looking quite tired... I'm very much looking forward to reading it. But first I'm going to finish the nice little chicklit I started yesterday ;-)

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "Andrea, I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy the Iliad when I read it last year. No, it's not covered in flashbacks. Like you mentioned, you're expected to already know what's going on and who everyone ..."

Good thing I watched the movie first then :)

Must admit it's repetitive. Zeus says to Iris, give so and so a dream and describes what to say. Then Iris goes to so and so, and repeats it word for word. Then the person wakes up and goes to tell everyone about his dream word for word. And for good measure he needs to repeat it once to his captains and again to another group. Maybe like the Penny Dreadfuls, Homer was being paid by the word... ;)

It's still a lot easier to understand than the Divine Comedy was, but still requires a lot of concentration not to let the text just drift through your mind and not register a thing though.

I finished Network Effect. Since the next book in the Murderbot series is not yet published, I will now return to the First Law world by Joe Abercrombie, and start the 4th book, Best Served Cold.

I got my library copy of Light of the Jedi. I've been in a book rut but I'm looking forward to this one.

Andrea wrote: "The Divine Comedy filled my first BINGO slot for Alternate Form (poem), first time I'm not using a graphic novel so that's good.

Inferno wasn't so bad, it's got the shock appeal of the various pun..."

Kudos for completing The Divine Comedy. It has been years since I tried that one -- and I can't remember if I even finished. The Iliad, on the other hand, it quite a delight, and not just by comparison. I can't remember who the translator was for the version I have at home and which I've had since college. A character in one of my novels quotes from Pope's translation. Some of the backstories about guys who are about to die get tedious, and the specific descriptions of each spear and arrow strike may not be to everyone's taste, but I found a sort of aura or atmosphere about the story that appeals to me.

Dragon Mage
Very entertaining character driven read. Aram's plight is unforgettable.

A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 1 by Waco Ioka

Just started Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Started on the free read Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley, the freebie from Simon & Shuster for the next two weeks.

And still working on The Iliad...you'd think reading about a battle would be exciting but after 300 pages of non-stop battle, you get a little tired of reading a list of names you don't recognized getting spears or arrows through various body parts. Though Homer spices it up a bit when people start throwing stones at other people's faces causing their eyes to pop out and land at their feet... anyway think I'm getting pretty close to when Achilles should get involved but I'm running out of pages to have the Trojan Horse too, we'll see.

Finished Rhythm of War. Will likely go for the last of the Traitor Son Cycle next, but thinking a re-read of other Cosmere books is on the agenda this year, If I can dig them out of the attic.

Andrea wrote: " I'm getting pretty close to when Achilles should get involved but I'm running out of pages to have the Trojan Horse too, we'll see."

If you're waiting for the Trojan horse, you're going to be disappointed. But you've still got plenty more people getting stabbed in the nipple and seeing their innards spilled out!

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "But you've still got plenty more people getting stabbed in the nipple and seeing their innards spilled out! "

And don't forget the occasional projectile through the buttock!

Finished The Iliad last night. Ok, that scene near the end...Hector comes out to battle Achilles...then starts running, and keeps running until the two of them ran around the city walls three times. Aside from wondering if these guys ever get tired (Hector isn't the son of a god after all) it was like a kids cartoon, I could just picture the dust kicked up from their feet as they zip around and around :D Ok, I know I know, three was probably symbolic somehow and wasn't supposed to be funny, but still.

Now to pick the BINGO slot it fills, because there are a bunch. It was made into a movie, it is kind of military (but not really), non-human protagonist (Achilles among others are demi-gods), many of the characters are rulers, it was translated into English, technically it was alternate form since it was originally a poem though mine was translated into prose, I could have gotten it for free but I paid for my copy, religion is involved a lot, it's based on mythology/folklore, author was new to me, definitely published pre-1950 - so 11 possible slots with 1 book!!!!

I'm going with Translated into English for now, since my other translated ones I've already picked slots for but might jiggle around since I don't have anything else that was adapted to a Movie.

So that's Christian and Greek pantheons done, on to Norse with Legends of the Ring - Elizabeth Magee

I think I'll use it for my "pretty cover" BINGO slot, it's a nice Folio Society edition (and only 200 pages short of filling in the 900+ page slot...) -

Reincarnated as a Sword (Light Novel) Vol. 1 by Yuu Tanaka

I started a new book, which is very enjoyable. I particularly like the dialog, because it's very natural: Dragon's-Eye View . I had tried out three books prior to this which were terrible, so this is a welcome surprise.

I finished Words of Radiance, book 2 of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series, which I'd put off reading until this year. Starting probably a bad idea, since I doubt it'll finish in my lifetime. Then I read Edgedancer, the novella that takes place after Words of Radiance. And I started the 3rd book, Oathbringer, which given my current rate of reading (and its 1200+ pages) I probably won't finish until February's topic.

G33z3r wrote: "Starting probably a bad idea, since I doubt it'll finish in my lifetime."

I'd be optimistic. He's a fast writer!

Methodical Realism: A Handbook for Beginning Realists by Étienne Gilson