Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Tell us what you've been reading this month!

I've done Greek, Roman, Norse, and Christian/Judaic mythology so far, time to get into Egyptian with The Egyptian Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends by Garry J. Shaw

I finished Lovecraft Country. The TV series emphasised the supernatural elements more than the book does - and added or expanded some - but is generally a good adaptation, so if you enjoyed the show, I expect you will like the book. The depiction of the racism of the society of the time, while accurate, certainly makes for an uncomfortable read at time.

This also fills my Bingo slot for Book Adapted for TV/Movie.

I have started watching the Amazon Prime animated series Invincible and I noticed that being an Amazon Prime member allows me to borrow the first 3 collected volumes (the first 13 issues of the comic) for free.

The first volume doesn't start as explosively as the TV series, but that's not really surprising as a monthly series has greater ability to indulge in world-building, whereas the TV show has to be more explosive to grab an immediate audience.

So far, I am enjoying both.

Hand of Mars by Glynn Stewart

Paganism in the Roman Empire by Ramsay MacMullen

Completed:
text:

audible:

==========================================
Authors:
Ann Leckie, R.B. Lemberg, Jodi Picoult, Annie Proulx, Kate Elizabeth Russell
Narrators:
Celeste Ciulla
==========

I just recently finished reading A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and it was great.

My review of A Hole in the Sky by Peter F. Hamilton

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

Finished the Egyptian Myths, wasn't as good as other collections of mythologies, but I think that's just the nature of trying to tell the tale of a belief that spanned 3000 by reading a few inscriptions here and there on the wall of a tomb. It felt fragmentary and confusing, so the "stories" were often little more than a paragraph long, and so many inconsistencies (Thoth could be an ibis, except when he was a baboon, or a lion, or a man...etc). They were also rather obsessed with their phallic symbols *cough* However I have even greater respect for Rick Riordan now for doing such a good job weaving the "nature" of the gods into his books, since they don't tend to manifest physically but rather posses object/people, hence no demi-gods but rather magicians that can summon their essence and become one with the gods.

For what it's worth, the author put in some cute commentary such as "quietly ignoring the fact that Thoth didn't exist yet at this stage of creation..." or "Seth, probably not wanting to be the eternal resting place for the buttocks of a dead god..." so I wasn't enthralled with the tales, he livened it up a bit. I enjoyed his kind of "hitchhiker's guide to the afterlife".

Now to start on my 900+ page BINGO slot, I didn't actually have a single book that long planned this year but I have a handy-dandy omnibus of Dante Valentine: The Complete Series by Lilith Saintcrow. With 5 books it adds up to more than enough pages :) I only intend to read the first book this month, won't try to tackle this monster all at one go.

I also started in on one of the RivetedLit.com freedbies this month, a while I had read the short story that is always available, so nice now to read the actually first book - Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody. Plus I'm watching the Les Miserable TV series that came out recently, so I'm able to confirm that while Sky Without Starts takes place on a another planet and a very different setting than revolutionary France, the author does a really good job of keeping to the original storyline (or vice-versa for the TV series, been at least 25 years since I read the book by Victor Hugo...)

My review of In the Quick by Kate Hope Day

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

I finished Invincible Vol. 2: Eight is Enough, the second 4-issue compilation that was available to borrow for free through Amazon Prime. It expands the world but has some odd jumps in places. I am finding that the story development in the comics is sufficiently different from the story development in the TV series, that it's making it difficult to follow both properly. I will wait until season 1 of the show has finished before I read the third compilation volume.

Aru Shah and the City of Gold by Roshani Chokshi

Finished reading A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab and To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Kathryn M. Drennan. I’m reading Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life by Elizabeth George. I plan to read The Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes next.

Finished the first book in the Dante Valentine omnibus - Working for the Devil

Now for a modern take on the original I just read - The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I've been hearing so much about this one, as well as Circe so pretty excited to get to it.

I have started on the penultimate book in Asimov's Future History series - Foundation's Edge

Finished Sky Without Stars, enjoyed it well enough. Starting on another of the Simon free books from this month - This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

Voice of Mars by Glynn Stewart

I finished Children of Ruin, which I liked a bit less than Children of Time, but still found quite good. Continuing with science-fiction for the time being, I am now starting A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

When the sun starts dimming, an exploratory spaceship is launched to the star Tau Ceti, to find a solution to the problem. The ship is called the Hail Mary.

Good story. 4 stars

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

Finished The Song of Achilles....that was beautifully written. I forced myself to take my time, to really enjoy it. This one lived up to the hype, even though I didn't know what the hype was about, all I knew is that everyone wanted to read it at my library, there was a huge backlog of people waiting to reserve it. I should thank them since now that I bought the book, it's a keeper. Very eager to get to Circe next as that one too had a lot of hype.

Now, to finally delve into a part of the Shadow Campaigns I had not already read before (exciting, uncharted territory, though I loved the re-read too), I'm starting on The Guns of Empire by Django Wexler

Tom Clancy Code of Honor Reading Tom Clancy Code of Honor: A Jack Ryan Novel by Marc Cameron. Gift from my wife (who know all too well that I'm a book, aviation, techno-thriller nerd)! While no one can fill (the late) Tom Clancy's shoes - in my opinion this is one of the better books to pick up where Tom Clancy left off. On page 282 right now and enjoying President Jack Ryan and his son Jack Ryan Jr. dealings with China and it's cyber-warfare attacks on the U.S., etc. etetera...

I read Iron Man: Crash. Of some historical interest as it is the first computer generated graphic novel (at least, by a major Western comics publisher), but it hasn't aged well. Even though it features Iron Man, it's far more of a cyberpunk story than a superhero story.

The Domestic Revolution by Ruth Goodman

Alpha Bots by Ava Lock

This book is a modern take on 'The Stepford Wives' a book by Ira Levin that has spawned two movies.

Alpha bots takes place in 'New Stepford', where all the women are AI androids, purchased by men to fulfill their needs. But these gals aren't going to take it.

If you're looking for something new, you might want to give this book a try.

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

Finished This Mortal Coil, in the end, caught my attention enough that I'll be seeing if my library has the next book.

Since there's still a couple weeks left of the month seems I can squeeze in a third free book from rivetedlit.com, I picked Want by Cindy Pon since it's not available at my library and I wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity to read it. It's also the shortest of the books.

I finished Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany and I guess I'll have to read it again someday, because I did not get it or enjoy it. But, the same thing happened to me with Neuromancer and when I reread it, I loved it. So, here's to the future.

I also finished Circe by Madeline Miller and it lived up to expectations. Was very hard to put down and was the kind of book I would have loved when I was teen getting into Greek mythology.

Right now, I'm reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson and I wish I had more free time to devote to it but it's been a real page turner.

And I don't know if this counts as science fiction, but I just started The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and Our Destiny Beyond Earth by Michio Kaku.

My review of New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl

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

I just finished Shimmerdark by Sarah Mensinga and it was awesome. Highly recommend this book. It's got a wonderful mix of steampunk technology and magic, great character work, and a sense of adventure.

Finished the Guns of Empire, excited to jump right into the last book but I'll hold off a little bit. Continues to be an excellent series. Won't say much to avoid spoilers. Fills in my Military BINGO slot.

Also finished Want, the free book from rivetedlit.com which was pretty good, unfortunately my library doesn't appear to have the sequel and I didn't like it enough to actually buy it, but it works as a standalone too. With only a work week left of the month I won't start either of the two freebies that remain.

While I didn't finish the Northworld trilogy, I did finish the first of the three. It grew on me a little but it was what I call a "guy" book with the main character who is good at fighting and loves to fight and so there's an emphasis on the fighting, not so much on the characters or worldbuilding like you see in Guns of Empire which also has a lot of fighting, but is character driven. Hansen is basically personality-less. But I enjoyed picking out the Norse tales that were referenced, but struggled mapping characters to the gods they represented, then found at the end he'd used some incredibly obscure ones (like one "story" which so far I've only been able to find a single sentence of)

Up next is the second book of the Dante Valentine: The Complete Series omnibus - Dead Man Rising

Finally finished Rhythm of War. I have no idea where to go now, I'd like to maybe dip into the cosmere more, as stormlight archive is the only Sanderson I've ever read. Thinking about trying mistborn.

Finished Dead Man Rising...it's an interesting enough world and magic system, but Dante is soooo annoying. And repetitive. There were certain things that were repeated virtually every couple of pages, sometimes even more often. As a reader, I get that author is trying to show that Dante is traumatized by some events of her past, but all I could think was "put your big girl panties on and get on with it already, stop complaining"....and hearing voices in her head that are as repetitive as she is. Unfortunate, otherwise had some potential.

Won't start anything new in the next couple days, will continue to work through the second book in the Northworld trilogy on my eReader - Vengeance

After reading The Eagle of the Ninth, I decided that I am in the mood for Roman legion books, which I've always been partial to. But then I remembered Stiger's Tigers, which is a nice mesh of fantasy and faux-Roman military. I had only read this first book in the series once before, so I am breezing through the rest. These are solid four-star reads for me, despite the occasional error. Right now I'm on the third book, The Tiger's Fate. Hopefully some background of the characters and their motivations will be explored soon, as I've only come across veiled hints so far. Even so, this series is right up my alley.

I read Ministry for the Future - KSR and I found this manifesto very compelling. Don’t expect a SF story though. This is really a bit of near-future dramatization with lots of important economic theory and tons of real science related to climate change. His manifesto for sure- I think should be required reading fir all policy makers.
Now on A Desolation called Peace. Similar to the first (which I’m still not sure was Hugo worthy..)

Yesterday - still in April - I ended my reading of A Fire Upon the Deep at 60% of the book, so that this was a DNF. I am bit worried, because it is considered as a masterwork of science-fiction, yet I couldn't really maintain my interest. Some of the concepts, including the Zones of Thought, I found brillant, but some parts bore me and I could not really associate with any of the characters.
My worry is whether I am loosing interest for the genre in general; I hope that this will not be the case. At any rate, I started to read The Martian by Andy Weir, and I'll see how this goes.

Well, I didn't finish reading anything in April!. I've been (very slowly) reading Rhythm of War, which I started the end of March and might finish in May.