Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Let us know what you've been reading this month!

I ended up starting The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett and am loving it so far. About 100 pages in.

I have nearly completed The House on the Borderland - about 30 pages left. It has gone in an unexpected direction. Plus a few more short stories from The Science Fiction Anthology. Pythias by Frederik Pohl was very good, Show Business by Boyd Ellanby, not so much. Next in that collection is Slaves of Mercury by Nat Schachner, which is long enough to be a novella.

Reorganizing my shelf, deciding if I will read Malice from The Faithful and The Fallen (John Gwynne), The Bloodsworn Saga (John Gwynne), The Eye of the World from The Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan), and The Dragonbone Chair from Memory Sorrow and Thorn (by Tad Williams), and which of them I will attempt to read to series completion. I have ‘started’ all of them. I just want to learn what makes a good series. I found Jordan easiest to read so far, but do I really want to read 14 books???

*The Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb is also on that list.

I have finished The House on the Borderland. It fits firmly in the genre of weird fiction that was common among many writers of the early years of the 20th century. I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked Boats of the Glen Carrig, but it has clearly been more influential than the earlier novel.

It also fills the written before 1940 Bingo slot.

Peony wrote: "Reorganizing my shelf, deciding if I will read Malice from The Faithful and The Fallen (John Gwynne), The Bloodsworn Saga (John Gwynne), The Eye of the World from The Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan),..."

One other thing those books have in common other than being on average longer series is that each book is HUGE! That's an epic to-read list.

Wheel of Time is very daunting. When I dropped off some books at a local used bookstore I used the store credit to grab the entire series (minus the last book which I didn't notice on the shelf) but I'm eyeballing the effort of reading it.

I'm still mucking about with graphic novels, finished the first 6 books of Locke & Key which finishes the core storyline, and I'm switching back to Lucifer, Book Four

Oooh! And just today I picked up the graphic novel version of Earthsea from the library, everyone on GR was saying it was really good so looking forward to it, will get to it soon.

You can see why I’m taking my time to decide 🤷‍♀️ Advice open, so far WoT and MSaT are up there for worldbuilding (the worldbuilding gremlin inside me drools awake at this from its happy dreams of AoB and personal project bliss), but I’m unsure what will give me the best character work, as I seem more picky in this regard than many other reviewers so far (that, or they’re just so polite that their implications swoosh over my brain). Sidenote, my computer is dead so I’ll mostly be limited to app functionality for a while (No reply function, no book linking, no images).

I enjoyed the newest book in the Nevermoor series, Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow . It started as MG but now Morrigan is 14 so moving into YA territory.

(So sorry Georgann for sandwiching your comment)

…I think i’m going to read the wheel of time *and* Greenbone Saga, *and* First Law. (Crying on the inside) It’s the right choice….it is….it is…. (whimpers of horror do sound in the background)

I finished Infinity Gate. I liked it in general. I am now starting the second book, Echo of Worlds.

Finished Son of a Witch, pretty dark and I found it hard to get invested in the story for a good chunk of it because the character himself wasn't very invested in his own life, but it got better towards the end. Anyway that will fill my Features a Son BINGO slot

Starting now on The Book of Ti'ana by Rand Miller to fill the portal slot, at least I hope they will involve those portal books but so far they are just digging tunnels in mountains...

I have finished Batman Archives, Vol. 1. It was interesting to read the first 24 Batman stories, running in Detective Comics from the first appearance in May 1939 (issue 27), and this collection concludes with April 1941 (issue 50). This version of the Batman is different in many ways from the modern version, but the core elements are there from the beginning.

This graphic novel will also fill the alternate form slot in the Bingo.

I have finished Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons. This is a collection of 20 essays looking at both the history of the game and its impact on society, both generally and on specific communities, Not every essay maintained my interest, but they all seem well-written and well-researched.

This will fill the Non-Fiction slot in my Bingo.

General Updates

- LOTR Book 1 The Fellowship of the Ring- 52% It's picking up into lore and plot and when this story decides to be cool, it succeeds. It hasn't tried enough for me, though.

- Wheel of Time Book 1 The Eye of the World- 23% The pacing is really good. I Know it's a 'big book' and all, but wow, so much has happened. It's like 2x the pace of LOTR, and far more worldbuilding. The scenes were very cleverly chosen, it's gaining my trust. Dismayed already at how many times I'm going to hear characters huff out "men" in this series at random intrapersonal conflicts.

-Memory Sorrow and Thorn Book 1 The Dragonbone Chair- 8% It's growing on me. The main character is a lazy, ditzy, dreamy little guy and it's a bit charming. Does he have ADHD by chance? The forgetting important things and veering off into unintentionally all-encompassing side quests, unable to listen to a story (even one he's interested in and put a lot of effort into getting to hear) without multi-tasking. It would be interesting if that was intended.

- The First Law Book 1 The Blade Itself- 10%. The pacing feels pretty good, especially considering the multiple POV's, but as usual the switches still give me whiplash. I think the action and conflict focus plays a large role in that.

Posted My Dragon Mage review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Gave it 2.5/3 stars.

I finished The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett last night and absolutely loved it. It's a fantasy murder mystery with lots of awesome worldbuilding. The MC is an apprentice investigator who has been artificially augmented to remember everything he sees and experiences. He is looking into the bizarre death of a man who died via a tree erupting from inside of him. I'm very excited for book 2 to come out in paperback.

This morning is finished the 1907 short story The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson. It was another one from my Voices From the Radium Age collection. Fishermen on the Pacific encounter a strange voice out in the dark with a strange and tragic tale to tell. Was some interesting weird horror.

I think I've now decided to read some Dorothy Sayers next with Have His Carcase

I finished Slaves of Mercury. It was everything you would expect from a pulp SF story (first published in 1932) - heroic Earthmen, evil aliens, spaceships, ray guns, and recovery from dire straits. And, of course, several scientific errors 😆

Nekrorider by odd coincidence, just a short while before spotting your post I added 'The Tainted Cup' to my 'want to read shelf.' Your comments make me think that was a smart move.👍

I have started reading Europa Universalis IV: What If? The Anthology of Alternate History. This is an anthology of alternate history stories with a difference. The stories are inspired by game reports sent in by players of the Europa Universalis IV computer game. This is a strategy game, similar to the Civilization series, in which players take control of a European nation and advance it from Renaissance times to the Napoleonic era.

52% done with Wheel of Time Book 1 Eye of the World. The writing had a slow period midway into the adventure beginning, but picked back up in pacing, and the stakes are good. The writing, too, is quite good—it’s descriptive in one of those ways I can actually imagine the scene quite well, not like some other books where I find myself cringing through details that don’t help to pain an image of the scene, foggy details I’m unsure where to place. Man, these 3 teenage boys are stupid, though. There’s no nice way to put it, they talk as much as 6 year old me left 5 minutes unattended in proximity a total adult stranger, with the same memory permanence, too.

Wheel of time update: As of 58%, the writing is very enjoyable, the psychology adequately complex, the side characters are many and humanizing and enjoyable, the world is thoroughly built and less gritty-toned than Sanderson’s, and the pacing good and ever-shifting-the way the plot is tied together is simultaneously simple and covertly complex, so many moving pieces but not overwhelming at all. Ofc books change across their lengths, but this one….I think the writing is *improving* was we go on, and it was never frustrating, though there was one slow bit from 17-40% that was hard to get through, but similar to how LoTR is hard for me to get through. If the writing stays solid, it’s gonna be the second book to get 5 stars from me. Aaaaaah, please dont drop the ball, good book!

Today I'm going to start on A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel. Everyone has been saying how good it is, and will be fun to reread the novel which I read many years ago, this will refresh my memory.

Oooh, i might preview that.

So, like, if we put comics here, do we include serialized webcomics? Because then, I’m reading “The Knight Only Lives Once.” I’d rank it below most books I’ve read, but the scope is pretty small as well. Just one cursed soldier with a mysterious backstory reliving various battles over and over.

Oh darn, *”The Knight Only Lives Today”

That other title would make 0 sense, haha

I see no reason not to mention them, some even get turned into books and end up on Goodreads

Isn't there a Bond movie about only living twice?

Yep, 1967. Adapted for the screen from Ian Fleming's book of the same name by no less than Ronald Dahl. It is the one set in Japan where the six foot something tall, very Scots Sean Connery, goes unconvincingly undercover as a Japanese man.

That's Roald Dahl, but autocorrect thinks it knows better. LOL😊

There is an old gag (I think it might have originated with UK sketch show, 'Not the Nine O'clock News') that Roald Dahl's parents couldn't spell 'Ronald' so perhaps autocorrect was trying to be funny?

Peony wrote: "Oooh, i might preview that.

So, like, if we put comics here, do we include serialized webcomics? Because then, I’m reading “The Knight Only Lives Once.” I’d rank it below most books I’ve read, bu..."

You can put a serialised web comic here if you like, but you might have difficulty finding a Goodreads record to link it to. Generally single issues of comics and magazines are not *supposed* to be given Goodreads records - although plenty are. At least, those were the guidelines when I applied to be a librarian here many years ago. Graphic novels, however, are certainly counted as books, and should have a Goodreads record.

Robin wrote: "Nekrorider by odd coincidence, just a short while before spotting your post I added 'The Tainted Cup' to my 'want to read shelf.' Your comments make me think that was a smart move.👍"

I hope you enjoy it, Robin! I personally loved it and would recommend it 😀

Cheers👍

Ha ha, Robin! Connery as an undercover Japanese man was kinda ... altho that spider crawling up his chest had me freaking! My autocorrect has been so super not helpful lately, correcting things it has no business doing. My daughter calls it the drunk elf in her phone. I gave 5 stars to The Tainted Cup.

Finished the Earthsea graphic novel, my one complaint is that some panels were so dark I couldn't see anything. I mean realism when people light their rooms with maybe nothing more than a fireplace is nice but then I can't actually enjoy the art :)

90% done with eye of the world!!! Not sure how this is going to reach a good conclusion for such a big book

Glad you enjoyed it, Andrea, even so!

Started The Sunlit Man today. I listened to all of A Connecticut Yankee on the train last week. Finished I Am Not Thirteen, a NetGalley from four years ago.

Audrey wrote: "Started The Sunlit Man today. I listened to all of A Connecticut Yankee on the train last week. Finished I Am Not Thirteen, a NetGalley from four years ago."

Audrey, I don't feel so bad now since you've had a NetGalley for four years! I still haven't gotten to a couple that I've had for eons. I was half expecting the NetGalley police would fire me 😂

Completed the Eye of the World…. Why… why did it end so…badly? The world was so vivid, but the plot hit its head on a rock and went splat. It's like somebody had the vaguest notion of some parts of a conclusion, then never went in for the details or fleshed out the scene, just sent it off to publishing. WHy??? w h y???? How are there 13 more books? I don't understand

Maybe that's why, because there was another book to continue the story so the ending didn't...end? Though for sure every book in a series needs to wrap up meaningfully, in the same way even a chapter does.

At least you don't need to wait a year till you can continue :)

Note - I haven't read the book yet so I don't know in what way the ending failed (and don't want spoilers) but I'm just tossing out guesses why maybe it didn't wrap up well and maybe it continues just fine in the next one.

What happened got pulled out of nowhere, for no discernible reason, in a way that retroactively makes the stakes as we understood them and the history not make sense, and it happened extremely abruptly and strangely, too. A non-ending would have honestly been better. A literal Deux-ex-Machina would have been better. It only barely has any grounding or foreshadowing, and I'm sure it will be retroactively addressed, but... like... that should be in *this* book. There should be *something.* Whyy?? Whyyyy?

Even so, the good parts of the writing... *chefs kiss* worth it, but not for the plot.

Still conflicted, it’s the best audiobook I could have used my credit for, but still.

I'm about a third of the way through Europa Universalis IV: What If? The Anthology of Alternate History. It's ... interesting ... as a collection of alternate history short stories. In most alt histories, the diverging point is made clear very early on - the South won the Civil War, or Germany won WWII, that sort of thing. And some of these stories have been the same - George Washington is killed during the American Revolution, or Napoleon is killed in the Battle of Arcole in 1796. But some of them are where an obscure German prince is killed in the Thirty Years War. It requires a greater knowledge of history than I have to pick up on some of the differences, although each story has a What Really Happened bit at the end, so that helps.

In any event, I'm going to put it aside for a while. I'm going overseas later this year, and won't be taking any physical books with me, so I will concentrate on reading some dead tree books for a while. I'm currently tossing up between The Chinese Parrot, the second Charlie Chan detective novel, The Moonstone often considered the godfather of the modern detective novel - along with Sherlock Holmes - and Marsbound / Starbound / Earthbound, the trilogy by Joe Haldeman.

Tony wrote: "I'm about a third of the way through Europa Universalis IV: What If? The Anthology of Alternate History. It's ... interesting ... as a collection of alternate history short stories...."

I'll be reading The Moonstone later this year as well, Tony. I'm already a huge fan of Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White and The Dream Woman, so am excited for this one too. Definitely recommend Woman in White if you're interested in reading more of him.

I loved The Woman in White.

Just finished Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands.

Started The Waking of Angatyr, it seems solid so far.

Was reading the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Loved it a second time, now I'm reading the Count of Monte Cristo for a second time.

Lol. Tried and true literally, huh?

Alex wrote: "Was reading the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Loved it a second time, now I'm reading the Count of Monte Cristo for a second time."

I loved The Count of Monte Cristo!

The Waking of Angatyr’s writing drops at around 28% and does not pick back up. I’m close to dropping it at 67%.

Michelle wrote: "Alex wrote: "Was reading the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Loved it a second time, now I'm reading the Count of Monte Cristo for a second time."

I loved The Count of Monte Cristo!"

I loved The Three Musketeers, but I have never been able to get past halfway in The Count of Monte Cristo.