What Book Are You Reading XV - The Pile Keeps Growing!

[Josu]

Been out in holidays for a couple of weeks.
Plenty of time for reading

Ended Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski
Started and ended The tower of swallow and The lady in the lake, also by Andrzej Sapkowski. While first books of The Witcher's series catch me, I do not consider good enough these 3 books. They are ok, but IMHO the quality decreases significantly.

Started and ended Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado. It contains too much elements that I have allready seen in other novels, too much clichés, Fast-food thriller. However, it is entertaining, there is no doubt that Juan Gomez-Jurado knows how to build stories.


Also started Tyrant by Christian Cameron and Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tim Lister and Tom DiMarco

 

[Takhisis]

I've just finished reading Kenizé Mourad's family duology De la parte de la princesse morte and Les jardins de Badalpour (Regards from the Dead Princess and the gardens of Badalpur, in English). A beautifully told story reconstructed from a lot of second-hand information, since the titular princess was dead at the time her daughter began researching the book.

A must read, except if you're or have ever been Synsensa.

 

[Synobun]

I've just finished reading Kenizé Mourad's family duology De la parte de la princesse morte and Les jardins de Badalpour (Regards from the Dead Princess and the gardens of Badalpur, in English). A beautifully told story reconstructed from a lot of second-hand information, since the titular princess was dead at the time her daughter began researching the book.

A must read, except if you're or have ever been Synsensa.

Je suis desolé

 

[Takhisis]

Basically, since you disagree with my taste, I'm telling you you shouldn't read it, so that you do read it.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I bought a used copy of Sam Stavisky's Marine Combat Correspondent, a memoir about a Washington Post reporter turned Marine, because I remember it fondly from 20+ years ago and wanted to re-read it. It follows his experience in the Pacific, 1942 - beyond. Re-reading currently and enjoying!

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm halfway through The Starless Crown by James Rollins. It's a 500 page fantasy story set in an interesting world and has great characters engaged in a novel story line. It is well written and a fun read.

Spoiler :

Roger Zelasny was the only writer I am aware of who has ventured down this path before. I'll have to wait to see if my guess holds true.

 

[warpus]

I spent some time camping and cottaging (I think some of you might call them cabins) and ended up finding enough time to finish An Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton

This concludes the Commonwealth saga, excluding that one prequel book that doesn't have much to do with the main story and wasn't that good anyway (from what I hear). I will probably end up reading it one day, but I was very ready to move on from my Commonwealth prison of sorts; I had been making my way through these books for years pretty much, reading a bit here, a bit there.. Don't get me wrong, these are good books, and it's a great series with a lot of great ideas.. but Peter F. Hamilton writes in a way that just crams a lot of stuff happening into the text, but after like 200 pages you realize that not much has really progressed in terms of the main storyline, but there are now 17 new characters, unnecessary interpersonal drama between some of them, and half of them are super spy agent detective types. I really liked a lot of what happens in the story, and even liked the stuff happening in the void more than the first 2 books.. even though at first I was groaning and moaning that the books were about something happening in the void, and weren't actually about the void. I got over that eventually and loved how things all came together at the end of An Abyss Beyond Dreams

I both loathe and love Tim for recommending the first book in this series To me.

The next book I started reading (while cottaging) was Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and that other guy. Not very sophisticated literature, but they're slowly getting better at writing dialogue, and the characters and stuff happening are interesting enough. This book was alright, pretty averageish, but it was very easy to read and chapters weren't very long, so I ended up making my way through it. Was the sort of average light space opera I like to read when I'm sitting in a hammock surrounded by trees and there's birds chirping around me. There is way too much exposition in these novels, and the dialogue could be better, but overall it's entertaining enough while it's super humid out and you're drinking a beer.

I bought this book 7 years ago IIRC but just never read it, so I thought I'd give it a chance. Turns out it's actually the first book in a trilogy that's a follow-up trilogy to the Butlerian Jihad trilogy.. which I read over a decade ago now, and which helped me get through an illness and a broken heart.. I had no idea, but there's elements and plot elements returning from that first trilogy, so that also made it easier to get into this book. It also actually raised a couple good questions about how the society would continue to evolve after the Butlerian Jihad.. in certain ways.. The book gave me more to think about than I expected from the authors, having read their previous work.

Next I dived right into Mentats of Dune, the second part of the trilogy.. So far it's been pretty good and enticing, with again too much exposition and average dialogue. It has been better than Sisterhood though, I like where a bunch of the storylines are going and want to read more.

I also bought some new books for my collection this weekend at a used book store:

The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov
Wyrms by Orson Scott Card
Conquistador by S. M. Stirling
Silver Locusts by Ray Bradbury
In High Places: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic by Harry Turtledove
Richter 10 by Arthur C. Clarke & McQuay, Mike
Prometheus by William R. Forstchen

I am like 90% sure that I've already read Ugly Little Boy, but I also vaguely remember liking the story.. so I don't mind owning it.

Orson Scott Card can burn in hell, but this is an earlier book of his I've never heard of and I love the premise. It seems really interesting and was an older copy so I just had to have it

Conquistador is another interesting premise that I want to read after I finish that Dune trilogy..

Silver Locusts was also another older book, and I love Bradbury's writing style, so it was a no brainer for me to pick it up. It takes place on Mars and I sometimes enjoy diving into that sort of nostalgic sci-fi from the 50s - 70s

I have never read any of Turtledove's work, but this one in particular seems intriguing. It's a part of a series, so I'll have to one day buy the first book in the series and see if I like it.

I was on the fence about Richter 10, but the premise has vague promise and I've never read a book by Clarke I didn't like. I was intrigued enough to pick this up

Prometheus claims to be in the vein of Starship Troopers, but the premise is a bit cliche. I wasn't sure about this one, but ended up buying it as the "let's flip a coin on this mofo" wildcard

My full collection is here ... or you can see what all the covers look like ... And here's my wish list

 

[Kyriakos]

^I have watched the tv adaptation of the Ugly Little Boy. Nice story

 

[tjs282]

Got through most of The Absolute Book (Elizabeth Knox) while we were on vacation, finished it shortly after we got home.

Now some chapters into Ann Leckie's Provenance, which is set in the same universe as her earlier 'Ancillary' trilogy (Justice, Sword, Mercy), but (so far) peripheral to that series.

 

[EnglishEdward]

The other day I finished reading:


Beyond the Wall of Time

by

Russell Kirkpatrick

copyright 2009

that I had bought for 50 pence second hand in Norwich.

It is a fantasy, well written if you like that stuff, but not normally my core reading.

 

[Josu]

Ended Tyrant by Christian Cameron
A book that was since a while in the to-read pile.
I read that it was a good book, my mother asked me for some historical novel and told him about this book, she said it was awful
I finally decided to read the book, I have read it in e-book format, the elctronic edition was worst than awfull. Page numbers and author notes interleaved in the text, repeated paragraph etc
However, I liked it, not enough to continue with the series right now, but I liked it. I am pretty sure that my mother has read worst books and have enjoyed them.

Have started Market Forces by Richard K Morgan

 

[EnglishEdward]

Two days ago, I finished reading:

Bone Silence

by

Alastair Reynolds

copyright 2020

that I bought new from Waterstones in Norwich.

It is the third Revenger book, and is very gripping.

Although the implied ending isn't quite right,
perhaps that may resolved in a fourth book.

 

[Synobun]

Two days ago, I finished reading:

Bone Silence

by

Alastair Reynolds

copyright 2020

that I bought new from Waterstones in Norwich.

It is the third Revenger book, and is very gripping.

Although the implied ending isn't quite right,
perhaps that may resolved in a fourth book.

Interesting. I just finished Revenger by Alistair Reynolds. It wasn't good. Are the sequels better?

 

[EnglishEdward]

I liked all three Revenger books, and I liked his other books.

But if you simply don't like his style, I think you will find little
in the third Revenger book that would change your mind.

 

[Synobun]

I liked all three Revenger books, and I liked his other books.

But if you simply don't like his style, I think you will find little
in the third Revenger book that would change your mind.

My issue with Revenger, ultimately, was that the story seemed to be missing crucial scenes to justify Fura's development. It felt strongly like entire sections were removed wholesale, to cut down on word count, and it resulted in a lot of stretched imagination. I also found the explanation for Bosa's villainy to be... questionable? There was such a strong focus on how she "turns" people, but there is no context provided for how she does this. People spend time around "her" and they become evil. Okay... why? How? It's just glossed over and the reader is expected to believe in it and find it compelling.

There was also a likability issue with the characters, but the writing style was slick enough for that to be no big deal. The whole bauble and Occupation worldbuilding was clever, though poorly illuminated on as the story progresses; the reader never learns more about them and how they work.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Well yes, Alastair Reynolds is more of a novel ideas man than a character builder.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm halfway through The Starless Crown by James Rollins. It's a 500 page fantasy story set in an interesting world and has great characters engaged in a novel story line. It is well written and a fun read.

Spoiler :

Roger Zelazny was the only writer I am aware of who has ventured down this path before. I'll have to wait to see if my guess holds true.

500 pages of a great story that is not complete. Book 2 is scheduled for 2023.

Spoiler :

Yes! Cool beans. I love it.

 

[Josu]

Ended Market Forces by Richard K Morgan
Mad Max meets American Psycho.
Not a bad book, and not best distopy I have read, however I do not understand why there is not a film about this book.

Started The Ministry of the future, by Kim Stanley Robinson

 

[Kyriakos]

I started reading Hawking's brief history of time. First chapter was nice.
I wasn't aware of his tie to Roger Penrose, which is significant.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian. Political intrigue and action while on safari in 1964. Great story.