What books are you reading or have recently read?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Duckman said:

Wow, talk about a tinted view and reading.  It's a book about a 12-year-old with all the well-informed and considered decisions you would expect from one.  You've ignored all the people who hate him for his history, all of Slytherin, Snape and others and you forget that even if he's liked by people in Gryffindor he still gets [big bad swear word] from them as well.  This only gets worse and worse the farther you get into the series as well.

The first book is actually well edited and tightly written.  It gives you the details you need to understand why and when things happen and very little more.  That includes introducing you to the Dursleys, a large part of the backstory sadness that you are blowing off, and detailing a bit of how the houses work although you are supposed to know that because it was written initially for a British audience.  After that all the scenes are actually either plot or character development, which is something you cannot say about later books (by book 5 she was being very loosely edited and there is a lot of dark, useless crap in that book).

Finally, the series is not strictly about Harry.  It's an ensemble story which includes his friends and that is intentional.  It's written in his viewpoint but he is not the sole protagonist.

Our debates don't really go anywhere, and you tend to get offended, so how about we skip this debate and just agree to disagree?

[WestRider]

In the Shadow of Spindrift House, by Mira Grant: The high concept pitch here is "Scooby Doo and the Shadow over Innsmouth", but that entirely fails to do it justice. You've got a pretty clear Scooby Gang analogue, but it's all played deadly serious, and packs in more genuine horror than Lovecraft did in his Shadow. Left me messed up for like a day and a half afterward as I processed through it.

[Guest]

Finished Harry Potter 1 (as mentioned above, I was reviewing the first half of the first book). Then read book 2 and 3. Definitely feel that RK rowling was being stifled creatively with first book, as the books improve in creative writing quality as they get longer and longer. Though, the character, harry potter still bugs me for lots of reasons.

Finally got the complete series for another Mercedes Lackey set. Read Winds of Fate. Two more in that series, which I haven't read yet, both start with "Winds of" in their titles. I enjoy this author, though her books are hit or miss because she tries new things a lot and some of them are not my thing. For example, she did an entire series from the point of view of a Gryphon, which I just couldn't get into. Did another one about a Gay male wizard, which I had trouble with, but I keep thinking I need to re-read that one. But then she's written several others which I very much enjoyed. And it's the topic material which is hit and miss, not the writing style, the author is great I think. And all these mentioned stories are part of a single overall setting, so they reference each other (which is part of why I keep thinking I need to re-read them).

 

[Torg]

Just last week finished "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell" by Neal Stephenson... and I was kinda disappointed overall when compared to the last few books of his I have gone through.  3.75 out of 5 stars I guess.  I'm not sure why it had to be so long and drawn out ... needless and directionless for a good chunk.  

Started "Star Wars: Maul"... as some research for my gaming group... whom don't know it yet... but Prison awaits them lol.  So far so good - I didn't expect much from it ...and so far it is decent enough lol.

 

 

[dalmer]

Finished books 1 and 2 of the Dark Tower series.  Partway into book 3.  I'm enjoying it, I like the subtle tie-ins with other works and history and such.  Compelling characters, too.

[dalmer]

Dark Tower series done.  Really enjoyed the ending, and the entire series I felt was well done especially considering the timeframe involved.

Just read the latest Longmire series book "Land of Wolves."  Burned through it quickly, was like visiting some old friends in Absaroka County.  Love the series and glad it came back to Wyoming.

[WestRider]

Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir: The only suitable map is the territory itself. The only review that can do it justice is the book itself. Seriously dark, but also extremely funny, often at the same time. I can't wait for the second one to come out in June. I really want to know more about the setting and meet more of these people.

[Sgt. Rock]

Currently burning through Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Great sci-fi that explores the perils of terraforming and playing god. Not for arachnophobes, though. Really well written, especially from the spiders' point of view. Not quite halfway through, already looking forward to reading the second book when I'm done with this one.

[WestRider]

9 hours ago, WestRider said:

Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir: The only suitable map is the territory itself. The only review that can do it justice is the book itself. Seriously dark, but also extremely funny, often at the same time. I can't wait for the second one to come out in June. I really want to know more about the setting and meet more of these people.

Oh, yeah, there are a few more elements particularly relevant to this crowd here. Lots of aesthetic overlap with 40K. An immortal God-Emperor who has ruled over humanity for 10,000 years after having died and resurrected himself, super anachronistic combinations of tech, gratuitous skulls everywhere.

Also, the word-craft is amazing. There are constant combinations of themes, idioms, and phrasings that absolutely should not work, should just clash horribly. But somehow, they fit together seamlessly.

[WestRider]

The House of Night and Chain, by David Annandale. It's pretty good overall, and there are some interesting ideas about anti-Chaos practices, but I still put it down feeling disappointed. For all its strengths, it just doesn't manage to live up to the awesomeness of the title. Something with a title as badass as "The House of Night and Chain" really needs to be better than "pretty good".

[Torg]

I just finished the new book "A Little Hatred" By Joe Abercrombie... was good - I am looking forward to the rest of this series which is yet to come.  Very nicely done - and I enjoyed how things were put together - the world building and the rest.  I hadn't read his other series - so I started "The Blade Itself" this week.

 

-d

[Duckman]

I have picked up a copy of The Dark Tower I (Stephen King) recently at the suggestion of a friend.  I have not read much Stephen King and I am enjoying the different writing style.  Not far enough into it yet to have a solid review though.

[dalmer]

Wolfsbane, Born of Flame and Slaves to Darkness.... books 49, 50 and 51 of the Horus Heresy.  Three more to go and then onto the Siege of Terra.

Really enjoying how the writers fleshed out the 40k lore and universe.  Russ v Horus was built up so well, I thought.  And Slaves to Darkness... whew!  I gravitate to the loyalist forces but man oh man there were some side plots going on there...

[InfestedKerrigan]

Just picked up Brave New World and The doors of Perception.  Both by Aldous Huxley.  I've read little bits of BNW, previously. 

[Yarbicus]

Just finished The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson's new biography if Churchill's first year as prime minister. Like all of his books,  he masterfully uses "normal " people to illustrate his primary subject. And Churchill is such a bizarre character. However, it is not as compelling as Dead Wake or Devil in the White City. Once the US enters the war, the just abruptly stops.

[WestRider]

Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö: One of the few works that was revolutionary in a genre that I've found to still hold up well. Additionally, it has gained some interest as a sort of "time capsule", since it covers so many little details of Martin Beck's daily life and work, so many things that have been changed by technological or social shifts in the past half-century or so. I tend to find murder mysteries rather depressing, so I'm not going to be reading further into the series at this time, but it really is an excellent book.

Requiem Infernal by Peter Fehervari: I was astounded after I finished this to find that it was classified as just a regular 40K novel, not part of the Warhammer Horror line. It certainly deserves classification as "horror" far more than most of what GW has actually put out under that imprint. Really drives home that 40K is, fundamentally, a horror setting.

Middlegame by Shaenon McGuire: Amazing book. I think I actually need to re-read it a couple of times to really get it. It's a pretty complex structure, and I kept having to flip back and forth to check things that had happened before, and how the current version differed from previous timelines.

Network Effect by Martha Wells: A full-length Murderbot novel! The one thing I think I can say about the brilliance of this book without spoilers is that adding a teenage girl was one of the best possible choices to make for the series. I mean, Murderbot's primary weakness has always been strong emotions, and teen girls* are like 80-90% composed of strong emotions. It creates some truly wonderful conflicts for our favourite SecUnit.

*Yes, teen boys are too. But they tend to express it in ways that would be easier for Murderbot to deal with.

[WestRider]

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: It's rare that I find a book to be as good as everyone says it is, but this is one of the where I did. I don't have the words to talk about it properly. Just beautiful writing.

[Justjokin]

Red Rising - Lots of people love it, it kind of felt like wanna be Hunger Games, with a more pro-red, pun-intended, bend. I tried the second book, but got board...

What's that? A new Gaunt's Ghosts book???

Dune (8th read?) - Hyped about the movie, re-listened to the very messy audible production. Still love the book. Still feel like I pick up something new, every time.

 

 

 

[Justjokin]

Ok, been soaking them in... 

Know No Fear - Dan Abnett - Reread, still up there with Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns in enjoyable reads from 30K

Mechanicum - Graham McNeill - 30K WTF on Mars!?! Want big stompy Titan battles?

Vengeful Spirit - Graham McNeill - 30K How Horus gets buffed for the big boss fight. Also weird Knights. 

Fury of Magnus - Graham McNeil - 30k I picked this up thinking it was a follow up Prospero Burns, but dropped me right into the middle of the Siege of Terra. Which looking back at the cover was the subtitle. Oh well, I've never been able to acquire the books in order anyways...  😐

The Unremembered Empire - Dan Abnett - 30K Smurf Empire. My biggest complaint on this one is Guilliman's character is so different in capabilities from Know No Fear, I thought it was different authors! Before I realized it wasn't, I asked my wife, "Do these guys even read each other's books?" 

Also this was fun: 

Unsolved Mysteries Of Warhammer 40K With Author Dan Abnett | Ars Technica - YouTube

[Brother Glacius]

I've been re-reading the Wheel of Time series again. I just love Jordan. Not so thrilled about the ending books by Sanderson or whatever his name is. Not that he's a bad writer, but after so many years of Jordan, it is very hard to see someone else write his characters.

[Justjokin]

So obviously no one has read anything since 2021... right?  Ask me about 'em if you're interested!

[Justjokin]

On 2/5/2020 at 9:58 PM, Sgt. Rock said:

Currently burning through Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Great sci-fi that explores the perils of terraforming and playing god. Not for arachnophobes, though. Really well written, especially from the spiders' point of view. Not quite halfway through, already looking forward to reading the second book when I'm done with this one.

READ THIS!!! ^^^^^

Although even as a claustrophobe, I would have really missed out if I avoided books with caves, submarines, or hypersleep chambers... 

I'd love to hear how you feel about the book now. WOW, is where I'm still at!

That second book though... "We're going on an Adven-ture...." This isn't sci-fi horror any more than the Leviathan Wakes (first Expanse book) was, but oh my, did that creep me out!

[Romans832]

I have sucked reading books for the last 7+ years.

I have started 4 books and got halfway through one and then my son pulled my bookmark so I should restart it. ("Awake & Alive to Truth")

I'm starting to find I don't retain what I read and that scares me.

"The Last Shadow" damit! I haven't read this one 😞 But says I purchased it?

Have Read:
"The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life (Believer's Life Series) (Christian Living Classics) "
"12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos "

Yay for book group... I got 2 for sure...

Freshly started "Get Your Life Back" & hope our group will go to the sequel "Resilient" next.

Now where the hell is "The Last Shadow"?

[Justjokin]

2 hours ago, Romans832 said:

..."pulled my bookmark so"...

This is me every night falling asleep to my audio books. I go back until it's memorable enough and go with it! Funny how often I realize I remember the passage, but now think of it differently. It's why I never hesitate to reread a book that I previously enjoyed, or at least found interesting. You might just now be getting to the thing the author really wanted you to think about.

[Romans832]

7 minutes ago, Justjokin said:

This is me every night falling asleep to my audio books. I go back until it's memorable enough and go with it! Funny how often I realize I remember the passage, but now think of it differently. It's why I never hesitate to reread a book that I previously enjoyed, or at least found interesting. You might just now be getting to the thing the author really wanted you to think about.

Well said!