What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? October 29
What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? October 29
Still reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).
Book is pretty fast paced and full of action. Really enjoying it.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
A regular reminder about our Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.
I'm currently reading the first book of the 3 body problem series. Still trying to decide if I like it or not even though I'm almost done with it.
I've read the English translations of the trilogy. If you like mystery, high-concept sci-fi, and epic storytelling, the series is pretty terrific. But if your into rounded and compelling characters, especially if those characters are women, your going to have a bad time.
Kinda reminds me of classic authors like Heinlein.
I've never read anything by Heinlein, is there a particular book you would recommend?
Kinda reminds me of classic authors like Heinlein.
Heinlein or Niven are pretty accurate comparisons IMO
I read the entire trilogy a couple of years ago and I'll say a couple of things about it: the big ideas are great and the plot is interesting but the characters and the actual mechanics of the writing are solidly mediocre at times. I'm not sure if that's down to the translation between languages (Ken Liu's two translations are much better than the middle book IMO) or just the style of the novels but it's definitely a pain point for the series.
Parts of the later books read like bad western SF from the 60s or 70s and some of the later themes are ridiculously reactionary. Like women being incapable of aggressive choices necessary for survival or the decadent feminized men who are incapable of things in general. There's some large scale human social critique involved later about societal wishful thinking that's 100% on point but I won't spoil that for you.
It's definitely worth reading, pieces of the trilogy are great, but it also goes in decidedly reactionary directions at times as well. It's sort of like reading Ringworld - lots of neat concepts with some chauvinistic social commentary.
Holy shit! Me too, except I've decided I like it. It is a compelling story. It goes a bit hard on the scientific accuracy which can kind of interrupt the flow, though.
I find the most interesting part is the insight of modern Chinese commentary of recent Chinese history. I wasn't sure what popular sentiment was, or what criticism / critiques would be allowed to be published by the party.
I watched half of the first episode before it was mentioned to me that there were already elements of the second book there. To keep me interested in the tv show, I decided to read the books first but I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I've been on a bit of a Tchaikovsky binge lately. I read Children of Time years ago and enjoyed it, but for whatever reason, didn't read anything else by him then. I had a copy of Made Things knocking around though, and I finally read it a few weeks ago and was so impressed I started reading him in earnest. This is the... let's see... seventh book of his I've read lately.
He sort of reminds me of Michael Crichton. He's not a particularly notable prose stylist - his writing is entirely competent and sufficient, but not in any way really remarkable. But he tells very imaginative stories very well, so he's a satisfying read.
This one is a sort of political thriller wrapped around a mystery that plays out a bit like a science fiction update of a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination story, leavened a bit with Emily St. John Mandel style misfit spaceship crew slice of life. I'm enjoying it.
I bought shards of the earth but I'm currently reading wheel of time again! Hopefully I like it!
I have his Shadow of the Apt series, though haven't started it yet. Your comparison with Michael Crichton is making me want to start it soon.
I haven't read those yet, but I intend to. And I expect that, like every one I've read yet, they'll be solid 7 or 8 out of 10 books.
That's the thing that reminded me of Crichton. He has that same ability to start with some fascinating idea and run with it and deliver a solid, well-told and satisfying story, then move on to some completely different fascinating idea and run with it and deliver another solid, well-told and satisfying story. He's not locked into any specific genre or any specific approach to telling a story - just whatever works for that idea, that's what he does, and it just works.
Service Model was excellent.
I bounced off of Children of Time hard, finished, but hated it by the end. I might not have been so harsh if the praise for it wasn’t so high, but it just didn’t seem to deserve it imo. I think the premise was interesting, and it had good parts (I did enjoy the spider parts, though less towards the end), but things kept happening that eroded my suspension of disbelief for the setup until it collapsed completely. Looking back at the start of the novel, a bunch of the world building and piece setting just seemed silly under scrutiny.
I was thinking it was a 3/5, but when reading reviews it was the more thoughtful 1/5 and 2/5 reviews that reflected my feelings
Not to yuck your yum, and I certainly seem to be in the minority based on good reads
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson. It's the Third book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I just started it but the second book blew my mind. I really enjoyed the first book, Gardens of the Moon but at times it came across as a bit generic fantasy perhaps aimed at a bit of a younger audience but Deadhouse Gates fully flipped that on its head. For a high fantasy series the battles of 'the chain of dogs' in Deadhouse Gates particularly stood out to me as some of the best depictions of historical warfare I've ever read. While a few battles from the entire wheel of time series stick with me I don't think I'll ever forget the chain of dogs. Looking forward to seeing what's to come from book 3. Highly recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen if you're into high fantasy. Don't be intimidated by the crazy wordcounts, they're easy reading so far.
I’m planning on doing this at some point but I am slightly intimidated by the length. I like to read a series through as a one shot and it’ll take around 6 months based on the audiobook length and my average rate. I think I might start it after I finish earthsea, but I might start a less hefty series instead
Oh man, I finished that series last year. Definitely some incredible parts, but it also drags a bit at the end. It finished with like 2000 pages of matching through a desert which was rough, but by that point you've read enough that you can't stop.
Younger audience is a crazy critique though, I can't say I ever though that.
Haha it was mostly the Crokus centred part I got that impression from, plus a few other elements like edgy Anomander Rake. I got that impression a bit with the daru cabal plot but it is probably too harsh a criticism for most of the book.
Man, spoilers much? So much of the beauty of book four was having that click in my brain. There's a reason Erikson doesn't use his real name through dead house gates....
Not sure if Lemmy supports comment spoilers but that would have been the time to use them, might not be too late to prevent others from getting spoiled.
Two books:
- Bullshit jobs by David Graeber
- Crack-up capitalism by Quinn Slobodian
Permanently Deleted
Good to hear. I just started it.
Finished Rhythm of War. The end hit hard, and I'm definitely impatiently waiting for Wind and Truth now.
Rhythm of War Spoilers
Right after Kaladin jumps through the battle for the tower were all super emotional, and I also really enjoyed Eshonai's last ride with the Stormfather. I had kind of been holding out hope that she was Venli's spren somehow, but I appreciated giving her that send off, at least.
I have used hard copies of Edgedancer and Dawnshard that should be showing up today to add to my collection, so I'll probably start into those.
In the meantime I read book 5 of CJ Archer's Glass Library series, The Secret of the Lost Ledgers. I think I prefer Glass and Steele over Glass Library so far, but that's partly because magic was more secretive at the start of the arc.
edit: the novellas are itty bitty.
I wish I could experience all of Sanderson's books again for the first time and agree Rythm of War was great! I can't wait to get to Wind and Truth either. Being an audio book only guy though I'm going to have to wait a bit longer until I can continue that story!
Have you read Mistborn?
I'm mostly an audiobook guy, though I have both hardcover and audiobook preordered. I doubt I'll really read the physical copies, but I recently decided to refresh my bookshelves with some of my favorites just for the sake of having them and the Stormlight Archive quickly became a favorite once I finally buckled down and just bought all the audiobooks to listen straight through.
I've read some of his random smaller stuff. I thought the premise of Rithmatist could have been a pretty fun VR game. I haven't read Mistborn yet, but it's definitely on my radar. One of my biggest things is availability, though. My binge on physical books the last couple weeks was an outlier, but I generally can't afford to actually buy anywhere near as many books as I read. They're mostly not as substantial as Stormlight Archive, but according to goodreads my new books this year are still comfortably in the triple digits, so I need libraries and subscription libraries to fill in most of the volume or I'd go broke pretty quickly. I definitely want to read Mistborn, but I'll probably wait a while, because my self control on buying books can get me in trouble if I'm not careful.
I'm enjoying "The Overstory" by Richard Powers for my fiction fix.
Just got in the mail today, currently on chapter 3, "The art of receiving and giving" by Betty Martin. This one I'm going to have to read piecewise.
I listen to A Night in the Lonesome October every October. It's the diary of Jack the Rippers dog from October 1'st to October 31'st.
I’m currently reading Five Tales by Herman Melville. I also have a Herman Melville short stories book waiting for me at my library.
Iron Coffins by Herbert Werner
It's a memoir by one of the handful of Uboat Captains who survived WWII.
That's an interesting topic. How are you liking the book?
I'm currently on Children of Dune. I've listened to the core six a few times on audio book but figured I'd actually put the time into reading them. Its honestly pretty close to a first time experience. There was so many little things sprinkled throughout that I totally missed in audio book.
Currently reading There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, which involves a department of the SCP Foundation dealing with entities that delete memories, communication, etc. I don't intend to go down the SCP rabbit hole, but I'm finding the book inventive and enjoyable so far.
--
Read Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge. Short, fun, mindless Halloween action horror.
Bingo squares: Family Drama; Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie; Now a Major Motion Picture; It's About Time; Award Winner; It's a Holiday (hard); (alt) A Change in Perspective
Dark Harvest looks interesting.
What's There is no Animemetics Division? Series of web novels?
It looks like Antimemetics was originally posted online as a series of entries and short stories, as part of the SCP universe, which is an online collaborative fiction project (wikipedia for more info ). From a quick search, it seems some (all of?) it is still available if you look up 'qntm' on the SCP wiki, but I'm not sure if the self-published release included rewrites or additional material.
Finished Lawrence Block's Evan Tanner series, and am now on the 2nd book of his Matthew Scudder series. The Scudder books will be a re-read for me up until about book 4 or 5. I hope to finish them all this time around.
I read Mur Lafferty's Station Eternity and then Chaos Terminal. I enjoyed them buuuuuuttttt... Station Eternity had hints that there may have been a breadcrumb mystery to solve outside of the narrative. After reading the second book, I think it was just plot holes, or else tokens that the author thought were wrapped up that I didn't catch. Either way, having lost what I thought was a clever puzzle to solve, I'd say both books were pulpy.
Permanently Deleted
Interesting, will check it out. How are you liking it so far?
October by China Mieville
Perfect month to read it in!
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. The prose is beautiful and mesmerizing. It forces me to read it at the speed of speech, to let it flow. I'm a sucker for long and winding sentences (when they're done well), and this doesn't disappoint.
It's also quite disgusting, just as everyone says about it. If you can't handle brutal senseless violence, don't pick this up. It's pretty interesting to see the racism/xenophobia of today reflected in American history (1850-ish). It reminds me of the Dark Forest theory from Three Body Problem: these guys go around killing not just out of a love of violence, but because it's the only guaranteed way to come out on top. If you aren't the killer, someone else will be. Capitalism and greed work like this too.
Already made a post on here but I went down a Brandon Sanderson rabbit hole. Still working through the Stormlight novellas, but my library has his secret projects on audiobook and they're fucking spectacular. (Read Tress and Yumi so far.)
The premium hardcovers look gorgeous, too, but I haven't convinced myself to pay $55 apiece for them, even though I really want to. (The regular hardcover of Tress isn't bad, but the Yumi one is really disappointing.)
Yeah, Sanderson is one of my favourite author, and his secret projects are really good.
He always seems to take a touch longer to really capture me than I want, but he nails the payoff every time. That beautiful set of secret projects books is even more tempting after finishing them all.
I'm just into book 2 of Mistborn now, and doubt I'll be able to stop before getting through those too. I already like reading series from start to finish where possible, and he's just really good at what he does.
Just finished the telling, by le guin. With that I finish the novels in the hainish cycle. I’m not sure why but I never quite got into the flow with the telling, though I do think it was good. Usually when that happens to me it’ll only be a part of the book, but for this it was most of it. I ought to give it another go at some point . Probably just the influence of life’s going one on my mood and my adhd.
Next will be four ways to forgiveness and then I’ll start Earthsea
Yeah, sometimes it's just not the right time for that book.
Hope you enjoy your next books more!
Just finished the latest Jack Reacher novel. Standard Reacher Murder She Wrote with a giant as protagonist plot template. I find the Reacher novels helpful if I’m having a rough week and need a low cognitive load book. Working on Candle & Crowe now, which is the third book in Kevin Hearne’s Ink & Sigil series set in his Iron Druid universe. It’s also good for a bit of cheerful escapism, but not a pulp novel.
I really like Jack Reacher books. There's something about the matter of fact, purely mechanical approach to utter brutality that's just a fun ride.
Exactly. Just practical, sometimes preemptive violence.
I recently started the Jack Reacher series and got the first 3 books (though have only read the first one yet). They are much longer than I expected them to be. Are all books in the series like that?
It didn't get boring so I don't mind the length, just curious about it.
I haven’t considered them to be very long, but maybe I’ve read too many Sanderson novels. They all tend to have the same pacing and plot devices. It’s been long enough since I read the first few that I can’t remember if they get shorter or longer. The more recent ones where Andrew Child co-authors seem shorter to me.
Hey Dressy!
Hope you are well, bet you can't guess what I've been listening to ;p So as always Deathlands has been on rotation and I am just finishing number 25 and still enjoying it.
Other than those I listened to a couple of Goosebumps books. They were fun, I'm not sure how old your son / daughter (?) is but I would suggest giving one a try if they are interested in reading some light horror. They weren't to graphic but still enough to instill a good, slightly unsettling image in parts that I imagine someone younger would find a little scary but in a good way if they were interested in horror as a genre. I remember enjoying them a lot when I was around the age of 10 and may be a little bit simplistic for say a teenager but it was an engaging story and well written.
I also listened to "The Others" by Jeremy Robinson which is the second book in the Infinite series of books. It was a really good book that I couldn't stop listening to and blazed through really quickly. It reminded me a lot of Dean Koontz stories in the way it was written, it had supernatural elements as well as a group of people vs government type agencies vs a supernatural element sort of interplay similar to the way his stories often go. I'm looking forward to what the rest of the Infinite series holds and enjoyed it a lot more than the first book!
So, after reading this, I finally decided to buy the first Deathlands book right away, it's about time I at least check it out.
Well, it turns out they aren't available anywhere. Not even as ebooks. Only audiobooks are available. Amazon (not my place of choice to buy ebooks) also has only book 48 and 49 available, rest are audiobooks only.
On a positive side, one less series to worry about!
Thanks for the recommendation. He is around 10, and likes horror / spooky stuff. Will get first book or two and see if he likes them.
Infinite series seems pretty interesting. Will check them out in a few months, hopefully they have better availability than Deathlands 😀
Oh, that's a shame to hear about Deathlands, can't win them all I guess!
In terms of Goosebumps the two titles that stand out in my mind from when I was a child (not that I remember the plots now) are Monster Blood and Night Of The Living Dummy. I believe both of them have a few books continuing the stories as they were popular too, so those may be good ones to start with :)
Just finished The Waiting by Michael Connelly and haven't started the next book yet.
How is the series? I have The Black Echo (first Harry Bosch) book but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
I love it, read all the books. I particularly enjoy the Lincoln lawyer series, but Bosch is great too. I read them in order starting with The Black Echo, and the series is consistently good. It's worth reading in order to have an understanding of Bosch's career and life progression.
I'd say Michael Connelly is my favorite author. The only book I didn't really enjoy was "Chasing the Dime".
I'm currently reading "The Coming Insurrection" by "The Invisible Committee"
How are you liking it?
I am loving it. It is written in a very poetic language and really makes you reflect. In my case, it also generates a nihilistic feeling towards society and the possibility of change. It is a call to insurrection; it shows you, in an aesthetic and philosophical way, that there is no other way out but rebellion.
Radicalized by Cory Doctorow. It's an anthology of four short stories that all share a common theme of dystopian applications of technology. So in other words... Pretty much on brand for the author and it's well done so far.
Just started listening to the audiobook version of Robert Caro's "The Power Broker," about Robert Moses and New York. Will also check out the book from library in case it has pictures or diagrams.
99% Invisible did a 10-part series on the book this year, so will be toggling back and forth to hear the commentary as well.
The audiobook is around 60 hours. Guessing this all will keep me busy for a couple of months.
Just finished "The Message," by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Highly recommended.
I just finished listening to We Are Legion (We Are Bob). It was a fun one to listen to and easy to follow even whilst working which meant I blitzed through it.
Now I’ve gotta wait almost a month for my next credit :( Not sure what I’ll try next though, I don’t usually bother with sci-fi but I’ve been on the lookout for something after finishing The Three-Body Problem trilogy. Nothing is really hitting the mark currently.
Currently reading Venomous Lumpsucker and enjoying the hell out of it. It's ~350pgs of snark sniping at our ecological apathy and "market based solutions" to the problem. It's so on point it hurts sometimes: Imagine if Wall St financialized species extinction so that the invisible hand of the market could solve the problem, but the solutions all end up being fraud and fraud derivatives.
Recently finished James S.A. Corey's new Captive's War books The Mercy of Gods and the novella Livesuit. Both good, though Livesuit was the more engaging. Looking forward to more in the series when main events kick off on the human side.
Finally read Blindsight last month after seeing it endlessly recommended over the last few years. It's good, definitely worth the read, but I enjoyed Freeze-Frame Revolution and the Sunflowers short stories a bit more. I think I'd have been more impressed with Blindsight if I read it back when it was released, I feel like the shocking big idea has diffused into other works over the last decade and a half so it's not quite as arresting now as it would have been then.
Read Linda Nagata's Pacific Storm as a palate cleanser between Blindsight and the Captive's War books. This one was interesting, Nagata writes a good near future thriller and I'll probably recommend it to family members who are into those sorts of things.
Read the anthology Shine in an afternoon at some point as well - while I appreciate the optimism it feels forced at this point. It was published just over a decade ago now and it feels distinctly out of place in the current timeline.
Am I the only one irked by the improper grammar on this weekly post going back months? How has it not been corrected yet? In a community full of readers.