What are you reading ?

Various, as always, including:

- The Lady of the Lake - Andrzej Sapkowski (7/3/17) An epic, and sad in parts
- In Calabria - Peter S. Beagle (7/3/17) gorgeous novella
- The Iron Tactician - Alistair Reynolds (9/3/17) B+ decent but not special novella, actually a real disappointment as he can write much better
- Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind - Anne Charnock (10/3/17) A- good but feels unfinished
- Bridging Infinity - edited by Jonathan Strahan (11/3/17) A+ most stories excellent, the rest brilliant
- Dragon of Ash & Stars - H. Leighton Dickson (11/3/17) A very very solid YA fantasy
- Memories with Maya - Clyde DeSouza (12/3/17) A very good near future SF
- Chimera - T. C. McCarthy (13/3/17) A+ excellent non-celebratory near future war/society series and very concluded by this book
- The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories - (19/3/17) A- some excellent stories some, not fantasy all good though
- Son of the Black Sword - Larry Correia (20/3/17) B+ solid epic fantasy, decent world building, far far too bloodthirsty and too much gratuitous violence, so no to more by him
- Glory Boy - Rick Partlow (21/3/17) B+ decent military SF, too much happy ending though
- Brothers Ruin - Emma Newman (23/3/17) A- decent, steampunk/gaslight yes to continue
- Slab City Blues - Anthony Ryan (31/3/17) A- very solid police/military SF
- Everfair - Nisi Shawl (1/4/17) A+ just amazing, wow!!! alternate history, steampunk, character driven etc.
- The Collapsing Empire - John Scalzi (2/4/17) A- very solid space opera, and yes to next book
- A Taste of Honey - Kai Ashante Wilson (5/4/17) A+ just stunning!!
- Interzone 269 - (6/4/17) B+ some good stories but the amount of opinionated filler keeps growing

Yes, I have read, not sped read, all of these and more just the others were trashier than these!

:-)

Decoding Reality by Vlatko Vedral

I need to read more. :despair:

"Monte", by George Cory Franklin.

It's about a bear that was raised by a miner, and released into the wild when a couple of evil men wanted to catch him and make him a movie star (ultimately they didn't succeed). While out there, he found a partner got kids, which said men also wanted to catch (ultimately they didn't succeed).

Yes, it's a children's book. I got it 58 years ago from my father (I think), when I was 4 1/2 years old. Since then I've read it and reread it and rereread it and … ((re)^n)read it. And I've kept it. Somewhere. Found it by accident a couple of days ago and decided to read it again (((re)^(n+1))read) it. Admittedly for purely nostalgic reasons.

I have to say I kind of liked it (although this time I discovered several very unlikely features of said bear and bears in general). I can understand why it became my all time favourite book.

Now, where did I put those brightly colored picture books about the moo-moo, the meow-meow and the quack-quack and the dog wozzname?

pibbur who spent 1 hour and 25 minutes to finish the 130 page book yesterday, probably slightly less than the time spent during his childhood.

PS: WOW (not the MMO)! Just discovered there's also a "Son of Monte". Didn't know that. YAY! DS.

I'm waiting for 4 books:
Games of Throne book 6 (the books are much better than the silly tv show)
Name of the Wind book 3 (the first two are absolutely fantastic)
Broken Earth book 3 (first one is absolutely fantastic)
Magnus Chase book 3 (these suck but they only take a day to read so why not)

I finished "Anatomy of a Song" by Marc Myers - enjoyed it quite a bit, imperfect but very good for what it was.

Started re-reading "A Handmaid's Tale" in anticipation of the upcoming Hulu original feature … but was in more of a Vonnegut mood - so I started re-reading "Slaughterhouse Five" again. Should be done in a day or so an then jump to something else - maybe Cat's Cradle (my personal fave) or Slapstick or something else …

Just finished "The Last Good Man" by Linda Nagata. I was lucky enough to score an advance copy. Seriously seriously good near future SF/thriller with significant military aspects.

Ran out of good new novels to read so picked up one I've read twice in the past, Tigana, by Guy Kay. Quite an excellent read, it starts off very slow but the overall story is one to remember.

I'm reading Langland's "Demons of Astlan" series. Good stuff! The author is actually a friend of mine going way back but the Amazon reviews are good, too, so it isn't just me.

The books are about Tom, a high school kid that got talked into trying a drug at a party. It knocked him out cold, leaving him floating around in some strange trip. He's sees a vision of a group of people and a woman among them demands "What's your name!?" He's pretty startled and blurts out his full name. She promptly summons him using his True Name that he just revealed. Tom finds himself standing in the body of a 12' tall demon! There's quite a bit of culture shock after that point, as you might imagine.

The books are pretty funny with a lot of old-style AD&D references and a mix of fantasy and the modern world. There's some good mysteries going on, too. The world is QUITE detailed if you want to get into the appendices to read about it.

George R.R. Martin has been distracted with possible new HBO shows. What does that mean for 'The Winds of Winter'?

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketc…515-story.html

I'm currently reading The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, which is basically a book about the life and times of the first premier of Newfoundland. Quite interesting so far, I'm about halfway through.

Necronomicon - an anniversary compilation of HP Lovercraft stories (admittedly I've read most of them before but I still really enjoy them).

I just finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - an SF novel, but actually it's just a trip down Memory Lane 80: 80's music, 80's TV and - primarily - 80's video games. Lots of geek stuff. Pop cultural references. It even let me meet NPCs from the second (A)D&D module I ever played…

Well, while it got most references right (just one rubbed me as being, well, wrong - or perhaps it was just a typo), I really liked the novel, though near the end it all was a little bit too much for me. Might have toned down the last battle a bit. But definitely an interesting read for video game/role players and fans of 80's pop culture.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
George R.R. Martin has been distracted with possible new HBO shows. What does that mean for 'The Winds of Winter'?

I haven't even seen the HBO series and I've accepted that the HBO version is the most definitive ending I'm going to get. Probably what's going to happen is a Wheel of Time situation: the original author will pass away, and a younger author will finish the series.

Originally Posted by KaosWarMonk
Necronomicon - an anniversary compilation of HP Lovercraft stories (admittedly I've read most of them before but I still really enjoy them).

Did you ever read A Study in Emerald? It's a short story by Neil Gaiman, playing with both Sherlock Holmes and the Lovecraft mythos. I listened to it (maybe on a road trip or something?) with my wife and at the end she said, "But I don't get it. Why was the prince's blood green?" And I had to explain to her that he was an alien, descended from or related to one of the Great Old Ones, etc. And she shook her head and said "How do all of you people know about Cthulhu and stuff? I had never heard of it until I met you."

Anyway, while working on some stuff I was listening to Girl on the Train. Rubbish. I rolled my eyes at everything every character did. I couldn't relate to a single person in the whole story. They're all idiots, all doing the exact opposite of what any reasonable person would do. It's like Dumb and Dumber, but in England: world's stupidest person thwarts nefarious plot through dumb luck and villain incompetence.

I'm rereading Girl with Dragon Tattoo. Great book.

I hope this is not the case - the book is so much better….

Originally Posted by Nathaniel3W
I haven't even seen the HBO series and I've accepted that the HBO version is the most definitive ending I'm going to get. Probably what's going to happen is a Wheel of Time situation: the original author will pass away, and a younger author will finish the series.

Originally Posted by you
I'm rereading Girl with Dragon Tattoo. Great book.

Definitely love that series as well! Haven't re-read in a while … maybe this summer

I started reading the Codex Alera, by James Butcher. I always liked his Dresden novels, so I expected to at least enjoy this series, but I find it excellent so far. The first book really pulled me in, the second book was a little less satisfying, and then the third was just as good as the first.

Reading the Books of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe. Quite terse reading. Every page has at least a few words that have me consulting my Kindle dictionary without avail, which was rather frustrating at first.
We'll see where it goes, it has me intrigued enough for the moment to stick with it.

I'm currently re-reading Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury. It makes so much more sense now when you don't have to struggle through Benjy's part and try to figure out what the heck is going on. Felt the need for a bit of south gothic atmosphere