March Reading 2017

[Jo498]

I finally finished Williams' "Augustus". It is a good book but not a quick read. Not at all organized like a "standard" historical novel (as the old ones like Quo vadis, Ben Hur etc. or newer ones like Harris's although I have yet to read his trilogy on Cicero) but in alternating fictional but plausible letters, journal notes or fragments of memories of people around Octavius Caesar. And while the first 3rd or so is quite exciting despite that indirect form because the civil war and the protagonist's rise to power are exciting, this does not hold for the rest of the book.

Tonight I'll probably start Gore Vidal's "Julian", to continue with Roman history (I think I can borrow Harris' Cicero books from a friend, so they will wait a little).

[Iskaral Pust]

Finished the non-fiction The Lost City Of The Monkey God by Douglas Preston.  A nice change-up in content and style, it described a very recent archeological expedition to Honduras, including use of airborne lidar tech, the dangers of sub-tropical rain forest, academic cat fights and bitchy sniping, plus fully a third of the book was about leishmaniasis -- my skin was crawling throughout that part. Recommended. 

Now starting Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. 

[C.T. Phipps]

Haven't gotten much farther in my grimdark reading due to a lot of RL stresses putting me off it. Instead, I read Brian Parker's EASYTOWN novels instead. THE IMMORALITY CLAUSE and TEARS OF A CLONE. They're basically near-future science fiction detective stories (cyberpunk of the Blade Runner-esque variety) where a Detective in New Orleans has to deal with all the high tech crime in their Red Light District.

Very well done and I recommend them.

There's a few bits which are a bit unbelievable and the second has some really out-there bits like the fact there's a Batman-esque vigilante killing people out of nowhere but the rough edged hero in a dark gritty street story worked for me. Even if said world has a bunch of sex robots and constant surveillance.

I also read Patricia Briggs new Mercedes Thompson book which was fun but not worldbreaking.

[Richard Writhen]

Gonna give The Darkness That Comes Before a shot, still working on The Lies of Locke Lamora, and I want to start The Coming of Conan collection and Lord Foul's Bane.

[brunhilda]

Been doing a lot of Sanderson re-reads but I took a moment out for Snapshot and liked it a lot.

I think I may give Elantris another go. Hated it the first time but I know a lot more about the Cosmere now. I also never finished Mistborn Western (the Wax and Wayne series) or Calamity.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.  I thought it was pretty average, but those twists in the end made it very interesting.

Spoiler

I was close about the Prof.  I suspected he was an Epic and a gifter and was the one who "created" the Diggers with his skill of drilling through steel.  Was right about the first and wrong on the second.

Also finished Mitosis, a Reckoners novella by Brandon Sanderson.

Now reading the second novel in the trilogy, Firefight.

[HexMachina]

Still making my way through my reread of the Rain Wild Chronicles. It's better than I remembered, and I think the main problem is editing. Too much recapping in great detail what happened just 2/3 chapters ago. If all of the recapping was cut out or at least cut down the series would be much better paced imo. But for all that I still enjoy it, and find the Keepers more interesting than my last time reading

[williamjm]

I have a lot of books I picked up randomly at some point but have never got round to reading. I've just started one that I picked up for free at Eastercon a couple of years ago - Edward Cox's The Relic Guild. So far it's been reasonably entertaining and the story moves at a good pace but I'd say the writing and characterisation is fairly average and the book doesn't really stand out in any way so far.

[SeanF]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 7:44 AM, Jo498 said:

I finally finished Williams' "Augustus". It is a good book but not a quick read. Not at all organized like a "standard" historical novel (as the old ones like Quo vadis, Ben Hur etc. or newer ones like Harris's although I have yet to read his trilogy on Cicero) but in alternating fictional but plausible letters, journal notes or fragments of memories of people around Octavius Caesar. And while the first 3rd or so is quite exciting despite that indirect form because the civil war and the protagonist's rise to power are exciting, this does not hold for the rest of the book.

Tonight I'll probably start Gore Vidal's "Julian", to continue with Roman history (I think I can borrow Harris' Cicero books from a friend, so they will wait a little).

I'd recommend Augustus and Nero's Heirs both by Allan Massie.

[SeanF]

I've just finished The Witcher series by Andrej Sapkowski, in three weeks.  I thought it was excellent.  I'd give the series 4.5 out of 5.

I'm starting a non-fiction book about Russia, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.

[Paxter]

Finished the brilliant comedy of manners that is Sense and Sensibility. This was a fantastic read: great pacing, perfectly crafted prose and unforgettable characters. It's been a while since a novel really made me loathe a set of characters!

Now (slightly reluctantly) reading some non-fiction: Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. I may start something in parallel as I think this will be a bit of a slog.

[SkynJay]

On 3/1/2017 at 3:18 PM, polishgenius said:

I read Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. A slightly piss-takey love-letter to swords-and-sorcery quest fantasy in the form of a cross between Blues Brothers and Unforgiven in said fantasy world. It won't win any awards for originality, but it's great fun and surprisingly affecting with its extremely likeable cast of characters. Very solid debut.

I enjoyed the hell out of this book.  The humor hit me just right; obvious enough to catch many of the jokes but without being so in your face that it felt like the author was pointing them out.

On 3/1/2017 at 9:04 PM, RedEyedGhost said:

I'm about halfway through The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley.  So far it's really freaking good.

I know you finished it already but multiquote was pissing me off.  So glad you got to this one so fast.  Hurley continues to rock it.

On 3/5/2017 at 2:10 PM, beniowa said:

 About to start Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly.

FINALLY.  I was starting to think no one would read this book.  Much as I liked Kings of the Wyld this one is really the debut of the year thus far.

I am not on the best run lately.  I enjoyed The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan much more than Blood Song but there were too damn many Dues Ex Machina moments when it was all done with.  The Hover Alley Crew was a very uninspired fantasy heist novel with out any real payoff. 

So I started rereading The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar because I need something I know id enjoy.  Also I am reading one of the upcoming Tor.com novellas, River of Teeth.

[Iskaral Pust]

4 hours ago, Paxter said:

Now (slightly reluctantly) reading some non-fiction: Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. I may start something in parallel as I think this will be a bit of a slog.

Not a slog at all.  A bit long winded -- like most nonfiction -- but engaging, insightful and very accessible throughout.  But read with skepticism due to all of the replication problems in the social sciences.

I finished Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology.  I would not recommend.  It's just like any other collection of myths, and Gaiman's style doesn't do enough the change the basic childishness of the narrative, characters and plot. 

[Garett Hornwood]

On 3/15/2017 at 0:26 AM, Darth Richard II said:

Uh, excuse me, The Night Circus isn't fantasy ts SPECULATIVE FICTION.

Also it sucks. Yeah I went there.

Given that fantasy is classified as a subgenre under the Speculative Fiction umbrella, I don't understand the argument but whatever.  As for your opinion on the book, you didn't like it and I did, we're both enjoyed to our opinions.

---

I finished The Night Circus this past Sunday, as I said above I did enjoy it but I'm going to have to reread it because I'm pretty sure I missed some nuanced details that would have added to my enjoyment.

I've also read Blood Stain (Volume Two) by Linda Sejic, this is a print version of a webcomic of the same name on DeviantArt.  Since I enjoy the webcomic, I absolutely loved this.  And on Friday/Saturday I read Herald of the Midnight Cry by Paul A. Gordon, a short biography of early/mid-19th century American preach William Miller and a history leading up to the Great Disappointment.  Given it's short length it is more an introduction both of the man and the Millerite movement as a whole, there are other books that go more in-depth on both.

Currently I'm reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents as part of my read-through of Discworld, I haven't read Pratchett since December and loved finally being back on the Disc.  I'll be finished by tomorrow, but already I sorta disappointed that this is basically a "one-off" book and not the first of a series of it's own.  Through apparently it has some minor connection to the "Death" series, but I haven't come across the evidence to support that.

Then after Maurice, I'll be doing my first re-read of the year with Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill, the fourth of his Hinges of History series.

[Plessiez]

On 3/15/2017 at 5:45 AM, RedEyedGhost said:

I finished The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley on Friday.  It was fantastic.  

I finished this earlier today.  I thought it had some really good ideas, but it was a bit uneven -- I wanted to like it a lot more than I did.  

 

 

Weirdly, I'd have probably liked the book more if I hadn't read the blurb on the back cover first.  A blurb which somehow manages to give away things better revealed in the narrative itself while also not giving any indication of what that the book is actually like.  (And which talks about 'the Outer Rim of the Universe', which isn't a thing.)

I think I decided who Zan was at around the same point as you -- I also wasn't sure if it was meant to be a book-long mystery to the reader.

[Darth Richard II]

Oh the speculative fiction thing is a kind of in joke I psout about obvious SFF books not marketed as suck(here in the states anyway).

And yeah, everybody but me and like one other person on earth loved it.

[Little Valkyrie]

19 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Oh the speculative fiction thing is a kind of in joke I psout about obvious SFF books not marketed as suck(here in the states anyway).

And yeah, everybody but me and like one other person on earth loved it.

In my experience it was like a Twinkie--delicious while it lasted but not of any enduring value.

[Darth Richard II]

I had major issues with the prose, there's a great goodreads review that goes over it all but the one that the review pick son and that drove me insane was the phrase "round spheres". They're spheres! Of course they're round!

[unJon]

On 3/22/2017 at 3:34 PM, Plessiez said:

I finished this earlier today.  I thought it had some really good ideas, but it was a bit uneven -- I wanted to like it a lot more than I did.  

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Weirdly, I'd have probably liked the book more if I hadn't read the blurb on the back cover first.  A blurb which somehow manages to give away things better revealed in the narrative itself while also not giving any indication of what that the book is actually like.  (And which talks about 'the Outer Rim of the Universe', which isn't a thing.)

I think I decided who Zan was at around the same point as you -- I also wasn't sure if it was meant to be a book-long mystery to the reader.

This is basically how I felt about The Stars Are Legion. I wasn't expecting that so much time would be spent:

In a travelogue format journey from the center of the world. It felt like world building for world building sake. At no point did I feel that any of the characters was in danger, and the stakes just didn't feel very high.

[unJon]

The new Neal Asher book Infinity Engine just landed on my kindle. Now I'm excited for some awesom science fiction. w00t!