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April 2018 Reads


Astromech

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Recently finished Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140, which turned out to an early start on my Hugo nominee reading. I liked it on the whole, but then I have lived in NYC since right around the turn of the century and have long been fascinated with its history. If you're not such a fan of New York, I think you might enjoy the book less. The weak point of the book is plot, especially with the final section which seems a bit too fairy tale like. 

Currently reading The Invasion by Peadar and enjoying it tremendously.

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Finished Valkyrie's Song by M.D. Lachlan during continuing education on Sunday.  It was excellent, will read the final book pretty soon.  The massive jump forward in time has me very intrigued, from 1066 to WWII. 

Then I proceeded to read the first 40% of The Invasion, and am now at 54%.  Great stuff, Peadar!  

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15 hours ago, Mr. X said:

Recently finished Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140, which turned out to an early start on my Hugo nominee reading. I liked it on the whole, but then I have lived in NYC since right around the turn of the century and have long been fascinated with its history. If you're not such a fan of New York, I think you might enjoy the book less. The weak point of the book is plot, especially with the final section which seems a bit too fairy tale like. 

Currently reading The Invasion by Peadar and enjoying it tremendously.

 

10 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Finished Valkyrie's Song by M.D. Lachlan during continuing education on Sunday.  It was excellent, will read the final book pretty soon.  The massive jump forward in time has me very intrigued, from 1066 to WWII. 

Then I proceeded to read the first 40% of The Invasion, and am now at 54%.  Great stuff, Peadar!  

Two in a row? Thanks to you both! :bowdown:

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I finished The Lost Realms by Zecharia Sitchin yesterday, this was a reread and once again my memories of what I read 18 years ago were badly incorrect.  That doesn't mean I didn't like the book, it's just okay and that was it.

I've started reading William Miller and the Rise of Adventism by George R. Knight.  This is a religious read about Christian theology and evangelism in the U.S. in the early 1840s.

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9 hours ago, Peadar said:

Two in a row? Thanks to you both! :bowdown:

Of course!

And I knew that last chapter was coming, but it still got me right in the feels on the subway this morning. Great stuff!

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17 hours ago, Mr. X said:

Of course!

And I knew that last chapter was coming, but it still got me right in the feels on the subway this morning. Great stuff!

Thanks! :)

As for me, Sea of Rust was an easy read. I need another as I'm travelling tomorrow. Might try Nina Allan's The Rift.

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On April 5, 2018 at 9:15 AM, aceluby said:

Reading The Fool's Quest and am absolutely LOVING it.  It's embarrassing crying on the bus though.  Should finish it while on vacation.

Finished it last weekend and finished Assassin's Fate today.

Wow.

I mean, I'm kind of at a loss for words here.  It tied everything together absolutely beautifully.

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Finished the first book in Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy. I thought it was ok, but nothing great, despite the more unique magic system. None of the main characters were particularly engaging. I probably won't continue with the series.

Just started reading Peader's The Invasion. I thought about re-reading The Call, to get a refresher on the characters, but so many books, so little time... 

On 4/10/2018 at 2:38 PM, Triskele said:

I finally finished Miles Cameron's The Red Knight.  I thought it was a slog but got better as it went along.  I will probably give the next book a shot but won't jump right into it.

I started that some time ago, but didn't get very far. The author clearly seems to know a lot about medieval warfare and fighting, but less so about writing a compelling story.

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I just finished The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, who also wrote the very good The Girl With All The Gifts.  This book is the first in a series about a freelance exorcist (Felix Castor) in London who finds himself solving crimes/mysteries.  It's a classic noir detective set-up combined with a dark, almost horror, urban fantasy in a slightly alternative version of London where the undead have recently manifested and proliferated, although the reason is not yet explained to readers -- it's accepted as something everyone in this setting knows.  Carey does seem a bit fixated on the undead.  The story is narrated in a single past tense, first person POV by the central character; again, very noir.  The prose is quite good, with some unusual and erudite word choices (not always use quite correctly, IMO) to keep things interesting.  The tone is saturnine and slightly gloomy, but balanced by a dry, sardonic wit in the narration.  There is some nihilism balanced by some basic humanity.  The characterization is very good, especially at portraying "ordinary" characters, who aren't larger than life nor existing only to serve the narrative. The pacing is slightly slow but still feels immersive.  I was never bored.  I also liked the author's feel for London, reveling in the jumbled mishmash of different periods and styles, indulging in the history and the evolution of the city.

I have only read one Harry Dresden novel, but this Felix Castor series strikes me as much better and less cheesy/glib.

Recommended if you want to try some British noir with a twist, or a slower, less shiny version of urban/paranormal fantasy.

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1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

The Devil You Know by Mike Carey

I love that series so much.  I keep hoping they re-release it under the M.R. Carey name, and it generates enough sales that he can go back and write more of them.  When you're done with those check out Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant Casebooks (if you haven't already). 

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2 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I love that series so much.  I keep hoping they re-release it under the M.R. Carey name, and it generates enough sales that he can go back and write more of them.  When you're done with those check out Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant Casebooks (if you haven't already). 

Thanks for the rec, that’s new to me

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14 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I love that series so much.  I keep hoping they re-release it under the M.R. Carey name, and it generates enough sales that he can go back and write more of them.  When you're done with those check out Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant Casebooks (if you haven't already). 

I just finished The Furthest Station, and maybe it's just me, but it feels, I don't know how to put it, maybe less focused and entirely too self referential, while maintaining a Status Quo, as the series progresses. But I don't regret reading it, it's worth it if only for the first few novels.

 

 

Anyway, 50% into Gnomon and finding it a nice ride so far, somewhat convoluted, with ambition but without pretention.

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I'm getting back into reading after taking a couple of months off reading so i could focus on some personal stuff. But now i'm back into reading again. I'm going to Reread through Rise Of The Governor the prequel to how the Comic version of the Governor became who he is in the comic series. 

I thought it was an Amazing book to be honest. Then going to continue with Rereading through The Road To Woodbury, Fall Of The Governor and then so on. 

The reason i want to go back and Reread those books is because i just finished a Reread of the whole Comic series, so yeah. 

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I recently finished Theatre of the Gods by M. Suddain, and I absolutely loved it. Its sci-fi but so much more as well. I had been wanting to read this for awhile and I can't believe it took me so long to finally jump in. The only sad thing is that the author has only written one other book, because I want more. Just a really funny zany read that was right up my alley. Homunculus!

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17 hours ago, Reny of Storms End said:

I recently finished Theatre of the Gods by M. Suddain, and I absolutely loved it. Its sci-fi but so much more as well. I had been wanting to read this for awhile and I can't believe it took me so long to finally jump in. The only sad thing is that the author has only written one other book, because I want more. Just a really funny zany read that was right up my alley. Homunculus!



For my money Hunters and Collectors was even better, much more controlled even though it still sprawls and indulges itself. There were a couple of moments where I wasn't sure whether the author was just having the character be an arsehole or using him to give a bit of an editorial that would make him a bit of a dick, but past that it was a fantastic book.

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On 4/7/2018 at 4:05 AM, Iskaral Pust said:

I agree.  He has taken on an admirable challenge, and it has some relevance when we look at the Arab world after the American invasions and Arab Spring. 

This particular novel was less of a page turner because so many characters had less agency: Lyria and Lysander especially were mainly there as a lens for the reader to observe, and Ephraim’s moody survivor guilt wasn’t much better. Plus explaining realpolitik to readers and showing paragons of honor is often a bit dull. 

I know it’s only ten years later but it would have been nice to see more characters breaking outside of their color norms (Duke of Hands and Rhonna are the only two that jump to mind), and more insight into the culture of other colors: blues, greens, white, silvers, coppers, yellows, browns.  We’ve mainly seen gold and red. #3 showed obsidian, #4 showed some grey and a bit of pink.  I don’t think it was a great choice to have Lyria as another red POV. 

I liked the idea of Lyria, if only because I think it would have been useful to see the aftermath of "gaining their freedom". The idea of freedom is a lot better than the reality.

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Reading 'Black Prism' by Brent Weeks.  I enjoyed his other series quite a bit due to the fast paced action, and despite some pretty glaring faults.  About 50 pages in and have yet to have it grip me at all, and after reading Hobb for the last few weeks the prose is.... not good.  Hoping it picks up because this has started out like a Sanderson book in all the worst ways.

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14 hours ago, SkynJay said:

I started Ship of Destiny today as I continue to work through Hobb. Loved Mad Ship, to think i almost skipped this series and went strait to Tawny Man.  Glad i didn't.

Don't skip any of them.  The payout is worth it in the end and the stories are amazing.  I feel like you'd miss SO much of the story if you skipped those or Rain Wilds.

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