July 2016 Reads

[beniowa]

I finished Under Witch Moon by Maria E. Schneider, an urban fantasy set in Santa Fe.  I actually finished this last month and forgot to post.  I had a couple quibbles with the book, but on the whole it's pretty good.  There are two sequels so I'll get to those at some point. 

Now reading an ARC of The Waking Fire, Anthony Ryan's new book, that I won in a Goodreads giveaway. 

 

So what are you reading?

[Raja]

I just finished Ancillary Justice, you guys, that book was excellent. Now hunting the island for the next two. 

[mushroomshirt]

from the June reads thread:

Quote

  I had the same WTF reaction because normally the free books I get are full of typos, and eye-rolling plot lines.  Also, I had a giant hangover the first go-around and anything I had read would have made me less miserable.

I absolutely loved Enemy.  I got my copy free from Kindle First.  I am now waiting anxiously for the the next installment out on July 16 (I think).   So far it has made my list for the 2017 Hugo awards.  I really, really liked it.  For anyone who hasn't read it, the story ark is solid.  No cliff hanger ending, I liked the world and the characters enough to want to go back again and SOON.

It takes a little time to dive in as there are several points of view revealed in the first few chapters.  The main plotline emerges about 40 or 50 pages in.   Her exposition is really well done.   The stream of consciousness style of writing in some sections takes a little getting used to, but I found it really effective.  Loved this book.

I read it again and I liked it even more. 

I've also pre-ordered the next book.  I guess it takes place in the capital of the empire, sort of an underground cavern system from what I can tell.  I'll be interested to hear what you think.  I'm kind of hoping for a little tension in the relationship between Veiko and Snow.  But I agree the book was really good and far exceeded my expectations for a freebie.

In fact their trick worked - I got the first book for free but I'm paying (a small amount) for the next one!  And I'm happy to do it.

[The Marquis de Leech]

The Salmon of Doubt, by Douglas Adams.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Claire North's The Sudden Appearance of Hope the other day.  It was great.  I thought it was a nice improvement over Touch if not quite as good as The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.  The exploration of identity was fantastic, and I loved the gray areas that the antagonists flitted in and out of.

Now I'm 30% through Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb - first book in The Rain Wilds Chronicles - not much has happened so far, but I was kind of expecting that based off of what I've heard about the series.  I'm really liking the characters though, and am interested in digging into this slice of their lives.

[Garett Hornwood]

Starting off the month by continuing Marlborough: His Life and Times Book Two by Winston Churchill.

[Maester Llama]

Reading Robert Sawyer's new sf novel Quantum Night. I've only read one Sawyer previously, Flashforward, which had a fascinating premise but was, I thought, clunky in its prose and characters. Quantum Night is a more enjoyable reading experience, and the premise -- an sf exploration of different ways to test for psychopathy -- started out really interesting, but it's now evolving into a speculation about varying levels of consciousness / conscience in individuals and I'm not really liking where it seems to be going. It's tending kind of elitist.

[polishgenius]

Currently reading Cryptomonicon. Not my favourite Stephenson, even by his standards it's a bit bloated and meandering and cryptography isn't grabbing me as much as some of his other subjects. Still, it's fun for the most part, though I might need to take a pause on it.

 

10 hours ago, Raja said:

I just finished Ancillary Justice, you guys, that book was excellent. Now hunting the island for the next two. 

 

Ann Leckie is gold. Can't wait to see where she goes next after the trilogy. Superb idea superbly written.


 

5 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I finished Claire North's The Sudden Appearance of Hope the other day.  It was great.  I thought it was a nice improvement over Touch if not quite as good as The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.  The exploration of identity was fantastic, and I loved the gray areas that the antagonists flitted in and out of.

I think it was probably better than Touch because of Touch's poor ending, but I really thought she should have written two stories, one about the app-based technothriller and one about the forgotten girl. It's like she really wanted to write the former but felt she needed to include the latter because that kind of weird situation is what the 'Claire North' identity does.
Even though the Gameshouse trilogy of novellas, also published under the Claire North name, doesn't do that.

[Boris the Blade]

Finished a re read of Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed. I'm starting Sterling Mace's Battleground Pacific.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished off Salmon. I think it is one of those posthumous collections that would have been better off remaining unpublished. The interviews and non-fiction could have been displayed online instead (albeit that the content is a bit dated, what with Adams talking about 1990s internet). The fiction is still only in draft/unedited stage, and it shows.

Next up is The Brothel in Rosenstrasse, by Michael Moorcock.

[Peadar]

11 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I finished Claire North's The Sudden Appearance of Hope the other day.  It was great.  I thought it was a nice improvement over Touch if not quite as good as The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.  The exploration of identity was fantastic, and I loved the gray areas that the antagonists flitted in and out of.

Ooh! Claire North. Thanks...

 

Currently just started John Scalzi's Lock In.

[Lily Valley]

Finished most of the Hugo Novella packet. I'm currently reading The Builders.  

Here's the lineup:

• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
  • This is a really cute YA story about a girl who leaves home and goes to space.  
• The Builders by Daniel Polansky (Tor.com)
  • Just started this one, so far it's about a bunch of talking animals.
• Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)
  • YA story with really good magic system.  There are novels written about this world, but this story stands alone.  So far my favorite for the win.
• Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)
  • VR or gaming style story.  Exposition was a little clunky.  I was not bored.
• Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon)
  • Mil-Sci, the technology problems were a little hard for me to swallow.  Very heavy handed message.  Not boring.

I'm simultaneously working on the novelettes.  This category is weaker in my opinion.

 

• “And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead” by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb 2015)
  • Story about a cussing android.  Had a noir type feel.
• “Flashpoint: Titan” by CHEAH Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
  • I finished this and couldn't tell you what it was about.  Not a thing.
• “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)
  • This story was pretty cool.  Set in Beijing and focuses on class issues.
• “Obits” by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)
  • Trying to find another copy of this as the pdf format on my kindle presents teeny weenie text.
• “What Price Humanity?” by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
  • Virtual soldiers in a Mil-Sci story.  I didn't like the main character and it was sort of predictable.

[Starkess]

I finished Mirror Sight, the 5th Green Rider book by Kristen Britain. It was a whole lotta MEH. I'm pretty disappointed. The next one is supposed to come out March 2017 and let's just say at this point I have no problem waiting. 

Spoiler

The entire book took place in a quasi-steampunk dystopia that it was clear from the beginning would be changed when Karigan goes back to the past. Which, duh. So glad I spent hundreds of pages reading about things that don't matter. Maybe would have been redeemed if I'd cared about any of the characters, but the new ones were lifeless and the old ones seemed all wrong from their previous selves. Just a big miss all around.

Still working my way through The Geek Feminist Revolution and Dangerous Women, one or two pieces at a time. Anthologies/collections always take me a while! On the novel front, I am going back to GGK to finish out the Sarantine Mosaic with Lord of Emperors.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished off The Brothel in Rosenstrasse. I don't know what on earth Moorcock was smoking when he wrote that one. It isn't actually bad (indeed, the description of the fictional city is outright beautiful), but a bunch of aristocrats having a cocaine-fuelled orgy in the middle of a civil war makes for odd reading.

Next up is the third and final book in Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel series, Poison Fruit.

[First of My Name]

Put Golden Son on hold to read More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera and don't regret it, absolutely loved this book. Beautiful story with great characters, made me laugh and cry. I especially appreciated the final 50 pages because they were completely different from what I expected but matched perfectly with the themes and message of the book.

Now it's back to Golden Son again, which I'll probably stop reading for the third time when Saga Vol. 6 arrives in the mail.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I haven't posted in a while.

Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World 1600-1900 by Stephen Bown was informative but also a sad testament of humanity when an individual/companies have unlimited power to trample over existing societies such as First Nations, Indians, Africans, and Malay people's all in the name of greed and profit.

The Last Dance by Fiona McIntosh was more interesting than her other historical romances as she broke her formulaic plot and the fact the part of the story took place in Morocco which I have been to.

The Green Pearl by Jack Vance was OK.  I liked Aillas' story much more than Shimrod's storyline.  

Now reading Morning Star by Pierce Brown.

[beniowa]

Finished The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan.  In a blurb on the ARC, Django Wexler described this as "Part Indiana Jones, part Pirates of the Caribbean, and part Mistborn", which is pretty accurate.  Another of the new flintlock fantasies, Waking Fire also has a good amount of steamships and ironships as well as a magic system reminiscent of Mistborn fueled by the blood of dragons.  Action drags a little too long at the end, but I rather liked this new epic fantasy by the author of Blood Song. 

Like Lily, I'm getting through the Hugo short stories and I've also already started the 14th Wild Cards book, Marked Cards. 

[Lily Valley]

38 minutes ago, beniowa said:

 

Like Lily, I'm getting through the Hugo short stories and I've also already started the 14th Wild Cards book, Marked Cards. 

The short stories..............  

I'm about to read Seven Kill Tiger.  If I can get my kindle to stop deleting it.  The thing has a mind of it's own with this Hugo Packet.  It deleted the whole novelette category and only kept SRBI out of the short story category.  :shrugs:

Lets trade notes once we're done.  

 

[williamjm]

3 hours ago, Lily Valley said:

The short stories..............  

I'm about to read Seven Kill Tiger.  If I can get my kindle to stop deleting it.  The thing has a mind of it's own with this Hugo Packet.  It deleted the whole novelette category and only kept SRBI out of the short story category.  :shrugs:

Maybe your Kindle has gained sentience and is trying to protect you from Vox Day's recommendations?

[Alan of Rosby]

On 7/2/2016 at 8:35 AM, polishgenius said:

Currently reading Cryptomonicon. Not my favourite Stephenson, even by his standards it's a bit bloated and meandering and cryptography isn't grabbing me as much as some of his other subjects. Still, it's fun for the most part, though I might need to take a pause on it.

 

 

Ann Leckie is gold. Can't wait to see where she goes next after the trilogy. Superb idea superbly written.


 

I think it was probably better than Touch because of Touch's poor ending, but I really thought she should have written two stories, one about the app-based technothriller and one about the forgotten girl. It's like she really wanted to write the former but felt she needed to include the latter because that kind of weird situation is what the 'Claire North' identity does.
Even though the Gameshouse trilogy of novellas, also published under the Claire North name, doesn't do that.

Favourite Neal Stephenson has to be The Diamond Age, can't beat it. I think it started the "Neal Stephenson can't do endings" meme however, it felt abrupt to put it mildly.

 

Anyway, I read Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Great book.