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April Reads: What, fool, are you reading?!?


Larry of the Lawn

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2 hours ago, Maester Llama said:

Read Laurie Penny's short novella Everything Belongs to the Future, about a dystopic / if-this-goes-on Britain in which the rich have got anti-aging treatments and everybody else has got shit. Short, sharp, brutal but not showily nihilistic, really good. Felt like a quality episode of a freaky sf anthology series, like Black Mirror but with genetech instead of screens. Had this shown up on the Hugo shortlist I would not have thought people insane.

Sounds like something I want in my life. Thanks.

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4 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Isn't Neal Asher a climate change denial and one of the sad puppies?

i could be remembering wrong.

No idea actually. Hope not. But the Cormac and Polity series are pretty awesome and the universe has a lot of Culture themes and homages (though it's darker). 

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On 4/5/2017 at 4:44 AM, Isildur's Mane said:

I haven't seen the movie yet.

There were some creepy as scenes in the book but I think because or how it was written - just that little bit detached from the action made me feel safe. I will have to get my hands on a copy of the movie and watch it. 

Is there more than one version? 

There's a director's cut with some added scenes but the theatrical will do the trick.  It likely won't be as scary for you as it was for me, though.

 

I am now about half-way through Newman's The Vagrant

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3 hours ago, unJon said:

No idea actually. Hope not. But the Cormac and Polity series are pretty awesome and the universe has a lot of Culture themes and homages (though it's darker). 

To be fair, Michael Crichton was also a climate change denier and somehow managed to be an awesome author nevertheless.

I would also like to recommend IT TAKES A THIEF TO CATCH A SUNRISE by Rob J Hayes.

His other grimdark fantasy books aren't available right now due to....issues with his publisher but these are fun Gentleman Bastard-esque novels with a bit of steampunk Regency espionage about a married pair of con artists in a magical society.

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32 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Oh my goodness no, Crichton couldn't have written himself out of a wet paper bag.

And yeah, unfortunately, Asher is a climate change denier. Not sure about the puppy thing, that could just be grouping idiots together in my mind.

Both Jurassic Park novels were great.

I pretend the others he wrote don't exist.

:)

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I finished The Wheel of Osheim at the beginning of April.  Then read the two newer Penric and Desdemona novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric and the Shaman and Penric's Mission.  

Now reading Dead Man's Steel by Luke Scull and The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi.

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2 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Oh my goodness no, Crichton couldn't have written himself out of a wet paper bag.

And yeah, unfortunately, Asher is a climate change denier. Not sure about the puppy thing, that could just be grouping idiots together in my mind.

My favourite dwarf, spot on as always. :D

Between moving house and changing jobs, my time to read has been SHOT since before the end of 2016. Have manage to finish 1984 in original language (yay), a shitty thriller and a pirate romance that was kinda meh. Almost done with an awesome and yuge non-fiction about the later 17th and early 18th century west Sweden, when it transitioned from Danish to Swedish ownership, dealing with everything from warfare, trade, agriculture, taxes, justice system and much, much more. It's very interesting but very, very dense. Almost done with it now and sort of flip-floping on what to continue with.

Any takers? :)

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Crichton wasn't just a climate change denier, he was a 'wrote-a-journalist-who-took-down-his-climate-change-denial-into-his-next-book-as-a-paedophile' type of scumbag.

Don't think Asher's at that level.



Anyway read GGK's Children of Earth and Sky this week, and was rather disappointed. Kay seems to have lost control of his plotting in his last couple - this was better than River of Stars but still scattered and unfocused.

Now reading Feet of Clay for the umpteenth time, will probaby pick back up with The Malice after that.

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49 minutes ago, Lyanna Stark said:

My favourite dwarf, spot on as always. :D

Between moving house and changing jobs, my time to read has been SHOT since before the end of 2016. Have manage to finish 1984 in original language (yay), a shitty thriller and a pirate romance that was kinda meh. Almost done with an awesome and yuge non-fiction about the later 17th and early 18th century west Sweden, when it transitioned from Danish to Swedish ownership, dealing with everything from warfare, trade, agriculture, taxes, justice system and much, much more. It's very interesting but very, very dense. Almost done with it now and sort of flip-floping on what to continue with.

Any takers? :)

Too Like The Lightning!

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Currently reading The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi, a lovely dystopian future set in the Southwestern USA that is absolutely devastated by drought brought on by climate change.  Lots of fights and dirty dealings over water with three POVs.  Like it so far.

This the third book I've read by this author, the other two are ; The Windup Girl and The Shipbreaker, which was a YA.  Liked both books, both future dystopian SF's and both stand alones.

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Read a Tor.com novella called River of Teeth takes inspiration from an obscure real life proposal to introduce hippos to U.S. swamp lands as a renewable food source.  More details as I get through it.

I also started City of Miracles while my kid was at swim lessons and found myself 10% into it before I realized the lesson was over.  I love this series so much.

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I finished Ian McDonald's Luna : Wolf Moon. I thought it was a good book, it felt a bit more focused than the first book in the series. I like the lunar setting and the increasingly violent squabbling between the families who dominate it. There's also some great writing, the scene with Lucasinho giving a lengthy monologue on cake to distract his younger cousin from the fact they're running for their life is particularly great.

I wonder if there's going to be a gap of a few years before the next book in the series? It feels a bit like characters such as Luna or Darius are being groomed as the next generation to take over the dynastic competition over power and influence.

Next up I think I'll read John Hornor Jacob's The Incorruptibles

Why did no-one tell me that Claire North has a new book out? The End of the Day. It's about Death's harbringer, Charlie. Seems like fun. Seems like less conspicuously Trying For A Claire North Concept than the previous two novels.

I am curious about this one, it does have an interesting premise but I'm not quite sure how that's going to be turned into a plot.

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