It's November. What are you reading?

[Lord Soth]

Finished Voyage of the Sable Keech by Neal Asher, pretty solid but not enough sci-fi in a sci-fi book (pet peeve of mine lately, see PFH).

Now onto City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. Heard good things about it, hoping they prove true.

 

[Vertigo]

I currently have so little time that I'm not getting much reading done. But I've finished another couple:

Silver Screen by Justina Robson - After loving her Quantum Gravity series this (her debut I believe) was very disappointing. More here.
Pashazade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood - part murder mystery, part alternate history and a little bit cyberpunk, though I'm not sure if it is actually SF, I loved it! More here.

 

[tobl]

just read the new watch by sergei lukyanenko quite interesting next maybe volume 5 of ben aaronovitch

 

[Extollager]

I read Ian Sales's The Eye With Which the Universe Beholds Itself with enjoyment. I was left with a few questions, wondering if the author overlooked them. How were people able to translate the equations found on Mars? I have long been concerned about sf authors' seeming naivete regarding the difficulty of translating from another language in the absence of a Rosetta Stone, etc. Why was Elliott consigned to the fate he accepts at the end of the novella? It seemed perhaps something was missing from this (final) draft of the story. I enjoyed the first book in the Apollo Quartet and this one too, and look forward to the third book, which I should have in my hands any day now.

 

[nightdreamer]

Alas! Just proofing my own stuff, and trying to fit in "To Kill a Mockingbird" again.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Fiendish, by Brenna Yovanoff. YA fantasy set in a little southern town in the US. I like that there are so many fantasies coming out with American settings.

So far the sense of place is very strong, and the magic feels entirely integral to the setting. The title is too generic and I don't think it catches the feel of the book, but I suppose they thought a one word title would be memorable and grab people's attention. But I think it would drive away a lot of the people who would like the book. I'm not sure why I picked it up, except that it was on the shelf for new YA books and the title sounded fantasy, so I read the flyleaf and that is why I brought it home from the library. In a bookstore, I feel sure I would have passed it over.

 

[Hex]

Oooh. I read her The Replacement last year. I liked it, and some of it has really stayed with me, but it felt like she had space to improve (that sounds horrible but isn't meant to -- it felt like if everything had been to the standard of the best bits, it would have absolutely blown me away -- as it was, I enjoyed it very much but I probably wouldn't buy it for someone else. I'll have a look for Fiendish though).

I've finished Dust and Light. Am bereft.

 

[Toby Frost]

I’m halfway through a re-read of Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. In some ways it’s quite dated in content and style (what are these modems and faxes of which you speak?), some of the infodumping is pretty crude and its single female character is largely identifiable by the shortness of her shorts (in "fairness" to Crichton, all the characters are pretty lightly sketched). But actually, it’s pretty slick stuff. The balance between criticising the concept of science for profit and the action sequences is good and given that it rapidly turns into Aliens with big lizards, it feels surprisingly intelligent. It’s a good example of writing a book about something without lecturing the reader. And it’s got dinosaurs.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The Western Front by Richard Holmes.

 

[Bugg]

Still reading Shogun . . . Eeee, it does go on a bit. Only about a hundred pages left now.

 

[Hex]

Started The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. It's a bit of a risk (and I bought the hardback!) because while I adore Holly Black's writing, I haven't yet managed to read a Cassandra Clare, though pretty much everything I've heard about her books makes them sound like my sort of thing.

I'm slightly hoping that this book will provide a sort of bridge so I can get used to her style and overcome whatever it is that's meant it hasn't worked for me before.

 

[The Judge]

Reading Dust and Light by Carol Berg. It took me a little time to warm to the protagonist but once I got over that, I've been loving it. More accessible than the Collegia Magica books (which were excellent but a little more elaborate) and it's set in a world I love already because of her Breath and Bone/ Flesh and Spirit duology.

It's a great, dark, clever murder mystery/ political intrigue. The only problem is that the sequel, Ash and Silver, isn't due out until next August. Not sure I can cope...

I had a little difficulty getting onto it, too, which I put down to all the backstory that was thrown into it very quickly, plus I couldn't immediately settle to the first person narration for some reason, but that only lasted a few pages and then I was hooked. I actually read it in one long sitting, then had to re-read the Lighthouse books straight away!

 

[Extollager]

I read Ian Sales's The Eye With Which the Universe Beholds Itself with enjoyment. I was left with a few questions, wondering if the author overlooked them.....

Also I wondered why, after the first astronaut went there, no one went back to Mars.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Still on King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Although I've been reading it for a while, I'm really enjoying it.

 

[tobl]

Also I wondered why, after the first astronaut went there, no one went back to Mars.

well... nobody went back to the moon either.... at least officially.... i wonder why. as for man on mars why dont you read the martian by andy weir

 

[tobl]

Still on King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Although I've been reading it for a while, I'm really enjoying it.

those books are good. just didn't particullarly liked the end of emperor

 

[thaddeus6th]

Well, I've got that waiting to be read after I'm done with King of Thorns, so I'll see.

 

[HareBrain]

Though I'd try Legend by David Gemmell, cos it's famous an' all, but I'm really struggling to find what people see in it.

Also reading Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots a page or two at a time. Could be Spring by the time I finish.

 

[farntfar]

I've been trying to catch up on some of the authors that you all rave about, on the basis that if you rave about them they're probably worth reading.

So having read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead earlier in the year, I read Genocide in November and have now started Waystation by Clifford D Simak.

Lots of interesting and often disturbing ideas in the OSC books, although I felt Genocide ended with rather a deus ex machina (both figuratively and literally perhaps). Having said that I enjoyed them all.

Only just started Simak, so I can't say much yet, but it's promising.

 

[Bick]

Be sure to place your Simak comments in the Simak thread, farntfar!