February 2016: What are You Reading?

[GOLLUM]

So..please post here what you are reading in February.

 

[tobl]

finishing joshua dalzelle blak fleet trilogy

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Not sf, but I'm reading A fort of Nine towers about growing up in Afghanistan. I tend to read these sort of things for understanding culture more than factual books. As it is, I'm pretty amazed. Part of what is amazing me is that, whilst Afghanistan is off the page in terms of atrocities in comparison to Northern Ireland, I can recognise some of what's being described. The fact that only a few miles from a troubled - in this case, shattered - area can be normal and divorced from that front line really hit home.

 

[Michael R. Fletcher]

Just started Django Wexler's The Price of Valor. It's quickly building to be my favourite book of the series. We'll see if he can kill the ending. After that I've got an ARC of Rachel Dunne's In the Shadow of the Gods lined up.

 

[ratsy]

I've been splitting my time this month between two books. One is My Sweet Satan by Peter Cawdron. Though the name is a little off-putting to some I'm sure, this is a great book so far (50% through) and it has one of the best starts I've read in a while. I look forward to reading more by Cawdron after this. The other is Malice by John Gwynne which I've been pecking away at, and will be trying to finish tomorrow on a flight.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The Lie Tree. 'Tis good.

 

[nixie]

Brent Weeks, The Binding Knife.

 

[Bick]

I'm giving another Magnus Mills a go, after being very impressed with excellent The Restraint of Beasts and All Quiet on the Orient Express. Both are wonderful and highly recommended.
The Maintenance of Headway is about the bureaucracy and peculiarities of the London bus system. There is no plot (I'm not exaggerating because the plot is weak; there genuinely isn't any plot). But there are delightful nuggets of dialogue throughout and very odd sayings that are oft repeated and make me want to start saying them: I'm going to adjust you and I'll tell you why. (You had to be there!). And, You can't get sacked from this job unless you do what Thompson did. What did he do then? We never mention it. Fantastic.

 

[tobl]

end of black fleet trilogy. not bad, but i do hope that our future government ins't that stupid and venal.... i said future government, not the ones this day now a new alex archer story to clear the palate.

 

[J5V]

I'm a slow reader, in terms of the time I have available, usually stolen from sleep.

I finished Sol.Terra (C. A. Harland, free) recently, and have Inish Carraig (Jo Zebedee) to finish. Then I get to choose from many free books, and that might be a separate discussion entirely: Having subscribed to many mailing lists, I get more free books than I can read. Does that kind of saturation kill the market for authors, or would people run out of interesting free stuff, or get hooked enough on a free book to want to pay for more?

Next, I'm looking at trying Robin Hobb's Assassins series (free book 1), which seems to be popular. Or a few scifi anthologies, like Wyrd Worlds II (free). Spotting a pattern?

I like to try new stuff, and tend to avoid handle-turned 'market-driven' works. Trying new stuff is how I discovered Stephen Baxter and Ian M Banks fairly early. Note: my early reading is biased by my starting at 'A' on my local library's sci-fi shelves, so I know of Asimov, Bear, Brin, Bova, etc.

 

[Ihe]

Starting Wild Cards, just a random one I picked up: Inside Straight.

 

[soulsinging]

I'm taking a short break from Shogun in between books 2 and 3 (about 450 pages into the 1200 page monster). It's really excellent so far, but my schedule of late has been a bit crazy so it's been tough to sink into such a dense work. I'm going to take a twirl through the first two (publication-wise) Horatio Hornblower books, Beat to Quarters and Ship of the Line. They have to go back to the library next week!

 

[nixie]

Broken Eye Brent Weeks. I do like Weeks but I always feel there is something missing.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Outlaws of the Marsh, another Chinese classic which I like even more than Three Kingdoms.

Also reading Five Families, by Selwyn Raab, about the American Mafia. Not my usual fare (it was a gift) but enjoying it so far.

 

[Toby Frost]

Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban. This is about two rather sad middle-aged intellectuals who conspire to steal some unhappy turtles from a zoo and return them to the wild. I think it's one of the best depictions of loneliness and depression that I've ever read - and it's actually quite an entertaining, amusing book. It's not really got much of a story, but it's full of perceptive stuff. Very good so far.

 

[pambaddeley]

Just finished The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier. Beautifully written as her work is, but I couldn't quite buy the premise.
Now re-reading The Water Room, second in Christopher Fowler's series about two elderly and eccentric London cops.

 

[thomas sweetman]

Brent Weeks, The Binding Knife.

Absolutely love Brent weeks

 

[thomas sweetman]

Currently reading book 4 of Conqueror series. Of 5. Its really good just finished Brent weeks 3 installment of blinding knife

 

[Cathbad]

Currently reading Greg Curtis' Banshee Hunt.

 

[Foxbat]

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn