March 2016: What Have You Been Reading?

[Classic_SF]

Just finished NYPD 2025 by Stryker

The cover art really made this book! An easy read and rated R because of the vulgarity and sexual acts.
Most everybody is flying around in these George Jetson mobiles called "floaters". If you do something and the NYPD then don't like you because of it, then the cops just take you up to 3000 feet and drop you out and you do a free fall and then you die.
The book was written in 1985 and should have been titled NYPD 2050.
I liked it!

 

[Classic_SF]

Next... Island at The Top of The World by Cameron

 

[millymollymo]

Kristell Ink's Fight Like a Girl. (due out 2nd of April)

I recommend this anthology to everyone, and doubly so to anyone trying to solve the "How do I write a convincing female character" conundrum. The stories within cover many different female perspectives both in a fantasy and science fiction environment, not to mention the fact that they are written by some talented female authors.

 

[aThenian]

I'm reading The Affirmation by Christopher Priest. About a fifth of the way through. Haven't read this author before, and I'm finding it very dull. Anyone else read this? Should I keep going?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just finished reading Still Me, Christopher Reeve's autobiography, dominated by his accident and following rehabilitation. Moving and inspiring. Feel like watching all his films now.

 

[Allegra]

I'm reading The Affirmation by Christopher Priest. About a fifth of the way through. Haven't read this author before, and I'm finding it very dull. Anyone else read this? Should I keep going?

Drop it. I read probably less then 50 pages, decided I couldn't go on, wouldn't go on. It is dull, flat, tedious, didn't grab me, grasp me, or grip me - just trying to catch up with the wordiness.

I'm reading towards the end of P. G. Wodehouse's Laughing Gas and loving every word of it. Very difficult to tear myself from it, tragically I've had very little time to read lately.

P.S: I really enjoyed Priest's Prestige though. Comparing to Affirmation, it reads like a different writer.

 

[ratsy]

I finished Victory by Nick Webb. A pretty solid ending to his trilogy.

I also read The Crystal Bridge by Charlie Pulsipher. It was a cool YA blend of SF and Fantasy. It was an interesting layout, using two separate, seemingly unconnected story lines that end up connecting right at the end. I will be trying the second in the series for sure.

Currently I'm reading Wayward the sequel to the Pines by Blake Crouch. I read the first one last year, and liked it. Watched the miniseries and find the books much better. The last two were on sales so I picked them both up on the Kindle.

 

[Caledfwlch]

Tonight, I will be starting Stuart MacBride's latest Logan Mcrae Novel "In the Cold Dark Ground" which is the 10th.
If you enjoy Scottish based crime novels with a mix of both black/gallows humour and more normal humour, then give the Logan books a go! John Rebus used to be my fave detective of any series, but he is now No 2, I had barely gotten through a few chapters of Granite City, the first Logan novel when I realised I had a new no 1 Detective.

They are so different to the other crime novels I have read, the Logan books can have you going green in the face 1 page when a nasty corpse is described, or an autopsy is going on, the next page you will be hooting with laughter so bad, you get a stitch!

Usually Scottish Crime Fiction is set in either Edinburgh or Glasgow or some rural part of the Highlands and/or Islands. The Logan books are set in the Oil City of Aberdeen. Logan is mostly a Detective Sergeant, then he was acting Inspector, but is currently a Uniformed Sergeant, working down the coast from the Granite City itself - unlike Rebus, Thorne and many Detectives however, Logan is not a screwup, he isn't an alcoholic or borderline one, he is a very talented Detective, and in the last book what happened iirc is his Detective Chief Inspector screwed him over in her appraisal, because were Logan to be promoted permanently to Inspector, he would be out of her team, and as she is a lazy moo, and Logan is the most talented thieftaker, and serial killer finder on her team, her crime resolve rates would plummet without him, and shock horror, she would have to work. So, in the last book and the new one, he is a uniformed Sergeant down the road from Aberdeen, and too his shock is actually enjoying it.

Books - Stuart MacBride

I got into the Logan books, as I bought James Oswald's first novel, in a series I have grown to also love to bits, and Oswald at the back recommended trying Macbride.

Oswald's books are also worth trying out - they are about a Detective Inspector in Edinburgh, but he keeps encountering supernatural stuff - the supernatural stuff is very, very low key, to the point that even in the 3rd or 4th novel, despite what he has seen, even he is still unsure if he has encountered the supernatural or has imagined it, they are brilliant.

Books

 

[Uruss]

Elric of Melnibone book 1.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I am about to start Falling Torch by Algis Budrys, a 1990 revision of a 1959 novel called The Falling Torch. It seems a chapter has been added, besides losing the article in the title.

 

[pambaddeley]

Finished The Northern Girl by Elizabeth Lynn and now back to the Bryant and May crime series, number 6, The Victoria Vanishes.

 

[Caledfwlch]

I would like to try and get myself back into Eric Flint's Assiti Shards series (the one where a town from the US Midwest is somehow thrown through time to the 17th century German States, amid the wars going on during that period)

I read the first 2 or 3 and enjoyed them, but I appear to be at least several if not more installments behind, not to mention endless novellas and short stories. Is the series worth my time investment?

I also have all of Andrzej Sapkowski's totally awesome Witcher novels & the Last Wish short story collection which have so far been translated and published into English - just 2 more to come out. I have read the Last Wish before, and like Markus Heitz Dwarves series (German Author) the English Translator had done a fantastic job of managing to capture the glorious humour, dark and otherwise and the subtlety of the Witcher universe. (these are the novels the Game series by indie Polish developer CD Projekt are based on) I do very, very strongly recommend checking out Markus's Dwarves series, they really are wonderful, and as I said, the Translation to English is absolutely brilliant, and again captures all the subtlety, the humour and the nuances - I imagine translating a "normal" book can be quite a task requiring skill, but translating for example a novel set in a fantasy world must be even more difficult, given you will be dealing with lots of made up place names, character names and so on. I love the Covers too - these are the first 2 in the series, each novel is a mighty tome but seriously worth the investment of both cash and time. Though I do have DRM Free Ebook copies in the Epub format (readable on mobile phones, and non kindle ereaders) to go with my physical collection so if anyone wants a copy of The Dwarves to give it a try, send me a PM Same with the Witcher novels.

 

[Bick]

Reading Beyond the Barrier by Damon Knight now. Pretty good 60's fast paced SF so far.

 

[Bugg]

Just about to finish Tom Holland's Rubicon - got about 25 pages left. It's been a fabulous, fabulous read.

Amazon just popped onto my FB page and told me they have 'hand-picked' one of Holland's other books - Persian Fire - for me. That was nice of them, I thought.

 

[Connavar]

Im reading Lyonsesse book 1 Suldrun's Garden right now and its sheer brilliance, i love the writing, the world. I wouldnt avoid this subgenre if the prose style, the use of language was the norm and not one of few gems....

Its bold novel because there is no typical high fantasy structure of few clear POV heroes, its a story that goes wherever it feels like. The political struggles, intrigue by the different kingdoms of the Isles wasnt my fav part but i really hope to see King Casmir burn to the ground for what he did.....

Im just about to finish the novel i like how it started like a beautiful fantasy about world of fairies, quaint kingdoms more postive imaginative world you expect from a book like King of Elfland's Daugther but then the world got dark, horrible fairies playing jokes on people. Vance has some real morbid humour for a beautiful high fantasy novel

 

[hitmouse]

Im reading Lyonsesse book 1 Suldrun's Garden right now and its sheer brilliance, i love the writing, the world. I wouldnt avoid this subgenre if the prose style, the use of language was the norm and not one of few gems....

Its bold novel because there is no typical high fantasy structure of few clear POV heroes, its a story that goes wherever it feels like. The political struggles, intrigue by the different kingdoms of the Isles wasnt my fav part but i really hope to see King Casmir burn to the ground for what he did.....

Im just about to finish the novel i like how it started like a beautiful fantasy about world of fairies, quaint kingdoms more postive imaginative world you expect from a book like King of Elfland's Daugther but then the world got dark, horrible fairies playing jokes on people. Vance has some real morbid humour for a beautiful high fantasy novel

Brilliant book, brilliant trilogy.

 

[chongjasmine]

I am currently reading the dragon reborn by robert jordan.

 

[ratsy]

I finished reading Wayward by Blake Crouch. The book series is far better than the TV mini-series, but I guess only the first book was written when they made the screenplay so there are a lot of differences in the story. As always, book defeated TV/Movies.

I am currently reading Jennifer Foehner Wells' follow up to the monster hit Fluency from 2014. Remanence is pretty good, but it is missing a bit of that mystery and intrigue that the first book gave us with the first contact story. I'm about 40% through so far. The book is a huge hit again though. Right now it's ranked at # 366 overall at amazon.com

 

[Foxbat]

I'm currently working my way through Ralph Kern's Endeavour and I'm finding it a pretty interesting read. Stylistically, I'd say it's got an 'old school' feel to it, which I like

 

[AngelDust]

I finished 1984 by George Orwell. Very interesting thing but very hard emotionally for reading. I was dissapoined with the ending, it's too sad but was presictable from the start of the novel.

Now I'm reading his Animal Farm, want to compare. I heard that the topics in both books are quite similiar.