April 2016: What Have You Been Reading?

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sinister42 said:
Keep at Dune, but skip God Emperor of Dune. Here's what happens: Leto Atreides II, an immortal sandworm, spends the entire book "peregrinating" around Arrakis and spouting endless incoherent polemics about The Golden Path. The end.

The last couple of books, Heretics and Chapterhouse, are actually pretty good.
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Ah, well I decided to go with more Cherryh instead - currently re-reading Downbelow Station. I'll get back to the Dune series at some point soon.
 
Just finished reading my way through Kevin Hearne's 'Iron Druid Chronicles'. Somewhat different from anything I've read before but no less interesting for that. I gained great enjoyment from the way in which he scythed his way through various pantheons (panthea?) of gods of all descriptions. Looking forward to the ninth book of the series.
 
Foxbat said:
Tom Holland's Rubicon. This history of the Roman Republic is really well written and I'm enjoying it so far.
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I read that a few weeks ago and thought it was excellent :)
 
Well, I was right about The High Lord. Since then have read a cozy crime, The Ambleside Alibi by Rebecca Tope and finished Elizabeth Lynn's collection, The Woman Who Loved the Moon and Other Stories.

Now on Black Maria by Diana Wynne Jones, and A Dirty Death by Rebecca Tope, crime novel but not a cozy this time.
 
Just finished reading Stephen Kings The TommyKnockers . A good read. (y)
 
About to start W3: Women in Deep Time by Greg Bear (2002.) It's a collection of three stories from 1978, 1983, and 1989, along with a transcription of Bear's Guest of Honor speech at the 2001 Worldcon. Includes the Nebula-winning story "Hardfought." As the title of the collection implies, all three stories feature women as the protagonists.
 
Just read Songs of Cosmos Prologue by Filip Majkic. It's a space opera set in a far future, when humanity retrograded into sort of space-neo-feudal order, but I am biased towards it because he is my countryman. Also, it was very funny to read it in english after reading his two books in native serbian. It is such a different experience.

In a couple of days I should get Legend of the Galactic Heroes Volume 1: Dawn by Yoshiki Tanaka from Amazon. It also is an english debut, I think it has never been translated until now. Can't wait!

What can I say, I love space operas! :)
 
As some may recall from an earlier thread of shame, where we named authors we'd not read, I admited to the fact I've not read any Jack Vance to date. I've finally decided to do something about it, and opened the wallet to buy the quite expensive omnibus pb The Demon Princes, Volume 1. Ive started The Star King and will comment more on due course. Presuming I like it and read the whole thing, I feel I'll be able finally look Connavar in the eye again (so to speak). :)
 
I've just finished re-reading the Red Rising Trilogy and am my 3rd read of Game of Thrones. I've realised I only ever re-read fantasy and literary books. Interesting. *strokes beard thoughtfully*
 
I started reading Teresa Edgerton's Child of Saturn, but had to move to Leviathan Wakes when the Expanse season one came available at the library. I am going to try to read the book to stay ahead of the show! This is the first time I've read a book while watching it's tv show at the same time...well not at the exact same time.
 
My reading of sf and fantasy has ebbed a bit, but there are some pretty catholic tastes reflected here at Chrons, so I'll mention a few things anyway -- Richard Holmes's [Percy Bysshe] Shelley: The Pursuit, Paustovsky's second volume of memoirs, Slow Approach of Thunder, and The Brothers Karamazov, which, in the Pevear-Volokhonsky rendering, is one of my very topmost favorite works of fiction. I could do without it like I could do without The Lord of the Rings.

And I do expect to start The Ghost in the Mirror late tonight. This will be the first John Bellairs book I'll have read that Brad Strickland finished. I don't know if the book was virtually complete or if Strickland "completed it" the way August Derleth "completed" some stories primarily credited to Lovecraft. :sneaky:
 
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The L-Shaped Room - Reid Banks

Read it before, many years ago. I'd forgotten how good it was. Very strong writing.
 
Starting The Angel's Game by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It's been on the shelf for a few years and we've been longing for each other. I loved the first book of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books cycle - The Shadow of the Wind. It has a classic feel, reminded me something of 19 century's greats. The English translation by Robert Grave's daughter Lucia Graves is superb! Lately I found out the author is writing the fourth following The Prisoner of Heaven:

.

During this interview he explained why he will not allow his books being made into movies, very well said. I have a lot of respect for this writer. He is also a composer and a piano player.
 
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Well I finished Shadows Betrayal by Dave de Burgh and while I had a couple of gripes I really liked this book. It felt like a solid start to a series, i'm hoping a trilogy as longer series tend to suffer from bloat and I could see this shaping up for 3 books nicely.

Currently reading Brandon Sandersons the Alloy of Law and finding Waxillium a really annoying name. Other than that I like the Westernesquesteampunkishallomaticfeurochemical vibe it gives me.
 
I have just finished "Delta Green: Extraordinary Renditions" ed by Shane Ivey & Adam Scott Glancy.
It's a collection of Lovecraftian tales focused around Delta Green.
This is an ultra secret government organisation formed after the raid on Innsmouth in the winter of 1927/28.
It's sole aim is to secretly combat any Lovecraftian menace it comes across.
The stories range in time from 1930s mid-west dustbowl, Europe shortly after WW2, up to the modern day.
As with most collections this is a bit of a curates egg (ie good in parts), but the parts that are good are very good indeed!
Having read that I am about to dive into more Lovecraft with "New Cthulhu 2" ed by Paula Guran.
 
Just finished a gripping crime novel in a rural setting - A Dirty Death by Rebecca Tope.

Now on a so-so non fiction collection of essays on psychology - Churchill's Black Dog and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind.
 
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