April 2016: What Have You Been Reading?

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Bugg said:
I've read the first two Conqueror books (first one was okay, second one I found a bit boring) and the first Caesar one, Gates of Rome, which was fun (but then I discovered Colleen McCullough's series, which I prefer). I'm enjoying Stormbird so far (I am very interested in the Plantagenet and Tudor eras). I know Iggulden is/was a fan of David Gemmell, and I can see the influences in his style.
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That is true just like Gemmell his focus,strengths are on the battlefield, wars,people who live in it,the military type characters. That fits well the life of Genghis Khan, Ogedai Khan, Kublai Khan who was leaders, warrior kings that was always on war to conquer new lands but i expected more of his Caesar series because his strength is not in political leaders in senate ruled republic,the roman game of thrones between Octavian, Marc Anthony etc
 
About to start The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre (1997), winner of the Nebula for best novel of the year. It would seem to be an alternate history fantasy in which "sea monsters" exist, set in the court of Louis XIV.
 
Jo Zebedee said:
I thought it was hard sf and inaccessible
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Only badly written hard SF is inaccessible. IMO Hard SF isn't about technical infodumps either, but simply can be that the Science & Technology won't annoy people like mathematicians, scientists, engineers, Computer people etc with technobabble nonsense. Anything totally implausible is either a one off without being explained, or obviously magic/psychic not dressed as nanotech etc. It's a convention that Space Opera etc isn't realistic, so Tech people suspend their disbelief and enjoy it, like any good fantasy. But other sub-genres of SF it can be progressively more annoying if there is loads of Star Trek TNG nonsense in it.
@psychotick probably has strong views on this.

There is hard SF that examines the "What If" aspects of a single invention (Economical Fusion power, Starships with Jump Drive, arbitrary gene / DNA editing of adults not just unborn, beanstalk/space elevator, universal surveillance, nanotech, AI, ending ageing etc), In past topics such as the internet & drugs (Shockwave Rider), cheap world travel, Satellite TV, personal computers.
Almost all of these tend to become outdated, or look at wrong problem or badly written, because as people love to point out to me a good story is FAR more than a "good idea". Or else they are nonsense any way.
 
i been rereading somethings like must of us :) first it was jack campbell, lost fleet series :) i just love space battles :) then the new christopher g nuttalll, Vanguard, and now rereading the zombies series by john ringo :)
 
I finished the first three Demon Prince books by Vance (comments over in the Jack Vance thread), and I've now started Delany's Babel-17. This could turn into a 1960's classic SF binge I think.
 
Just finished Inverted World by Christopher Priest. Underwhelming to say the least.

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This is pretty much my reading since January. Not had time to write any of them up which is a shame as there are a few that I'd have liked to have done.

Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - excellent but this volume was more on the real side of the magical realism. Looking forward to the fourth book which will apparently tie up all the loose ends.
The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks - sadly the last of Banks' SF books for me. Thoroughly enjoyed the more headlined role for the Minds in this one.
Guardian by Jack Campbell - This second series from Campbell is ok good but doesn't light me fire as much as the first.
Permutation City by Greg Egan - Lord, does this man know how to write hard SF just not sure how many of his readers can keep pace with him.
Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross - really enjoyed this flow on from Saturn's Children though the economics of galactic fraud did get a little trying at times.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - My second reading of the classic dystopian tragedy. Much of the tech and the dialogue feels very dated now, but that's not surprising for a book written in 1932. What is surprising is how his ideas of tyranny through happiness can still feel just as relevant today: drugs, consumerism, propaganda, social conditioning etc.
Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R Dickson - enjoyable if sometimes rather pretentious classic SF.
Homeworld by Evan C Currie - another good offering in this series. However I do wish Currie would get out of the habit of interrupting action scenes with long digressions on the history of some bit of tech/social order/politics. Kills the tension every time.
Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds - I've seen a fair bit of criticism of this one but I enjoyed it very much.
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies by C S Forester - more a collection of short stories this last instalment of Hornblower. Still thoroughly enjoyed it. Sad to come to the end but looking forward to moving on to O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books.
Steadfast by Jack Campbell - Another good book but this one felt a little fragmented.
 
@SilentRoamer huge Hobb fan here, so hope you like it. Tawny Man are where she really comes into her own for Fitz. Liveship books are quite good too.

I finished Leviathan Wakes by James A Corey. It was a decent book. It took about 200 pages for me to warm up to it, and then it took off. Cool to learn that each author wrote for their own characters POV (there are only two POV's) and you wouldn't really know that it was too people writing it. They did a great job. I think I'll get to the next one someday when my TBR pile is not as large as it is right now!

Moved on to Child of Saturn by Teresa Edgerton. This was Teresa's debut novel and I wanted to check it out after a cool new review of it on the Tor website. There is something super special about the way Teresa writes, and I am really enjoying the book. I'm about 100 pages in so far.

I'm blown away by her description ability, and with all the talk about having too much description or not in the Writing section here, she proves that it can and does work very well. I was thinking of posting the start of a chapter in the description thread going on. I had to read the section aloud to my wife on the weekend, who agreed it was beautiful writing.
 
Finished off Star Wars: Allegiance by Timothy Zahn. As my first foray back into this extended universe in nearly 20 years, I found it to be very entertaining and fun. It was a bit light on some of my old favorites, and not as good as his original Thrawn trilogy, but enough to convince me to read a few more.

Now I'm on to Pierce Brown's addition to the pseudo-YA dystopia craze, Red Rising.
 
I finished Conn Iggulden's Stormbird. As with the other books of his that I've read, I thought it was okay but I was glad to be done with it and have no inclination to rush out and buy the next one.

This morning I'm back to C J Cherryh with Foreigner Book 6, Explorer.
 
Finished that essay collection - Churchill's Black Dog and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind. Daphne Du Maurier's House on the Strand, odd mix of historical fiction via a drug trip; not entirely successful. Read Charles Platts' collection of interviews, Who Writes Science Fiction which was rather patchy. Finished Diana Wynne Jones' Black Maria which was good although the ending was a bit weak. Then a Jonathan Carroll, Bones of the Moon, which started OK but I found too many problems especially with the main character. Now reading another Carroll, Sleeping in Flame.
 
Finished Half the World by Joe Abercrombie, wasn't bad, didn't think it was a good as the first one. Now pondering what to read next since Amazon book prices are high.
 
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