June 2018: Reading Thread

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Very close to finishing Grey Sister, which I picked up for just ninety-nine of Her Majesty's finest pence. Rather liked it. Mark Lawrence is good at creating what might be called post-post-apocalyptic worlds, and I'm quite interested to see how it turns out in the end.

I'm also re-reading Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi. First read it a decade or two ago. Very engaging read, about the eponymous warrior, set in the the early 17th century, right after Sekigahara.
 
Not SFF, but I'm going to read a David Bowie book published in the 80s, which I found in a charity shop last week. It's by Jerry Hopkins, author of the first biographies of Elvis & Jim Morrison, and he died yesterday, so I shall read his book.
 
Nixie, I was just about to correct myself. You're right, it's Red Sister, the first book, I've just finished reading. (In my defence, it's an e-book so I don't see the title much, and both Red and Grey Sisters are mentioned about the same number of times).
 
thaddeus6th said:
Nixie, I was just about to correct myself. You're right, it's Red Sister, the first book, I've just finished reading. (In my defence, it's an e-book so I don't see the title much, and both Red and Grey Sisters are mentioned about the same number of times).
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Well your post prompted me to search and the second book in the series has been released and it is Grey Sister.

I did wonder why you hadn't mentioned the first one:sneaky:
 
Nixie, I'm a rebel. I can read the second book in a series first if I want to. Sometimes I butter the exterior side of bread when I make a sandwich. Don't try and constrict me with your 'rules' and 'normality' and 'common sense'!

Putting together a review of Red Sister. I liked it would be the short version. Took me a while to read, although that was mostly due to intermittent bouts of mild pestilence.
 
thaddeus6th said:
Nixie, I'm a rebel. I can read the second book in a series first if I want to. Sometimes I butter the exterior side of bread when I make a sandwich. Don't try and constrict me with your 'rules' and 'normality' and 'common sense'!

Putting together a review of Red Sister. I liked it would be the short version. Took me a while to read, although that was mostly due to intermittent bouts of mild pestilence.
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Now be a good rebel, please go and post in the thread I started last year. I thought I was only one who liked it :p
 
I breezed through Outsider by Stephen King. I really enjoyed it. More for the characters than the supernatural aspect, though. I really don't know of anybody else who can write like he can. I'm immediately attached to all his characters and settings with no effort on my part.

After seeing House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds on several Top 5 lists on a Reddit thread, I decided to start reading that. Only about a quarter of the way through that, but I'm absolutely loving it so far.
 
@tobl - Yip, but I only watched a bad copy on YouTube, couldn't find a proper copy anywhere else. I heard they had a lot of production problems and legal battles in releasing the movie. RIP Anton Yelchin, he made a good Odd Thomas.
 
awesomesauce said:
I have a passionate hatred for the weasel endings, where the writer doesn't provide a good ending and, usually in comments somewhere or interviews, offers a pretentious, mealy-mouthed justification like "I wanted to leave it up to the reader's interpretation."
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I had to quote this from another thread because this happened to me last night! Aaaargh!!!! Djinn City by Saad Hossain just ends, seemingly about four chapters before the real end. (All the major threads feel like they're about a chapter away from resolution.) This could be making way for a weak sequel (weak because the world already feels fully explored), but no -- on Goodreads the author said there wold be no sequel, and the characters would have to carry on by themselves.

So, @dannymcg , I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, though it has a fresh style and some interesting ideas.

Might go back to Duncton Wood now, or perhaps read Tolkien's Children of Hurin at last, which I never started after looking up Gurthang's speech and finding the language had been changed from The Silmarillion.
 
Spade said:
After seeing House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds on several Top 5 lists on a Reddit thread, I decided to start reading that. Only about a quarter of the way through that, but I'm absolutely loving it so far.
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And in my humble opinion it only gets better; I actually found the first quarter the weakest, relative to the remainder.
 
Can't believe I've not posted here in a while!

Finished The Rosetta Man by Claire McCague. I can't believe I actually finished it. On the plus side it was a highly unusual First Contact book, which is a sub-genre that I dearly love. On the negative side, the highly unusual part also made it highly unlikely. On the super negative side the main character is someone who communicates on some level with animals and reminds me of Fantasy Characters that really bug me. And after slogging through all the things that frustrated me, including the increasingly unbelievable character of the aliens and their abilities; the book just ended. That's right, there is no ending, none of the threads are wrapped up. In that sense it doesn't even qualify as a cliff hanger. (I finished the book a couple of days ago and waited to post because I thought I would be more generous in my summary. --- Didn't happen.)

Now for a breath of fresh air... I'm reading Erebus (A Sleeping God's Novel #2) by our own @ralphkern. I'm loving it. He knows how to write a sequel. The first novel was wrapped up (unlike the above!) and now we have the "further adventures of" and quite possibly a story thread developing over the course of multiple novels.

I'm listening to Looking Glass by Andrew Mayne and this book is also the second of a series. This follows his highly successful The Naturalist. In looking him up just now, I see that he has been a highly productive author and if these two books are any indication, highly successful. The main character is a biologist with keen insight and really high end computer savvy. He has been drawn into the business of hunting criminals, terrorists, and others; and has to struggle with his innate morality. Although the books are very dark for my tastes, they are gripping. I'm enjoying this a bunch.

And likely surprising to some on this thread; I'm also reading Enlightenment NOW by Steven Pinker.
 
I wrapped up Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster a few days ago. Man that's such a good book. I read it when I was a kid, so you never know. There are some books I read as a kid that I've read again in a fit of nostalgia, and I'm like "Wow, I would read anything as a kid. This is really crap." But not this book. It's still sweet and funny and charming. Also I'm super into feel-good sci-fi right now, and this totally fits that bill.

Now I'm reading The Outsider by Stephen King. I didn't realize it was following on a trilogy, which started with Mr. Mercedes (which I haven't read.) I saw a review saying it was kind of spoilery for the trilogy but I suspect it's not really. There's a little recap in dialog about some of the cases another character worked on, but it was a little strange, like wow these are some weirdly specific details for some random background on a secondary character who shows up two-thirds of the way in. But now I know it's referencing earlier books. So far I really like it, but King has been disappointing me with the endings in the past few years. I loved Revival up to like, 90%, and same with Doctor Sleep. So I'm prepared for the let down, should it come.
 
Just got Jon Kiln's Blood and Sand trilogy. I read the sample a little while ago for a snapshot review thingummyjig I wrote about 4-5 samples.
 
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