July 2019: Reading Thread

Vertigo said:
Yes I'd agree with @Vince W. Planet 1 is Mercury which is where they have their base, Planet 2 Venus, then the Earth and the cratered crescent 'satellite of Three' has to be the moon. And I suspect they are orbiting the Moon rather than the Earth itself.
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Yea I get that, but I don't get why Ken is surprised that the planet they're at (Earth) isn't the one they're interested in. I could understand it if instead he said "Leave the vicinity? I thought you said that world WAS the one in question?"
 
No I think he was saying 'the moon' isn't the one they're interested in. That's why I'm making the assumption that they're actually orbiting the Moon but it's the Earth they're interested in. I agree it's a little confusing but I think he's done it (especially the reference to craters and 'crescent') to drop seriously heavy clues to anyone who hasn't yet figured out we're looking at the Earth. A bit clumsy though, but I'm not sure Clements would be described as an elegant author! :D
 
dask said:
Currently reading this:
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Great cover, literally begged me to read this 173 page promise of highly concentrated Sense Of Wonder, but at page 137 I'm calling it quits. This is one of the worst books I've ever read. Horribly written, scantily plotted, with dull endless races between universes (actually galaxies but Mr. Hamilton constantly refers to them as universes) I simply can't go on with it. I've the greatest respect for Edmond Hamilton. His The Star Kings is my introduction to the science fiction novel and he's treated me to many other solid adventures. But this! Something about the Interstellar Patrol. I barely made it through Crashing Suns, a collection of their exploits. The first and last story were pretty good but all the stories in between were strictly paint by numbers. Outside The Universe is a novel but unreadable as they come. Sorry Mr. Hamilton. I won't give up on you but I can't go on with this.
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Give us a list of your favorite five Hamilton books please?
 
Extollager said:
Give us a list of your favorite five Hamilton books please?
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I cheated a bit with this last one. I read the trilogy individually when Ace first published them in separate volumes. To save time and adhere to the letter of the law, I broke the law to adhere to it, and five really does equal seven.
 
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Ah! Thanks, Dask, and I see you legitimately squeezed a three-books-in-one there with that Starwolf omnibus.

I've read The Star of Life, The Star Kings, and The Haunted Stars. Perhaps someone should have mentioned that last one in the recent thread on novels with lunar settings, since that's where it starts. I can't say any of these right bowled me over, but I remember them as decent reads. City at World's End might be my choice for a next Hamilton read,
 
I read The Star Of Life and would have listed it had the trilogy proved unfair. The concept of suspended animation, like time travel, has a gleam all its own.
 
I read Ben Aaronovitch's The October Man novella. One of the things I was wondering about going into the story was whether Aaronovitch would manage to make a new narrator feel different to Peter Grant after so many books in the series focusing on Peter. Tobias Winter's role does turn out to be literally a German Peter Grant (the Germans having decided that if the British are recruiting new magicians they should as well). There are times when he does sound a bit like Peter Grant as well, particularly when wryly commenting on the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy involved in his work. However, there are plenty of differences as well, he is less inclined to throwing in geeky references and there are fewer random digressions (perhaps because Tobias doesn't know Trier the same way Peter knows London). Something similar applies to the other characters, they may have some similarities to the supporting cast in the Rivers of London books but they do have different perspectives.

I think the shorter novella format can have some benefits for this type of story, it feels about the right length for the murder mystery plot, some of the novels in the series have got a bit distracted by subplots at times. I though the story did a good job of gradually revealing what actually happened, while at the same time expanding the background world-building of the series.

Overall, I thought it was an entertaining story and it was a successful attempt to expand the series away from its London setting.

Next up I think I'll read Adrian Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls.
 
Finished The Fox by Frederick Forsyth and immediately I'm into Delta-V by Daniel Suarez
 
Finished Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. Now on part 2 of The Night Angel Trilogy: Shadow’s Edge.

If you’re a fan of Grimdark (GRRM, Mark Lawrence, Joe Abercrombie etc) then I wholeheartedly recommend this series, albeit I’m only halfway through
 
The Switch by Justina Robson - Disappointingly unrealistic. A little more here.
Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks - Just as brilliant as my first reading, if not more so. More here.
The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian - the most disappointing of the Maturin/Aubrey books so far. A little more here.
 
Vertigo said:
Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks - Just as brilliant as my first reading, if not more so
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From now on (since 2 days ago!) I'll never be able to reread Iain M Banks book Surface Detail without having a mental image of the ship avatar Av Demeisen looking like this:-
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.
 
Note:
That was the picture he posted of himself in the playroom thread "Whose face is this"
 
Finished reading Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith. It was ... interesting, a mix of personal encounters, with some theory of mind thrown in. Though it did tackle the question of intelligence among cephalopods it did so in a rather roundabout way. I was hoping for more focus on these creatures from a biological perspective, but instead it seemed it was more focused on the philosophy and psychology of consciousness. Not a bad book, but it was more of a personal journey rather than a scientific exploration of these most enigmatic animals.
 
dannymcg said:
Finished The Fox by Frederick Forsyth and immediately I'm into Delta-V by Daniel Suarez
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I'm struggling to keep my focus on 'Delta-V'
It's a bit humdrum atm. Yeah yeah boot camp blah blah

If it doesn't crack on with the main plot soon it'll be filed under DNF
 
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