June 2020 Reading Thread

[pambaddeley]

Just finished Death is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury.

 

[Parson]

I've think I've gone insane, I've actually gone and purchased a $14 plus tax ebook, Network Effect by Martha Wells. This is the next installment in The Murderbot Diaries. But at least this time I've gotten a full blown novel (346 pages) and not 1/4 of one calling itself a novella. I am 38% through it presently and it is very good. I must not be the only one who loves this character and series. It has 308 reviews with a 4.8 average. Just to say something here and went a looked at the most read low rating, that one was a 2 (and it said 2 compared to the rest of the books) because it only had one fight scene.

I will try to cobble up a review here when I've finished.

*Note there is another novel in the works Fugitive Telemetry. It's to be released next April and the cover is a definite change, and I think it's awesome.

 

[biodroid]

@dannymcg - Did you Dean Koontz's new book, Elsewhere, coming out November. Looks interesting.

 

[Danny McG]

@dannymcg - Did you Dean Koontz's new book, Elsewhere, coming out November. Looks interesting.

I wasn't aware, cheers, I'll look for it

 

[Montero]

Finished my run on T Kingfisher's books - all very good. Read Martha Wells Murderbot which was a nice competent sf adventure with a twist of the nature of the individual and their rights - but after reading T Kingfisher it was a little bit vanilla. T Kingfisher is more quirky, unexpected and funny.
Now onto a re-read of Andrea K Host "Stray" - which is a portal sf adventure. It is YA but not juvenile - I'm perfectly happy reading it. Cassandra is walking home from school and a portal has opened up in the street in Sydney, Australia, and she suddenly finds herself in a forest. The book is written first person as a diary. Good practical study of how you'd survive in a wilderness if all you had was your school satchel - pencil case, bottle of pop, books - and no helpful (or dangerous) aliens on hand. She's just an ordinary 17 year old. She has to survive on her own for a while until she runs into some alien humans - and then it is into an adventure of discovering the other civilisation - and I'm going to stop there to avoid spoilers. First in a series. Also like the Australian background to it - makes a change. All of Andrea K Host's sf books have an Australian link. Her fantasies are varied. I'll probably be re-reading the Silence of Medear at some point - Medear went into a mountain to retrieve a horn that she could blow to bring down supernatural forces on the invaders, but she was exhausted, so she took a quick nap. When she came out it was hundreds of years later and the war was over.

 

[Danny McG]

she was exhausted, so she took a quick nap. When she came out it was hundreds of years later

I've done that many a time

 

[The Big Peat]

I've done that many a time

Alright Rip van Daniel.


Anyway, I'm re-reading Shadows in Bronze and it's still a very good romp.

 

[Don]

I'm reading Perry Rhodan Nr. 29 Die Flotte der Springer / #22 The Fleet of the Springers. It's the second installment of the Springer sub story-arc within der Dritten Macht arc.

 

[Montero]

Shadows in Bronze

Lyndsey Davis?

 

[The Big Peat]

Lyndsey Davis?

Yup. I've got a ton of books I should be reading, but I'm more in the mood for reading stuff that I know is good and speaks to me.

 

[williamjm]

I'm about 100 pages into Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth. It is a bit jarring having very contemporary-sounding dialogue in what seems to be a far future post-apocalyptic setting populated by spacefaring necromancers, but despite that it's been a lot of fun so far.

Finished Tim Powers' Alternate Routes and Forced Perspectives.
Both novels have the same duo (not a couple, exactly) as MC's, but it concerns 2 different stories. You can skip Alternate Route and only read Forced Perspectives, if you wish. Much of what went before is explained.
The books are about supernatural events, as you can expect from Tim Powers. Decent stuff, but by now it lacks originality. It doesn't surprise, scare or amaze anymore. Even the setting, modern day LA, is the same and becoming tiresome.
A shame really. I have always liked Tim Powers novels.

I haven't read Forced Perspectives yet but I agree Alternate Routes wasn't one of his best. It was entertaining enough but he's done a lot better. I'll probably read Forced Perspectives at some point but I'm not really in a hurry to do so.

I've think I've gone insane, I've actually gone and purchased a $14 plus tax ebook, Network Effect by Martha Wells. This is the next installment in The Murderbot Diaries. But at least this time I've gotten a full blown novel (346 pages) and not 1/4 of one calling itself a novella. I am 38% through it presently and it is very good. I must not be the only one who loves this character and series. It has 308 reviews with a 4.8 average. Just to say something here and went a looked at the most read low rating, that one was a 2 (and it said 2 compared to the rest of the books) because it only had one fight scene.

I've really enjoyed the novellas so I'm glad to hear that the novel is similarly good.

 

[soulsinging]

I burned out on Say Nothing, which is interesting, but I'm not a huge non-fiction fan and given some of the recent events in the US, reading about systemic oppression and subsequent revolutionary violence is rather demoralizing.

Picked up Walden by Thoreau. Inspired by the mandatory reading thread, thought I'd take a crack at this book which bored me to tears in school but holds a lot of appeal as quarantines have us all thinking more critically about needs v wants.

 

[Extollager]

Just finished my fourth reading of Wilson Tucker's tragic, restrained 1970 time travel novel The Year of the Quiet Sun. A summary of the book's trajectory would edge too close to violating Chrons policy against political discussions, with which by and large I agree, but you can find reviews elsewhere, and I do think this is a pretty fine novel. (Tucker's editor should have caught his error about the title of the final book of the New Testament, though.) Recommended to American readers particularly for reading around July 4 (read it and see why; your hair might stand on end). The only Tuckerism I spotted was the name of a military officer.

This cover art by the Dillons seems by far the best on the various paperbacks whose covers I've seen. The novel won a John W. Campbell memorial Award in 1976.

Redirect to new page

www.sfcenter.ku.edu

 

[biodroid]

Hopefully I will finish The Green Mile by Stephen King this week, I am about 85% into it.

 

[Danny McG]

Rob Hart - The warehouse.

A bit tricky to categorise so far, I think I need to read a few more chapters and get my head around what's going on.
Weird

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, a brilliant and beautiful book. Over twenty years ago I contemplated becoming a monk and this story resonates nicely with me. And to think there are two more to read afterwards, and now there is a prequel to be released later in the year.

 

[Extollager]

Starting an overdue reading of The Iliad, never read before.

I decided to go with Gustav Schwab's retelling of the Tales of Troy rather than Fagles' translation of the Iliad, the former being more friendly to a first-time reader like me. It's roughly half of a Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library paperback.

Gustav Schwab - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Brian G Turner]

I had to take a break from study reading, so ended up picking up The Three Body problem again . I'd found the game aspect boring, more like fantasy, hence why I'd put it down - but picking it up again, it soon became clear what was actually going on, and that now has me hooked. Certainly a very unique story.

 

[biodroid]

I had to take a break from study reading, so ended up picking up The Three Body problem again . I'd found the game aspect boring, more like fantasy, hence why I'd put it down - but picking it up again, it soon became clear what was actually going on, and that now has me hooked. Certainly a very unique story.

I tend to steer clear of translated books because I feel like the translator might have lost the original languages flair/spark/feeling etc. in the translation.

 

[Vertigo]

I had to take a break from study reading, so ended up picking up The Three Body problem again . I'd found the game aspect boring, more like fantasy, hence why I'd put it down - but picking it up again, it soon became clear what was actually going on, and that now has me hooked. Certainly a very unique story.

I've just recently read his collection of short(ish) stories - The Wandering Earth - which was an excellent read; the guy has an awesome imagination that he then applies hard science to. And, bearing in mind my aversion to short stories in general (I didn't realise that was a collection when I bought it!), any praise for them from me is serious praise!

I tend to steer clear of translated books because I feel like the translator might have lost the original languages flair/spark/feeling etc. in the translation.

I've always been very impressed by the ability of translators. Yes the original might be better but, assuming the original is an excellent book and you don't read the original language, then a translation is better than not reading at all. I would never want to have missed some of the great translated authors I've read like; Liu, Bolano, Marquez, Schulz, Zafon, Gombrowicz and not forgetting Dumas and, indeed, Homer! I have been impressed with all of their translations especially the Bolano ones where they have to deal with single sentences that can span multiple pages and still make them gripping reading.