November 2020 Reading Thread

[The Big Peat]

30% of the way through A Shadow in Summer and I've seen enough that I'd normally DNF but I haven't finished a new book in forever so I think I'm going to try and gut it out.

 

[The Judge]

Is this the Daniel Abraham book? I've noticed we're having opposite reactions to SFs recently, so it will come as no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of the book, though I have to say I was less satisfied with the ending and all the subsequent novels, so you never know you may like them!

What's annoying/disappointing you with it so far?

 

[The Big Peat]

Is this the Daniel Abraham book? I've noticed we're having opposite reactions to SFs recently, so it will come as no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of the book, though I have to say I was less satisfied with the ending and all the subsequent novels, so you never know you may like them!

What's annoying/disappointing you with it so far?

Yes, the Daniel Abraham book.

There's a lot of interesting ideas but, because he's introducing so many different things, and spending so much time with different characters, there's just nothing keeping my attention.

 

[The Judge]

Ah. That didn't worry me, but if that's the only issue you may get on better as it progresses and you know who everyone is.

 

[The Big Peat]

Ah. That didn't worry me, but if that's the only issue you may get on better as it progresses and you know who everyone is.

Hopefully! But 95% of the time, if a book hasn't got my attention by now, it's never getting it at all. Which is why I usually believe in DNF early and DNF often.

 

[Danny McG]

Please do review. And Baen do still offer bundles I’m sure, and this is one of theirs.

Review here

Dykstra's War by Jefferey D Kooistra

Dyksta's War – a review A fast moving space opera, humanity is starting to go out the Solar System when it runs into the nasty aliens, they wipe out some ships. But a couple of alien vessels are destroyed leaving the secrets of their FTL drive. Back on Earth is this very old (126 yrs) super...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Danny McG]

Now reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

 

[Vince W]

Now reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

This is one I'm very interested in. I need to pick it up.

 

[Parson]

Well I've finished book 2 in the April series by Mackey Chandler, Down to Earth. I'm not sure what to think about it. On the plus side --- and this is why I'm continuing to read them ---- this is an interesting story with an interesting main character, some well thought out science, a moral stand (even if I disagree with parts of it), and a somewhat different spin on the usual SF novel. On the negative side, the editing is terrible. I'm not a very good editor but even I noticed paragraphs formatted incorrectly and words missing. And then there is the half baked libertarian politics which seems to be a key feature of the series. I keep thinking: "Have you even thought about the way that would work in the real world?" Here's an example on the topic of economics: "He asserted that the degree of (Government) intervention was unimportant because any intervention always progressed to full central planning as it failed to produce the desired results and more intervention was promoted as the cure to it's own failure." Any study of history will show that even lightly restrained capitalism tends to result in a lot of bad outcomes for a majority of people, and really, really, rich oligarchs. Not optimal in my view. .... But counterintuitively I am on to book 3, The Middle of Nowhere.

 

[kythe]

I just finished NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. This is an interesting one for this time of year. This book is a chilling Christmas-themed story. The villain takes children to "Christmasland", never to be seen again in the living world. NOS4A2 (a play off of the old silent movie "Nosferatu") was a very good story, but I don't think I will be hearing Christmas music quite the same way this year.

 

[.matthew.]

Well, I finished the Codex Alera series last week and haven't been able to start anything since. It totally killed my will to read with its increasing levels of stupidity, contradictions, retconning, new abilities, and desperate need for every other scene to be 'cool'. I cannot even...

Hoping to start something else soon but think I'll probably just do some rereads to cleanse the palette :/

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I finished Lud-in-the-Mist and will next turn to The Mind Master AKA The Dreamers (1980) by James Gunn.

I have been asked what I think about Lud-in-the-Mist. It's a difficult book to describe. The bare bones of the plot involve the solid, respectable town of Lud and their fear of the fruits that come from the neighboring fairyland. The eating of these has all kinds of effects on people. They are treated like illegal drugs, being smuggled in. The middle of the book turns into a sort of murder mystery, with the plot turning on solving a decades-old crime. There are also ghosts involved. The fairy fruit appears to be an allegory for everything outside the mundane; art, music, death, joy, terror, you name it. A strange, haunting, beautifully written, enigmatic novel.

 

[Danny McG]

Now reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

So far there are lots of (seemingly) unrelated episodes, interspersed with mini lectures; mostly directed to the reader.

Heavy going .... No evil robots or nekkid wimmin!

 

[tobl]

Well, I finished the Codex Alera series last week and haven't been able to start anything since. It totally killed my will to read with its increasing levels of stupidity, contradictions, retconning, new abilities, and desperate need for every other scene to be 'cool'. I cannot even...

Hoping to start something else soon but think I'll probably just do some rereads to cleanse the palette :/

if you want suggestion just ask

 

[Vertigo]

Shogun by James Clavell - I had forgotten just how good a read this is. More here.

I suspect I'm currently heading towards a DNF with Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things.

 

[Danny McG]

Now reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

DNF for this one, not so much a story as a series of lectures

 

[tobl]

Shogun by James Clavell - I had forgotten just how good a read this is. More here.

I suspect I'm currently heading towards a DNF with Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things.

taipan and king rat also very good. the television adaptation is very good

 

[Vertigo]

taipan and king rat also very good. the television adaptation is very good

Yes I watched the TV adaptation when it first came out and after I'd read the book and was surprised by how close to the book it was.

 

[Vince W]

DNF for this one, not so much a story as a series of lectures

Thanks, Danny. I'll have to think about this one then.

 

[Danny McG]

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins.
I think it's an urban fantasy but too early to tell yet.