January 2021 Reading Thread.

[Bick]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two Wild Cards books, and so I’m now starting Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild, edited by George R. R. Martin.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'm reading The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow, an epic crime novel about drug-trafficking in Mexico. It's like James Ellroy back when Ellroy wrote in complete sentences. Very fast, very punchy, but I'm not sure how long it will stay with me when I've finished it.

 

[Ellizze]

Done with Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Almost finished with - There There by Tommy Orange. It's one highly recommended and exceptional read that talks about the life of the urban native Americans, culturally away from home. The book is touted to be a major work of the new Native Renaissance and a pioneering piece encouraging more Native American voices and cultural experiences. Next, I have The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin and Ringworld by Larry Niven lined up.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Just finished reading...

In a Lonely Place - 4.75

Not just a good noir, but an excellent character drama. Good prose, great dialogue. It all flows and reads so well. Tight and rich.

My one minor qualm is that the ending feels just a little (little) bit rushed.

The film is also very good, and less explicit (if my memory serves me). Not a criticism of the book in any way, just an observation. It's always a credit to a book if it manages to suck me in when I've already witnessed the story on screen.

 

[soulsinging]

I read Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan. I liked it more than the first book in the series, Tenar is a more engaging protagonist than young Ged was and it's a more focused story. The setting is very different, rather than all the island hopping of the first book it's much more claustrophobic this time with the majority of the book taking place in the underground labyrinth which makes for a very atmospheric setting. I did like the contrast between some of the moments of discovery where Tenar does manage to find some wonder in her domain and the slowly creeping sense of dread that starts to build as the book goes on.

Next up I'll continue on and start The Farthest Shore.

I read Wizard of Earthsea last year and, as I remembered, liked but didn’t love. A few months and several books later though, I’m still thinking about it. I might have to reread Tombs of Atuan as well.

Almost finished with - There There by Tommy Orange. It's one highly recommended and exceptional read that talks about the life of the urban native Americans, culturally away from home. The book is touted to be a major work of the new Native Renaissance and a pioneering piece encouraging more Native American voices and cultural experiences.

I keep picking this up and not buying it, next time it’s coming home!

 

[Parson]

I finished Childers by Richard F. Weyand. To say that this was a good book would be far too strong, however it survived the DNF it might have deserved. On the plus side the story had a very interesting main character. There was no lack of action. The story made sense. And probably the reason I wound up finishing it was it had a truth and right will win in the end vibe that appeals to me a lot. On the negative side there was close to no character development. Each episode (and it was very episodic) seemed to be an executive summary of the story. There was enough story in Childers for a series of maybe 5 or 6 well developed novels, The thought crossed my mind that Weyand and Weber needed to work with each other. In a perfect world Weber would flesh out the stories and Weyand would axe the fluff. --- Hey, I can dream can't I?

I tried to read The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai it is an allegory about a middle eastern country (Tunisa?) after the Arab Spring. I'm not sure I know enough about the situation to get what's being pointed at and I quit. But after reading the blurb about this book once again I might just give it another go soon. It looks like what I took to be a kind of wink and nod to what was going on was just a convoluted introduction and I gave up just as the story was about to start. So, we'll see.

I went back to Mackey Chandler's Family Law series with A Hop, a Skip, and a Jump. This series maintains it's weird hold on me. I don't feel that it is great, and yet I can't put the books down. Maybe I need some therapy?

Waiting in the wings are A Tower in Space-Time the next in the Stasis Stories by Laurence Dahners and Rules of Redemption by T.A. White.

 

[The Big Peat]

I need to reread Tombs of Atuan. I don't recall full details of it, but I remember it being so haunting and different.

Anyway, I just finished a Jingo reread, which remains great and thoughtful.

I'm ploughing through the following review copies (forget whether I've mentioned them)

Mask of Mirrors - So far really doing nothing for me
Hollow Empire - Like a lot, but also a lot I'm not liking

 

[Michi]

I really liked Piranesi. It is very different to her Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, it is a simpler story (it doesn't even have any footnotes) but I found it compelling.

I thought it was one of the best books I read last year. One of my other best reads from 2020 was a debut author with The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

 

[Michi]

currently reading Josephine Saxton's "Power of Time," as well as Alec Nevala-Lee's "Astounding," and "The Meursault Investigation" by Kamel Daoud. Also started "Mexican Gothic," by Silvia Moreno-Garcia which is interesting.

I have Mexican Gothic on my list. I finished reading A Splendid Ruin, which is historical, not fantasy but wondered if it is similar to Mexican Gothic because it has a horror element to it in the first half.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Those Gentle Voices (1976) by George Alec Effinger. I was surprised, when I found a used copy, that I had never heard of this novel before, because I thought I was reasonably familiar with his works.

 

[Paul_C]

Started The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley last night, I'm not a massive military sci-fi fan these days, but I do like her writing so it's worth a try.

Finished last night, very enjoyable. I have one or two more of her books I'd like to try, along with a re-read of The Light Brigade, which was also very good.

Next up is a new author to me, Ragged Alice by Gareth L Powell.

 

[tachyon]

My first 2 completed reads of 2021 are The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water a novella by Zen Cho, and Part-Time Gods, by Rachel Aaron.

The first is carried over from 2020, I started it in December. Fantasy, not much happens. People meet and wander around and discover things about one another's pasts, and then it kindof ends. It got a lot of buzz from reviewers I generally like but fell flat for me.

The second is the sequel to Minimum Wage Magic, which I read when it came out several years ago. I was inspired to pick up the sequel by the Science-Fantasy thread here. This is a cyberpunky urban fantasy set in the "DFZ", formerly the city of Detroit, now a self-aware living city after several catastrophes involving magic and dragons and gods. This setting was first used in a previous series by Aaron but this DFZ series stands on its own, I haven't read her other books. It's a fun lightweight science fantasy with a bit of romance. I'll be getting the 3rd book when I've whittled down my TBR a bit.

Currently re-reading Kameron Hurley's The Mirror Empire, and will follow up with the sequel, in preparation for reading the 3rd book in the trilogy.

For new reading, I'm listening to the audiobook of A People's Future of the United States, an anthology of stories set in near-future US depicting a variety of political, social, and ecological disasters and responses. Some big names in the book, and I'm finding many of the stories really good, with just a few I didn't like. I like the variety of narrators.

On the page I'm reading The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold, a fantasy noir detective thing about a grizzled ex-soldier detective on a murder case in a dangerous city in a fantasy world of elves, vampires, wizards and other creatures. The twist in this one (not a spoiler, it's part of the worldbuilding from the beginning) is that magic has disappeared from the world and all the magical species are suffering in various ways for its lack, while humans are building up a technological society to replace the missing magical workings that used to keep the world running.

I also started reading Moxyland by Lauren Beukes, a cyberpunk SF novel set in South Africa. This has been on my TBR seemingly forever and I read the first chapter last night because I wasn't feeling like any of the other 3 I currently have going... will try to finish up some of the above before committing too much time on this...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I am reading Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. I am slightly over halfway through and so far the fantastic element seems to be slight. However, the story itself is largely about how time and retelling alter real events into myths and legends. It's a bit discursive, but has an interesting variety of characters, and though slow at first has steadily become more and more compelling.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading Dancers at the End of Time, by Michael Moorcock.

 

[Bick]

I'm currently reading Dancers at the End of Time, by Michael Moorcock.

Good stuff. Trippy, but good.

 

[Foxbat]

Finished Gordon R. Dickson’s The Mortal And The Monster. Wasn’t too keen on it to be honest. My major gripe was that it was written from the monster’s point of view. The creature did not understand the mortal’s language and yet, throughout the story, named landmarks were referred to (the names of which the monster couldn’t possibly have known). Not so much head-hopping as language leaping.

Now starting Phyllis Eisenstein’s In The Western Tradition.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm starting a crime thriller, The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor.
It seems (in the first couple of chapters) to have a very Phil Rickman feel about it...

We've got the single mother vicar with a teenage daughter.
Moved from the city to a rural village.
A somewhat earthy and plain talking Bishop.
And now there's mention of an exorcism.

So it goes

 

[HareBrain]

It seems (in the first couple of chapters) to have a very Phil Rickman feel about it...

We've got the single mother vicar with a teenage daughter.
Moved from the city to a rural village.
A somewhat earthy and plain talking Bishop.
And now there's mention of an exorcism.

So it goes

Wow! If it was written after the first Merrily Watkins, I think Rickman should be sending someone round. (In a socially distanced manner, of course.)

 

[Danny McG]

Wow! If it was written after the first Merrily Watkins, I think Rickman should be sending someone round. (In a socially distanced manner, of course.)

First published this month!

 

[MartinChis]

Finished Caliban's War. It was a definite improvement on Leviathan Wakes, the increase in POV characters helped keep it interesting.

Moved on to the third Expanse book, Abaddon's Gate. This one isn't grabbing my attention like the other two did, possibly that's because my mind is too distracted by the stress of studying. I'll probably take a break from the series after this one and come back to it later in the year.