February 2021 Reading Thread.

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About 2/3 through Brian Turner's Destroyer. I'm not a big sci-fi reader, but I'm liking this. It's lean and uncomplicated. The spare prose goes well with the sterile spacecraft setting, the problems and tensions are laid out cleanly, and the mysteries are intriguing.
 
tobl said:
matter of opinion like all :) personally is not one of my favourites
but we do need to find some summer
i'm tired of the rain, cold , etc...
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more rain,more wind, damn
so, there's a new laurell hamilton out.
is entertaining but just that. the last 3 or 4 were better.
somebooks make me think that they were written before and just published now, because there overall feel is from before were the story his now.
i also read some manga light novels and they are not bad in general.
 
I finished Doors of sleep by Tim Pratt.
It out to be one of those 'sudden and unresolved ending' books - Clearly there's a sequel looming.

Now I'm doing some scary serial killer fiction, The jigsaw man by Nadine Matheson
 
Bick said:
Have you read Pratt's "The Wrong Stars" books at all? If so, what were you thoughts?
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I thoroughly enjoyed them, a good and quirky little trilogy.
There's meant to be a collection of short stories by him due out late summer, all set in the same Axiom universe, I'm looking forward to it
 
I finished That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote by K.J. Bishop, a quirky and weird collection of stories, some without much in the way of an end, so I wasn't surprised to find she's a fan of M John Harrison.

Lavie Tidhar's A Man Lies Dreaming next.
 
I read Ursula Le Guin's Tales From Earthsea. I thought it was a good collection of stories, they worked both individually and despite the time gaps between them and the lack of direct links between the plots I thought they did compliment each other well. One example would be The Finder and Dragonfly showing how dramatically some things had changed on Roke between the founding of the school and the time of the novels. I thought those were probably also the two strongest stories, although Dragonfly did take some time to get to the main point of the story.

I've now started The Other Wind, the final book in the series. It seems interesting so far, although I got the impression it was one of the less popular books in the series.
 
I have started The Secret People (1935) by John Wyndham (first published under the name John Beynon; my copy is a 1973 reprint.) In the future year of 1964, the hero and his girlfriend crash their private rocket plane into the new, artificial ocean that covers the former Sahara. Judging by the blurb, they're going to discover a Lost Civilization. It's pretty well written so far. Should be a fun example of pre-Golden Age SF.
 
Lester del Rey "Gods and Golems"
Five del Rey novellas (four from the early 1950s, one from the early 60s).
Perhaps not that great, but for me they're among del Rey’s better stories, so if you’re interested in 1950s SF they’re well worth a read.
 
I'm reading a "twin" book. It includes two of Andre Norton's Classic books. Star Soldiers and Star Rangers. Both of which I read close to 60 years ago. Amazingly (at least for me), I still remember a number of key scenes. I've finished Star Soldiers and in my opinion it's at least as good as the first time I read it. The second Star Rangers, is a bit different than I remembered it, but I am making connections with it right along.
 
Finally finished the Worldbreaker trilogy by Kameron Hurley I mentioned in the January thread, I re-read the first two and finished the final book The Broken Heavens. It's the best of the 3 I think and a worthy conclusion to the series. This is a second world epic fantasy series about battles between parallel worlds for the future of the multiverse, but not in so many words. It's hugely inventive and unlike anything I've read in this genre, I enjoyed it a lot. Definitely glad I re-read the first books to refresh in preparation before reading the last one, and they hold up well to re-reading (the first book can be a confusing the first time through!)

In the meantime I've also worked through a few other books. I almost finished A People's Future of the United States, (also mentioned in my Jan. post) but had to return it to the library. It's an anthology so I'm not feeling an urgent need to get to the conclusion, since I had stopped between stories. I might pick it up again to finish it up but have a few other books going at the moment.

I read Blackwing by Ed McDonald between the 2nd and 3rd Worldbreaker books. Was a nice break, relatively straightforward and uncomplicated, a single POV character, a single plotline and much smaller cast. I enjoyed the worldbuilding, the action, and the voice of the MC. I'll pick up the sequel in the future. This is a second-world fantasy as well with a flintlock vibe and some magical technology.

There's an old webcomic called Nimona by Noelle Stevenson which I read when it was initially being posted, it has subsequently been published in print, and apparently as an audiobook, which I found in my library's audiobook app. I was curious how they might turn a comic into an audiobook so I gave it a listen. It was very well done! Recommended. Short, fun, funny. Second world fantasy.

I've heard a lot of praise for The Bone Ships by RJ Barker and I'm happy to say it is well deserved. I initially thought I would give this one a pass (Master & Commander - but with dragons, didn't Naomi Novik already do this?) but it is really good, very different than what I'd been expecting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Second world fantasy with boats made from the bones of sea dragons, a disgraced commander, and a ship of the (metaphorically) dead.

DNF for Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell. I picked this one up when it first came out. I was on the hunt for a new science fiction read but I bounced off of it. Tried again last year and still couldn't get past the characters that were annoying me. Tried again last week and am going to give up on it. I got further than the previous 2 attempts (about 1/3 in) but just couldn't care about the characters or where the story was going. People seem to like it, there's a whole trilogy out. Didn't work for me.

I'm currently reading Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Elliot Arnold. Second world fantasy murder mystery thing. I mentioned this in my January post. Will finish this soon.

For science fiction I started To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Chrisopher Paolini. This is set in space with FTL and human colonized planets under attack by advanced aliens. I'm not loving it so far, it seems like a novice effort. The author is apparently popular for a children's fantasy series, I believe this his first adult book. Hopefully it improves as I get into the action.

Finally, Moxyland by Lauren Beukes is waiting on my Kindle for me to finish one of the above 2.
 
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Parson said:
I'm reading a "twin" book. It includes two of Andre Norton's Classic books. Star Soldiers and Star Rangers. Both of which I read close to 60 years ago. Amazingly (at least for me), I still remember a number of key scenes. I've finished Star Soldiers and in my opinion it's at least as good as the first time I read it. The second Star Rangers, is a bit different than I remembered it, but I am making connections with it right along.
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Was Star Soldiers originally published under a different title? It doesn't show up on Fantastic Fiction.
 
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