March 2021 Reading Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
How are the Halo books, Danny?

I’ve read and enjoyed the two Eve books I’ve read, but haven’t gotten around to Halo yet. Want to read the Dead Space books too.
 
Rodders said:
How are the Halo books, Danny?

I’ve read and enjoyed the two Eve books I’ve read, but haven’t gotten around to Halo yet. Want to read the Dead Space books too.
Click to expand...
I've only got those 3 Karen Traviss books out of the long Halo list so the story jumps a bit. Good fun though.
Basically if you've ever played then you know the craic
 
Finished The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. It was a pretty good read, though maybe a touch on the long side. As is often the case for me when reading historical fiction, I'm very curious as to how much of this is factually accurate. I know very little about John Brown and the raid on Harper's Ferry, but he sure seems like a fascinating figure. The book stalls anytime he wanders off the page really.

Now reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. It's less well known than some of her books, but so far I'm enjoying it much more than the higher regarded The Bluest Eye.
 
Mark Twain "Huckleberry Finn"
This caught my eye while going through old boxes. The inscription in the front shows I read it when I was eight years old and I'm sure I haven't read it since. Although it's been sixty years and there were whole sections, I'd forgotten, I remembered much of the main plot. Initially I found it mesmerising and I loved the halcyon days on the river of just Huck and Jim together. While I admired the writing, I did find the casual acceptance of slavery throughout the book extremely uncomfortable: as Huck put it, reflecting on the tarring and feathering of the king and the duke, "It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another".
 
Reading The Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones. Part slasher, part psychological thriller, part teen comedy, mostly nuts.
 
I am continuing to read Heaven's River book 4 in the Bobiverse series. I am now 55% done, and still slogging along. I have discovered one of my main problems with this book is that I've not read I've not read book 3 All These Worlds. Heaven's River keeps referring to activities in the past, some of which I recognized and some of which I didn't. I put that up to my less than perfect (and steadily declining) memory. But I finally let the thought that I might have missed a book filter up to the surface, and I had. Now what to do about it?
 
Now reading The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold.
A post apocalypse YA story - I didn't realise it was YA until a couple of chapters, it's fairly enjoyable so I'll carry on with it
 
Just finished Susan Barker's Incarnations — beautifully written, rich, and complex — however, found by the end that the underlying theme (humans are incapable of intimacy without dehumanizing the other) a bit too bleak for me.
 
Reading since my Feb post, not necessarily in this order:

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, Christopher Paolini. SF space opera with FTL - DNF. MC unbearable, pacing bad, characters bad, setting okish. BORING.
(I got through about a third of it, wanted to quit it a several chapters before then, so I think I made an adequate effort.)

Elysium Girls, Kate Pentecost. Weird fantasy, town in western US trapped in a pocket universe, gods and witches battle for its future, YA I think. Fun light read.

The Rage of Dragons, Evan Winter. Epic fantasy. Re-read in prep for sequel. SO GOOD

The Ruin of Kings, Jenn Lyons. Epic fantasy. DNF, MC unbearable, setting/worldbuilding a little too genre-aware, you expect the characters to just out and say they know they're in an epic fantasy novel. Would have finished if I didn't want to strangle the MC though. QUIT WHINING.
(Third or fourth try at this one, I really wanted to like it, done now and on to other things...)

Chilling Effect, Valerie Valdes. Lighthearted silly SF. Mercenary captain and ship of misfits deal with an infestation of psychic cats, and subsequently a galaxy spanning criminal syndicate among other ordeals. Fun.
(Audiobook from the library, probably wouldn't have spent the time to read this on paper. Entertainment while doing the dishes etc.)

Also re-read Scalzi's Interdependency trilogy. Fun the 2nd time through though I found some worldbuilding and plot holes in this read that I didn't notice the first time. SF space opera.
The Collapsing Empire
The Consuming Fire
The Last Emperox
 
Last edited:
Danny McG said:
I might do a mini review when finished, if I remember
Click to expand...
@luriantimetraveler
Here you go

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

The Electric kingdom by David Arnold This is a post apocalyptic YA novel. Arising as if from nowhere (but hinted as genetic tampering in Russian labs) massive swarms of carnivorous flies attack everybody, in a second you’re skin and bone. Fifteen years later we have a few kids and one adult...
www.sffchronicles.com www.sffchronicles.com
 
Forgot to mention in my post above (disorganized, me?) :

A Pale Light in the Black, by K.B. Wagers. SF mostly near-earth, solar system. It's a fun conceit, the Near Earth Orbital Guard, analogous to the US Coast Guard, an essential but low-status military service branch looked down on by the "real" spacers. Good worldbuilding, writing, characters. The sports/competition subplot bored me. Some pacing issues. Overall worthwhile.

While I did like this one, the found family quirky spaceship crew thing is getting tiresome. Find it in this, and in Chilling Effect, and To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, (and Revenger, and The Wrong Stars, and many others.) Found family in Elysium Girls too, though in a different setting.

I'm going to try to find some interesting big ideas SF for next month.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Ursa major POLL -- March 2024 75-word Writing Challenge -- VICTORIA SILVERWOLF WINS! Writing Challenges 0
Ursa major TIE-BREAKER POLL -- March 2021 Writing Challenge -- VICTORIA SILVERWOLF WINS! Writing Challenges 0
Ursa major POLL -- March 2021 75-word Writing Challenge -- READ FIRST POST! Writing Challenges 0
Ursa major DISCUSSION THREAD -- March 2021 -- 75-Word Writing Challenge Writing Challenges 173
Ursa major MARCH 2021 75-Word Story -- VICTORY TO VICTORIA SILVERWOLF! Writing Challenges 44

Similar threads


Back
Top