May 2021 Reading Discussion.

[Hugh]

About to start a book I've been looking forward to for some time -- William Blake vs the World, by John Higgs.

looks interesting...

 

[Galactic Bus Driver]

Almost two months since I've posted and a lot of reading done. 41 titles since my last post, so just the high (and low) lights.

I've read through 8 of the 11 books (book 12 slated for release in Dec.) in the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka.
Alex Verus is a diviner, a mage who can see possible futures. He's also not the typical urban fantasy hero who throws himself headlong into every fight, no matter the odds. He's perfectly willing to run the other way, living to fight (or not) another day. Not a series I'll be coming back to frequently, but still an entertaining yarn.

Finished the rest (books 2 through 7) of the Odd Thomas books by Koontz.
The ending was expected all that I'd hoped for and everything I'd feared. Frustrating and satisfying, depressing, and heart warming... Yeah, mixed feelings about the ending. Odd is still my favorite character by Koontz and the series has supplanted the Moonlight Bay books as my favorite Koontz series, mostly because he seems to have abandoned those, with many threads left hanging, after just two entries.

I found "Fletch" by Gregory McDonald at one of the local libraries and, remembering the goofy comedy/mystery films from the 80s with Chevy Chase, grabbed it. I've now read 9 of the 11 books in the series. Fletch is not the world class goofball depicted by Chase in the movies, but these are who-dun-it type mysteries with quite a bit more comic relief that is usual.

“Footfall” by Larry Niven. Even though this has become dated since it's publication in 1985, its still the best first contact/alien invasion story I've ever read.

“Gold Dust Woman” by Stephen Davis. An unauthorized biography of Stevie Nicks. A chronicle of her life from the start of her career in Buckingham Nicks through her rise to stardom with Fleetwood Mac and her solo career to the reunion concerts.

Had a couple DNFs along the way:
Star Trek: The Original Series "Captain to Captain" by Greg Cox.
Ugh. A story where the main character is a minor character from the original pilot, Captain Pike's first officer, with a poor story line. Couldn't even make it half way.

"The Fireman" by Joe Hill. DNFd, not because it was a bad book, but because about half-way through the second chapter the entire story came back to me and I realized I wasn't in the mood for a re-read of that book.

Five months done and I've finished 93 titles. That keeps me on pace for ~225 titles for the year.

 

[Parson]

Out of curiosity had a look on Amazon at the cover - it looks no cheesier or amateurish than most self-published books to me, tbh. Hope its better written than most though... What would put me off (as well as the self-pub thing) is that its called Book 1, but the author hasn't published any other books, so I suspect it may leave things hanging.

Well this is a book (Warpstar: First Contact) which I like but I doubt that you would. --- I haven't finished it yet but I'm having trouble putting it down, so it will get finished. --- Thus far, I would not call the writing superior, but the story is interesting. The pace of the book is rather like an Indiana Jones movie in that it pops with action. It has a lot of big ideas and interesting situations. It reminds me of a book that someone wrote because they liked Star Trek. For a S.F. geek like myself, the hints of this are frequent and sometimes obvious. But the storyline is better than a lot of the Original series plots.

Like the poor quality cover, the formatting of the type leaves something to be desired as well. Sometimes the paragraphs aren't started on a new line, and the like. I'm not the greatest when it comes to picking up typos, spelling errors, and punctuation. But I haven't found any of those so far (55% through).

I'll say more when I finish.