December 2021 Reading Thread

[Danny McG]

Tonight it's The man who lived twice, book 2 of the 'Thursday murder club' stories by Richard Osman.

 

[bretbernhoft]

I've been reading "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells.

 

[Foxbat]

Now that I've finished reading Rendezvous With Rama, I've decided to stay with Arthur C Clarke and have just started Childhood's End

 

[AE35Unit]

Finishing the month, and the year, with some vintage David Attenborough,
Zoo Quest to Madagascar
1961 book, first edition

 

[Spade]

Oh I loved that book when I read it back in the 90s

I loved that book too. I was also probably 14 when I read it, so I may not have had the best judgment.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

Midway through a Christmas present: "Beasts Before Us," by Elsa Panciroli. A history of synapsids, the branch of the vertebrate family tree that includes mammals, from the Carboniferous period to the present. Eye-opening stuff, lays to rest some of the arcahic "just-so" stories about evolution I still had rattling around my head. I want to learn more about the Permian now- crazy times.

 

[Valtharius]

Today I started reading Things that Matter by Charles Krauthammer, mostly a collection of his old Washington Post columns. Many interesting topics covered, some parts of it deeply personal and genuinely moving.

 

[Hugh]

“The Best of Frederik Pohl” (1975)
A collection of nineteen short stories first published between 1954 and 1967. Six of these are also published in the Frederik Pohl Omnibus, including the two I like best, “The Tunnel Under the World” and “The Children of Night”. The stories themselves run to 356 pages so, all in all, good value – that said though, there are three I found tedious.
One unusual story: “Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus”, in which the main character courts the daughter of a missionary – unusual because it’s relatively rare in SFF to come across a story featuring Christianity in which the main character becomes a convert.

Mary Wilson “Dream Girl + Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme”.
Two volumes of autobiography reprinted in one edition.
I love early Motown, and always enjoy clips of the Supremes from the days when you could still see the street urchin in them. Mary Wilson died earlier this year and reading the obituaries I realised she’d written two books of autobiography. The part that interested me was the early chapters of “Dream Girl” detailing her friendship with Florence Ballard and Diane Ross, their love of singing, and their hopes for stardom – the time when they were just known as the Supremes, before Ballard left and Diane Ross became Diana and managed to get herself centre stage.
The main theme of the book can be summarised as: I’ll always love Diane Ross, but she was pushy, self-serving and threw tantrums.

 

[williamjm]

I finished the final Expanse book, Leviathan Falls, which I thought was a good conclusion to the series. I think the last few books haven't quite been the best in the series because after nine books it's a bit hard to find much new to say about the characters and the new characters introduced (or given a more prominent role) weren't as interesting as some of the previous characters. Coming into the book it felt like there was a lot left to resolve but this did a good job of bringing the major plot threads to a conclusion and while parts of the ending could have been predicted there were a few new twists thrown in along the way. I think the ending managed a balance between dealing with the main plot and still leaving some space for speculation about what would happen next, even if there aren't going to be any more novels. It's also nice to have a long-running series with a timely resolution with all the books having been released in slightly over 10 years.

Now I've started Katherine Addison's The Angel of the Crows. From the blurb I was expecting a Sherlock Holmes-inspired story in a London with both steampunk and supernatural elements but I didn't realise quite how Holmesian it was going to be, the two main characters may not be called Holmes and Watson but they still share a house in Baker Street and get cases from Inspector Lestrade and the initial case is a variation on A Study in Scarlet. So far it seems entertaining although I think not as good as Addison's The Goblin Emperor.

 

[KGeo777]

I read A Christmas Carol for the first time.
It was rather predictable. I knew exactly where the story was going.

 

[AE35Unit]

I read A Christmas Carol for the first time.
It was rather predictable. I knew exactly where the story was going.

Like watching Titanic. Only better

 

[Randy M.]

Now I've started Katherine Addison's The Angel of the Crows. From the blurb I was expecting a Sherlock Holmes-inspired story in a London with both steampunk and supernatural elements but I didn't realise quite how Holmesian it was going to be, the two main characters may not be called Holmes and Watson but they still share a house in Baker Street and get cases from Inspector Lestrade and the initial case is a variation on A Study in Scarlet. So far it seems entertaining although I think not as good as Addison's The Goblin Emperor.

Coincedentally, The Angel of the Crows.

 

[Parson]

I read Melinda Leigh's See Her Die book 2 in the Bree Taggert series of police procedurals/mystery books. It was as I have come to expect from her, well written, a cracking good story, with (and the part I like best) a main character who is trying hard to be the best that she can be, and sometimes succeeding, but always thinking she should be better than she is. I liked it so well I immediately picked up Drown Her Sorrows book 3. A third done with it, and liking it a lot.

The only problem with the above was that I forgot that I had added Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver to my Kindle, So that one will await a try until book 3 (or maybe 4? ) is completed.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm looking at a cyberpunk book tonight

Drones by Rob J Hayes

Some online blurb ..

A small number of adrenaline junkies carry out ever more death defying exploits and then sell their emotions to a jaded public.

However their actions are being surpassed by newer technologies and they are on the way to the scrap heap

(I haven't read enough of it yet to form an opinion)

 

[Danny McG]

This morning I'm reading part 1 (defender) of the 4 book Voices story by GX Todd.

It's like a scarier version of The Stand by SK

 

[Bick]

I just finished the second Destroyermen book, Crusade, by Taylor Anderson. Enjoyable. These join some other series as a ‘guilty pleasure’ I think. I have the third one, Maelstrom, on order.

 

[Bick]

I’m now starting another Patricia Highsmith - Strangers on a Train - having enjoyed The Talented Mr Ripley earlier in the year and also The Tremor of Forgery. The latter was exceptional btw.

 

[Aknot]

Andy Wier’s Project Hail Mary and Leviathan Falls by SA Corey.

 

[Randy M.]

Ending 2021 and beginning 2022 a bit past half-way in Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. It's a story within a story, book about a book. An editor reads a whodunit manuscript -- the first part of the novel - only to find it's missing the final chapters with the reveal. Then she finds the author has just died. Which is where the second part of the novel with a second mystery begins. Horowitz has a good feel for the kind of murder mystery published in the '40s and '50s -- the manuscript is set in 1955. So far, an engrossing read for me.

 

[Vertigo]

Only a few short words for these last two books of 2021 (actually I might finish a PKD tonight as well!)

The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian
This is very much a continuation of the previous book, The Thirteen-Gun Salute, whose ending was a total cliffhanger. I'll say no more to avoid giving spoilers to that book, but really this is part 2 of the same book, though none the worse for that as there is still more than enough going on to fill another book. It is interesting how O'Brian has developed his characters who here are feeling more and more middle aged; more measured and less brash, more aware of their own mortality maybe. All of which goes to make the progression that much more plausible. This one did leave me feeling a bit downbeat; I'm not sure exactly why but possibly because the last part is set in early colonial Australia with lots of blatant corruption and brutality towards the transported convicts that clearly appalled both Aubrey and Maturin, and inevitably the reader along with them. In consequence they do not exactly sail away on a high note despite O'Brian's best attempts to provide a couple of upbeat conclusions. Still, a very good book in this mammoth on going series (this is 14 out of 20 completed). 4/5 stars

Light Chaser by Peter F Hamilton and Gareth L Powell
I was in two minds about picking up this book. I love Hamilton, so that was obviously a big point in its favour but I recently tried my first Powell book, his Embers of War, which I gave up on as it was, in my view, appallingly badly written (despite Hamilton's glowing endorsements) which was clearly a massive point against it. But it was only short (read in one session) and not (unlike some I could name) an unreasonable price for a novella. So I went ahead and found myself disappointed as a Hamilton reader and impressed as a Powell reader; make of that what you will! It is an enjoyable space opera romp with an interesting time manipulation twist. But... it felt very derivative of both Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns - the whole Light Chasers concept could have been lifted almost without modification from that book - and, bizarrely, Hamilton's own Salvation Sequence - the whole tachyon time manipulation bit (trying to avoid spoilers here) felt like an only slightly modified rehash of that part of the Salvation Sequence. So a little disappointing as it didn't feel particularly unique which is sort of what I look for in a novella. 3/5 stars.