December 2021 Reading Thread

[The Big Peat]

Wonder why they felt the need to retitle The Dying Earth?

Vance's favoured title for it according to wiki

 

[dask]

Interesting. Thank you.

 

[Danny McG]

Tonight I'm doing Echogenesis by Gary Gibson

 

[williamjm]

I just finished The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal. The first “Lady Astronaut” Novel. I should’ve finished it earlier, but I got distracted.

I've only read The Calculating Stars from that series so far but I thought The Relentless Moon was the third book?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy (2020) by Leslie Brody. As stated, it's a biography of the creator of that famous children's book.

 

[Extollager]

Starting the 13th Aubrey and Maturin novel, The Thirteen-Gun Salute, having finished Marly Youmans’s fine story Charis in the World of Wonders, set in Colonial-era New England.

 

[worldofmutes]

I've only read The Calculating Stars from that series so far but I thought The Relentless Moon was the third book?

Yeah, you’re right. I read the whole thing thinking it was the first one. Lol!

It worked so well as a stand alone I guess.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Echogenesis by Gary Gibson

What did you think of the new Ken MacLeod? I picked it up last week, but didn't have the time to start until today.

 

[Danny McG]

What did you think of the new Ken MacLeod? I picked it up last week, but didn't have the time to start until today.

I enjoyed it a lot more than the Gary Gibson book.
Proper SF aliens and evil sexbots, what more can you ask?

 

[Av Demeisen]

I enjoyed it a lot more than the Gary Gibson book.
Proper SF aliens and evil sexbots, what more can you ask?

Is it just me or has 2021 been a disappointing year in terms of science fiction for you too? The new MacLeod is probably the only one I'll enjoy.

 

[Danny McG]

There's been too much trope sci Fi, I think publishers are reluctant to move from what they see as a 'winning formula", even though it's getting boring for the readers.

A lot of the new books are like the Stock, Aiken and Waterman music hits of the 1980s - very interchangeable and similar

 

[tobl]

Is it just me or has 2021 been a disappointing year in terms of science fiction for you too? The new MacLeod is probably the only one I'll enjoy.

here's the thing:must syfy turned out to be actually current affairs, so it lost must of the impact. also this year many people were affected psicollogically and don't have new ideas

 

[AE35Unit]

I haven't read any 'new' sf in years. Closest I've got is Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds which took me ages.
I think I'm leaning more towards fantasy, horror and classic literature

 

[hitmouse]

There's been too much trope sci Fi, I think publishers are reluctant to move from what they see as a 'winning formula", even though it's getting boring for the readers.

A lot of the new books are like the Stock, Aiken and Waterman music hits of the 1980s - very interchangeable and similar

And without the benefit of Kylie.

 

[Danny McG]

Now I'm on book one of a trilogy by RR Haywood....Extracted

The blurb from Amazon.....

In 2061, a young scientist invents a time machine to fix a tragedy in his past. But his good intentions turn catastrophic when an early test reveals something unexpected: the end of the world.

A desperate plan is formed. Recruit three heroes, ordinary humans capable of extraordinary things, and change the future.

Safa Patel is an elite police officer, on duty when Downing Street comes under terrorist attack. As armed men storm through the breach, she dispatches them all.

'Mad' Harry Madden is a legend of the Second World War. Not only did he complete an impossible mission—to plant charges on a heavily defended submarine base—but he also escaped with his life.

Ben Ryder is just an insurance investigator. But as a young man he witnessed a gang assaulting a woman and her child. He went to their rescue, and killed all five.

Can these three heroes, extracted from their timelines at the point of death, save the world?

 

[Parson]

Finished, just barely, Halcyon Drift (book 1 of the Hooded Swan series) by Brian Stableford. This book was published in 1972 and my first worry was that 50 years since publishing would have made the science in it obsolete. It was a false worry because there was little science involved. There was a fair bit of astronomy which felt wrong, but I know so little about nebula and other galactic phenomenon to say for sure. What I do know is that this book reminded me of the part I liked least about A Clergyman's Daughter by George Orwell and another book I read recently, which blessedly has skipped out of my memory. When the story should be winding up to a conclusion, it moves slowly, and worse, boringly. In this case our "hero," who in this book is portrayed in first person and who is far too self centered to appeal to me, is piloting his new and ground breaking star ship, "The Black Swan" to a ship wreck in the nebula. Traversing the nebula is fraught with danger and so for endless pages we read about how he physically feels the situations the ship (and crew) are in and how he is able to overcome/withstand/outsmart the dangers to reach a goal which seems hardly worth any effort at all. But he does make sure that he alone makes the decisions for his crewmates. I gave it a generous three stars and will most assuredly not read any further in this series.

I have started At First Light a police procedural/thriller by Barbara Nickless, after read the above, this book seems like a breath of fresh air. I am racing through it (6% so far) and will comment further. Positively, so far, the main character, Dr. Evan Wilding, is a professor who studies languages. And therefore the story has some really interesting etymologies. My worry is that this becomes a horror of too much blood and gore. The Nickless books I've read have become quite intense.

 

[tobl]

I haven't read any 'new' sf in years. Closest I've got is Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds which took me ages.
I think I'm leaning more towards fantasy, horror and classic literature

try some litrpg. there are a few quite interesting

 

[Danny McG]

Now I'm on book one of a trilogy by RR Haywood....Extracted

This could have done with a bit of editing but otherwise an enjoyable time travel romp - witty dialogue, macho fight scenes and mysterious bad guys.
I liked it and will deffo read the next two books.

 

[AE35Unit]

try some litrpg. there are a few quite interesting

Some what?

 

[Montero]

So now on TJ Klune Wolfstone.
I loved TJ Klune's "House on the Cerulean Sea" which was pretty detailed, with maybe a start slightly less engaging than the rest of the book, but I loved it.
Wolfstone I keep reading a little more and then stopping - maybe a quarter of the way in. (Wolves are just making their first in person appearance.) It is good. It is also very detailed of the minutia of life and the main character's thoughts and emotions in a To Kill a Mockingbird sort of way. I like detail but am finding it a bit too much. Might keep going a bit longer.
Anyone else read this?