August 2022 Reading Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Expert Systems Champion by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The Expert Systems Brother was a great little story.
 
Last edited:
I finished Reunion by Alan Dean Foster and thought it was one of the better Pip & Flinx books. A good read.

I’m now starting The Winter King, by Bernard Cornwell. Looking forward to this — notwithstanding the “is it magic or is it coincidence and superstition” concerns that I know some have expressed.
 
I finished Rebecca Roanhorse's Fevered Star. I enjoyed the first book in the trilogy which did end on something of a cliffhanger. The second book picks up immediately after that, I did enjoy this as well although it does very much feel like the middle book in a trilogy that it is. It is a quick read but a lot of it seems to be moving characters into positions for the finale, in particular Xiala's plotline seemed to be a sequence of contrivances to get her to to travel to a location which will presumably play a significant role in the third book. Some of the other plotlines are more successful, two of the characters spend the book moving towards an inevitable confrontation but when it arrives the resolution isn't the obvious one and does something more interesting than just a big fight. The setting continues to be one of the strongest elements of the series and here we do get to see more of the Mesoamerican-inspired world.

I have now started Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Eyes of the Void, the second volume of his space opera trilogy.
 
I read Ghost King by Gemmell for the first time. Been years since I read anything by him and, if I’m honest, I was disappointed.

It felt shallow to me and lacking substance. At least it was short.

I’ll try the next stones of power next, then I might reread the rigante series, that was what first got me into Gemmell all those years ago.
 
Screenshot_20220818-104847.jpg
 
Gerald M Durrell "The Overloaded Ark"
Revisited after some sixty years! Author goes to the Highlands of British Cameroon (now part of Nigeria) in the early 1950s to collect animals for zoos. Despite being a time capsule involving a white hunter speaking pidgin, and collecting animals for zoos being now definitely highly suspect, the book was still able to enchant me. The author's great love of the wildlife, the landscape and the people shines throughout.
 
Rudyard Kipling
The man who would be king

Last week I re-watched the film starring Michael Caine and Sean Connery and I realised I'd never ever read the story :)
 
I just reread Jurassic Park for the first time in probably 20 years. It is still a good book.

I also listened to an intriguing short story, The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster. This is a look at where technology may bring us in the distant future as humans reach a pinnacle in development and stagnate. This leads to a disastrous fall as the machine which maintains them needs maintenance the people lack skills to provide. But this is not the end, however, and there are signs that humanity has not forgotten itself after all.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
elvet August / September 2022 100 Word Tie Breaker Poll Workshop 0
elvet August / September 100 Word Anonymous Challenge 2022 Poll Workshop 0
Ursa major POLL -- August 2022 75-word Writing Challenge -- PARSON WINS! Writing Challenges 0
elvet August / September 100 Word Anonymous Challenge 2022 Workshop 32
elvet August / September 100 Word Anonymous Challenge 2022 Discussion Workshop 60

Similar threads


Back
Top