January 2023 Reading Thread

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It seems I've not been keeping up with this as I should. Some of the books I've read lately are

Drift and Downburst by L. T. Ryan these are the first two in series of 10 books in the Rachel Hatch series. Rachel Hatch has left the armed forces after serving as special forces for 15 years. She left after she was injured and although she qualified to be back with her old platoon, was given a different position and she could not tolerate. So far in this series she is drifting and looking for a place she belongs and she finds a mystery and some seriously "bad guys" who need to be reigned in. Hatch is a complex character who tries to live by a simple code of ethics but as with anything simple, it isn't always so simple and it can be quite dangerous to apply it literally.

These books are very well read with 1000's of high ratings. They are well written but you have to have a high tolerance for vigilante justice and techniques.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed

Let Us Tell You Again by Mackey Chandler. This is book 13 in the April series and I'm afraid it shows it. Not surprisingly it goes over the same old tropes that have dominated the early series: Almost every Government is bad, and the bigger they are the worse they are. Libertarian philosophy is the only thing that will work. People free of governmental influence will be good people who will not take advantage of their position. Plus a few others. I hope this is the last of the series, but I doubt it.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed

Risky Alliance by John Walker .... DNF I couldn't believe an old school of a military star ship would speak and do such ordinary things, none of which seemed particularly brilliant to me, and be universally recognized as a military genius.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed

Night Angels by Weina Dai Randel this is a story about a Chinese diplomat, Fengshan, who saved thousands of Jews in Italy by writing Visas so that they could leave the country and go to Singapore against the advice of his superiors and to the frustration of the Nazis. This is a true event and the story deserves to be told, but, as the author admits, there is very little known about Fengshan during this time of his life and the story is basically carried by his wife's story whose story is completely fictional. (Based on a later wife)

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed
 
NOIR ,three 1950's mystery's
by one of my favorites Richard Matheson.
And Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Comic books CONCRETE, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
 
Cold people by Tom Rob Smith.

The nasty powerful aliens tell humanity they will wipe out everyone except for those living in the Antarctic...they give folk 30 days to get there.

So far it's a mad scramble by various characters who'll no doubt come together as the story progresses.

Some hints to an ancient mystery also....I need to read more of it to find the info.
 
The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula LeGuin,

next up The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
 
I have finished: The Social Lives of Animals: How Co-Operation Conquered the Natural World by Ashley Ward. A nicely written (but fairly shallow) overview of the behaviour of social animals from arthropods (krill, locusts, bees, ants), to fish, birds, rats, cattle, elephants, lions, hyenas, wolves, wales, dolphins and primates. Interesting, unless you have watched too many nature documentaries or read too many animal books - then there might not be anything new for you.

Also finished: Ghost 19 by Simone St. James. I fairly standard, but entertaining haunted house novella/longish short story.

Just started: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

Still busy with Don Quixote; the Golden Pot and Other Tales by E.T.A Hoffmann; and the Collected Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe.
 
I'm still reading Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, which I think is probably a very good book but not quite for me.

I must admit that I'm in the doldrums with reading. Not a lot has gripped me of late. The last books that I read quickly were biographical ones about Peake and Orwell: I wasn't entirely satisfied with the Orwell one, but I still felt the need to read it quickly. I've not read any really good SF for a while. I picked up a book of Raymond Chandler's short stories recently, and thought "What are the chances of reading anything new that's as good as this? Very low." Which is probably not the right attitude.
 
I finished the Imposters. Toby, that was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now onto Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

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Rodders said:
I finished the Imposters. Toby, that was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Click to expand...
I'd like to read this too - but I cannot order it from Book Depository, which is where I source all my books... is that likely to change at any point, Toby? Is it available as a book?
 
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