The Sword and Laser discussion

New month, time for a new thread. So what are you reading?

I've been planning a big move for later this month and that's got me a bit distracted - finding it hard to settle on anything, but I started Legend by David Gemmell yesterday and I think I'll manage to finish this one.

Otherwise I'm binge-watching Lost while I'm throwing out lots of junk.

Broken Time Blues: Fantastic Tales In The Roaring '20s

Been reading a lot of anthologies lately.

Still trying to finish P.C. Cast's Goddess Summoning series; I'm on the last book, Goddess of Legend.

A lot of my reading time each day (sometimes all of it) is taken up by the M/M Romance Group's "Don't Read in the Closet" event this year: Love Is An Open Road.

I'm actually only reading one book I have been stuck in for a year, because subconsciously I don't want this amazing series to end, so I've lost the desire to read it (although it's book 9/10). Kinda sucks, so I'm bringing it with me on my 1 month vacation! And yes, it's still Dust of Dreams.

I'll probably find something on my Kindle I'm still waiting to read. Soon.

Finishing The Aeniad and then Ovid, or some at least. Also Dragon Eaters. After that maybe some Terry Pratchett

I'm currently dipping my toe into Georgette Heyer with The Grand Sophy. After that, Poison Fruit and Skin Game are up next!

Finally reading Blameless. Been saying I was going to do it for months.. but got distracted. Also have Small Favor and Opposition. Not sure after that... Thinking about seeing what the oldest added book on my to read list is and reading it to just get it done :P

Finished The Antipope by Robert Rankin. It was ok but I found it hard to keep track of who was who. The humour reminded me of the old "Carry On" movies.

Finished up Prudence last night. It was a fun read.

For the first time in some time, I think I'll skip this month's pick. I'm not fond of dystopian books. Armada is coming out soon. Since I'm on a budget, I'll probably get this instead. In the mean time I'm reading White Night.

To be fair, this one is an apocalypse/post-apocalypse novel rather than a dystopia, but I get not being thrilled by either. It's a very good example of the genre though, with a generally hopeful tone to the post-apocalyptic storyline.

Armada wasn't as good as Ready Player One

I read Retribution Falls, and really enjoyed it. I hope to continue on with the series soon. (My Review)

Attack on Titan, Vol. 17 (thanks to Crunchyroll). Another enjoyable volume, but not quite as good as the last one. (My Review)

In audio, I jumped back into Long Price with book 3: An Autumn War. Best one yet. (My Review)

Finished University now trying to catch up on my reads I am about 8 books behind my challenge.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Magic Slays
Assassin's Apprentice
Holy Bible English Standard Version with Cross References


Just to name a few I hope to get to this month.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and a book I meant to get to last month, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories so far. I keep thinking about adding in the selection this month, but... meh

THough Ill get to others this month has been reserved for 3 books as well as the releases of Ant-Man and the New Godzilla game on PS4

1st Ernest Clines Armada
2nd Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchmen
3rd Wesley Chu's Time Salvager

About a quarter of the way through Summer of Night and just started Lonesome Dove, two books that have been on my tbr forever.

I have what seems like a thousand on the go right now, so I'm going to try and get through them. Currently reading Station Eleven (and enjoying). About halfway through The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time). I have Royal Assassin which I meant to get to in June and didn't. I've just lemmed The Golem and the Djinni on audiobook and will try The Martian instead.

I read some books. So here are some reviews:

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey (review) - A great entry in the series, excited for where the next book could go
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (review) - Techie monks trying to rebuild after the apocalypse, it was fun
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (review) - Interesting ideas but not my favourite from Stephenson
Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson (review) - Oof. At least this wasn't the last book
Finders Keepers by Stephen King (review) - Just as good as the first Hodges mystery

Finished Robert McCammon's The Providence Rider on Audible.
My review

Starting Patrick Rothfuss' The Slow Regard of Silent Things also on Audible. Bummed out that Rupert Degas isn't narrating. But also cool that Rothfuss is narrating his own book..let

Geoff wrote: "I read some books. So here are some reviews:

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey (review) - A great entry in the series, excited for where the next book could go"

Glad to hear it. Nemesis Games is up next for me, once I finish Station Eleven. I enjoyed the first four, but I binge-read them and that may not be the best way to read this series.

Just finished The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. Fresh take on epic fantasy, interesting setting influenced by East Asia. My review: https://lanternhues.wordpress.com/201...

Finished American Elsewhere, which was so good, and am starting something completely different with The Space Opera Renaissance.

Rick wrote: "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and a book I meant to get to last month, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories so far. I keep thinking about adding in the select..."

I thoroughly enjoyed Harry August. Read it last month.

I finished The Girl With All the Gifts a few days ago. Moving on to The Long Utopia, and The Plague of the Undead, because it's been a while since I last read a zombie novel.

I finished Legend by David Gemmell which I loved and was moved enough to actually write a review.

Now I'm taking a break from genre with Cold Comfort Farm.

I finally finished The Deaths of Tao. Great installment, now I see what everyone is saying about it ending in a cliffhanger :)

Starting Queen of Fire and Midnight Tides.

Should have a lot more time for reading after I move this weekend.

I started Archangel by Maurgerite Reed in audio.

Finished up Station Eleven, now on to Nemesis Games.

I'm reading The Long Mars and then it'll be on to Station Eleven, then some Gail Carriger!

Lots of folks seem to be reading Gail Carriger lately, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Finished Truth and Fear, reread Pyramids and I am now into Parable of the Talents

Misti wrote: "Lots of folks seem to be reading Gail Carriger lately, not that there's anything wrong with that."

There's that huge sticking point at the end of the second book of the Parasol Protectorate, but otherwise it's well done. The Finishing School books are good too, YA focus but interesting.

Gail Carriger has compelling characters and that drives her works. Lord Akeldama alone is worth the price of admission, but really all the characters are well fleshed out.

@Misti: It might be because there was a huge discount all of the ebooks of her entire series (Both Parasol Protectorate and The Finishing School series) on Amazon a couple of months back and now people are finishing up the series via that. I myself finished reading all of Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series just last month. ^_^;

John (Taloni) wrote:

There's that huge sticking point at the end of the second book of the Parasol Prote..."

Yeah, that got to me but I chugged on. It get's better.

Keidy wrote: It might be because there was a huge discount all of the ebooks of her entire series...

Nice! I guess I didn't notice because I had them already, lol. I recently finished Prudence myself and just found it interesting that so many of us were reading her books.

^ Carriger is good! And fun to read.

My library has all of them so it was easy to get. Have I mentioned that I have an awesome library?

Finished The Ultimate Helm by Russ T. Howard. It's the 6th and last book in the Cloakmaster series set in D&D's Spelljammer universe. It wasn't very good which is disappointing because the rest of the series (written by other authors) was entertaining. His characters and their motivations seemed off, his descriptions of the location were lacking and he didn't follow the rules of the setting. Apparently Roger Moore was originally set to write this volume but was pulled off for another project.
Continuing with Station Eleven.

Currently in the middle of Tigerman. Liking it so far.

Next up is Helldorado: Bad Times Book Four.

Finished The Annihilation Score (My Review).

Next up are the novellas that make up The End of All Things.

Currently in the middle of The Gunslinger. I had tried reading it years ago and just couldn't get into it. Gave it another go per my wife's request. Loving it this time around.

I finished Station Eleven in text. Ended up liking it more than I expected, especially after the first few days of reading. (My Review)

I also finished The Price of Spring in audio. I really enjoyed this series. I'm kind of sad I finished it so quickly. (My Review)

I started Memory of Water, one of the books that got outvoted by Station Eleven for July.

Finished Station Eleven, Enjoyed it. As an apocalyptic novel I found it more poignant than depressing.

Now reading Charles Dickens.

Just Finished Gathering Blue (missed the Giver books when I was a kid), starting Forever Odd, also reading the Fifth Profession by David Morrell

Just finished Station Eleven. I liked it quite a bit more than I thought I would. The comments I read in the forums here had given me low expectations so I was pleasantly surprised although I agree the SF part of it wasn't particularly good. One other minor quibble I had was the references to Symphony members as "the clarinet" or "the sixth guitar". I think you'd know everybody's name after travelling together for 10 or 15 years.
Starting Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey.

I'm reading Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher. So far I'm enjoying it a lot. For me it's much much better than the Dresden Files.

I'm reading Two Serpents Rise. It's ... good, but more for the very intriguing magic-industrial world it takes place in than the story and characters.

Just finished up White Night and taking a little breather until Armada comes out tomorrow.

I blitzed through Earth Girl and Earth Star, but of course Earth Flight isn't out until September.

Just finished Nemesis Games by James SA Corey and it was really good.

I know S&L did Leviathan Wakes as a group book a long while ago (that got me into the series) so I'm curious to hear who else has read it?

It is so weird to me that the first book of I read of this group is now one of my favorite Sci Fi series' of all time and that it is now getting a show on SyFy! It is really mind-blowing.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Finished up Station Eleven, now on to Nemesis Games."

It was really good! I liked it anyway. Lots of backstory, character development, and good ol political jockeying like in the olden days.