The Sword and Laser discussion

Finished Etiquette & Espionage. I really enjoyed it. Gail Carriger can do no wrong, really. Here's my review.

Starting Dragonfly in Amber next. I miss Claire and Jamie.

Just started Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, an author new to me. From the opening with an innkeeper with an unstated past he's trying to leave behind, rather unsuccessfully, to his recounting of his life to a singular traveling scribe, I'm already hooked.

But I'm only 70 pages in, so we shall see. I'm a bit wary now that we've gone back to his childhood...please, please don't make this another 'misunderstood/abandoned/abused yet talented child overcomes all odds/assassination attempts & saves the world' YA fantasy.

Sometimes I long for a hobbit who finds the whole adventure terribly inconvenient & an impediment to enjoying tea.

Read The King's Blood (My Review). Brilliant.

Currently reading Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman.

Rob wrote: "Listened to The Price of Valor. Loved it! It doesn't seem like many people are reading this series for some (It starts with The Thousand Names) and that's a shame.

I've read the first two in the series and I agree, enjoyed them a lot.

Ashley wrote: "Rob wrote: "Listened to The Price of Valor. Loved it! It doesn't seem like many people are reading this series for some (It starts with The Thousand Names) and that'..."

Good to hear!

Dara wrote: "Finished Etiquette & Espionage. I really enjoyed it. Gail Carriger can do no wrong, really. Here's my review.

Starting Dragonfly in Amber next. I miss ..."

I miss Claire and Jamie too! Giving a different audiobook a go before I go back to Scotland with Dragonfly in Amber.

Armada by Ernest Cline

Elizabeth wrote: "Dara wrote: "Finished Etiquette & Espionage. I really enjoyed it. Gail Carriger can do no wrong, really. Here's my review.

Starting Dragonfly in Amber ..."

I'm 4 chapters in and there's no Jamie yet. I am sad.

So far this month:

Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, Station Eleven. Reading now: Armada by Ernest Cline and Knight Errant by John Jackson Miller
Next is Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
So many good books out there I want to read!! Thank you to whomever thought of audiobooks!! And thanks to all of the great readers that bring the stories to life!

Finished Wylding Hall -- holy crow, that was good! -- and am revisiting Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint for the first time in many years.

Conveniently, the eBook even contains a few related short stories ...

Rob wrote: "Listened to The Price of Valor. Loved it! It doesn't seem like many people are reading this series for some (It starts with The Thousand Names) and that's a shame. I..."

I finiced Price of Valor last week, and I agree, the whole series is well written, well plotted, and well thought out. It should be getting more buzz.

Queen of Fire or Aniliation Score is next for me.

I'm not liking Queen of Fire as much as the 1st book, or even the second at this point. Part of the problem for me is I'm listening to the audiobook which was pretty good when it only had 2ish POVs now that it's jumping all over the place this narrator cannot keep up and it's painful.

I'm reading House of Suns. I figured Alastair Reynolds would stop aping Niven once he was done with Revelation Space. And the intro short, Thousandth Night, was pretty good. I like how Reynolds does hard SF but would like to see him write with his own ideas.

Within the first 20 pages of House of Suns, Reynolds is using ringworlds. Niven's most famous construct. My head exploded. Is the entirety of Reynolds' opus footnotes to Niven?

John (Taloni) wrote: "Within the first 20 pages of House of Suns, Reynolds is using ringworlds. Niven's most famous construct. My head exploded. Is the entirety of Reynolds' opus footnotes to Niven?"

I don't even remember ringworlds being part of House of Suns. It certainly has nothing to do with the story

^It's when they push ringworlds made by the Priors to create a stardam around an overactive sun threatening the Centaurs 11 light years away.

Anyway, I like Reynolds' original ideas. I also like the Niven stuff, but that's because I liked it when Niven came up with it. It's odd to see another writer so blatantly using Known Space concepts. I've been hoping Reynolds would write using entirely his own ideas. I will cross fingers for this one since, as you say, the ringworlds seem to be a throwaway concept for the story.

Just finished up The Hot Gate by John Ringo. Interesting ending as it doesn't wrap up the story. On the authors webpage he admits that he took the ending in a different direction so that it wasn't to similar to the other two books. He kind of wrote himself into a corner and is not sure how to proceed. Nice to see an author own up to his mistakes and not promise the next book, then do nothing for 5 years.

Taking a break from SF & F with James Rollins Bloodline and Seven Years in Tibet.

Looks like August club pick is Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
I just finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Loved it although the ending seemed a little out of place.
Starting The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh.

Sometime today I should finish reading The Hum and the Shiver. Good stuff.

I'm currently finishing off Sianim Series by Patricia Briggs before moving onto Clingfire Trilogy by Marion Zimmer Bradley

I finished reading Archangel by Marguerite Reed. I kind of used my review to sort out how I felt about it. I think readers who gravitate toward urban fantasy with strong female protagonists would like it, even if it is set in space.

Just finished Lonesome Dove, what a phenomenal book! Highly recommended even if you don't like westerns.

Also blew through Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice written by Bill Browder who made a ton of money with his Hermitage Captital group speculating on Russian stocks after the fall of communism. While there is plenty of the financial aspects early on in the book it shifts gears as he and his employees try to expose corruption in the Russian government. Really compelling and read like a fast paced thriller.

About halfway through Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter for my weird western group.

I loved Armada, totally fun read.

Just started on Zoe's Tale .

-Joe

Read Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. (My review). Excellent if it's book one, disappointing if it's meant to be standalone.

Now reading A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham.

Finished Armada. Hammered is up next.

Just finished the Lives Of Tao and about to start Queen of Fire which I'm looking forward to buy at the same time don't want to end.

I'm also reading Spell or High Water from the Magic 2.0 series which has been an unexpected find for me as I only picked up book 1 because Amazon had it in my recommendations for quite a while and it happened to be on offer.

Finished Beneath The Dark Ice by Greig Beck. Review

Starting Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell

Read this month:
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriek Kay (5 stars)
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (4 stars)
The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne (2 stars)
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi (can't decide how to rate this book)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (4 stars)
Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey (5 stars)

Currently reading:
Honor's Knight by Rachel Bach
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
The Wandering Unicorn by Manuel Mujica Lainez

I went to a Jeff VanderMeer/ Catherynne Valente reading this week. Cat said her favorite novel for adults (of her own work) is Deathless, which I hadn't yet read. I had downloaded it during one of Audible's two for one sales so I started listening to it yesterday. If the Novik book is Polish surely this one is saturated in Russian lore.

Reading Armada and finding it tons of fun.

Finished Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan on Audio. Review

Starting The Grim Company by Luke scull also on Audio

Killing Pretty of course

Finished Swordspoint, started The Privilege of the Sword, and am forcibly reminded of just how really, really good Ellen Kushner is.

Just finished Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson....loved it. I loved Ship and really enjoyed the narrative style and how he played with that and it really made me think about the issues it raised (don't want to give anything away now). Also finished Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan...really enjoying this series too. Next up is Marsbound by Joe Haldeman.

Joel wrote: "Just finished Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder. It's a combination of steampunk and space opera. I really enjoyed and look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Right now I am starting Prince of..."

I've only finished three of the series so far but the next two are even better than Sun of Suns. Interesting people in a bizarre world that is constantly surprising while feeling internally consistent - sign me up!

Do the Sun of Suns sequels start feeling less steampunky? That was the aspect that kept me at arm's distance from it.

Over 2/3 way though Queen of Fire, between this and beta reading(it takes so much more effort then just reading :/ ) I just fell massively behind my book challenge for this year.

This book has been the worst not really bad enough to drop, not really good enough to make me go forward. It's not even that way in a somethings are really bad others are quite good so I have this urge to keep going on, it's just there...bland...and mediocre. It's sitting at a 2/5 right now in my head and it might recover to a 3/5...maybe.

Pleasantly surprised by House of Suns. Alastair Reynolds is finally using his own ideas, not a rehash of Niven. Ringworlds do play a minor part in the story but that's more a namecheck than anything else.

It's a murder mystery (yawn) but otherwise good.

Trike wrote: "Do the Sun of Suns sequels start feeling less steampunky? That was the aspect that kept me at arm's distance from it."

Yes, a little bit. The sequels really drive home why the place is the way it is and the action is a bit more organic rather than somewhat mcguffin-y. But I don't hate steampunk so I may not be a good judge for your tastes.

Alan wrote: "Joel wrote: "Just finished Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder. It's a combination of steampunk and space opera. I really enjoyed and look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Right now I am start..."

Great to hear. Just waiting for the sequels to come in at the library.

I just finished The Desert Spear and liked it but that book should have come with a trigger warning. my review

I'm almost 50% complete with Palimpsest and I'm loving it.

I recently started Lexicon and so far I'm enjoying it.

Finished Hammered last night. I enjoyed it but it didn't have enough Oberon in it. ;) Delving into the August pick next.

Im still making my way through The Ruby Circle I've been trying to get through it for a while now I've lost momentum for this series I think it was just to many books with these characters and also nothing is really happening and I'm almost 70 percent done with this being the last book I don't think it will end well.

From the library I got two more books to try out The Cuckoo's Calling and A Court of Thorns and Roses

Chakara wrote: "Im still making my way through The Ruby Circle I've been trying to get through it for a while now I've lost momentum for this series I think it was just to many books with these char..."

Sometimes you just have to let go and move on. There are too many books out there to read to waste time on ones you don't like.

Trike wrote: "Chakara wrote: "Im still making my way through The Ruby Circle I've been trying to get through it for a while now I've lost momentum for this series I think it was just to many books..."

It's not that I don't like the book its that I feel indifferent towards it however I have read a of the previous books in this world and this is the last I don't want to give up after putting in so many years I think I read the first book in 2009.
I think the Vampire Academy movie left a bad taste in my mouth.