SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Sterling wrote: "Dylan wrote: "I finished the first book in Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan and plan on continuing on to the next part soon. I am also starting The Terror by Dan Simmons today."

I hope you d..."

I definitely will, I really enjoyed The Crown Conspiracy. If his books continue to be as good, I will read both the Chronicles and Revelations.

Dylan wrote: "Sterling wrote: "Dylan wrote: "I finished the first book in Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan and plan on continuing on to the next part soon. I am also starting The Terror by Dan Simmons toda..."

If you liked Theft of Swords you will like the rest of the series. Book 2 Rise of Empire is more of a setup for the big finale inHeir of Novron. That is not to say that Rise isn't good it is just more of a buildup for the end and Heir of Novron is so fantastic. I think you will like Revelations as well. Some of my favorite scenes are from the Revelations books. The other great thing about Michael J Sullivan is he is very open and approachable. You can contact him through goodreads and he will answer all your questions. He is a very nice man. Enjoy the journey, I know I did and Royce and Hadrian will live with me for the rest of my life. I still think about them often.

I started to read Uprooted, by the fact that it's this months group read. I also started Americus, a graphic novel and I'm happy that I live in a country where it's not that much of a possibility for a book to get banned from the library because it doesn't fit into someones values of life.

Oh, that one looks really good!

Just finished Kindred started The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity and Those Who Hunt the Night

I'm almost done with The Rook and I absolutely love it! I had never heard of it before seeing it on the group shelf, and it's such a fun read. Also in the middle of The Gone-Away World and Bad Feminist.

In the middle of reading The Golem and the Jinni which (surprisingly) I am enjoying quite a bit. I don't generally read fantasy. Listening to Life of Pi which is interesting but definitely requires focus. Also reading Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves which so far is fascinating.

About to start the Classic THE SNOW QUEEN by Joan Vinge.

Also working on 11/22/63 by Stephen King and just finished BARSK by Lawrence M. Schoen.

Oh, The Snow Queen is fantastic! I need to finish The Summer Queen, I'm about 300 pages in.

MadProfessah wrote: "About to start the Classic THE SNOW QUEEN by Joan Vinge.

Also working on 11/22/63 by Stephen King and just finished BARSK by Lawrence M. Schoen."

I really enjoyed 11/22/63. Excellent story and King did an incredible amount of research in order to get the facts leading up to that day as accurate as possible. I hope you like it.

Here my review of The Claw of the Conciliator which is the 2nd book in The Book of the New Sun series .

Finished and very much enjoyed Revisionary by Jim C. Hines

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am about 2/3 done with Shadows of Self. These Mistborn books are really great.

I'm finishing up The Colorado Kid and heading on to Those Who Hunt the Night.

In the last week I finished up Calamity. It was alright, but I think I'm done with non-Cosmere books by Mr. Sanderson. (My Review)

I also tore through All the Birds in the Sky and came away a bit conflicted. I liked it, but I'm still not sure how much. (My Review)

I'm 3/4 of the way done with Firefight and about halfway done with The Autumn Republic.

I just finished A Gathering of Shadows, which was delightful, and am just about to start Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard.

I finished reading Toll the Hounds. I thought the first 2/3rds of the book was good, but not as good as the previous few books. It was a bit slow and I found myself missing the characters and action in Letharas. But the ending was great in usual Erikson style. All the pieces are starting to fall into place, looking forward to finishing the series with books 9 and 10.

Next up a short break from Malazan to finish Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne with The Last Mortal Bond.

Still working through The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life. I also started Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom in audio. I read about half of the book in print last year and was out of stuff to listen to in my commute while waiting for The Last Mortal Bond, so finishing that up.

Still plowing through Hikaru no Go, Inuyasha, Attack on Titan, and Naruto from the local library.

T-37 days until baby.

I recently finished All the Birds in the Sky and Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, and am now reading Way Station.

I'm currently reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. I'm afraid it's the only N.K. Jemisin novel not on the SF/F book list. Next up is a reread of Kindred.

I just finished listening to The Fellowship of the Ring (unabridged version of course). I'm in the process of reading Neuromancer but I'm finding the learning curve on this one rather steep.

I'm neck deep in Those Who Hunt the Night and Ubik and hoping to move on to Stray Souls tomorrow. My current audio is Carrion Comfort. This had one of the most horrific (in the horror sense) scenes that I've ever read. The whole book is brilliant.

Jurassic Park for the first time. While continuing mistborn and Wheel of time.

My review for Legion by Brandon Sanderson

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Currently reading Cloud Atlas. Ive gotten about a fourth of the way through it so far. I liked the first two short stories in it, especially the second one about the musician. The third one was a bit boring. Once I'm done with it, I'm going to read The Handmaid's Tale.

Currently reading The Book of Three, a delightful little fantasy adventure with a very classic feel to it.

I finished two JG Ballard novels: The Drowned World and The Wind From Nowhere. The former is excellent, dark and literary. The latter an exciting thriller.

I have now started The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. This will keep me occupied for some time.

Kernos wrote: "I have now started The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. This will keep me occupied for some time. "

That is a great series, as long as you aren't bothered by tons of historical minutiae. Did you read Cryptonomicon first?

I finished the Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia E. Butler and enjoyed all three books. I was tempted to join in on the group read of Kindred this month now that I know how much I enjoy Butler’s writing, but I resisted the temptation. Aside from reading series books together, I usually try to jump around between authors to help keep things fresh. I’ll definitely be reading more Butler in the future, though.

So instead I read Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which I also loved. I’ve had her Temeraire series on my to-be-read list since the time I downloaded the first book for free 7 years ago. Now that the final book in that series is due out soon, and now that I know I’ll probably enjoy her writing, I’m much more excited about reading that series.

Finally, I just finished up Ranks of Bronze by David Drake which is a military science fiction book featuring soldiers from ancient Rome. It had a really slow start for me, although I did get into the story a bit more as it went. It was the first book in a series, but I decided against continuing the series. I couldn’t help comparing it to the Belisarius series that the same author co-wrote. That series is also military science fiction, set in a similar time period, but I enjoyed it so much more.

Now I’ve started in on King's Property by Morgan Howell, the first book in the Queen of the Orcs series. This is another book I downloaded for free about 7 years ago and I have never, ever seen anybody talk about it. So far I’m enjoying it.

My reviews:
Xenogenesis 1: Dawn
Xenogenesis 2: Adulthood Rites
Xenogenesis 3: Imago
Uprooted
Ranks of Bronze

Sky wrote: "...historical minutiae. Did you read Cryptonomicon first?."

Yes I read that a few years ago. Brilliant!

Finished Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 1: Dawn it was fantastic and a good bit more historical/philosophical then most military space operas. It's really about 2 collapsing nations and how 2 men who are being given more and more power deal with it.

Here is my review of 3rd book in the Gap series, this book was simple amazing!

I just started Screw The Galaxy book one of the Hard Luck Hank books, so far it is pretty good, funny.

I finished The Spider's War, and really enjoyed it (My Review).

Trying to read Hard to Be a God. Never been a huge fan of Russian books but I'll give it a shot. Have also started The Drowning City after seeing it nominated so many times.

I'm currently reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - can't believe it took me so long to actually read this book :) - and Boy's Life by Robert McCammon - an amazing coming-of-age story. And listening to The Terror by Dan Simmons.

I started Liekkien näkijät (A Vision of Fire) by Gillian Anderson. Not sure what to expect from it, but so far it has been entertaining enough read. I also started to read Station Eleven, but it seems to be one of those books I can only read in bright daylight with TV on and definately not at all in evening/night. I admit even the first part was a bit too scary for me even if it was only the start, as my imagination works a bit too well at times and causes me to overthink things.

I'm reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North at the moment. It's a bit heavy going in places, but a very interesting concept.

Currently reading Edge of Reality, I was expecting another fluffy lit RPG book, that's not what I'm getting. It's actually a very solid more serious/constant high-tension book. It does a good job of avoid the painful focus on stats/grinding and is instead more about surviving against the will of the admins it's basically props all around. I'm really liking this book and if the next one gets a bit better I might even love this series.

I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin and I'm glad I read it, but I didn't love it. I own the rest of the trilogy, plus some novellas so I hope to get back to this fantasy world.

Next up is Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik.

I'm listening to Extinction Horizon by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. It's pretty bad. I'm willing to suspend belief for a zombie novel, but this just goes too far. It was bad enough with the impossible changes that happened to humans turned into zombies, but then when he tried to explain it with "science", it got worse. It would have been better to describe it as magic. It's almost over so I'll finish listening, but this is the last book in this series I'm ever picking up.

Julia wrote: "Next up is Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik."

I've got this one on my radar. Would love to know what you think.

I finished Carrion Comfort and it was a first rate horror/suspense novel. I loved it.

Books finished: Downbelow Station – great!; Merchanter's Luck, also great!; A Fire Upon the Deep - fantastic!; Shadow's Son– it's okay but okay is not good enough; Broken Homes - again, really like this series, I have the next one but I think I will wait until the following book is released this June; The Book of Jhereg - terrific; The Cloud Roads-really liked it; The Serpent Sea; The Siren Depths-even better; Stories of the Raksura, Volume 1: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud-novellas and short stories; The Sword-Edged Blonde - sorta okay but forgettable and annoying and does not compare well to the quality of writing I have been reading and enjoying.

Now my TBRs to finish out the month:
- Kindred - hope to start this by the weekend.
- Taltos
- Phoenix
- The Phoenix Guards
- The Man in the High Castle
- Three Parts Dead
- Rimrunners
- Morning Star - probably the book I am least looking forward to.
March is whizzing by awfully fast. Movin' on...

Sandi, you're making the rest of us look bad :)

A Fire Upon the Deep was indeed fantastic.

I recently finished Rise of Empire. I'm really enjoying the Riyria Revelations so far.

Im currently reading The Last Wish and A Man Called Ove

Sarah wrote: "I finished Carrion Comfort and it was a first rate horror/suspense novel. I loved it."

I am going to get this book soon. I really enjoyed the first two books in the Hyperion Cantos and also The Terror. Dan Simmons is an excellent writer.

Dylan wrote: "I recently finished Rise of Empire. I'm really enjoying the Riyria Revelations so far.

Im currently reading The Last Wish and A Man Called Ove"

I loved the Ryiria books. If you haven't read the rest of the series, most recently The Death of Dulgath ,you really should.
I finished A Man Called Ove just a few days ago and it was great. I really loved that book.

I really like the Riyria Revelations, although the title reminded me of my childhood difficulty getting Rs and Ws confused...

This morning I finished Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik. It's a delightful book! It is written by Millenials, but I appreciate it a lot even though I am a lot older. Particularly, I like her dissents with annotations and explanations and lovely and funny cartoons, illustrations and pictures.

Next up is Kindred by Octavia E. Butler.