The Sword and Laser discussion

I tried a few chapters of When Shadows Fall the other day. It's not bad, but the guy's got a simple "Chosen One", trope-loaded fantasy, and rather than accept that and try to make that a strength, he's trying to be unique and creative. The end result? It reads like he's trying too hard, and it's grating my nerves, lol.

I finally finished The End is Nigh. My review is here.

Just finished American Gods. My review is here.

Starting Green Mars.

@Shad: Congratulations! You did it! ^_^v

P.S. Told you it gets better if you stick with it. Glad to see you got something better out of it than your initial thoughts. ^_^

Finished Leigh Brackett's Martian Quest: The Early Brackett -- damn, she was good! -- and am starting Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick.

Keidy wrote: "@Shad: Congratulations! You did it! ^_^v

P.S. Told you it gets better if you stick with it. Glad to see you got something better out of it than your initial thoughts. ^_^"

Hmmm. Maybe I need to pick American Gods back up too. Stopped reading it about 150 pages in.

Finished The Crown Tower on Audible
My review

Continuing on to the next book in the series also on Audible The Rose and The Thorn

Just finished The Martian. Loved it!
Just starting Glory Season.

Edit: Turns out I read Glory Season 4 or 5 years ago. I just didn't remember the title.
Reading The Avatar now instead.

This month I have finished: The Giver, The Life of Elizabeth I,Night of Cake & Puppets,Haroun and the Sea of Stories,SaphirblauThe Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There,Dreams of Gods & Monsters and off course The Martian. I just started listening to Not A Match: My True Tales of Online Dating Disasters and reading Gathering Blue. It has been an amazing month for me in reading, if I may say so myself :D

Shipstar by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven is out, so time to re-read book 1, Bowl of Heaven!

Finished When Shadows Fall. And by finish I mean I've had my fill of it. Here's my review.

Just finished up Task Force Ombra: Grunt Life, here's my review. Not bad, nothing fancy either.

I want to finish reading The Blood of Alexander today so that tomorrow when my Dune buddy read starts I feel less guilty about abandoning all these ARCs, hah.

Listening to the audio version of Leviathan read by Alan Cumming.

They have military machine in the book they call a Walker and it walks on two legs and my mind went directly to the Walkers in Return of the Jedi. So I keep getting that image in my head every time they mention it.

Viola wrote: "Listening to the audio version of Leviathan read by Alan Cumming.

They have military machine in the book they call a Walker and it walks on two legs and my mind went directly to the..."

I'm actually reading the hard copy of Leviathan right now. And even though I know what he's going for in how it's supposed to look... my mind immediately flashes to Star Wars too... (If you get a chance you should take a look at a book version. The art work is amazing.)

So far I'm liking the book. Westerfeld is join to be at Gen Con this year so I've been snatching tickets to a lot of the panels he's going to be on. I look forward to them.

Leviathan looks really cool. I´m a little put off by the YA tag though, as it´s not a genre I usually read...

Finished Lord of Chaos. Definitely a lot of things going on, even though a few plotlines have no resolution at all.

Now, its on to A Crown of Swords. And probably finish the 2nd Powder Mage book, as well.

Paolo wrote: "Leviathan looks really cool. I´m a little put off by the YA tag though, as it´s not a genre I usually read..."

I'm not a big fan of YA either, but I really liked this one.

Geoff wrote: "Finished Lord of Chaos. Definitely a lot of things going on, even though a few plotlines have no resolution at all.

Now, its on to A Crown of Swords. And probably finish..."

What did you think of Dumai's Wells?

Rabindranauth wrote: "What did you think of Dumai's Wells? "

I was glad that happened in this book and didn't get pushed to the next book. Other than that I have no strong feelings over the fate of any the participants in that battle.

Seeing the Asha'man at work for the first time was crazy. I honestly wasn't expecting to see them before Tarmon Gai'don, so it caught me off guard.

Finished The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Followed it up with King's essay Guns about (you guessed it) gun control. Then a couple short stories, After the Coup by John Scalzi and Better Than Home by Joe Hill. I loved the Scalzi story. And I enjoyed Better Than Home, though it could have been trimmed in places. A lot of run-on paragraphs that did not have to be as long as they were. But still a fine story.

Next up: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Hopefully it's not as bloated and dragged out as book 5 felt.

Steadfast by John G Hemry/Jack Campbell always enjoyed that for my mil scifi apetite. enjoyable and I think it enhances the series.

Just finished Rae of hope by W. G. Mae for paranormal: it was but very similar to a lot of books of the genre.

Up next is Maybe Phoenix conspiracy we'll see.

Finished The Obsidian Heart
My review

Continuing on with the series with The Pillars of Sand

Just finished:

Here's my review

Going on to:

Just finished up this month's pick!

Here's my review

Right now I'm reading Dune with some friends, but we're taking that slow, so I'm gonna start Ice Forged.

Just started Magic Bleeds. 4th book in the series and I like them all so far. Also, as I've hit some down time, I'm making another attempt to stop Red Mars from staring at me from my bookshelf and into a donate pile after all this time. I finally got past the Homesick chapter, which is where I'm tempted to put the book through my shredder, and I'm now half way. We'll see if it can redeem itself and achieve the high praise I sometimes hear about it in this forum.

Loved the Martian and then just finished the Sword & Laser Anthology. Loved it. First anthology I've read in years. We have some VERY talented group members!

I also read The Calorie Myth: How to Eat More and Exercise Less with the Smarter Science of Slim which was very good. Has nothing to do with S&L but great fir those interested I health topics.

I've just finished reading Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and thought it was excellent. Very creepy and beautifully written. I'm moving on to Authority right away.

Ben wrote: "I've just finished reading Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and thought it was excellent. Very creepy and beautifully written. I'm moving on to Authority right away

i just bought a copy of Authority Saturday!

I've started reading Saturn's Children because I wanted to read Neptune's Brood, a Hugo nominee.

Jenny, you don't need to read Saturn's Children before Neptune"s Brood. The are both completely standalone. They may take place in the same universe, but the timeline is thousands of years apart. They share no characters and events from the first book have no impact on the second novel.

Ah daaaaang!

But you are twice as cool for doing so.

Both are really good books, Jenny. I did like Neptune's Brood better, but you'll be glad to have read both.

I'm finishing up an excellent espionage novel, John Le Carre's The Honourable Schoolboy, in order to clear the decks for Ancillary Justice.

Dune is really living up to the hype. I'm hooked.

Bryan wrote: "I'm finishing up an excellent espionage novel, John Le Carre's The Honourable Schoolboy, in order to clear the decks for Ancillary Justice."
I have Leckie on my pile too.

Ken wrote: "Just started Magic Bleeds. 4th book in the series and I like them all so far. Also, as I've hit some down time, I'm making another attempt to stop Red Mars from starin..."
If you aren't enjoying Red Mars at the point you are in the book, you probably should just move onto something else. Although I enjoyed it and am enjoying Green Mars, the tail end of the book was not as good as the first part and neither is Green Mars.

Bryan wrote: "I'm finishing up an excellent espionage novel, John Le Carre's The Honourable Schoolboy, in order to clear the decks for Ancillary Justice."

I haven't read that one yet but I like the early Smiley books a lot. I must get back to them some time.

Ben, I strongly recommend Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. That was a big step up from LeCarre's earlier books, like the very fine Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Tinker increased LeCarre's power and reach. A very rich, slippery, endlessly rewarding book.

And Honourable is as good, if not better.

I've given up on Ice Forged. Here's my review. Decent book, just not for me at this point, unfortunately.

I think I'm going to just continue reading Dune for the most part, and then when I'm done move on to The Confessor.

I finished up reading a bunch of the books in the Foreworld Saga that I'd had in my queue for SFFAudio. Some were good, some were less good, and the entire world is interesting if a rather large time commitment.
Seer: A Prequel to the Mongoliad
Katabasis
Siege Perilous
The Lion in Chains
The Beast of Calatrava
The Shield-Maiden
Marshal Versus the Assassins

My near-term plans are to finish listening to or reading on Kindle Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt as well as finishing Sword & Laser Anthology (I'm reading a story a night, I really look forward to bedtime!). I'll also be starting Promise of Blood (has anybody listened to the audio and care to comment on if I should listen or read in print?) for our June pick...and figuring out what to read next. I think vN looks pretty interesting and has been sitting on my shelf for awhile...

Rabindranauth wrote: "Dune is really living up to the hype. I'm hooked."

What's grabbed you about Dune? One of my favorite books.

Bryan wrote: "Rabindranauth wrote: "Dune is really living up to the hype. I'm hooked."

What's grabbed you about Dune? One of my favorite books."

The whole situation! I'm now a hundred pages in, and I'm looking forward to how this game between Duke Atreides and Baron Harkonnen ends. That's not even touching how Paul figures into the story, with what the Mother foresaw of him. And then there's the mysterious Fremen, I want to know more about them. I'm really, really enjoying the book.

Bryan wrote: "Ben, I strongly recommend Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. That was a big step up from LeCarre's earlier books, like the very fine Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Tinker increased LeCarre's power and..."

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is where I'm up to in the sequence. I might have to push it up my TBR list a bit based on your praise.

I just finished The Android's Dream, which was a good, thrillery comfort read, and now I'm a few chapters into Boneshaker.

Just picked up Skin Game for the Kindle. All I can say is YES!

Tamahome wrote: "
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Last week I had the pleasure to hear Scott McCloud give a talk at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston. Just brilliant. My wife, not a comic reader, came along and thought his presentation fascinating. It made her want to read his Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, do.

The Zot image brought this to mind.

Did his daughter Sky give a talk on their trip?

http://vimeo.com/1474242

Here's Scott's Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXYck...

SKIN GAME - JIM BUTCHER, that is all anyone needs to read right now