The Sword and Laser discussion

New month, new thread.

I'm working my way through Joe Hill's The Fireman and Nisioisin's KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale.

I'm wrapping up my re-read of Philip K Dick's Ubik.

I'm also in the final stretch of George R R Martin's A Storm of Swords.

And I've been reading along with my daughter's 7th grade English class as they discuss Lois Lowry's The Giver.

Read Jason Hough's Zero World which was quite fun.

Currently reading Too Like the Lightning. I'll post a review when i'm finished but I think this book will be real big, a breakout book in the way that The Traitor Baru Cormorant was last year.

After watching an episode of A Game of Thrones a couple weeks ago, I was inspired to re-read the first novel; I've got a little over a hundred pages remaining. When I finish, I will dive back into Doctor Faustus.

About half way through Claire North's The Sudden Appearance of Hope. It's been a little slow about getting to where it is in the plot, but otherwise an enjoyable read so far.

Oh, and started on the audio book for Updraft but too soon to comment on that!

I recently listened to Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb. It was easily my favorite of the FitzChivalry books so far. And James Langton was a fantastic narrator. It took me a bit to get over my disappointment that Paul Boehmer doesn't narrate this series like he did the first, but James Langton was just as good. So I highly recommend not missing out on the audiobook.

Rereading Tusk and working my way through Woken Furies by Richard Morgan.

I'm reading Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I'm a third of the way in - and loving it. It's a terrific mix of epic fantasy, thriller, and heist-adventure.

Sean wrote: "New month, new thread.

I'm working my way through Joe Hill's The Fireman and Nisioisin's KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale."

I'm listening to Kizumonogatari, the audiobook is pretty good though it's more of an audiodrama than audiobook. I really feel like the narrator nailed Araragi perfectly despite it being a good bit different in feel from the JP VA.

Still reading Camber the Heretic, which is about twice the size of the preceding two books in the series. After that, I might have to start checking out some of the Hugo finalists I haven't read yet.

Finally in the mood for some SFF. Started Full Fathom Five yesterday.

Finished Off to Be the Wizard, which was super silly. Working on the club pick and then probably Skin Game

Finished Doomsday Book and loved it.

Going to start on the novelization of Star Wars - The Force Awakens. I've seen the movie and really loved it and now I feel like reading the book and I have no idea why.

Kristina wrote: "Finished Off to Be the Wizard, which was super silly. "

The whole series is. I really enjoy it.

Sarah wrote: "Trying to get through Ancillary Justice for the second time.."

Good luck. That book was....well, you can read my review, should you be interested. I know I'm in the minority on my feelings.

I'm listening to Sorcerer to the Crown. It started kind of slow but picked up significantly in the back half. I believe it's intended to be the first in a series, so it'll be interesting to see what they resolve in this book vs. the rest of the series, but I'm totally invested at this point.

I'm also reading Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive SCRABBLE Players on Kindle. I love Scrabble, though learned to play with some house rules that make me pretty useless for playing "competitively." Still, it's intriguing to read.

At some point I'll start Updraft, probably after I finish my current audiobook (though I have it in audio and Kindle).

Sarah wrote: "Trying to get through Ancillary Justice for the second time.

Having great difficulty for the second time. I've found a problem I've never really had before: There are too many word..."

I gave up on that one myself. I don't get the hype.

terpkristin wrote: "I'm also reading Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive SCRABBLE Players on Kindle. I love Scrabble, though learned to play with some house rules that make me pretty useless for playing "competitively." Still, it's intriguing to read."

Have you seen the documentary based on it? It's called Word Wars and it's very cool to see these guys in real life.

No! I'll have to check it out!
I've seen Wordplay, which is about NYT Crossword enthusiasts, but clearly I need to go find Word Wars. Thanks!

Crossword lovers might want to read later Discworld books, which has a subplot where Lord Vetinari engages in an ongoing battle of wits with the local newspaper's crossword maker.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Crossword lovers might want to read later Discworld books, which has a subplot where Lord Vetinari engages in an ongoing battle of wits with the local newspaper's crossword maker."

Hmm. That certainly increases my interest in continuing with the Discworld books.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Crossword lovers might want to read later Discworld books, which has a subplot where Lord Vetinari engages in an ongoing battle of wits with the local newspaper's crossword maker."

Which books are that subplot in? Sounds amazeballs. :)

A bit over halfway through Hidden Empire, and most of the way through Dhalgren.

Also about to start reading Who Goes There? for our Short Fiction discussion group. Looks really good :-) I saw the movie (or one of them) back in the 80s, if memory serves, and was freaked out by it.

I'm plodding through The Passage. Honestly, War and Peace was more exciting. I'm just glad I didn't lay out any money for this book.

Wait til you get to the part where it's just a list of names! I listened to the audio for that book and that part drove me BONKERS.

terpkristin wrote: "Wait til you get to the part where it's just a list of names! I listened to the audio for that book and that part drove me BONKERS."

Oh. My. God.
Alcohol will be called for.
Mocking declamation to my donkeys will no doubt follow.

Did you go on to read The Twelve?

I didn't. Others did and from what I've seen, really seemed to dig it.

I just started the third in the series, City of Mirrors.

Seems to be one of those love it or hate it books. I guess we all know where I fall...

terpkristin wrote: "I didn't. Others did and from what I've seen, really seemed to dig it."

I loved "The Passage".
"The Twelve" is not as good, but I liked it enough to want to read the third book whenever it comes out.

Oh wait, book 3 The City of Mirrors came out a week ago. I know what I'm reading next.

Thanks for reminding me :-)

Sparrow Knight wrote: "Oh. My. God.
Alcohol will be called for.
Mocking declamation to my donkeys will no doubt follow."

You have donkeys?


I'm reading a lot of short stories. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, which has mostly been horror sf and fantasy, and also The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories, which I bought forever ago and never read, in the way of far too many kindle purchases. When it updated recently (which is a WAY underlauded aspect of ebooks, in my opinion) and jumped to the front of the queue, it seemed the perfect time to finally start.

Darren wrote: "Sparrow Knight wrote: "Oh. My. God.
Alcohol will be called for.
Mocking declamation to my donkeys will no doubt follow."

You have donkeys?


I'm reading a lot of short stories. The Best Ame..."</i>

Have you tried [book:Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang? I just finished a few days ago and thought it was fabulous. The work is all from a while back (mostly '90s and early '00s), but they hold up really well. I'd never read Ted Chiang and now I'm out looking for more of his stuff (I think "Stories" is his only collection, unfortunately)...

Darren wrote: "Sparrow Knight wrote: "
Mocking declamation to my donkeys will no doubt follow."

You have donkeys?


Indeed. Three Mammoth Jackstock. And they greatly appreciate well declaimed mockery. Sometimes they even join in, which is rather catastrophic for the hearing...

we need a video of the donkeys declaiming.

Due to a shout out on George RR Martin's Not a blog Blog started The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder and the new Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 2: First Blood, a must for Star Wars Rebels fans. And of course Updraft.

I am a quarter of the way through Warship by Joshua Dalzelle. It's really really good so far.

Rick wrote: "we need a video of the donkeys declaiming."

Not my donks, but you get the idea...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUktu...

We'll have a Honky Tonk beDonkey Donk.

Yes INDEEDY!!!

A wee dram of whiskey to loosen the pipes & we'll all declaim together!

Just started Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear, which is good so far, and it certainly sounds like it will have a donkey in it somewhere.

J. Patrick wrote: "Have you tried [book:Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang? I just finished a few days ago and thought it was fabulous. The work is all from a while back (mostly '90s and early '00s), but they hold up really well. "

This post makes me feel really old.

In May I did a lot of overtime on a job that allowed me to listen to a lot of audiobooks, so I plowed through a LOT of stuff.

Zoe's Tale/The Human Division/The End of All Things - The important pieces of Zoe's Tale could've been told in a couple of short stories. But I enjoy Scalzi's writing so much that I didn't mind re-reading the story from the previous book in a different perspective. The Human Division felt so phoned in that I set it aside for awhile. I feel like books 3 and 4 were kind of a transition from aliens who were so alien that we couldn't relate to them, to a more Farscape-type of universe. In spite of what felt like lazy writing, I appreciated this book a lot more once I realized this. The last book was a pretty great conclusion even though I was disappointed it never came back around to certain characters. ****/****/*****

The Lost Symbol - I had no desire to read anything by Dan Brown, and only read this because a friend pushed me, and I was surprised how much I liked this. It's still not my thing though and don't plan to read any more. ****

The Subtle Knife/The Amber Spyglass - The Subtle Knife really drew me in from beginning to end. Am,ber Spyglass just took too long to get going, didn't pay off an angle I was interested in, and I didn't appreciate all of the themes. ****/***

A Brief History of Time - This book went over my head a times, but it made me laugh that Hawking, because he was trying to write a layman's book, would avoid base ten notation and instead say like, "A million, million, million, that a million with a lot of zeros after it." Anyone who made it a few chapters into the book would could learn base ten! ****

Lords and Ladies/Men at Arms - Both were excellent stories, but with Lords and Ladies, at one point Pratchett went to a sexual innuendo place, like he does frequently, but this was at a sixth grade level and just kind of kept going on and I was embarrassed. But Men at Arms was Pratchett at his best. In spite of this, I feeling a little burned out on Discworld after reading fifteen books over ten months and so I plan to take a break for a few months until I feel drawn back in. I still have the next couple of audiobooks on my iphone and so I may still get to those sooners. ****/******

The Magicians - The show definitely took the best parts of this book and improved on them, but at the same time it went in a different enough direction that it stands on it's own. Man, Quentin was an annoying character though. ****

Arrow's Fall - Finishing up my reread of the trilogy after the first book was our Sword and Laser pick. Pretty average book. ***

The Rising - My wife put me onto this and I love it. Ian Tregellis writes some fun characters, and I plan to read his Milkweed Tryptich series this next month. *****

The Night Circus - Another one my wife was reading, so I checked it out and loved it. I like that it didn't feel the need to explain every detail about the characters. It was a beautifully written story. *****

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Bored me to death. I quit about a quarter of the way in. There was a good story there; I just didn't enjoy the writing style at all. ***

The Dispossesed - I certainly enjoyed this more than my first Ursula K LeGuin book, Left Hand of Darkness, which I found to be a slog. With this, I don't know that the story was better, but the way she used it to deliver social commentary was a lot more interesting. I feel like she's just not my speed, although I still want to try Wizard of Earthsea.

I did at one point start Revelation Space, but the jump between points of view made the audiobook I was listening to hard to follow. They should've used different readers for the different POVs. So I've put it aside and later this month I plan to read it in print, because I really liked what I read.

I started reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and am really liking it. It's longer than I anticipated (I hate accidentally starting books that are over 500 pages), but I love the writing style, so I don't mind staying in this world for a while.

Add me to the list of people reading The City of Mirrors. I loved The Passage and did audio for The Twelve (which was a bit disorienting due to the constant flipping between stories.) So this one is eBook, we'll see how that goes.

My favorite part of disaster and destruction is always the rebuild, so I actually think there are possibilities for enjoying book 3 the most! But I've always had more patience for this trilogy than some other readers, because I like how good the writing is and that it isn't just action scene after action scene. On the other hand my husband tried and tried and couldn't finish the first one.

I also recently finished Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith, about the aftermath of earthquake-instigated destruction in the islands north of Seattle. My review is here.

Finished Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure by Harry Harrison. Unless you like Airplane type shotgun humour and grew up on classic, pulp science fiction you probably won't like or get most of this book. Luckily I can answer yes to both those points so I enjoyed it although the style starts to wear thin after a while. Practically every sentence is a joke or pun.
Harrison is worth reading though. The group could do worse (and has) than reading The Stainless Steel Rat or West of Eden.
Starting Cloud Atlas.

Finishing up the second book in Wheel of Time. I feel a bit like Milhouse watching the Poochie episode, asking when they will get to the fireworks factory. What you think is the plot doesn't turn out to be the plot, and there is endless world building. The Wheel turns but it turns exceedingly slowly. It's decent enough adventure fiction but meanders a lot while introducing new elements. That is probably part of the appeal for fans but falls flat for me. I'll probably read more, but not right away.

Next up is an old Silverberg book, "Across a Billion Years."

Just started Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore.

Finished up The Space Trilogy, Omnibus Edition: Three Science Fiction Classics in One Volume: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength. A good read if you are interested in the religious themes Lewis writes about, although a bit uneven over the course of the trilogy. The science fiction in the trilogy reminded me of pulp science fiction like Sea-Kings of Mars.

Interesting that John (Taloni) just posted about taking a break from Wheel of Time, because I've decided to try to get back into it after setting that series aside for a while. I just downloaded Winter's Heart from my library. If Sanderson hadn't finished the series I probably wouldn't have picked it back up, but I like his writing and decided to try to get through the last three books Jordan wrote to get to the ones Sanderson finished.

Continuing the journey in the Worldbreaker Saga with Empire Ascendant. The names are sometimes confusing, so do the places, but Hurley's writing is just so immersive it makes me read every single page with undying interest.

Silvana wrote: "Continuing the journey in the Worldbreaker Saga with Empire Ascendant. The names are sometimes confusing, so do the places, but Hurley's writing is just so immersive it makes me rea..."

At least as the series goes on there are fewer names to remember. Hurley likes her high body count.

I finished Foreigner, which was fine but the aliens didn't seem alien enough to me. (3 stars).

Finished Too Like the Lightning which was incredible. Ancillary Justice mashed with The Diamond Age's distributed nation-states and neo-victorianism mashed with The Book of the New Sun. Heavy on talking and light on action, but one of the best books I've read this year. I think this is 2016's breakout book in the way that The Traitor Baru Cormorant was last year, and the people that liked that should definitely check out Too Like the Lightning.(5 stars).

Read Sharp Ends, fun times. Loved Joe's take on a Fafhrd/Grey Mouser archetype. (4 stars).

Currently reading Seveneves, which is both pricey and a million pages long, so i'll probably be going silent for about a month.