SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Just finished Beautiful Redemption # 4 of the Beautiful Creatures series. And order the other 3 books -Dangerous Creatures, Dangerous Deception and Dangerous Dream. Also picked up Moon Chosen,( on page 50) and Turtles all the way down.,( page 30).

Allison wrote: "Dj wrote: "Allison wrote: "The Anita Blake books are on my list to read! I'd also be curious to hear how far they go before they get weird."

Well in a sense they are weird from the start. Urban Fa..."

still going fine in book 4, I started it while waiting to go out. mmmm will let you all know which books are off the track

Paranormal Romance with a decent plot line between the sex scenes - I kept thinking how much better the books would have been if the plot had been allowed to expand more

Back to the topic of this thread. I've finished:

Golden Fool
Fool's Fate
Fool's Assassin

and started on

Fool's Quest

I also read (completely out of this genre):

The Medieval Cook which would actually be good research material for some fantasy book

Curtis wrote: "Just finished Beautiful Redemption # 4 of the Beautiful Creatures series. And order the other 3 books -Dangerous Creatures, Dangerous Deception and Dangerous Dream. Also picked up Moon Chosen,( on ..."

Turtles?
Buahcacha.
Hmmm, probably not TMNT I am guessing.

@ Dj,

a new book by John Green

Curtis wrote: "@ Dj,

a new book by John Green"

Ah, thanks. But seriously. How do you keep your TBR so small?

Dj wrote: "Curtis wrote: "@ Dj,

a new book by John Green"

Ah, thanks. But seriously. How do you keep your TBR so small?"
Yeah, 8 is pretty small. I always have at least 25 books without really trying (+ around 200 in later-maybe shelves).

Reading Prince of nothing series. Don't like the multiple pov, and the plot plods, and everything is confusing, but omg the prose! the philosophy! Beautiful.

Geeezzzz you got skills, speed reader. I don't have alot of time, to read all those.

I haven't been enjoying pretty much any books lately, so I decided to pick something really different. I never imagined I'd want to read this series at all, let alone pay for the audiobooks, but now I'm so glad I did. I just finished the first book in the Split Worlds series, which is urbanish fantasy of manners with fae, so not at all what I usually like. I just love Emma Newman's voice so much, even though she doesn't narrate books in an equally lively and lovely manner as she does Tea and Jeopardy. But still, not expecting much and having no pressure, I managed to actually really enjoy the book. I bought the whole audio series today and am going to binge it this week. Sometimes you need a brain cleanser, and I can't keep re-listening to the Parasol Protectorate over and over again forever.

Heir of Fire
Currently reading this one. I love Sarah J. Maas. However I realised I enjoy epic fantasy better after I read David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon series before Throne of Glass series. Can someone advise me what to read next pls? (Pls pls pls)

Beste wrote: "Heir of Fire
Currently reading this one. I love Sarah J. Maas. However I realised I enjoy epic fantasy better after I read David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon series before Thron..."

Beste, there are so many great ones! I bet if you started a thread in the Recommendations folder, people would l-o-o-o-v-e to talk about their favorite epic fantasy :)

Allison wrote: "Beste wrote: "Heir of Fire
Currently reading this one. I love Sarah J. Maas. However I realised I enjoy epic fantasy better after I read David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon serie..."
Thank you Allison. I actually did not need to start a new topic. Last thread was enough answer to me too. :)

Beste wrote: "Allison wrote: "Beste wrote: "Heir of Fire
Currently reading this one. I love Sarah J. Maas. However I realised I enjoy epic fantasy better after I read David Eddings' Belgariad and..."

Haha! Good! Can't wait to see what you pick!

Allison wrote: "Beste wrote: "Allison wrote: "Beste wrote: "Heir of Fire
Currently reading this one. I love Sarah J. Maas. However I realised I enjoy epic fantasy better after I read David Eddings'..."
Im in between Mistborn and Demon Cycle series. which one should I order first? :D

Beste wrote: "Allison wrote: "Beste wrote: "Allison wrote: "Beste wrote: "Heir of Fire
Currently reading this one. I love Sarah J. Maas. However I realised I enjoy epic fantasy better after I rea..."

My vote for Sanderson epic fantasy is The Way of Kings over Mistborn, so if it's between those two, I vote Demon Cycle! But you can't really go wrong, I don't think :)

The Way of Kings is excellent but with 7 more 1000 page books planned, do you really want to wait another 14 years to finish?

I will take the cop out and say Mistborn because it is done and then Demon Cycle (and then Way of Kings and then.....)

I'm planning to get to The Way of Kings soon too. Would be fun to do some sort of side read of the whole trilogy. By the time we get up to it, Oathbringer will be out.

Allison wrote: "The Anita Blake books are on my list to read! I'd also be curious to hear how far they go before they get weird."

I have read the first 5 and no real weirdness yet.

Travis wrote: "I'm planning to get to The Way of Kings soon too. Would be fun to do some sort of side read of the whole trilogy. By the time we get up to it, Oathbringer will be out."

...I'm listening.

Anna wrote: "Sometimes you need a brain cleanser, and I can't keep re-listening to the Parasol Protectorate over and over again forever. "

Have you tried Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamour series? It sounds similar to Carriger's work. The first one is Shades of Milk and Honey.

The Way of Kings has been staring at me from my bed stand for many months...so hard to gear up for 10,000+ pages when there’s so much else to read!

But I’m at the point where I feel like I need to at least understand the world

*singing* I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it. You made me reeead things...

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

Trike wrote: "Have you tried Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamour series?"

I've seen reviews of it, but never felt interested enough to add it to my TBR. Same as with the Split Worlds series I'm now listening to. And Parasol Protectorate originally sounded really stupid to me, but when I finally had to know what everyone was talking about, I fell in love. It's not at all what I normally like, but maybe that's what makes it so magical. It's so light and joyous, pure fun. The best thing about these two series is the audio narration though, I can't imagine either one being half as fun if not read aloud by an amazing narrator. But after liking this one, I'll definitely check out more similar options and listen to some audio samples. Another one I've been considering is the Lady Helen series, I keep hearing good things about it. There can never be too many comfort audio options.

Some of the books I read since my last post:

• The Stone Sky: 5 stars: what else!?
• Animal Farm: surprisingly good
• The Curse of Chalion: first in a trilogy but stand well on its own
• Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise: brilliant world-building
• The Last Policeman

Next up: our November read Six of Crows that I've already started because I just couldn't wait any longer.

idiffer wrote: "Reading Prince of nothing series. Don't like the multiple pov, and the plot plods, and everything is confusing, but omg the prose! the philosophy! Beautiful. ."

Which raises the age-old debate: Would you rather read a bad story by a good writer, or a good story by a bad writer?

Her Body and Other Parties. I usually don't like short story collections, but this was a huge exception. Some of the best fairy tale adaptations I've ever read, Angela Carter included. I gave it 4 stars.

Pym. Combines fantasy with super insightful satire with a black update of Edgar Allan Poe's white supremacist fable (and only novel), The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. 5 stars.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter. I really enjoyed this feminist rewrite of gothic heroines otherwise written out of their stories. 3 stars.

Abaddon's Gate. So much fun. Really loved the new POVs offered in this narrative (though I also missed the two from the previous novel that dropped out of this one). 4 stars.

Alchemist's Daughter sounds intriguing -- I've TBR;ed it.

Michele wrote: "Which raises the age-old debate: Would you rather read a bad story by a good writer, or a good story by a bad writer?"

Bad story by a good writer, definitely. I'm along for the ride and not just the ending.

The book of Dust volume one by Philip Pullman. I really liked the golden compass concept of having your own deamon . I saw this tonight a the store. On page 14.

Michele wrote: "Alchemist's Daughter sounds intriguing -- I've TBR;ed it."

Me, too! Sounds fun to me.

Sha wrote: "Bad story by a good writer, definitely. I'm along for the rid..."

I'm with you!

Curtis wrote: "The book of Dust volume one by Philip Pullman. I really liked the golden compass concept of having your own deamon . I saw this tonight a the store. On page 14."

Curtis, keep us posted! I loved those books but wasn't sure I needed more in the story. I'd love to be told otherwise.

Michele wrote: "Which raises the age-old debate: Would you rather read a bad story by a good writer, or a good story by a bad writer? "

It depends on whether I'm reading or listening. When reading, I have much more of an ability to gloss over bad writing for some reason. I just tend not to register it for some reason, so a good story by a bad writer is fine.

When I'm listening to a book, every piece of bad writing is glaringly obvious to me, and I find it difficult to listen to bad writing, so here I want the opposite and a bad story by a good writer.

Not going to do much for my street cred but I read a couple of books by Jayne Anne Krentz under her Jayne Castle pseudonym:

After Dark - review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2108842406
and
After Glow - review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2108842525

I've just started Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones, as a DWJ fan and a SF convention member I'm not sure how this one has escaped me up to now.

What a topsy turvy reading adventure. After DNFing Pushing Ice, I read The Last Wish which was fun but not great. The Bear and the Nightingale was also enjoyable but I think needed either more story or fewer words. I finally got around to reading Equal Rites and laughed so hard. "Fences make great neighbors" HA!

And then I read Shards of Honor. Sorry, David, I know you love this series but this is exactly the kind of book I can't read. Holy terrible, exploitative rape fest! Not my scene.

Now reading The Way of Kings which I know I love and about to start Six of Crows with the group.

I really enjoyed six of crows. Pretty good Audiobook too. I hope you guys enjoy it. I may have to pop into the discussion for a change

Rob wrote: "I really enjoyed six of crows. Pretty good Audiobook too. I hope you guys enjoy it. I may have to pop into the discussion for a change"

It looks fun! I was hoping to do Doomsday Book, but then Way of Kings happened. That's already about 1500 pages of reading for November, so it seems unlikely. You should stop in though!

Yeah. Understandable. It's why I never read with this group. Too many other books with my two other book clubs. I've still read a good number of the books on the group shelf. Most of the time it's too far apart from when you read them.

I'm doing some short stuff while I'm waiting for my hold for Doomsday to come in along with trying to finish to finish two other library books, including The Book of Swords with my other group.

And then I read Shards of Honor. Sorry, David, I know you love this series but this is exactly the kind of book I can't read. Holy terrible, exploitative rape fest! Not my scene."

Everybody wants other people to love the same things they love, but I've accepted that it doesn't work like that.

I hope it doesn't turn you off of Bujold entirely, but I would totally understand if you don't choose the author of a book you disliked when looking for more reading material :)

just finished Shards of Honor and I have to say I did enjoy it (not the messed up parts obvs. but as a whole). I think I will be reading more in this series. Espcially since I want to read all the Hugo winners and this series has three (3!!) of them.

Soo says to try the next one. I may give it some time and then try that. Maybe Miles will suit me better. It's frustrating that my library only has the audio for this series.

Shards's direct sequel Barrayar is one of those Hugo winners, for what it's worth. It's also towards the darker end of the spectrum in terms of Vorkosigan books, but by the time it was written Bujold was much more experienced writer and I think it's a much better book overall.

Oh, and it's four Hugo winners: the novella The Mountains Of Mourning also won a Best Novella Hugo :)

Lucky for me - Mountains of Mourning appears in one of the omnibuses I inherited

The Hugo part for me isn't terribly necessary, though I look forward to your thoughts, Rachel! David (or anyone else), can you tell me what sort of traumatic experiences should I expect from The Warrior's Apprentice? (view spoiler)[I'm mostly concerned with times that people are made helpless/raped, or if rape is used to show evil/strength/send the hero on a journey. (hide spoiler)]

I hated the parts of Shards that you did Allison. I don't remember having the same issue with Warrior's Apprentice. I liked that book much better.

Right now I'm reading A Closed and Common Orbit, and have very mixed feelings about how much I like it. I love the backstory, but some of the story is booorrrrring me to pieces. I liked the first Wayfarers more evenly.

Rob wrote: "I hated the parts of Shards that you did Allison. I don't remember having the same issue with Warrior's Apprentice. I liked that book much better."

Thanks, Rob! Karin, I've heard several people with similar critiques about ACACO

Karin wrote: "Right now I'm reading A Closed and Common Orbit, and have very mixed feelings about how much I like it. I love the backstory, but some of the story is booorrrrring me to pieces. I l..."

I tried reading this one and it just was uninteresting to me. I gave it up. Of course for some reason books of this type were hard for me to get interested in.

Allison wrote: "The Hugo part for me isn't terribly necessary, though I look forward to your thoughts, Rachel! David (or anyone else), can you tell me what sort of traumatic experiences should I expect from [book:..."

Rob wrote: "I hated the parts of Shards that you did Allison. I don't remember having the same issue with Warrior's Apprentice. I liked that book much better."

Yeah, I don't think you have too much to worry about along those lines from The Warrior's Apprentice. (view spoiler)[Some of the human consequences of the events of Shards are played out in The Warrior's Apprentice in a very unhappy way, but those scenes do not meet the criteria that you're describing. (hide spoiler)]

Barrayar on the other hand (view spoiler)[has the implied off-screen rape of a helpless character (hide spoiler)]. I'd normally recommend Barrayar as the next book to read after Shards since it continues Cordelia's story, but The Warrior's Apprentice is a perfectly reasonable choice as well.

David wrote: "Allison wrote: "The Hugo part for me isn't terribly necessary, though I look forward to your thoughts, Rachel! David (or anyone else), can you tell me what sort of traumatic experiences should I ex..."

Thanks David. That's exactly what I was looking for, I appreciate it!

I'm reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury for Halloween week.