SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

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

'by the prick of my thumbs'

I have never read the book, but the movie wasn't half bad.

Just finished getting up to date by reading Six Wakes and Six of Crows. Just started my Halloween pick, Origin.

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:..."

I don't recall any of that in Warrior's Apprentice, which I liked and was my first intro to this series.

Trike wrote: "I don't recall any of that in Warrior's Apprentice, which I liked and was my first intro to this series."

Good good, thanks very much!

I just finished The Bear and the Nightingale, The Last Policeman and A Monster Calls (complete tear jerker, that last one)

Finishing up The Songs Of Distant Earth and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I love Murakami for some reason.

I was lucky to get an ARC of The Gone World and it is excellent. Really recommend it--cool time travel mystery. It's described as True Detective meets Inception, but I'd sub out Looper for Inception.

Finished Brave New World...What a slog. I'm glad a read it, but... what a slog it was to get through it.

Finished Rogue. I really liked the first book and this one, the third in the series.

Starting The Kill Order and The Cat Who Went into the Closet.

Heir of Fire
ending it tonightt..
Must be the most boring book of the series

Read another Jayne Castle, 3rd in the Ghost Hunter series - Ghost Hunter - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2108842606.

I blazed through Soldier Saved in the last days as 27th book this year. As I exceeded my original plan, I'll probably do some re-reads in the rest of the year.

I am reading a book that I picked up free, which I will admit is a dangerous habit of mine.



Surprisingly I am finding this book very enjoyable, even with all the Dr. Who and Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference, neither show has much of a draw for me. I find it hard to get over the doggie vacuum, and for Weadeon I much prefer Firefly.

This book is about another plane of existence that touches upon ours with a number of weak places that allow for access one to another. It is a handy way to deal with Dragons and the like, since they exist in one plane and can sometimes make passage between.

Pretty well written and with some interesting views.

Dj wrote: "I am reading a book that I picked up free, which I will admit is a dangerous habit of mine.



Surprisingly I am finding this book very enjoyable, eve..."

Now I'll have to admit that free or nearly free isn't always a bad thing. I just bought 3 books by Jeff wheeler the MIrrowen series for $0.99 each. I couldn't pass them up for that price there. Especially if they are as good as his Kingfountain serie.s Which I'm enjoying allot.

John wrote: "Dj wrote: "I am reading a book that I picked up free, which I will admit is a dangerous habit of mine.



Surprisingly I am finding this book very enj..."


I have two different sources for free books from Amazon.
Book Bub
And
Free Kindle books.
I also use Goodreads email recommendations, but nothing there is ever free.

The first source you can usually get some really good books, the second one is...well more iffy. I think that they mostly put forward self-published works, which is fine, but uneven.

have you tried ereaderiq.com?

I'm currently reading "Fuel to the Fire" by "David Staniforth"

CBRetriever wrote: "have you tried ereaderiq.com?"

I have now.

I am reading The Night Boat

John wrote: "Karin wrote: "Right now I'm reading A Closed and Common Orbit, 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.


I only finished it for a reading challenge and was disappointed in it. It got 2 stars, and only because I liked the backstory.

I'm sure it's likely been mentioned somewhere on this group, but there's also Baen Free Library for free e-books that Baen offers from their published books.

Shanna_redwind wrote: "I'm sure it's likely been mentioned somewhere on this group, but there's also Baen Free Library for free e-books that Baen offers from their published books."

I believe that those books are also free on Amazon

The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman

In October I read The Bear and the Nightingale (★★★★), Seven Surrenders (★★), Shift (★★★), and Queen of Sorcery (★★★).

Chris wrote: "In October I read The Bear and the Nightingale (★★★★), Seven Surrenders (★★), Shift (★★★), and Queen of Sorcery (★★★).

I recently re-read Queen of Sorcery, and I was glad to find that it held up to my teen memories pretty well. Except that I have a really hard time with the female characters. They really irritate me.

Dj wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I'm reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury for Halloween week."

'by the prick of my thumbs'

I have never read the book, but the movie wasn't half bad."

OMG,I love how his writing so drew me into the scene, that I could imagine hearing the fallen leaves being rustled by the October wind!

Excellent, excellent Halloween choice, and I love the movie, as well!


Now reading ~ Dinosaur Lake~

C. wrote: "Dj wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I'm reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury for Halloween week."

'by the prick of my thumbs'

I have never read the book, but the movie wasn't half bad."

..."

My Halloween choice du jour is: A Night in the Lonesome October, on disk read by the author.

But I will have to give Something Wicked this Way Comes a look.

Womp. Just tried starting Six of Crows by audiobook and I keep expecting the narrator to start throwing out negs so I don't think that's gonna work for me. Anyone else try it? Is it better eventually? Otherwise I'll just try to...read it without my eyes, or go a couple days without sleep, I guess.

Also, The Girl with All the Gifts was excellent, and I'm super pleased I found the audio for it. The narrator was anti-neg-lady. Everything she said sounded like the exact thing I wanted to hear. I may have a small voice-crush.

I liked the Six of Crows audiobook personally. But I have no idea what throwing out negs means.

Rob wrote: "I liked the Six of Crows audiobook personally. But I have no idea what throwing out negs means."

Haha! Really? Negs, critiques disguised as compliments. It's a really gross thing that some people try to do to attract people. Like "I don't usually like buck teeth, but it really works for you."

But maybe I should give it more than two minutes.

The book starts out pretty dark, but the characters really grew on me. And things really pick up when they start planning the heist.

Allison wrote: "Rob wrote: "I liked the Six of Crows audiobook personally. But I have no idea what throwing out negs means."

Haha! Really? Negs, critiques disguised as compliments. It's a really gross thing that ..."

I listened to the audio and thought all the character voices were done well except Kaz and I got used to him after a while.

I've been busy with work so I've been exploring the very light and fun LITRPG genre.

Liar King by Adam Elliot
Awaken Online: Retribution

I'm reading these 2 right now. If anyone wants to get into the genre I recommend highly selective reading as a lot of it is just bad.

Hank wrote: "Allison wrote: "Rob wrote: "I liked the Six of Crows audiobook personally. But I have no idea what throwing out negs means."

Haha! Really? Negs, critiques disguised as compliments. It's a really g..."

Ooh! They're different voices? That might work for me, then.

Sree, there's a small subgroup of people here who love LITRPG! I hope you get to compare notes, the good ones seem excellent :)

You didn't even make it to the other narrators? Wow, the start of the book really didn't work for you..

Rob wrote: "You didn't even make it to the other narrators? Wow, the start of the book really didn't work for you.."

I'm quite decisive.

Allison wrote: "Womp. Just tried starting Six of Crows by audiobook and I keep expecting the narrator to start throwing out negs so I don't think that's gonna work for me. Anyone else try it? Is it..."

Throwing out Negs? I am not entirely sure what that means, but it doesn't sound good.

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

Ooh, good choice :)

Still working on Darconville’s Cat, and laughing like a crazy person at the chapter with the faculty party. It's like Dickens + Mervyne Peake + I don't know, William Faulkner or somebody? Scathing.

I remember having some issues with the Six of Crows audio, but the sequel was horrible. Whoever read one of the characters used a raspy squeaky voice and it was not only so wrong for the character, but also impossible to listen to without clawing at your ears.

I'd like to know what "throwing out nags" means too.
I don't even bother with audio books. slow + risk of getting a shitty narrator is way too high. and it's just weird when someone else is vocalizing text.

Basically I think the voice he's using for the character is smarmy and a little mean-sounding.

Allison wrote: "Haha! Really? Negs, critiques disguised as compliments. It's a really gross thing that some people try to do to attract people. Like "I don't usually like buck teeth, but it really works for you." "

Comme ca. Sorry, it was used on Big Bang Theory, so I assumed it'd made its way to to mainstream slang. My bad!

I don't usually prefer audiobooks, but they're great when I'm doing menial/tedious things that require my time but not my attention. I've had some great luck...and also some that were not so great. I did really like the woman who read Girl with All the Gifts (did I say that? She was great. Great great great ;-) ) But I almost never want to listen to the speaker at more than 1.5 speed, so it goes plenty fast enough.

Except the Iliad. I almost gave up on that one about once a volume. No amount of speed would have saved that for me.

I spend 8 hours a day or more picking snap beans in the summer for our market garden business. Without audiobooks I don't think I could stand the tedium.

Something possessed me to read a 1962 printing of Ivanhoe, which I found in a used book shop near downtown Seattle. Gird your loins!

Started Uprooted which started somewhat slowly but then really took off. The first 90 pages were like going up the first hill on a rollercoaster, chack-chack-chack-chack, but the next 300 were zoomy. I'm only 40 pages from the end and she'd really have to screw up the final pages to keep this from being a 4-star read for me.

Also reading The Fifth Season, which is appropriate since we suffered a vicious nor'easter Sunday which has knocked out the power throughout New England. My generator inexplicably refuses to work, so it's all candles all the time right now.

I have no idea how The Walking Dead ended, as the power went out 10 minutes before the end. Also had to plug my phone into the Volvo and drive around to charge it up, touring the devastation. #FirstWorldProblems

Allison wrote: "Basically I think the voice he's using for the character is smarmy and a little mean-sounding."

It sure seemed that Kaz/Cas/Kas/Caz IS haughty, cocky, and more than a little mean, by the words he chooses. If I prefer to believe he has his team's best interest at heart, well...

But to me, the narrator's voice characterization was spot-on.

J.G. wrote: "Something possessed me to read a 1962 printing of Ivanhoe, which I found in a used book shop near downtown Seattle. Gird your loins!
"

Girdedeth.
Girdeth.
Girdethed.
Sigh. Whatever. :-)

Mike wrote: "Allison wrote: "Basically I think the voice he's using for the character is smarmy and a little mean-sounding."

It sure seemed that Kaz/Cas/Kas/Caz IS haughty, cocky, and more than a little mean, ..."

Hahaha! Good chuckle at the audio name confusion and the girdeding. Ok. Maybe I'll try it again. I really need to get a move on.

Finished The Cat Who Went into the Closet. These stories are OK. I read them when I need something to fit into a challenge and I know I won't hate the story, though I know I won't love it either.

And The Kill Order I did not enjoy this book. The only reason it got 2 stars, is because I liked the story told in flashbacks. I really liked The Maze Runner, so I keep hoping, keep trying and keep being disappointed.

Correction! I had a glitch, either electronic or synaptic, and was in fact listening to another book, though I queued up Six of Crows. The actual narrator for Six of Crows is fine. Nobody mind me, I'll be over here chugging ginseng.

Sorry you're having a tough time, Shanna! What's next?

I'm starting Clive Cussler's The Jungle and The Windup Girl.

Haven't read far enough in either one to form an opinion yet, but I usually enjoy Cussler's Oregon books.

I average about 1 audiobook/week. I've been able to get through way more books than I'd ever get to with just reading alone. At this point it's main way to consume books.

I find there are very few narrators that are so bad that it hurts the book. There also seem to be an increasing number of good narrators that enhance the books I listen to. I tend to favor those when deciding between reading or listening to a book.

Allison wrote: "Correction! I had a glitch, either electronic or synaptic, and was in fact listening to another book, though I queued up Six of Crows. The actual narrator for Six of Crows is fine. Nobody mind me, ..."

Haha. Now I really want to know what book you were listening to instead. :-P