The Sword and Laser discussion

Had a lazy Sunday and finished up Bobiverse #3. About that...

(view spoiler)[Is this the last book? I heard there were going to be four but the end of this book seemed pretty final.

A bit odd, there seemed to be a lot of setup in the first 2/3 of the book and I figured it was setting up for the fourth. Then, BAM! End. (hide spoiler)]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Had a lazy Sunday and finished up Bobiverse #3. About that...

Is this the last book? I heard there were going to be four but the end of this book seemed pretty final.

A bit odd, there seemed to b..."

I'm still hoping to work that in soon, I've been falling behind on my audio. Of course a 42 hour audio book will do that to you..

Finished Pilot X - A fun read, I thought, but then I am a sucker for a good time travel tale. Not as derivative of Dr Who as some of the reviews would have you believe.

Also done with The Nightmare Stacks - something of a return to form for Charles Stross. Regained some of the humourous tone of earlier volumes in the series. (If you can't laugh about the impending end of the world, what can you laugh about?)

Next up - Ninefox Gambit, which I've heard good things about from a number of sources.

Rob wrote: "I'm still hoping to work that in soon, I've been falling behind on my audio."

It's short so will go fast. I found it somewhat repetitive at first. Some points are made over and over again and it's a little lacking in the funny in the first half. Still definitely worth reading.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Had a lazy Sunday and finished up Bobiverse #3. About that...

Is this the last book? I heard there were going to be four but the end of this book seemed pretty final.

A bit odd, there seemed to b..."

I think it was originally planned to be a trilogy and the author somehow resisted the urge to make it sprawl on forever after running into success. I felt it wrapped up most of the loose ends.

Finished Ready Player One and Year Zero. Up next is Kill Decision

Spending time with Merrily Watkins and her crack team of Christian and Pagan misfits as they battle Satanists, creepy sexually aggressive clergymen, possibly demons, and sleazy teenagers in Midwinter of the Spirit; and also started Donald Westlake's Forever and a Death, the adaptation of his own script for a James Bond movie, which was later discarded in favor of Tomorrow Never Dies.

Reading Legends 1 of which the first novella is a prequel to the Dark Tower. (That's my commitment to S&L Dark Tower read done.)

Dennis E. Taylor has a non-Bobiverse book out that I might give a shot, titled Outland. The storyline seems reminiscent of the Long Earth books by Pratchett and Baxter, so that might be a Kindle Unlimited read through my wife's account. (Authors get about 2/3 as much for a borrow as for a paid sale.) Generally I'll pay for Indies but given the serious overlap, I think I'll go the KU route here and see if I like it.

Colin - check out Delirium Brief sooner vs later. It's a direct sequel to Nightmare Stacks (as in it starts about 2 weeks after the events in NS) and if you like that, Delirium Brief should blow your mind.

Ninefox is interesting. It drops you straight into a pretty strange world. Let us know what you think.

I am reading The Summer Tree for the first time.

Read the first two Felix Castor books from Mike Carey. The Devil You Know was fine but the second book was a huge let down with some obvious holes and Castor missing obvious threats. It's also too much in the vein of "lone down and out magic user investigates weird stuff, gets beaten up a lot but somehow never dies" which just feels too me-tooish (being like Dresden) and is the literary equivalent of the protagonist being shot at by a group of bad guys but never getting hit.

Rick wrote: "Colin - check out Delirium Brief sooner vs later. It's a direct sequel to Nightmare Stacks ..."

I would normally wait for the paperback release and associated Kindle price drop, but having skimmed through some reviews I might just cave in and pay full price!

Recently finished Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, part of the Predator Cities Quartet (or the Hungry City Chronicles). It was a good and entertaining YA sci-fi story but I'm not in a great rush to read the next.

Currently reading The Cryptographer by Tobias Hill. It was written in 2003 but set about 10 years from now. It concerns a tax inspector investigating a man who has invented a cryptographically backed online currency.
I'm not sure about recommending it but it is always interesting to read recent sci-fi set in the near future and seeing where the predictions are right and wrong.

Picked up Scrappy Little Nobody on sale so I'm reading that. Not in the mood for anything plot-heavy or mentally taxing.

Finished with The Stone Sky. Still really, really good but I feel it was not as engaging as the previous two books which are perfection to me. Maybe my expectation is too high.

Continuing with my temporarily-abandoned sequels e.g. The Ghost Brigades and The Black Lung Captain.

Colin wrote: "Rick wrote: "Colin - check out Delirium Brief sooner vs later. It's a direct sequel to Nightmare Stacks ..."

I would normally wait for the paperback release and associated Kindle price drop, but h..."

It's in several libraries if you have access there either physically or in ebook/audio. Oh wait, you're in the UK so I don't know about the latter there... do you have something like Overdrive that lets you check out ebooks/audio?

Hi,

I just finished grinding through < a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... Dart ★★★☆☆ (a free book from Tor). An interesting book with an unusual protagonist. Surprised to see that it was published in 2001, as it reads like a much older book (80's). While the characters were likeable and the plot was solid it was just too long. A book in serious need of an editor to prune it by about 50%.

Currently reading Norse Mythology and about to start Helliconia Spring.

Finished (finally!) The Witchwood Crown -- it was very good, but I didn't realize how long it was until I saw a physical copy in a store and saw that not only was it 750+ pages long, but it was 750 pages of really, really tiny type.

And I decided it was time for something completely different, and much older, so I read Maiwa's Revenge: Or The War Of The Little Hand and started Colonel Quaritch, V.C.: A Tale of Country Life, both written in the 1880s or 1890s by H. Rider Haggard.

I am really, really enjoying Sleeping Giants. It was a free book at Norwescon last year, and it's great. My daughter ended up with Hunger Makes the Wolf in her freebie bag, and it was also waaaay better than I thought it was going to be. (Bad cover though.)

Joseph wrote: "Finished (finally!) The Witchwood Crown -- it was very good, but I didn't realize how long it was until I saw a physical copy in a store and saw that not only was it 750+ pages long..."

HAH. I'm a bit more than halfway through and loving it but still feeling like I haven't made a dent!

I've been reading some of the Neil Asher "Polity" books. The "Agent Cormac" ones are pretty good. It's partially a souped up James Bond, which both uses and mocks tropes. Similar for the non-Cormac Polity book Prador Moon, which uses a vicious alien crab species as invaders, with a wink and a nod.

With a small gap in reading material I picked up The Departure. It's supposed to be Polity but durned if I can see a resemblance. This book is a death fest from start to finish. The story spends half the book in a dystopic Earth dying from overpopulation and a world government bleeding it dry. Then it finally takes off for space which was the novel's direction all along. I'm reading this thinking "ya, space is good, this is an SF novel, you didn't need to justify it, just go." Not my fave, two stars if I were doing reviews. I might pick up the other two books in the trilogy, but not for a while.

On the plus side, when requesting "Brass Man" (Cormac #3) I noticed LAPL had 1, 2, 3 and 5 but not 4. So I suggested they buy it, which they did. Brass Man hasn't come off hold but should soon. So I'll have two more Agent Cormac books to read.

Also Gunslinger just came off hold so that is next. I may yet finish it before the month is through...

Finished The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams. This is a collection of files found on Adams' computer after his death. Many are articles that were previously published in magazines or newspapers or the text of speeches he had given. The first section (Life) includes a wide variety of subjects from The Beatles to wildlife preservation. The second section (The Universe) is concerned with his interest in computers and high tech subjects. The third (Everything) concerns his fiction and includes 2 short stories previously published for Comic Relief and 11 chapters of a third Dirk Gently (or possibly sixth Hitchhikers) novel.
Reading anything by Douglas Adams is a joy but this also made me sad all over again by reminding me of what we lost.
Starting Babel-17.

John - the Owner series (starting with Departure) has never appealed.

Since last week I finished:

Valerian: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)

The Stone Sky - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

All These Worlds - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

Finished Lock In over the weekend. Decided Scalzi is not for me. My review. Not sure what to read next. Something to grab me and keep me away from the internet and GoT spoilers.

Finished the first two books of the Brackenford Cycle. Only in an indie urban fiction can the reluctant hero be such a git, lol.
Location, Location, Damnation
Hangman's Pond

Dara wrote: "Finished Lock In over the weekend. Decided Scalzi is not for me. "

Maybe give Old Man's War a try? It's his best. Redshirts is also pretty hilarious if you've watched a lot of Star Trek. My wife read Lock In and said it was weird and on the lower third of his books.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Maybe give Old Man's War a try? It's his best. Redshirts is also pretty hilarious if you've watched ..."

If the first three Scalzi books she read didn't appeal, she should try a fourth? Is there some law I'm unaware of saying all sci-fi fans must love Scalzi?

John (Taloni) wrote: "Dara wrote: "Finished Lock In over the weekend. Decided Scalzi is not for me. "

Maybe give Old Man's War a try? It's his best. Redshirts is also pretty hilarious if you've watched ..."

Those are the other two I've read by him and both left me underwhelmed (particularly Redshirts. I did not like that one). I just find Scalzi dull to my tastes. His plot ideas are neat but I'm often left snoozing because of his lack of personality in his writing style. I know this is a minority opinion but it's like What's in the tree? thread from a few years back.

Brendan wrote: "John (Taloni) wrote: "Maybe give Old Man's War a try? It's his best. Redshirts is also pretty hilarious if you've watched ..."

If the first three Scalzi books she read didn't appeal, she should tr..."

Her profile is private. Unless someone is GR friends with her none of us can see what she's read or not.

On topic - some authors are well liked generally and don't work for a given reader. C'est la vie and all that.

PS: - that's an interesting thread you linked, Dara. What stood out to me was this comment: "Had I read it with more awareness of the hype, I'm sure I would have done so with a more critical eye and may not have enjoyed it as much."

I think people who read in relation to the hype something's gotten are doing themselves a disservice, in both directions. That is, expecting it to be awesome because of hype and demanding more of it feels off to me as does loving it because it's been hyped. Read it and judge it on its merits. If you (generic 'you' not 'you, Dara') love it, love it. If not, not. Think about WHY you liked a book etc and you'll be able to better use reviews etc to filter other books in and out.

She wrote it in the review she linked to though...

Dara wrote: "Those are the other two I've read by him and both left me underwhelmed"

Yeah, you've given him a more than fair survey. You're right, he's not for you. I chortled through Redshirts.

Rick wrote: "Brendan wrote: "John (Taloni) wrote: "Maybe give Old Man's War a try? It's his best. Redshirts is also pretty hilarious if you've watched ..."

If the first three Scalzi books she read didn't appea..."

I didn't even realize it was private! I must have set that ages ago.

Yeah, I'm finding more and more often that certain authors just don't fit with me and that's totally okay. Plenty of other books in the proverbial sea!

Brendan wrote: "She wrote it in the review she linked to though..."

Oh you expect me to READ? How unfair!!!

(I didn't click through to the review...)

Yeah, I can totally see why Scalzi wouldn't work for everyone. Usually when someone can't get into an author, I accept it and move on--plenty of books & authors in the sea.

I'm more surprised that Dara tried him so many times. Usually I only give an author a couple chances if that, but usually only if the books are definitely different.

EDIT: And Scalzi's books tend to have the same style, unless it's something weird like The God Engines.

David wrote: "I'm more surprised that Dara tried him so many times. Usually I only give an author a couple chances if that, but usually only if the books are definitely different."

Same. If Old Man's War is his best then i have no problems giving the rest of his work a miss. Even reading the description of Redshirts makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Brendan wrote: "David wrote: "I'm more surprised that Dara tried him so many times. Usually I only give an author a couple chances if that, but usually only if the books are definitely different."

Same. If Old Ma..."
I wouldn't call OMW his best (it's his first, after all) but if you dislike it, I doubt you'll like the rest of the series even though the writing does improve. Redshirts had potential as a comic novel but was far too heavy handed on the ST borrowing, from the other characters to the plot and then borrowed from Heinlein as well (the 'reality as fiction' part). I'm still mystified that it won a Hugo.

God Engines is the one work of his that I'd try if someone wanted to read one more thing but didn't like his SF. It's very different and quite good IMO. But then I like (don't love, like) Scalzi's fiction for the most part. It's very easy to read for me and I don't hold it to high literature standards.

Old Man's War was his first published, but he wrote Agent to the Stars before that. I'm a big Scalzi fan, but I didn't care for that one at all.

I still think Fuzzy Nation is his best.

See I thought Agent was funny. I think a lot of how much one likes Scalzi or IF one does is how you relate to his humor and how much you like the snarky bits. If you don't like that stuff you're unlikely to like his fiction and, of course, sometimes his humor works better than other times.

Rick wrote: "See I thought Agent was funny. I think a lot of how much one likes Scalzi or IF one does is how you relate to his humor and how much you like the snarky bits. If you don't like that stuff you're un..."

Reading my review I apparently liked it more than I remember.


I thought it was funny at times and I liked the premise, but it ran on too long and was generally uneven in quality compared to his later books.

Brendan wrote: "John (Taloni) wrote: "Maybe give Old Man's War a try? It's his best. Redshirts is also pretty hilarious if you've watched ..."

If the first three Scalzi books she read didn't appeal, she should try a fourth? Is there some law I'm unaware of saying all sci-fi fans must love Scalzi? "

Yessss! You must love Scalzi! And Dune! And you must agree that Empire Strikes Back is the greatest movie evaaarrrrr!! #SciFiThoughtPolice #ConformOrBeCastOut

Seriously, though, three books is more than enough of a sample. There are too many books and too little time to keep trying something you don't like.

Also, and I can't stress this enough, ESB is the fucking worst. I hate that turd.

On a positive note, I'm reading The Killing Moon by Jemisin and it is terrific. It has an Ancient Egypt vibe to it and it is exceedingly well-written.

A friend suggested I start with Collapsing Empire before OMW, and I think she was right. CE was way more my sense of humor than OMW. I think if I'd started with OMW, I'd likely have been less enthusiastic. As it is, I'm very anxious to continue the Interdependency when it comes out, and willing to try another of his books, but if I don't love it, I might sit happily with just the one series.

I agree though that his overall writing style is enjoyable, and in my small amount of experience, the slight tweaks in humor either made the book shine or did nothing for me.

Funny that everyone here is talking about Scalzi. Now I am in The Last Colony, after the somewhat lacklustre The Ghost Brigade. The Last Colony looks more interesting so far since it reminds me of both Red Mars and Cibola Burn. I love colony stories.

I listened to Zoe's Tale as my first Scalzi, made going back to read the rest of the series interesting. For me that book is one where his modern language writing style matched up with character personality very well ( I think the narrator probably helped with that too). I've liked it in other places as well, but there are other's where it doesn't mesh up well for me.

I'm a bit worried that "Collapsing Empire" may be one that doesn't mesh after reading the first sample chapter. One of the reasons I haven't gotten it yet. But you know what, you don't know for sure unless you try, and I have enjoyed the majority of his work.

I also will say if anyone is thinking about reading "God Engines", find out a bit about it first, you really don't want to be blindsided by it, especially compared to his more typical work.

Finished Colonel Quaritch, V.C.: A Tale of Country Life and am moving onto more H. Rider Haggard, this time his famous Viking novel Eric Brighteyes, which I expect will have a whole lot more blood & thunder.