The Sword and Laser discussion

saedi fo tuo gninnur mi llet uoy nac

KO s'taht tub ,sey 😊

You should bust out your Klingon or Quenya, Rob!

I reread A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, as I've seen others do. I appreciated this a lot better this time around--Ged's particular journey is one I enjoyed more now than I did in high school when I first read it.

Still reading Babylon's Ashes and very much enjoying it.

Still working on rereading Words of Radiance. Trying to get it finished fast while I have Edgedancer from the online library. Then I've got A Wind in the Door and Oathbringer on deck.

Finishing off Deryni Rising, awaiting the first book in a new series by John Gwynne, A Time Of Dread. Besides winning "Best Author Photo with Dogs" Award, his The Faithful and the Fallen is a solid four book epic fantasy series. Taking my time to read From a Certain Point of View , as it is best read in short bursts.

Reading A Wrinkle in Time at night with my 8 year old son and reading The Maze Runner as a book by an author visiting my city for my local library reading challenge.

Last month I read:
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik - 4 stars
REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
- Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick - 4 stars
REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
- Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey - 3 stars
REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
- Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan - 4 stars
REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And some non-SFF:
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith - 4 stars
REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - 4 stars
REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This month I'm reading:
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells
- The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

And some non-SFF:
- Queenpin by Megan Abbott
- Money Shot by Christa Faust

And whenever I have a chance I'm picking away at:
- Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
- A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
- The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016 edited by Rich Horton
- Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Only three stars for Dragonflight? Man, I loved that book. I suppose some parts may not have aged well.

Currently I'm reading:
The Sky is Yours, The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith
Autonomous Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
Jade City Jade City by Fonda Lee

I also plan on picking up the first in Iain M. Banks' Culture series to follow along with Tor's readalong.

Speaking of books that have aged well: I just finished The Tombs of Atuan (it's only 45,000 words or so; barely longer than a novella) and will be starting The Farthest Shore before I go to bed tonight.

I am about 3/4 through The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton and just started The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin. Reality Dysfunction has been a bit of a slog in sections. I get tired of big sections of a space opera that take place on a backwoods colony planet. The actual space opera parts of the book are good and quite captivating and I'm hoping at 3/4 of the way through the book we've left most of the colony planet behind. Not sure if I'll finish the trilogy at this point. It will depend on how interesting the last 1/4 of the book is. I'm hopeful though.

Also reading Self Therapy by Jay Earley. I'm a therapist by day so it's right up my alley. I'm really enjoying it.

I just finished Acceptance. I liked the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, really did not care for the second, but then this one was quite good again - it felt a lot more like Annihilation than Authority.

Here is my review

Just before that, I read Down Among the Sticks and Bones, which was delightful.

Now I'm on to Iron Gold

John (Taloni) wrote: "Only three stars for Dragonflight? Man, I loved that book. I suppose some parts may not have aged well."

You may be right - this is the first time I've read it (other than once in high school where I read a couple chapters but couldn't get into it and gave it up) and it felt a little bit past its shelf date. I heard the second one is better.

By the way, 3 stars isn't bad for me, just wasn't anything special.

David wrote: "I reread A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, as I've seen others do. I appreciated this a lot better this time around--Ged's..."

Yeah me too. When I read it years ago I didn't realize she basically ripped off most of the story.

^^ Pern was a big part of my teen years and I have regularly cosplayed as a Pernese dragon rider. Met my wife that way actually. So I miiiiight be a little biased. :)

Uh, AndrewP, did you mean to quote someone else? I think you're in the Pern discussion but you're quoting my comment about Earthsea?

I've put on hold both Annihilation and Altered Carbon. I needed something a little bit lighter so I've started reading In Times Like These and I'm enjoying it so far

I'm in a reading slump (nothing new appeals much) so I've been re-reading the Sandman Slim books casually. OF new things... Julie Czerneda's Beholder's Eye which has both the good and bad of her style (lovely writing, immersive but a touch slow and almost too detailed. More a mood thing for me than a criticism of her) and Fonda Lee's Jade City which is good but not more than that, being too formulaic for me. Good writing but I don't understand all the praise.

I'm reading Half the World. I love Joe Abercrombie's work :-)

Also The Night Masquerade, Book 3 in the Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

This week's reviews:

A Wrinkle in Time - This was my first time reading it. I liked the first half more than the second - ★★½☆☆ - (My Review)

Iron Gold This book made me very angry. Yet I couldn't put it down. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

Just finished On the Java Ridge a story about refugees and Australia’s revolting policies a good but very dark read.

Now onto La Belle Sauvage, hopefully a bit later.

Because I am ambitious I am starting these three at more or less the same time:
The City & the City (China Mieville)
- 40% but the fantasy element is rather miniscule. Anyway, Mieville said it is meant as a crime story, so...
Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - audiobook so it has been really slowly.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Neil dgT) - I hope my brain cells are working well enough for this since atoms and stuff are not my forte.

Finished The Maze Runner, so I am reading The Mists of Avalon for a book with an animal on the cover for my library's reading challenge.

About half way through The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway by Ben Mezrich, which is not about what it purports to be about (the 37th parallel, America's so-called UFO highway (or at least one of them)), and is instead a sort of biography of one not terribly interesting, not altogether likable self-styled UFO investigator out in Colorado. I wish I like dit more, but at least it's a slim volume, so no lemming.

Last fall I read the first book in Patricia Wrede's "Enchanted Forest Chronicles," Dealing with Dragons. I enjoyed it quite a bit, so I got the other 3 books in the series. I read through the second two last month, and today I finished #4, Talking to Dragons. I liked it, and the series as a whole is a fun and breezy read. Now to figure out what next to read from the books I got over the holidays...

Keith wrote: "About half way through The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway by Ben Mezrich, which is not about what it purports to be about (the 37th paral..."

Just the idea of the “37th parallel” is so dumb that this book was a non-starter for me.

I mean, two of the most famous UFO encounters of all time took place in the state of Washington (where a pilot coined the term “flying saucer”) and New Hampshire, with the “alien abduction” of Barney and Betty Hill. These incidents occurred closer to the 47th parallel. Then there’s the most famous one of all in Roswell, New Mexico, which is on the 33rd parallel. That’s kind of in the ballpark if you squint at a globe, but still hundreds of miles away. (Like, 300 miles or something. That’s a hike.)

Keith wrote: "About half way through The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway by Ben Mezrich, which is not about what it purports to be about (the 37th paral..."

The best part of Mezrich's non-fiction books is reading all the fiction he (allegedly) weaves into them in the form of anonymous sources and unconfirmed stories. It's like opening your morning Times only to find that someone slipped in a copy of the World Weekly News.

Finished The Farthest Shore and decided that was a good place to leave Earthsea, at least for now; so started rereading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch for the first time in many years, and it is delightful.

Finished Dark State at the weekend. Really enjoying this trilogy so far. (With the exception of a rather dry and pointless Appendix at the end of this volume!) Just hoping he (Charles Stross) can wrap it up cleanly in the final volume next year. There's a lot of plates spinning at the moment, metaphorically.

Continuing my slightly behind the times read of the Expanse books with Abaddon's Gate next.

Joseph wrote: "rereading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch for the first time in many years, and it is delightful."

I enjoyed the humor a lot, but when I was done something bugged me. (spoilers, I suppose.)

(view spoiler)[ The protagonists don't do anything to resolve the storyline. They are only witnesses. (hide spoiler)]

John (Taloni) wrote: "(view spoiler)[ The protagonists don't do anything to resolve the storyline. They are only witnesses. (hide spoiler) (hide spoiler)]"
"

(view spoiler)[Unreliable narrators. Besides, it matches the main message of the book, humans make their own heaven and hell. (hide spoiler)]

I got though A Wrinkle in Time quickly, so I'm getting a head start on An Unkindness of Ghosts. Also just started What Lies Between Us

So I just finished The Tyrant's Law and am about to continue with The Widow's House. I'm really enjoying this series on Audio.

For text I'm halfway though and half reading A Wrinkle in Time, Strange the Dreamer, and The Jack Vance Treasury. I fully expect to finish this month's S&L pick and at least one of my two other in-progress books.

I'm reading The Thousand Names. I've had this book for about 4 years. I think I should probably get around to reading it.

I finished Babylon's Ashes last week. Great book. I'm glad this series has picked back up after the lackluster Abaddon's Gate and Cibola Burn. My review.

Dara, is that the book that's been the longest on your TBR?

I have 4 books that I got in 2010 that I haven't read just yet (none are SF/F, though--I finished the last SF/F book that I had from 2010 last year).

David wrote: "I have 4 books that I got in 2010 that I haven't read just yet"

I gave up keeping a TBR list. But 8 years old would have been among my newer books ;-)

I have books I bought in the late 70s and early 80s that I still haven't read.

Now I don't buy books until I'm ready to read them.

Buying all the books that you want & intend to read is a lesson in frustration.

Finished reading Barbary Station. It was interesting enough that i'll probably write a review of it soon. To sum up: it was a cool concept but i did not like the execution.

Currently reading The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin.

Tassie Dave wrote: "I gave up keeping a TBR list. But 8 years old would have been among my newer books ;-)"

This is my problem as well. I have over 600 books in my TBR list that I physically own because I could not resist Half-Price Books.

Yeah, Tassie Dave, my goal this year is to limit my library use so that I read more of what I own--I usually average 70% from the library, but right now I'm at 20% books borrowed. This is why I still haven't read the latest Sanderson. :(

This is what I have done, read all the thin books first. Then stand alone books, then start the series books that you have all the book.

I try to avoid buying now as I was spending too much. I now aggressively use the order and reservation system at the library. Restriction sometimes helps.

Dara wrote: "I'm reading The Thousand Names. I've had this book for about 4 years. I think I should probably get around to reading it."

I'm about halfway through and have enioyed it so far.

Michael wrote: "This is my problem as well. I have over 600 books in my TBR list that I physically own because I could not resist Half-Price Books."

You do know that our ray gun toting leader used to work at one. Sounds like you might have helped support his pay for a while. ;-)

I still consider the copy of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction to be one of my best purchases at a H-PB. Along with a cassette copy of the audio-book The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.

David wrote: "Dara, is that the book that's been the longest on your TBR?

I have 4 books that I got in 2010 that I haven't read just yet (none are SF/F, though--I finished the last SF/F book that I had from 201..."

According to the "date added" on my Want to Read shelf, it's Anathem by Neal Stephenson, which I actually have in paperback and kindle. January 2013 (I joined Goodreads in October 2012). I figured Kushiel's Dart was the oldest and it almost is. February 2013.

Ctgt wrote: "I'm about halfway through and have enioyed it so far."

Good to know! It's been slow going so far for me.

Dara wrote: "I have 4 books that I got in 2010 that I haven't read just yet (none are SF/F, though--I finished the last SF/F book that ..."

I really liked both those books, though they are VERY long. I'm pretty anti-long book though and they at least held my interest so that's probably a point in their favour.

Anathem was great, but I bounced off it originally--all the new jargon he has to use took some getting used to.

I think the jargon is what has kept me from reading Anathem. I've tried a few times and put it back down.

Yeah... It got easier once Stephenson had "trained" me in the first few chapters, but I don't blame anyone for not continuing. (It also helped that I had it hardcover, LOL, the mass market paperback from my first attempt was way too unwieldy for me).

Here's my latest batch of reviews:

I listened to Red Sister, which I really loved: ★★★★★ - (My Review)

I also listened to Ethan of Athos which finished much better than it started - ★★★½☆ - (My Review)

I also read, Reaper Man which I enjoyed but it wasn't as good as Mort - ★★★½☆ - (My Review)