Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Tony wrote: "Kivrin wrote: "Is it bad that when I saw the title of the book that I thought it was about Oak Island? I'm addicted to that stupid show."

Hehe, I hadn't ever heard of Oak Island (or the show) unti..."

Oh, you have to check it out! While it is completely frustrating (and I'm pretty sure the Templar connection is bogus), they have made some pretty interesting discoveries. Just make sure you record so you can fast forward a lot!

Today I finished A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder. I rreeeaalllllyyy liked this book and rated it 5/5 stars. One of the best I've read this year that's for sure. I expected to like it and find it interesting, but I don't read much non-fiction these days and its been a while since I've read an autobiography so I didn't think I'd get as drawn into it as I did. Ended up loving it.

Anyway, I'm now heading back over to my Drizzt re-read with The Thousand Orcs which is technically book 15 of the series (I count Servant of the Shard as part of the Drizzt series since that was how it was originally written).

I finished:


The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

I have finished Path of the Bold: Superhero Anthology, which was a fun read. I have now started Oceanworlds

Finished Calculating Stars a few days ago and now back to my unicorn theme with - The Unicorn Quest by John Lee, first in a 6 book series

Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words by Jeremy Mynott

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Despite starting in 1800-ish Cairo, this felt like an urban fantasy to me, but with middle-eastern supernatural critters (djinn, ifrit,...) Maybe it was the insistent romantic on/off/triangle element.

Since I'd read everything else Last Unicorn related I decided to give The Last Unicorn graphic novel a try.

Just finished Queen of the Tearling and I am in no way ok. Going to keep going with Redemption of Althalus, I need to lighten it up a bit after that.

As fantasy I've read :
- Bodyguard of lightning T1 of Orcs' serie by S. NICHOLLS.
- Queen of fire T3 of the Raven's Shadow by A. RYAN.
2 good books for me. I ve also read others books but not in different categories.
I am currently reading God's Spy by Juan Gómez-Jurado. Totally different from the Raven's Shadow =D

Lexicon by Max Barry

An underground cabal trains members to use 'language' to control people. When they take in a 16-year-old girl, they get more than they bargained for.
Good story. 4 stars

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished The Unicorn Quest, it was hard to get into, the writing was kind of dense, it was also often hard to visualize what was going on. However by the end I found it got easier (either the writing changed or I got used to it) and I found that overall I enjoyed it well enough and I'll continue with the series. (view spoiler)[ It's actually almost a bizarre mix of SF and F though you have to get to the last chapter to have suspicions on that confirmed (hide spoiler)]

I'll also finish The Last Unicorn graphic novel today (just the big climax to finish up). I kind of agree with the other person who read it, it's not that great, it felt choppy (but then what do you expect from static images when compared to a book or movie)...and I had issues with the way the unicorn was drawn (sometimes she was downright fat!). And I think partly the issue was because it's visual my brain is seeing the movie, but it's really based on the book which is slightly different, so there are dialog that just seemed wrong (since I've memorized the movie, but not the book). So In the end, it was an ok tribute and all that, but didn't feel it added to the existing work.

Starting on our next group read - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Also reading Unicorns in the Rain by Barbara Cohen since I have to get it back to the library by the weekend, shouldn't take long but, well, it's kind of bizarre what I've read so far, really dark and almost dystopic.

On my eReader finished the Apex issue that contained that Librarian story, onto the last of the magazines that had award nominees we read as a group, Lightspeed Jan 2018. After that I'll take a break from the magazine and probably switch to a novel again

Currently reading On Basilisk Station by David Weber on my Kindle.

Cloak of Dragons by Jonathan Moeller

I finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This was my first e-book, and the experiment is quite successful, I am a convert. I immediately ordered and downloaded the next book of the series, The Wise Man's Fear, since I want to know what happens next to the main character, Kvothe. I'll start reading later today.

Finished The Thousand Orcs tonight and rated 4/5 (or more). Think this ended up being one of my favourite Drizzt books so far in this re-read. Really enjoyed the Mirabar setting especially and the dwarf/human politics though left wanting more of that.

I wanted to dive into the Lone Drow but seems that's the one Drizzt book I have that's still stored away somewhere. Will have to dig it up soon to continue on. In the meantime deciding to finally take the leap into the Warhammer 40k universe. Started the first couple of pages of Horus Rising and so far seems like something I'll enjoy!

Pierre wrote: "I finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This was my first e-book, and the experiment is quite successful, I am a convert. I immediately ordered and downloaded the next bo..."

Congratulations on reading your first e-book. I'm an e-reader reader myself since 2011.

I have just read Taboo Tech

which is about people coping with sentient machines. A good read but not for those who want space battles. Aimed at mature YA readers or adults.

Currently reading Dark Emu
which explains that Aboriginal Australians actually carried out extensive agriculture and fishing operations before settlers arrived from elsewhere. Some great photos.

Pierre wrote: "I finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This was my first e-book, and the experiment is quite successful, I am a convert. I immediately ordered and downloaded the next bo..."

Well done, Pierre. You will gain endless fun from e-books, as both old classics and new books that have never appeared in paper print can be yours! Enjoy. Tip: type in free to the search box, for instance free sf, free fantasy.

Yiddish Folktales by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich

Gary wrote: "Currently reading On Basilisk Station by David Weber on my Kindle."

Well, that series should keep you occupied for awhile!

Finished The Kingdom of Copper, sequel to last year's The City of Brass. It improved a bit over the first book, mostly, I think, by toning down the insufferable romantic triangle and playing more with politics.

Starting re-read of Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness for our discussion starting Saturday.

G33z3r wrote: "Finished The Kingdom of Copper, sequel to last year's The City of Brass. It improved a bit over the first book, mostly, I think, by toning down the insufferable roma..."

Hmm I actually had a different reaction to this one. All of the characters descending into shades of grey made me less invested in the story. Normally i don't mind books where the characters are unsympathetic but now I kind of don't care where the romance goes because I now don't care if any of these characters have happy endings.

Thanks a lot, Clare, for the tip about free e-books, it is duly noted.
The issue here is that I currently have over 70 books marked as 'want to read', and quite a few of them are the first books of series, the others of which i have not marked, otherwise my list would grow into the hundreds, and become discouraging. Oh well, at least there is no risk of me running out of books to read. And I'll probably inject some 'freebies' into that mix...

Brendan wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "Finished The Kingdom of Copper,

All of the characters descending into shades of grey made me less invested in the story. Normally i don't mind books where the characters are unsympathetic but now I kind of don't care where the romance goes..."

Maybe I have a different take because I always considered the romance a stupid distraction and never cared about it. Chakraborty's got this interesting unseen kingdom with multi-polar racial animosities rooted in really deep history (I guess if you live for millennia, you can collect a lot more grudges than a mere moral lifespan allows. :) Into it she drops Nahri, totally ignorant of the history & politics and yet instantly a factor by virtue of her ancestry. When she's not fawning over the rippling muscles of her various manipulators like a character from bad YA...

Pierre wrote: "Thanks a lot, Clare, for the tip about free e-books, it is duly noted.
The issue here is that I currently have over 70 books marked as 'want to read', and quite a few of them are the first books of..."

70? Happy days!

Randy runs a thread for temporarily free books in the space opera category, but actually all kinds of SF are announced there, presently mostly zombie stuff (unfortunately for me). My advice is to grab while the getting is good. You can read them at leisure.

The Kindle will hold several hundred books, depending on the model. I have an old one and had to start taking books off at the 1800 book point. I took off the read ones. Then I had to take off some unread ones. But Amazon remembers you own them so you can download them again.

Clare wrote: "The Kindle will hold several hundred books, depending on the model. "

I have a Kobo and I mainly use Calibre to maintain my library, which means I have everything on my desktop so I've pretty much got unlimited book space. But then I don't tend to buy my ebooks, I go for all those free ones so I download to my computer first. That way I don't need to worry about a provider going out of business and my books going poof with them! (Of course I need to be sure to do regular backups otherwise need to worry about my computer going poof instead) I can also backup most my few Kobo purchases, but those with DRM protection come out encrypted of course, but at least I still have a local copy

True, Andrea, I have the Kindle app on my PC (we don't have Kobo over here since Sony bricked the gadgets).

Clare wrote: "True, Andrea, I have the Kindle app on my PC (we don't have Kobo over here since Sony bricked the gadgets)."

I used to have a Sony reader till it started having technical issues, and since Sony got out of the ebook market at that time I switched to Kobo, about the only other choice except for Nook (is that US only, we don't have B&N here) or Kindle.

Talking of free ebooks, today I figured out how to join Open Library part of the Internet Archive. They have a lot of books you can borrow for free. You'll need Adobe Digital Editions to transfer them to your device. I'm still need to figure some things out (like how will my ereader know that I renewed a book, probably need to hook it back up to ADE?) But still, another great source of free books...not like I didn't already have over 100 books on my ereader still waiting to be read...