SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

lots of wonderful books series set in made up towns

Peter Bowen's Gabriel Du Pre series starting with Coyote Wind is set in Toussaint, Montana which doesn't exist

Joan Hess' Arly Hanks series which includes Much Ado in Maggody is set in Maggody, Arkansas (ditto)

Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series starting with Still Life is set partly in Quebec, Canada and partly in Three Pines (imaginary town)

and to keep in on topic, I just finished one of my 2020 challenge books: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam which was fairly interesting, especially the sage of the American Revolution from the British point of view

Anna wrote: "Well it's seven million pages long, so it's only right if it takes a person seven months to read it!"

I made it almost halfway through in about a month's time, and I'm listening to it faster now, I'm sure (1.75), so if I manage to remember to put it on at appropriate times, I'm sure I'll finish it by the end of March. It is a total of 42+ hours at 1x speed, so yeah, 7 million pages. We'll see.

Finished Starsight (Wow! What a lovely story which continues to gain steam and rocket forward!) and will be starting The Journal of Curious Letters today.

I can't wait to get to Starsight!!

I gave up quickly on Dragonlands: Volume 1-3. Very juvenile and absurd. Decided to go with The Briar King.

Last week was a productive reading week in that I finished Five Unicorn Flush which I think I enjoyed more than Space Unicorn Blues, The Consuming Fire which makes me sad that the next one isn't out already, Spin which I felt stands alone pretty well despite the fact that there are two more in the series, and lastly Winter's Heart in my ongoing quest to conquer The Wheel of Time.

It was a pretty good week because I wasn't disappointed by any of them and thoroughly enjoyed my time.

That is the best feeling, HeyT, when you can be in all sorts of worlds and be glad to explore all of them!

Read the second book in the Poppy Wars series, The Dragon Republic. Didn’t love it quite as much as the first book (perhaps a little too much battle strategy for me in this one) but still very much looking forward to next book coming out in late 2020. Currently reading a very eerie Orwellian Japanese novel, The Memory Police. The descriptive writing/translation is just amazing!

Started reading The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard last night. She writes so beautifully and the Asian influences in space are nice. Everything is so civilised on the surface. It’s not new of course (the Asian thing) but her take is unique. Joss W dabbled with the Chinese being the ones who travelled to the Stars in Firefly but that was more chinese speaking cowboys in Space. Always fun. Anyhoo I wanted something short while I wait for my library loan (Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers) to come in. It’s supposed to be there today or tomorrow.

Anna wrote: "lol Diane, I hope it's been on your currently reading shelf all that time, and will show that it took you 5-6 months to read! :D"

Now I don't feel quite as bad about leaving Uprooted on pause for three weeks. ;)

I am currently reading The Witcher series. Just started the second book. I love the story so far. The show was amazing!

Just finished The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard. Really do love her work.

Went and picked up Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers from the library this morning so I'll be starting that now. I'm heading to the Farm on the weekend and then to the beach so I can give the Beach House a decent clean before I leave it for a few months so I want to get it finished before I go.

I don't worry about leaving anything on pause. I paused Leviathan Wakes (and most of my Currently Reading list at least 18 months ago. I want to read them but I just haven't got back to them. Well I did get back to Leviathan Wakes again this week but Becky was at the library. What could I do?

Last week I've read/listened to

Six of Crows as the group re-read. Unfortunately neither characters nor narration could grab me, so that I won't read on even though it ended on a cliffhanger.

The Sea of Monsters I read with my boys. And even though it is a rather silly story it is perfect for the targeted audience. Most of the mornings we read this we had laughing fits. I also appreciate that the hero is dyslexic, has ADHD and is an outsider for the cool boys at school. My elder son could perfectly relate to him.

I had to go in with Emma Newman: 20 Years Later is as well a book for younger readers and thus quite different from her Planetfall series. Yet again she could capture me easily. I read this dystopian London book about some very well fleshed out teenage characters in one sitting, again.

The Water Dancer I read with a BR here and I was fascinated by prose and audiobook narrator. The brutal topic of slavery was successfully blended with magic of memory and water. And I was happy to learn more about Harriet Tubman, whose name ever so often pops up in my SFF reads.

Because the author refered to the records in his afterword I started listening to The Underground Railroad: A Record for some background information. And I already see the role models he used for his story.

My eye-read is Little, Big which will keep me occupied the next week as well. It is exactly the kind of writing style/narration I crave for. Extremely slow, poetic and dream like. So I easily see why others give up bored to death. I guess I already lost my reading buddy here ;-).

Plan to finish book 5 to 8 (hopefully 9) of The Expanse
Half way through The Enterprise War (Star Trek book)
Planing to Read War of the World

Probably the biography of Neil Armstrong later this year

And a bunch of other stuff...

The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters by Keith Ammann

My review of Creeping Jenny by Jeff Noon

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

In the last few days I finished:


To Walk the Night by William Sloane - the first book in the collection The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


The Edge of Running Water by William Sloane - the second book in the collection The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror

Jacqueline wrote: "Trike wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "Don wrote: "The Shetland Island have had 2 homicides in the last 50 years, I wonder what they're investigating ?"

I think that's the reason Ann Cleeves said she was n..."

I have watched all of those except Agatha Raisin. Midsommer is one of my Favorites because of the people in the cast.

Eric wrote: "I gave up quickly on Dragonlands: Volume 1-3. Very juvenile and absurd. Decided to go with [book:The Br..."

Thanks. I had been thinking of giving Dragonlands a chance, since they keep pushing it at me from Unlimited. But I think I will pass now

Mary wrote: "The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters by Keith Ammann"

Hmmm, the players complain when that happens.

I’ve watched Midsomer Murders since 1997 or whenever it started and love it. If there’s a rerun of it on TV I’ll watch it over anything else. Except if there’s a new Death in Paradise, Agatha Raisin, or Midsomer Murders on at the same time that is. Last week I watched an episode of Agatha Raisin and an episode of Midsomer Murders and half the cast was the same. Except for the leads.

I’ve just started reading Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. Tried to get into it this morning except it’s a bit hard to read when the dog is sitting on your chest. One of the doors slammed and apparently my lap isn’t far enough away from the scary. He was pretty much sitting up on my throat. And he’s definitely not small. He is a 21kg border collie. Then every time I tried to read again he’d jump back up again. Somehow I got to page 35. Should be on 135 by now. Anyhoo.....back to it.

Dj wrote: "Mary wrote: "The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters by Keith Ammann"

Hmmm, the players complain when that happens."

Oh, yes. He discusses it.

You can check out his blog.

I'll be reading just about every Star Wars novel that comes out for sure. And any suggestions that come up for the month read from this group.

Looking forward to expanding the breadth of stuff I read.

Dj wrote: "Thanks. I had been thinking of giving Dragonlands a chance, since they keep pushing it at me from Unlimited. But I think I will pass now"

Welcome. A Kindle freebie for me. I barely got a quarter of the way in before saying, "This is nuts. Done."

I'm loving the fandom creep into genre fic! So cool that so many beloved franchises are finding new media and new fans.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

75-year-old John Perry joins the army to fight aliens. Although not written at a very high level, I found the book a fun read. Easy to read, moves right along, a space-adventure full of rocket grenades and fun. 1st in a series, 4 stars, recommended to others.

I have some catching up to do:

Prehistoric Games of North American Indians: Subarctic to Mesoamerica. It was all right. This was very much an academic work so maybe I've lost the ability to enjoy that or I've been reading too much fiction. There's some good info buried under the jargon.

The Medusa Chronicles by Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds. This was sequel to A Meeting with Medusa / Green Mars written with the permission of the Clarke estate. I enjoyed this quite a bit. It turned out to be a bit more serious than I thought and of course with Reynolds involved there's a bit of awe-inspiring stuff.

One Night in Sixes by Arianne "Tex" Thompson. This author was recommended by some friends and it was okay. I liked the worldbuilding and the characters, but I found it rather confusing. The author doesn't bother to explain much of the plot or the world, and while I appreciate not overdoing the info-dumping, it's possible to go far the other way.

Daughter of Eden by Chris Beckett. I enjoyed this while I was reading it, but not much has stuck with me so it was fine.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. Like one of the books above, I really liked the world and the characters, but had problems otherwise. Basically, it boils down to the fact that this is a novella that should have been a novel. Too much happens in too few pages when the story really should have had room to breathe.

The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri. This the second book in the Inspector Montelbano series translated from Italian. I really liked this.

And finally Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland. Somehow I thought this was going to be trilogy, but the book ends in a way that feels like it's a duology. I really enjoyed the first book and I really enjoyed this one too.

Jacqueline wrote: "I’ve watched Midsomer Murders since 1997 or whenever it started and love it. If there’s a rerun of it on TV I’ll watch it over anything else. Except if there’s a new Death in Paradise, Agatha Raisi..."

I watched Death in Paradise until the new guy has a potential Girlfriend. Sort of lost interest then.

To keep it book oriented, I got the whole Father Brown Collection looking forward to seeing how it compares to the show.
thx
DJ

Mary wrote: "Dj wrote: "Mary wrote: "The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters by Keith Ammann"

Hmmm, the players complain when that happens."

..."

I am going to have to do that. Haven't run or played in years but I still remember the fun of it.
dj

Eric wrote: "Dj wrote: "Thanks. I had been thinking of giving Dragonlands a chance, since they keep pushing it at me from Unlimited. But I think I will pass now"

Welcome. A Kindle freebie for me. I barely got ..."

Yeah I have had a few of those. It is kind of sad when it happens.

Just finished a relisten of Changeless. Such an awesome series, just as good as the first listen. Also completed The Toll, the final book in another awesome Neal Shusterman trilogy.

Started Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, another repeat but well worth it. I also started The Turn of the Key, another psychological suspense page turner by Ruth Ware.

While it started off slow for me The Ten Thousand Doors of January has developed into a real page turner. I'm hoping to finish soon so I can go read the spoiler thread.

Araych wrote: "Old Man's War by John Scalzi

75-year-old John Perry joins the army to fight aliens. Although not written at a very high level, I found the book a fun read. Easy ..."

I just started the second in this series. To early to say anything in regards to how good or bad it is, but it is following the same writing style.

Which girlfriend? Kris Marshall’s or Arden’s? I’ve quite enjoyed both of them as the DI. Most of the cast have changed once or twice. There’s only the Commissioner and Camille’s Mum left from the original cast now.

Girlfriends are a better way to write them out than killing them off I suppose even though 2 in a row is sloppy writing.

Jacqueline wrote: "Which girlfriend? Kris Marshall’s or Arden’s? I’ve quite enjoyed both of them as the DI. Most of the cast have changed once or twice. There’s only the Commissioner and Camille’s Mum left from the o..."

Some teacher like British Woman. They had the motorcycle driving Sgt running around still.

Redwall

I was certain that I had read this book years ago. And when I started everything seemed to back that belief up. Then I got about half way through and nothing struck any chords in my memory. I am not sure why I would set a book like this down and not come back to it, since it was a very well written book. Maybe written for a tad younger audience than I fill, but still it was a fun read and one that is consistent inside of the framework of the story.

Benjamin, that's quite a varied list! What's next?

Reading the Alex Craft series currently, will be reading the Elemental Assassins series, Throne of Glass and a bunch of others

Finished Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. Another lovely story. Took me a while to twig as to the connection but you get that sometimes. I’m blaming exhaustion and the fact that I read the first one last year. To be honest I don’t remember much about anything lately. There’s supposed to be a 4th one next year. Wonder where that will take us. It would be nice if we can find out more about where the Wayfarer crew ended up.

Wonder where I’m off to next. No idea. Hopefully I’ll work that out by tomorrow.

I finished Dalí quite a while ago and enjoyed it but it took me a while to review it.
My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I picked up a bunch of scifi and fantasy from thrift stores. I'm currently reading Brood War by CS Goto. Lots of space marines blasting xenos.

Allison wrote: "Benjamin, that's quite a varied list! What's next?"

Hi Allison! Yeah, I can be all over the place sometimes. Currently reading The Hidden Girl and Other Stories and re-reading The Last Wish. Never got around to reading the last two Witcher books so I need a re-read first.

I finally finished Watchmen. I have to admit, it didn’t really do much for me, mostly because of the format. It was way too hard on my brain and every time I started to read it I got so tired I needed a nap! It didn’t matter what time of day it was either! The story was interesting enough and I did want to find out how it ended. Many of the threads or events or side comments that didn’t seem to have much to do with main plot turned out to be relevant, which is something I really do appreciate.

My son and I are almost finished with The Phantom Tollbooth, just 20 pages left so we’ll finish tomorrow. I love that book so much! The descriptions of all the “demons who live in Ignorance (for instance the Threadbare Excuse, or Gross Exageration) were priceless. So great to read as an adult!

Otherwise, I’ve been reading lots of children’s books from my Kjndle backlog. That’s satisfying.

I'm reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. I've read the first book in the Mistborn series and l liked it well enough that I will finish that series eventually, but this is the Brandon Sanderson series that made me feel compelled to immediately pick up the second book. I even named my kitten Syl.

A Middle-earth Traveller: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor by John Howe

I've been listening to Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein

DJ, I have such fond memories of Redwall, hope you're having a fun romp there!

Jonathan, that's a pretty solid list! Let us know how it goes ^^

Jacqueline, that's a great book for right now. Hope your next is equally transporting.

Esther and Robert, nice! I love seeing all the different things folks find :)

Benjamin, nice!! I am really curious about Hidden Girl.

Diane, I haven't been able to penetrate Watchmen. It's so much of everything, I go all fainting goat every time I try. But agreed about Phantom Tollbooth! Such a classic, I'm glad your family is enjoying it ^^

Michelle!! Are you freaking out about the announcement about book 4?? Gosh I love that series.

Mary, how was it? It sounds charming.

Elowen, you convinced me to try it! I've added it to the list :)

Kirsten, what do you think? I've heard this one has somewhat less of his normal controversial thoughts.

@Diane: Congratulations for finally getting "Watchmen" done (the next congratulations are due once you get through "Way of Kings" :D.

I used the last days of February to get a bit sidetracked.

The Water Dancer made me curious to learn more about the Undergroud Railroad and its agents which helped slaves gaining their freedom from the 1850ies on. So I read The Underground Railroad: A Record, interviews, letters and legal texts collected by William Still, one of the key players on the Railroad.
At the same time I saw in Anthony's update that there is another novel The Underground Railroad regarding the same topic - so this came next.

It was interesting to see how different the approaches and therefore the impact on me as reader were. The different books completed each other in terms of emotional impression, description of brutal fates and factual background information.

After having read Little, Big for the BR, I was again overwhelmed by Crowley's mastership as a poetic author.
Not long ago the point of "language isn't adequate to express everything" came up in one of my updates, whereupon I was of the opinion that language is quite powerful in the hands of the skilled author. John Crowley perfectly demonstrates this point. With him I have the feeling that he is able to express everything.

I can clearly see that his work is not for everyone (tbh … I wouldn't even know whom I would recommend it to without a lot of warnings), but for me he is way up among the very best of speculative writers.

Since I didn't want to part with him after "Little, Big" I read his Engine Summer shortly after. It is equally wonderful, but has a much faster paced plot and less than half the pages of "Little, Big". So I would suggest that readers who want to carefully tip a toe into Crowley's prose should go for this one.


And now I try to sort my March reads to get them done in the most effective way. I'm lucky that Never Let Me Go and The Raven Tower are BotMs in two of my groups. I wanted to read both but never got around doing it, till now.

Tehanu and This Is How You Lose the Time War were both very different sorts of 5-star reads for me, Tehanu for its characters and the themes it explored and Time War for being utterly beautiful and enchanting.

Uprooted: The fairytale aspect was promising but this one really didn't work for me.

The Killing Moon was not quite on the level of the Broken Earth trilogy but still a good display of Jemison's stunning prose and world-building.

Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope provided some good backstory for the series and was about on par with most tie-in novels I've read, enjoyable but nothing special.

The Black God's Drums had an intriguing premise but ultimately lacked the depth and emotional involvement to draw me in.

And I managed to get started on The Ten Thousand Doors of January just before the end of the month. Hurray for leap year 😄

I'm re-reading Swan Song by Robert McCammon. It made a big impression on me as a teenager so I thought I'd revisit post-apocalyptic America. Plus, I'm playing Fallout 4 and nuclear destruction loves company, as they say. After that, I'm going to get busy on cleaning out my Kindle's backlog. I'm serious this time.