EPBOT Readers discussion

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend (in the US) last week. My covid exposure came back negative this week. Hurray for being exposed outdoor I think.

I do not have any finishes this week. I am about 1/3 of the way through Sea of Rust. I am not yet sure what I think about this book yet. The concept that robots made humans extinct is very intriguing. The story so far is fairly depressing.

I am further along in The Ghost Brigades in my audiobook. In some ways it is a strange parallel with Sea of Rust. Scalzi uses "Special Forces" as modified super humans. This book has definitely moved to part II where Jared has learned about his consciousness.

QOTW:
Do you enjoy reading short stories in addition to full-length books? What are some of your favorites?

I have not read very many short stories recently. I have read some essay books which are similar, as non-fiction short stories.

From my younger days I remember enjoying Isaac Asimov's The Seven Deadly Sins and Cardinal Virtues of Science Fiction. There was a short story focused on each sin or virtue. That was an interesting concept.

I would not mind reading more short story collections, but don't seem to particularly seek them out.

Midnight at Malabar House - This was remarkably similar to The Widows of Malabar Hill; in addition to having a word in common in the titles, the protagonists are both Parsee women with names that start with P who are the first women in their profession in India, although in this book she is a police detective in 1950 instead of a lawyer in the 1930s. This one was solvable by the "having the whole book available" method: at the point where the detective came across a description of a clue that seemed familiar but she couldn't remember where she saw it, I as the reader could flip back to the beginning and find it.

QOTW: Short stories are great! I've mentioned before that there are lots of short stories in mystery fiction, from Dupin and Sherlock Holmes through the Golden Age authors and modern compilations, so this time I will say that one of my favorite short stories is "The Most Dangerous Game". I think a babysitter first read it to me from her textbook, and then later when I read it in school we had an assignment to write what happened before the last sentence. While I think the actual ending is basically perfect, I was also very proud of my version in which (view spoiler)[Ivan had actually survived and showed up during the duel to kill Zaroff (hide spoiler)], so I still have a soft spot for the story. (I haven't seen any adaptations and am unlikely to do so because I don't think they'd preserve the gem of an ending.)

Hi all!

Unfortunately, I did test positive for COVID, so we're currently quarantining as much as possible, and wearing masks in common areas of the house in hopes we don't pass it to my partner's elderly mom, who we live with. So far, she seems to be doing OK. We're going to get tested again on Tuesday, since our symptoms are mostly gone except for a little lingering congestion.

I finished The City We Became for the Popsugar sister cities prompt. I loved it. As someone who grew up in NYC, maybe I got more out of it, I don't know. It's definitely a love letter to the city. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

I'm currently reading The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. I'm enjoying it so far. Historical m/m romance between a retired highwayman and a young nobleman.

QOTW: I don't read many short stories, unless they're part of existing series that I'm reading, or by a favorite author. The most recent short story I remember really enjoying was Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher, which won a Hugo award.

I've not read much at all this week...been that kind of week. I'm a few more chapters into Brightness Reef than I was at last week's check-in and that's about it. The end of the school year is always rough on me. I feel like I need to finish the book, since it's for a series discussion on the other GR group where I'm a mod, so I'm still picking at it, but I keep just wanting to dive into comfort re-reads. Three more weeks of school and then I'll be able to breathe again.

QOTW: I love short stories although I don't read them as often as I do longer works. A bunch of years ago I downloaded and slowly worked my way through The Stories: Five Years of Original Fiction on Tor.com and reviewed each one as I finished it - I'm sort of proud of that one :)

Favorite anthologies: The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu, How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin, and Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck. I also love all of the many anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, they always find such good stuff.

finished River, back to Rebel Dawn.

QotW: i'm fine with short stories. i even have the Star Wars: From a Different View (or whatever the title is) books on my To Read list.