What'cha Reading?

[lincolnic]

I'm over a decade late to this party, but about a month ago a friend recommended the Expanse series from actually-two-guys James S. A. Corey. I'm about halfway through the second book Caliban's War and enjoying everything so far. Who would've guessed that the thing everyone agreed was good 15 years ago...is good?

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I've always been curious to check out the books, because I'm a big fan of the TV series.

I just polished off Children of Strife, the latest from my man Adrian Tchaikovsky. I wouldn't say it reaches the heights of the first two books in the series (which are among my all-time favorite SF novels), but at least it feels like he gave this one his whole attention*. My only real complaint is that a large chunk of the narrative revolves around a group of pretty despicable human beings (basically, billionaire tech-bros of the future), who I found to be (intentionally) pretty intolerable. But the rest of the characters are all fairly interesting, and the story goes to some pretty out-there places. Worth reading if you enjoyed the previous books in the series, although I definitely wouldn't recommend jumping in here.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm returning to Shadow of the Torturer. It's my first Gene Wolfe! I will readily admit that I mostly picked this up so that I would be able to listen to some more episodes of Shelved by Genre, but so far the book itself has been interesting, if slightly challenging.

*Dude pulishes like three full-length novels a year, and some of them feel pretty dashed-off and/or half-baked. Which is a shame, because when he's on, he's one of my favorite authors.

 

[lincolnic]

I've always been curious to check out the books, because I'm a big fan of the TV series.

So far I'd recommend them! The worldbuilding is extremely well thought-out from the very start, and the characters really feel like people. I'm excited to keep reading.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm returning to Shadow of the Torturer. It's my first Gene Wolfe! I will readily admit that I mostly picked this up so that I would be able to listen to some more episodes of Shelved by Genre, but so far the book itself has been interesting, if slightly challenging.

I've also read the first two of these books within the past year, after another friend gave them an extremely strong recommendation. I don't think I loved them as much as he did, but I have been enjoying the sort of dream logic that they seem to run on. I'll come back to the other two books at some point when I'm in between other things.

 

[Violentvixen]

I'm not at all sure if this would fit the bill, but I just finished and thoroughly loved Light by M. John Harrison. I'll link my review there.

I almost DNFed this after the first 50 pages, but I'm glad I stuck with it, because Harrison's extremely talented at painting a picture of vibrant, living far-future places. I would not say the book has a whole lot of story to it, it's more the present moment of each character as they experience this and that. It felt to me much more true to life than a lot of books ever get close to.

That said, it's kind of horny. Sometimes, that's good because it treats sex in a pretty normal, realistic way. Sometimes, a scene just has it added to it in a way that doesn't always feel necessary. So, that's a downside.

Overall, though, I was really taken by it. Might be worth a shot.

Interesting, thanks. But I've really lost patience for most sex scenes in books, even if it is normal and realistic so I dunno, many other things in my backlog.

 

[Patrick]

I haven't posted in here in a while.

Recently I read through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. I really enjoy the videogame logic and the big moments of action. I am not a fan of the over-the-top grossness. Also, as the series has gone on the books have gotten longer, but they have not really gotten more full of action/activity. There's just more downtime and they feel kind of stretched out. Despite some complaints, I like them well enough as popcorn entertainment and I recently recommended them to a friend who is very into D&D.

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson. Really excellent classic tragic fantasy. I especially love how all of the different belief systems and fantastical creatures interact. I'd previously read Three Hearts and Three Lions and The High Crusade. I'll have to seek out more of his stuff.

I read The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. This one has been on my list for over a decade, I just never got around to it until now. I really liked the Burnam side of the book - I worked with the archival pictures of Burnam and Root's architecture and the World's Fair at the Chicago History Museum as part of an internship, and also I pass by the Rookery (his firm's headquarters) on the way to work, and have spent a lot of time around Jackson Park lately. Burnham also created the Chicago plan which laid out our street system. So, it's a ton of stuff that I can see the effects of in my own life. The HH Holmes side was more out-there and really felt like historical fiction to a large degree. It was still good and I recommend it to anyone who has any interest in Chicago or just wants a good read.

I read the first two books in the Locked Tomb series. They are page turners and I like the world, but I feel like they're lacking something? The author is into withholding info from the reader, to great effect, but I feel like the payoff is never as big as she builds up to. Like, by the time we get to what's actually going on the book ends and we don't get to see things play out. So I wish there was more to them, but they're still fun reads and I'm going to start the next one soon.