What have you been reading this August? > Likes and Comments

Welcome to August. I have started reading Blue Book Volume 1: 1961, the graphic novel collecting the first series of Blue Book from Dark Horse - a "non-fiction" series detailing stories of alien abduction.

I finished Model 36 by C J Ilex


Four stars for this interesting debut: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"What can I say, despite praise Wright's true Holy Grail known as Animation Writing and Development?" ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ :)

Read the full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

In book #3 of the 'Throne of Glass' series, Celaena Sardothien is looking for a way to overthrow despotic King Havilliard of Adarlan.

Engaging continuation of the series. 3.5 stars

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

Finished Novik's The Summer War. I'll admit I didn't completely fall in love it it, maybe it needed a more fairy tale like writing style, especially as it was a novella. But other than that minor quibble it was good. This completes another of the Goodreads reading challenges (ones with the word "Summer" in their name)

Next up is a lucky win from the Goodreads giveaways, a mystery but with a touch of magic it to (or more than a touch, guess I'll find out as I read more) The Devil in Oxford by Jess Armstrong

I had finished Treason of Sparta by Christian Cameron the other day and absolutetly adored it. My fave of the year so far. Its the latest book in the Long War series (Ancient Greek historical fiction about the Greco-Persian Wars). I really hope Cameron eventually does the Peloponnesian War too.

Now I've restarted the Black Company series again by Glen Cook, with book 4 Shadow Games. I had read a few pages back in December but didnt feel like the proper season for it, but am now truly in it. So far so good!

I have finished Blue Book Volume 1: 1961. It was ok, but not exceptional. I will read the second (and final) in the series - Blue Book Volume 2: 1947

Fresh Start -- space western by my friend Johnny

Queste -- MG fantasy, book 4

and a couple mysteries

I just started reading Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, more of the horror / fantasy variety.

Finished book one of the 'Death's Lady' trilogy and pushing straight on with book two. Very much enjoying it so far. The first part is urban fantasy (sort of). A strange woman appears out of nowhere in the middle of a traffic intersection and attacks an oncoming car with a sword. She is taken to a psychiatric clinic and committed. Diagnosed as delusional and a danger to herself and others, since she claims to be an immortal warrior from an alternate reality. 'Rehabilitated' and released into the community, she slowly builds a life for herself as a martial arts instructor in Our world. As book two begins we take a sharp left turn into epic fantasy. She is pulled back to her own world by powerful magic of unknown origin, accompanied by her psychiatrist and his young daughter (one of her martial arts students). If it carries on as it has been doing, this should be a good read.

I have finished Temple. Like every Matthew Reilly novel I have read, this requires suspension of disbelief - in this case a massive suspension of disbelief 😆 Reilly really seems to have a lot of fun in writing his heroes into situations from which escape is absolutely impossible - and then having them escape though performing superhuman feats of athletics that would leave Batman envious, or last second external intervention, or deus ex machina. Once the critical thinking centre of the brain is switched off, this novel is a lot of fun.

I have started reading Trollslayer. This will fill the Features a Duo slot in my Bingo.

A River Red with Blood by John Connolly

Private investigator Charlie Parker looks into the death of a troubled teen. This series has paranormal elements, and ghosts are prevalent in this book.

Lots going on in this thriller. 3.5 stars

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

I have started reading Death Sentence. This is the collection of the first series of an interesting comic series. There is an STD called the G+ virus - testing positive is a death sentence, it will kill you in 6 months and there is no cure, but you gain enhanced abilities until you die.

I finished reading The Justice of Kings. I liked that book a lot, and I am immediately moving to the next book in the trilogy, The Tyranny of Faith.

Paladin's Strength -- part romance, part fantasy/horror

Finished The Devil in Oxford. Though it catches the reader up on all the important bits so that this third book makes sense to a new reader, I now want to read the first two. I ended up picturing the protagonist as the lead character in the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries TV series. Super happy I won that through Goodreads since I don't usually go out of my way to get my hands on mysteries (though there is a touch of paranormal in this series), so I'd never have read it otherwise. I'll have to write up a review later, I always do that for my Goodreads freebies.

Next up, back to our favourite depressed albino with a moaning vampiric sword in Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock which of course will fill my magical sword BINGO. I was a bit amused in the prologue where Moorcock wrote that it was his first attempt at an Elric full-length novel...when it still clocks in at just slightly less than 200 pages :o) To be fair it is about 50 pages longer than the others though.

For the first time in decades, just re-read Out of the Silent Planet. I struggled to write a review on this one because Lewis is really trying to do a lot, IMO. Loved it though.

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

Oh! Also just re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Wow is it a different experience reading this as an adult, a previous educator, and a parent.

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

Andrea wrote: "I ended up picturing the protagonist as the lead character in the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries TV series."

The Phyrne Fisher series from Kerry Greenwood are pretty good, although I have only read a couple. I loved the TV show.

Andrea wrote: " I was a bit amused in the prologue where Moorcock wrote that it was his first attempt at an Elric full-length novel...when it still clocks in at just slightly less than 200 pages :o) To be fair it is about 50 pages longer than the others though."

150-200 pages was a very common size for full length novels for a lot of the 50s/60s/70s.

Dean wrote: "For the first time in decades, just re-read Out of the Silent Planet. I struggled to write a review on this one because Lewis is really trying to do a lot, IMO. Loved it though.

http..."

I read that years ago - I was quite looking forward to it, but it didn't grab me and I never continued with Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, although I have all three in an omnibus edition.

Tony wrote: "Dean wrote: "For the first time in decades, just re-read Out of the Silent Planet. I struggled to write a review on this one because Lewis is really trying to do a lot, IMO. Loved it ..."

I remember them both being different than one another and from Out of the Silent Planet. Perelandra is a retelling of the Garden of Eden story, I think.

One more! Finally getting a backlog of reviews done.

Civilization and Its Discontents

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

It's been so long since I read the C S Lewis adult SF books I have only very vague recollections of them. I remember loving them at the time. Out of the Silent Planet I remember as being grown up 'space Narnia.' Perelandra I remember as being vaguely Rice Borough's-ish. And That Hideous Strength I remember as being sort of Quartermass with added Merlin. Interested to know how far off my memory is🙂 I could reread them, I do have them all but by and large I prefer to keep moving forward these days.

Dean wrote: "For the first time in decades, just re-read Out of the Silent Planet. I struggled to write a review on this one because Lewis is really trying to do a lot, IMO. Loved it though.

http..."

Great review! I have hear quite a bit about this one and have it on my to-read list.

I recently finished up reading the classic The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov:

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

PROTEIN: Book 1: The Trigger

5/5 . It's Free on Amazon

I have finished Death Sentence. It's an interesting premise - an STD gives the recipient superpowers but only 6 months to live. What follows is a somewhat grimdark version of Lord of the Flies with superpowers.

I have started reading The Klingon Gambit.

Keith wrote: "PROTEIN: Book 1: The Trigger

5/5 . It's Free on Amazon

"
ok... the cover gives very little info and there is no useful info with the link. what is the book about? what genre is it even? is it i diet book, horror, sci fi ?

primarily i have been reading

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My latest read was an easy five stars; click here to read my review on the masterbook Understanding Comics by the renowned Scott McCloud!

Just finished Shadow Games by Glen Cook, book 4 of Black Company. The series keeps getting better and better, but that ending! One that smacks you in the face and leaves you thinking "but what now?" going into the rest of the series lol

Started reading Dreams of Steel by Glen Cook, book 5 of the Black Company.

Franky wrote: "I recently finished up reading the classic The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov:

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

I absolutely loved The Naked Sun! My fave Asimov book for sure. I really liked Baley's struggle in an environment so "alien" to Earthmen of his time (gets explored in later books too). Also such a good murder mystery playing in Asimov's playground.

I have started reading Death Sentence: London. This collects the six issues of the second series, which follows directly from the somewhat explosive ending of the first series.

NekroRider wrote: "Just finished Shadow Games by Glen Cook, book 4 of Black Company. The series keeps getting better and better, but that ending! One that smacks you in the face and leaves you thinking ..."

Asimov is always a treat to read. I'm looking forward to continuing on with the Robot series.

I loved loved loved Somewhere Beyond the Sea . I loved everything about this book! Even more than the first one. I love a good found family. I loved cozy but not TOO cozy. I loved all our characters and how perfectly it speaks to the mess of our nation's politics, without, of course, actually speaking of them.

Kill the Villainess, Vol. 7 by Haegi

NekroRider wrote: "I absolutely loved The Naked Sun! My fave Asimov book for sure. I really liked Baley's struggle in an environment so "alien" to Earthmen of his time (gets explored in later books too). Also such a good murder mystery playing in Asimov's playground."

I must admit I was sort of "Meh" when I read the first book in the series, but like you, I loved this one.

I got through all the robot books and short stories, but I'll have to tackle the Foundation ones at some point

Finished reading Stormbringer, which clearly was the original end of the series. I mean its not something that wasn't seen coming from virtually the first book, Elric's destiny had always been hinted at but there's one neat little twist right in the last couple of paragraphs that I enjoyed :D

This was definitely the right book to pick for the magical sword BINGO since Stormbringer is definitely key to the plot, whereas in the other books it was just sorta there, important, but not the main point of the story.

I have to admit I then had to read the blurb of the next book to figure out how there could be a "next" book but its more a prequel.

Next up is the recently published The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden. This was one of the options for one of the Goodreads challenges and I've read so many unicorn books (I did a whole year of it once) I want to keep up with the newly published ones so this was perfect.

I am reminded that one day I need to finish her Winternight trilogy, only read the first book.

I have finished The Klingon Gambit, which I mostly enjoyed - it presents Kirk with a situation that he can't fight or seduce his way out of. However, I was very annoyed by the author referring to phasers as phasers half the time, and as ray-guns the other half of the time. Star Trek never, to the best of my recollection, used the term ray-gun.

It does fill my Bingo slot for Something White - the Enterprise is a white starship.

Andrea wrote: "Finished reading Stormbringer, which clearly was the original end of the series. I mean its not something that wasn't seen coming from virtually the first book, Elric's destiny had always been hint..."
I managed to read the second one this summer and enjoyed it.So just the third to go. Why is so hard for me to complete a series?!!!

You're supposed to read the books in a series back to back? I don't know if I can do that.

Kingdom of Beauty -- very cute.

Audrey wrote: "You're supposed to read the books in a series back to back? I don't know if I can do that.

Kingdom of Beauty -- very cute."

Depends on the series.

I can rarely read a long series straight through either. Two books back to back can work, but after that I usually want a completely different voice and setting as a palate cleanser. Does anyone else find that binge-reading makes the individual books start to blur together?

I have finished Death Sentence: London. This picked up where the first series finished, but I found it to be a lot more disjointed. Next is Death Sentence: Liberty, which collects issues 1 through 6 of the third (and final) series.

Martin wrote: "I can rarely read a long series straight through either. Two books back to back can work, but after that I usually want a completely different voice and setting as a palate cleanser. Does anyone el..."

Yes, though spreading a long series out waiting for books to be published you also start to forget stuff in early installments. I often try to pick one big, completed, series to read during a year, but I don't read them back to back, I mix them up with other stuff. Its why I haven't started The Wheel of Time, if I tried to read that in a single year it would take up most of the year as each book is so huge :)

I don't think most series are "meant" to be read back to back, most authors will want people to buy the first book to fund the second and so on, so you'd read them as they come out, maybe one a year. And I do that pattern with some other books where I only read one even if more are available (Chronicles of Elantra, Clockwork Twist, Dresden)

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This adventure story is a sci-fi/fantasy about a futuristic anthropologist and a princess determined to stop a demon.

A story that's off the beaten track. 3.5 stars

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

Just finished the second book off the Death's Lady Trilogy. I didn't like this one as much. For me it got a bit bogged down in politics. That's probably just me though, I'm a big kid really and so I find the political stuff in fantasy novels a bit boring. 🤣 I know most people nowadays expect a hefty dollop of Game of Thrones style political machinations in their fantasy and complain if it's not there but it's just not my thing. A little goes a long way for me. Anyway, there is a twist and a cliffhanger right at the end to set up the third and final part (I partially saw it coming but it was still well done). I am hopeful for a rousing third act to fulfill the initial promise and I'll let you know how that goes.🙂

I read The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb. I am reading Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian. I am also reading Different Seasons by Stephen King and rewatching the three movies based on the novellas in this collection. So far, I have read the novella The Body and rewatched the movie made from the story, called Stand by Me from 1986. It’s sad that Rob Reiner, the director, did not live to see the fortieth anniversary of the movie. Great story and great movie. I plan to read Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (Book #15 of the Vorkosigan saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold next.

A misguided and irrelevant handbook, written by Andy Schmidt as an attempted reflection of the comic industry, where the fine craft of cartooning is forgotten and "blending in" is the preferred strategy for success - in the modern age of indie hits thriving, this is disconcerting. The so-called Insider's Guide to Comics is lackluster to say the least.
2/5 stars ⭐️⭐️

Read My Goodreads Review

Robin wrote: "Just finished the second book off the Death's Lady Trilogy. I didn't like this one as much. For me it got a bit bogged down in politics. That's probably just me though, I'm a big kid really and so ..."

I love that kind of stuff...but...sometimes you need something that just more fun, so I mix 'em up with other books. One's brain needs a break from the complicated reading between the lines stuff. It was however the thing that made me love Dune the first time I read it.

Heinlein disappoints :(

I had such high expectations! Alas...

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

Glory Road