Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

It's September... the weather turns, school begins. While I spend all my time watching football, what will you be reading...?

I have a few books lined up. One of them is David Copperfield. It's huge. The others are romance and horror books, not sure if I'm allowed to mention them in this thread.

Way way way too many. I have physically sitting here :
The player of Games; To Say Nothing of the Dog; Tender(stories by Sofia Samatar); Ball Lightening; Above the Timberline(SF art book) Lagoon; Stories of your Life and others; the Will to Battle; plus several nonfiction !

Hello I am currently reading The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, when I started reading it I didn't think I would like it but I actually love it!!
The book is military fantasy grounded in the real world history of chinese wars.

Luffy wrote: "I have a few books lined up. One of them is David Copperfield. It's huge. The others are romance and horror books, not sure if I'm allowed to mention them in this thread."

You're allow to mention any book here.

Mary wrote: "You're allow to mention any book here..."

I just finished reading Dracula. On a separate note, I noticed that my rating and review of Murder on the Orient Express have gone. I'll need to reread it and ignore any blemish and rate it 5 stars, and maybe GR will let me keep my rating.

Currently reading:
Demon Lord of Karanda by David Eddings

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Library Edition Volume 1 by Joss Whedon

Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan I wonder if I will ever finish the absolutely way too long Prologue and reach Chapter 1.

Dungeon Explorers by Max Anthony

The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout

I'm currently reading:
Stories, ed. by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio

And I'm hoping to read:

Children of Blood and Bone (YA) by Tomi Adeyemi

This Fallen Prey, Rockton #3, by Kelley Armstrong

I love Autumn, it's my favourite time of year and great for reading as the days get shorter and the winds get colder 🍂

Lori wrote: "Hello I am currently reading The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, when I started reading it I didn't think I would like it but I actually love it!!..."

I read it last week. It really makes a change in tone in the latter part. Let us know how you liked it when you get to the end :)

Completed:
Longs:


Shorts:

Haven't updated in a while, but my "brief side step" back into the Forgotten Realms reread withStarless Night turned into me also reading Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn. Gave all three 4/5 stars. All much, much better than the brief downturn that was The Legacy.

Anyway, now I once again find myself at the crossroads of "start Realm of the Elderlings or keep rediscovering the cozy world of Forgotten Realms". Haven't yet decided. The one thing stopping me from starting Assassin's Apprentice is just thinking how hectic work continues to be and wondering if I have the focus for it.

When I pick up the latest book in a series, there's a period of recall as I try to remember who's who and what was going on.

Recursion, the 7th (or 8th) book in Harmon's "Wearing the Cape" superhero series, complicates this with time travel: It's set right after the first book, meaning remembering what was going on then and what happened before this time-jumping messes it all up. One of those comic-book resets of the universe? Who will survive? TA-DA

Harmon combines the approach of comic book storytelling into a world where he's also grounded his reality-defying superheroes in real-world legal facts (imagine if Superman needed a search warrant to use his X-ray vision, and needed to show up later in court to testify....)

It's cotton candy: a sugar rush without much substance, but kind of fun in small bites (and unlike the cotton candy at the state fair, it doesn't get all stuck in my beard.)

For me, September comes with a new school semester and much less time for "for fun" reading. However, I am working my way through The Night Circus. If I finish that up, I'm hoping to read The Dark Forest after a copy becomes available at the library.

I'm starting a re-read of the Wheel of Time Series.

Recursion was fun.

I finished The Dragon's Son which I started on the last day of August.

I realized I forgot to keep track of where in the publishing order I was supposed to read the Pern short stories/novellas so I'm catching up on the Runner of Pern (found in the Legends anthology) today. Since it's about 50 pages long I'll also be able to start the next Pern book Dragon's Fire.

And by complete fluke I discovered that Pern was not as complete as I had thought. Anne's daughter Gigi is taking her turn at writing a Pern book, coming out in October - Dragon's Code: Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern by Gigi McCaffrey. I'm a little worried since it's about two of the main characters of the series, Piemur and Robinton in a time period already well covered by Anne herself (and in fact covered multiple time by Anne from different viewpoints). Given there were 2.5 thousand years to play with, Gigi should have found her own era and characters with less risk of stepping on Anne's toes and messing up the chronology (which was already a little shaky at times).

Jeff wrote: "I'm starting a re-read of the Wheel of Time Series."

Well, that should keep you busy for the Labor Day weekend. :)

G33z3r wrote: "Jeff wrote: "I'm starting a re-read of the Wheel of Time Series."

Well, that should keep you busy for the Labor Day weekend. :)"

No kidding, I should have my head checked. I quit halfway through book 8 several years ago but now that the series is finished I want to read the whole thing. It's been 10 years since I started it so there's a lot that I forgot and need to be refreshed on

Jeff wrote: "I quit halfway through book 8 several years ago but now that the series is finished I want to read the whole thing. It's been 10 years since I started it so there's a lot that I forgot and need to be refreshed on..."

Yeah, some of the middle Wheel of Time books, 8-11, start to drag – 1000 pages of which maybe 350 progress the story. It picks up with 12-14 because by then there's a pretty clear mission to get to the end! (Though there are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time, it was an ending. :) I'm happy to report delivers a pretty solid ending. (Some stories with a lot of prophesy end up being disappointing, either through over-prophetizing or failing to fulfill them. Happily, WoT avoids both pitfalls.)

There's a WoT/Memory of Light topic from when A Memory of Light came out if you want to live-blog your re-read :)

I enjoyed Planetfall more than I thought I would. From the name I expected something to do with terraforming, but instead we got a deep character study of a first-person narrator with a very atypical brain. It landed somewhere in between We Who Are About To... and The Speed of Dark, two very good books I recommend reading. Planetfall's ending felt a bit rushed but in general I thought it was quite good. ★★★★☆.

Currently reading: Merchanter's Luck by CJ Cherryh.

Finished Dragon's Fire, and since it's almost the middle of the month it's time to get back to Amber with The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny

Mythago Wood

I've hit bit of a slow patch recently - New York 2140 has proven to be a challenge, I'm stuck at 50% and unsure if I'll continue so it's on the backburner at the moment. To change things up, I went back and re-read Magician which is old-school epic fantasy that I adore.

Now I'm looking forward to The Guns of Avalon for our group read. Otherwise, I've got quite a few books lined up including Swordspoint, Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, Rift Breaker, Huntress and Everfair plus some other non-SFF (I've got two long-haul international flights shortly, so need to make sure I have enough for the flights and my trip!)


Jeff wrote: "Mythago Wood"
Love Mythago Wood - I think it's highly underrated!

Jeff wrote: No kidding, I should have my head checked. I quit halfway through book 8 several years ago ..."

When I first read the series that's where I got stuck too - on the second time round, I found it much easier because I didn't end up getting so lost with the characters. I'm now onto my third re-read so that I can properly enjoy it all in it's entirety. It's taking me ages to re-read because I just find the middle section so challenging, currently up to book 10.

Cat wrote: "I've hit bit of a slow patch recently - New York 2140 has proven to be a challenge, I'm stuck at 50% and unsure if I'll continue so it's on the backburner at the moment. To change t..."

I debated interrupting my dragon theme with this book, but after reading the Mars trilogy I knew that Robinson can be a bit dense and decided it would take up too much time, so gave it a pass in the end. Cli-fi isn't really my thing either, so that wouldn't have helped.

Continuing my re-read of Frank Herbert's Dune books. Almost done with God Emperor, which hasn't fallen off from the high standard set by the 1st 3 nearly as much as i remembered (it's been a while). Hope I enjoy the next 2 close to as much.

Finished Guns of Avalon, will hold my comments till tomorrow when the discussion opens up.

I also caught up on Beyond Between, a Pern short story. It was...unusual to say the least. With the Pernese not being religious was a bit weird to explore the afterlife. It's included in the Legends II anthology for anyone who wants to know more about what happened to Moretta and Horth (and Leri / Orlith for that matter) when they went between but never came out again.

Now finishing up the Dragonvarld trilogy with Master of Dragons by Margaret Weis. Need to get these dragons series I started finished already, the year is going fast!

I finished and had some indecision between starting my first read of and a second read of . I wound up choosing the Potter book and will be using it to fill in the female author square on the bingo card.

I finished reading Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway and The Black Echo by Michael Connelly. I am reading Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card. I plan to read How to Write Best Selling Fiction by Dean Koontz and Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow next.

The Day of Dissonance (Spellsinger 3) Alan Dean Foster

I just read the seven books of The Land: Founding, in the last few days. Looking forward to the next book, whenever that is

Finished Master of Dragons. The trilogy was ok but nothing special, though it added to my year of dragons by giving be another take on the creature, human/dragon hybrids.

Now to keep going with the dragon series that started this whole dragon thing: Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey. Unfortunately it is yet another plague story *sigh* This is book 20 in the series!

Gary wrote: "...I am reading Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card...."


That was my favorite book in that series. I wish Card would get around to finishing it someday. The quality of the series dropped off a lot in books 4 and 5 but 6 was a little better.

Just finished Assassin's Apprentice and loved it, now going to start Royal Assassin.

Finished Caliphate on my eReader (was free from Baen)...umm, let's just say it's a bit harsh on muslims. Though for what it's worth it was harsh on Americans too (they became an empire, invaded Canada, and did a bunch of other nasty stuff), lots of rape and torture...why you may ask did I actually finish reading this thing? Because I've got this obsessive thing about finishing books I start, and it did have a kind of fun "Mission Impossible" section where a couple of guys needed to infiltrate a castle a destroy it while a couple others hijacked an airship to rescue them. And there were moments that even though it was written in 2007 it predicted Brexit, a Trump-like president and other things that have actually happened (so you have to wonder at the other predictions, uncomfortable though they were). Otherwise, it was even badly written.

Anyway, glad I'm done with that. Now again due to my obsessive need to finish what I start, I'm going to read the second half of Varney the Vampire by Thomas Peckett Prest. It must the world's most drawn out soap opera of a vampire story (it was a Penny Dreadful so was in the author's best interest to keep it going as long as he could with as many filler and repeated words a possible). But darn it, I've waited a year to know how it ends!

Hello everyone. I am currently reading 84k by Claire North and I have a lot of books lined up. I have been extremely busy with work the past few moths and haven’t been able to stick with my reading. But I’m back on my schedule and I have a lot of reading to catch up on

I finished


The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

More thoughts in our discussion topic for this book.

Finished Dragon Harper. I peeked ahead at the next Pern book and saw that it was a fifth plague one, and not only that it repeats the time period of Dragonsblood only with a different point of view *sigh* Not looking forward to that one.

In the meantime, returning to the Winterlands with Dragonshadow by Barbara Hambly. I've heard the book is depressing but I'm looking foward to reading about John and Jenny again.

I think you can consider the non Anne McCaffrey books non-cannon. They are just.....bad.....

I finished Foundryside (kind of disappointing, too YA, I was expecting Bennet but got Sanderson instead), Ahsoka (it was okay) and Deathless (beautiful writing) and now trying to immerse myself again in Bas Lag with Iron Council. My friends DNFed that book and I'd like to know why.

I finished The Last Colony in early September; I enjoyed it but decided that this was enough Scalzi for a while, although quite likely I'll be reading more by that author at some later time. Waiting for a delivery, I tried to read Snuff by Terry Pratchett, but I DNFed it by page 30: I simply couldn't stomach Pratchett's style in that book. I continued a 'background reading', This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein. Finally, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin appeared in my mailbox today, and I'll be starting it later tonight.

Pierre wrote: "I finished The Last Colony in early September; I enjoyed it but decided that this was enough Scalzi for a while, although quite likely I'll be reading more by that author at some later time..."

That makes a good spot, in my opinion, to exit Scalzi's Old Man's War universe; the following stories have give diminishing returns. (You might like his other stories, though, e.g. Redshirts (humorous take on Star Trek-ish stuff, as the title implies) or Lock In, a Earth-bound crime story in an interesting near-future world.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

I really liked this exceptionally immersive read. Although the protagonists are young, the author kicks off with an act of casual, offhand cruelty to put us on notice it's not a standard YA. A one-time colony world has devolved from technology to swords & sorcery. (Kind of like Pern, but colder and without the dragons (sorry, Andrea).)

Nona is given to rage & the old ultraviolence. In her young life, she's been sold by her mother, sold again to fight club, thrown in prison for murder, & rescued by a decidedly non-pacifist holy order of nuns for training... in catechism or killing, whichever she's best suited for.

When I was done reading, I almost clicked on the little Yellow button to buy & read the sequel, Grey Sister, immediately; except I already noticed the third book doesn't go on sale until next April, so I can take my time moving forward....

Besides, I have this new KKR Diving Universe novel I want to read next.

G33z3r wrote: " Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

I really liked this exceptionally immersive read. Although the protagonists are young, the author kicks..."

Grey Sister is also awesome, but yeah, having to wait for Book 3 is killing me!

The Day of the Dissonance - Alan Dean Foster

I finished Foundryside. My review:

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

I finished:


The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished Royal Assassin, my lord what intrigue and what a way to finish the book lol Now starting Assassin's Quest

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and gave it 5 stars. This finishes all the reading challenges I'm part of. I've moved on to my second read of A Crown of Swords.

Finished Dragonshadown by Barbara Hambly, and as I'd been warned it was indeed depressing. But John was still able to inject some humour and I still found Hambly's writing to be excellent. Such a great cast of characters, what with Jenny fighting off the side-effects of menopause, not something you run into in your standard fantasy. It really brought to the forefront the costs and side-effects of winning your battles, often the heroes just get to ride off and live happily ever after, but that was definitely not the case here. I don't think there were any happy beings at the end of this book.

Decided to get a head start on the group series read for the month with Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny. It looks like it will be a dark and rainy day, and the book itself is only about 150 pages long, I might even finish it?

Yesterday at the very end of September I finished:


The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2016 edited by Rich Horton
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...