Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

It's a new year, what new books are you going to be reading?

Completed:
Longs:


Shorts:


Authors:
Robert Jackson Bennett, Jiang Bo, Pierce Brown, Octavia Cade, Tracy Canfield, S.A. Chakraborty, Becky Chambers, Liu Cixin, S.B. Divya, P. Djèlí Clark, Andy Dudak, Eugie Foster, Tana French, Sarah Gailey, José Pablo Iriarte, Hao Jingfang, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rich Larson, Victor LaValle, Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, H.P. Lovecraft, Ramez Naam, Naomi Novik, Suzanne Palmer, Brenda Peynado, Lettie Prell, John Scalzi, Veronica Schanoes, Karin Tidbeck, Peter Watts
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Starting the year off with a classic and the group read - The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. I've read a couple of his books before, but because I near worshiped the movie as a kid I've always been wary of tackling the book. But the first 5 pages so far are meeting my expectations perfectly.

I finished:


Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I started reading:


The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

I'm about 70% done with Small Favor but my reading speed has slowed to a crawl due to retinal surgery a few days ago. The actual act of reading has become a huge chore. I've been filling the void by starting a long-planned first listen of The Eye of the World. I've been a WoT fan for several years but never listened to the audio version. I'm finding Michael Kramer's voice to be quite grating but Kate Reading is a joy to listen to.

Siege Tactics by Drew Hayes

Finished The Last Unicorn, loved every word of it.

Now reading The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin before I start forgetting the details of the first book because this seems like the kind of series where a random statement from one character might explain everything two books later :) Fortunately G33z3r gave chapter by chapter summaries in the group discussion I can reference!

Just finished Vita Nostra. It felt like a mash-up of Harry Potter and Solaris, but much better than either of those books. 5/5 stars.

Currently reading: The Tiger Flu. Gender plagues, parthenogenic starfish women, crazy cyberpunk moons (none of these are spoilers, this is the first chapter), sign me up.

Finished The Spine of the World as my latest FR re-read. Rated 3/5 for Wulfgar story line. Did not like Meralda story line at all though.

Started Null States by Malka Older, second book of the Centennial Cycle and enjoying so far. Read the first book in December 2017 so thinking of doing a quick Infomocracy flip through tomorrow to remind me of a couple things.

I finished Catseye by Andre Norton yesterday, and I've started on both The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by the Strugatsky brothers and Lock In by John Scalzi.

Andrea wrote: "Now reading The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin before I start forgetting the details of the first book..."

I'm (re-)reading that too right now. If you'd like to do a discussion thread/buddy read, I'm game.

G33z3r wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Now reading The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin before I start forgetting the details of the first book..."

I'm (re-)reading that too right now. If you..."

Seeing as I'm finding it hard not to post about the second book on the first book's discussion thread, I think this would be a good idea :)

Started the year off right by rereading The Red Knight . One of my fave reads.

Kivrin wrote: "Started the year off right by rereading The Red Knight . One of my fave reads."

Awesome! Traitor Son Cycle is great and underrated imo! Now knowing the series' conclusion I would definitely love to re-read it one day.

I started with a graphic novel to fit my relaxed holiday mood - Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars - and have now started The Princess Bride, having recently rewatched (for the umpteenth time) the movie. Then I'm intending to read The Last Unicorn.

I finished Small Favor and I'm about 20% into Countdown City. I might finish off the Last Policeman trilogy after getting done with Book 2.

Finished Obelisk Gate, think I have more questions about the world and it's characters now than I did after the first book, hopefully the third book answers most of those questions. Working on my secondary goal of the year, to make progress in all those series I've started but not finished by reading the second Wrinkle in Time book A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

On my eReader I finally finished The Final Prophecy, it wasn't delayed because it was bad (actually for a free trilogy is was actually very good) but because I was on vacation and not commuting to work so I didn't even use my eReader :) Starting on another book I downloaded free (think it was even here on GR) - Blue Hearts of Mars by Nicole Grotepas

This month I'm working through The Shades of Magic Series on audiobook. The first book took me a little while to get into, but I am now hooked and have started on the second book. Happy to be commuting to work this week since it gives me more time to listen!

I'm also trying to develop a new habit for the new year. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through the internet, I will read ebooks instead! For my first ebook of the year, I'm reading Fear Itself in preparation for Star Trek Discovery Season 2.

I started off with The Last Unicorn and then read N. K. Jemisin's new story collection, How Long 'til Black Future Month?, which I enjoyed. Then read/re-read Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children novellas in anticipation of In an Absent Dream coming out today.

Not sure where I'll go after that -- Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire trilogy are near the top of my TBR; so are Semiosis by Sue Burke (though I just read there's a sequel coming out in the fall, so I might wait on that one) and Katherine Arden's Winterlight trilogy.

I’m just finished How Long Til Black Future month myself!
Also keeping track or have read the rest of the books you mention - good choices! 😊

I'm not sure how to describe Scalzi's The Consuming Fire, book 2 of the Interdepency series (trilogy?)

The previous book revealed Interdependency is apparently doomed to dissolution by shifts in the "Flow", the FTL paths between its star systems. As the name Interdependency suggests, the individual systems aren't self-sufficient, so once they're cut off, they're going to wither away.

Instead of concentration on how to prepare for this coming disaster, this book concentrates on a bunch of political machinations against the Emperox.

It's a thin story, but Scalzi tells it with his usual snappy dialog and quirky characters, which sort of disguises that there's not much plot under the snark. Tasty enough, but not very filling.

It's got enough space travel that I'm filling in the space opera box on my BINGO card.

Finished A Wind in the Door which was really short...thankfully short...what on earth did I just read?? If you thought Wrinkle in Time was weird, this one was downright incomprehensible most of the time (all I could figure out is that there's a clear Christian undercurrent of good and evil and how love solves everything but how it played out was incredibly confusing). And ugh, I hate character names I can't even pronounce in my head...

Next in line is Dream Cat by Kat Lowe. One of my friends won it on GR, passed it to me a couple years ago and it's just been sitting there. Figured I'd squeeze it in now at the start of the year than leave it for the end when I'm usually cramming in other books to meet some sort of goal.

Just finished reading an ARC copy of Knight: Sons of the Alpha by Addison Carmichael. I really enjoyed it. :-)

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook by Daniel Ogden

Just finished re-reading The Way of Kings and I'm currently reading The Player of Games

Currently I'm reading The Sword of Shannara and Enigma

Finished Countdown City today and jumped right into book 3, World of Trouble.

Mike wrote: "Finished Countdown City today and jumped right into book 3, World of Trouble."

I really liked that series.

Finished Null States by Malka Older. 4/5 stars definitely enjoyed quite a bit.

Now started I, Robot and read the first story Robbie. Enjoying so far

Finished Dream Cat, it was rather odd but then I kind of expected that. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. It was passed along to me and I'll be passing it along to someone else.

Reading Two Hearts by Peter S. Beagle. A short story that is free to read online.

Finally to wrap up the Last Unicorn tales, I have The Last Unicorn: The Lost Journey by Peter S. Beagle. It contains some of this thoughts on writing the story, as well as the original short story before it became a novel. I think it's pretty much the same thing as The Last Unicorn: The Lost Version but with more commentary.

Working through Anne McCaffrey's "Freedom" series, with #3, Freedom's Challenge, and starting another series, with The Last Policeman.

Iasa wrote: "Currently I'm reading The Sword of Shannara and Enigma"

I'm curious, have you read Lord of the Rings?

I'm reading book two of the 'Brilliance' series, A Better World by Marcus Sakey

It's about what happens when people with extraordinary abilities are born into an otherwise 'average' population. Of course the normal people don't react well.

**********
This is my review of book one:
Brilliance

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

I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel

Was very interesting reading The Last Unicorn: The Lost Journey. It starts off exactly the same, but it's a depressed dragon that tells the unicorn about the rest of her kind going missing. Butterfly is still there, but instead of running into Schmendrick and Molly she runs into a demon and travels with him. Instead of wandering a fairy tale medieval world she's wandering a 1960's world with cars driving by and pollution in the air. I think Beagle did the right thing to move it all into a fairy tale setting rather than have it be a kind of urban fantasy satire.

Now onto our contemporary group read Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. About 50 pages in and so far its fun. It's kind of funny because at dinner I watched The Minions and then started this book so I was really in the mood to make fun of superheroes and villains it seems!

Also, whenever I need a break from novel reading I'll read a few pages here and there from Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson. When someone described it as "Calvin and Hobbes with a girl and a unicorn" I knew I had to at least try it. I'm enjoying it, the unicorn is appropriately snarky.

I think Frazz is probably more like Calvin and Hobbes than Phoebe and her Unicorn but there still is a similarity.

My review of Blood of Assassins by R.J. Barker:

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

I finished Artemis by Andy Weir. I am reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Bleak Harbor by Bryan Gruley. I plan to read Origin by Dan Brown next.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Really excellent. This is more action-oriented than Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy (City of Stairs), creates an interesting new fantasy world with unique magic, and blends the political in more slowly.

Start of a new trilogy. I'm already eagerly awaiting the next installment..

I'm reading The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz. He's known for horror and the book is billed as a Thriller, but there is an interesting Sci-Fi aspect to it, kind of an evil corporate Body Snatchers type of thing. It's an easy read, a real page turner.

A Better World by Marcus Sakey

In this 2nd book in the 'Brilliance' trilogy, the hostility between regular people and people with extraordinary abilities (called brilliants) heats up. Good story with interesting characters. 3.5 stars

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

(Note: Another thread discusses the definition of hard and soft sci-fi. I'd call this trilogy soft sci-fi.)

Barbara wrote: "Note: Another thread discusses the definition of hard and soft sci-fi. I'd call this trilogy soft sci-fi."

Fair enough. I think any story that has people with superpowers is definitely not hard sci-fi.

So far in January I've finished Shadow and Bone and Skyward.

Should finish Blackfish City today.

After that it'll be Medusa Uploaded.

Finished Phoebe and her Unicorn, very cute and fun. I mean there's a different tone than Calvin and Hobbes, after all instead of spaceships and dinosaurs we have little girl adventures, but the kind of snark is still there. My copy had an intro by Beagle, which is interesting since I thought that Marigold's artwork was exactly how the unicorn is described in The Last Unicorn. Marigold is nearly the Unicorn, if the Unicorn had a modern day sense of humour (and could text using her horn...)

My library has about 7 of the books so I'll work my way through them. #2 wasn't there last time so I'm on #3 now. This is very much a comic strip so the sequence you read them doesn't matter much.

I just finished Dragon Reborn from the WOT series. I'm now reading Orphan Star by Alan Dean Foster and Myth Conceptions by Robert Asprin before I continue with WOT

I finshed off the Last Policeman trilogy with and enjoyed it very much. Now I'm going back to the Dresden Files with .

Ghost in the Tower by Jonathan Moeller

I finished both The Dead Mountaineer's Inn and Lock In. I also devoured All Systems Red and am waiting impatiently for the second book in the series.

I'm nearly done with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and I have started The Collapsing Empire.

Finished Soon I Will be Invincible, I'll keep my comments for the discussion but it was mostly fun and glad someone nominated it since I otherwise never would have known about it.

Working through the Wrinkle in Time books with A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle. I've had to shift the series from my SF shelf to the Fantasy one, while it started off more or less using SF concepts (tesseracts, aliens, etc), and while it still continues to bring up more scientific ideas, the religious aspects are becoming more and more prominent, like every time you ask Heaven for help you get sent a unicorn or a convenient snowstorm and battles are won through telling your enemies that you love them.