Beyond Reality discussion

Please let us know what you are reading this month to kick off the new year!

I'm settling in to start Akata Witch a month late :)

My main goal this month is to finish off my massive stack of partially read books. That includes Thrawn: Alliances, Royal Assassin, Debt of Honor, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, and Inkdeath. I'm also doing a little non-cosmere catch up on Brandon Sanderson: Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, Skyward, and Snapshot, if I can get ahold of a copy later this month.

My reading has really lagged the last few months due to IRL stuff, so I'm clearing some backlog to work up momentum and boost how I feel about my TBR pile.

Shel wrote: "I'm settling in to start Akata Witch a month late :)"

I just read Binti last month after wanting to add Okorafor to my reading for awhile. Can't wait to dive into more of her work!

Lindsey wrote: "Shel wrote: "I'm settling in to start Akata Witch a month late :)"

I just read Binti last month after wanting to add Okorafor to my reading for awhile. Can't wait to dive into more ..."
Last month I finished reading the trilogy and really enjoyed it!!

I'm almost halfway through A Discovery of Witches which I really am enjoying; I'm glad to see that this a finished trilogy

Siege Tactics by Drew Hayes

Christine wrote: "I'm almost halfway through A Discovery of Witches which I really am enjoying; I'm glad to see that this a finished trilogy"

The group read this as one of our Books of the Month back in July. The discussion threads are in the “Previous Books of the Month” folder. I really liked it and plan to read the rest of the trilogy as well.

But right now I’ve started Carol Berg’s Bridge of D’Arnath trilogy, reading Son of Avonar.

Kathi wrote: "Christine wrote: "I'm almost halfway through A Discovery of Witches which I really am enjoying; I'm glad to see that this a finished trilogy"

The group read this as one of our Books..."
Thanks for the info Kathhi
I'll look for the comments

Currently reading Death Of A Starship by Jay Lake. Another in a much too long list of fine authors who have gone before their time.

Lindsey wrote: "My main goal this month is to finish off my massive stack of partially read books."

Yeah, that's where I'm at, too. Starting with Kiss of the Fur Queen, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Provenance, Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers, and Skin Folk.

The only good thing about being stuck home with the flu is having the time to sit on the couch and inhale a book cover-to-cover. So yeah, I loved Akata Witch. Off to the spoiler discussion thread :)

I just finished The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor & grudgingly gave it a 3 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm excited to start Head On which is a sequel to Lock In by John Scalzi. I really liked it. SF mixed with a murder mystery is great reading for me.

I'm just finishing up The Gospel of Loki, thence on to Provenance, which will be my first physical book in a while.



I have a couple I'd set aside - The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared & Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow - that I'd like to get out of the way, but another of my groups is reading Rebecca and The Cider House Rules, both of which I wouldn't mind revisiting.

Today's cover-to-cover sick day read was out of genre, Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness. It was interesting, funny, and sourced in science.

I finished Son of Avonar by Carol Berg, 8/10, a solid first book in a quartet that sets the stage(s) and introduces the main characters but also has its own story arc. This is my second series by Berg.

Next I will be finishing Poul Anderson’s trilogy, The Last Viking, by finally reading the third book, The Sign of the Raven. Also this month I hope to read Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness and a couple more installments in the Sword of Truth series, Debt of Bones (prequel) and Chainfire

I'm starting Akata Warrior tonight.

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

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

My January:
****
**
****
- currently reading
- currently reading
- TBR

I just started The Power by Naomi Alderman and I think it's going to be hard to put down!

I just finished CJ Cherryh's Alliance Rising an exquisite prequel (or first book) in her Union Alliance Universe. The detail and density of the novel reminds me of that in her Foreigner series. It's an exciting political SF which is resolved, but leaves questions open for sequels. I am excited.

I started Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare, something simpler, yet still fun and exciting.

Ghost in the Tower by Jonathan Moeller

I finished A Discovery of Witches which I greatly enjoyed; I have the next book on the shelf right now.
Next I read Sunshine which I also enjoyed but wished there were fewer words...she go really wordy and I simply skimmed over parts. I would not read a sequel because of this
I am now reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Finished with Thrawn: Alliances, Inkdeath, Legion, and Skyward. Legion was phenomenal; it got mixed reviews but I really loved it. And Skyward was soooo much better than I was expecting! I am not a huge fan of YA (being past that stage, I find it tedious) but seriously, go read it now!

Making some good progress on Guns, Germs, and Steel and should be done within a few days. Debating starting the second Binti novel, The Bear and the Nightingale, or the second Lightbringer book next!

Currently working on Martian Summer: Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days with the Phoenix Mars Mission in ebook.

Just started a reread of The Collapsing Empire in audio to prep for The Consuming Fire

I finished Poul Anderson’s trilogy, The Last Viking, by finally reading the third book, The Sign of the Raven. Anderson's research is evident but I didn't care for the writing style, sort of like a skald (Viking bard) reciting a saga. 6/10
I also read Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, 9/10, and a couple more installments in the Sword of Truth series, Debt of Bones (prequel), 6/10, and Chainfire, 7/10.
Then I went back to R.A. Salvatore's world of the dark elves and read Servant of the Shard, 7/10.
Now I will be finishing up the All Soul's Trilogy with The Book of Life.

So far I've read in January:

The two short stories anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection and The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume 4: Thunder and Roses, which I both enjoyed. As always with collections there were some stories that didn't speak to me, but also some jewels.


The Gospel of Loki and Catseye, both for which I didn't care much.

Metropolis, which was a quite ambiguous read, part of my personal challenge to read more non-US, non-GB SFF novels.

A Flight of Broken Wings, an urban fantasy, which is usually not my genre, but which I enjoyed reading.

How Long 'til Black Future Month? N.K. Jemisin's great short story collection.

The wonderfully weird All the Birds in the Sky, that I enjoyed a lot.

Oathbringer, the third part of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, which is simply the best epic fantasy I've ever read.

The Way To The Stars, a rather cute, mostly harmless YA Star Trek novel, that could also work for younger readers without ST background.

The Rook, a X-Men kind of story with a wonderful heroine, which I loved even though I usually shy away from superhero-stories like my sons from homework.

Time Was, a beautiful, melancholic novella about a librarian and time travel.

Ancillary Justice, which has an admirable concept, though it took me half of the book to get into the story.

Red Mars, which I adored, but will freely admit that it is only for readers who love reading pages upon pages about about terraforming and landscape.

Favorite books I've read this month: Cuckoo Song, The Ballad of Black Tom, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I also finally picked up Binti and thought it was really creative, if a little uneven.

I also really liked Jane, Unlimited--I've been a huge fan of Kristen Cashore since Graceling and was glad to read a new book by her.

A Taste of Honey was a random, surprisingly fun read.

Mixed feelings about Annihilation and Illuminae (can't wait for the discussion next month to see what others thought!)

In horror (more paranormal than SFF, so not sure if it counts here), I enjoyed Dark Matter quite a bit and was really let down by Hex.

Gabi wrote: "The wonderfully weird All the Birds in the Sky, that I enjoyed a lot."

I loved that book. Wonderfully weird is a good way to describe it - I have no idea how I would categorize it besides the very general "speculative fiction".

I finished The Power over the weekend and I can't stop thinking about it. I needed something less intense to follow (and also, my house is a disaster) so now I'm working through The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing along with the rest of pop culture. So far, the only thing I disagree with is that she says you shouldn't need to keep more than 30 books. Heresy!! ;)

I read Campbell's Who Goes There to compare with the various movies and am reading The Akhenaten Adventure by PB Kerr and am deciding whether to continue the Children of the Lamp series. So far I like Riordan's books better.

Kari wrote: "In horror (more paranormal than SFF, so not sure if it counts here), I enjoyed Dark Matter quite a bit and was really let down by Hex.”

In this thread/topic, all genres count, so please feel free to talk about whatever you’ve been reading this month.

Some of us have been known to post that we are reading non-fiction. 0:)

I've kicked off my year with two fantasy books.

Circe was a beautifully written retelling of various tales from greek mythology. It has received a lot of hype which i feel is deserved.

Shadow of The Fox was unique in that is was fantasy based in Japanese as opposed to European folklore. I liked learning about some of the Japanese creatures and culture however the plot was episodic and the characters cliche. It skewed a bit too much to the younger side of YA for me.

Mary wrote: "Some of us have been known to post that we are reading non-fiction. 0:)"

Hahaha, that's good to know! I enjoy reading non-fiction on occasion. :)

Jess wrote: "I've kicked off my year with two fantasy books.

Circe was a beautifully written retelling of various tales from greek mythology. It has received a lot of hype which i feel is dese..."

I've not heard a single bad thing about Circe! All this hype is making me think I need to move it up in my TBR pile.

Mary wrote: "Some of us have been known to post that we are reading non-fiction. 0:)"

Guilty as charged ;)

Shel wrote: "Mary wrote: "Some of us have been known to post that we are reading non-fiction. 0:)"

Guilty as charged ;)"

I finished Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies last week, so I guess we'll all hang together... ;-)

I decided to start The Bear and the Nightingale and loved every minute. I'm late to the party but what a lovely, amazing book. The most fabulous thing about it was that you can see how Spinning Silver was born from the same elements and yet tells a different, equally compelling story. In a funny story, I had completely forgotten than one of my (oft-neglected) IRL book clubs is doing both books in back-to-back months... should be some fun discussions!

I also sped through Coraline today for one of my book clubs. It was good but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it when I was a kid. Unfortunately, that would have required the book to time travel.

Started in on La Belle Sauvage this week. I'd forgotten how much I love Pullman's writing style and now I want to reread His Dark Materials again.

I'm reading a few of CJ Cherryh's books I've neglected: first up Serpent's Reach

Lindsey wrote: "I finished Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies last week, so I guess we'll all hang together... ;-) ..."

That was a good book for one published back in the 70s. Still had a lot of good info & wasn't dated nearly as much as I thought it would be.

Undying by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Kari wrote: "Jess wrote: "I've kicked off my year with two fantasy books.

Circe was a beautifully written retelling of various tales from greek mythology. It has received a lot of hype which i..."

Would the group like it? Maybe you should nominate it next month!

Chris wrote: "Would the group like it? Maybe you should nominate it next month!"

I'd vote for it! It sounds lovely!

I am continuing to finish up some series I had started months (years?) ago.

Completed the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness with The Book of Life, and gave it a 10. Wrapped up nearly all the threads and was very satisfying.

Completed the Drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore with Sea of Swords, 7/10, predictable but still fun and, again, satisfying.

Read the penultimate book in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, Phantom, 8/10. Still don’t like the gratuitous violence and the sermons on the virtue of the individual and the depraved awfulness of the Order, but there is a good fantasy story buried under all that crap. Starting the final book, Confessor, today.

And I read an old SF/horror book, The Hephaestus Plague by Thomas Page, 7/10.

Finished my reread of The Collapsing Empire and went on to The Consuming Fire. I am eagerly awaiting the next in the series.

Just started Sorcerer to the Crown today for next month's discussion.