Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

For this part of our Women Authors series read, we're reading Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey series. As might display my usual haphazard reading, somehow I've read the third book but not yet the first two. Go figure.

For December, we have Hammered. I'm looking forward to this one.

This was a very quick read. For the most part, I really liked it. At just two months shy of 50 years of age, retired Sargeant Major Jenny Casey is an interesting lead character. I look forward to discussing it.

I read this a while back, but I recall enjoying the series immensely.

I have this, and plan to read it this weekend-I usually love Elizabeth Bears writing, so hopefully this is up to her usual standard.

My copy arrived from a kind friend yesterday, and I was home sick, so I'm about 200 pages into it, and enjoying it a lot!

I've been wanting to read this for sometime, glad it made it to the group bookshelf.

Moving a comment from June from another thread:


message 1: by June (new) - rated it 3 stars
15 hours, 21 min ago

June (CanyonGnome) I could not find a discussion, so once again I am starting one. Help me find the right one if once again I am wrong.

This book gets better as you go along. I would not have been able to get by the beginning had it not been the monthly themed read. I have fun participating in discussions of books, so I persevered. And, I am glad I did. While I do not enjoy reading series books that are not self-contained and leave too much up in the air, at the end, this has some good action and some nice visuals.

I really enjoyed it too, June. It feels like it ends abruptly, but since I've read the third book, I know huge things must happen between here and there. I can't wait for Scardown.

I also love Jenny Casey. She's such a beautifully complex character - and how often do we get a 50-year-old as a main character?

Megan wrote: "Moving a comment from June from another thread:


message 1: by June (new) - rated it 3 stars
15 hours, 21 min ago

June (CanyonGnome) I could not find a discussion, so once again I am starting on..."

I am glad to hear this, as it's not catching me too well. I am surprised, because I usually love Bear's work. But this was her first????

I ordered her books by publication date and it does appear that Hammered is Bear's first full length book. I liked it from the start. There are great characters in addition to Jenny, who I like a lot. In ways, Jenny reminds me of V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky's great, and aging, Chicago private investigator.

@Linda - I never made that connection, but you are absolutely right. VI is very similar in attitude and ability.

I'm just starting this now - saved it for my light, holiday, frequently-interrupted vacation reading. Currently finding it completely satisfying!

I'm about half-way through. I'm finding it interesting that she tells this story in short little sound bites with constant changes of point of view. Normally I find that style of writing very jarring and disjointed, but here, for some reason it seems to be totally working. Reading this is somewhat like putting together a jig-saw puzzle.

I enjoyed Hammered quite a bit. It ended fairly abruptly; but a statement on how much I enjoyed it was I immediately purchased Scardown (sequel/vol 2); before I knew/realized was next book we are reading.
A bemused aside - Tamora Pierce is a well-loved author in my house, and the first listed goodreads.com review of Scardown is by her. Makes me think about their presentation of reviews.
But yes - Hammered is an impressive first novel!

I loved this! I love the intricacy of it, I love the concept of Richard Feynman (already one of my favorite people), I love the interactions of the characters, I love the way Razor and Boris are left hanging. The ending might have annoyed me if I didn't already have the sequel in hand though.

Robert wrote: "A bemused aside - Tamora Pierce is a well-loved author in my house, and the first listed goodreads.com review of Scardown is by her. Makes me think about their presentation of reviews...."

Perhaps she comes up first for you because you're "following" her?

I liked it well enough, but not as much as I usually enjoy Bear's work. I am sure this is just a first novel thing, though....lol

I also loved the Richard Feynman detail...coincidentally I had read something about him recently or it might not have clicked with me who he was, so I was glad to catch that detail

I've never read anything else by Bear - if you thought this was only so-so, then I'm really looking forward to reading more of her!!!

with all our female author talk, Alexa, I cant believe I never recommended her to you!

I have read the first two Edda of Burdens novels (love love love) and Range of Ghosts(love too)

Thanks! Now that I've looked, it seems there's a ton to choose from!

Robert wrote: "I enjoyed Hammered quite a bit. It ended fairly abruptly; but a statement on how much I enjoyed it was I immediately purchased Scardown (sequel/vol 2); before I knew/realized was next book we are r..."

I also immediately bought Scardown and when it arrived I gobbled it up in 2 days and immediately ordered Worldwired. I'm not going to start reading it until towards the end of January, so it doesn't influence my comments on Scardown, which I enjoyed as much as Hammered.

Yes, I expected I might have a similar reaction, which is why I waited until the end of the month to start it.

so I missed the month for the group read of this one - can't remember why, but don't remember looking at this 1st one until the title for the 3rd one popped up and sounded interesting, so now I guess I'm backtracking. Only 50 pages in and it's definitely in the gritty spectrum of scifi, but I'm liking it so far - feels like cyberpunk combined with something else that seems possibly Heinlein-ish, but I'm not sure I've quite put my finger on the -ish yet. I've found the Feynman ref's, along with some other hints, intriguing - curious to see where they'll lead. Haven't read anything by Elizabeth Bear before, so this should be interesting.

Trice wrote: "so I missed the month for the group read of this one - can't remember why, but don't remember looking at this 1st one until the title for the 3rd one popped up …"

Exactly the same happened to me. Heinleinish Cyberpunk sounds right up my alley. Plus www.tor.com/features/series/sleeps-wi... has been trying to get me to read Bear...