The Sword and Laser discussion

Happy New Year! How are you starting your year off?

I need to dig back into Forge of Darkness as I've been way behind.

Just finished The Blinding Knife, starting Steelheart in anticipation of Firefight.

Getting back to Rendezvous with Rama while I wait for my hold on The Sparrow to come up. Since both of those are on my Kindle, I might start Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch to have a paper book going as well.

Aw, Rob you started the thread before it was the new year in your time zone! ;)

I'm doing a beta-read right now while trying to finish Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation. I'm also going to start up on this month's pick and dig into my tbr_2015 list in earnest.

I plan to re-read The Lord of the Rings.

Starting off with A Calculated Life and then diving headfirst into a whole mess of graphic novels.

After that, who knows where the whims of the reading gods will take me?

Hadn't heard of that one, Trike, thanks for bringing it up...adding it to my "Want to Read" list!

I recently finished Agatha H and the Clockwork Princess(audio), really enjoy these.

I tore through Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and I liked it, even though it turned out to be a much different type of story from I was expecting.

Read Throne of Glass today, a bit silly and romancey, fun fluff.

Have Nexus audio ready to start when I go to work this morning.

I just finished writing a huge number of reviews of books (10 reviews to be exact) that I've read from October till now. I barely made my goal for the "2014 Book Challenge" of reading 50 books this year. I literally pushed the "save" button on the last review with 10 seconds in the countdown. I've learned my lesson to not let so many books get unreviewed for that length in time. ^_^;

So here are the books that I've finished reading:

1.) Magic Burns (Kate Daniels #2) by Ilona Andrews: My Review

2.) Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels #3) by Ilona Andrews: My Review

3.) Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels #4) by Ilona Andrews: My Review

4.) Magic Slays (Kate Daniels #5) by Ilona Andrews: My Review

5.) Magic Rises (Kate Daniels #6) by Ilona Andrews: My Review

6.) Stolen Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy #1) by Danielle L. Jensen: My Review

7.) Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid #1) by Richelle Mead: My Review

8.) How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You by Matthew Inman: My Review

9.) Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1) by Laini Taylor: My Review

10.) Dirty Magic (Prospero's War #1) by Jaye Wells: My Review

Now I'm halfway done with Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson and I'm really enjoying this book. I'll be sad when it ends. Brandon Sanderson hasn't steered me wrong yet! ^_^

Started Oscar Wilde, then switched over to The Sparrow since the former is almost 600 pages of dense, scholarly prose and for once I'd like to not be sucking hind teat on the BotM. Will go back to the Wilde biography afterwards (hopefully before the renewals run out).

Currently reading Hockey Confidential: Inside Stories from People Inside The Game by Bob McKenzie and, because I'm a badass, The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge.

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

Michele: I hope you enjoy Nexus! One of my favorite reads of 2014.

I am still finishing up The Doomsday Book. I really like it but at the same time there are several quirks that keep bothering me. (Why is 2054 Oxford more like 1954? I mean, I live here, I know the colleges like to keep things medieval but it's not *that* stuck in the past. Then again, who knows what happened in the Pandemic they keep mentioning. Suspension of disbelief, Robyn, suspension of disbelief.)

Think I'm going to start the year with Orconomics: A Satireand then make my way through Brent Weeks works.

Finishing up The Book of Life. I was curious since it won the Goodreads fantasy of the year award. It's really good, and I've enjoyed the series as a whole.

I have the club pick sitting here and am really looking forward to Gemini Cell coming out later this month. If I need something in between I'll probably snag Hunted.

After The Sparrow I picked up Children of God. Great reads, a tour de force of first contact: linguistics, cultural issues, anthropology, religion, and other issues not normally seen in an SF book. Both are great reads.

Because it is SF I am disappointed that the science was not handled better. There is a big, easily disproved whopper about relativity, and a basketful of other implausibilities. Still well worth the time to read.

I started the new year off with The Far West by Patricia C. Wrede. I sincerely hope that there are more books to come in this world.

Next will probably be Deeply Odd. After that, starting a reread of the Iron Druid books.

Right this moment The Dragon Keeper, on deck are City of Heavenly Fire, Honor's Knight, and Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon. Once I am down to one book I will be heading back to the library to get Heaven's Queen and The Red Plague Affair.

Those should get me through the first few weeks of January.

Reading The Abyss Beyond Dreams
Peter F Hamilton never disapoints

Tau Zero

The Beekeeper's Apprentice and Flowertown one of which has been on the TBR list for a long time and the other was an Amazon daily deal ages ago. So far, both are great though very different!

Listening to Lock In & readingThe Last Passenger (catching up from previous Kindle Select picks)

Jeff wrote: "Listening to Lock In & readingThe Last Passenger (catching up from previous Kindle Select picks)"

Which narrator?

I finally picked up Gravity's Rainbow. The beginning was so incoherent I initially thought I had gotten a garbage file and checked the title page several times. I'm hoping it will get better. It's a classic so I'm thinking it will, but wow, this almost became the first lem of 2015.

Edited to add: Yep, lemmed it. I skipped ahead and it's incoherent all the way through. I like Jethro Tull but can't do 600 pages of "Thick as a Brick."

Getting bored with Great North Road (seriously, this book is so long and getting to be tedious) so I'm going to take a break and read Promise of Blood.

Skin Game by Jim Butcher, and Eragon (because I was curious).

Dani is reading The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu

Anderson is reading The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham, The Elfstones of Shannara (Brazilian Edition) by Terry Brooks and Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Finished The Doomsday Book (stirring and emotional wrap up, surprisingly cliff-hangery) and have started The Carpet Makers for one of the other Sci-Fi & Fantasy book clubs on Goodreads. So far, I am seriously enjoying it - it starts out like a collection of fables, reminiscent of Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians and then....well, spoilers!

Just finished House of Leaves and wrapping up Jo Nesbo's The Redeemer.

I'm reading Jurassic Park for my Classic Trash group. Much better than I expected.

Finished The Night Circus. I don't have much to say about it; it just didn't appeal to me that much. The plot was pretty slow and the prose style wasn't good enough to make up for it.
Starting The Eagles' Brood by Jack Whyte.

I just started reading The Book of Strange New Things and it reminds me of The Sparrow so far.

Marion

Halfway through The Peripheral by William Gibson. Spent the first part of it totally bewildered but its started to come together and the plot is really humming along now. Eager to read on and get to the inevitable twists coming up.

I've finally gotten around to reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. I'm not sold on his style of writing yet, but the action's picking up, and I definitely want to see how it all turns out.

Molly wrote: "I've finally gotten around to reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. I'm not sold on his style of writing yet, but the action's picking up, and I definitely want to see how it all tur..."

I quite liked Neuromancer but mostly it made me want to read all the stories featuring Molly Millions. What a cool character.

Dara wrote: "Getting bored with Great North Road (seriously, this book is so long and getting to be tedious) so I'm going to take a break and read Promise of Blood."

Great North Road: I'd say between pages 306 & 415 is the slow part. See my blow by blow review that's not too spoilery: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I started Dhalgren along with the same group I read Infinite Jest with. Crazy so far.

John wrote: "I finally picked up Gravity's Rainbow. The beginning was so incoherent I initially thought I had gotten a garbage file and checked the title page several times. I'm hoping it will get better. It's ..."

That is pretty much the entire novel. It's crazy.

I got two series that George RR Martin has given shout out to in the past few years. One, Maurice Druon Accursed Kings series which GRRM has stated inspired his Ice & Fire books. The second series if by George MacDonald Fraser, the Flashman Series about Harry Flashman. GRRM wrote in his introduction to Rouges "If you haven't read MacDonald's Flashman books... you have yet to meet one of literature's great rogues. I envy you the experience."
And of course I will have to read the follow up to The Sparrow, Children of God

Molly wrote: "I've finally gotten around to reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. I'm not sold on his style of writing yet, but the action's picking up, and I definitely want to see how it all tur..."

It's a good book, but I find it's a little like Lord of the Rings. You have to remind yourself while reading it that this is the first book of its type to be published and that it's basically creating a genre as it goes. I think that takes it to brilliant.

Brendan wrote: "Halfway through The Peripheral by William Gibson. Spent the first part of it totally bewildered but its started to come together and the plot is really humming along now. Eager to r..."

I just finished reading The Peripheral by William Gibson.

Enjoyable, but I didn't like the ending. The short chapters made it buzz along, but he throws out a lot of concepts and not all of them stick.

Not his best novel.

Paul wrote: "Enjoyable, but I didn't like the ending. The short chapters made it buzz along, but he throws out a lot of concepts and not all of them stick.

Not his best novel. "

Interesting. I've almost finished it and will let you know what I thought of the ending. This is only my 3rd Gibson novel though so currently it ranks in the middle.

Rick "Agony Column" Kleffel called it one of the nine world changing books of the year. http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/31/w...

Dani & Anderson wrote: "Dani is reading The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu..."

Dani, I hope you enjoy The Lives of Tao! I heard Wesly Chu do a reading from the book at a convention last summer, and started reading it myself that very afternoon. The sequel is floating ever closer to the top of my TBR. :-)

Currently reading Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells, for a first-in-new-to-me-series challenge.

ladymurmur wrote: "Currently reading Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells, for a first-in-new-to-me-series challenge. "

Ouuuuu! You'll have to tell me how this one turns out. I was SO impressed in reading Dirty Magic, the first in the Prospero's War series and her newest series, that I was considering reading up on her previous series. If it's just as good I'll have to splurge to read it too! ^_^

Keidy wrote: Ouuuuu! You'll have to tell me how this one turns out. I was SO impressed in reading Dirty Magic, the first in the Prospero's War series..."

Definitely! I'm 50% of the way through, and enjoying it thus far.

Dirty Magic was the first of her books that I read, and I really enjoyed both it and Cursed Moon. Looking forward to Deadly Spells coming out!

Currently reading Stone of Farewell. A friend lent me her copies of the entire series so I'll likely be reading Memory, Sorrow and Thorn for a while.

I'm also a few hours into the audiobook for Red Rising. That should keep me busy during my commute for a few more weeks.

Just read the Persepolis autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in Iran. It's as heart-breaking as you think. B&N has it in the biography section.

I made my 2014 of 130 books (and went over), so I upped my 2015 goal to 135. Hey, Goodreads counts single issues of comics as books. :)

So I'm currently reading:

The Sparrow (audiobook)
A Dance with Dragons (on my Kindle Fire)
Last Call (paperback)
And catching up on as many comics as possible that I've been lax on reading. My TBR pile is probably over 50 comics. I'm terribly behind.