Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

September is 2 days in, so it's probably time to start this thread.

I'm about halfway through The Moonstone and enjoying it, although the pace is quite slow. I'm also reading a couple of graphic novels, but work isn't allowing much time to do anything at the moment.

Too many at once...

FICTION
The City & The City by China Mievelle
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers

NONFICTION (at a much more leisurely pace)
At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell
The Face of Battle by John Keegan
Rubicon by Tom Holland
An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich

Finished Tunnels of Blood, almost read the whole thing in a single day.

I'm almost done with the Lucifer comic books (I had to research difference between comic book and graphic novel and its pretty much depends if it was serialized into issues before it was collected into a book or not). I just have one left which I'll tackle this weekend since I could only find it on Hoopla and I only read on my computer on weekends. Can't bear the thought of staring at a screen more after a work day!

So I started in on the Hellblazer, Vol. 1: Original Sins series with John Constantine. These are....different...not sure I have words to describe them. Some have less of a plot and more of a stream of consciousness? I'm sure drugs were involved. Heck, some of the issues probably qualify as Dreampunk they are so trippy.

Will see if I want to plod through them, but for example in a Lucifer issue we meet up with Gabriel who is now human and has a hole in his chest where his heart is supposed to go, and if you want to know how that happened, well it's in one of the Hellblazer issues. Reading these Vertigo comics is like unravelling spaghetti, they all overlap with each other. Which is fun, but also confusing if you encounter them out of order.

As far as actual novels though, I'm starting on Shadow by K.J. Parker, this should fill my Swordsman BINGO slot I hope at least I used the blurb of this book to inspire my inclusion of that slot ;)

20% into the fifth season. It has vibes like The Wheel of Time, but make it more horrific— a world you absolutely would not want to live in, rather than a world that seems like it might be pretty okay if you manage to avoid being born in the apocalypse eras.

Nvm warnings did not prepare me for literally the next scene.

Peony wrote: "20% into the fifth season. It has vibes like The Wheel of Time, but make it more horrific— a world you absolutely would not want to live in, rather than a world that seems like it might be pretty o..."

It was pretty depressing; I haven't continued the series for that reason. But it is extremely well done.

Finishing up Cascade Failure, a Firefly wannabe. It's all right.

Reading an ARC of The Alchemy of Fate, third of a really fun steampunk-ish series.

Im okay with depressing. Not on-screen horror. Especially if I don’t expect it.

Andrea wrote: "So I started in on the Hellblazer, Vol. 1: Original Sins series with John Constantine. These are....different...not sure I have words to describe them."

The DC occult series from the early 90s - primarily Hellblazer and Swamp Thing - were certainly different, and trippy is often not a bad description. They did have some really good writing at times, and the success of those led to Sandman.

My deliberations are over and I have plumped for 'The Etched City' by K J Bishop.

Partly because it seemed from comments on-line like it would be a complete contrast to 'The Sky on Fire'. It is described by many as having literary pretensions, or indeed by others as being, 'too arty for its own good.' The blurb intrigued me as well.

I made a start on it last night and it looks promising. I haven't encountered any pretensions as yet (but it's early days). So far, what I am reading seems to be a well written, odd but intriguing mash up of a Spaghetti Western, a Samurai movie and the Arabian nights.

Quite how sustainable that is over a whole novel remains to be seen 😁. I'll let you know😊

this month i am primarily reading The Magelands Epic, Books 1-4 book 1 was great now on to book 2 :) although i felt like one of the MC Delphine we just got dumped in the middle of her plot arc so i recommend reading her back story book alongside book 1 or 2 it is short and i'm already half done with it. some ther characters also have backstory books but im feel like their arcs are better explained and its less necessary to understand the current actions.
i'm also enjoying Supernatural Disasters its funny and action packed from the beginning. been on my TBR for a long time. why did wait on this one?

I finished R.U.R. by Karel Capek earlier this week. It is the work that originally coined the term "robot" in sci-fi and was really one of the major starting points for modern sci-fi robots/artificial intelligence/smart technology in the early 20th century. I personally really enjoyed it!

I find I often get a bit of a "cosy" feeling of connection with authors from 100+ years in the past who were tackling tech issues that are so relevant today, long before tech in question ever arose. I like that feeling of connection to those living more than a century ago.

I'm now reading the new Shari Lapena mystery thriller, She Didn't See It Coming. As usual with her work, it's pretty addictive so far.

Finished the Fifth Season. Well, that went….nowhere. And the plot twists, albeit smart, made things worse in regard to anything going anywhere.

Finished the Shadows of the Apt series. This got better as it went along with book 10 being one of the strongest of the series, if not the best. As a whole, it was a real triumph, with plenty to like.

Andy wrote: "Finished the Shadows of the Apt series. This got better as it went along with book 10 being one of the strongest of the series, if not the best. As a whole, it was a real triumph, with plenty to like."

I've got a few of those that I've collected from used bookstores, haven't started on the series yet. But I've liked the couple books of Tchaikovsky that I've read...if I recall both of those were group reads at one time :)

I finished She Didn't See It Coming by Shari Lapena and got exactly what I am for!

I'm now onto The Black Company by Glen Cook. Have been wanting to read this series for a while and have been slowly collecting the books from used shops. So far so good!

OK, so an update on K J Bishops 'The Etched City'

Our MCs have decided to leave the desert lands for a storied and ancient city, because of a tourist's guide one of them found in a used book store that made it sound like a fascinating place to begin a new life.

The reality is that it is home to every kind of corruption, perversion and depravity imaginable. Here, only the elite have a good time, everyone else lives in poverty , in conditions somewhere between the slums of Victorian London and the mean streets of Gotham City.

So, to our previous genre mash up of Spaghetti Western/Samurai movie/Arabian Nights, please now add... Charles Dickens/West Side Story/Angels With Dirty Faces.

The Arty/literary tendencies of which they spoke have properly surfaced now as well. K J Bishop has a penchant for long complex sentences that occasionally make you say 'hold on K J what was that again?' She also has the most extraordinary and impressive vocabulary. I'm having to stop and look things up (reading it on Kindle, so it only takes a moment). I have to say, I like that😁 It has been a while since someone made me stop and look words up.😊 I mean, you can infer the meaning from context, so you don't have to but I want to.😊

'Arty tendencies' went into overdrive last night, as two characters (a perverted priest and a hit man) met in a bistro and had a long conversation about philosophy and religion. It wasn't dull or anything, it was interesting stuff but as far as I can tell, it was apropos to nothing as far as story or plot are concerned (you could argue it was 'character development' I suppose)?

Anyway, it continues to surprise me, which is entirely a good thing...😊

'A perverted priest and a Hitman sat down in a bistro to discuss philosophy and religion.' Seeing that sentence written down made me wonder if I should add, 'Tarantinoesque' to the genre mash up list. 😂

Artificial Wisdom Thomas R. Weaver

In this multi-genre novel, climate change is devastating the planet; an artificial intelligence is running for office against a human; there's a murder mystery; and there are futuristic sci-fi elements.

Very current themes. 3.5 stars

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

Robin wrote: " I have to say, I like that😁 It has been a while since someone made me stop and look words up.😊 I mean, you can infer the meaning from context, so you don't have to but I want to.😊"

Donaldson regularly did that in the Thomas Covenant series. There were times it was so common in that series that it seemed somewhat pretentious, at least to me.

So far it's just interesting but yeah, I know what you mean Tony, if overdone it can get a bit irritating and certainly come across as pretentious. This book has been accused of pretentiousness by some reviewers but so far it only strikes me as skilful and ambitious... that could change quite quickly though, eh? 😊

Tony wrote: "Robin wrote: " I have to say, I like that😁 It has been a while since someone made me stop and look words up.😊 I mean, you can infer the meaning from context, so you don't have to but I want to.😊"

..."

Janny Wurts' books are like this, too.

Lovecraft has all these creepy words like “squamous", “cyclopean,” 'gibbous', "Vaporous" and there were few related to fungus that I can't find at the moment.

I do remember kind of eye-rolling when reading Donaldson, like instead of using a perfect normal word he had to reach for the thesaurus at least once a paragraph.

Finished The Black Company by Glen Cook and thought it was pretty great military fantasy. Felt like the author was still finding his feet at times, but still very good start to the series.

I just started book 2 of the Black Company, Shadows Linger and only a couple chapters in. I'm glad Croaker is back!

NekroRider wrote: "Finished The Black Company by Glen Cook and thought it was pretty great military fantasy. Felt like the author was still finding his feet at times, but still very good start to the se..."

I love the character Croaker. And Soulcatcher was my favorite villain.

Just finished two of my fiction books...

Unpopular opinion time! A Psalm for the Wild Built's popularity isn't as baffling as I thought when I first finished it. It is like going on a multi-day hike but you stay in cabins every night and someone is cooking you fancy meals and carrying all your stuff. Comfort with just a touch of real adventure but far enough removed that you want to be critical of the whole experience...

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

Meanwhile, I also just finished The City & the City. Sometimes Miéville gets in his own way. It almost happens here, but he still delivers:

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

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. Though mostly a supernatural horror themed story I find it an interesting read.

I loved Odd Thomas. I even liked the movie, although apparently I am in the minority on that one.

I Am Legend I read this for my library Grim Readers book club. It was quite grim! (and nothing like the 2/3 movies I've watched so far) Loved the ending!! But what really sold me was the 10 short stories included. SO SO creepy! So creepy they made my stomach ache like happened to me waaaay back when I was a teen and read Lovecraft until I couldn't stomach even one more. So I had to space them out. Powerful stuff to me!

Lots of sci-fi short stories for my SFF class. This past week I read The Last Question, Runaround, Reason, The Star, and Microcosmic God, of which The Star was by far my favorite. Which was a little surprising because I didn't like 2001: A Space Odyssey that much, but it's a very compelling short story with a great premise.

myla wrote: "Lots of sci-fi short stories for my SFF class. This past week I read The Last Question, Runaround, Reason, The Star, and [book:Microc..."

A SFF class sounds so interesting! Enjoy!

Just started Knightmare Arcanist yesterday and already half done. the magic system is different and cute because the mages must bond with a magical creature to get specific skills. After the grave digger apprentices are excluded from bonding with phenoxies due to traditions, they must find a way to get in the games and off the island. Of course nothing ever goes exactly to plan and their choices lead to some good misadventures. MCs are lieable and the magic system and guilds are cool so far. the magical creatures are also active members of the core group.

finished in days highly recommend. Magic plagues and a bit of mystery make for a good plot. I want some of the side characters to get more attention in latter books because of cool creature pairs

I have finally finished The Moonstone, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite it taking a ridiculously long time to read - mainly because of work pressures.

I have started reading, or rather, rereading - although it has been a long time - Trouble With Lichen.

Finished Shadow by K.J. Parker, you really need to pay attention while reading this one to unravel everything and keep what's going on straight. The protagonist lost his memory so he not only doesn't know who he is, but he doesn't know anything about the world he's in either but everyone seems to know him. Definitely filled the Features a Swordsman slot though.

Next up letting my brain take a vacation - The Vampire Prince by Darren Shan

It was slow going, but I finished Den of Wolves , book 3 of Blackthorn and Grim. It fulfilled my O5 bingo slot and with it, I completed my card!! Woot!!

Paused in the middle of The Vampire Prince to read Locke & Key: The Golden Age by Joe Hill. Let just say while I found the first book in the series really tough to read (it has pretty much every trigger warning you can imagine) I really ending up enjoying the series. And this book in particular was a load of fun with a good mix of humour along with the horror. And a really well done crossover with The Sandman universe, integrating the two very closely in a way I didn't expect.

Using this for my Portal BINGO slot since the portals in the Myst book I read were very tangential and just a fact of life in that world, but the plot didn't really depend on them much. But the ability to use keys to step into other places is very core to the Locke & Key series.

Finished Vampire Prince, as expected it was a fast read, going through 100 pages per day for two days.

Now to fill some of my BINGO slots I need to read some books in the series that come before them. Out of Oz was free for me, but while I read books 1 and 2, I still need to read number 3 before jumping ahead to the fourth. So A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire is up next.

40% into Red Rising. It’s interesting.

OK, so I have finished 'Etched City ' and what a strange book it was. Gory ultraviolence one minute, philosophical musings on life, death and everything the next. Great writing, fantastic and memorable imagery, and yet... At the end of the day, I'm not entirely sure I can tell you what the book was actually about. I don't mean the plot, I can tell you that but what was it trying to say?

That being said, I have still given it four stars. It was trying to do something different. Do I think it entirely succeeded? No. Did it leave me fully satisfied? No. Was the ending ambiguous and vague? Yes (deliberately so, I feel). However, I was entertained and intrigued throughout and the attempt at a different kind of a story was sincere. So yes, four Stars. Not for everyone though and I can quite understand why a person might hate it, should that be their reaction.

'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett is next 🙂

I sure enjoyed it, Robin. Hope you do too!

Didn't have much reading time the last couple weeks, so by the time the end of the month came I was still not very far into Shadows Linger. Decided I might as well officially pause it and start my Spooky Season reads! I started Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon and put a decent dent in it this weekend. A few years back I read another book by Tryon, The Other, but wasn't a big fan. Harvest Home has been much more engaging and atmospheric!

Continuing the Broken Earth series. Edited my review of The Fifth Season:

A well-written book with poor pacing. It’s not that I wasn’t enthralled—it had tension and (I thought) direction— but its plot twists unravel its expected progressions into stillness; the book goes near-nowhere.

I like this book enough. I’d give it 3.5 stars in ‘liked,’ but its writing itself is usually a 5. The plot drags it down.

Also, I’m not one for horrific, on-screen cruelty. There’s two scenes, around the 20% mark, that really got to me, and not in the good way. It toes the line of sensationalism, and it’s disproportionately against children, all of it abusive, cruel, and systematic, written to shock. Some of it is injustice against magic users in general, and the pain of parents, but not most.

Paradoxically, much of its tone reminded me of The Wheel of Time’s world. I think it’s the magic system and its mysterious organization with factions.