Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Well, this is it. We're into the home stretch for this year. Only 31 days left to finish Bingos and reading targets 😁

I still have...too many...on my BINGO to go. How did I let myself slip so much, I was ahead at the start of the year LOL

With the start of a new month I'll start a new book, Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

That will fill my Free BINGO slot since it was a Christmas gift from last year (and bonus, I'll actually read a book within a year of receiving it as a gift, that doesn't happen often!)

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 14 by Nekokurage

Andrea wrote: "I still have...too many...on my BINGO to go. How did I let myself slip so much, I was ahead at the start of the year LOL
"

I find it is easy to lose track of progress on the Bingo, especially when life intervenes. That was the main reason behind this year's focus on getting to my Bingo books early. But it did lead to starting a few series and not immediately continuing because only the first book counted towards the Bingo. I have a few series to go back and read more of.

Now I just have to hit my reading target for the year - but I think I've only got 2 or 3 books to go, so I should be ok.

As the BINGO card creator it was skewed towards me being to able to use more than one book from the various series I had picked to cover BINGO slots. But plans change, like I wanted to use one for the dark fantasy but it wasn't particularly dark so had to jiggle things around.

I've actually done a year where I just tried to catch up on series I had started. Can always plan to do a half BINGO instead, to give some inspiration but at same time allowing you to finish some things you started that don't fit the slots. The challenge lets you pick how many you plan to actually read and you succeed when you hit that count rather than actually filling the whole card :)

Though its satisfying to fill the card too. Having a "make progress in a series" slot helps a little, I'll consider adding that. This year had the "finish a trilogy"

Those are good ideas, Andrea

Started off December by finishing Shadows Linger by Glen Cook, which is the 2nd Black Company book. I liked book 1 but book 2 was great. Really liked the addition of the 2nd pov, Shed, and his story line. Moving on to book 3, The White Rose, which I think is the final one in the Books of North.

I had to read The Glass Scientists: Volume One before I had to return it to the library. I read a few other graphic novels in this kind of...style...I guess you could call it (target age group, art style), and they were all really heavy on dealing with mental health, depression and such. This one touches on it, but it doesn't turn into a therapy book, its still a fun read and I thought a very enjoyable take on Jekyll & Hyde

'Amber Sea' by Lance W Marker. I was wacthing a documentary about Life on Venus (BBC Sky at Night). Couldn't resist it since I read Derek Kunsken 3 years ago (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amber-Sea-La... )

Finished The Glass Scientists: Volume 2, just as fun as volume 1.

I'm a third of the way through Starbound. It's considerably less YA than the first book in the series, which makes sense as the first book covered a period of several years, and this one will cover a period of 13 years / 50 years (the difference being due to relativistic time frames). I expect to make better progress from now, as work finally appears to be calming down - no more 14 / 15 hour days.

I've been catching up on a few murder mysteries, too many to list here. One thing that's really beginning to annoy is the (lazy?) shorthand that seems to be fairly common in the genre. A disproportionate number of the murderers are female and a disproportionate number of the victims are also female. Anyone who lives in a modernist house, (think 'Grand Designs') is automatically suspect. Such houses are always a blot on the landscape, grandiose and comfortless and their owners arrogant misfits. A building over a century old usually belongs to a warm and wonderful human being, unless they happen to be an inbred sample of the undeserving upper classes.

I'm not suggesting that these books are, or should be, realistic but there seems to be a trend for trying to make the mystery less obvious by using these tropes. It's so pervasive that the mystery element is, instead, being lost. I don't go for the gritty realism of the real hard edged detective novel, I'm too much of a wimp for that, but I do want some element of unpredictability, so that I don't know who did it after a couple of chapters. (That's not a boast about my cleverness in spotting the clues). It doesn't just apply to books. In the last fortnight, I've watched and read well over a dozen such mysteries and there have been two male killers and more female killers than murders (conspiracy). It's boring.

Hee, hee, hee... I see you Isabella 😁 I must admit to watching too many American police procedurals and you very soon begin to spot the tropes and all the writer's little moves. The most seemingly insignificant but likeable character introduced early on then largely sidelined, eg: the helpful cheerful but much put upon secretary is probably going to be revealed as the murderer in the final act. Similarly, you should always look out for the expensive quest star who doesn't seem to have much to do, or even appears to 'die' halfway through. Undoubtedly the villain. 😁 It is also fun to see the shows swap plotlines as the writer's rooms from one show do their take on the plot another show did a couple of months ago, eg: The illegitimate child of the unpleasant tycoon who fools him by working as his much abused PA under a pseudonym in order to murder him and inherit the empire. 😁

like you Isabella, I'm not pretending to be clever, it's just that once you watch a few of these shows, you begin to see how they like to construct their stories. It's not a case of following the clues, more the way the story is put together, directed and musical cues inserted.

What? Yes I know, but American police procedurals are undemanding and so kind of restful. TV comfort food.😁

Finished Blood and Other Cravings...there were maybe 5 stories I liked in this? Half the time though I couldn't even identify the craving, and since I was wanting supernatural stories, too many seemed to fall under people just having some mental breakdowns. And there were a couple stories that were good, but were a bit more disturbing than I was comfortable with, guess those stories achieved their goal but *shudders*

At least my anthology is slot is filled on my BINGO. And I'm probably putting this book into our local Little Free Library so made some room on my bookshelf ;)

Not starting anything new, I still have A Book of Tongues on my eReader and Out of Oz in dead tree form.

I just finished up Cackle, and I'm working on A Guardian and a Thief and A Memory Called Empire, which I am really enjoying. I'm a smidge behind on my ARCs so I need to get caught up haha

finished in 3 days it was a giant train puzzle that kept getting more complicated. it was simultaneously annoying and hard to put down. both character and reader have to figure out the new floor layout each book but this train layover from hell with monsters that evolve to be progressively more aggressive as the crawlers break a system that was intentionally made to break as they solve it was a giant head ache. we already know from book one that the aliens are dicks because they cause Armageddon and then treat it like amazing race/ survivor galactic style. but unlike the previous floors the answer to the puzzle is unfair because they are not given any info to solve it just thrown in a changing maze and hope they don't die. don't get me wrong still funny but i like the floor set up off the next book much better its kinda mad max-ish with clear quest goals
other books i'm pecking at this month are all urban fantasy stuff that's been loaded on my kindle for a while will update if i finish any

I read a MG novel that I do not have enough superlatives for! The Key to Extraordinary . One of the best feel good books I've read this year!

Isabella wrote: "I've been catching up on a few murder mysteries, too many to list here. One thing that's really beginning to annoy is the (lazy?) shorthand that seems to be fairly common in the genre. A disproport..."

Hmm Might I suggest that it could just be the type of murder mystery? I read quite a lot of mysteries myself, but cant say that Ive noticed these being overwhelming tropes across the genre. The only one I'd agree with is women as victims. I'd agree, especially in modern murder mysteries, the murder victims are disproportionately women for sure.

But when it comes to houses, cant say Ive noticed that. There is definitely the trope on the other side of the suspicious denizens of victorian homes, haha. And as far as perpetrators, I find in those I read they tend to be men rather than women.

My thought is, perhaps widen reading to different sub-genres be it historical mysteries, Nordic noir, golden age mysteries and so on.