[July] What are you reading?

So, a new month means a new thread.

I'm currently reading "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon. I'm about 250 pages in, and not overly impressed.

Next up will be the novelisation of "Remembrance of the Daleks", the Seventh Doctor story in which he faced his most famous foe, and also the Seventh Doctor short story from the "11 Writers, 11 Stories" anthology.

The rest of the month should see me reading "The Science of Discworld IV", "Ender's Game", "The Crusader Road" (Pathfinder Tales), and either "Solo" (William Boyd's James Bond novel) or "The Cuckoo's Calling". (I don't think there's a Pathfinder coming this month - I think the July shipment usually gets rolled in with the big GenCon one in August.)

This month I'm still involved in the pipe band competition season, and also going on holiday to Barcelona, so should have plenty of time to read on buses and planes.

Oh, and I'm gradually reading the PDF of the new "Firefly" RPG - currently most of the way through the Episode Guide.

delericho said:

The rest of the month should see me reading "The Science of Discworld IV", "Ender's Game", "The Crusader Road" (Pathfinder Tales), and either "Solo" (William Boyd's James Bond novel) or "The Cuckoo's Calling". (I don't think there's a Pathfinder coming this month - I think the July shipment usually gets rolled in with the big GenCon one in August.)

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Woah. The rest of the month should see me reading "A Feast for Crows." Pages 202 to 391. If I'm lucky.

Speaking of -, does GRRMartin just basically give up on plot at this point?

Let us know how Firefly goes.

I read Charles Stross's latest Laundry Files novel yesterday: The Rhesus Factor. Imaginative, complex plot, lots of heart. And incredible writing: How can you not love a book that includes writing like the following?

Charles Stross said:

KARMA'S A BITCH.
No, let me rephrase that:
Karma is your vengeful bunny-boiler ex, lurking in your darkened front hallway wearing an ice-hockey mask and carrying a baseball bat inscribed with BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING.

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Great book, but if you haven't read any of the Laundry Files, you should start with The Atrocity Archives.

Lately, though, I've been on a tear of novels involving super-heroes. I've read the two Superheroes in Prose Collections (the city the stories are set in is called Prose). It's by Sevan Paris and is pretty decent.

Before that (and all the following was in June) was Kevin Hardman's Kid Sensation series (books 1-3 are in a collection). I don't know how far the series can go - Kid Sensation has a lot of powers and many powerful allies, and I don't know the author will continue to challenge the protagonist without a ridiculous escalation of threats. Before that was the Psion series by Jacob Gowans. A little YA, but OK. Before that was Michael Bailey's Action Figures: Secret Origins and Action Figures: Black Magic Women. I really enjoyed these two novels. Bailey uses language as vivid as anything Stross has:

Michael Bailey said:

...he is seriously freaked out about this. Like, Mom and Dad just found out you smoked weed and drank beer before driving your little brother home in their car even though you have no license-level freaked.

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Or

Before that was T. Mike McCurley's tales of a grizzled P.I./superhero named Francis Drake. They are Firedrake Volume One and Firedrake Volume Two. Well, he isn't really a P.I., but he's an homage to Dashiell Hammett even if he looks like a dragon and breathes fire.

Ian Thomas Healy's Just Cause and The Archmage were before that. A little bland, but fine. The protagonist is a speedster named Mustang Sally.

(A lot of these authors I found by reading The Good Fight, a collection of short stories that is free on Kindle. Be warned, though: you might end up spending a lot of money on other books because you read this one for free.)

I like Jim Bernheimer's novels, especially Confessions of a D-List Supervillain. I've reread it several times. He made a prequel, Origins of a D-List Supervillain, but I haven't read it yet.

Jim Zoetewey's The Legion of Nothing didn't hook me when I saw it on topwebfiction.com, but the preview of the novel did. I bought the novel and then binge-read the following installments. The protagonist of the Legion of Nothing stories, Nick, is a gadgeteer with a set of powered armor. He and his friends are grandchildren of World War II era heroes (or supervillains). Legion of Nothing is up there with the Action Figures novels as my favorites of what I have recently read. Marion G. Harmon's Wearing the Cape novels are also very good.

The epic series Worm is accessible at topwebfiction as well, but I think it is dark enough to count as horror. I read it earlier this year. I also like Super Powereds, by Drew Hayes. They are free: I'd recommend checking them out.

If you like "High School for Supers" genre you might like R. J. Ross's "Cape High" series, starting with Super Villain Dad. The first three volumes are bundled for Kindle on Amazon ("The Distort Arc").

A slightly juvenile but very enjoyable novel is Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Super-Villain by Richard Roberts. The protagonist is also a gadgeteer, just beginning her career. Roberts has some other fantastic reads like Quite Contrary and Sweet Dreams are Made of Teeth, but they aren't superhero stories. Roberts has a knack for creating vivid characters in a few strokes that you genuinely care about. And he is highly imaginative- not as poetic as Neil Gaiman, but up there.

I think that's most of it. Steven Campbell's Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy is set on a space station in the distant future. It is more Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy than a superhero novel, but is very funny.

I think it was the latest X-Men movie that got me all gung-ho for this genre. Before that I had been binging on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, which I think are familiar to everyone.

DMMike said:

Woah. The rest of the month should see me reading "A Feast for Crows." Pages 202 to 391. If I'm lucky.

Speaking of -, does GRRMartin just basically give up on plot at this point?

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Sadly, it starts to repeat.


I am reading Operation Paperclip - its the real world gathering up all the Nazi scientists by the US to continue their work while completely ignoring their warcrimes (experiments on concentration camp prisoners, used slave labor during war, etc). I think many people know about it (certain people know of von Braum for example) - but the extent and what was overlooked is rather troubling. It gives you lots of warm and fuzzies when the government says "trust us"

Lots of interesting items that could be taking for gaming. One could directly play out the discovery of some of these things. It would also be interesting to move it to a generic moral quandary - after defeating one horrible enemy do you overlook what some individuals did so you can them use them against another enemy - how are are you willing to go?

amerigoV said:

I am reading Operation Paperclip - its the real world gathering up all the Nazi scientists by the US to continue their work while completely ignoring their warcrimes (experiments on concentration camp prisoners, used slave labor during war, etc). I think many people know about it (certain people know of von Braum for example) - but the extent and what was overlooked is rather troubling. It gives you lots of warm and fuzzies when the government says "trust us"

Lots of interesting items that could be taking for gaming. One could directly play out the discovery of some of these things. It would also be interesting to move it to a generic moral quandary - after defeating one horrible enemy do you overlook what some individuals did so you can them use them against another enemy - how are are you willing to go?

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Imma steal this for its own thread.

To his credit, GRRM is pretty good at the moral quandaries too.

I just finished Skin Game last month, so now my wife has bought me a Kindle and Bill Shatner's TekWar.

the writing's OK, though the scene cuts are rather sudden. Sort of surprised Bill had this in him, unless he had a ghost writer or something...

I'm reading the The Crystal Shard because I wanted to at least read this trilogy before reading the sundering novels. Yep, I'm behind on my Forgotten Realms novels

caudor said:

I'm reading the The Crystal Shard because I wanted to at least read this trilogy before reading the sundering novels. Yep, I'm behind on my Forgotten Realms novels

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That along with the two off shoot books about Artemis and Jarlaxle are Salvatore's best work IMO.

I'm currently on Neverwinter, trying to get up to speed on the Realms before running a 5th ed game in FR.

Cheiromancer said:

Great book, but if you haven't read any of the Laundry Files, you should start with The Atrocity Archives.

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Ugh. I really didn't like the Atrocity Archives and I'm pretty sure it was _because_ of Stross' writing style. Different tastes, I guess.

I've finished The Dark Volume and Chemickal Marriage, the last two books of The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters series. Frankly, I can't recommend them enough. I thought I hadn't packed other books for the trip, but it turns out I did pack a collected 3 novels by HR Haggard (She, King Solomon's Mines, and The People of the Mist) and Angela's Ashes, so I'm smarter than I thought I was.