What are you reading? Nov 2017

I just finished The Venom Business by Michael Crichton, using the pseudonym John Lange. I thought I had read all of Crichton's novels, but it turns out he wrote eight novels under the Lange pseudonym while he was in medical school. (So there are seven more Crichton novels I can hunt up!) In any case, this one involves a smuggler who gets involved as a bodyguard for an old school friend, and after a couple assassination attempts has to start wondering if maybe he isn't the target, not the friend. It's a "men's action/adventure" novel, with a bit of mystery added in (and some scientific background stuff, as is typical for Crichton). It was a good read.

Next up, I'll be starting Driving Heat, allegedly by Richard Castle of the "Castle" TV show - but ghostwritten by a person unknown. These novels are supposed to be the ones Richard Castle wrote during the TV series, but I have to mentally transfer the characters to their TV roles as I read them. (For example, Richard Castle is Jameson Rook, and Kate Beckett is Nikki Heat.) The others have been okay; we'll see how this one goes.

Johnathan

I'm quickly advancing through the 'New Kai Order' game books by Joe Dever set in Lone Wolf's Magnamund setting. While the first two installments 'Voyage of the Moonstone' and 'The Buccaneers of Shadaki' were really difficult, I managed to beat the next four ('Mydnight's Hero', 'Rune War', 'Trail of the Wolf', and 'The Fall of Bloo Mountain') in my first attempt. They've all been quite enjoyable, I'm just a bit miffed that the four new skills that were introduced aren't remotely as useful as the original 12.

I'm currently in the middle of 'Vampirium', the penultimate book (the 27th of 28).

I finished up A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly. Urban Fantasy of the hidden magic variety. I liked the concept for magic that they came up with, it was a fresh take. And they did a good job of putting in backstory to flesh out the characters that wasn't just checking boxes of Chekov's Gun. But the nature of magic meant that the actions for the first 2/3 of the book seemed somewhat disjointed and unrelated - you followed around for the ride but you didn't have clues to get out in front of it and go "ah ha!" except for a very few points. Something that also threw me off is that there is a character making a request in the prologue with large effect, but his dialog and such do not seem to be in line with other things we find out later in the book. (Don't want to spoil, PM me for more detail if you've read it.) I give it 3 of 5 stars.

I'm holding off buying new books because I put what I want on my holiday wishlist. I have a To Be Read pile but was in the mood for my not-so-secret vice, SF Naval Space battles. So I grabbed the closest Weber to reread, which happened to be Insurrection, with Steve White. I've read it several times before, but after getting a decent amount into it, the political scenes seems rather straightforward and frumpy compared to his later works, so I grabbed my e-reader and pulled up my copy of the first book in the series of that wonderful Mary Sue, Honor Harrington. On Basilisk Station is very little of the "we're the bestest star nation with the bestest tech and the bestest production yet still the underdog" that mars some of the later books. It's just a fun romp.

Finally on the final book of the Dark Tower series.

After that...... something lighter. History of comicbooks

Still working through the Wheel of Time. Going to be a while. Currently on The Shadow Rising, book 4.

Richards said:

Next up, I'll be starting Driving Heat, allegedly by Richard Castle of the "Castle" TV show - but ghostwritten by a person unknown. These novels are supposed to be the ones Richard Castle wrote during the TV series, but I have to mentally transfer the characters to their TV roles as I read them. (For example, Richard Castle is Jameson Rook, and Kate Beckett is Nikki Heat.) The others have been okay; we'll see how this one goes.

Johnathan

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so its a fictionalised police procedural abouta guy writing a fictional police procedural based on characters in a fictional police procedural? wow mind blown

Ralif Redhammer said:

Still working through the Wheel of Time. Going to be a while. Currently on The Shadow Rising, book 4.

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I got through book six (I think) around a twelve years ago and always meant to go back and read the rest of it. But at this point I think I'd have to re-read the first six again. (Or at least read the Wikipedia page on them.)

Tonguez said:

so its a fictionalised police procedural abouta guy writing a fictional police procedural based on characters in a fictional police procedural? wow mind blown

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Yep. They've even got Nathan Fillion's photo on the inside back cover with a list of some of Richard Castle's previous novels, including some of the "Derek Storm" ones he had written (in-universe) prior to the first episode of the "Castle" TV show.

Wheels within wheels.

Johnathan

Ralif Redhammer said:

Still working through the Wheel of Time. Going to be a while. Currently on The Shadow Rising, book 4.

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Well, you got farther than I did.
I stopped reading after book 3 when I realized that the story had only been advanced a tiny bit in the very last chapter. It seemed quite clear that this series would be going nowhere fast...

Has anyone ever played the Wheel of Time RPG, btw.?

This was one of the shortest campaigns I ever played in: it fizzled right after the first (short) session...

"Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

I’m trying to keep the momentum, taking breaks only for a short palate-cleanser book in between each one. Because, yeah, otherwise there’s no way I’ll be able to keep track of all the events by the time I get to the end.

Wednesday Boy said:

I got through book six (I think) around a twelve years ago and always meant to go back and read the rest of it. But at this point I think I'd have to re-read the first six again. (Or at least read the Wikipedia page on them.)

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