What are you reading, obsessive October 2018 edition

Looking at the collection, while it does have some heavyweights (Tolkien, Rowling, P.K. Dick, Butler) that you likely already have, the only up-and-coming star I recognized was Charlie Holmberg. The rest looked more along the lines of literary shovelware. I could be wrong and uncharitable in that assessment, and one’s mileage may certainly vary.

Blue said:

Anyone have any experience with the SF & Fantasy collection for Kindle Unlimited? My wife has it, but she devours urban fantasy and paranormal romance novels like there is no tomorrow, but I'm wondering how it is in the SF/Fantasy category for someone who already has a large library of books so would be looking at it for more new releases / lesser known authors.

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Ralif Redhammer said:

Looking at the collection, while it does have some heavyweights (Tolkien, Rowling, P.K. Dick, Butler) that you likely already have, the only up-and-coming star I recognized was Charlie Holmberg. The rest looked more along the lines of literary shovelware. I could be wrong and uncharitable in that assessment, and one’s mileage may certainly vary.

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That's my worry. My wife is willing to put down a book that doesn't grab her - and she does that often enough with Kindle Unlimited. Hmmm.

Nellisir said:

Just started The Girl in the Tower, by Katherine Arden. Sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale. So far, so excellent.

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Finished. 5 outa 5. Two thumbs up. Gimme part three; I can read the handwriting on the wall and see who's coming!

Finished Barrowcliffe's The Elfish Gene. It was funny and entertaining, but his continued assertions that there's just something wrong with playing D&D, just ring hollow. He gets close to seeing that it was more his own awkwardness and toxic masculinity at work, but then backpedals swiftly. And in an age with people like Joe Manganiello, Deborah Ann Woll, and more espousing their love of the game, it seems far more likely that he just needs a scapegoat for the fact that he's actually just a bit of an insecure knob.

Now I'm thinking about giving the Elric Saga a re-read.

I'm reading The Long Forgetting by Edward A. Byers. It's about the aftermaths of "The Fugue," an effect that traveled close to lightspeed throughout the cosmos, dropping the intellect of intelligent species to that of animals, wreaking havoc (as one might imagine) upon civilizations. (Humanity had, at that time, expanded to many other planets, aided by the discovery of stargates created by an unknown alien species.) Now, 800 or so years later, when humanity has regained much of what it has lost, an archaeological expedition has unearthed something that threatens the religion that grew after mankind reawakened from the Fugue. I don't think I've read anything else by the author so I picked it up based on the synopsis on the back cover, but it's been a pretty good read thus far.

Johnathan

Just finished reading So Say We All, the unofficial BSG book as told by interviewing the cast of the original series and the remake. Not my usual kind of book but some interesting titbits. Just about to start Sapiens, which was recommended by a friend at work.

I finished Uncompromising Honor, the last (*cough*right*cough*) Honor Harrington book, though not the end of the Honorverse.

I regularly felt annoyed as they gave large amount of time to characters developed in non-Honor books in the universe that I was expected to both know and care about already. This book did not stand on it's own at all.

And for all that, it left out plenty of core HH characters we did care about, or had them in one ensemble scene to have a few lines and none of their personality. This was especially true of the well crafted Havenites. And the whole plot that Haven would have lots of internal pressure against helping the Manties turned into a few lines of concern with one commander, easily addressed off camera.

The book is 90% talking heads. I don't want to spoil the ending, but David Weber pulled punches. Actually, I do want to spoil the ending but I won't.

For all that, I'm still glad I read it, to have some closure for a long series that I have enjoyed over the years. But it's made me realize that if in a few years I pick up the series to read again, there's a point part way through I can stop and be satisfied.

...

I then went back to Vorkosigan Saga and read Cryoburn. Enjoyable but not one of the best. Except for the very end, which is one fo the most pwoerful parts of the entire series.

I've now moved onto the last (currently, and chronologically) book, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. The first time I read it I was disappointed, this time I'm enjoying it. Their are two main differences.

1. It's foundation is based on an important reveal of what's been happening for something like 14 books. First time I read it, it felt like a retcon. But having just reread the series there were several points during those books that this was true, just not discussed. (And actually, similar things not discussed had come up because Miles' clone had asked, which makes you realize that Miles wouldn't even have likely been privy to this.)

2. The risk and magnitude is much less than other books. While explified by the books where Miles is the protagonist, all of the previous books are hyper, and for high stakes. Even when the stakes are personal. Here, there are questions - which important path should I follow since they are mutually exclusive - sort of thing, but more sedately and with less life-of-death (or life-or-bachelorhood for A Civil Campaign).

But you know, after reading the whole series, getting a gentle pull back into one of my favorite characters, and seeing her have another chance to grow ... that's worth it.

Finished Part 1 of the Elric Saga. It probably was the first serious fantasy read I came to, after The Lord of the Rings. I suspect that, as a kid, I glossed over the more psychedelic parts of the tale. But it’s baroque language still thrills, though his portrayal of female characters falls flat these days.

Finished up Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows.” Super-eerie, primordial horror. It’s the first Blackwood I’ve read; I got curious after seeing his name on a pre-Appendix N list of recommended reading from Gary Gygax.

Now I’m onto Myth Conceptions, the second book in Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures series.

The brink : President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983 by Marc Ambinder

after that I'll be reading Black Chamber by S. M. Stirling