What are you reading in 2024?

Nellisir said:

I've read the Ancillary books and The Raven Tower, but don't recall aliens - which likely has more to do with my memory than anything else. CJ is just so EXTREMELY psychological in her writing - I honestly can handle the SF, but some of her fantasy was just beyond. I read Fortress in the Eye of Time and by the end had virtually no idea what was going on. (I've since acquired another copy and most of the sequels, so someday...challenge on!) Accessibility is definitely an issue with her.

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Yes, had same feeling with Cyteen - by the end I had no idea what was going on.

Imperial Radch books - Ancillary series didn't have much alien representation except off screen. However Provenance goes way deeper into the aliens in the Radch local space.

And then Translation State (haven't read yet, but on my list) apparently also centers aliens

Eyes of Nine said:

Yes, had same feeling with Cyteen - by the end I had no idea what was going on.

Imperial Radch books - Ancillary series didn't have much alien representation except off screen. However Provenance goes way deeper into the aliens in the Radch local space.

And then Translation State (haven't read yet, but on my list) apparently also centers aliens

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Translation State is largely focused on aliens, and is as reliably great as all her SF books.

I've been reading up a storm, and just devoured TJ Klune's House in the Cerulean Sea - what an absolutely stunning, heartwarming novel.

Anyone else here read Cassandra Orlando's September House? That one has really stuck with me. As has Lasalle's Lone Women.

RuinousPowers said:

Just did my first complete run through the Wheel of Time books. Now I'm taking a little breather going through some horror novels (The Troop, Final Girl Support Group, The Others, Cthulhu Reloaded, The Only Good Indians) before trying to tackle the complete Gaunt's Ghosts series.

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The Only Good Indians is a superb book.

Wofano Wotanto said:

That's an interesting approach, something more commonly seen in cyberpunk stories with skill chips and the like. Assuming the skills and personalities come from a person (the creator, or someone else), does binding them to a stone harm the contributor, or is this more of a "we can copy our best general's strategic skills repeatedly" kind of thing? That latter could be neat if two people who both have stones created from (say) the local James Bond equivalent faced off against one another - if the stones were made at different points in the donor's career the more recent one might have the experience edge but more emotional baggage from a long career.

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I don't recall them doing this.

I think they hint that it is a destructive process - you put a personality into a stone, you are moving rather than copying.

Another aspect of the system I like is that the skill of the caster and the quality of the stone play a part in this. A skilled caster can put just 'good with rifle' or 'aggressive' into a stone, whereas a less-skilled caster might also impart bits of memory and personality along with 'good with rifle'

One hideous aspect I didn't mention was they use these to create 'war beasts' where there drop a personality onto a cave bear or titanothere and turn it loose on the enemy.

The Mage Wars series by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon.

So, I didn't enjoy these nearly as well as I have other Valdemar books, and I might just lay that at the feet of Dixon, Lackey's husband. Mainly because two of the books have nothing to do with the Mage Wars. Part of this is my expectation going into this that I'd get a sweeping three-book war story about the greatest magical conflict Velgarth has ever known, in a struggle against the most evil bastich they've ever had, Ma'ar. What I got was the war itself pushed almost entirely into the background and off-stage, and Ma'ar appears in one scene at the end of book one where he gets completely jobbed by our main protagonist. He barely gets to stand up and go 'huh, what?' and then he's dust.

At least Book One has some interesting worldbuilding, but I wanted a lot, lot more from this series.

Book Two is set ten years later, and is a murder mystery set in a new land that the survivors travel to in order to open up diplomatic relations. At least that was interesting; I don't think we've ever seen the Haighlei Empire elsewhere in the series, and they have an interesting enough culture to make the book OK. I have real, deep problems with the series of coincidences that allow the main bad guy to do what he needs to do.

Books Three has another 10-15 year time jump and is a man-against-nature story about Skandrannon's son. I literally skimmed 90% of this book, since there's no plot, no conflict, no real world-building, etc.

WayneLigon said:

I think they hint that it is a destructive process - you put a personality into a stone, you are moving rather than copying.

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Oh, yeah, that would prevent xeroxing you best soldiers abilities. I'm surprised no one's pursuing full personality transfers as an approach to immortality of a sort - or maybe they are, eh? A VIP moved into a stone could probably find loyal volunteers to carry them around and let them take control most of the time - or if a really potent stone/persona combo can just overwhelm a bearer (perhaps with aid from drugs or hypnosis), just have convicted-to-worse-than-death prisoners do the job.

WayneLigon said:

Another aspect of the system I like is that the skill of the caster and the quality of the stone play a part in this. A skilled caster can put just 'good with rifle' or 'aggressive' into a stone, whereas a less-skilled caster might also impart bits of memory and personality along with 'good with rifle'

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That seems to imply a less competent caster is likely to cost the donor parts of their personality where a better one might not.

WayneLigon said:

One hideous aspect I didn't mention was they use these to create 'war beasts' where there drop a personality onto a cave bear or titanothere and turn it loose on the enemy.

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Boy, I'd think that could backfire rather badly. I know I wouldn't be thrilled to have that done to me - but maybe they select loyal but doomed volunteers for the job? Mortally wounded soldiers, elderly patriots on their deathbeds getting a chance to go out in a blaze of glory, that sort of thing.

Interesting magic system, regardless. Have to keep an eye out for that one.

WayneLigon said:

The Mage Wars series by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon.

So, I didn't enjoy these nearly as well as I have other Valdemar books, and I might just lay that at the feet of Dixon, Lackey's husband. Mainly because two of the books have nothing to do with the Mage Wars. Part of this is my expectation going into this that I'd get a sweeping three-book war story about the greatest magical conflict Velgarth has ever known, in a struggle against the most evil bastich they've ever had, Ma'ar. What I got was the war itself pushed almost entirely into the background and off-stage, and Ma'ar appears in one scene at the end of book one where he gets completely jobbed by our main protagonist. He barely gets to stand up and go 'huh, what?' and then he's dust.

At least Book One has some interesting worldbuilding, but I wanted a lot, lot more from this series.

Book Two is set ten years later, and is a murder mystery set in a new land that the survivors travel to in order to open up diplomatic relations. At least that was interesting; I don't think we've ever seen the Haighlei Empire elsewhere in the series, and they have an interesting enough culture to make the book OK. I have real, deep problems with the series of coincidences that allow the main bad guy to do what he needs to do.

Books Three has another 10-15 year time jump and is a man-against-nature story about Skandrannon's son. I literally skimmed 90% of this book, since there's no plot, no conflict, no real world-building, etc.



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Thanks for the review, I see these on occasion at used book stores. Now I'll know to skip

I finished reading Soul of the City, the next Thieves World anthology. As the series progresses, it seems to focus more and more on telling a single story threaded throughout each of the individual entries in each anthology. Digging it quite a bit. It's also notable that only three authors contributed to this one:

Lynn Abbey
C.J. Cherryh
Janet Morris

Now I'm reading ERB's LLana of Gathol.

Ralif Redhammer said:

I finished reading Soul of the City, the next Thieves World anthology. As the series progresses, it seems to focus more and more on telling a single story threaded throughout each of the individual entries in each anthology.

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Definitely seemed to evolve that way to me, which suggests at least some contributors were collaborating more closely as time went by. Seems like a natural development when you've all agreed to share a world, although I'm not enough of a writer to know if that's really true.

Ralif Redhammer said:

Now I'm reading ERB's LLana of Gathol.

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Coincidentally, that's the last ERB I re-read after randomly finding a copy at a library sale - late last year IIRC. I think I'm happy it was that one, and am inclined to agree with folks who say the stories were some deliberate (albeit mild) self-parody by Burroughs. It certainly takes itself less seriously than some of the earlier books in the and turns the dial up on absurd coincidences, the wry humor and sheer weirdness a fair bit. The ending's a bit unsatisfactory, but considering the whole thing's effectively a fixup novel built out of four short stories that's not too shocking. Serialized the same year as Pearl Harbor, and the last completed Barsoom story arc before ERB died, since Skeleton Men is just the first part of a larger unfinished story.

Still has some memorable bits of worldbuilding for all its age. The whole setting of Horz (and the catacombs beneath it) would be at home in a non-Barsoomian weird horror or swords & sorcery tale,