What are you reading? [Jan 2016]

[Elodan]

Just started Heir to the Jedi by Kevin Hearne. Decent so far but having difficulty with it being told first person from Luke's point of view. It reads a little too similarly to the author's Iron Druid series (which has been awesome).

Recently finished Theft of Swords by Michael J Sullivan (a collection of the first two books of the Riyria Revelations series). I really liked this one, especially the fact it's a more traditional fantasy series instead of the grimdark stuff that's so popular these days. The heroes were interesting and fun. Definitely picking up the next book.

Before that I read The Grendel Affair by Lisa Shearin. Decent urban fantasy using more classical monsters that the usual for the genre. Not a lot of character development though.

Received a lot of trade comics for the holidays I'm looking forward to reading.

 

[delericho]

I'm currently reading Pathfinder #100, "A Song of Silver", which is well done. Congratulations to Paizo on hitting that milestone!

I'm also working my way through "Fifth Edition Foes" from Frog God. Again, a well done book, and a nice "Fiend Folio" for 5e's MM.

And, finally, I'm reading "The Man in the Iron Mask" by Dumas, but very slowly at the moment. Once I'm finished the other two I'll up the pace on that one.

Later this month I hope to tackle the latest Pathfinder Tale volume and also "A Confederacy of Dunces". I got quite a good haul of books for Christmas, so it may take me a while to read through them all!

 

[Nellisir]

In the middle of about three or four books right now, including The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales and The Day The World Came To Town. I got those two for Christmas. I also got a few trade comics, and bought more at various places at various discounts while travelling around northern New England, so I've read:

Global Frequency
Nightcrawler vol. 1
X-Men: The Adventures of Cyclops and Pheonix
The Origin of Generation X
Fallen Angels
New Mutants/X-Force: Demon Bear
X-Men: Blank Generation
Astonishing X-Men: Weaponized
Astonishing X-Men: Unmasked
James Robinsons' WildC.A.T.S
Cyclops vol. 1
Stormwatch: PHD: World's End

And (non-comic) The Black Country, by Alex Grecian.

Finally, I read The Sparrow and Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell. Highly recommend both.

On top of that, I spent a few days at my mother-in-law's, doing a few odd jobs and cleaning out books, so I've got 4-5 boxes of sci-fi from the late '60's and early '70's, and a few boxes of more recent stuff that looked interesting. I took about 20 boxes to the library, and threw out another 10 (crossword puzzles, diets, the latest medical advice of 1967, etc, etc.) Doesn't really look like I did anything.... :/

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Fifth Edition Foes is a welcome return for some of the classic weird monsters, indeed.

Dumas is a favorite of mine, though his Musketeers tales are my favorite.

A Confederacy of Dunces has been on my to-read list for some time. It inspired one of my favorite vampire books, The Fat White Vampire Blues, after all.

Started reading Surrender to the Will of the Night, by Glen Cook, but gave up. I liked the dense religious-political fantasy backdrop, but the series has been getting decreasingly compelling, alas. One hundred pages in and I needed a break.
So now I’m finally getting to Leckie’s Ancillary Justice.

I'm also working my way through "Fifth Edition Foes" from Frog God. Again, a well done book, and a nice "Fiend Folio" for 5e's MM.

And, finally, I'm reading "The Man in the Iron Mask" by Dumas, but very slowly at the moment. Once I'm finished the other two I'll up the pace on that one.

Later this month I hope to tackle the latest Pathfinder Tale volume and also "A Confederacy of Dunces". I got quite a good haul of books for Christmas, so it may take me a while to read through them all!

 

[krull]

Of Dice and Men
great read! I love history books.

Im just started Role-Playing Mastery by Gary Gygax
this one is harder to get through. It almost reads like a school textbook but the info is worth the tedium.

 

[Zaukrie]

Just finished The Long Earth. Original, but I had no idea our was party of a long series. Anyone read them all?

 

[Nellisir]

Just finished The Long Earth. Original, but I had no idea our was party of a long series. Anyone read them all?

Nope. I've been looking for the second book at the library, but it's never on the shelf. I could request it, but generally forget. I liked the book, but wasn't amazed by it.

I just read Ancillary Mercy (Ann Leckie) and After Alice (Gregory Maguire). Ancillary Mercy is billed as the final book of the trilogy, or something like that, but there's a whole slew of plot threads still open. Still a good series and worth reading, but the novelty of the genderblind language is a novelty. I'd be very surprised if there's not more books in the pipeline.

I did a quick sort through the boxes of books and winnowed it down to 5 boxes, including books that I have but want better copies of, and books that look interesting at second glance. Need to make another pass soon. The horror, the horror.

In related news, have finally and utterly run out of places to put books. Need to build shelves. Need to finish walls to put shelves on. :/

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

While Playing At the World will most likely remain the definitive history of the hobby, there’s something so charming about Of Dice and Men. The author’s experiences connect with so many of us, are so easy to relate to.

Of Dice and Men
great read! I love history books.

 

[Jhaelen]

Today I started reading 'The Islanders' by Christopher Priest. It's written like a kind of travel guide or gazetteer, describing a selection of islands in the 'Dream Archipelago', a fictional setting that played an important part in his novel 'The Affirmation'. It's starting quite promising, indeed, focusing on interesting historical characters and natural phenomena; much more interesting than I suspected it would be.

 

[delericho]

Just finished The Long Earth. Original...

It's actually not - Pratchett wrote a novella with the same idea some years ago. If you hunt down "A Blink of the Screen", you can see the original.

but I had no idea our was party of a long series. Anyone read them all?

I've read the first three. I really enjoyed the first two, but "The Long Mars" just didn't grab me in the same way. Too much padding in that one.

I'll read "The Long Utopia" when it comes out in paperback in a few months. And apparently there's one more after that, which is yet to be released - from the interviews I've seen, it appears TP did get the series finished before he passed, so at least we do get one more novel from him.