What are you Reading? Mentatiferous May 2019 edition

I finished up The Magnificent Nine - now that was more like it! The author's previous Firefly novel (Big Damn Hero) wasn't as well done as this one; it seemed clunky in places and the characters were doing some stuff that didn't seem like what they would do. (Plus, he had this irritating habit of trying to reference just about every episode of the series in the first novel, as if trying to prove his credentials.) But he hits his full stride with this one, which seemed like it could have been a "lost" episode of the series. While it was similar in plot to "Heart of Gold" - the crew of the Serenity is fighting off bandits trying to take over a town on a desert planet instead of a whorehouse this time - it played to the characters' strengths and Jayne got some time in the spotlight. While the ending came as no surprise (I saw it coming halfway through the novel), it was altogether an enjoyable read.

Now I'm reading Genghis: Lords of the Bow, a fictionalized biography by Conn Iggulden. It turns out this is the second of a three-part series on Genghis Khan's life, but that's okay - I'm sure it's pretty standalone if you view it as just documenting one part of his life. The same author wrote a similar three- or four-part series on Julius Caesar, of which I only ever read the first one, but it was similarly well done. I'm only a few chapters in but the characters are engaging, even of I have no idea which are historical figures (besides the main ones, of course) and which were made up for the story.

Johnathan

I've finished Tales from the Den.

Started on another local author's book Progenie by Mack Little.

Interesting. Vampires, Djinn. Diverse cast.

Thought it might be time for some gay literature for a change.

Revisiting ON COMPUTABLE NUMBERS, WITH AN APPLICATION TO THE ENTSCHEIDUNGSPROBLEM

By A. M. TURING.

Excellent paper, but definitely not easy-reading.

Finished reading Howard and DeCamp’s Conan the Adventurer. I’ve mixed feelings on it. But I find myself still being drawn back to REH’s writing.

I also finished reading Time Life Books Enchanted World’s Dragons volume. A great collection of folklore and legend, gorgeously illustrated.

Now I’m onto Radiant, by Karina Sumner-Smith, and Moorcock’s The Dragon in the Sword, with it’s unfortunate swastika on the cover.

Been away on a business, so it was one physical books and some ebooks.

Physical book was "The Rule of Luck" of Cathryn Cerveny. I was hording it in case my kindle died mid flight so I'm not finished. Everything is turned up a little too high - it took "go big or go home" very literally - but other than that is enjoyable.

First eBook was The Wendy, a reimagining of Peter Pan. I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the narrative style. For all that it felt too short, adn the endign what what I would have expected for a "part 1" of a multi-part book, not the end of the first book in a series. But I'll definitely pick up the next part.

Second was "The Sons Of Mil: The Innisfail Cycle". Not too far into it but grabbed a different book part way through - just wasn't in the mood. Not a problem with the book. There's a bit too much coincidence, and when in one scene a character has multiple bones broken in her hand and then it doesn't seem to come up again I notice these things. But will pick it back up.

I have a weakness for well-plotted space navel battles. Though the Kindle Lending Library you can borrow one book a month. Well, they put in a trilogy of the Legacy Fleet series (currently 5 of so books) as one book, so I borrowed it. It was ... well, I'm glad I like space navel battles. The characters were of some interest, the plot didn't suck, the navel battles weren't insipid - if these all seem like damning faint praise you could be right. Call it a 5-6 out of 10. A bit too formulaic, not enough interesting tactics, more then a few continuity blips between books, far too "the heroes are heroes so they'll win" (including the "hero ship", which seems though 125 year old tech can't be replicated by all of human civilization which is pumping out literally hundreds of warships a month.

*shrug* I'm on the third (they were short, my flights were long). It's worth finishing, but I doubt I'll buy the 4th+ of the series.

I just finished Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross. It is a space Opera in a post-singularity universe.
Space nazis are the baddies and the plot is interesting, as the space nazis are trying to prevent the birth of a god-like AI distributed accross time, and see to the birth of their god-like AI. Not Stross' best work, which is excusable as it's his early work, but the beginning and end are fun.

I started The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl. It is Mad Men meets over population sci-fi. So far it seems eerily tropical with its consumption, propaganda/fake news and environnemental themes. Not bad for a novel written in 1952. It is my first Pohl novel.

Not reading anything at the moment, but in light of Gene Wolfe's recent passing, I believe it's high time to revisit "The Book of the New Sun".

That series opens up more and more with each successive re-read.

Mallus said:

Not reading anything at the moment, but in light of Gene Wolfe's recent passing, I believe it's high time to revisit "The Book of the New Sun".

Click to expand...

Just started reading "Legend of the Savage Isle", the fourth novel in Todd Downing's "Airship Daedalus" 1930s pulp style series. As a kid I spent many summer nights listening to "Theatre of the Mind" on the radio; such things as "The Shadow", "The Falcon"....

Just finished "One Word Kill" from Mark Lawrence.
I rather enjoyed it and was one of the more hard-to-put-down books I've read for a while. It was quite a neat story, although you can see some of the plot twists coming a mile off!