What are you Reading? Noctilucent November 2019 edition

[Ralif Redhammer]

As one of the few women in Appendix N, I felt like it was important to give Andre Norton a shot.

Some of my childhood favorites still have a nostalgic charm for me, but I don't love them like I did back then. Some still hold up. And some I don't dare revisit, like the Xanth series.

When I was a pre-teenager ("tween" didn't exist yet) back in the early 80s I really liked her work, but that may have been a reflection of what was available in my town library back then. Zero Stone and it's sequel Uncharted Stars are the ones I remember. My first taste of psionics, and what was effectively an Ioun Stone.

But recently I tried to read one of her books and I couldn't finish it. Heck, I couldn't even middle it. Don't know if it was that book or just a more experienced palette and matured tastes. I do find that many of my childhood favorites don't carry as a adult.

 

[Nellisir]

As one of the few women in Appendix N, I felt like it was important to give Andre Norton a shot.

Some of my childhood favorites still have a nostalgic charm for me, but I don't love them like I did back then. Some still hold up. And some I don't dare revisit, like the Xanth series.

Oh heck, yes. Pretty much anything by Piers Anthony.
On the flip side, I don't think Patricia A. McKillip is in Appendix N, but the Riddlemaster of Hed is excellent and of the right era to replace older series that have not aged...well.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

So good! Her The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is another absolute gem from that era.

On the flip side, I don't think Patricia A. McKillip is in Appendix N, but the Riddlemaster of Hed is excellent and of the right era to replace older series that have not aged...well.

 

[MiraMels]

I just finished up Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, at the recommendation of one of my D&D players.

Absolutely devoured it, that book got its hooks in me and I finished it in a few days. I'll probably read through it a second time before its due back at the library.

 

[KahlessNestor]

I finished Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, so I started on Ben Shapiro's The Right Side of History while I wait for the next Pratchett novel Night Watch. I think the City Watch books are my favorites in the series (though that usually lasts until I read a witches book LOL). He does a pretty good crime novel in all of those city watch books.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Gideon the Ninth is so darn good! And that ending, guh! Harrow the Ninth can't come soon enough.

I just finished up Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, at the recommendation of one of my D&D players.

Absolutely devoured it, that book got its hooks in me and I finished it in a few days. I'll probably read through it a second time before its due back at the library.

 

[Janx]

Finished Calamity last night. Next up is Veronica Smith's book Transparent Walkways, a collection of short stories.

 

[generic]

Currently reading Asimov's Guide to the Bible.

 

[MiraMels]

Gideon the Ninth is so darn good! And that ending, guh! Harrow the Ninth can't come soon enough.

THAT ENDING. God, I was not expecting something so romantic and so absolutely heartbreaking.

 

[Kramodlog]

I finished Latium by Romain Lucazeau. It is a very ambitious uchronic post-human space-opera. Well that was a mouth full, and so is the text. I have to say that I was sold on this novel because of the ideas (humanity is extinct, AIs are left behind and rule the place in a Roman-like setting because Roman went to space, they can't stop the invasion of alien life-forms that are coming because Asimov's Three Law protect the aliens).

Once I read it, I'm still sold on these ideas, but the execusion leaves to desire. The characters are a bit bland, the text is pompous and the plot secondary.

Still, I just bought the second tome, as I want to know how the universe is weaved and how the plot is resolved.