What are you reading in 2022?

[Eyes of Nine]

Finally, FINALLY finished Perhaps the Stars, fourth and final book in the Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer. It ended well, and I am glad I got through all 827 pages and the author’s afterword. But I’ve got mixed thoughts, mostly covered by these two reviews. I think the Not Positive is a bit too harsh, which is why I gave it 4 stars. But boy it's long; and dense; and sometimes the florid speech I was like - "can we cut this down to 5 words instead of 8 [or at least that ratio]?"
Not Positive Aden's review of Perhaps the Stars (Terra Ignota, #4)
Positive Henk's review of Perhaps the Stars

Overall, I would recommend it and the series as a whole.

Time to go read some less dense fare, like a few whodunnits and then A Master of Djinn; and hopefully after those Nona will have arrived back at the library.

 

[Alzrius]

I find myself taking an unexpected break from Michael Tresca's The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games in favor of A Personal Demon, by David Bischoff, Rich Brown, and Linda Richardson. It's proven to be a surprisingly entertaining bit of brain-candy, and I expect to be done with it by tomorrow.

It's basically an infernal take on "I Dream of Jeannie," albeit one that's slightly more risque and mixes some minor adventuring in with the comedy and innuendo. The humor here is low-brow; not crude, but rather self-indulgent in its cleverness, albeit only somewhat. Still, it takes its characters just seriously enough that it never descends into outright farce (the operative word being "outright"), and even allows for some heartfelt moments to shine through from time to time. As far as "magical girlfriend" stories go, this is one of the better ones.

 

[Cadence]

Finally finished "The Maltese Falcon". The middle was spectacularly well done. I'm not sure if the beginning wasn't or it was just that Spade's description was neither anything like the Bogart nor handsome enough sounding for just being in the book. (Effie's description didn't fit the movie or radio version at all either). The last part of the book was ok, it just seemed a bit plodding compared to the middle.

Have a copy of Wesley Chu's "The Art of Prophecy" on my kindle for my next one (with a fantasy anthology and the 1619 Project still part way through).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished Muir's Nona the Ninth. Wonderful, sweet, sad, dark, confounding. I am very glad the series has a history of coming out on schedule, quickly.

Now I'm reading Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Just finished a book I got at a huge used book sale (literally 100,000+ books selling over 10 days). Elizabeth George A Great Deliverance. Mystery novel, set in England. My favorite type tbh... I'll be reading more - the two main detective types are about as different as one can imagine. One an aristocratic playboy the other a woman from the wrong side of the council estates (whatever those actually are). I look forward to their relationship (non-romantic I think, but who knows?) developing over the course of the series.

Often the meta plot (to borrow an RPG term) for mystery series is what I like best, with the mysteries serving as reasons for us to get a view into the characters' lives. Good examples of this I like are: Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels and Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Jemma James novels. Looking for more like these.

Next up either Silent Parade by Higasino Keigo or A Master of Djinn by P Djeli Clark. Still waiting for Nona...

 

[Blue]

I've been reading two different subseries of Discworld physically, and a lightweight series on kindle/my phone. Well, just phone.

Discworld I've started both the Night Watch and the Moist von Lipwig lines. Generic for all of them - if you haven't read Discworld series by Sir Terry Pratchett, go do so. But don't start at the earliest chronologically written - his writing style and the Discworld itself was still maturing. Read the Witches, or Night Watch, or whatever. Google Discworld reading order for some entry points.

I've read Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms and in the middle of Feet of Clay. Definitely see the evolution there. Later in time in the Discworld are Going Postal, Making Money, and I'm reading Raising Steam.

My "on-phone-for-when-have-some-expected-downtime" series is the Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor. It's about a man who dies, is later "resurrected" scanned in to a computer as one applicant to run Von Neumann probe (self-replicating spacecraft) that ended up being the only one to launch at the start of another world war. It's lighter then you might expect, but I'm into the 3rd (short) book and things have gotten heavier starting in the second one. It's free on Kindle Unlimited, and exceeds the cost of time to read it. Some of them haven't.

 

[Blue]

Finally, FINALLY finished Perhaps the Stars, fourth and final book in the Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer. It ended well, and I am glad I got through all 827 pages and the author’s afterword. But I’ve got mixed thoughts, mostly covered by these two reviews. I think the Not Positive is a bit too harsh, which is why I gave it 4 stars. But boy it's long; and dense; and sometimes the florid speech I was like - "can we cut this down to 5 words instead of 8 [or at least that ratio]?"
Not Positive Aden's review of Perhaps the Stars (Terra Ignota, #4)
Positive Henk's review of Perhaps the Stars

Overall, I would recommend it and the series as a whole.

Time to go read some less dense fare, like a few whodunnits and then A Master of Djinn; and hopefully after those Nona will have arrived back at the library.

The very end of Perhaps the Stars was more ... graceful ... than I expected. I mean that in a positive way.

Amusingly, I finished that up a few months ago, and I'm just about the start A Master of Djinn.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The Night Watch subseries is probably my favorite of the Discworld arcs. The Fifth Elephant, for all its humor, is one of the greatest explorations of dwarves and dwarven culture in fiction.

I've been reading two different subseries of Discworld physically, and a lightweight series on kindle/my phone. Well, just phone.

Discworld I've started both the Night Watch and the Moist von Lipwig lines. Generic for all of them - if you haven't read Discworld series by Sir Terry Pratchett, go do so. But don't start at the earliest chronologically written - his writing style and the Discworld itself was still maturing. Read the Witches, or Night Watch, or whatever. Google Discworld reading order for some entry points.

I've read Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms and in the middle of Feet of Clay. Definitely see the evolution there. Later in time in the Discworld are Going Postal, Making Money, and I'm reading Raising Steam.

My "on-phone-for-when-have-some-expected-downtime" series is the Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor. It's about a man who dies, is later "resurrected" scanned in to a computer as one applicant to run Von Neumann probe (self-replicating spacecraft) that ended up being the only one to launch at the start of another world war. It's lighter then you might expect, but I'm into the 3rd (short) book and things have gotten heavier starting in the second one. It's free on Kindle Unlimited, and exceeds the cost of time to read it. Some of them haven't.

 

[Blue]

The Night Watch subseries is probably my favorite of the Discworld arcs. The Fifth Elephant, for all its humor, is one of the greatest explorations of dwarves and dwarven culture in fiction.

The Fifth Elephant is why the Watch subseries beats out the Witches for me. It's just. so. good.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Likewise. I think it's that for all the humor in Terry Pratchett's characterizations, it is never cruel. Not even with Nobby. For all the talk of battlebread and whatnot, they're never treated as wearing clownshoes.

The Fifth Elephant is why the Watch subseries beats out the Witches for me. It's just. so. good.