What are you reading in 2023?

[ichabod]

The only Bujold I have 't read (maybe the most recent Penric too...)

I was sadly not impressed with the latest Penric collection.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'll wait for your review, but based on the reviews, it seems like it's shallow in parts and deep in others.

So far, quite deep on men abusing women (of which there are many many examples)
Also deep on author's own life - as such it's more of a memoir. If one doesn't like memoir, this one may be one to skip

 

[ichabod]

I finished The Difference Engine reread last night. The end is not as bad as I remember, but still pretty bad. I do really like the middle, and it has some nice ideas. Started on N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season at lunch today, and that certainly has a good start.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I finished The Difference Engine reread last night. The end is not as bad as I remember, but still pretty bad. I do really like the middle, and it has some nice ideas. Started on N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season at lunch today, and that certainly has a good start.

Broken Earth series goes to some interesting places, I enjoyed - although I also love Becky Chambers Wayfarers series, so take my recs with grain of salt based on one's own preferences

 

[Richards]

I'm starting up the latest Lincoln Rhyme thriller, The Midnight Lock by Jeffery Deaver. I've been waiting for it to come out in paperback and it finally has, so I'm eager to jump in.

Johnathan

 

[Nellisir]

I read Jo Clayton's Duel of Sorcery trilogy and its quasi-follow-up, the Dancer trilogy. I've had book 2 of the Duel and all the Dancer books since I was a teen (or they came out), but never read the entire thing or straight through. A solid B, and I can see a number of things that influenced my D&D games and thoughts on fantasy in general.

Also read The Winter Queen and Death on the Leviathan, by Boris Akunin. Enjoyable detective mysteries.

 

[Clint_L]

Started Alexander Darwin's Combat Codes but I'm giving up - I've made it a third of the way through and it is not for me.

I think I'm going to try one of Martha Wells' fantasy novels, since I like her sci-fi.

 

[overgeeked]

I’m hitting a brick wall with Doc Savage #2. The Land of Terror. Published April 1933. The first dozen or so pages are a recapitulation that Doc Savage is the best, most perfect, grandest, most amazing everything of all time ever. It’s incredibly grating. This is given in a bragging “I get to go hang with Doc Savage and you don’t, sorry losers” speech by some bit player who’s already doomed to die. Perfect, Superman-style characters are my Kryptonite. They’re endlessly boring. Especially if they’re invulnerable and never make any mistakes because they’re just so gosh-darned perfect. I loved the goofy over-the-top shark punching-and-wrestling action of the first, but if the author is just going to gush all over the page about the main character, I’m out.

 

[Ryujin]

I’m hitting a brick wall with Doc Savage #2. The Land of Terror. Published April 1933. The first dozen or so pages are a recapitulation that Doc Savage is the best, most perfect, grandest, most amazing everything of all time ever. It’s incredibly grating. This is given in a bragging “I get to go hang with Doc Savage and you don’t, sorry losers” speech by some bit player who’s already doomed to die. Perfect, Superman-style characters are my Kryptonite. They’re endlessly boring. Especially if they’re invulnerable and never make any mistakes because they’re just so gosh-darned perfect. I loved the goofy over-the-top shark punching-and-wrestling action of the first, but if the author is just going to gush all over the page about the main character, I’m out.

Unfortunately, that's kind of the style of that particular sub-genre. Nuance isn't exactly their strong suit.

 

[overgeeked]

Unfortunately, that's kind of the style of that particular sub-genre. Nuance isn't exactly their strong suit.

Sort of, but not really. I've read a bunch of pulps and hero pulps before, including some Doc Savage and The Shadow, and I'm currently working my way through both of those titles from issue #1 to the end...or as far as I get. While it's true that nuance isn't the strong suit of the pulps, especially the hero pulps, my problem here isn't nuance.

My problem is the overly perfect protagonist re: Doc Savage and the...I dunno...Mary Sue fan-fiction quality of the start to this particular issue. Page after page after page of "oh my goodness, Doc Savage is just so perfectly perfect...he's the bestest ever at everything." Blerg.

Take The Shadow as a counter example. In the first four issues he's been shot several times, stabbed, put into death traps, pushes himself while hurt to save others, etc. The author goes out of his way to ratchet up the tension even though we all know the character survives and triumphs. The Shadow is still superhuman but more grounded through failures and getting hurt, etc. Doc Savage seems to be non-stop "I'm so awesome" from the author.