So what are you reading this year 2021?

[Eyes of Nine]

%70 of the way through the ninth and last Expanse novel, Leviathan Falls. I’m going to be sad when I’m done.

I have been wanting to get back on the Expanse train. Dropped after book... 3 maybe? Probably need to start at the beginning, I forget everything except that there's a detective and a ship captain and some sort of (maybe) supernatural thingie.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Still reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow.

Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.

Still reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Still reading An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

Still reading Critical Role: Tal’dorei Campaign Setting by Matthew Mercer.

Still reading Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones.

Still reading The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.

Still reading Black Widow: Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl.

Still reading Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb.

Still reading Sly Flourish’s The Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea.

Still reading Matchlock and the Embassy: A Thirty Years’ War Story by Zachary Twamley.

Still reading The Black Ice by Michael Connelly.

Still reading Rise of the King by R. A. Salvatore.

Still reading The Sorcerer of the North by John Flanagan.

Still reading Ghost Story by Jim Butcher.

Still reading ReDawn by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson.

Started listening to Starsight by Brandon Sanderson.

Finished reading When Christmas Comes by Andrew Klavan.

 

[Mallus]

I have been wanting to get back on the Expanse train. Dropped after book... 3 maybe? Probably need to start at the beginning, I forget everything except that there's a detective and a ship captain and some sort of (maybe) supernatural thingie.

The book series ends strong and books 5 - 6 are fantastic. There's some consensus around book 4 being a letdown, but I liked it. It dives pretty deeply into the 'supernatural' stuff. Mild spoiler: it's super-science, not supernatural.

The TV series is also very good. Though it's a bit darker in tone than the novels. The books often feel like summer blockbuster movies. The show is more Serious Prestige TV - still fun, though.

 

[Umbran]

Slowly finding ways around my covid reading block. First Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, and now John Scalzi's The Lost Colony, the third in his "Old Man's War" series.

 

[Nellisir]

The TV series is also very good. Though it's a bit darker in tone than the novels. The books often feel like summer blockbuster movies. The show is more Serious Prestige TV - still fun, though.

The books really grew on me. My reaction to the first was "Oh look, they're doing "X" in space now", but then it actually went somewhere. There's definitely a blockbuster/popcorn action movie sort of quality, but they're also well written, very well planned out, and solid. Not a neverending series.

The Expanse on tv is amazing.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords. It was a re-read of the series, though the first one was long ago. I found I liked it much better this time, all the moreso because I had finally read the Empire of the East series before attempting the re-read.

Now I'm reading Andre Norton's Web of the Witch World.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Still reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow.

Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.

Still reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Still reading An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

Still reading Critical Role: Tal’dorei Campaign Setting by Matthew Mercer.

Still reading Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones.

Still reading The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.

Still reading Black Widow: Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl.

Still reading Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb.

Still reading Sly Flourish’s The Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea.

Still reading Matchlock and the Embassy: A Thirty Years’ War Story by Zachary Twamley.

Still reading The Black Ice by Michael Connelly.

Still reading Rise of the King by R. A. Salvatore.

Still reading The Sorcerer of the North by John Flanagan.

Still reading Ghost Story by Jim Butcher.

Still reading ReDawn by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson.

Still listening to Starsight by Brandon Sanderson.

Started reading Critical Role: Vox Machina – Kith and Kin by Marieke Nijkamp.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I just finished Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. I haven't read a book by him that I haven't liked as of yet, but I definitely didn't like it as much as Mistborn or the Stormlight Archive. It was good, and I recommend it, but it wasn't super amazing or anything. Had nice and cool moments, I really liked the characters and worldbuilding, but wasn't really anything super special, IMO.

 

[KahlessNestor]

I just finished Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. I haven't read a book by him that I haven't liked as of yet, but I definitely didn't like it as much as Mistborn or the Stormlight Archive. It was good, and I recommend it, but it wasn't super amazing or anything. Had nice and cool moments, I really liked the characters and worldbuilding, but wasn't really anything super special, IMO.

I like its understatedness, and obviously we aren't done with a couple of the characters. The sequel is on the docket for...soonish? (in Brandon terms). Watch Brandon's website this month for State of the Sanderson to find out when.

 

[Richards]

I finished Hull Zero Three today and I'm glad I did so, for that was the second-least enjoyable Greg Bear novel I've read (the top title going to his Darwin's Radio, a novel I really hated and only finished because I was stuck on a plane and had no other options). I remember enjoying some of his shorter fiction but I think I'm going to have to drop him from my list of authors. This one just spent a lot of time going nowhere, with characters who didn't even have names for the first half of the novel (and thus I had a hard time really caring much about them).

So, to make up for a bad reading experience, I've opted to go with a book I'm almost certainly guaranteed to enjoy much better: Bully Pulpit, #151 in the Destroyer series. I'm not often steered wrong by the adventures of Remo Williams and Chiun, the Master of Sinanju. It'll be nice to catch up with them for a bit.

Johnathan