So what are you reading this year 2021?

[Nellisir]

I finished Bok's The Sorcerer's Ship. Quite enjoyable, with an unexpected ending that made me love it even more. And even though it's not in Appendix N, it feels like it should be. There's illusion and healing magic, even sort-of clay golems. The illusion magic especially feels like an influence on D&D. It's specifically called out that an illusion of flame generated no heat.

Next up, Anthony A. Barrett's Rome Is Burning: Nero and the Fire That Ended a Dynasty.

I haven't found my copy yet. Sad face. But that's a great review to hear!

 

[dragoner]

Just finishing The Fall of the Towers by Samuel Delany, thinking about Oath of Fealty by Niven, supposedly the origin of the "Feudal Technocracy" thrown around so much in sci-fi of that era, including Traveller's Third Imperium setting. Not super excited about that book though. I did get an Amazon card, so thinking about getting Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds, the final one of his Revenger trilogy, or Agent of the Imperium, by Marc Miller, of Traveller fame.

 

[Richards]

I finished up Venus of Dreams and I can't really say I enjoyed it much. The main character, Iris, was somebody you could really root for when she was young, but as she aged throughout the book she became self-absorbed, selfish, and even something of a Mary Sue, in that of the thousands and thousands of people working on terraforming Venus she was always right there wherever anything important was going to happen and everyone around her automatically adopted her suggestions - even her enemies. And I would have preferred a bit more action over the 536 pages; a great deal of this was devoted to character development, which would have been fine if it was a character I actually still liked after the first hundred pages or so.

But I'm now moving on to Bad Ronald by Jack Vance, one of my all-time favorite authors. While he's primarily known for his fantasy and science fiction, this is a modern novel (well, it was written in 1973) about a teenager implicated in a murder, whose mother then seals him up in a hidden section of the house they live in and tells everyone he ran away. The plan is for them to move away to somewhere where nobody knows them once she's saved up enough money - but then she dies from an illness and a new family buys the house, not knowing about Ronald still hidden away there in his secret room....

Johnathan

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I keep hoovering up the Murderbot books, just finished vol 4 and have vol 5 in hand. Vol 5 seems to be more novel length than novella. I've been really liking the novella length, and may start looking at picking up more of them.

I'm also reading on a book called Polaris Rising. I'm not sure where I got the impulse to read that book - but it all of a sudden showed up at the library in my name. It's ok, although has a lot of romance tropes.

 

[Lidgar]

The books I got for Christmas...
Piers Anthony Macroscope
EL Doctorow Ragtime
Barry Hughart Bridge of Birds

Just finished Murderbot Diaries vol 1 All Systems Red and super enjoyed it.

I remember really liking Macroscope. It definitely has a trippy vibe, but like the basic premise which involves how we can conduct intergalactic exploration without worm holes or faster then light travel.

Currently finishing up Lockwood & Co. Will be finishing The Broken Earth trilogy after that.

 

[Richards]

Well, I read through Bad Ronald in one day and it was a very good read - suitably creepy and yes, he was definitely a bad, bad Ronald. Now I'm starting The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver, a novel about a convicted hacker being freed from his prison sentence to help the police track down a killer who uses hacking techniques to find out everything he can about his future victims, to lure them into a false sense of security so he can get close enough to kill them. It was written in 2002, so the book starting off with a glossary that describes what are today well-known computer terms was kind of funny, but so far the novel itself is looking good.

Johnathan

 

[Nellisir]

I keep hoovering up the Murderbot books, just finished vol 4 and have vol 5 in hand. Vol 5 seems to be more novel length than novella. I've been really liking the novella length, and may start looking at picking up more of them.

MURDERBOT!!

 

[Older Beholder]

I picked up The Light of the Jedi when it was released at the start of the year. Having never read a Star Wars book before I figured this would be a good time/place to jump in. Just over half way through and I'm enjoying it.

One thing I've always loved about Star Wars is the visual design, so I find myself having to go online and google pics to see what some of the ships and characters look like.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I HAD been reading Tigana up until today. But it’s such a slog I just couldn’t continue any longer. So I completely switched gears and started I, Strahd, which I’ve never read before.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished Rome is Burning. While it's meticulously researched, it gets lost too frequently in the weeds of digressions and citations. Bummer, because Nero and the fire of Rome in 64 AD should've been a fascinating subject.

Next up is Joe Haldeman's The Forever War.