So what are you reading this year 2021?

[doctorbadwolf]

I enjoyed Aeronaut's Windlass, but for me I put it above his earliest Dresden and some of the Codex Alera, but behind late Dresden and well behind middle Dresden. But I've agreed with a lot of your book assessments before and it's sitting ten feet from me after my wife read it, so maybe I'll give it a re-read.

Yeah that’s probably fair. I think that there are maybe some lessons he has learned that are easier to apply to a new series than an to the series from which you learned the lessons, if that makes sense?

And he is much better now, IMO, at writing women. But weirdly like, it’s more noticeable to me in Windlass than in Peace Talks and Battle Ground.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Just finished Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, based ona recommendation from the Summer Reading thread. I enjoyed it, a solid 7.5-8 for me. It had been compared to The Lies of Locke Lamora, but didn't quite live up to that for me. One reason could be that except for a early scene that introduced three of the main characters, there was a lot more tell than show until halfway through the book. Of course, Lies is a very high bar - it's a standout that even the later books in the Gentleman Bastard's series haven't been able to match.

Would recommend, and planning to pick up more by Leigh Bardugo.

Which brings me to a tangential question. Shadow and Bone by the author has been made into a Netflix series that's gotten good reviews from friends. Has anyone that has consumed both suggest if I should read then watch, or watch then read?

There's a whole thread here that's not super spoilery.

[Netflix] Shadow & Bones

I really liked to first two episodes. Anyone else watching this? "Ravka, a fantasy kingdom based on the Tsarist Russian Empire, is set in a war-torn world plagued by the Shadow Fold, a swath of permanent darkness separating East from West Ravka which is inhabited by carnivorous winged creatures...

www.enworld.org

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'm unsure of the proper terminology, but the standard paperback book is about 4" wide and almost 7" tall. Lately, some of the better-selling books have been coming out in a taller format, still only about 4" wide but now 7 1/2" tall. I suppose it's to make them stand out more or something, but it irritates me, especially when I have a series that started out in standard paperback format (like the "Agent Pendergast" series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) that now comes out first in hardback and then in the "tall" paperback format. So much for standardization on my bookshelf!

There's also an even larger format, about 5 1/4" wide and 8" tall, that's comparable to a hardback book but comes in paperback format. Is that the trade paperback size you referred to?

Johnathan

Yes, the 4" x 71/2" format lots of Stephen King books are in this format now. Still a mass market pb; but just... larger. Annoying for the bookstores that were maximizing their shelf space with shelves that were exactly tall enough to fit the classic mmpb size book, like my local used bookstore.

 

[Zaukrie]

The first book in the Duck and Cover series is on sale on Kindle for 99cents....a fun little, light, series I enjoy.

Amazon.com: Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors (A Duck & Cover Adventure Book 1) eBook : Wallace, Benjamin: Kindle Store

Amazon.com: Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors (A Duck & Cover Adventure Book 1) eBook : Wallace, Benjamin: Kindle Store

www.amazon.com

 

[Sithlord]

Rex stout Nero Wolfe series

Louis L’Amour westerns

 

[Khelon Testudo]

It's disturbing viewed through today's lens, but it's not something present in any other body of work and the intensity that he mimicked the style fades as he continues. Though I think the vocabulary stays mostly true to that source even as the rest of the writing (and the protagonist) changes so if that's too much of a barrier you know it now.

Thanks. Yeah, it's annoying, but the vocab is part of the genre he's using, or rather mashing with the fantasy genre. The actual treatment of characters is sort of improved in the second book, but I don't think the term "fridging" had been coined at that point. Because of that improvement, and because I'm by turns amused and intrigued by his versions of fantasy 'races', I'm keeping on reading.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

MYTH-ing persons was fun and quick. One thing new that I caught was that the Woof Writers were clear references to Wendy and Richard Pini. Not having read Elfquest until my twenties, that went over my head as a kid.

I then read Manly Wade Wellman's The Golgotha Dancers short story. Effective and quick, it felt like it could've done with a little more expansion.

Now I'm reading Abraham Merritt's Creep, Shadow!

 

[Richards]

I finished Lisa Gardner's The Third Victim and all of my hopes for the book were met: good characters, intriguing plot, logical resolution. It helps that I was on an all-day courier trip on a military plane on Tuesday, but I finished the 373-page book in almost one sitting - I had only the last 50 pages or so to finish up Wednesday and Thursday nights at bedtime. So now I'm starting the next of hers that I own: Touch & Go, about a missing family - possibly abducted - and the attempts to find out what happened to them, with uncovered pieces gradually painting a much different picture of the apparently perfect family than the neighbors ever saw. I enjoyed the previous book enough that I'm not worried that it'll be good; I'm a dozen pages into it and I'm already liking it.

Johnathan

 

[KahlessNestor]

Still reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson.

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

Still reading Night of the Hunter by R. A. Salvatore.

Still reading Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How a Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine by David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

Still reading Turn Coat by Jim Butcher.

Still reading Emma by Jane Austen.

Still reading Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray.

Still reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.

Still reading Tasha's Cauldron of Everything by Wizards of the Coast.

Still reading The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan.

Still reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

Still reading Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson.

Started reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Still reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson.

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

Still reading Night of the Hunter by R. A. Salvatore.

Still reading Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How a Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine by David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

Still reading Turn Coat by Jim Butcher.

Still reading Emma by Jane Austen.

Still reading Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray.

Still reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.

Still reading Tasha's Cauldron of Everything by Wizards of the Coast.

Still reading The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan.

Still reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

Still reading Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson.

Started reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Do you read at least some pages of each of these every day, week, or month? Or are all these books just bookmarked, and you just read a few to completion at a time?

To contribute: I've put aside Garrett: PI after the second book for now. I'm reading Glen Cook's Port of Shadows, a fixer-upper of some of his later short stories about the Black Company. I'm liking the writing better, but women don't fare much better than in the detective series. With the exception of Her Ladyship, they're pretty much victims and/or whores.