What are you reading? (August 2017)

[Kramodlog]

I'm waiting for Infomocracy by Malka Ann Older to arrive by mail. I do not like ereaders and I want a physical copy that I can keep and lend.

Anyway, I'm really curious to read about direct democracy.

"It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything's on the line.

With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?"

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I’ve heard good things about Infomocracy. Tor has generally been doing awesome stuff of late.

I’ve generally been opposed to e-readers, but am seriously considering picking one up. Mostly so that I don’t have to lug those 700+ page wrist-crackers around on my commute. You know, like the next Song of Ice and Fire book and the last Kingkiller Chronicles one…

I'm waiting for Infomocracy by Malka Ann Older to arrive by mail. I do not like ereaders and I want a physical copy that I can keep and lend.

 

[Blue]

Just finished the screenplay for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". Quick read. I liked it, but my 10y.o. who likes Harry Potter did not. I loved their portrayal of Draco Malfoy, but I thought they made Ron much more of a doofus then in the original books. I wonder if you needed to be more over-the-top to present in a theater medium instead of normal prose.

6/10 as part of the series - it builds off the existing books and doesn't hold it's own without them as background.

 

[Yaztromo]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: one hundred years of solitude, this time in the original language.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer was fine reading. Not great, but enjoyable. I’m finding that relentlessly snarky protagonists are growing old for me, though. Too much it seems like the character becomes just a conduit for the author’s jokes, at the expense of actual characterization.

Still, the idea of Thor being a huge Game of Thrones fan was pretty entertaining.

Now I'm reading Sir Pratchett's Eric. The Rincewind tales aren’t my favorite, but I never pass up a Discworld novel when I see one in a used book store.

 

[Zaukrie]

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.

 

[carrot]

Currently working my way through The Magicians series by Lev Grossman. It's got its moments, but I'm finding it a bit too inconsistent in internal logic, plot direction and character motives. Its proving a little too easily putdownable.

Fortunately I have the next book in Michael J Sullivan's Legends of the first empire to move on to...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I enjoyed The Magicians series, moreso after the first book. But I think it gets into trouble when it tries to have its cake and eat it to. Trying to be a post-modern gritty fantasy while also tapping the sense of wonder that it is also trying to deconstruct doesn’t always work.

Currently working my way through The Magicians series by Lev Grossman. It's got its moments, but I'm finding it a bit too inconsistent in internal logic, plot direction and character motives. Its proving a little too easily putdownable.

Fortunately I have the next book in Michael J Sullivan's Legends of the first empire to move on to...

 

[trappedslider]

Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer was fine reading. Not great, but enjoyable. I’m finding that relentlessly snarky protagonists are growing old for me, though. .

Haven't been around a few teenagers recently, have you?

I'm just about to finish up RPO and based on twiter comments and a name check in the book,i've already figured out one one big change.

 

[Elodan]

Updated with everything since my post in the July thread.

Finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Kline. Decent read, a little too much tell not show. Sections read like a reference manual to the 80s.

The Key to the Coward's Spell by Alex Bledsoe (an Eddie LaCrosse short story). Really good, made me want the next book in the series (assuming he's writing one).

Catalyst by James Luceno. A Rogue One prequel that tells the story of how the Ersos get involved with Krennic in the first place. Decent read but nothing special.

Gears of Faith by Gabrielle Harbowy. A Pathfinder tales novel that was rather unfocused and didn't have much of a fantasy feel to it. Read more like a romance novel.

Moon Wreck: First Contact by Raymond L Weil. Picked this up as a freebie on my Kindle a while back. Had to stop about halfway in. It read like a sixth grader's essay. Grammer was too distracting.

Read a bunch of sample chapters on the Kindle but didn't pick anything up.

Now reading Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher. I almost put the book down because the first few chapters had too much technobabble. It got more interesting but it's back to the point that I'm contemplating putting it back down.

I'm also reading the lore sections of the Sword Coast Adventure's Guide (read the cruch stuff a while back). They did a really nice job with it. I like the book a lot.


Feels like it's been a long time since I've read a really good science fiction or fantasy novel.