What are you reading in 2023?

[Ulfgeir]

Started Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

Also reading that book. The setting is interesting, but I am not so sold on the way it is written. I much prefer The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher or the few books I have read in The Laundry Files by Charles Stross.

 

[overgeeked]

So I’m still working through the Coming of Conan anthology. I can’t read a book of shorts straight through for some reason and need to break it up with other things. Like the first Dark Sun novel, Verdant Passage.

The Conan story I just finished was Pool of the Black One.

Holy crap the racism in that one is off the charts. The villains are an ancient civilization of animalistic “blacks” who capture Conan’s crew of pirates. Clearly the writer of the introduction skipped that one entirely when he talked about how overblown the accusations of racism are in the Conan stories. No, some of them are just blatantly racist.

The twist of the tiny statues is great, so I don’t want to spoil that. But the ending. Damn that’s great. The pool-geyser-snake thing that chases the survivors through the jungle all the way back to their ship...I’m so stealing that.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Also reading that book. The setting is interesting, but I am not so sold on the way it is written. I much prefer The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher or the few books I have read in The Laundry Files by Charles Stross.

I definitely like Dresden Files and The Laundry, (also appreciate the October Daye books by Seanan McGuire and the Mercedes Thompson books by Patricia Briggs). Was hoping to add this to my group of urban fiction. We'll see where I am after volume 2... Volume 1 I read a couple of years ago, found it lighter than a Dresden book

 

[overgeeked]

October Daye books by Seanan McGuire

I have never hated a protagonist more or more quickly than October Daye. That Seanan somehow didn't / doesn't get sued by White Wolf (or whoever holds the copyright to Changeling: The Dreaming now), is a constant source of amazement.

I got as far as:

"Your daughter misses you."

"I don't know you or her. Sorry, bye."

I think that was chapter 2-3, maybe. Ugh.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I definitely like Dresden Files and The Laundry, (also appreciate the October Daye books by Seanan McGuire and the Mercedes Thompson books by Patricia Briggs). Was hoping to add this to my group of urban fiction. We'll see where I am after volume 2... Volume 1 I read a couple of years ago, found it lighter than a Dresden book

I can also recomend Lilith Saintcrow's trilogy that start with Trailer Park Fae.

 

[Blue]

It's funny, in my 30's; I had been reading a lot of Pratchett (from Colour of magic onward). When he started to shift to being more explicitly satirical of our Earth culture, I got turned off. My head is definitely in a different place now 20-25 years later. I've been thinking of starting a re-read; but maybe not from the beginning (too big a book set!) - but maybe just follow Mort or the Ankh-Morpork guards or something. Benefit now is it's a closed canon, which makes it feel a bit more doable.

I've been doing that - picking one sub-series and reading it. I did the Night Watch series and the Lipwig von Moist. Technically I'm rereading the Witches books now (and you can tell how early he wrote the first few) but I've got a stack of books from the holidays that pushed to the front of my reading list.

If you haven't seen it, google the image for Discworld Reading Order and look for version 3. It's got good entry points listed as well as connections.

 

[Blue]

I've tried Pratchett a few times but bounced off hard when reading Colour of Magic. Something about it just didn't work for me. I have shelves filled with comic fiction, and I loved Good Omens, but mainline Discworld just...nope. Any recommendations for where to begin when he's moved on from the "fumbled initiative" and "hear the gods rolling dice" stuff?

Bit late to the party, but I love Pratchett and I can't stand Colour of Magic and the other early Rincewind books. He wrote it really early, was going more for the absurd brand of Brittish humor that Hitchhikers exemplifies without really finding his voice nor having fleshed out the Discworld itself beyond what was needed for the next gag.

It gets a lot more nuanced the further along it gets (until he starts to descend sadly into Alzheimers). The Tiffany Aching books don't feel like they are written by the same author - unless you've been on the journey as both he as an author and the Discworld matured.

There are several sub-series, If you ever do want to give it another try I'd suggest picking one of the others like the Night Watch or the Witches and reading from there. The later ones are also worthwhile, but then going back to the earlier ones it will feel like things are missing since the world changes and grows throughout the books, so I suggest those as they both start fairly early, but far enough along into the development.

 

[Nellisir]

Also reading that book. The setting is interesting, but I am not so sold on the way it is written. I much prefer The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher or the few books I have read in The Laundry Files by Charles Stross.

I've enjoyed these, but not Dresden or The Laundry Files. So, that may be a solid divide. Interesting.
I also liked the short series by Mike Carey that I can't ever remember.

 

[dragoner]

Finished McDevitt's Talent for War, and have started the War Dog trilogy by Greg Bear.

 

[Reynard]

I finished Children of Ruin and started listening to The Prestige by Christopher Priest -- mostly because I have only ever seen the film and it is in the Audible Plus catalog.