What are you reading in 2023?

[Eyes of Nine]

Put it aside and read something else. Try again later.

Yup, just got off the waiting list at the library for Monsters - A Fan's Dilemma, have to read it fast, there's a bunch of people waiting for it

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble...

app.thestorygraph.com

 

[Clint_L]

I have been on page 1 of Ann Leckie's Provenance for over a week - should I just read the thing already?

Just finished her latest, Translation State - it's really good.

I'm currently halfway through Jade Song's Chlorine. It's a lot.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Just finished the D&D movie prequel book about the druid, and am halfway through the other one that brings the group together, next up is reading the Feast of the Moon book, then I'll actually go watch the movie.

 

[overgeeked]

Just finished The Living Shadow, the first appearance of The Shadow in prose, from the first issue of The Shadow Magazine published April 1931. It was a bit slow and centered on Harry Vincent more than I remembered. A lot of coincidences pushing the plot. Lots of interesting puzzles, tricks, and ciphers.

 

[Zaukrie]

Just finished Use of Weapons, which someone kindly put in my little library!

I liked it a lot, which is no surprise. I did find the time switches annoying at times, but not so much I didn't like the book. I think I've read one other Culture book, but I'm only partly certain of that......

 

[Richards]

I was on a business trip this week, and as a result I was able to read through all 617 pages of Daemon by Daniel Suarez, his first novel, in three days. It deals with a brilliant guy behind a vast MMORPG (basically the World of Warcraft of that world) who creates a daemon - a series of behind-the-scenes computer programs which read of his death by cancer in the online newspapers and then start activating the things they were set to do. That includes killing the other people who helped make the daemon possible (kind of like the Egyptian pharaohs killing off the people designing the traps in the pyramids, so their secrets die with them) and recreating society to assist in the transition from being nation-based to corporation-based. And we see this going on all around through the eyes of the cops and agents charged with trying to put a stop to the daemon and everything it's doing. It was a riveting read.

I'm now about halfway through another Lisa Jackson mystery/thriller, about the death of a young woman in a very strict nunnery - she was strangled before taking her vows, and she was pregnant when killed, although the one priest we knew she had an affair with was apparently not the father. Her sister, an ex-cop going through a divorce (although I can tell they're going to get back together by the end of the book), is working on her own to try to figure out who killed her.

Johnathan

 

[WayneLigon]

The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty, The) by Ken Liu (Author) - #1 in the four book Dandelion Dynasty series. Very good book, and I would say that the first book does an excellent job of being a stand-alone book as well, in case getting into a four-book (and these are not small books) commitment is daunting. I highly recommend it.

This is a war story. The islands of Dara have existed as squabbling independent states for a long time, until one guy decided to conquer the entire area - they had airships, which no-one else had or could produce - and become Emperor. He's not a very good one, though, and near the end of his life, rebellion breaks out. There is a large cast of characters but it comes down to two - Mata and Kuni - who decide the fate of thousands. The gods themselves have even gotten involved, despite their vow to not directly interfere.

A note: the included map is confusingly laid out with North to the right instead of the top.

 

[WayneLigon]

I can’t get past his alt-right politics, racism, and bigotry.

Been a big hurdle for me as well, which is one reason to never, ever find out anything about any creative's personal life After the Sad Puppies business - whereupon he took a giant messy crap in someone else's living room and expected people to thank him for it - and his various screeds, I stopped reading his stuff even though the Monster Hunter books (at least the first three or so) and the Grim Noir series are amazingly good fun.

I started reading his latest, Servant of War, the other day. I didn't care for his previous attempt at fantasy, but this is pretty good so far. I like the setting and the world-building I've seen.

 

[overgeeked]

Been a big hurdle for me as well, which is one reason to never, ever find out anything about any creative's personal life After the Sad Puppies business - whereupon he took a giant messy crap in someone else's living room and expected people to thank him for it - and his various screeds, I stopped reading his stuff even though the Monster Hunter books (at least the first three or so) and the Grim Noir series are amazingly good fun.

I started reading his latest, Servant of War, the other day. I didn't care for his previous attempt at fantasy, but this is pretty good so far. I like the setting and the world-building I've seen.

Intentionally burying your head in the sand so you can keep supporting racists and bigots is certainly a look. Probably not the look you think it is.

 

[trappedslider]

Been a big hurdle for me as well, which is one reason to never, ever find out anything about any creative's personal life After the Sad Puppies business - whereupon he took a giant messy crap in someone else's living room and expected people to thank him for it - and his various screeds, I stopped reading his stuff even though the Monster Hunter books (at least the first three or so) and the Grim Noir series are amazingly good fun.

I started reading his latest, Servant of War, the other day. I didn't care for his previous attempt at fantasy, but this is pretty good so far. I like the setting and the world-building I've seen.

In today's world, it's hard to separate a creation from the one who made it.

Checked out Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons this past week.