What are you reading in 2023?

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finished Lin Carter's Thongor and the Dragon City. It was fun, though certainly not great literature. Two things of Appendix N note - there's a black metal of unbreakable strength called Nebium that sounds a whole lot like adamantine. In the appendix, there is also a reference to a human-headed snake creature, though no such thing appears in this story.

Now I'm reading Weis and Hickman's Dragons of Fate.

 

[overgeeked]

I finished The Shadow #3 today. The Shadow Laughs. Published October 1931. The first appearance of the Cobalt Club, first use of reoccurring villains and locations, it’s revealed that The Shadow is not Lamont Cranston, and the first use of “The Shadow Knows!” The writer is already experimenting with layered mysteries, multiple storylines that dovetail together, revealing info to the reader the characters don’t have, and maintaining the mystery of the main character. In all a very fun romp.

 

[ichabod]

I finished the Spirit Ring last night. A nice little story and nicely historical, if not up to Bujold's other fantasy works. Next is a rereading of the Difference Engine by Gibson and Sterling.

 

[Parmandur]

Just read "Death Comes as the End" by Agatha Christie, the first historical mystery novel ever written and one of her few works never to be filmed. Set ~2000 BC in ancient Egypt, about a Priest who brings a new concubine home to his children and grandchildren. The family then has a very bad year.

 

[Zaukrie]

Crossroads of the Apocalypse.

 

[Blue]

My TBR pile shouted at me as I reread an old trilogy I enjoyed. Started when I had some down time and looked what books I had loaded onto my phone, causing me to start the first of the series, and then I finished the other two in physical. (I have all three in physical.)

It's the Dahak series by David Weber, consisting of Mutineers' Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance, and Heirs of Empire. All of them are a bit Mary Sue SF action and space battle books with an MC but also occasionally told from the point of view of others including certain bad guys, not all of whom have a redemption arc. Not quite an ensemble cast since it does have a definite MC, but still. Though the other characters are interesting and memorable, they aren't consistently fleshed out/complex enough to be "alive" in many cases.

MM is the first, and probably my favorite among them. There's a "courtroom" scene that I really enjoy. AI does a good job managing rising tension, and I'm a sucker for space battles. HoF is the weakest in my opinion. It has an A and B plot, and the A plot drags at times. And is much smaller in scale than the B plot. I've reread this before skipping the middle of the A plot, though this time I read everything again. Three of the five characters in the A plot get quite well fleshed out, and the other two are just there -- they are all effectively new to the series, though mentioned as babies in the second book. In the B plot it jumps between a lot of characters, both returning and new. I like it's characterizations more. Still, an enjoyable read.

 

[overgeeked]

I finished The Shadow #4 tonight. The Red Menace. Published November 1931. In this yarn, The Shadow faces off against a cabal of secret agents from Soviet Russia. Lots of disguises used. Several return characters besides The Shadow and Harry Vincent. Super-science, weird science, magician’s tricks, and a story interrupt by the author. The Shadow uses a flash-powder trick and the author butts in, brags about knowing the secret formula, but refuses to print it because it could be dangerous. Really weird aside.

One thing I’m noticing is the chapter titles are often plot spoilers. One chapter ends with Harry a prisoner and the next chapter is titled “Harry Escapes!” Kinda drains the tension out. But it’s serial fiction* so there’s a certain amount of lost tension. It’s not about whether The Shadow wins, of course he does, his name’s on the front cover. It’s about how he succeeds, how tight of a corner he can be painted in before escaping, etc.

* But it’s not entirely serial fiction. It’s a hybrid of serial and episodic. It’s almost doing the Chris Claremont X-Men trick with A, B, and C stories. The A story is always the big draw, main action, and resolved in this issue but the B and C stories are setting up later storylines. Rewarding the long-time reader without shutting out the occasional or new reader.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I don't love it or hate it, it's just not my thing. But I noticed that I managed to get a copy of The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold, which I haven't read in ages. So I'm rereading that for comfort reading.

The only Bujold I have 't read (maybe the most recent Penric too...)

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Apropos of recent posts in this very thread, I am currently reading "Monster, a Fan's Dilemma", which is sort of about what to do when you like/love someone's work, but they turn out to be an a-hole. Examples include Roman Polanski, PabloPicasso, and so many others.

The book is really about why do we give abusers a pass when they are supposed to be "geniuses"; as well as a memoir about the author's relationship with these problematic creator's works

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

 

[trappedslider]

Apropos of recent posts in this very thread, I am currently reading "Monster, a Fan's Dilemma", which is sort of about what to do when you like/love someone's work, but they turn out to be an a-hole. Examples include Roman Polanski, PabloPicasso, and so many others.

The book is really about why do we give abusers a pass when they are supposed to be "geniuses"; as well as a memoir about the author's relationship with these problematic creator's works

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

I'll wait for your review, but based on the reviews, it seems like it's shallow in parts and deep in others.