What are you reading in 2023?

[ichabod]

When's the latest Murderbot being released?

Amazon still has it listed as November 14th

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't like the Expanse, but I seem to be in the minority opinion. I liked the first two books, but I thought the series took a serious nose dive after that.

There's always going to be somebody who dislikes something, no matter how many people like it. When going by reputation, you either go by people you know share your tastes, or by the reputation as a whole; outliers you don't share tastes with won't tell you much.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I just read Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy, and I'm not sure why I kept going. The first book was solid, if very reminiscent of Stephen King's The Stand. But it was super long, and by the end I kind of felt like I needed to keep going through the two long-ish sequels, just to see how it all turned out. By the end I was like, "meh...I wish I'd stopped at one."

I need something new and fun. When's the latest Murderbot being released? Something like that.

Hard agree. First one good-ish (I liked the world building (well, actually world destroying technically); and the flashbacks to the pre-times). Books 2&3 didn't sing at all for me. At all.

 

[Clint_L]

Hard agree. First one good-ish (I liked the world building (well, actually world destroying technically); and the flashbacks to the pre-times). Books 2&3 didn't sing at all for me. At all.

Particularly book 3, which spend a LOT of pages on the Big Bad's backstory, which I think was supposed to make him sympathetic, but actually had the opposite effect, and was also super boring (like, there are chapters about his time at college. For real). Yet somehow he seemed to be completely forgiven in the end, despite being by far the most murderous villain in human history? I think there was some religious stuff going on that just didn't work for my brain.

 

[Nellisir]

I just read Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy, and I'm not sure why I kept going. The first book was solid, if very reminiscent of Stephen King's The Stand. But it was super long, and by the end I kind of felt like I needed to keep going through the two long-ish sequels, just to see how it all turned out. By the end I was like, "meh...I wish I'd stopped at one."

I need something new and fun. When's the latest Murderbot being released? Something like that.

If you haven't read Fool by Christopher Moore, do that.

I think there's another Murderbot coming eventually, but Martha Wells just released Witch King, which is pretty good but no Murderbot. I do love her worldbuilding though.

Edit: According to above, sooner than I expected. Yay!!!

 

[Nellisir]

And you might well be right about The Expanse; I've never heard much bad about the books (but haven't read them) but the part of the show I've seen was excellent (I'm well behind on it at this point).

It doesn't hurt that really, really good space SF series are few and far between. There's a lot more literature in that niche. But the tv series just clicks. And there are moments, like Amos and his "I am that guy" and Drummer's "The place we go is the place we belong" speech.

 

[Older Beholder]

I just finished reading 'The Hidden Palace' by Helene Wecker.
It was a follow up to her first novel: The Golem and Jinni

 

[Zaukrie]

Finished Red Shirts. I was entertained.

 

[overgeeked]

Finished Mushoku Tensei Volume 2 and jumped right in to Volume 3. I think I'll be caught up to where I was in the anime by the end of this one or the middle of the next one. Great series so far. Rudeus is an absolute creep, but he's a fascinating character. I love the power systems, sword styles and magic system. The worldbuilding is all right so far. A lot of info dumps, but due to the style of the prose and the POV character's unique situation, it mostly makes sense and fits. I would definitely recommend the original light novels over the manga or anime. There's so much more depth of character in the novels.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Finished The Bourne Identity last night. My wife had rewatched the movies recently, and I thought I'd take a hack at the novel. It was far more melodramatic than I expected, and I was caught unawares by the opening newspaper articles about Carlos the Jackal. It's not a bad novel, and the action sequences are well written, showing its age only occasionally.