What are you reading in 2023?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I tend to invest quite a lot of effort into determining whether I'll like a book before starting with it, and for whatever reason, I've had much worse luck with shorter books than longer. I don't know what the exact cause is, but it seems like a pretty annoying/vapid 200-300 page book acquires good reviews much more easily than an equally vapid 400-600 page one.

Meanwhile, I'm all "Hey, here's this cheap book that's a part of Appendix N and has a cool cover, I think I'll pick that one up!"

 

[The Soloist]

Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The last book of The Final Architecture series. The books contain lots of excellent and terrifying ideas but I have not grown attached to the 'assemble' cast of characters. I like the return of telepaths as a trope in this series.

 

[Richards]

I'm now reading Lucy by Laurence Gonzales. In it, a primatologist flees the war-torn Congo but on the way checks in with another primatologist a day away and finds the guerillas have already been there and slain him. But she finds his 14-year-old daughter Lucy still alive and takes her along, back through London and on to her home in Chicago, where she decides she'll adopt the girl. And then she discovers that Lucy's father was performing genetic experiments in the Congo, altering a female bonobo's DNA structure enough that she'd be able to breed with a human. Lucy is the result: his sperm artificially inseminated into the female bonobo. As a result, Lucy - who appears totally human, but is having a hard time adjusting to human civilization after having lived her whole life in the jungle - has some extraordinary abilities relating to her half-bonobo heritage: she can pick up signals from the Stream, the means by which animals communicate with each other (even across species lines), she's incredibly strong, and she has incredible senses (when compared the human norm). Now she and Jenny, the primatologist who's adopting her, live in fear that someone will discover Lucy's secret and she'll spend her life in a cage undergoing experiments. It's been a really good read thus far, and I'm only about 70 pages in.

Johnathan

 

[ichabod]

I finished Scalzi's Starter Villain. I enjoyed most of the book, but I thought the ending failed, and then got up and failed again. I can agree with the comments that he's more humor/less sci-fi than he used to be. It doesn't really bother me. He's always had the humor, and I continue to enjoy it. But I think his story writing is suffering for other reasons.

 

[Zaukrie]

With Spotify adding audiobooks for free with premium, at least thirty hours, and not all books .... Anyway, any audiobook recommendations? Might as well get my stuff.... Wanting fiction

 

[overgeeked]

And that’s Mushoku Tensei Vol 8 done. On to Vol 9. Apparently I’m thoroughly addicted to this series and the main character. I do wish the sex pest angle would die already. Here’s to hoping it does quite soon. It’s not a major part of the story and hasn’t been for a few Volumes, but it still does pop up. Can’t really talk about anything in the series without it being major spoilers. Rudy’s still alive is about the only non-spoiler thing I can say. I will reiterate how much I love the setting, worldbuilding, and magic systems.

 

[Nellisir]

You buy one of Adrian Tchaikovsky's recent space opera series, and you're getting as much excitement and as good writing as Martha Wells' Murderbot series, you're just getting almost 10x as much for your buck.

You might be; I find Adrian Tchaikovsky to be a poor man's Alastair Reynolds. I've read a lot of his stuff recently and it (almost*) all bleeds away after a few days. I get much more enjoyment and pleasure from Murderbot. But maybe it's different if you're listening rather than reading (I don't care which someone does).

*The spiders were cool.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Speaking of A Tchaikovsky:

I haven't read any of his work. Where should I start?

Children of Time or Final Architecture?
Or perhaps one of the fantasy series: Shadows of the Apt or Echoes of the Fall?

 

[Mercurius]

Not Doors of Stone.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

@Eyes of Nine, I really enjoyed Children of Time. I can't speak to his other stuff, but I couldn't put it down when I read it. Just a lot of fun.