What are you reading this year 2020?

[Blue]

Finished Battle Ground. My wife said that she enjoyed watching me read it almost as much as the book she was reading - all of the exclamations I was making, and shouting at characters, and having things dawn on me. It takes a book that has me invested to do that.

As mentioned before, this and Peace Talks were originally going to be a single novel. My comment is the pacing on them works better if you read them back-to-back.

Oh, and I freaking loved it. But I'm such the Harry Dresden fan, that was the likely result. But I do critique them when I feel they were weak.

Reading The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., and some kindle unlimited urban fantasy schlock that is a step above not finishing, but I hope has a good payout. It has 4.5 stars and four or five books in the series, but it's a bit too transparent about everything, and the main character is a repressed Mary Sue.

On the other hand, TRaFoDODO is a decent read. I love some of the wordplay, while other parts the wordcraft feels more pedestrian - I wonder if the two authors each took point on different parts. The plot and characters are entertaining so far.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Reading The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., and some kindle unlimited urban fantasy schlock that is a step above not finishing, but I hope has a good payout. It has 4.5 stars and four or five books in the series, but it's a bit too transparent about everything, and the main character is a repressed Mary Sue.

On the other hand, TRaFoDODO is a decent read. I love some of the wordplay, while other parts the wordcraft feels more pedestrian - I wonder if the two authors each took point on different parts. The plot and characters are entertaining so far.

Had to skip half your post, still waiting for BG from the library...

TRaFoDODO was a fun read. Time travel books usually leave me cold; and Stephenson is a mixed bag for me. Some of them are a delight, and a plunge through them (Snowcrash); other times I struggle to complete (Cryptonomicon). Fortunately, DODO was more like the former than the latter - and the time travel stuff didn't get too convoluted.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Finished reading Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett.

Still reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

Finished reading The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang.

Still reading Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity -- And Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James A. Lindsey.

Still reading Exploring Eberron by Keith Baker.

Started reading The Shepherd's Crown, the last Terry Pratchett novel.

Started reading Night of the Assassins: The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin by Howard Blum.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Had to skip half your post, still waiting for BG from the library...

TRaFoDODO was a fun read. Time travel books usually leave me cold; and Stephenson is a mixed bag for me. Some of them are a delight, and a plunge through them (Snowcrash); other times I struggle to complete (Cryptonomicon). Fortunately, DODO was more like the former than the latter - and the time travel stuff didn't get too convoluted.

Try Connie Willis. Her Oxford Time Travel books are AMAZING! And each one is different in tone. It starts with the short story Fire Watch, then The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and then Blackout/All Clear (was supposed to be one book, but got too long and was turned into two). Each book focuses on a different main character, but you will have appearances by characters from previous books pop up in later books. They don't read like time travel books really, because you can only go into the past, and she does meticulous research on the historical periods she uses. The time travel premise is fairly simple too. It's like a good Brandon Sanderson hard magic system. Here are the "rules" for how time travel works. By the end of the book, they find out something new about how it actually works. The Doomsday Book might be one of the best books I have ever read. A good pandemic read

 

[Blue]

Had to skip half your post, still waiting for BG from the library...

TRaFoDODO was a fun read. Time travel books usually leave me cold; and Stephenson is a mixed bag for me. Some of them are a delight, and a plunge through them (Snowcrash); other times I struggle to complete (Cryptonomicon). Fortunately, DODO was more like the former than the latter - and the time travel stuff didn't get too convoluted.

I tried to be spoiler-free about BG, but the only way to know that is to risk spoilers. So good call.

There's an interesting series of pulp SF time travel books written mid-80s to early-90s, TimeWars by Simon Hawke. Each is a short read, mostly episodic - until the later books (12 total) where suddenly a bunch of threads start coming together and it really becomes cohesive. But how they treat time travel is well done for such pulp books, including alternate threads well before that was popular/common.

 

[Blue]

Try Connie Willis. Her Oxford Time Travel books are AMAZING! And each one is different in tone. It starts with the short story Fire Watch, then The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and then Blackout/All Clear (was supposed to be one book, but got too long and was turned into two). Each book focuses on a different main character, but you will have appearances by characters from previous books pop up in later books. They don't read like time travel books really, because you can only go into the past, and she does meticulous research on the historical periods she uses. The time travel premise is fairly simple too. It's like a good Brandon Sanderson hard magic system. Here are the "rules" for how time travel works. By the end of the book, they find out something new about how it actually works. The Doomsday Book might be one of the best books I have ever read. A good pandemic read

Thanks! Well done time travel is a pleasure (and poorly done time travel is ... not). I'll give these a try. I've enjoyed Connie Willis in the past, I'll give these a try.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Try Connie Willis. Her Oxford Time Travel books are AMAZING! And each one is different in tone. It starts with the short story Fire Watch, then The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and then Blackout/All Clear (was supposed to be one book, but got too long and was turned into two). Each book focuses on a different main character, but you will have appearances by characters from previous books pop up in later books. They don't read like time travel books really, because you can only go into the past, and she does meticulous research on the historical periods she uses. The time travel premise is fairly simple too. It's like a good Brandon Sanderson hard magic system. Here are the "rules" for how time travel works. By the end of the book, they find out something new about how it actually works. The Doomsday Book might be one of the best books I have ever read. A good pandemic read

So, I loved Doomsday Book when I read in the 90's. Then I read To Say Nothing of the Dog within the past 5 years, and liked it. But the Blackout/All Clear books didn't do it for me. Part of it is WW2 as a setting is meh. I did a big Connie Willis binge all around the same time, including Bellwether (cute) and Remake (I completely forget it) and Lincoln's Dreams (also forgot anything about it).

The time travel stuff is good. But it doesn't grab me so much. That's what I mean, even the best of the bunch - Connie Willis - leaves me feeling meh. Maybe it depends more on the setting the characters go to back in time? Like I liked the Crusades and the Victorian era; but WW2 didn't do it for me...

 

[Nellisir]

I've been off in my reading for awhile, but did read Planetfall by Emma Newman. I have to admit, books that are described with the words "beautiful" and "heartbreaking" are rarely my cup of tea, and this was no different. 2/5
I also read Mountains of Majipoor, by Robert Silverberg. I was struck by how much clearer Silverberg's worldbuilding was than Newman's. There was a Place, and a Person, and a Culture or two. (I realize that wasn't the focus of Planetfall, but I'm a bit puzzled about why it was SF at all.) It's always nice to watch a master work. Mountains is a slight work, but made for a nice hour or two. 3/5

Read Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. My GF wanted me to love the crap out of it; I thought it was a nice, straightforward, very Pratchett-y book. 3.5/5?

 

[trappedslider]

(I realize that wasn't the focus of Planetfall, but I'm a bit puzzled about why it was SF at all.)

Takes place in the future on another planet among other sci-fi elements ( I haven't read the series, just the article on wiki)

I picked up the following from my library:

The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus
A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Finished Harrow the Ninth. Enjoyed - author took a risk, and I think she pulled it off. Now waiting for the conclusion.
Next up, Battle Ground, which others have said they have read. Looking forward to it.