What are you Reading (September 2023)
What are you Reading (September 2023)
Aside from Project Hail Mary which I assume every /c/sciencefiction subscriber is going to read what have you been reading or plan to read?
Here is last months post. What are you Reading? (August 2023)
I'm finally getting into both discworld and culture. I've read a number of other discworld books before, two of the night watch, mort, I think another I don't recall right now. Now I'm reading The Colour or Magic. It's enjoyable but I'm finding I'm going a little slower on it than the others.
I also have the second culture book, Player of Games, ready to go when I finish the discworld book. I really liked how bonkers Consider Phlebas was (felt like a constant stream of chaos for the crew).
I've been blasting through Broken Earth series by N. K. Jemisin, already on The Stone Sky. So good and captivating. Also reading 'The Yiddish Policeman's Union' by Michael Chabon
Started reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. I really like the style of writing, so much detail into the main character's mind.
It is also impressive just how relevant the topics are today, for a book written back in 1993 (climate change, wealth disparity, etc.). It's really fascinating (scary?) to see what the author thought the U.S. would look like in 2024 and onwards.
Just finished “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”. A little long and rambling in places, but enjoyable and full of interesting ideas. Would make a good series/mini series. Has tinges of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy at times.
There’s a good audiobook version available narrated by Lloyd James/Sean Pratt.
Just finished Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel.
It's good, but I found it to be unmoving. I can see that whatever is written is well written but it didn't made me feel anything. I didn't find it funny, emotional, surprising, annoying. At no point I was tempted to stop reading it nor I was anxious to continue. For me it's a really solid 7/10. Maybe I'm in the minority on that and maybe it's because it's not the kind of book that I would usually read.
On what's next I have been wanting to read the Three Body Problem but I'm curious about the translation. I've read books in english that were originally written in my native spanish and there's definitely a certain feel to them. It will be the first book originally in Chinese that I read, so I wonder about the translation, and if it would be better to get an English translation or a Spanish translation.
I'm pretty far behind the ball, but I'm finally reading revalation space and it rocks!
Aside from Project Hail Mary I am reading a couple other things. One of them for another book club I am in. I am listening to The Employees by Olga Ravn which I swear feels like being subjected to 2 hours of Rorschach tests asking you how some sequence of words makes you feel. I don't think I enjoy it very much as there is no fictional science or details about anything going on. The other is Diaspora by Greg Egan which I am enjoying greatly as it is nothing but technical details. Hopefully I don't end up being in the middle of too many books to actually finish any of them in a timely manner.
Hyperion is so good, I remember reading (cantos) it with rather high expectations and it consistently exceeded them. Not perfect, but very nice, especially world building.
Currently reading The Last Colony by John Scalzi.
I've been cleasing my palate after 3 clarkes and 6 the expanse (plus shorts). Just finished Um Defeito de Cor, by Ana M. Golçalves, a semi-mult generation saga about a slave in Brazil. Very, very good, but I don't know if it has any translation. This has 1k pages, so I'm reading Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, just to read something thin. It's... good. Strange.
I have Flash Foward, Expanse #7-9, Culture #1 and Red Mars on the queue =)
I am reading Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. Still pretty early, but seems fun.
Finally getting around to reading Neuromancer. While I find some of the dialogue a little confusing I’m really enjoying its themes and the plot has me hooked. I can see why this book was so influential; it’s a little uncanny how many things Gibson predicted in this work.
Children of time, every time
I really need to read the Expanse series! I loved the show, and I've heard the books are significantly better.
If you're gonna check out Gibson's Neuromancer, maybe check out Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Both are foundational cyberpunk.
Edit: Also, Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite novels. Can't gush enough about that one. Reminded me a lot of Greg Bear's Eon.
I went to pick up neuromancer, but someone kidnapped me and put a bomb in my head, and now I have to rob a bank
I started Wool because I was digging the show Silo, but honestly found it pretty flat. The characters and story telling are super dry, and the show does a much better job of it imo, which is rare.
In terms of sci-fi, I've got The War of the Worlds on list.
I'm finishing The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson then moving on to Incandescence by Greg Egan.
I tried dungeon crawler carl because I saw it recommended so much. This has been the most fun series I've read in a long time. I'm up to book 6 which just came out. I'm listening to the audiobooks and the narrator is excellent. I originally thought there had to be multiple narrators, but nope. The premise sounds silly, and it is, but the execution is excellent and is great fun.
I'm reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin on recommendation by a colleague, Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett in my second run through of the Discworld series, and Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber, since I never got around to that one when I was DEEP into Star Wars books.
Back when I had free time I was reading through the Dune series, currently about halfway into God Emporer of Dune.
Cyberpunk! I read Let Slip the Beasts by Suzanne Berget yesterday. I recommend it. Not too long either.
Today I'm gonna find another cyberpunk book to read. Maybe Nexus by Ramez Naam that someone else recommended me.
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, will probably pick up Ghost from the Grand Banks by Clarke soon.
Hyperion is so good, I'm rereading it right now. Second time through the series.
Just finished "The Gone World" by Tom Sweterlitsch.
A mix of SciFi, detective and coslic horror. Pretty good, I really liked the ending.
I haven't read much science fiction these past few weeks...I mainly am doing a re-read of Night Watch by Sergi Lukyanenko, which is an urban fantasy set in Russia.
When the Ukraine war started, I was vastly disappointed that the author of this series supports Russia against Ukraine, so I didn't do a re-read for several years due to that.
But recently, I'm curious about his viewpoint of the world--so on the reread I've been looking closer, and I'm starting to understand his stances were there in his work all along, even accounting for the translation from Russian into English.
His series is about Light Others vs. Dark Others, and how they've come together to make a truce, and there's a lot of rather cynical acceptance of corruption and good deeds doing harm so it's better sometimes to do nothing which stands out to me now that I'm older and can digest the themes of the book better.
Craft-wise, he's a very good author, there are things that come through that go beyond language (the way characters talk to one another, the way scenes and plots are set up) so as a writer myself I'm taking note of the tricks I might snatch and use myself. But I've been very thoughtful about culture and ethics and morals and how everyone likes to think they're on the right side of things.
Right now I’m reading the entire Dark Space series. All 6 books in collection available on Amazon kindle. I don’t recall if they have physical copies for purchase or not, but it is an attention grabbing series with a great storyline. This is not hardcore sci-if with a bunch of science and mathematics probablilities
Just picked up "version zero" by David Yoon
Strange Highways by Dean Koontz, not exactly typical sci-fi but there are stories in the collection about time travel, aliens that take over human hosts like Body Snatchers, and genetically engineered super-intelligent rats that want to kill humanity. Koontz began his early career as a sci-fi writer and didn't find much success, until he steered into the horror genre later. It shines through fairly often in some of his stories, when the aliens or science experiment monsters show up.
Just finished Lightbringer by Pierce Brown. Red Rising series is a must!
Currently reading Codex Alera 5 and loving every minute of it
The Fifth Head of Cerebus and Nightside of the Long Sun. Gotta get that Wolfe out.
Working my way through Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian Esselmont. Going to take a break from Malazan after this and dig into shorter stuff I've been meaning to get to.
Children of Time. I heard about it from Quinn's reviews and have been wanting to read it ever since.
I was a huge SF fan when i was younger, but gradually the habit to read books disappeared from my radar. But i decided to pick it up again and bought two books to start with: I am almost halfway through the Three body problem from Cixin Liu, but frankly; so far, i don't get the appeal. The way the author writes is quite cold or distancing - if that is a word - and i find it hard to feel for any of the characters. So, i also just started reading Children of time, from Adrian Tchaikovski.
The black fleet trilogy. Normally "space opera" isn't my preferred genre but these books are pretty great.
I am currently reading A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. I love her other work so I am excited to read this and the first few chapters read easily for me which is nice.
On a more SciFi note I just finished Artifact Space by Miles Cameron and it was decent. The protagonist is kinda annoying with the "I'm an idiot" thing but is pretty much good at everything they do. The author also goes into a lot of details on stuff that doesn't feel important to the story so it kinda felt like a slog to get through some of the earlier parts.
I just finished up The Ballad of Songsbirds and Snakes. Back when I read The Hunger Games trilogy, I flew through it and really loved it. This was a nice successor/prequel. Collins really knows how to keep a story moving and she did a nice job laying groundwork for decisions made at the end. Maybe a little too obvious, but consistent anyway.
This weekend, I'm hoping to get through a Jack Reacher book I started on Kindle one night when I couldn't sleep. And then it's on to Caliban's War as I continue The Expanse saga.
I'm working my way through Glynn Stewart's "Duchy of Terra' series, and Edgar Rice Burroughs "John Carter of Mars".
Both are a little bit on the light and adventure-y side, which is my speed right now.
Next up is revisiting Nathan Lowell's "Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper", which is kind of my happy place.
I'm about half way through Quantum Radio by AG Riddle. It's pretty good so far. Alternate history / multiverse with good characters and action. Makes me think somewhat of Man in the High Castle meets Sliders.
Slogging through Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron
Usually I love Spinrad, but this is just so dated: The idea that a TV talk show host with a massive audience is holding the rich and powerful accountable, as opposed to pandering to them...
I just finished the Three Body Problem trilogy, which I loved. Now I'm trying to figure out what I want to read next.
Working through ‘Ten Low’ by Stark Holburn now. My partner is through the sequel already and recommended.
Reading Venemous Lumpsucker because it was in the news recently as winning an award. It's very funny, a satire on Corporate Business and climate change. It actually reminds me of when I read Stark by Ben Elton as a young teen in many ways - it's more inventive but there's a similar vibe (the world is helpless in the hands of corporate greed because corporate people just don't know what else to do).
2/3 of the way through and it's definitely easy to read and funny
Brin's Uplift War series.
We Hear Voices by Evie Green- Sucks the book came out in 2020 at the heart of covid but so far it is a damn fine story interesting to see how it goes.
I've been trying to get through A Memory Called Empire for like 2 years now. I keep hearing how good it is l, but I'm maybe halfway through and I feel like the story has been slow going, and the poetry thing is weird too. It is very well written though. Maybe someone has something encouraging to say about it
August I read American Prometheus, Pageboy, and the Ministry for the Future. All were worth reading for one reason or another. Ministry was particularly relevant with ongoing climate change.
I started Someone Else's Shoes which is good so far. After that I have added some ideas from this thread to my queue. I kinda just pick something that sounds interesting and give it a shot, with only a few books each year that are actually planned.
I’ve been on a reread of the eragon series, which I haven’t read since they came out. So like 20ish years from book one
Book 5 is coming out in a few months.
Loved these books when I was younger. Still very much love it.
Now starting Oryx and Crake.
I'm halfway through Gaiman's American Gods and then I'm going to complete my journey though The Culture with The Hydrogen Sonata.
I'm on the third book in the Wayfarer Series by Becky Chambers. It's excellent 👌
I am currently on Book 11 of the Expeditionary Force Series by Craig Alanson. I have really enjoyed it. It's a fun space adventure series. Light reading, interesting characters, very funny at times. Sometimes suspenseful but and very few bad things happen to the good guys. I don't know about the rest of you, but I already have too many bad/sad/dramatic things from my real life. This series is a great scifi escape!
Everything by Martha Wells. I'm into fantasy more than sci-fi, but Murderbot Diaries got me started. Loved Witch King, and I'm now reading through the Ile-Rien series. I'd say her more recent work is her best but I'm enjoying the older stuff a lot.
Yesterday, finished Stephen Markley's The Deluge, a great read and a tremendous effort - highly recommend it.
The Deluge is a speculative fiction novel that focuses on the sociopolitical, economic, and ecological development of a series of catastrophic personal and global events stretching from the late 2010s with the narrative concluding around the late 2030s.
It's a longer novel, around 800 pages, if you prefer something more compact Markley's previous novel Ohio is terrific as well.
Last month I picked up a grab bag at a used bookstore store in my old home town. I plan to grab one at random until I get through them all. So I don't know what I'm reading this month but I know it's something from this bag.
I've finished "Dance if the Hag" and "Pennterra" so far. Just started "northern stars" today.
I listened to And Then She Vanished by Nick Jones and found it entertaining enough to start the second book in the series right after. It's not really scifi, I mean, time travel could easily be tagged fantasy as well. I don't know if I'll finish the series though. It's missing something that I can't quite put my finger on. Somewhat shallow and the secondary characters are paper thin. Fine reading to pass the time (or spend 12 hours on a train...) but nothing I'll be thinking about once I'm done. I've been struggling to get through the first few chapters of Perdido Street Station for a while, I may give it another go this weekend.