What are you reading?

[Malaphax]

On 12/6/2019 at 11:26 AM, Malaphax said:

I'm moving on to Head On, which is book two in John Scalzi's Lock in series.  I find Scalzi's book's easy and fun reads. 

This was weaker than the first novel, they tried to up the action, which didn't come across very well. 

I'm moving on to Minimum Wage Magic - the description reads almost like shadowrun with a mix of fantasy and cyberpunk. 

[Malaphax]

On 12/8/2019 at 3:42 PM, Malaphax said:

I'm moving on to Minimum Wage Magic - the description reads almost like shadowrun with a mix of fantasy and cyberpunk. 

This was mediocre.  The universe seemed like it could be interesting but they didn't really do much with it.  Both main characters were the most bland protagonists I've encountered in quite some time.  I wouldn't recommend this. 

Moving on to The Corporation Wars - series revolves around sentient AI/robots fighting for corporate overlords on far flung worlds. 

[Malaphax]

On 12/11/2019 at 3:43 PM, Malaphax said:

Moving on to The Corporation Wars - series revolves around sentient AI/robots fighting for corporate overlords on far flung worlds. 

Yea this is probably one of the worst descriptions I've seen because while it's technically true it completely misrepresents the books as a whole.  I'm going to blame whoever wrote the back of the book description for this because it's misleading. 

After finishing the first book, I can say I'm really enjoying this but it's far closer to something like the Matrix than anything else.  The difference being that instead of real humans living in a virtual reality run by machines, they're digitized humans living in a virtual reality and the "twist" is that these virtualized humans are being used to pilot real machines fighting in realspace.  They're also doing some moderately interesting political elements, with two sides, the post-capitalist side which wages war as a way to accelerate humanity into a star trek style post scarcity system - and the reactionary side that takes the every man is an island mentality to an extreme pushing for the strong centralized leadership reminiscent of monarchy/corporatism. 

[kuhla]

On 10/12/2019 at 3:55 PM, kuhla said:

Powered through this pretty hard. It was fun. I enjoyed it more in the second half than in the first half.

Just started The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin ( wikipedia ). I have seen it on a lot of reading lists over the last couple of years. I have not read much yet so I cannot even give any impressions but the book begins with a section set in the Cultural Revolution in China during the 1960s which feels weirdly appropriate.

 

On 11/18/2019 at 11:27 AM, kuhla said:

Just finished this.

It was good read and is very appropriately categorized as hard science fiction with many scientific ideas being discussed which makes sense since the author is an engineer who works at a power company. There is definitely not much action and much of the book focuses around the drama/moral dilemma faced by the main character(s). I would consider this kind of a slow read but it's short (300 pages) so it still does not take long to finish.

For a Chinese author that lives in China, I am surprised at how negative it is about the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 60s (the book is set in something very close to our time and our world).

I am planning to move on the next book in the trilogy but the first book wraps up in a way that it could be treated as a standalone.

Took a long time but I finished the whole trilogy. Definitely still leans heavily into hard science fiction. I liked it but it was starting to get sort of oppressively large in scale towards the end (cosmos is big yo). I would probably recommend the first book to any sci fi fan and if they really liked it then move on to book two and three but you can also just stop right there at the end of book 1 neatly. I wondered if there would be any sort of Chinese government angle since the author is a Chinese citizen in China but I don't feel like there was.

On 12/6/2019 at 4:27 PM, Malaphax said:

Another big curated list, curtesy of NPR. 

https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2019

Grabbed a few of the scifi/fantasy staff pick items from this list. Not sure which one I will start tonight but I will post something soon.

[kuhla]

On 3/19/2020 at 6:47 PM, kuhla said:

Grabbed a few of the scifi/fantasy staff pick items from this list. Not sure which one I will start tonight but I will post something soon.

  So I started Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown since the series showed up on the NPR list and on....

On 2/24/2019 at 4:47 PM, kuhla said:

I would rather spend more time looking into a list like this: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/75182

....this list.

I'm already suspecting this was the wrong choice. Young man from a low caste with a hard upbringing? Naturally gifted? Dystopian society? A scheme to overthrow the tyrannical, rich, ruling class? So far this is following the young adult formula to the letter. For now I will keep reading and it is very easy to read, so it is going fast, but I will drop this if doesn't break out of the mold at all.

[kuhla]

On 3/30/2020 at 9:20 AM, kuhla said:

  So I started Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown since the series showed up on the NPR list and on....

....this list.

I'm already suspecting this was the wrong choice. Young man from a low caste with a hard upbringing? Naturally gifted? Dystopian society? A scheme to overthrow the tyrannical, rich, ruling class? So far this is following the young adult formula to the letter. For now I will keep reading and it is very easy to read, so it is going fast, but I will drop this if doesn't break out of the mold at all.

Finished this last week. Tell me if you have heard this one before: Incredibly talented underdog enters a super selective school and breaks all the rules but comes out on top through sheer willpower despite overwhelming odds and even has time for a little love story along the way. Yeah. This is 110% young adult to the core. At least it was really fast to read and I finished it quickly. I started the second book in the series to give the story a second chance but if it doesn't do a 180, which I don't think it will, then I'm dropping this.

I really should just make a personal rule to completely avoid things that have the tag "young adult" on them.

[Malaphax]

On 12/11/2019 at 3:43 PM, Malaphax said:

Moving on to The Corporation Wars - series revolves around sentient AI/robots fighting for corporate overlords on far flung worlds. 

I finished the trilogy.  It had some interesting ideas that ended up being half-baked, and the ending felt incredibly rushed and almost out of place.  It's decent enough sci-fi and is an easy read, but it doesn't really explore some of the cooler ideas it comes up with. 

I'm moving on to something entirely different: The Rage of Dragons - this is described as African fantasy.  

[Malaphax]

On 4/10/2020 at 8:49 AM, Malaphax said:

I'm moving on to something entirely different: The Rage of Dragons - this is described as African fantasy.  

This book was a bit odd, the characters and their names certainly fit with the African theme, but nothing else felt particularly different. Their magic system was somewhat unique, but on the handwavy side of things.  The majority of the novel is military focused and very action heavy, which makes for an easy read, but also doesn't really differentiate itself from other similar fantasy novels.  There are several basic tropes that I didn't find particularly interesting and almost came across as young adult territory. 

I'm moving back to sci-fi: Salvation

[kuhla]

Not new but I just found it.

Goodreads Choice Awards 2019

best science fiction - https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-science-fiction-books-2019
best fantasy - https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-fantasy-books-2019

Making a note for myself. It looks like it is based on popularity and limited to things published in that year but I may use these lists for some of my future picks after I filter out the young adult stuff. I already picked up Recursion so it is on my todo list.

[Malaphax]

As a note, the goodreads best-of lists are super hit or miss for me.  There's a decent number of books you'll find that are part of a series, which means you need to either commit to the series or hope that the first book is at roughly the same quality level (hey look 2019 thought that the red rising saga #5 was good lel).  Some of this boils down to personal taste, but some of the books that make these lists are "big idea" books, where they might have a cool concept that's in the realm of sci-fi or it might start out in modern times with a flash forwards sequence showing the future.  You also get a few ugly crowd favorites like anything star wars related making these lists, deserving or not.  There's also a few authors I see popping up repeatedly, and I suspect it's less to do with high quality writing and more to do with name recognition and marketing. 

I've been using good reads in conjunction with amazon to get a halfway decent idea of what might be popular/good and worth my time, but you can't just take these lists at face value. 

[kuhla]

On 4/7/2020 at 11:38 AM, kuhla said:

....I started the second book in the series to give the story a second chance....

Finished. Nothing more to say.

Starting Recursion by Blake Crouch.

[kuhla]

On 4/24/2020 at 11:01 PM, kuhla said:

Starting Recursion by Blake Crouch.

I may have powered through this really hard. In my defense, it's only about 200 pages.

This book was listed on multiple best/top/highly rated lists I have looked at lately and I feel it is mostly deserved. It is a good book.

• At first I thought this was like walking the line between soft and hard science fiction but it got softer as the book went on.
• The book is set in something very much like our time, not some distant or even near future.
• It's not a spoiler since it's mentioned in just about every plot summary but there are time travel elements in this however not like any I have run into before. To give one example, the author plays around with the idea of non-linear time.
• Netflix apparently wants to do a movie adaptation but I have a strong feeling it is going to be terrible. There is lots of introspection that would be lost on a screen.

Not sure what I will start next.

[kuhla]

On 4/27/2020 at 10:02 AM, kuhla said:

Not sure what I will start next.

Started The Wall: A Novel by John Lanchester.

It's a little less than 200 pages. Another short novel. I am about half way into it. So far I'm not really enjoying it.

The story is set in a post apocalyptic world but "the apocalypse" is/was climate change (it's ongoing in the book). My main problem with the book is, even though I am far into the book, nothing has really happened yet. Everything so far as been has been from the perspective of the main character who is generally a boring person. He is tasked with some civil service type responsibilities but very little unexpected. I need more drama or action than this. It cannot be read quickly but I will finish it due to its small page count.

[kuhla]

On 5/4/2020 at 2:27 PM, kuhla said:

Started The Wall: A Novel by John Lanchester.

Finished it. Nothing to add.

Started Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I'm about 75 pages in and I am struggling with it. I have to read it slow because it uses a writing style that I am not used to and occasionally I have to re-read sentences to understand what is being conveyed. I've posted an excerpt below from Amazon's preview of the book which hopefully shows some of what I mean. There is a lot of sex and discussions of genitalia (including very disgusting activities like FGM) but there is this heavy use of metaphors to describe everything even though you know exactly what they are referring to ("She scooped my rain off her chest and flicked it off in the river. "). The story seems to use a lot of African mythology and the setting is sort of modern fantasy which are both ideas I would like to explore however I'm not sure if that will be enough to keep me for another 500+ pages.

 

Quote

You have come for a story and I am moved to talk, so the gods have smiled on both of us.
There was a merchant in the Purple City, who said he lost his wife. She went missing with five gold rings, ten and two pairs of earrings, twenty and two bracelets, and ten and nine anklets. It is said you have a nose for finding what would rather stay lost, he said. I was near twenty in years, and long banished from my father’s house. The man thought I was some kind of hound, but I said yes, it has been said that I have a nose. He threw me his wife’s undergarment. Her trail was so faint it was almost dead. Maybe she knew that one day men would come hunting, for she had a hut in three villages and no one could tell which one she lived in. In each house was a girl who looked exactly like her and even answered to her name. The girl in the third house invited me in and pointed to a stool for me to sit. She asked if I was thirsty and reached for a jug of masuku beer before I said yes. Let me remind you that my eyes are ordinary but it has been said that I have a nose. So when she brought over the mug of beer I had already smelled the poison she put in it, a wife’s poison called cobra spit that loses taste once you mix it with water. She gave me the mug and I took it, grabbed her hand, and bent it behind her back. I put the mug to her lips and forced it between her teeth. Her tears ran down and I took away the mug.
She took me to her mistress, who lived in a hut by the river. My husband beat me so hard that my child fell out, the mistress said. I have five gold rings, ten and two pairs of earrings, twenty and two bracelets, and ten and nine anklets, which I will give you, as well as a night in my bed. I took four anklets, and I took her back to her husband because I wanted his money more than her jewelry. Then I told her to have the woman from the third hut make him masuku beer.
The second story.
My father came home one night smelling of a fisher woman. She was on him, and so was the wood of a Bawo board. And the blood of a man not my father. He played a game against a binga, a Bawo master, and lost. The binga demanded his winnings, and my father grabbed the Bawo board and smashed it on the master’s forehead. He said he was at an inn far away so that he could drink, tickle women, and play Bawo. My father beat the man until he stopped moving and then left the bar. But no stink of sweat was on him, not much dust, no beer on his breath, nothing. He had not been in a bar but in the den of an opium monk.
So Father came into the house and shouted for me to come from the grain shed I was living in, for by now he had banished me from the house.
“Come, my son. Sit and play Bawo with me,” he said.
The board was on the floor, many balls missing. Too many for a good game. But my father was looking to win, not to play.

 

[kuhla]

On 5/11/2020 at 8:59 AM, kuhla said:

Started Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I'm about 75 pages in and I am struggling with it. I have to read it slow because it uses a writing style that I am not used to and occasionally I have to re-read sentences to understand what is being conveyed. I've posted an excerpt below from Amazon's preview of the book which hopefully shows some of what I mean. There is a lot of sex and discussions of genitalia (including very disgusting activities like FGM) but there is this heavy use of metaphors to describe everything even though you know exactly what they are referring to ("She scooped my rain off her chest and flicked it off in the river. "). The story seems to use a lot of African mythology and the setting is sort of modern fantasy which are both ideas I would like to explore however I'm not sure if that will be enough to keep me for another 500+ pages.

I couldn't do it. I dropped this. The writing style required me to read too slowly. Too frustrating.

I started something else but it's still too early to say anything about it.

[kuhla]

I'm currently about half way through Embassytown by China Miéville.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassytown

It feels like you spend most of the book just exploring some specific ideas about language but I'm mostly just bored.  I dunno.

[kuhla]

On 6/9/2020 at 10:05 PM, kuhla said:

I'm currently about half way through Embassytown by China Miéville.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassytown

It feels like you spend most of the book just exploring some specific ideas about language but I'm mostly just bored.  I dunno.

Finally plowed through the rest of it. I did not enjoy it. The author seems to really enjoy exploring some wild ideas about language (the whole Sapir–Whorf thing that I have been exposed to before). It is easy to read and I did not have an issue with the characters or setting (sci-fi) but I just found myself mostly bored.

I need something a little more entertaining after the last few books I have read.

I started something else but it's still too early to say anything about it.

[kuhla]

Just finished the 2017 "near sci-fi" book Artemis by Andy Weir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_(novel)

I have not read Weir's best known novel, The Martian, but I did see the movie and the parallels to this novel are impossible to avoid. Weir seemingly loves taking characters and forcing them into "realistic" science scenarios. There are more than a few events where life or death situations are revolving around figuring out chemical reactions, metallurgy and gas pressure. I get a feeling this book showed up on the recommended list I found because of his other book and the similarities. By the way this has also been picked up to be adapted into a movie (shock /s).

It was easy to read and I guess I enjoyed parts of it but, unless you really love near future realistic sci-fi, there is not a ton of character development and the story feels a bit formulaic. I have to say I have a lot of the same feelings about The Martian movie.

 

Started something new, also from a recommended list, also being adapted to live action but too early to say anything about it.....

[kuhla]

  

On 7/21/2020 at 4:00 PM, kuhla said:

Started something new, also from a recommended list, also being adapted to live action but too early to say anything about it.....

I started Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel but after about 30 pages in realized this was about a virus pandemic that is in the process of devastating the world. Had to just stop right there. I can't read a novel about that right now. I have to wonder if recent real world events would also hold up development of the miniseries adaptation for HBO since I bet it hits very close to home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Eleven

I moved on to something else after double checking the synopsis to make sure I was not walking into the same thing again. Too early to talk about it.

[kuhla]

I am about 1/2 way into Redshirts by John Scalzi.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14896596-redshirts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirts_(novel)

It's a sci-fi parody novel (mostly Star Trek). I am not sure if I have ever read something like this before. It's easy to read (which is why I am already so far into it) and kind of entertaining but something happened about 1/3 of the way in that I am still very confused about and I am hoping they will at least try to explain it at some point. Considering this is a satirical take on sci-fi with some 4th-wall-breaking-ish stuff going on I am not sure if plot holes are intentional or not.

[Malaphax]

I've generally enjoyed John Scalzi's work, but I've avoided redshirts because I was uncertain I'd like the parody elements.  I'm interested in your thoughts when you finish it. 

I've been slow to finish Salvation, it definitely feels like the first book in a series and unfortunately also feels incredibly unfocused.  You have two different timelines and sets of characters, but one of those timelines is basically a bunch of characters telling one another stories of their past exploits, so now you have this anthology on top of the two timelines.  While the characters' individual exploits are semi-connected and mostly entertaining it makes the entire book feel like a well written but meandering mess. 

I'm not sure what I might start next, but I'm leaning towards The Last Emperox by John Scalzi, I've enjoyed the other two books in the series so I might as well finish it. 

[kuhla]

On 7/28/2020 at 8:19 AM, kuhla said:

I am about 1/2 way into Redshirts by John Scalzi.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14896596-redshirts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirts_(novel)

It's a sci-fi parody novel (mostly Star Trek). I am not sure if I have ever read something like this before. It's easy to read (which is why I am already so far into it) and kind of entertaining but something happened about 1/3 of the way in that I am still very confused about and I am hoping they will at least try to explain it at some point. Considering this is a satirical take on sci-fi with some 4th-wall-breaking-ish stuff going on I am not sure if plot holes are intentional or not.

Finished it.

I was ok with the premise at the beginning but shortly after the story gets going, it starts to go down such a strange path because of a plot mechanic that feels like a giant plot hole. Even if it was an intentional plot hole, since we are talking about a satire, the characters take it so seriously that I just felt completely detached. 

I do not reccommend it and I have no idea why it gets such high praise.

MASSIVE SPOILER LIKE LITERALLY THE WHOLE BOOK:

Spoiler

They travel back in TIME to talk to the writers of the FICTIONAL SHOW they are a part of and ask them to stop writing the show so they can be free. That doesn't even make any sense. How are writers in the PAST influencing THE FUTURE with how they write? This is never explained or addressed.

Started reading Wool by Hugh Howe.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13453029-wool-omnibus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(series)

Still relatively early. I'll post again once I'm farther.

[kuhla]

On 8/3/2020 at 10:15 PM, kuhla said:

Started reading Wool by Hugh Howe.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13453029-wool-omnibus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(series)

Still relatively early. I'll post again once I'm farther.

Finished this. It was easy to read so it went quick. I enjoyed it. A little on the simple side at times but still fun. Technically it is sci-fi but almost everything in it is low/modern tech since it is post apocalyptic setting.

This would lend itself really well to a TV or film adaptation. A little light CGI here and there but otherwise corridors, hallways and tunnels. 

[kuhla]

Just finished Among Others by Jo Walton.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8706185-among-others

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Among_Others

Remember Ready Player One and its endless direct references to other popular works of fiction? This does a lot of the same thing but change out of the setting for the 1980s UK and the main character for a teenage girls in a private school who also happens to be disabled. There are some light fantasy elements tossed into the mix, along the lines of magic* and fairies, but it felt like you could remove all of that and only lose maybe 25% of the book. The rest of the book feels like slice of life. The main character has a deep love for sci-fi and fantasy novels and spends a lot of time reading and being involved in a book club discussing them so there ends up being a lot of direct references.

I didn't dislike the book but I was a little bored.

*Special note: The magic in this book is a really weird and unlike anything I have never run into before. It sort of operates on a principle of like predestination within boundries.

Started something new but so early I'm not ready to post about it

[kuhla]

On 10/12/2019 at 3:55 PM, kuhla said:

Powered through this pretty hard. It was fun. I enjoyed it more in the second half than in the first half.

Just started The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin ( wikipedia ). I have seen it on a lot of reading lists over the last couple of years. I have not read much yet so I cannot even give any impressions but the book begins with a section set in the Cultural Revolution in China during the 1960s which feels weirdly appropriate.

 

On 11/18/2019 at 11:27 AM, kuhla said:

Just finished this.

It was good read and is very appropriately categorized as hard science fiction with many scientific ideas being discussed which makes sense since the author is an engineer who works at a power company. There is definitely not much action and much of the book focuses around the drama/moral dilemma faced by the main character(s). I would consider this kind of a slow read but it's short (300 pages) so it still does not take long to finish.

For a Chinese author that lives in China, I am surprised at how negative it is about the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 60s (the book is set in something very close to our time and our world).

I am planning to move on the next book in the trilogy but the first book wraps up in a way that it could be treated as a standalone.

"'Game of Thrones' duo are making a 'Three-Body Problem' series for Netflix"

article - https://www.engadget.com/netflix-weiss-benioff-sci-fi-rian-johnson-152019884.html

Quote

Fresh off of adapting a book series that did pretty well as a TV show, Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are bringing another trilogy of novels to the small screen. Along with Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy and True Blood), they’ll write and executive produce a Netflix show based on Liu Cixin’s sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem and its two sequels.

....

Beyond Benioff, Weiss and Woo, there are some other big names involved with the project. Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out director Rian Johnson and his producing partner Ram Bergman are on board as executive producers, as are Brad Pitt and Rosamund Pike. Cixin and Ken Liu, who translated two of the novels into English, will act as consulting producers.
....

I have incredibly low expectations for this.