What are you reading?

[Malaphax]

On 7/28/2020 at 9:29 AM, Malaphax said:

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. 

This ended with a whimper.  The overall story was interesting but it felt like the author had a cool idea and didn't know how to end it.  I understand that certain major plot points are left intentionally unfinished but it still feels like he wrote each book individually without an overall plan for the series. 

I moved on to another series from Brandon Sanderson - The Stormlight Archive: Way of Kings
I wasn't nearly as impressed with the Mistborn series as some people were, but they were easy enough to read.  I've heard the stormlight archive series is better, but I can't tell if that's just a bunch of fanboys being excited by the newer series.  Sanderson generally tries to create very rules based magic systems and the first chapter already had exact rules descriptions for one of the magic systems.  I suspect that means the rules will be strictly followed until a major storybeat when a main character breaks them because something something chosen one. 

[kuhla]

EDIT: Woops.

Just finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Apparently it was initially self-published with Kickstarter.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22733729-the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Way_to_a_Small,_Angry_Planet

It was not bad but I did not really enjoy it. The spaceship's crew was just too much of motley mix for me to take it seriously. The  wacky, barely contained, engineer? The tech nerd who wants to have relations with the computer? The promiscuous pilot? The chef boyardee cook? The grizzled captain with a heart of gold? The list goes on. The book slowly has crisis after crises and each crisis is this perfectly engineered set of circumstances that allows each character to tell about their backstory and explain them more as a character. Maybe I could have still been invested at that point if the wider universe it was set in was interesting but that didn't do much for me either. I found myself getting somewhat bored towards the end and will not be continuing the series.

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

[kuhla]

On 11/12/2018 at 11:52 AM, Malaphax said:

Currently working on Blindsight.  This book feels very crunchy with it's sci-fi elements and some aspects remind me a bit of the expanse.  There are some genuinely strange parts of the book, like the fact that a resurrected vampire is leading the crew and this is taken at face value.  Unlike the more generic vampire tropes he's described as a non-human, almost like a long extinct alpha-predator.  Also the main character basically has super-autism (I hate this trope so much) but unlike some of the other times I've seen this trope used the main character actually comes across as screwed up and creepy and not just mildly socially awkward.

So I am currently reading this after randomly picking it from some recommended list somewhere. Was talking to Malaphax about it and he mentioned he read that book. Found the old post. I'm maybe only 1/4 of the way in and something about the writing style feels strange. I have to read it pretty slowly or I just lose the scene. Some of the ideas are kinda fun. Not sure where it is going yet.

[kuhla]

Finished Blindsight by Peter Watts that I mentioned in the previous post. It was OK I guess. He played with some ideas that I have not come across before which were mildly interesting but overall it did not leave much of an impression on me. I mentioned before that the writing style required me to read slower. Oh well.

Moved on to something else but too early to talk about. After this I will be out of "fresh" material and I will have to lookup some lists again.

[Malaphax]

On 9/1/2020 at 10:01 AM, Malaphax said:

I moved on to another series from Brandon Sanderson - The Stormlight Archive: Way of Kings
I wasn't nearly as impressed with the Mistborn series as some people were, but they were easy enough to read.  I've heard the stormlight archive series is better, but I can't tell if that's just a bunch of fanboys being excited by the newer series.  Sanderson generally tries to create very rules based magic systems and the first chapter already had exact rules descriptions for one of the magic systems.  I suspect that means the rules will be strictly followed until a major storybeat when a main character breaks them because something something chosen one. 

So I finished the first book and just rolled right into the second.  The magic system is actually very loose in this book, although there are a few instances where they describe very detailed uses of magic that follows a strict ruleset.  The overall plot was better than mistborn, and the point of view characters feel more interesting.  There's also a much larger focus on conflict with the vast majority of the book being set during a war, but large sections of the book talked about surrounding politics or elements outside of the war. 

Overall the book is good and I'm interested enough to see where the rest of the series goes.  I would probably steer people towards this instead of the mistborn series. 

[kuhla]

On 11/2/2020 at 1:25 PM, kuhla said:

Moved on to something else but too early to talk about. After this I will be out of "fresh" material and I will have to lookup some lists again.

 

Currently reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveneves

I'm 100 pages in and it's definitely hard scifi but still easy to read. I have read a few things from Neal Stephenson but none of them have ever made a big impact on me. Similarly with this book so far, it's basically such a consistent "downer" that there has to be a big twist/upset coming otherwise it's just going to be a grind. I'm unlikely to abandon it but we will see what happens.

I double checked and this will be the last book in my queue and then I need to find new material. I'm going to make a point to focus a bit less on critics recommendations this time and focus more on just enjoyment.

[Malaphax]

On 11/2/2020 at 1:54 PM, Malaphax said:

So I finished the first book and just rolled right into the second.  The magic system is actually very loose in this book, although there are a few instances where they describe very detailed uses of magic that follows a strict ruleset.  The overall plot was better than mistborn, and the point of view characters feel more interesting.  There's also a much larger focus on conflict with the vast majority of the book being set during a war, but large sections of the book talked about surrounding politics or elements outside of the war. 

Overall the book is good and I'm interested enough to see where the rest of the series goes.  I would probably steer people towards this instead of the mistborn series. 

I'm a ways into book 3 at this point.  The second book was better than the first.  This series is starting to remind me of the Game of Thrones books, each novel clearly has it's own plot and stakes but the world keeps getting expanded and the number of point of view characters seems to increase.  I briefly looked up the author's tentative plans for the series and he's aiming for 10 novels, split into 2 connected series of 5 books with a time-skip in between, and while that seems ambitious, I think he's doing a good job so far. 
This is probably the premier fantasy series currently running, the other major series I can think of all have authors that seem intent on not finishing. 

[Malaphax]

Just posting this list again.  One nice aspect is that each book on this list has a corresponding NPR review. 

https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#tags=sci+fi%2C+fantasy+%26+speculative+fiction&view=covers&year=2020

[kuhla]

On 11/10/2020 at 4:00 PM, kuhla said:

Currently reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveneves

I'm 100 pages in and it's definitely hard scifi but still easy to read. I have read a few things from Neal Stephenson but none of them have ever made a big impact on me. Similarly with this book so far, it's basically such a consistent "downer" that there has to be a big twist/upset coming otherwise it's just going to be a grind. I'm unlikely to abandon it but we will see what happens.

Just finished this and I feel there is a lot that needs to be said.

I would still hesitate to say I enjoyed this book but my opinion of it improved the longer I read it. Objectively I feel this is a good book and that is why it shows up in multiple recommended lists. I guess this is not a spoiler, since it is in the synopsis, but the book is basically split in two between "the before" and "the much later".

In both sections, but especially in "the much later" half, the book is full of details that makes it deserving of being called "hard scifi". Never heard of a scarfed nozzle? Well the author goes on a 2 page description of what they are, how they can be used and why the characters in the book need them. Many times in the book there are short 1-2 page tangents where a mechanical system is described in some detail and the history (both real and fictional) behind it. Imagine my lack of surprise when I found out he worked at at Blue Origin (Bezos space company) for a bit. However the author extends this detailed imagination to non-tech too. He starts inventing multiple big long history arcs for different groups of people (some more believable than others).

Towards the end I started to enjoy just seeing how far he would go with all of these ideas since every couple of pages there was some new dump of information. It certainly helped that the writing style was easy to follow and allowed itself to be read very quickly although make no mistake that this is not a short read at 800+ pages.

 

[kuhla]

wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Birds_in_the_Sky

Currently reading All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. It was on some list somewhere I cannot remember which one. It's modern fantasy set in our current history (book was written in 2016) so there are a lot of technology mentioned that sounds very familiar but sometimes just has a new name. I am about half way through and mostly enjoying as kind of a "lite" read but I feel like it sets up every dilemma in such a way that you have a pretty good chance of guessing how it will be resolved. I will definitely be finishing it. Dunno if I will progress to the next book in the series.

[kuhla]

wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Season_(novel)

Currently reading The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin and I am about half way through. It was on some list somewhere I cannot remember which one. Sci-fi. It's easy to read so it's going pretty quick. The world is kind of interesting. Characters are OK but I'm especially kind of creeped out about how they are handling a relationship between two characters where there is also a large age difference. There are a few items where I'm still wondering where they are going with it. Also there is that story mechanic where it's following two threads that are largely separated by time and I'm guessing they will not intertwine but the events from the earlier thread will affect the later thread. The book is part of a series but I'm not sure yet if I will continue it.

[kuhla]

On 1/20/2021 at 9:26 PM, kuhla said:

wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Season_(novel)

Currently reading The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin and I am about half way through. It was on some list somewhere I cannot remember which one. Sci-fi. It's easy to read so it's going pretty quick. The world is kind of interesting. Characters are OK but I'm especially kind of creeped out about how they are handling a relationship between two characters where there is also a large age difference. There are a few items where I'm still wondering where they are going with it. Also there is that story mechanic where it's following two threads that are largely separated by time and I'm guessing they will not intertwine but the events from the earlier thread will affect the later thread. The book is part of a series but I'm not sure yet if I will continue it.

Finished this and also finished the next two books to complete the trilogy (The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky). It was a nice story and easy to read but I am not sure I liked it enough to recommend it. The world stays somewhat interesting throughout but the story just did not get a lot of emotional involvement out of me.  One correction to my previous statement, the books are not sci-fi. It's fantasy but it takes a while for that to be make explicitly clear.

I have no idea what I am going to move on to. I actually have nothing lined up which is something I hope to fix by tonight.

[Malaphax]

Finished book 4 of the stormlight archive series.  I've enjoyed the books but there are some idiosyncrasies from the author that somewhat bother me.  He tends to pace the novels slightly on the slower side but the endings always happen in a mad rush.  I know it's not: "oh shit I wrote 1000 pages I need to finish this thing" but it does feel a bit like that. 
I also understand that he's linked a ton of his other books/series together into one very expanded universe, and while that hasn't been an issue that prevented me from enjoying the novels I really hope he doesn't tie them together much further because it would be incredibly tedious to tell someone "oh you need to read 3 unrelated series just to understand all of what's going on." 
The series is still a very solid fantasy series with some impressive world building and good characters.  I'll make sure to grab the next book in the series when it releases in a few years. 

I'm moving on to Network Effect by Martha Wells. 
This is technically the 5th novel in a series, the murderbot diaries, but the first 4 were novellas.  These are definitely science fiction, but also have a substantial character focus.  The main character being essentially an android, that acts as a sort of reluctant hero.

[kuhla]

Currently reading Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Already about 1/3 of the way into it. The book is not long and it is written in a way that can be read quickly and easily. The story feels like something I have seen before; alternate universes, switching places, etc. Kind of having fun with it though. It has got me turning pages. I think I will work through this quickly.

 

The same author wrote Recursion which I also recently read (my post below). He seems to really like these "alternate realities" ideas. If this book ends up just as good, I may start keeping an eye out for Blake Crouch.

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

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 3/9/2021 at 1:58 PM, kuhla said:

Currently reading Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Already about 1/3 of the way into it. The book is not long and it is written in a way that can be read quickly and easily. The story feels like something I have seen before; alternate universes, switching places, etc. Kind of having fun with it though. It has got me turning pages. I think I will work through this quickly.

 

The same author wrote Recursion which I also recently read (my post below). He seems to really like these "alternate realities" ideas. If this book ends up just as good, I may start keeping an eye out for Blake Crouch.

Finished it. It was a fun read but I think Recursion was better. I would probably recommend it for a quick easy read.

Now reading  Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68494.Perdido_Street_Station

Kind of crazy setting so far. It's like very fantasy. Bug people. Fish people. Cactus people. Living houses. Just kinda wild so far but it's all very "normal" settings if that makes sense. Need to read much further to see where this goes.

[Malaphax]

On 3/7/2021 at 7:14 PM, Malaphax said:

I'm moving on to Network Effect by Martha Wells. 
This is technically the 5th novel in a series, the murderbot diaries, but the first 4 were novellas.  These are definitely science fiction, but also have a substantial character focus.  The main character being essentially an android, that acts as a sort of reluctant hero.

Finished this.  It was solid, although I think it lost some of the charm of the novellas.

Moving on to Unlimited Honor - the 4th and final Battletech novella that I got for free from backing the kickstarter for that game. 
I mostly remember the plot and I expect it will be a quick read.

After that I'll move on to The Traitor Baru Comorant - I saw this recommended by the internet so I'll give it a shot. 

[kuhla]

52 minutes ago, Malaphax said:

After that I'll move on to The Traitor Baru Comorant - I saw this recommended by the internet so I'll give it a shot. 

The premise sounds interesting/fun. Please report back when you have finished this. I may be interested in adding it to my todo list.

[kuhla]

On 3/17/2021 at 10:51 PM, kuhla said:

 Now reading  Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68494.Perdido_Street_Station

Kind of crazy setting so far. It's like very fantasy. Bug people. Fish people. Cactus people. Living houses. Just kinda wild so far but it's all very "normal" settings if that makes sense. Need to read much further to see where this goes.

Finished it.

Now reading Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6665847-daemon

Still pretty early in the book. It is easy to read so it is moving quickly. I was thrown for a loop early on when a character in the book was talking about unsecured SSIDs, exploiting netbios vulnerabilities and privileged escalation. Felt like I was reading something for work for a moment. I had to go check some info about the author and it states he has worked in IT but he must have done security specific work to mention those types of events. Not much to comment about the plot yet which I think is still being setup.

[kuhla]

On 4/28/2021 at 9:40 AM, kuhla said:

Now reading Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6665847-daemon

Still pretty early in the book. It is easy to read so it is moving quickly. I was thrown for a loop early on when a character in the book was talking about unsecured SSIDs, exploiting netbios vulnerabilities and privileged escalation. Felt like I was reading something for work for a moment. I had to go check some info about the author and it states he has worked in IT but he must have done security specific work to mention those types of events. Not much to comment about the plot yet which I think is still being setup.

I had to drop this. I read books for the same reasons I watch movies, play video games, etc. for a degree of escapism. There is nothing obvious that is technically wrong but because of my job I just cannot stay engaged in the story when the author talks about how a character is taking advantage of snmp on an unpatched openbsd system.

[kuhla]

Now reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/910863.Spin?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ZkGz34uhqj&rank=4

Quote

One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives.  Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.

I'm only about 100 pages in and it is easy to read but the pace is kind of crazy. There is so many seemingly important moments that have happened so far that I'm not sure what is supposed to happen for the next couple hundred pages much less how there can be more books in the series. I will say though that if it does not slow down at all I fear this could start feeling exhausting and hollywood-ish where it's just a box of dramatic moments strung together.

[Malaphax]

On 3/22/2021 at 9:45 AM, Malaphax said:

After that I'll move on to The Traitor Baru Comorant - I saw this recommended by the internet so I'll give it a shot. 

I finished the first book, it was definitely well written and I'll continue the series to see where this goes.  Some of the major focus on economics and monetary policy was surprising but it does shift to a more traditional sword and sandals style fantasy partway through.  I'm also curious about some of the world building elements they're making use of, the main character is clearly working for an 'evil' empire and I'm wondering how they're going to handle that. 

[kuhla]

On 5/12/2021 at 10:16 AM, kuhla said:

Now reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/910863.Spin?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ZkGz34uhqj&rank=4

I'm only about 100 pages in and it is easy to read but the pace is kind of crazy. There is so many seemingly important moments that have happened so far that I'm not sure what is supposed to happen for the next couple hundred pages much less how there can be more books in the series. I will say though that if it does not slow down at all I fear this could start feeling exhausting and hollywood-ish where it's just a box of dramatic moments strung together.

Finished last night. It was not perfect but I liked it overall. The pace did stay high.

Despite liking it I find myself a little hesitant to jump into book 2. The end book had a fairly clean ending. I worry that continuing the story would undo that.

Not sure what I will do next just yet.

[kuhla]

On 5/12/2021 at 10:16 AM, kuhla said:

Now reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/910863.Spin?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ZkGz34uhqj&rank=4

I'm only about 100 pages in and it is easy to read but the pace is kind of crazy. There is so many seemingly important moments that have happened so far that I'm not sure what is supposed to happen for the next couple hundred pages much less how there can be more books in the series. I will say though that if it does not slow down at all I fear this could start feeling exhausting and hollywood-ish where it's just a box of dramatic moments strung together.

 

On 5/21/2021 at 9:30 AM, kuhla said:

Finished last night. It was not perfect but I liked it overall. The pace did stay high.

Despite liking it I find myself a little hesitant to jump into book 2. The end book had a fairly clean ending. I worry that continuing the story would undo that.

Not sure what I will do next just yet.

Decided to not take any risks and moved on to book 2, Axis

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/116410.Axis

Finished it a couple of days ago. The pace is much slower and story is much more simple. It is actually such a big change from book 1 that I wonder if book 2 was unexpected and rushed out. These books don't take too long to read so I have gone ahead and moved on to book 3 which already seems a bit more exciting again.

[kuhla]

On 6/18/2021 at 8:18 AM, kuhla said:

Decided to not take any risks and moved on to book 2, Axis

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/116410.Axis

Finished it a couple of days ago. The pace is much slower and story is much more simple. It is actually such a big change from book 1 that I wonder if book 2 was unexpected and rushed out. These books don't take too long to read so I have gone ahead and moved on to book 3 which already seems a bit more exciting again.

Finished book 3. It was better than book 2 but if anyone asks me about this series I'm just going to recommend they read the first book and then stop there. It has a sufficiently satisfying that you can end there. The 2nd and 3rd book just muddy it up and take some of the wonder out of it.

[kuhla]

Now reading  The Dreaming Void (Void #1) by Peter F. Hamilton

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/866136.The_Dreaming_Void

I'm not that far in but I have to say I am feeling a little bit lost. The writing style is fine and plot does not even seem that complicated but there is bouncing between two points in time. I imagine some things will get explained in time but I'm not really enjoying the feeling of floundering with terms that do not mean anything to me (yet).