What we're reading, the SFF edition

I recently finished Illuminae and I'm still losing my mind. I keep going back and reading some of the entries. I've been really wanting some good modern science fiction and this really scratched that itch. I kept digging into it for more hints and clues. I'm kind of obsessed.

Hoplite said:

Have you read any of the other books in the series? I'd say up to and including Children of Dune is good and it completes the story of Paul Atreides. Beyond that though....well.....tastes may vary.

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Not yet. I think Book 2's lurking in my paperback pile, though. And I've heard iffy things about the series as it progresses... not an uncommon complaint, unfortunately.

Vernor Vinge's book and I are still eyeballing each other warily - I'm probably going to get back to it, but not for a day or so. For now, I'm pushing ahead in that Damon Knight short story collection. The last few haven't been quite as dated as the first ones I read. He's got some great ideas, though his characters aren't always my cup of cocoa.

Finished The Martian. It was amazing. I don't know why I put it off for so long.

Finished Conan the Warrior and Flashing Swords! #1. Now I'm reading Conan the Usurper.

I'm reading "The Death House" by Sarah Pinborough.

I got it free off the swag table at FantasyCon and probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise as it's sort-of YA and written in present tense, both things that normally put me off a book straight away.

But...but...holy shit it's good!

I tried and gave up on The Stumpwork Robe by Prue Batten. I had high hopes and the premise seemed intriguing, but the storytelling fell short (too much telegraphing and obvious foreshadowing robbed me of my urge to keep reading), the characters didn't seem real or complex, and this was a book (self-pubbed, I think) in sore need of a good copy editor.

Shifted to Shakespeare's Rebel by CC Humphries. Historical novel, though, not fantasy.

So I finished The Death House. It was brutal.

I don't think a book has made me cry since I first read When The Wind Blows in the 1980s, but this managed it. I can't recommend this highly enough.

Currently re-reading the Earthsea books by Ursula LeGuin. I'd forgotten how beautiful those books are...

Now reading "Marked" by Sue Tingey - a bit light and fluffy for my usual tastes but great fun in a "Buffy" sort of way.

Just started The Thirteenth Child (The Frontier Magic series, Book 1, by Patricia Wrede, via Overdrive on my Nook). An alt-history America has magic, mammoths, and dragons... out on the untamed frontier. The MC, Eff, is an ill-omened 13th child, twin sister to a seventh son of a seventh son. I'm early in: the family's just moved from the civilized regions of the East to a frontier town, so the father can teach at a university... and, not incidentally, so Eff can escape the merciless persecution of her extended family and the township who all knew she would be "evil" because of her birth status. (Her parents, thankfully, are on her side.) So far, it's intriguing, though I've had mixed luck with Wrede in the past. (Loved her Enchanted Forest Chronicles, but didn't care for her Mairelon the Magician.)

Need to get back to Vernor Vinge's book, too, to give it a proper chance, but I keep forgetting to...

Most recently finished The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. Happened to catch it on sale and it pops up literally every time I look for a new book so I decided to give it a shot. I am so, so glad that I did. Wow. It was not at all what I thought it would be going in; much more paranormal and much less romance than the cover/back blurb might suggest, though it is still central to the story. Spirits and demons and an extraordinarily surreal version of the 'afterlife'. And Er Lang, it's worth reading for his snarky commentary alone.

It's not without its problems, though; the plot is a little thin and I honestly feel like it could have stood to be about 50 pages longer than it was; the end felt rushed and I would have liked to see a little more development on certain points. Overall I really enjoyed it.

And now the between-book limbo for me. I always have a hard time picking a new one; so many to choose from. Leaning heavily toward Kate Elliot's Black Wolves after reading her Big Idea post on Scalzi's blog, but we'll see.

Finished two YA fantasies by established adult fantasy authors.

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott, which I really enjoyed, and Half a King by Joe Abercrombie, which I also enjoyed. I'll be waiting for more in Elliott's series, and I'll have to get my hands on the next two in Abercrombie's.

I think I actually preferred Half a King to anything I've read so far in his First Law world.

rwm4768 said:

Finished two YA fantasies by established adult fantasy authors.

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott, which I really enjoyed

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While you're waiting for the next Court of Fives book (I am, too), there's a e-novella set in the same world, Night Flower, due to be released on Dec. 8.

Just finished the infamous Dune. It was pretty good, but I must admit I enjoyed the first half more than the second. It was refreshing to read something in the omni POV. I enjoyed the court drama and the way you knew what each character was thinking and how they all played off on each other.

It's an old book, and I can see why it was so important for the genre. Many books and movies have clearly been influenced by it, namely Star Wars: A New Hope and Sanderson's Way of Kings.

phantasy said:

It's an old book, and I can see why it was so important for the genre. Many books and movies have clearly been influenced by it, namely Star Wars: A New Hope and Sanderson's Way of Kings.

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Not to mention Wheel of Time of course. I love Dune but I agree you can see the age of it these days.

For the record, Thirteenth Child was a decent read, with a wonderfully imaginative world. There isn't much of an overarching external story arc; mostly it's about the titular 13th child, the girl Eff, growing up in the magical alternate America and struggling to become her own person despite the stigma of her birth order. I'm keeping an eye on Overdrive for the next one to become available through the library. (Yes, I work for the library, and I'm too lazy to place a hold...)

My current SF/F read is Sharcano (Book 1 of the Sharkpocalypse trilogy, by Jose Prendes, on Kindle), a straight-faced B-movie parody in a book along the lines of Sharknado. A Megalodon corpse on the beach of Nicaragua, severely burned by unknown means, is the first warning of a planetary cataclysm that may be linked to prophecies of the End Times. The plot's just as ridiculous and fast-paced - even if the action makes little sense - as a SyFy monster flick, so I'm enjoying it on that level, even if some of the writing feels clunky. (The author's favorite phrase - the shit's hitting the fan - gets far too much play, here, as do other pet phrases like "beat feet" and such.)

I'm also giving Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep a shot; so far, a couple chapters in, so good, despite the prologue being a little heavy on the new/mind-twisting concepts.

Just finished Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave. You know, I keep trying, but I just can't get into the young adult dystopian sci-fi genre. From The Hunger Games to Divergent—and now with The 5th Wave—they all seem to follow the same insufferable template. You've got a "chosen one" teenage girl who gets an early opportunity to display her strength and independence, and that's perfectly fine. Inevitably, though, we devolve into a "Which one of those adorable boys will she'll choose?" melodrama.

The 5th Wave is a few cuts below The Hunger Games. Yancey's story lacks the clever subtext of Suzanne Collins's series. Cassie, the protagonist of the story, accomplishes virtually nothing from start to finish. She spends the first part of the book mired in flashbacks. In short order, she needs to be rescued by a handsome boy who may or may not be an agent for the alien invaders. Say goodbye to her personal agency at that point: it's pretty much endless ruminations on the boy's "chocolatey eyes" from there on out (and if you think I'm kidding, I dare you to fire up a digital version of the book, run a search on "chocolatey eyes," and see how many hits you get).

Throw in the fact that the ending lacks any kind of closure—Yancey needs to set us up for book #2, after all—and you've got a real loser. Whatever interest I had in the film adaptation coming in January just died. (Actually, the shoddy quality of the book probably explains why the movie is being dumped into theaters in January.)

The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke

Not far enough in to have too much of an opinion yet, but there's some really interesting worldbuilding going on.

Just finished the last book in Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy. There were a few POV's I didn't care for as much as the others, and sometimes I could see the strings being pulled from behind the scenes... But overall I absolutely loved this series, and the ending was quite satisfying.
I know he's discussed writing more books in this setting before. Here's to hoping he does!

DragonHeart said:

The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke

Not far enough in to have too much of an opinion yet, but there's some really interesting worldbuilding going on.

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FryeGuy said:

Just finished the last book in Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy. There were a few POV's I didn't care for as much as the others, and sometimes I could see the strings being pulled from behind the scenes... But overall I absolutely loved this series, and the ending was quite satisfying.
I know he's discussed writing more books in this setting before. Here's to hoping he does!

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Two of my favorites. I think The Last Stormlord is vastly underrated.

Finished two fantasy books today.

The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding. If you love Steampunk (and even if you don't), you should read this series. It is some of the most exciting fantasy of any flavor that you'll find. I loved the first two books. This one took things to a whole other level. Probably the best book I've read this year.

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Lawrence is a brilliant writer. I respect him very much for being great at what he does. Unfortunately, after reading all three books, I have to say that reading about Jorg just doesn't do it for me. At all.

I really enjoyed Prince of Fools, though. The main character worked a lot better for me.

rwm4768 said:

. . . Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Lawrence is a brilliant writer. I respect him very much for being great at what he does. Unfortunately, after reading all three books, I have to say that reading about Jorg just doesn't do it for me. At all.

I really enjoyed Prince of Fools, though. The main character worked a lot better for me.

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I devoured the "Thorns" books, but like you, I never fell in love with the MC. I kept thinking, how can he (Lawrence) end this series. And then I came to it and still can't decide if it was the perfect ending or a cheat. Hmmm.

Recently, I finished Peter V Brett's Daylight War, and have to say, I loved it. I once complained about the 2nd book in this series. I felt like I was slogging through the middle. Maybe that was because I wasn't crazy about some of the characters. Anyway, you told me it got better in the next book. You were very right.

Sitting on my reading table are Abercrombie's Half a King - IMO Abercrombie can do no wrong - and another book I bought because of your response to my post about the 1st of the Lightbringer series. The magic was too much for my taste. It seemed half instruction manual, half novel. You said it lightened up in book 2. So, trusting you, I now have The Blinding Knife laying in wait beneath Half a King.

Stormlord Rising by Glenda Larke.

So as you can probably infer, I did enjoy The Last Stormlord. Of course, it also ended on a cliffhanger in a "this story is complete but nothing is even close to being resolved yet" kind of way. Grr.

To be honest though, I almost didn't bother. There's an event right at the start of the second book that I feel is done solely for shock value and really turned me off of it. It's like yeah, I read the last book I know these guys as brutal, you don't have to show me again. The major death at the end of the last book had real impact, not this hollow, tacked on slaying of a character no one cares about. It's not giving me a lot of confidence about this book but I do want to see who gets their comeuppance and who survives.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher.

This started out great. It brought out the world building nice and easy, good voice, intriguing plot...

Then it dissolved into a bad 90s supernatural drama show, like a bad Buffy fan-fiction.

The Protag had it all--the male gaze constantly assessing women's looks, being amazed how someone so 'cute' could be strong and formidable, the chauvinism played as chivalry, sex scene with an old lover who was barely in the story, the bragging about how wonderful they are, and the no one understanding great power but him so follow him or you're dead.

Not to mention the protag somehow needing a laughingly minimal amount of sleep and food, constantly getting seriously injured without proper healing, and the action being so constant that scenes no longer stand out anymore so by the end, you're just waiting for the end already.

And that one female cop that constantly got in his way...man, I wanted to punch her. And then I wanted to punch him for constantly forgiving her.

As you can tell, this book bothered the heck out me. And it reminded me why, years ago, I read a book from this series and stopped.

Butcher can write quite well at times, so I'm thinking to skip ahead into the series. Maybe the protag gets less obnoxious as it goes on.