It's been about a month, so another procrastination update...
Last Finished:
Finishing School (Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton, nonfiction/writing, paperback): Two writers from different backgrounds present a method for finishing those writing projects that never seem to get done, creating a targeted group to help one's fellow writers get back on track with their goals.
This is a decent book with a distinct purpose that sets it apart from many other writing books. The "Finishing School" method has become a Thing, evidently, distinct from critique groups in that they do not critique or judge, but merely offer motivation to pick a goal, schedule writing times, and stick with them (by texting or phoning one's partner when one starts or stops, then reporting back to the group on progress.) An interesting method, with proven results, though my notoriously poor luck with groups and "buddies" inhibits me from trying it myself just yet.
11/22/63 (Stephen King, sci-fi, paperback): A 2011 schoolteacher learns of a portal to 1958 - and a dying friend's thwarted plans to use the portal to change history, saving the life of JFK in 1963. Taking up the man's notes and plan, he soon learns that time doesn't like to be altered... and it fights dirty.
In reading this, I finally saw the writing that elevated his books to such high status (having been unimpressed with the other book-length tales of his I'd read previously.) It's not necessarily breakneck, particularly early on, but it drew me into the life of the main character, and the tension kept ratcheting up. The parts just after the climax are particularly powerful, a bittersweet payoff to the emotional core of the whole journey.
Currently Reading:
The Three-Body Problem (Liu Cixin, sci-fi, Kindle): Classified attempts by China's government to contact alien life may be tied to a recent rash of tragedy and suicides among the world's elite scientists... and one nanotech researcher finds himself recruited as reluctant bait to find out who, or what, is behind the trouble.
This is an Idea book, especially after the early chapters that deal with the Cultural Revolution; indeed, the further it goes, the more it seems to largely exist to novelize advanced concepts, with characters increasingly marginalized. I'm muddling through as best I can, and the Ideas are indeed interesting (insofar as I can grasp them), but it's really not quite my cup of cocoa as stories and styles go. I also know there's at least one more book after this, so I may be looking at an inconclusive ending to reward my efforts. Nevertheless, I'm pressing onward...
Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse series, Book 3, James S. A. Corey, sci-fi, paperback): The third book in the Expanse series picks up some months after the conclusion of Book 2. The alien protomolecule that had taken over Venus seems to have completed its "program" with the creation of an unknown, self-assembling Ring, currently out near Uranus's orbit. Captain James Holden of the Rocinante once more finds himself drawn into the thick of political intrigue, danger, and imminent interplanetary war... a position made even more dangerous by a new enemy and by visions of the deceased Detective Miller, who seems to be trying to tell him something important about the protomolecule and the Ring.
This one got off to a bit of a slower start, with more peripheral characters who take a bit to connect to the main story arc. There's also an increasing religious presence in the books - so far not too preachy or dealbreaking, but a definite uptick that might be worrisome (at least to me, with my low tolerance for religious Messages hijacking stories.) But once it finds its footing it's every bit as intense and high-octane as the previous titles in the series. I already have Book 4 on hand...
Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St. Mary's, Book 1, Jodi Taylor, sci-fi, Nook): In the nearish future, a specialized institute researches history by sending specially-trained historians into the past to observe events... but time is finicky about visitors, especially when "observation" goes wrong (as it inevitably does.)
A combination of an e-book discount and a recommendation from someone I know at work led to me trying this title. Thus far, two chapters in, I can't say I'm overly impressed. It seems like a collection of stock characters in vaguely amusing stock situations. The writing's even a bit clunky (every character gets a hair-and-eye description the moment the reader "meets" them, for instance, and thus far the story has followed the standard "person gets recruited to a strange institution, gets a generic tour with eccentric characters, then undergoes rigorous and glossed-over training that they're guaranteed to ace because they're the main character and the book wouldn't exist if they failed" formula), and I can't say I care for the main character - the stereotypical petite spunky redhead lady - or anyone else yet. But it's early, and it reads fast so far, so I'm gamely pushing on.
It's been a sci-fi heavy month, hasn't it? It also has been a slow reading month; I have other projects eating much of my time, unfortunately. Gotta get a fantasy in once I clear a few titles, I think. I need a dragon round about now...