What we're reading, the SFF edition

Over a month, procrastinating again...

Recently Read SF/F:
The Dragon's Path (Book 1 of the Dagger and the Coin series, Daniel Abraham, fantasy, paperback): In a world of long-vanished dragons and thirteen races of humans - from common Firstboods through bronze-scaled Jasuru, from enigmatic Drowned to frail-seeming Cinnae - a forgotten goddess stands ready to return. A handful of people may save the world, or enable its fall.

I had an epic fantasy itch, and Abraham is half of James S. A. "Expanse" Corey, (and this book was on sale a while back when I needed to fill out an order) so I gave it a try. On the plus side, it has the deep history and peculiar oddities that I so enjoy about epic fantasy. It also is a bit atypical in that it focuses less on big battles (so far) and more on the political maneuvering and flow of money and power that ultimately decide the fates of nations. On the minus side, I never was more than lukewarm about the characters, which kept me from fully enjoying the tale; not that they weren't well written, but that I just didn't like spending much time with them. Not bad, and it has its appeal, but not a series I expect to follow.

The True Meaning of Smekday (Book 1 of the Smek Smeries series, Adam Rex, MG humor/SF, audiobook): The girl Gratiuity "Tip" Tucci writes an essay for school about the Smekday holiday, the day the alien Boov first came to Earth. Though only 11 at the time, she knew they were trouble before most people, because they abducted her mother. Then they conquered the world in a matter of months, relocating people to corners of their former countries while the Boov moved in. When Tip decides to drive to the American "reservation" of Florida with her pet cat instead of taking a Boov rocket ship, she winds up picking up a hapless Boov mechanic sidekick and setting out on a cross-country quest to find her missing mom and save the world... not just from the Boov, but from the even more dangerous Gorg, who followed the Boov to the planet formerly known as Earth.

This award-winning book has plenty of humor and lots of heart. Tip's a gutsy girl, used to surviving on her own (her mother isn't the most stable woman), but even she's pushed beyond her limits a time or two. Her Boov companion, who calls himself J.Lo, becomes a true companion and friend over the course of their adventures. There are obvious parallels to human colonization as the Boov push the technologically inferior "noble savage" humans out of their homes, though the Boov history (as related by J.Lo) mirrors our own in several ways. I snickered aloud at several points, though there are also moments of gut-wrenching emotion and some nice, sly digs and comments on various topics, some of which might go over young readers' heads. Very enjoyable.

The Collapsing Empire (Book 1 of the Interdependency series, John Scalzi, humor/SF, Kindle): For countless generations, humans have exploited the Flow - a "current" through spacetime that enables FTL travel, but only along its branches and streams to destinations with "shoals" for entry and exit - to build a vast empire across hundreds of light years, colonies reliant on each other for survival via monopolies controlled by powerful merchant guilds, all (nominally) under directive of the church and the emperox. But new research indicates that the Flow is not as eternal and stable as believed; indeed, it may be about to collapse, stranding and dooming the vast majority of the population. A new and unprepared emperox faces the end of the Interdependency and a possible coup by a powerful merchant house.

Scalzi delivers some sharp (if sometimes crude) wit and observations on human nature, though ultimately the story hit a little too close to home for me to truly laugh as much as I should've (watching, as I am, how those in power are choosing a profitable extinction over a costly possible survival.) I also never quite connected with most of the characters, driven as they are by profit and money and power games that they know are ultimately houses of cards doomed to fall, but hopefully not while they're around. The story felt less like an arc than a setup for the larger series, leaving me somewhat dissatisfied by the end. I think if I'd read it at a different time and in a different headspace, I'd have enjoyed it much more. As it is, while it was undoubtedly sharp and clever and fun in spots, I just don't care what happens to anyone or anything, and won't be reading on.

Currently Reading SF/F:
Bitter Seeds (Book 1 of the Milkweed Triptych, Ian Tregillis, SF, paperback): In the lead-up to World War 2, a British agent witnesses unusual activity in Franco's Spain. Germany is developing a new weapon, humans with unusual abilities such as precognition and invulnerability... which prompts Britain to tap a hidden community of warlocks in its own borders.

An interesting (if dark) alt-history concept, so far I'm enjoying it.

I'm rereading the Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan, a favourite of my teenage years, and I'm currently on #5, The Fires of Heaven. For the most part it's just as good as I remember, although the constant men vs. women theme gets so grating sometimes.

I finally bought my first ever short story collection. It's called Thrilling Tales: Alien Invasions. I hope I like reading short story collections as much as I do writing them.

Yesterday I finished Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen. I knew it was the first book in a trilogy, but I thought it might be a stand-alone that became a trilogy. It's not a stand-alone, but it is a good book and I plan to get to the other books sooner rather than later.

ULTRAGOTHA said:

I think she pretty much stuck the landing. Perhaps a bobble or so.


Continuing with my Hugo reading now that the packet is out, I stayed up waaaay too late last night reading Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Very good so far.

Click to expand...

Just finished that one. I found it fascinating and engaging, although somewhere I'd read a blurb that seemed to indicate it was about women who went to Mars and I kept wondering when that was going to happen. But once I realized that it wasn't really about that (though future volumes may be), I settled into it and really enjoyed it.

BethS said:

Just finished that one. I found it fascinating and engaging, although somewhere I'd read a blurb that seemed to indicate it was about women who went to Mars and I kept wondering when that was going to happen. But once I realized that it wasn't really about that (though future volumes may be), I settled into it and really enjoyed it.

Click to expand...

The sequel, The Fated Sky, is about the first Mars mission. Worth the read - very much like Calculating Stars.

Brightdreamer said:

The sequel, The Fated Sky, is about the first Mars mission. Worth the read - very much like Calculating Stars.

Click to expand...

I've already downloaded it. Looking forward to the read.

I read Dragonriders of Pern for the first time a week ago, and it blew me away. Seriously, for a fantasy written a half-century ago, it was more interesting and modern than a lot of the contemporary stuff I read. The narration is a bit strange to start, but the entire plot was a delight. The characters were brash but ultimately likeable. There were space-dragons, in space. Wholeheartedly recommended.

Edit: Dragonriders of Pern, book 1, Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey

ULTRAGOTHA said:

Continuing with my Hugo reading now that the packet is out, I stayed up waaaay too late last night reading Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Very good so far.

Click to expand...

Calculating Stars was excellent! I enjoyed it very much.
I tried Space Opera and probably won't read any more. I acknowledge that other people REALLY liked it but it's not for me.
Trail of Lightening was good but I didn't really like the main character.
Record of a Spaceborn Few was a series of Day in the Life of different characters with not much connection between them. A nice read with low stakes. Very restful.

I'll probably read a few series novels next. Maybe the Laundry Files. I haven't read any of them yet.

Luna- Moon Rising by Ian McDonald. Doesn't stick the landing, weakest of the three and doesn't resolve enough. I hope it's not the final book, or that we get a follow-up series.

Still, as a trilogy one of my new all-time favorites, and there's lots to like wrd world-building, crunchy hard science, believable cultures, extrapolation on the future, costume porn and board-room drama.

Moardragons said:

I read Dragonriders of Pern for the first time a week ago, and it blew me away. Seriously, for a fantasy written a half-century ago, it was more interesting and modern than a lot of the contemporary stuff I read. The narration is a bit strange to start, but the entire plot was a delight. The characters were brash but ultimately likeable. There were space-dragons, in space. Wholeheartedly recommended.

Edit: Dragonriders of Pern, book 1, Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey

Click to expand...

The late McCaffrey would argue - vehemently - that her books were SF, not fantasy. Still, though there are parts that don't age particularly well, they remain very imaginative. (At least, the earlier books... series kinda degenerates as it goes on, especially past the original trilogy, IMHO.)

Just finished Roger Zelazny's CHANGELING, a gorgeous fantasy novel from 1980 with many brilliant Esteban Maroto B&W illustrations.

I'm finally reading Dune.

Brightdreamer said:

The late McCaffrey would argue - vehemently - that her books were SF, not fantasy. Still, though there are parts that don't age particularly well, they remain very imaginative. (At least, the earlier books... series kinda degenerates as it goes on, especially past the original trilogy, IMHO.)

Click to expand...

Oh wow. I should probably let the used bookstore know then, because they definitely shelve her stuff under fantasy.

Are there any series that don't noticeably lose quality as they go on? Serious question. I prefer reading stand-alones to series generally, but I'd love to read a 3-5 book series that stays super strong the entire way through, or gets even better.

Moardragons said:

Oh wow. I should probably let the used bookstore know then, because they definitely shelve her stuff under fantasy.

Are there any series that don't noticeably lose quality as they go on? Serious question. I prefer reading stand-alones to series generally, but I'd love to read a 3-5 book series that stays super strong the entire way through, or gets even better.

Click to expand...

Robin Hobb’s Farseer saga! I’ve been reading them my entire adult life, and the final trilogy (which just ended in 2017 with Assassin’s Fate) are among the best fantasy novels I’ve ever read. I wept at the last book in particular, not just to see it all come to an end, but come to the most beautiful and earned end imaginable. It’s been a journey and a half, and I can’t imagine how Hobb does it. Her writing’s only gotten more vivid and insightful with each entry.

Moardragons said:

Oh wow. I should probably let the used bookstore know then, because they definitely shelve her stuff under fantasy.

Are there any series that don't noticeably lose quality as they go on? Serious question. I prefer reading stand-alones to series generally, but I'd love to read a 3-5 book series that stays super strong the entire way through, or gets even better.

Click to expand...

Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber -- 5 short fantasy novels. A Game of Thrones long before GRRM, with lots of wild magic and swordplay, and a great fast read.

Moardragons said:

Oh wow. I should probably let the used bookstore know then, because they definitely shelve her stuff under fantasy.

Are there any series that don't noticeably lose quality as they go on? Serious question. I prefer reading stand-alones to series generally, but I'd love to read a 3-5 book series that stays super strong the entire way through, or gets even better.

Click to expand...

Many people just see "dragon" and file them under Fantasy; it's not worth raising a huge fuss over, really, as the people looking for it will find it. (Though the prologue kinda tips off the SFness of it.) It's largely about marketing in the end. Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon Chronicles are sold as Fantasy, but her dragons are even more solidly alien than McCaffrey's.

As for series that don't peter out...

Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small quartet and Lioness Rampant quartet both maintain quality throughout.

Tad Williams pretty much sticks the landing on his original Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy and his Shadowmarch quartet. (A caveat: I was not as impressed with his "bridge" novel, The Heart of What Was Lost, leading up to his new Osten Ard trilogy/sequel to MST.)

The final volume isn't out yet, but so far James S. A. Corey's Expanse series is mostly maintaining quality.

K. A. Applegate's 12-book Everworld series kept quality up through its run.

Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus books are all great.

Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series has yet to disappoint.

Kenneth Oppel's Airborn trilogy ends on its strongest book, IMHO.

Brightdreamer said:

Tad Williams pretty much sticks the landing on his original Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy and his Shadowmarch quartet. (A caveat: I was not as impressed with his "bridge" novel, The Heart of What Was Lost, leading up to his new Osten Ard trilogy/sequel to MST.)

Click to expand...

My favorite series as a kid, was so happy to see it hold up when rereading it as an adult. Need to sit down with the follow-up one of these days.

I finished Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series, Alanna: The First Adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, and Lioness Rampant. These were great! I'm not sure where to go after this - First Test? So far I've read the Beka Cooper trilogy.

I also read Renegades by Marissa Meyer. I didn't enjoy this as much as some of her other books, but it was entertaining and a good story.

Currently reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Wow, am I hooked. Masterfully written. And I think it's a Hugo nominee.

MonsterTamer said:

I finished Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series, Alanna: The First Adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, and Lioness Rampant. These were great! I'm not sure where to go after this - First Test? So far I've read the Beka Cooper trilogy.

Click to expand...

First Test, the start of the Protector of the Small quartet, would be my recommendation; it follows the first girl to openly train for knighthood in Tortall after Alanna snuck through as a boy, but it's not just a rehash of Alanna's adventures, as the MC is a different person who handles her challenges in her own way. Pierce's Circle of Magic quartet is also a decent read, though I wasn't as impressed with her follow-up quartet (of which I only got through one - not bad, but not up to the first ones.)

Yesterday I finished Embers of War by Gareth Powell. Good science fiction novel about atonement. Had a few interesting characters, including a sentient starship.

The Eighth color by Terry Pratchett... and in English this time. I intend to read all his books... unless motivation leaves the cage I put it in.

The other day I finished "Among Others" by Jo Walton. Not a lot of in-your-face action, but a real jewel none the less, I thought. Loved it. My former 15-year-old self felt seen.
I'm also in the middle of "The Mermaids Child," by Jo Baker, because apparently I was like, "I'm just reading books by women named "Jo" this week.
I got both these and more at a great big library sale, so I'm waiting to churn through a bunch more of my new but not-new fantasy.

Another month, another procrastination update...

Recently Read SF/F:
The Tiger's Daughter (Book 1 of the Ascendant series, K. Arsenault Rivera, YA? fantasy): From birth, an Imperial princess and a nomadic warrior's daughter are destined to be as close as two pine needles. They grow up sharing an unbreakable bond... but fate has some cruel twists in store from them, and their darkening world may require sacrifices that neither are prepared to make.

Inspired by Asian cultures, this is a rich fantasy world populated by complex characters, all of them driven by varying degrees of family bonds, love (whether love of others, of duty, of country, or self), and fate. This is a book that puts the "star-crossed" back in the sometimes-overused term "star-crossed lovers": the two young women must almost literally fight the heavens for the sake of their bond, and victory may not be an option, but they cannot abandon each other any more than they can tear their own hearts out. The chemistry can be felt early on, and though their personalities and cultures can and do clash, and though they sometimes cannot help hurting each other, their bonds prove unshakable, if sometimes the cause of great tragedy. There is no guarantee of a happy ending here, and some hearts simply cannot ever reconcile despite the best of intentions. An epic and a love story and, on some level, a tragedy, all in the truest senses of the words. Immersive, emotional, and beautiful.

Dragons vs. Drones (Book 1 of a series, Wesley King, MG action/fantasy/SF, hardcover): Marcus's CIA father disappeared into an Arlington thunderstorm; though everyone is convinced he was a traitor who ran off with secrets, the boy has refused to stop searching and hoping. In another world, Dree's family has fallen from local heroes - descendants of generations of revered dragon riders - to impoverished outcasts as Dracone embraces an industrial revolution that sees the human population booming and dragons turned from allies to hunted enemies. When a lightning bolt drops Marcus into Dree's path, five drones that were tracking him come through, too... and start leveling everything in sight. But drones only act under orders: who in a world of magic and dragons could be controlling them, and why? The boy, the girl, and a dragon will have to figure out the answers, and fast, before both Dracone and the world's dragons are destroyed by these new, nearly invulnerable invaders.

This was an impulse buy on a recent used bookstore run. Not since Snakes on a Plane has a title so accurately described the entertainment: it is, indeed, about dragons fighting drones, and drones fighting dragons. There's some necessarily suspension of disbelief in the concept (Marcus uses little but a laptop to hack a government drone, for instance), which grows harder to maintain by the finale, but the action's generally quick enough not to allow too much downtime. The book also doesn't flinch from the horrors of drone warfare, the utterly random and impersonal destruction wrought on a populace who cannot hope to fight back, or even know why they're being targeted. (There's also a not-so-subtle dig at the hypocrisies of warfare in general, which always boil down to greed and an utter disregard for the human or environmental cost, despite the lofty ideals touted by the governments fighting.) Entertaining for what it is, though it ends on a cliffhanger; the book does not advertise on the cover that it's just Book 1 of a series.

Altered Carbon (Book 1 of the Takeshi Kovacs series, Richard K. Morgan, paperback): In a far future, death itself has been circumvented by technology. Implanted stacks of altered carbon record memories, which can be needlecast across the stars, inserted into virtual realities, locked away for centuries-long prison sentences, or "spun up" into new "sleeves", bodies either synthetic or natural. This has given rise to a new ultrawealthy class, the "Meths" (short for Methuselah), who regularly and literally get away with murder... but sometimes even Meths need assistance from the lesser classes. Enter Takeshi Kovacs, a renegade U. N. Envoy with a reputation even among his peers, who are known for extreme tactics. Imprisoned on his homeworld for numerous crimes, he finds himself needlecast into the body of a police officer on Earth to help the Meth Laurens Bancroft solve a most unusual murder: his own.

This formed the basis for the Netflix series; they took several liberties in the adaptation, but the overall atmosphere remains the same, a dystopian futuristic noir in a world where even death itself yields to power. Kovacs is a jaded man with a complicated background behind his dark gray morality, only marginally more ethical than the people he finds himself up against. The implications of stack technology are well explored, particularly the potential abuses and what stacks mean to one's sense of identity: how much of one's sense of self is what can be stored and uploaded versus biological reactions and pheromones and other factors, such as the intangible concept of a soul? The tale is dark and violent, soaked in blood and drugs and sex, with roots in the amoral world of the Meths and the histories of both Kovacs and the sleeve he wears, a cop who may or may not have been corrupt, leading to a finale that offers a degree of justice. (Personally, I somewhat preferred the Netflix take, but both are enjoyable on their own levels.)


Currently Reading SF/F:
Endling #2: The First (Book 2 of the Endling series, MG? fantasy, Katherine Applegate, hardcover): Byx was the runt of her doglike dairne tribe, a pup who never expected to amount to much; she never thought she'd be the last of her kind to survive a genocidal campaign by the human ruler of the land, nor did she expect to become caught up in a possible rebellion in the making. Following rumors of surviving dairnes, Byx and her companions trek north into a new country, where new opportunities and dangers await.

I literally just started this, but I've come to expect very good things from Applegate, and I greatly enjoyed the first installment in this, her first solid fantasy work (not counting her short-lived YA portal fantasy Everworld series; this is a completely secondary world, no ties to Earth.)

The Last Wish (The first Witcher collection, Andrzej Sapkowski, fantasy): Short stories introducing Geralt, a "witcher" who has undergone dangerous magical mutations in order to fight monsters and break curses, in a world that no longer has as much need of his kind as it once did.

In preparation for the Netflix adaptation, I figured I'd try these. (I tried the first book initially, but was put off by the characters enough to back up and try this collection, the recommended starting point.) They're somewhat satirical, with dark takes on popular fairy tales forming the core of more than one story and situation. Still not sure I particularly like the world or characters, but they are interesting for what they are, even if some elements feel slightly dated and the tales tend to feel overlong. Just over halfway through this one, and I'm still reading.