January 2018: Reading thread

[vanye]

To me, Clive Cussler is a lot like Tom Clancy. Some of the early books have cool ideas and are well-written. Real easy reads ...

However, the later books have deteriorated into jingoistic propaganda, so that I give those authors a wide berth these days.

 

[Parson]

Just finished Time Storm by Steve Harrison. This is a book that should receive a lot more attention! It is a wonderful out of time story about a late 18th century prisoner ship which makes land in modern Sydney. The story was engaging, the characters appealing and the ending very sensible. Since it was not picked up by a publisher and was so good it makes me wonder about the whole process of getting a book published the traditional way. After it made some noise as self-published it was then picked up by a small? press. Highly recommended!

 

[Vertigo]

Just finished Time Storm by Steve Harrison. This is a book that should receive a lot more attention! It is a wonderful out of time story about a late 18th century prisoner ship which makes land in modern Sydney. The story was engaging, the characters appealing and the ending very sensible. Since it was not picked up by a publisher and was so good it makes me wonder about the whole process of getting a book published the traditional way. After it made some noise as self-published it was then picked up by a small? press. Highly recommended!

Ticking two of my boxes (age of sail and SF) that sounds interesting!

However it is frustrating how my to read list is growing much faster than I'm reading at the moment (up to 288 now).

 

[vanye]

However it is frustrating how my to read list is growing much faster than I'm reading at the moment (up to 288 now).

My TBR pile now has its very own shelf (moved to a larger appartment in 2017). Lots of space for more books. Problem solved.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I very much enjoyed our very own reiver33's take on 50's detective fiction - review here: Review: Night Never Ends by Martin M Clark

I love his use of voice, and the pacing was really strong. Not a long book, but a surprisingly complex puzzle and a satisfying read.

Also just finished a novella by sknox: Review: Mad House by Ellis Knox

Again, quite short but I would have been happy to read much more.

Currently reading W is for Wasted by (the now late) Sue Grafton at work, and not sure what to read at home - I may re-read Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan, as I have the full trilogy but figure I should get back up to speed with what happened.

 

[The Big Peat]

On a dry run, kinda extending back to the end of last year. Think I started... 7? New books over the last little and finished two.

The most recent ones were

The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden - Finding the voice rather stiff and formal. I mean to carry on but ehhhh...
Angel's Deceit - AJ Grimmelhaus - Went well to begin with but after a bit I felt like there was a reference to sexy thoughts or ale every second page and I kinda felt overwhelmed by it all
The Library Invisible - Genevieve Cogman - Found the voice too cartoony and modern American
Sir Edric's Kingdom - Thaddeus White - Actually finished this one! But I wish Thaddeus had had Sir Edric less successful. It felt like I was watching a hurdler hopping everything in his past rather than a hero facing down a truly worthy challenge and triumphing.
Fifth Ward - Dale Ward - Got over halfway before deciding, much as I love fantasy and crime together, this did neither well and had the voice of a stunned choirboy. Which in a police procedural is quite the downer.

I kinda need something to wow me.

 

[Parson]

Ticking two of my boxes (age of sail and SF) that sounds interesting!

However it is frustrating how my to read list is growing much faster than I'm reading at the moment (up to 288 now).

Yikes! 288 in the TBR pile? I feel like I'm pushing the limit when I gave more than 2 in that list. But, I really think you would enjoy the book. IRC I picked it up on someone's (I have no clue, who) reference to it in one of these monthly lists.

 

[Bick]

Currently reading/finishing Simon Jenkins' A Short History of England. I've just been on a vacation to England visiting extended family and touristy sites with my family. As my wife and son are New Zealanders, this was an exciting tourist spot for them, and we took in all sorts of tourist locations. I lived in England myself for many decades (I'm a pom) but had not actually paid much attention to Roman remains, or ancient churches before. As I get older I find my love of history is growing, so I picked this up as a well written refresher to enhance the tourist venture. Its a good short volume for those who want all the main highlights of the last 1600 years or so. Recommended.

Alongside this, I'm also reading Wodehouse's The Luck of the Bodkins, which is an absolute belter, if you like Plum's work.

 

[Perpetual Man]

It's taken a bit longer than I hoped, but I am now up to date with all this comic reading. it is a strange feeling knowing that there are none sitting on the bedside table beside me. Hopefully this will now clear the way for some more traditional reading.

First book of the year is Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan

I really enjoyed the first trilogy in this universe so am hoping that can continue as it is expanded in this second series!

 

[HareBrain]

288 in the TBR pile?

Some people who added my book on Goodreads have "to-read" lists in the thousands. One has 131,474!! (I'm not expecting them to get round to it anytime soon.)

 

[Vertigo]

My TBR pile now has its very own shelf (moved to a larger appartment in 2017). Lots of space for more books. Problem solved.

Yikes! 288 in the TBR pile? I feel like I'm pushing the limit when I gave more than 2 in that list. But, I really think you would enjoy the book. IRC I picked it up on someone's (I have no clue, who) reference to it in one of these monthly lists.

That 288 is not really my to be read "Pile"; it's just the list of book for me to buy; my TBR wish list if you like. My actual TBR pile (books I own but have not yet read) stands at a mere 44 (soon to be 43).

I should also add that all my books now are ebooks so shelf space is not such a big issue. Maybe that's part of the problem without space limitation it's just too easy to buy too many.

Some people who added my book on Goodreads have "to-read" lists in the thousands. One has 131,474!! (I'm not expecting them to get round to it anytime soon.)

That is crazy, the analogy of someone's eyes being bigger than their stomach springs to mind.

I do go through mine periodically and move some to a "long term to read wish list" although my figure of 288 includes both lists. It is frustrating though; at my current reading rate of about 70 books a year that is around three and a half years of reading (without anything being added).

One benefit of having such a large wish list is that books in my wish list pop up in offers relatively frequently so I'll pounce on them even if I'm not planning to read them for a while. Which is certainly one of the reasons my owned TBR pile is so big.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Last night I finished The Naked God, the final part of Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. I definitely recommend this series but be warned - it's very, very long!

I've started Jack Ketchum's The Off Season and so far it's very creepy!

 

[Vertigo]

Last night I finished The Naked God, the final part of Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. I definitely recommend this series but be warned - it's very, very long!

I've started Jack Ketchum's The Off Season and so far it's very creepy!

Have you read any of Hamilton's Commonwealth books. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the Night's Dawn books I do prefer the Commonwealth ones but there are plenty of others whose preference is the opposite. The Commonwealth ones are a little less dark but equally long; in fact longer since there are more books in total; a duology, a trilogy and another duology.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Have you read any of Hamilton's Commonwealth books.

No I haven’t read any of Hamilton’s other works. I do prefer darker material. I thought the first novel in the series was by far the best. I enjoyed the other two but they weren’t as dark or as gritty as the first one. I have got the Commonwealth books at home, they all came together in a batch from a seller on EBay but to be truthful there’s so much on my TBR pile I’m not sure I’ll ever get round to them

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Erich Fromm: the Biography.

 

[night_wrtr]

Started The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter by Michael J Sullivan. It is #4 of the Riyria Chronicles. (Not to be confused with the Riyria Revelations)

 

[Danny McG]

This morning I finally finished Great North Road by Peter Hamilton - I found it a bit of a let down tbh. All that reading just to watch the plot fizzle out like it did.

Started Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo and (upstairs reading) another spy book. The fourth Bernie Sampson book by Len Deighton...
"Spy Hook "

 

[janeoreilly]

Just started reading a new graphic novel series called Low, which is set in a distant future where the sun is dying and people have been forced to live in pods at the bottom of the sea to escape the radiation. Probes have been sent out to look for a new planet and one has finally returned.

I've got 136 books in my kindle TBR, I thought that was normal!

 

[Parson]

I've got 136 books in my kindle TBR, I thought that was normal!

Maybe it is. For a slightly OCD person like myself it would be a key ingredient for a psychotic episode.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Soldier of Arete (1989) by Gene Wolfe, the sequel to Soldier of the Mist (1986). I understand there's a third volume, Soldier of Sidon (2006). I get the feeling they can stand on their own. Anyway, the narrator is a soldier in ancient Greece with an injury which prevents him from remembering what happens each day (sort of like Memento thousands of years ago) but which also allows him to perceive gods and other supernatural beings. As elegantly written as you would expect from Wolfe.