March Reading Thread

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I finished 1634: The Baltic War, by Flint & Weber. I enjoyed it, but its probably longer than it needs to be, at over 1000 pages. After this volume in the 1632-verse, Flint didn't collaborate with Weber again - I do wonder if that was because Weber brought too much exposition and padding and Flint was concerned at the length of it. Subsequent volumes are mostly around 500 pages or so and this tale could have been told in that length to be honest. They are enjoyable books though.

I'm now turning to Charles Sheffield's Between the Strokes of Night.
 
Bick said:
I finished 1634: The Baltic War, by Flint & Weber. I enjoyed it, but its probably longer than it needs to be, at over 1000 pages. After this volume in the 1632-verse, Flint didn't collaborate with Weber again - I do wonder if that was because Weber brought too much exposition and padding and Flint was concerned at the length of it. Subsequent volumes are mostly around 500 pages or so and this tale could have been told in that length to be honest. They are enjoyable books though.

I'm now turning to Charles Sheffield's Between the Strokes of Night.
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i actually like 1632 series a lot, at least for some books , but they are often a bit long
 
Jack London "The Star-Rover" aka "The Jacket"
Astral Projection and Past Life Regression while endlessly strait-jacketed in solitary in San Quentin. Defiant triumph of the human spirit in the most difficult of circumstances. I read this because of @BAYLOR's regular recommendation (yes we do take note, @BAYLOR, many thanks). I'd only ever read Jack London in Classics Illustrated comic form, so was curious. While not my usual choice of reading, it did grow on me as it progressed. If I'd read this @age 12 or 13, it's likely it's heroic prose would have engraved itself in my brain cells in much the same manner as Rider Haggard's "She" and Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Princess of Mars".
 
soulsinging said:
Finished To Green Angel Tower, the final volume fo the Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow & Thorn trilogy. I already miss it. This might have been the most fun I've had reading a series in 20 years... it seemed to have everything, and while criticisms of its pace are certainly justified, I've not been so immersed in a world in a very long time. It's everything I wanted Jordan and GRRM to be and weren't.

While I let my thoughts about it settle, I'm changing gears with a book I've seen recommended around here, The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre. Not my usual fare, but intriguing and fun.
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The second series is out of MST. I would be interested on your take on it. I absolutely adore ld the MST however I have mixed feelings on the follow up.
 
During my time away from the computer, I finished The Gannet's Gastronomic Miscellany (2018) edited by Killian Fox, a collection of odd facts about food, taken from the online magazine The Gannet. Now I have started The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World (2016) by Abigail Tucker, all about how those creatures domesticated themselves (unlike every other domesticated animal on the planet, it seems, who were deliberately domesticated by humans.)
 
Theodore Sturgeon "More than Human" (1953)
It's great to know there are so many classic SF novels that I have yet to read. This was one of them. I tend to like stories of alienated marginal fringe dwellers, so it's only natural I enjoyed this. Unusually for me, I would like it to have been longer to allow more time for the ending to develop.
 
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The death of Freeman Dyson has inspired me to read Robert Silverberg’s Across a Billion Years again (simply because it has a Dyson sphere). After that, I’ll be starting Radical Scotland (written by my local MP). It focuses on a little known piece of Scottish history from the 1780s to the 1820s.
 
I read Andy Weir's Artemis. The greatest mystery about it is how it managed to win the Best SF Novel for 2017 on Goodreads. The plotline is not bad and the main protagonist, Jazz, has some redeeming features. I did get a little tired of the nods to Wokedom - a black woman in charge of the Moon colony, Jazz's boyfriend a bisexual, she herself completely 'liberated' sexually (though Weir does show her paying the price for it). But no, it doesn't merit any awards.

Here's a challenge for SF authors: write a gripping novel that doesn't portray any graphic sex, doesn't use the word 'f*ck,' doesn't employ toilet or prostitute humour. I believe, in my heart of hearts, that it is possible.
 
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In the last week or so I finished a third J.L. Carr novel, Harpole & Foxberrow: General Publishers and gone on to a fourth one, What Hetty Knew. I also (finally!) read Slaughterhouse-Five, which I probably should have read in high school, but never got around to it. It was a Kindle deal, so I figured I'd give it a try. I still think I would have been better off reading it in high school.
 
I am about to start The Male Brain (2010) by Louann Brizendine, M.D., which is a follow-up to her book The Female Brain (2006). It's very science-heavy, thank goodness; one-half of the book consists of notes and references. Although some have criticized the author's work as reinforcing gender stereotypes, the introduction to this book makes it clear that she acknowledges that socialization has a lot to do with "feminine" and "masculine" behaviors, and that the sexes are much more alike than they are different. I'll keep an open mind about it as I read it, remembering that we live in an age of gender fluidity.
 
It's been a little slow for me so far this month. Only nine titles finished and it's the 7th already. :giggle:

"Slow Bullets" by Alastair Reynolds.
This is my first exposure to Alastair Reynolds, but will not be my last.

"The Vault of Dreamers," Rosie Sinclair book 1 by Caragh O'Brien.
Barely made it through this one. The suspension of disbelief grows quite heavy with some very improbable science. Not sure I'll bother with the other two in the series, but we'll see.

"Casino Royale" and "Live and Let Die," James Bond books 1 and 2 by Ian Fleming.
These books are certainly products of their time. The casual misogyny and racism are hard to stomach. I'll give one more a try, but I'm not sure I'll finish them. You can use these as a case study for movies that are better than the books.

"Die Trying" and "Tripwire," Jack Reacher books 2 and 3 by Lee Child.
Decent, if not groundbreaking thrillers. Good for those times when I'm in the mood for a thriller, but not ones I'll race to get as new ones come out.

"The Dark Prophecy" and "The Burning Maze," books 2 and 3 of The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan.
These are a bit of a disappointment from Riordan. His portrayal of poor, mortal, Apollo is so over the top selfish that it's a bit hard to take. Still, over all, entertaining. Just not up to Riordan's usual brilliance.

"Finale," book 3 of Caraval by Stephanie Garber.
Ugh. Books 1 and 2 were pretty good fantasy with some paranormal romance overtones. This third one devolved into pure paranormal romance drivel. The series would have been a hard pass had I known how disappointing the "Finale" would be.

Also had a rare DNF. "The Banker's Wife" by Cristina Alger. The writing is decent, but the story is just plain boring. Made it about 20% in and nothing notable was happening so I just moved on.

Not sure what's next. I'll have to dig through my TBR list to see what looks good. Maybe the Craft Sequence? I'm also behind on my Mitch Rapp. Or, maybe some Jack McDevitt. I've fallen behind on both the Academy series and the Alex Benedict books.
 
ChrisG said:
I can heartily recommend it. I don't read a great deal and it usually takes me a while to finish a book, but this one I could hardly put down. The story is grippingly told but at the climax I couldn't stop laughing! It's hard to believe it's true.
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Finished The Spy and the Traitor and completely agree. This book flew past and was thrilling (can't believe it hasn't been made into a movie). Though it did make me feel like the cold war was a shocking waste of time, money and lives.

svalbard said:
The second series is out of MST. I would be interested on your take on it. I absolutely adore ld the MST however I have mixed feelings on the follow up.
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I have Witchwood Crown on my to-read shelf but am taking a bit of a break before diving into it. I can't think of any series where coming back to new books after a long time away has proved a good idea.

Now I'm reading The Lost Man by Jane Harper, a thriller with some good reviews. Bring on some summer reading!
 
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