October 2021 Reading Discussion

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I finished Black Coral: A Thriller it is book 2 in the Underwater Investigation Unit series by Andrew Mayne. Pretty solid detective mystery with a "feisty woman hero" who has a child, a boyfriend an attitude and some shady relatives. She's not sure of her personal life, although it all sounds fairly normal to me. --- Pretty trite these days, but the hook for me is the underwater part of this. It makes for interesting drama. Well written, solid 4 stars.

I finished Counterstrike (Black Fleet Saga Book 3) by Joshua Dalzelle. Standard military S.F. for the most part. It had several fairly original ideas, especially regarding the alien menace. It perhaps concentrated a bit too much on the captain. Average 4 stars.

Not sure what's next. I have 2 Laurence E. Dahners books: 5 & 6 of The Stasis stories. Semiosis by Sue Burke, The King's Justice by E.M. Poswell, and Artifact Space by Miles Cameron, and Beneath a Gibbouis Moon by James Allen. All of them have some attraction. I'll likely start one later tonight.
 
This morning I'm reading Version Zero by David Yoon

So far it seems like an "internet giants are evil" conspiracy story
 
I'm nearing the end of The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell. I'm enjoying it (love a slice of Victorian Gothic), even if it does feel somewhat slow-paced. I think I'll tackle C. J. Cooke's The Lighthouse Witches next; there's something exciting about reading a book that's only been out a short while.
 
Danny McG said:
I wasn't too taken, DNF after reading about three quarters of it
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iwent to the end and just... just didn't compute. i hate when i see good ideas being poorly executed... i should say another word... after all they are executed ;)
 
Started Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Good first couple of chapters, with a premise (main character in 1920s Mexico accidentally frees Mayan god of death) that promises a lot.
 
Well I started Artifact Space by Miles Cameron. This was a very good choice. I'm about half way through it (started at 9 pm!) and so far it's a Cracker Jack. Right now, I have high hopes of giving it a really good review.
 
Finished Night Of Fear by John Lutz. This police thriller about a serial killer tormenting a detective out of retirement was pretty good especially towards the end. But it is now mid October and I need the real deal so am starting this:
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Finished the Farseer Trilogy, Broken Empire Trilogy, Red Queen's War Trilogy, and starting on the Grey Bastards.

The first 3 trilogies really drew me in. Felt sad for Fitz at the end. Found I lacked the motivation to see him suffer anymore after finishing, and that's why I switched to the Broken Empire. Really liked Jorg and the story as well. The Red Queen's War was an interesting journey, but I felt a bit disappointed with Jalan's choice at the end.

I'm finding it hard to get into the Grey Bastards, though. The first few chapters were interesting, but I found it hard to comprehend Jackal's actions after that. I'd expect he'd be more like Jorg. Not sure if I'll finish the book at this moment.
 
Danny McG said:
Tonight I'm having at it with Silverview by John Le Carre, his posthumous book
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I've taken a leaf out of your book and started reading Silverview, by John le Carre.
It is a Waterstones exclusive and has a extra bit at the back written by Nick Cornwell his son, whose pseudonym is Nick Harkaway.
 
dask said:
Finished Night Of Fear by John Lutz. This police thriller about a serial killer tormenting a detective out of retirement was pretty good especially towards the end. But it is now mid October and I need the real deal so am starting this:
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Checked the contents on ISFDB and that looks like a good anthology.
 
I've been reading some of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novella.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey had a fun premise about militant librarians in a setting that is some time in the future but is very reminiscent of the Wild West. I liked some bits of it although it felt like it was trying to rush a lot of character development into a short timeframe and a small number of pages. In particular the protagonist seems to get over the death of their lover (which happens just before the start of the story) very quickly.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo I thought was excellent. It's a very cleverly constructed story, using a series of conversations between two characters in an abandoned house to tell the recent history of a fictional Chinese-inspired Empire and the story of the Empress who once lived there in exile. It manages to give the impression of a lot of depth in the world-building without spending much time on details which can be a difficult trick to pull off. I hadn't read anything by the author before but I think I'll definitely seek out more by her.

Finna by Nino Cipri was a bit underwhelming. Again, it's a fun premise with a couple of employees in a store that's blatantly Ikea with a different name having to track down a customer who has vanished into a system of wormholes joining similar stores in different dimensions. It had some amusing moments, particularly the nicknames given to different parts of the store, however I found the relationship drama between the two main characters to be annoying and it's not consistently funny enough to work as a comedy and at the same time too silly to work as a serious story.

I'm now taking a break from novellas and have started reading Naomi Novik's The Last Graduate.
 
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