Didn’t get time to read anything this week.
What about all of you? What have you all been reading or listening to lately?
Book Bingo midpoint is also up, check it out!
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The chronicles of narnia.
Didn’t really think about it, but they are way more children’s book than I expected. Which is not the most entertaining I guess, but it’s also funny that you expect a twist behind everything an then there isn’t.
Listening to the reworked Antimemetics book, after having read the original SCP story a while ago
It’s a bit weird with the SCP licence name changes, but still great
Seeds of Equanimity: Knowing and Being by Michael Uebel
Currently halfway through listening to a collection of short stories called Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar
And about 1/3 through We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
Enjoying both so far! Have already placed a request for the next Bobiverse book from the Library.
Bobiverse is great
Just finished the latest book. Now I’m slightly annoyed I need to wait for the last book, as it ends on quite a cliffhanger…
Love Beyond Monogamy by Brian Murphy, and Goldfinger by Ian Fleming.
I read Sigyn’s Sigil by Megan Trotter. I’ll write a more thorough commentary here than I sometimes do because this is self published by a local (?) writer and I expect you’ll have difficulty sourcing you own copies. It wasn’t even listed on Storygraph until I added it myself.
Last time I left the used book sale with a self-published book like this, I complained here about offensive restrictions on the copyright page. No such objections can be made about this book, and that’s because it … well, it doesn’t have a copyright page. The front cover is nicely illustrated, the half-title page is autographed by the author, and then it’s straight into chapter one. Not even a list of the author’s other works, although I suspect this is a sequel to Sigyn’s Song.
Sigyn used to be a mermaid, possibly one heavily inspired by HCA’s Little Mermaid. Now in Sigil, she has fresh legs and lungs in her humanoid form. She also has the hots for the Norse god Loki, but is insecure about it because as a siren, she can make anyone fall in love with her and isn’t sure if Loki’s feelings are real or magic. Anyway, she and Loki are hanging out with Thor because he needs help getting his hammer, Mjollnir back from the giants. Apparently he mislaid it while removed it up with some festival wench. The giant king is apparently willing to return it if Freya marries him, which isn’t going to happen. So Loki shapeshifts Thor into the form of the goddess Freya, and himself into her handmaiden and the three ‘girls’ set off to trade her for Thor’s hammer. Other than Sigyn’s involvement, this plot line is from Thrymskvidha in the Poetic Edda, portions of which are excerpted for the chapter headings. Amazingly, they manage to pull this ruse off, despite the gods’ unladylike behavior. Giant shaman Ymir knows the truth and doesn’t out them, but isn’t as helpful as they’d hoped although he seems to not want to get Sigyn killed for her part in this. They learn the hammer is hidden in the ocean, and Sigyn displays heroism and her mermaid background to recover it, while protecting the team from a deadly horse shaped water Nokk. Thor gets his hammer back and Ymir bestows Sigyn with a magic water sigil. They also liberated the Egyptian god, Set from Thrym’s dungeon and might be setting up for a sequel involving him.
Romantasy isn’t a genre I usually seek out, although I found this more humorous than erotic, and better writing and proofreading than some more commercially successful authors I’ve read. As appropriate for a polytheistic setting, the characters never say “goddamn”, it’s always “godsdamn”. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a book like this, but I think it satisfied my expectations anyway.
I’m finishing Alien: Inferno’s Fall before I get started with Revelation Space. Super excited. Also the Alien books are all pretty fantastic cannot recommend them enough.
Alien as in the Alien movie franchise? Suggestions of where to start?
No time yet this week, but I am in the middle of Legends & Lates as my cool down read after finishing Stormlight Archive. Its cute and simple, prefer the prequel (Bookshops & Bonedust) thus far but it is a cute read.
I really liked all 3 books. I did the audiobooks and enjoy Travis Baldree’s voice.
I finished up “The Nature of Predators”
We are the aliens. I liked the book. Book 1 is sorta short but the whole series is really long. Its on Amazon but the entire story is on Royal Road.
I started “Systema Delenda Est” its soo good! Im really enjoying the scifi elements meet fantasy elements. Literally head on in this case. It does a good job explaining the different tech and skills as well as enjoyable characters.
I’m rereading Dune Messiah.
I was reading The Garden of Rama, but I had to take a break from it.
I’ve been on “break” from Garden of Rama for over a year now. That book went off the fucking rails.
One of the things that made me go on a break was when the earth side group were assigned quarters and Clarke writes something like “This is going to go bad”, my response was okay I’ll just read some other book then. And this is after making it through the (first?) teenage bride stuff, a bit too republican for my taste.
And the sigh of relief when I read Dune, “A writer that knows how to tell a story!”.
I finished the Takeshi Kovacs novels (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies) from Richard K Morgan. They were good. He likes to use the word ‘laconic’ a lot though lol.
Now Im reading Leviathan Wakes (1st book of The Expanse series) by James S.A. Corey which I learned a bit ago is actually 2 people: Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham. It has also been good.
Both great series. I’m re-listening to The Expanse right now, and I love it.
Both of these series are on my list, and I was thinking about Altered Carbon next.
I watched the first season of Altered Carbon a long time ago, and liked the premise. I haven’t seen the Expanse yet, so figured I might read them before watching the show.
Altered Carbon S1 is really good, but its still different from the book. Maybe by like 30%, so some key things change, but the show is still solid. S2 of AC is entirely different from what I recall of the show though so Im not sure I can advise going beyond season 1.
One of them is also George RR Martins understudy, or was.
They also each wrote different perspectives, and tied them in together during meetings. How it was done was fantastic in my opinion.
If you enjoy it, you should also check out their new trilogy, only two books are out so far. The Captives War.
Ill add them to the list!
Be warned, it’s not entirely the same type of story, where The Expanse is politics forward, this one’s more about the bueuracacy of science, or anything for that matter. But has the same type of story telling, delivery, and
Tap for spoiler
Zero fucks about who you are to the plot.
My husband and I started rewatching the show (The Expanse to be clear) after I finished the books recently. Plenty of differences but the spirit is there and the actors are awesome. But I think my favorite is listening to the books while imagining the actors as their characters.
They were really committed to adapting the overall story, which helps. Small stuff gets changed and characters are shifted around some, but basically all the events are the same. It’s an excellent adaptation.
Oh and not too long ago I read the two books from the upcoming Exodus game, written by Peter F. Hamilton (Exodus: The Archimedes Engine, and Exodus: The Helium Sea), Neat setting and some good characters, but there was too much detail on seemingly unimportant things for my tastes. I felt like they could have trimmed it more. But I suppose others might like the extra details
Listening to book 9 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. It’s a great “going to bed a little toasted” kinda series.
Edit: So toasted, I forgot it was book 7 and I’m worried because book 9 isn’t done yet! That and the horrific inevitable pauses after that… Ugh.
Sploooooge
Where’d you get the time machine to get book 9?
Ha, good call! Sorry, I’ve had book 9 in my head, as the notion of having to stop and wait absolutely destroys me.
Finished New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson last week, and haven’t had a chance to start something new.
Have Red Moon by KSR ready to go, but thinking about taking a break (I’ve read or listened to 3 of his in the last year) and starting Altered Carbon or Leviathan Wakes instead.
I’ve never read any of his books. Which do you think is the most exciting to start with?
I’m currently reading Klara and the Sun. I feel a bit mixed about it. It has some interesting elements but also some problematic (racist) descriptions that have been hard to get through.
It by Stephen King. I have seen the made for TV movie with Tim Curry and the first part of the recently made movies. Finally getting around to reading the book now.
