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As for books, reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire (first book in her October Daye urban fantasy series). Didn’t get much time, but slowly making progress.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I finished Real Tigers by Mick Herron (Slough House book 3). It was enjoyable and gripping for most of the book. I had a hard time following the final action sequence, but that’s a common problem I have in action-heavy books/movies, so doesn’t really reflect on the book.
Now I’m reading Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey (Harper Hall of Pern book 2). I’ve been really enjoying the Pern books so far, especially this trilogy. I find the main character very likeable, the story is simple but compelling, and the creatures are super fun. A great read all around.
Stormlight archive. Again. No, I don’t care. Yes, I will reread it many times after.
Had started foundation by Isaac Asimov, thought it’s been a while since I last read it. I am still a newbie reader, but loved it so far. I am pretty amazed by science fiction as a whole in how well politics is written, my last read was first dune book.
Started Starship Troopers and couldn’t get through the first chapter. Not for me, as warned by others in this sub it was quite dry and a mere inspiration for the movie.
Now I’m on to Neuromancer, which is already much better. First time read for me so no spoilers please if you choose to comment!
Was that Robert Heinlein? I read almost all his books back in the 70s as a teen. We loved them at the time but in retrospect he seems like kind of as ass.
It was. Interestingly enough, from many of the reviews I read a lot of people love the author but don’t like this book. It made the use of the word ‘controversial’ on the cover description of the copy I have much funnier to me.
Love Neuromancer have the audiobook.
Hey! I’m one of the people who commented about Troopers. I don’t fault you for stopping it, there’s a whole chapter in the middle of it where they flashback to gradeschool and all of the kids agree with the teacher that corporal punishment for adults is really the only way to ensure a society doesn’t fall apart
Neuromancer is great though! If you ever feel like you don’t really understand what’s going on that’s pretty normal. It takes a couple of reads and even then a lot of the concepts are abstract rather than concrete
Thanks for your comment! It was just too military heavy and dry. I’m a very visual thinker and the writing was quite dry and didn’t grab me at all.
So far I actually like the ‘dropped in the middle’ effect of Neuromancer, as it can be a bit tiring to read through a ton of explanations early on in a story with so much world building. I’d rather discover concepts through context and ‘living’ in the story a bit first. At this time I’m simply blown away by the fact the story was written over 40 years ago, however it’s still early on so that might change.
I’m reading “don quijote part 2” from Miguel de Cervantes, I’m going on the chapter 30, I really like the don quijote stuff, it’s just get better in every chapter, I think is better than any other anime
I have started a reread of This Inevitable Ruin, Dungeon Crawler Carl #7, just to refresh myself before the new book releases in a few weeks.
Path of Daggers (WoT 8) is on a bit of a hiatus, stuck at about 30% done with it, by chapter count anyway. Not that I don’t want to finish it, but have put it off for DCC. WoT will be there, but I don’t want to accidentally get spoiled on the new DCC book haha.
I started doing the same thing with the inevitable ruin, then realized I do not remember nearly as much as I should, and started rereading the entire series.
Yeah…. I should have started a proper re-read a few months back haha.
- Tolkien, ‘The Hobbit’. A re-read, started last night.
- If I can get my hands on an English edition at a reasonable price, next I would like to read Narnia (the full cycle). As a non-believer myself, I have a lot of respect for CS Lewis as an essayist (pieces like ‘The Abolition of Man’ is an almost perfect description of why/how most Western educative systems are indeed failing and, well, most of what I’ve read even when he focuses on spirituality was quite… rich and stimulating), and I would like to see how =I will appreciate his work as a novelist :)
- Just finished the first volume of the French edition of Cordwainer Smith ‘Instrumentality of Mankind’ which I started almost by accident and ended-up liking so much I ordered the next 3 volumes of that translation (I was not able to find an English edition). Fascinating work.
the dog stars
Just finished:
All You Need is Kill - Of the 2 movies and this, this has by far the most compelling ending. I don’t really like how the time loop thing is handled but the mechanics aren’t the most important to the story
Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash - I love this series. If you’re looking for a modern day Douglas Adams this is pretty close
In progress:
Diaspora by Greg Eden - Woof, this starts dense and I don’t have the impression it’s going to get easier. I’m curious how challenging it will get. Still, it’s a fun start for the story
Still reading Esrahaddon. I’m glad Sullivan only strayed from his style for one book (Farilane) and I’m quite enjoying this one. Now that I have more time I should finish it and his latest book Drumindor in a few days.
The hard part will be choosing what to read next!
My list so far looks like:
Eisenhorn / Gotrek & Felix / The Hainish Cycle / His Dark Materials
The Inheritance Trilogy / a random James Herbert book I haven’t read yet
I skipped the last book I had for The Remaining after I got maybe 4 hours in. It was a prologue to the main story and I just didn’t really care for the american army man crap.
So went back to do some Outlanders for a bit before trying out the Lee Harden series of books (which is more “The Remaining”).
Outlanders is good although it is getting a bit wild with many different dimensions going on at the moment.
The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow. I’m about halfway through and it is a very interesting mix of fantasy, time travel, and exploration of PTSD. So far I would recommend if you enjoy folk lore and fantasy.
I finished listening to Neuromancer today. Not once did I want to DNF, but I still don’t know what the fuck was happening. Just enjoyed the vibes I guess. I’ll have to reread, maybe in print next time, to get some more out of it.
Started Reaper Man as well, I’ve found Discworld to be so comforting.
Music, the brain, and ecstasy - how music captures our imagination by Robert Jourdain.
It’s extremely well written and starts from a scientific perspective of how our ears evolved over hundreds of millions of years to appreciate music.
After not reading really at all in April, back at it this week. Finishing up The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.
