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What Are You Reading?

eVeNtInE

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ixoy

* 'Shards of Earth' by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the first book in his 'The Final Architects' trilogy. I really enjoyed this space opera. The author, as stated above, had a lot of fun writing it and it shows because it's a lot of fun to read. Good characters, an interesting plot, strong pacing, good worldbuilding, etc. It's short too - which is the only downside as I've to wait now for the next book. It being Tchaikovsky he'll probably publish 24 more works in the interim.
Oh and a strong way for me to finish this year's "Goodreads Reading Challenge" (yeah, I think I underestimated the books I'd get through...).

* 'Crowfall' by Ed McDonald, the final book in his Raven's Mark trilogy. A solid end to the series. For me it helps that each book is somewhat standalone but builds on the foundations of the previous ones. This one is a little bit more different than previous ones (for spoiler reasons) but it helps remove the chance of what might have been a tad repetitive as a result. A good series, if not an outstanding one.

Jayd0g

Just finished book 2 of Miles Cameron's Cold Iron trilogy.

These are real page turners, reminds me of Wheel of Time but faster paced.

Starting book 3 tonight, eager to find out how this will all end.

lordgoat

smacl wrote: »

Finished the fourth book in the Bobiverse series, light enough but really great fun on audible for when your doing chores around the house. Not exactly Sci-Fi / Fantasy but just started into The Windup Bird Chronicle by Murukami and loving it.

Love Murakami

ShooterSF

Thargor wrote: »

Oh yes, new Adrian Tchaikovsky time. Trilogy practically finished by the sounds of it...

Currently relistening to children of time. One of my all time faves so might have to check this out. But also trying to get back into reading reading over the summer and am about 10% into House of Leaves, my fourth attempt at reading it so it might have to wait..

smacl

Finished the fourth book in the Bobiverse series, light enough but really great fun on audible for when your doing chores around the house. Not exactly Sci-Fi / Fantasy but just started into The Windup Bird Chronicle by Murukami and loving it.

[Deleted User]

Priory of the orange tree - loved it

ixoy

Thargor wrote: »

Oh yes, new Adrian Tchaikovsky time. Trilogy practically finished by the sounds of it...

I'm 26% in and very much enjoying it so far

Thargor

Oh yes, new Adrian Tchaikovsky time. Trilogy practically finished by the sounds of it...

Shards of Earth, book 1 of the Final Architecture series, is out in the UK today! (US readers will see their edition in August, so apologies for that.)

This is the start of my space opera series, meaning it's SF where I get to play with toys that probably couldn't exist under real physics, such as FTL travel and artificial gravity. Given that it's me, of course, the precise parameters for how all this works in the book got pretty intricate and expanded to become the core of what's going on

In Shards of Earth, the aforementioned Earth got twisted into an avant-garde sculpture by a moon-sized entity known as an Architect, prompting a centiry long 'war' that was mostly just humans fleeing across the galaxy as their colonies were served similarly, one by one. Humans developed a secret weapon known as Intermediaries, people whose surgically-mauled brains were able to reach out and contact the Architects. And as soon as they managed that, the Architects just… left.

Fifty years later, Idris, one of the last of the original Ints, is keeping his head down on a tatty old salvage ship known as the Vulture God. Ints are also able to navigate ships through unspace without having to stick to the existing pathways between star systems, making them fantastically valuable to commercial and military traffic. Hence, from being war heroes, Intermediaries are now a commodity, made wholesale out of convicts and undesirables in a ruinously wasteful process. Idris, who has neither aged nor slept since the war, just wants to stay under the radar. Until, on one of their deep-space salvage jobs, the crew of the Vulture God find fresh evidence that the Architects are back…

The universe of Shards of Earth was (and continues to be, as I'm currently working on the third and final volume) enormous fun to write. It's full of alien cultures, weird planets and outrageous characters. A couple of my favourites amongst the supporting cast include Aklu the Unspeakable (the Razor and the Hook) an alien gangster… or maybe gangster, because it's sufficiently alien that what it thinks of its role in events is entirely opaque; and Trine, a colony of cybernetic insects (of course!) originally created as a records repository for archaeologists which has, through dint of just existing for decades longer than intended, become a self-proclaimed expert in the field.

Thargor

Read Project Hail Mary, not as irritating as the Martian and it had a good premise but still a very annoying writing style, smug geek saying I did this, then I did this, then I did this.

Moved on to A Memory Called Empire now and loving it, reminds me of The Culture.

Fian wrote: »

I've finished "under heaven" by Guy Gavriel Kay.

It was beyond excellent, do yourself a favour and read this book if you haven't yet.

Based on these historical events:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Lushan_Rebellion

The sequel is just as good, an amazing pair of books.

Flinty997

alchemist33 wrote: »

Finished the first Expanse novel, Leviathan Awakes. Halfway through I thought it was the best SF I'd read in years, than it went all aimless for a long while until a decent ending. It redeemed itself enough to make me read the second at some point.....

Think I'm on the third. I'm taking a break though. Quite dense and as you say often rambles. I'm very impressed with how they made the TV show script.

I'm back reading some of the lost stars series. Very simplistic in many aspects (and annoyingly so) but the ship combat and tactics in space is really why you'd read them.

Annoying part is the Kindle interface. It's just so bad. There's is no way to know which book follows another. Collections are not that much help. Also why can't publishers put the dang number in the title.

Fian

I've finished "under heaven" by Guy Gavriel Kay.

It was beyond excellent, do yourself a favour and read this book if you haven't yet.

Based on these historical events:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Lushan_Rebellion

Bits_n_Bobs

ixoy wrote: »

"The Human" by Neal Asher, the final book in his 'Rise of the Jain' trilogy. Wasn't a big fan of this - it felt like one OTT over-powered battle sequence, where Asher just spewed a load of pseudo-technical science. There was next to no character development as everyone "evolves" into a sort of battle machine - it's somewhat the point but it doesn't make for interesting reading where you don't really care about any of the characters. The whole trilogy could easily have been condensed into two, maybe even one, book and cut out on some of the detached battles. Perhaps time for a little break from Asher after 25+ books.

Have to agree, disappointing streak from one of my favourites. Having said that Lockdown Tales is a good read

ixoy

"The Human" by Neal Asher, the final book in his 'Rise of the Jain' trilogy. Wasn't a big fan of this - it felt like one OTT over-powered battle sequence, where Asher just spewed a load of pseudo-technical science. There was next to no character development as everyone "evolves" into a sort of battle machine - it's somewhat the point but it doesn't make for interesting reading where you don't really care about any of the characters. The whole trilogy could easily have been condensed into two, maybe even one, book and cut out on some of the detached battles. Perhaps time for a little break from Asher after 25+ books.

Thargor

All the Cradle books are free, today only, thats the deal of the year!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0753FP6SP

Fian

Finished the three books in the poppy war trilogy. Would recommend, but wouldn't rave about.

Now onto "under heaven", to keep with the chinese theme. I love Guy Gavriel Kay and so far it is very good, but not far into it.

I find reading on a kindle I tend to rush books sometimes when i know i have a good book to move onto next, so I did kind of push through the end of the poppy war trilogy quickly. Other thing with a kindle is that you can miss the title of books you are reading, I actually don't remember what the title of the third book was, even though i finished it a day or two ago.

keane2097

sydthebeat wrote: »

Nearly finished book 3 of the Harry dresden files by jim butcher.

Nice easy read... Wizard private dick stories set in contemporary Chicago.

They are good craic. Some of them are very good. The last two have been dreadful though, hope he returns to form whenever the next one arrives

sydthebeat

Nearly finished book 3 of the Harry dresden files by jim butcher.

Nice easy read... Wizard private dick stories set in contemporary Chicago.

CalamariFritti

I'm after falling in love with Martha Well's Murderbot Diaries. What a charming character development and writing style and so up my street its unreal. Have read all 5 novellas and Network Effect twice now and have to stop myself starting over again. Feck it. Why would I stop myself?

ixoy

* 'A Plague of Swords' by Miles Cameron, the fourth book in his 'The Traitor Son' cycle. Split into five parts, the first of which I found kind of slow, I enjoyed a welcome change of pace from the many military battles to a greater focus on powerful magic forces. It really helped ramp up the scale, even if it felt a little bit like a set up for the final book. Still could be edited down a bit and there's no need to introduce every knight and his page by name..

* 'Ravencry' by Ed McDonald, the second book in the 'Raven's Mark' trilogy. Picking up a few years after the previous installment, it works well enough as a standalone but benefits more from building on the characters set up from the previous. I don't think the stakes felt quite as high at the end but the character arcs were probably stronger. It's first-person grimdark but the lead is one of those where he's not nearly as bad as he wants to think he is. Fairly breezy clocking in under 400 pages.

Igotadose

As I've been kind of disappointed by my last sequence of more recent writers, I went back to an oldie-but-goodie, Raymond Feist, one of his Riftwar saga stuff. Simple, action packed, well known characters (and it's been decades since I last read one.) Onto "Into a Dark Realm" where they chase the bad guy around Kelewan

ixoy

coffee_cake wrote: »

Kate elliott's crown of stars series has a lot of clear historical research in there as well.

As an aside, she did an AMA on /r/fantasy yesterday and I asked her a question about the series and she came back with detail on the elements of history she modeled the religion on.

[Deleted User]

Kate elliott's crown of stars series has a lot of clear historical research in there as well.

Fian

Glebee wrote: »

I know its not really sci fi/fantasy but really enjoying The Pillars of the Earth. Getting a game of thrones vibe off it without the dragons or zombies...

I find a lot of overlap between historical fiction and fantasy. Guy gavriel Kay is the most obvious overlap I suppose. But if you want historical fiction with "game of throne" vibes have a look at bernard cornwell and especially his Saxon stories - which were the basis for "the last kingdom" on Netflix.

Dades

Just finished Dark Matter (Blake Crouch).

First book I've gotten into in a while. Really enjoyed it.
Excited to see it's likely to get developed for TV, too. It's a story that could really make the jump.

Glebee

I know its not really sci fi/fantasy but really enjoying The Pillars of the Earth. Getting a game of thrones vibe off it without the dragons or zombies...

Paddy Samurai

ixoy wrote: »

* 'Blackwing' by Ed McDonald, the first book in 'The Raven's Wing' trilogy. Very much enjoyed this one. It's grimdark but done quite well - the setting is pretty interesting, the stakes are high, and it's fairly breezy at 360 pages. It also wraps up its main plot in the one book with threads left for the sequels.

Thanks for the reminder I have it sitting on my shelf since he wrote it , along with 2 & 3.

Hope to start it next.Hopefully.....

The White Feather

I have just finished "The Actuality" by Paul Braddon. A debut Sci Fi novel that I really liked. Set in the future in England about a sentient robot when they have been banned. Reminded me of the movie Ex Machina if you have seen that.

Now reading the latest one from Andy Weir. "Project Hail Mary" It seems like "The Martian" with a guy in space on his own. Enjoying it so far.

ixoy

* 'Falling Free' by Lois McMaster Bujold, another entry in the Vorkosigan Saga. This one doesn't feature the Vorkosigan family, and is set prior to the main saga and it's the weakest installment. The lead character doesn't have any of the witty humour of Miles (and even Ehtan in 'Ethan of Athos' was more interesting).
The villain in this is almost comical which disengages me as Bujold is very well able to write three dimensional characters. The plot itself does show more of her hallmarks - clever innovative solutions to problems. It just feels like a weak knock off of her work (and it doesn't help the last book I read by her was the superb 'Memory').

* 'Blackwing' by Ed McDonald, the first book in 'The Raven's Wing' trilogy. Very much enjoyed this one. It's grimdark but done quite well - the setting is pretty interesting, the stakes are high, and it's fairly breezy at 360 pages. It also wraps up its main plot in the one book with threads left for the sequels.

Paddy Samurai

The Ghost Dance Judgement (Golgotha Book 4) by RS Belcher

About 20% in and loving it. A real page turner for me. Belcher has some crazy imagination but its a highly entertaining fun read.

Gary kk

Finished, The Holes in the Sky by Peter F Hamilton.

It definitely had holes in it maybe the second book will fill in some story lines. But it feels like there was not enough time hashing it out.

Don't get me wrong it is enjoyable just don't over think it.