Bone Child is still the best thing I've read this year but it's very close. SecUnit in murderbot is a pleasure to spend time with as well!
Finished "Hyperion" and "Terror" by Dan Simmons.
Hyperion was great. One of the best constructed and written novels I've read in years. I really like the storytelling style, of all things it reminded me of "The Canterbury Tales." Waiting to get ahold of "Fall of Hyperion" and the other novels in the series.
"Terror," frankly, was a slog with very improbable mythology, but the historical 'stuff' is pretty good and the amount of research Simmons did is impressive, the bibliography in that book seems like what you'd get in 10 novels, not one.
Next up is "Ilium," loving on the premise. Hopefully the gods behave as badly as I expect.
I know there are a few Adrian Tchaikovsky fans around here, as well as publishing the second in his Architects sci-fi trilogy last month he's released a Warhammer 40k book aswell, Day of Ascension:
I would have no problem whatsoever with him switching to 40K books for a while, theres a lot of trash in that genre but when they're good they're amazing. I read the Infinite and the Devine recently, great read.
And a third book in the Children of Time series coming in November aswell:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/t/adrian-tchaikovsky/children-of-memory.htm
At the moment, I am plodding through the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. Started well but Just finished the 6th Babylon's Ashes and it was terrible. Ploughing on though! 😁 Now on Persepolis Rising
I feel your pain
I mean, if you're not enjoying it, why read up to and including the sixth novel? 🤔
That was the first one that I didn't enjoy at all. Bought these new when they came out but only going through them now! I am enjoying Persepolis Rising at the moment though
Finished Persepolis Rising now and absolutely loved it. Massive difference between it and the last book. Onward I go to the 8th book now - Tiamath's Wrath!!
A few more:
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.
Very well written and constructed, apocalyptic hard sci-fi story beginning in nowadays times. Its quite a big piece at 1600 pages but there is lots of potential for more in it I thought. In any case it flew by even at its size. Not in my best ever category but very very enjoyable. Would definitely recommend it.
The Rivers of London series seem quite polarising speaking to some who tried the series, yet hated Peter as narrator. Love the books myself but not a fan of Abigail at all. As you say, she's too smart by half and just can't get into her character. I like Peter because he's self-aware at just how useless he is in the face of the world he works in. He barely survives and is far from the Chosen One trope.
Agree with your assessment. Thought the ending was highly improbable but it was worth going through it all.
Just finished "Ilium" by Dan Simmons. Excellent read and about as wild as I thought it'd be. Now onto 'The Fall of Hyperion" which is starting out gangbusters. And I heard that Hyperion's going to be adapted into a movie! Can't imagine how hard that'll be to pull off, but good luck! https://movieweb.com/bradley-cooper-hyperion-movie-epic/
I read or listened to the first book in that series years ago and I liked it without liking it so much I read anything subsequent. I've been thinking about it lately and think I might give them another try. I enjoy the Dresden Files which are similar sort of setup in terms of hidden supernatural world hidden in plain sight all around us.
Herself really enjoys them via audiobook and regales me with some of the better jokes. I think best to not take them too seriously. I've never read or listened to any of them, I'm hearing the best bits for free 😉
They're very light reading, you'll breeze through them in no time. The (apparent) attention to detail with London policing adds the stories and events an air of authenticity that grounds the magic that little more than other Urban Fantasy IMO.
finished jade city. hard to understand why it's so highly rated. just a poor, almost young adultish, japanese mafia style story with a bit of power stones involved. i won't be reading the others.
For a relaxing read, just completed the LitRPG Dungeon Crawler Carl (book 5).
Finished Jade City, pretty good, great "magic system" but not one that grabbed me all the same.
then went on to "priory of the orange tree". That was excellent, really enjoyed it.
Recently started "blindsight" which I am thoroughly enjoying so far. I have the sequel to that waiting on kindle as well but I may move on to "three body problem" after I finish blindsight.
Actually now i think of it I may just go back to the jade city trilogy after the current book, this time of year I tend to "save" books I am expecting to enjoy for when I am on holidays over the summer.
I didn't know there was a sequel to Blindsight. That was a seriously interesting book.
Haven't read it, or indeed finished blindsight.
There also seems to be another one which is set in same universe but not necessarily a sequel.
Loved Blindsight, I always recommend it on reddit when people ask about truly alien aliens, wasn't too gone on the sequel. Reading the blurbs for both up there reminded me of a series I absolutely loved but nobody ever seems to have heard of, the Rifters series, turns out they were written by the same author, give it a go, its amazing:
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted in here, as while I’m still reading a lot it’s been hard to get the time to write down what I’ve thought about each book.
A lot of these have been recommended in here and thank you all very much for the suggestions.
“The Sacred Throne” series (Armoured Saint, Queen of Crows, Killing Light) - Myke Cole
There was a lot of interesting ideas in this series and it moves along at a nice pace. Some unexpected twists and turns along the way, which meant I found myself reading for longer than planned each night. The writing itself is good, not brilliant, but I found I really didn’t mind as I just wanted to see what was coming next.
Annex (The Violet Wars, #1) - Rich Larson
This was included as a free sample at the end of something else, and that was enough to spark curiosity as it looked to be a cross between an alien invasion and a zombie story. Turned out to be a straight up alien invasion Young Adult storyline. The characters and main plot became pretty formulaic, but the aliens were novel enough to stick with it. I'm not too pushed about reading the next book in the series at this point, but the aliens were interesting enough that I could be tempted.
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
Really enjoyed this, which isn’t surprising based on the writer. This is a reworking of one of Arthur C. Clarke’s first novels, done late in his career with the benefit of further experience. It starts off slowly enough, but once it gets going the scale, scope and concepts really expand.
The Demon Cycle Series – Peter V. Brett
The worldbuilding in this series is really good with an interesting contrast between western and eastern societies / religions. First 2 or 3 books were great and real page turners. It starts to falter a bit as it adds new lead characters to show what’s happening elsewhere during key events as you don’t really care what happens to them. This was also a problem with the Traitor Son Cycle below as having built up a really engaging main character the story moves elsewhere and I found myself just ploughing through to see what happens. The story fizzles out at the end of the series, it was an ok conclusion but felt a bit flat.
The Traitor Son Cycle Series – Miles Cameron
Very similar structure to the Demon Cycle Series above, in that it suffers when the focus shifts from the main character. The Red Knight is a much stronger protagonist though, with a lot of back story that only gets revealed as the series progresses. I really think this series wasted an opportunity in the final book or two to explore concepts and possibilities that were introduced, they’re only briefly shown. Final book introduces multiple character perspectives and I stopped caring about how it would end at that point. I could have finished at the end of book 4 and been happier with the series. Also, Miles Cameron spends an excessive amount of time describing armour and clothes.
Masters and Mages Series – Miles Cameron
This was written after the Red Knight series and it really shows. It’s much more tightly focused on the main character, the world building is just as strong and the whole thing wraps up in 3 books instead of 5. Series kept up a great pace once the setting was established, there were very few dull sections.
The excessive detail in this series shifted to describing swords and sword fighting styles. From his bio, Miles Cameron is a LARP and historical recreation enthusiast, so I think he likes to show off his knowledge by including lots of detail. It’s easy to skim through those parts though.
Takeshi Kovacs Series – Richard K. Morgan
I dipped in and out of this series in between books from the above series. It’s gritty, dark, sci fi noir that alternates from cities to battlefields. There’s some pretty explicit sex scenes thrown in too. It’s not trying to be high brow in the slightest and I enjoyed the series.
Rise of the Jain Series – Neal Asher
This is formulaic Neal Asher and if you like his previous series, you’ll enjoy this too. It’s not as good as the Agent Cormac or Transformation series though. It does give a lot of back story to universe level events / history and the characters are really just there as a way to get that detail across.
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
This was brilliant. The characters are really well developed and engaging, with a plot that whips along nicely with flashbacks to current day providing snippets of context for the main story.
The novel was inspired by a Star Trek Voyager quote of “Survival is Insufficient”.
The Fall of Babel - Josiah Bancroft
I’m sad to see this series end, but I’m really glad of how it finished up. I’m definitely going to read this series again in a few years time.
Network Effect - Martha Wells
Murderbot is so much fun to read, and this novel is another great one from Martha Wells. I’m never sure if I’ve missed a story or novel in this series, and the structure of this novel added to it by referencing past events that I knew I hadn’t read before. It turned out to be intentional on the author’s part.
The overall plot was pretty standard, but that’s not what you’re reading a Murderbot book for. The standard sci fi events are much better when viewed from Murderbot’s snarky perspective.
Leviathan Falls - James S.A. Corey
This was an OK ending to the series, but some sections involving out of body experiences dragged on a bit too long.
Next up on the reading list is John Scalzi's new novel The Kaiju Preservation Society. You know what you're getting with a Scalzi novel!
Same as JayD0g, I just finished Leviathan Falls, after starting the series in April or so - primarily to take a break from the Wheel of Time!
Overall, I enjoyed it, though I do tend to agree the last book did drag on in part, but at the same time, felt a bit rushed towards the end. It's definitely a series to read though, and I must start on the TV show now.
I'm torn between getting back into WoT (currently on book 5) or getting stuck into the main Witcher series (having already read the short story books) - I must actually get around to finishing the 8th book in the Rivers of London series, now that I see a 9th book is either coming soon or just released.
You've already wasted enough of your life reading Wheel of Time. It's hot garbage particularly after the first couple.
I'd nearly read it for Sanderson getting to end it. That dude knows how to tell a story. To think about it, when I saw his name attached to WoT I filed him under "don't read" and that was a bad decision. Modern day great of high fantasy.
I needed something light to chew through and that was delivered perfectly by M. R. Forbes in the Stars End series. It's popcorn mil scifi, light weight and goes down easy. Currently $1 on Kindle for the entire "trilogy", it's about 0.85 Sandersons in length).
Just finished John Scalzi's Kaiju Preservation Society. Really enjoyed it, as he says himself in the afterword, it's his version of a pop song.
Light, fun, nothing too serious. Similar sense of humour to Red Shirts. If you enjoy Scalzi's lighter books you'll enjoy this one.
Have now moved on to American Hippo:
The premise looked interesting, I'm 100 pages in so far and it's an OK cowboy story that serves as an excuse to spend a lot of time describing different breeds of hippos.
I'll give it a few more days to see if the characters grow on me, if not there's a William Gibson novel that I'm eager to start.
pelbar cycle
Elantris and Warbreaker - Sanderson
