What books are you currently reading?

[Hisaingenis]

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

"Raising the Stones" was good, as expected of Tepper. Also as expected, some of the characters gave the distinct impression of being mouthpieces for the author's opinions and a lot of the views espoused were rather simplistic, almost bordering on strawmen. Most notably, RtS introduced the only god that I could not only get behind but actually want IRL.

Now to finish Azazel.

[Tim Emrick]

This weekend I finished reading Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons, which tells the origin story of the Amazons in DC Comics continuity, up to the point of Diana's birth. Or a version of it, at least. (I'm still rather salty at the radical changes to WW's story immediately after her exceptional "New 52" era ended.) But the art is gorgeous throughout--even when it gets a bit weird (which it frequently does, to emphasize that the gods are Not Like Us).

I may end up stealing bits of characterization of the goddesses (and gods) from this for the Greek myth game I run for my wife, whenever we finally get back to it to wrap up the final chapter. I've established my own takes on several the gods over several years of play, but there's always room for more flavor.

[Perpdepog]

Currently trying to find the time and energy to read Darth Plagueis. It's fun but I have so much non-leasure reading to do.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Back to Titus Alone after a sidetrack through a bunch of RPG books for game night.

[messy]

I just finished the Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. Wow, this trilogy is so similar to a Song of Ice and Fire! There was even a character that resembled a certain Lannister boy...

I really enjoyed the books... except for the brutal violence. Are all of Cornwell's books this gritty?

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Finised Titus Alone, which was good though not as good as the first two books. Now to track down Titus Awakes at some point.

On to Tamsyn Muir's Nona the Ninth, third book in the Locked Tomb series. Again, not a book I would have bought on the strength of the previous two, but I will certainly read it on the that strength.

[pauljathome]

messy wrote:

I just finished the Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. Wow, this trilogy is so similar to a Song of Ice and Fire! There was even a character that resembled a certain Lannister boy...

I really enjoyed the books... except for the brutal violence. Are all of Cornwell's books this gritty?

I haven't read Warlord Chronicles so I can't compare but all of the books of him that I have read (mostly the Sharpe series) are pretty gritty

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Nona was decent. Not as good as Harrow, better than Gideon.

On to Scourge, a Star Wars book by Jeff Grubb. So far it's decent, perhaps edging towards good.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Scourge was decent. I do have a soft spot for the post ROTJ, pre-NJO period so this was fun. It wasn't hard to guess who the real villain was, which can be considered a failure in what is at least partially a mystery, but the ride was enjoyable.

Now on to Raymone E. Feist's Prince of the Blood, one of his Midkemia books.

[AceofMoxen]

Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:

Nona was decent. Not as good as Harrow, better than Gideon.

On to Scourge, a Star Wars book by Jeff Grubb. So far it's decent, perhaps edging towards good.

I'm currently working on Nona, but I nearly gave up during Harrow. I can't stand the second person perspective or protagonist who can't trust their senses.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Had we not had Gideon's POV from book one I would have agreed with you. As it was we had enough information to know the most important stuff so it was far more engaging, for me at least, to try figure out what was real and what wasn't.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

I had actually read Prince of the Blood 20+ years ago when I borrowed a bunch of Feist's stuff from a friend. I had forgotten everything about it except one supporting character and a minor scene at the every end with said character. The book itself was decent though the climax and resolutions and wind-down were a tad brief.

On

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Posted to quickly there.

On to Barbara Hambly's Dragonbane, which is apparantly the first in a series. My only previous experience with Hambly is her Star Wars stuff, which I recall precious little of. 40 pages in and I'm pleased with the book so far. Having a female lead who's middle-aged, a not terribly powerful magician, and who is by most accounts rather ugly, is an unusual protagonist.

[John Woodford]

Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:

Posted to quickly there.

On to Barbara Hambly's Dragonbane, which is apparantly the first in a series. My only previous experience with Hambly is her Star Wars stuff, which I recall precious little of. 40 pages in and I'm pleased with the book so far. Having a female lead who's middle-aged, a not terribly powerful magician, and who is by most accounts rather ugly, is an unusual protagonist.

I enjoyed Dragonbane, and should reread it one of these days.

Hambly also wrote a couple of IMO very good Star Trek:TOS novels, second only (again IMO) to John M. Ford's pair of TOS novels.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Dragonbane was pretty good, though I was slightly disappointed with the denoument of the magic power vs love conflict. I had hoped for a more 'either or' rather than 'both' situation.

I will probably seek out more of Hambly's stuff.

[Fumarole]

I have started Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It's my first book of his, though I have seen several movies based on his books. Here's hoping it is as good as the hype indicates.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Currently reading Trudi Canavan's Thief's Magic. It's ok so far.

[Aberzombie]

Last night I started Caravan of the Damned by Chuck Dixon. It’s the second of his “Conan” novels. Decent so far.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Thief's Magic was OK all the way through: not bad, not good. If I find the sequel cheap I may pick it up.

On to Asimov's A whiff of death. I've tried a couple of his mysteries before but not been terribly impressed. Mysteries aren't really my thing unless you add magic or robots to them. However the book was free and I generally like Asimov and I'm always willing to give him another chance.

[Tim Emrick]

I'm rereading the anthology High Seas Cthulhu, which I received several years back because my friends know I've run multiple campaigns combining pirates and the Mythos.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Whiff of Death was rather dated and not all that good. It was an interesting look into what Asimov himself must have experienced in his stint at university with the development of new techniques crowding out old, but his portrayal of women and psychology was ..... not very good. TBH I'm not sure if the pscyhology on display was decent for a lay person's understanding of the field at the time it was written but it hasn't aged well. I'd stick with his SF stories.

Currenlty reading Eric Idle's The Road to Mars. 25 years old at the moment and it feels a little dated. Some moments of insight and genuine humor with a lot cringe at a comedian past his prime. To be fair I'm not very far into it so it may improve.

[Aberzombie]

After nearly 40 years, I’ve finally completed my set of the Time Life Enchanted World Series. I received Gods and Goddesses in the mail today, and am reading through it.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

My grandfather and later parents had/have a few of those Time Life series, and I absolutely love them.

The Road to Mars was as much an exploration of the nature of comedy. A few oddities that made the setting feel off, like how Vaudeville is somehow back in fashion, and somehow comedians can make a living traveling throughout the solar system and putting on acts. The book made me smile frequently but I don't think I laughed once, which may very well be a "it's not you, it's me" problem.

Now reading The Will of the Tribe by Arthur Upfield, one of his Inspector Napoleaon Bonaparte books, an Australian sleuth. This is another one I picked up when my work was getting rid of a few things and so far I've found it hard going. Partially because I'm not a big fan of mysteries, mostly because of the descriptions of the First Nations. Mentions of the 'wild' tribes and the 'semi-tame' tribes, and how the MC can "think like a black man and reason like a white man" abound. Granted I know bugger all about First Nation cultures (I don't think having watched the Crocodile Dundee movies counts), so I don't really know how accurate the portrayal of them here is, but the language rubs my special snowflake woke sensibilities the wrong way.

[Limeylongears]

'How The Mind Works' by Stephen Pinker, which has rather bamboozled me due to the excessive amount of detail he feels obliged to go into, Lemmu II - Archives of Haven, by Julian Jay Savarin, sci-fi Hammond organ player supreme, and 'Or Neerav', by Moses Cordavero, which makes me stop every couple of paragraphs to puzzle out what the man is trying to get over.

Overall, confused Limey is very much confused.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

The Will of the Tribe wasn't good. Even ignoring the racist bits (which you can't, even if it was probably less derisive than many other works of the time and acknowledges that white people are eradicating native culture) the writing wasn't good. When people were yelling or emotionally charged it felt like watching those old Russian dubs of western movies with zero acting ability.

On to better things: the third of Robin Hobb's Rain Wilds Chronicles, City of Dragons.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

City of Dragons was good, and the last book in the series is in my 'to read in the near future' pile (as opposed to the 'to read at some point' pile).

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Stuart Cloete's The Silver Trumpet, a collection of short stories set primarily in Boer times and lands, though some are set as late as the 30s and in central Africa. The stories are mostly OK, mostly rather bland and clumsy prose with occasional passages of actual good writing. Considering the time and place and most of the stories are set and the protagonists being Boers or Boer-adjacent, you have to expect a bit of extreme racism here and there, and damn if there isn't some unpleasant stuff mentioned very casually. On the whole the stories are all about the whites so the nasty stuff isn't shoved in your face regularly. I don't know much about the Boers so I can't comment on the accuracy of the portrayal other than to say it aligns with what little I do know.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Currently reading Murrey Leinster's Sideways in Time a collection of his short stories/novellas which includes the title story. I like what I've read of
Leinster previously though I'm most familiar with his MedShip stories.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Leinster was good, as expected. He was a contemporary of Lovecraft but most of these stories were somewhat later than the Lovecraft circle wrote - 40s and 50s. Good stuff with early ideas: time zones with altnerate worlds crashing into a glorious Torg-like mess (with significantly lower tech rating), plant-based sentient lifeforms with organic tech, telepathic deepwater possibly-krakens, etc. The stand-out story is A Logic Named Joe (1946), which predicts not only something very like the Internet but also the more likely AI apocalypse, which does not involve robots wanting to kill all humans but AIs being very good at answering questions humans put to it regardless of consequences or morality.

It's not all good. It is just a tad sexist and all women must end up with a man at some point and they have little purpose other than as objects of men's affections. There is some unpleasant racial characterization like Japanese being described as polite on the surface and sneaky and brutal underneath (probably explained by the fact that this is written in the mid 40s), and an unfotunate tendency to turn to genocide as a solution to problems of hostile species, both intelligent and unintelligent.

On to Charles Sheffield's Proteus in the Underwold, where humans have learned how to shapechange. Too early to say so far but I expect transhumanism to be a major theme.

[Aaron Bitman]

I read one book that collected science fiction stories that included "Sideways in Time" and another book that collected science fiction stories that included "A Logic Named Joe". But I never found a source that included both and I never realized that those stories had the same author. (I have a bad memory for names.)

[Limeylongears]

'Grettir's Saga', which, while probably not strictly sword & sorcery, certainly featured both. A great read, even if Grettir himself was a bit of an a$%$@&&*.

'Dannus: The Dark Straits of Regalthium' by Mike Sirota. Terrible.

Lastly, 'The Book of Phobias and Manias', by Kate Summerscale.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Proteus in the Underworld did do a little transhumanism but was very Golden Age in its conclusion: i.e. current human best, no makey human different. To be fair there was an element of trying to reduce the number of things humans can use as an excuse to be mean to each other. The 'romance' was very tack-on and not a little creepy.
I'm beginning to suspect I lucked out and happened read all the good Sheffield books* first and am getting all the not so good ones now.

* Between the Strokes of Night, Web Between Worlds, the first the Convergent Series novels

Currently reading Colin Andersons Magellan, which does pretty good job of showing the problems of 'utopian' societies and possible issues with uploading your brain to a computer to become a virtual god. Not a bad effort for a book from the 70s, though it remains to be seen if it sticks the landing.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Megellan was pretty good all the way through. I'll be keeping an eye out for Anderson from now on.

Currently reading K.B Wagers' Before the Chaos, the first book in the Farian War trilogy. It's a sequel trilogy to a previous trilogy I haven't read, and this is my first outing with this author. Passable so far.

[Aaron Bitman]

I'm reading I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

It's been years since I read The Incredible Shrinking Man by the same author (and at least 5 of his short stories). I felt that book - although it had some good points - could have been written better. At that time, I heard that I Am Legend was his greatest work, but I didn't see the appeal of a vampire apocalypse story.

Years later, I watched Santa Clarita Diet, a silly comedy about zombies. It's arguably the only long-running video series that I watched in entirety TWICE; I liked it that much. Among other things, the heroes work to prevent a zombie plague from getting out of hand and (possibly, theoretically) starting an apocalypse.

That made me curious enough about the genre to make me watch George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (from 1968) and its first sequel, Dawn of the Dead (from 1978). I could go on and on about the weaknesses of those movies, but - after all these years of wondering what the big deal is - I began to understand the appeal of a zombie apocalypse story.

I figured there are so many zombie apocalypse stories out there, there must be some I would like better than those George Romero movies. So I sought out a few others. For instance, I started reading World War Z by Max Brooks, which I was greatly enjoying, and to which I should return soon. (I should also write a post about World War Z on this thread someday soon.) And one of these days I should read the comic book series The Walking Dead, and maybe look into a few other stories like that.

But I started reflecting. When I caught myself thinking that Night of the Living Dead started the whole sub-genre, I thought: Is that really so? Romero obviously must have been inspired by I Am Legend, which goes all the way back to 1954! Maybe I should read THAT to appreciate the sub-genre better.

Also, I was curious. The protagonist of I Am Legend is - as far as he knows - the only human left in a world where everyone has become a vampire. How would that work? How would the vampires feed, if there are practically no humans left? Would they kill and drink the blood of... other vampires? Or animals? Or what? If they kill other vampires, how would they be any more evil than a human who kills vampires? If they kill animals to survive, how would that make them any worse than us meat-eating humans?

So - although not even halfway through World War Z yet - I took an aside to read I Am Legend, which - like all the other Matheson works I've read or seen - has not terribly impressed me. The novel is too vague about what these vampires are like. Every now and then we get a brief flashback of the main character - Robert Neville - with his wife or friend. And I mean BRIEF. When Robert discovers that his wife, or whoever, is undead, we see only a split second of Robert having that revelation. Then the book goes on and on about how horrifying his experience felt. Why can't we SEE what these people are like when they're undead? I feel like the author gave us only the fuzziest picture because he couldn't figure out how to make it scary.

A lot of the time, the book goes on about Robert's feelings of loneliness or despair. Did Matheson really need vampires just to tell a story about that?! Sometimes Robert wonders what's the point of going on with his life, which certainly does nothing to dissuade me from wondering why I'm bothering to read about it. Just let those vampires kill each other! They can apparently do so without Robert's help.

And... I know that horror stories are generally very implausible, but come on! Robert is no biologist, but he just reads books about the subject and suddenly he can discover things that a world full of trained professionals never could? He just looks under a microscope and identifies the virus? How could he know which of the many viruses around is the culprit? And that nonsense isn't even necessary to get the plot moving! Even if it were, the author could easily have written that some scientists had managed to make some discoveries, the results of which got published in newspapers that made it to the public libraries during the final days before the human race went kaput. Like The Incredible Shrinking Man, this book could have been written better.

Now I just want to finish this book already so I can go back to World War Z.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Finish the book before judging it.

[Fumarole]

Yes, indeed. Stopping this book before reaching the end would be a mistake. And do try to forget that horrible Will Smith movie exists.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Will Smith should never be let near SF stories.

[Aaron Bitman]

Well, I finished I Am Legend. Now my opinion of it is no higher than before.

I suppose I can understand why some people might like that ending, with Robert reflecting that he...

I Am Legend:

...became the terror, just as vampires had been the terror of humans when humans were dominant. But that kind of story doesn't appeal to me, and unlike Robert, I find no amusement in the concept. If I were Robert, I might have felt great regret in killing so many vampires, seeing as how they were the future of the human race. Before dying, I would have tried to console myself by thinking of the GOOD things I had accomplished in my time. Maybe I might have thought: I inspired love in Ruth; maybe I've influenced her in a way that will affect her life, and indirectly, the future of Vampire society. Or - if that's too vague - maybe my scientific discoveries might help society in a more concrete way. Or, if my experiences had really driven me to hate vampires so much that I refused to view them as people, then I might have reflected that I had done all I could to be a good husband and father, right up until the end. Hell, I might even have sought consolation in the thought that I had brought the DOG some love and comfort during its final weeks, if that was all I could think of. But no, Robert's greatest accomplishment - in his estimation - was becoming a monster?

Ugh! Pass!

And since two people have mentioned it, no, I've never seen any of the movie adaptations. And now that I've read the book, I would have no intention of ever seeing them, even if I had heard that they were excellent.

I picked up World War Z from where I had left off, and found myself enjoying it again. And now I'm reflecting - again - that I ought to write a post about THAT on this thread, one of these days.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Robert judges himself on how the world at large sees him, not whatever meaningless personal issues he wants to console himself with. His impact on the new world order is as a monster and he isn't pretending that he has done anything else as important as being the monster. He may have done things more palatable but not more important.

At least that's how I remember it. It has been a few years since I last read it and I have noticed tastes and opinions occasionally change over time.

Anyway, "Before the chaos" was OK. It picked up slightly towards the end. I don't think I'll seek out the other books in the series, much less the prequel series, but if I happen to pass by them I may pick them up.

Currently reading William Tenn's Of mice and monsters. I have enjoyed what I have read of Tenn before and at least so far I would recommend this book to those who enjoy Pratchett's "The Carpet People" or his Bromeliad trilogy. This is less focused on humor and a bit more biting but still definitely proto-Pratchett in many respects.

[Tensor]

"D20 Call of Cthulhu"

[Aaron Bitman]

I keep meaning to write about the book I'm currently reading, World War Z by Max Brooks, in which the (unnamed) "editor" travels around the world interviewing survivors of a global zombie apocalypse. I greatly enjoyed the first 200 pages (or thereabouts) of it.

One of the - many - reasons I dislike so many horror stories (such as Night of the Living Dead) is the way the heroes spend the story struggling to survive... and in the end die anyway. I mean... what's the point? They could just as easily have died right in the beginning and saved us the time it took to watch the movie or read the story. In World War Z, yes, many people die, but we hear the story recounted by the survivors.

Another reason I dislike such stories is their assumption that the armies of the world are useless. The officers make some pretty speeches, but in the end, it's up to individuals to form gangs and take the law into their own hands. And chaos ensues. In World War Z, yes, the military initially makes some foolish decisions. One chapter repeatedly emphasizes that point. But it provides details to make it plausible. And it certainly doesn't mean that the author may then conveniently forget that the military - let alone the whole government - exists! Civilization is temporarily defeated, but the governments of the world learn from their mistakes, roll with the changes, and make a recovery, albeit at a high price. And while I'm on the subject, the book also relates how the peoples and governments of different countries, based on different cultures with different mindsets, cope with the crisis in their different ways. Max Brooks understands these different cultures well enough - or at least has enough writing talent to fake that understanding - to present a holistic, worldly approach, when so many global-catastrophe stories gloss over that point.

But lately, I've been finding the book boring. One contributing reason is that I've grown jaded with the Zombie Apocalypse sub-genre altogether. Also, it's been a while since I read some surprise plot twist or food for thought.

But maybe another problem I've had with the book lately involves its format. The book is divided into phases of the war. So the "editor" interviews someone about how the interviewee survived ONE part of the disaster... but what about the rest? For instance, one chapter focuses on a character who has no practical survival skills because he had spent his life in cyberspace. The chapter emphasizes his physical ineptitude. All he had was the theoretical knowledge he had acquired from the internet. He seemed totally disconnected from reality - except for VIRTUAL reality - until the zombies came to his very door... literally! So okay, we hear how he survived the first three days after that, but how did he manage after those few days? Presumably we'll never hear the answer because this book never gives us more than one interview with any one person. The only clues we have are what tools he managed to collect during those few days, and some vague plans he made at the time.

In the following chapter, one character - Kondo - tells another - Tomonaga - that he, Tomonaga, was insane for thinking that the two of them, in isolation, could survive against millions of zombies. And Tomonaga replies with religious babble about the gods. Is that really supposed to explain their survival to the reader? Because that's how the chapter ends. Again, I doubt that the book, in the format it's in, will ever explain these characters' survival, so these stories seem unfinished.

And the next couple of chapters after that didn't satisfy me either. So I'm not sure how long I'll stick with this book before I put it aside and read something else instead. But even if I do put it down, I might pick it up again at a later date if I ever feel a craving for a zombie story again.

[Fumarole]

I'm reading Poplollies & Bellibones: A Celebration of Lost Words by Susan Kelz Sperling. My wife gifted this to me for Christmas so I just started it, but it is right up my alley as I love reading about language.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Back from Christmas vacation which involved not reading at all (how times have changed). "Of Mice and Monsters" was good. A bit dated in some respects, not that I expected anything else from a novel from '68, but generally entertaining and with a finale I did not see coming but was perfect.

Just started Asimov's The Caves of Steel, the first of his Elijah Baley novels. I read it before, probably about 30 years ago so I don't remember much of it. Heck, I I probably wouldn't remember much of anything I read five years ago.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

About 30 page into Caves of Steel and I remembered the twist, if not the identity of whodunnit. I don't know if it was because Asimov isn't a particularly good mystery writer (I'm no connoisseur of mysteries but that's the impression I've gotten of his stuff), if I remebered the point from lasttime I read it or if it was briefly mentioned in "Robots of Dawn" which I reread not too long ago.
Anyway, Asimov is an ideas guy not a prose guy, and he is fun to read even though lots of it is dated.

Currently about 2/3 through Yoon Ha Lee's Ninefox Gambit, which is decet-to-good. I may even pick up the rest of the series at some point.

[Fumarole]

I have now begun Tenderfeet and Ladyfingers: A Compendium of Body Language also by Susan Kelz Sperling. This is basically a second book in one hardcover with the previous book I mentioned, and I hadn't realized this before I reached the halfway point. It's pretty good so far if you're into this kinda thing, which I realize is probably a pretty niche interest.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Ninefox Gambit was decent. I did get frustrated at the lack of explanation of what the calender maths actually did. Lots of words thrown about, very little actual descriptions.

Now reading PKD's The Penultimate Truth. So far so good.

[Limeylongears]

Bad Loon Rising: A Zograt and Skrog novel, by Andy Clark. Not read a new Warhammer novel for a great while, but this is rather fun.

For non-fiction, Archery Fundamentals, by Douglas Engh, and Ted Hughes, Selected Poems, 1957-1967.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

The Penultimate Truth was decent enough. A good premise marred by addition of stuff that wasn't necessary to tell the story and detracted from the essence, IMO.

On to Robin Hobb's The Blood of Dragons, last of her Rain Wilds Chronicles

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

The Rain Wilds Chronicles came to a satisfying conclusion, with at least one element of pure fan service in the brutal and messy demise of a rather unsavory character.

Barely started on Driftglass a collection of stories by Samuel R. Delaney. I've enjoyed what I've read of his work before and so far this is quite promising.