What Are You Reading?

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.

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!

You've already wasted enough of your life reading Wheel of Time. It's hot garbage particularly after the first couple.

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).

pelbar cycle

Read the first book of the American Hippo Series, didn't really land. Won't be picking up the second book.

Started in to William Gibson's The Peripheral now.

Dreadgod is out, Cradle #11.

Trying to read Joe Abercrombies Half a King trilogy but just have no interest, really struggling with fantasy nowadays.

Go Scalzi as a palate cleanser!

Giving up on this Joe Abercrombie Half A... stuff, completely sick of it already and now they've brought in my all time most despised cliche/trope: minor verbal misunderstanding between 2 love interests leads to chapters and chapters of dragged out crap before they inevitably get together at the end of the book, yawn.

Just finished Kaiju Preservation Society, my first Scalzi novel. As was said earlier, a great palate cleanser after a few bigger books. I'll likely pick some more of his once I've cleared a bit more of the backlog.

First 9 Cradle books are free in 3 volumes, that's the best deal you're going to get this year, a great addictive read:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7KTKNFH

He's done this a few times now, Ive never seen an author give away the majority of their work like this over and over again.

The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes - book 1 of The Divide Series.

Interesting premise, I've started reading book 2. There's massive potential in the world being built, this could be a 5 or 10 book series if she decides to go that way.

I don't see how one gets through 11 Will Wights. Fair play to you but after the first two, even though they were free they were junky teen fantasy. To each their own.

Finishing up Fonda Lee's "Jade War" series. O.K. writing with an obvious Asian setting and characters. Not great, not a deep think. Did rekindle my love of Asian food which I desperately miss living in Ireland :)

Just finished first 2 books of RJ Barker's Tide Child trilogy. Really enjoying the series, I like that the protaganist is not the hero or a Mary Sue for the series and has an interesting character arc.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/258685-the-tide-child

Minor Spoiler:

Next up is Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovskyfor a change of pace, before coming back to the final Tide Child book.

Well Children of Time was great.

I'm not a massive fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky usually, as I tend not to like his characters. I tried to get in to the Shadow of the Apt series previously, but dropped it after 3 books as I found the main character too annoying.

It was similar this time round, however his use of multiple similar characters to tell a multi generation story means it doesn't matter as much.

And whatever else I may think of his work, Tchaikovsky is amazing at building well realised worlds and alternative societies.

This was great scifi.

Moving on to Gideon the Ninth now.

Saved The Book of the New Sun as a Summer read seeing as it's regarded by some as the best sci-fi ever written. Couldn't be more disappointed, started out okay then turns into a load of random nonsense to the point you don't have a clue what is supposed to be going on. I absolutely hate when authors do that, don't know if I want to force myself to read the rest now.

Probably his weakest series IMO. Meant for YA IMO.

A Canticle for Leibowitz: Been on my reading list for a while now so decided to give it a go because id seen it recommended before. About 40% through entirely sure what to make of it.