Book Recommendations?

karmajay wrote:
Rykin wrote:

I've been reading "The Deathworlders” by Philip R. Johnson. It is an ongoing series with a new chapter published almost monthly for about 8 years now. The premise is basically that Earth is one of the most dangerous worlds in the galaxy and so to not only survive here but to thrive humans are one of the toughest and strongest species in the galaxy. It is a genre that has come to be known as HFY (Humans f*ck Yea lol). I am about halfway through. The authors writing had improved quite a bit since the early bits. It could really do with a bit of editing and polishing and being broken up into actual books maybe.

I don't see this on Amazon so I assume you are reading it all on the web?

There is an ePub download link at the top of the page. I ran it through Calibre to convert to Mobi and remove the double line breaks and add paragraph indentions.

Started Ann Leckie's debut novel Ancillary Justice which won the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur Clarke, and the BSFA. It was on my wishlist and on sale for $3 on Google books. 15 pages in and pretty interesting. Sci-fi story about a spaceship AI that normally rides along in 2,000 soldiers' bodies is now down to just one body and no ship. Hints of Ursula LeGuin and N. K. Jemisin.

Edit: Forgot to mention the reason I started a new book is be abuse I finished China Mieville's Embassytown, the story of a town on an alien planet that hosts humans that have learned the really interesting language of those aliens and the people that support them. It suffers from Mieville's tendency for all characters to sort of sound the same, but otherwise it had some really cool and weird ideas.

I stalled out on Ancillary Justice, but just started The Raven Tower, and I'm really enjoying it so far

I enjoyed Ancillary Justice.

Finished 1 - 3 Cinnamon Bun series. It is a YA Lit RPG series. It is super cute. The main heroine was a delight amongst the angsty dark anti hero stuff. It is mostly standard lit rpg stuff. It has been enjoyable and wish to listen to the next one.

Ancillary Justice took me like 3 tries to get more than 3 chapters in, but once I did it was quite the ride. I really should get around to picking up the second in the trilogy one of these days.

I finished Ruby Fever this morning, for a series ending novel, it doesn't disappoint. For any Ilona Andrews KD fans hesitant to read the hidden legacy books (the description of book one was a hard no for me for the longest time), they are IMO worth reading, despite relying a little too heavily on some pretty tired tropes.

When I saw the page length The Count of Monte Cristo, I was worried about it turning into a slog. I was pleasantly surprised... until chapter 31. That's when the story starts getting bogged down by meandering plot lines and a slew of new characters with unclear connections to the overall story. Come on, the revenge is supposed to be the exciting part! Instead I'm forcing myself to keep reading and I'm not yet half-way through.

I read Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy this weekend to finish off the trilogy and I enjoyed them.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

When I saw the page length The Count of Monte Cristo, I was worried about it turning into a slog. I was pleasantly surprised... until chapter 31. That's when the story starts getting bogged down by meandering plot lines and a slew of new characters with unclear connections to the overall story. Come on, the revenge is supposed to be the exciting part! Instead I'm forcing myself to keep reading and I'm not yet half-way through.

I haven't read it in ten years but I really do remember it paying off, characters and all.

My memory of Monte Cristo is similarly hazy but I do remember it fondly. It does go off the rails a bit towards the end, but just embrace the silliness and enjoy!

Quintin_Stone wrote:

When I saw the page length The Count of Monte Cristo, I was worried about it turning into a slog. I was pleasantly surprised... until chapter 31. That's when the story starts getting bogged down by meandering plot lines and a slew of new characters with unclear connections to the overall story. Come on, the revenge is supposed to be the exciting part! Instead I'm forcing myself to keep reading and I'm not yet half-way through.

Wait and hope, Q.

It all does hang together - there is some set up where you are that will pay off in a while in very tasty ways.

Count is one of my favorite books of all time; I re-read it every couple of years. Compared to The Three Musketeers (also a favorite), which does have some real sloggy parts, Count is tight and concise. For Dumas.

Count of Monte Cristo unabridged is one of my favorites. You may have enjoyed an abridged version a bit more. There is some history stuff that gets stuffed in there in the middle that might not be necessary IIRC. Same with Les Miserables. Those two books are just... damn good books.

I do remember ALL of the new characters have at least some real part to play in his vengeance. He didn't just introduce them for the hell of it.

The fact that *any* novel written at that time is readable today is a tribute to the skill of these authors.

Thanks, all. I am still trying to push through.

Brandon Sanderson's Dawnshard novella audiobook just showed up in the library. Guess I'll be listening to that next. It's a Stormlight book like the Edgedancer novella.

Finished Jade Legacy yesterday, and man, it's been a while since I was so sorry to say goodbye to a series/setting. Very satisfying conclusion, though. Thanks for the recommendations without which I would never have heard of it.

I just started Jade City in the last week and love it. I’m a little past the halfway point and think I’ll be blasting through the whole series pretty quickly.

Finished Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker after someone's recommendation here. (Amazon has the Kindle version for $3 right now, but it's on sale a lot...)

I loved the book. Loved the narrator's voice (often first person books don't do it for me, but this one was great). Man, does it end abruptly, though.

Naturally my library doesn't have the sequel. I put it on a list hoping to watch for it to go on sale...but ended up buying it anyway and starting it last night. Not exactly what I expected, but I can see how it might be quite good in the end.

So, thanks to whomever recommended it (or to the several whomevers...).

I know I recommend KJ Parker to everyone, when it comes up, and that’s a good one to get into.

Like half the world, apparently, I have been reading Song of Achilles and it truly is wonderful and tragic and gay. I'm following it up with Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane, which is the same story but Achilles is a trans woman, and I think this may have been a mistake on my part. It's doing a lot of interesting things with the mythology and eastern Mediterranean cultures, but I'm just having a lot of trouble settling into it. Something about the prose style, and that this is a difficult version of Achilles for me to want to spend a lot of time with - she's this combination of brash and prickly that makes sense but I can't quite find something to hold onto with her.

4dSwissCheese wrote:

Like half the world, apparently, I have been reading Song of Achilles and it truly is wonderful and tragic and gay. I'm following it up with Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane, which is the same story but Achilles is a trans woman, and I think this may have been a mistake on my part. It's doing a lot of interesting things with the mythology and eastern Mediterranean cultures, but I'm just having a lot of trouble settling into it. Something about the prose style, and that this is a difficult version of Achilles for me to want to spend a lot of time with - she's this combination of brash and prickly that makes sense but I can't quite find something to hold onto with her.

Our book club just read SoA and liked it very much (I'm very behind in my reading so I have no real take on it yet.) I haven't heard of WGS, but it sounds fascinating for all the reasons you mention. And Achilles has always been a difficult character for me, at least, to like, from the Iliad to Troilus and Cressida. Only in the marvelous film Iphigenia is he sympathetic.

I am trying to work through Leviathan Wakes and I just am not sure it is for me. It seems to jump around in theme so much. Started as a space opera, then moved to mystery, then to horror novel but none of the parts feel complete.

I am also a bit torn because it doesn't feel very "spacey" Sure it is set in space but most of the scenes are in stations with normal guns, normal sleazy criminals, etc.

I am going to keep tying to work on it but I just don't care that much about any of them really which is annoying at 50% done with the book.

farley3k wrote:

I am trying to work through Leviathan Wakes and I just am not sure it is for me. It seems to jump around in theme so much. Started as a space opera, then moved to mystery, then to horror novel but none of the parts feel complete.

I am also a bit torn because it doesn't feel very "spacey" Sure it is set in space but most of the scenes are in stations with normal guns, normal sleazy criminals, etc.

I am going to keep tying to work on it but I just don't care that much about any of them really which is annoying at 50% done with the book.

I had much the same reaction. Never managed to finish it, or start any of the sequels. Watched a bit of the TV series, will probably finish it eventually but it hasn't really grabbed me either.

farley3k wrote:

I am trying to work through Leviathan Wakes and I just am not sure it is for me. It seems to jump around in theme so much. Started as a space opera, then moved to mystery, then to horror novel but none of the parts feel complete.

I am also a bit torn because it doesn't feel very "spacey" Sure it is set in space but most of the scenes are in stations with normal guns, normal sleazy criminals, etc.

I am going to keep tying to work on it but I just don't care that much about any of them really which is annoying at 50% done with the book.

There is much more "spacey" stuff in future books if you make it through Leviathan Wakes. Some books have a better balance of the space opera and the other themes than others. It took me a little bit to get into as well but I was hooked after the crazy casino sequence since I had to know what that was all about. Hope that it gets better for you.

Leviathan Wakes is acknowledged to be the worst in the series, a story that shows the inexperience of the authors. The following books really pick up the quality.

There is a huge Audible sale going on right now. Apparently you don't need to be a member either.

Nona the Ninth is even more confusing at the end than Harrow was. I found some diagrams that helped though.

I love the Expanse series. It's not pure space opera, it's more political intrigue and conflict set in space with aliens. And I like that other than the alien tech, everything else seems pretty hard sci-fi realistic in a near future setting.

Think ASoIaF in space, with alien tech in the place of dragons. With less incest. And less banners. And less problematic weddings, if there are any.