Book Recommendations?

EvilDead wrote:

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

Thank you for posting. Most books are now on sale.

Natus wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

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

Thank you for posting. Most books are now on sale.

No problem. If anyone sees any great deals I would love some recommendations. Since I have monthly credits I try to find stuff for less than $8 during sales. The credits can take care of anything more expensive.

DudleySmith wrote:

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

I've decided I'll just need to re-read the whole series when its done to know what is happening. I finished Nona this morning, though, and its a little clearer at the finish.

I enjoyed Nona the Ninth. I think maybe just familiarize yourself with the main characters from the 1st two books and it will be fine.

EvilDead wrote:
Natus wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

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

Thank you for posting. Most books are now on sale.

No problem. If anyone sees any great deals I would love some recommendations. Since I have monthly credits I try to find stuff for less than $8 during sales. The credits can take care of anything more expensive.

During the last "spend a bunch of credits, get a coupon" sale, I went through my last 6 credits on my annual plan, but never got the coupon. It ALWAYS happens, so I put something in my calendar to check and then contacted support. They credited my account $20, but I didn't get the email, so wasn't sure when it expired.

Apparently it was sometime before now. I was waiting for a sale like this to use it. I'm once again annoyed by the way their automated account stuff works. I'm probably going to cancel for awhile and sign up again on an annual deal, unless I can get offered the annual deal for $100 like I have the last couple of years. I'm sure there will be a deal before Christmas.

Also have finished Nona. Audiobook this time since that's what I could get from the library first. It was a lot of fun and I really admire Tamsyn Muir's commitment to changing up perspectives and narrative voices each book. I think I more or less understand the ending, though that's obviously subject to revision once we get Alecto, which is certainly set up to be a wild time too.

So i read Gideon and was left a little cold.

The dialog felt like it was written by an excitable teen. Maybe that's the point because all the characters are young, but the thing is, I don't WANT to listen to teenagers because they're tedious.

The narrative felt like a sequence of unearned rug-pulls by the author, which made it confusing and jerky.

I'm willing to give Harrow a shot to see if i can find enjoyment but it might just be that this feels too YA for my old-man tastes.

I've finished The Count of Monte Cristo. It's just way too long and the payoff doesn't justify the length.

MannishBoy wrote:
EvilDead wrote:
Natus wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

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

Thank you for posting. Most books are now on sale.

No problem. If anyone sees any great deals I would love some recommendations. Since I have monthly credits I try to find stuff for less than $8 during sales. The credits can take care of anything more expensive.

During the last "spend a bunch of credits, get a coupon" sale, I went through my last 6 credits on my annual plan, but never got the coupon. It ALWAYS happens, so I put something in my calendar to check and then contacted support. They credited my account $20, but I didn't get the email, so wasn't sure when it expired.

Apparently it was sometime before now. I was waiting for a sale like this to use it. I'm once again annoyed by the way their automated account stuff works. I'm probably going to cancel for awhile and sign up again on an annual deal, unless I can get offered the annual deal for $100 like I have the last couple of years. I'm sure there will be a deal before Christmas.

That is super annoying. Come to think of it I never received a $5 credit when it was supposed to be included in a 2 for 1 sale.

Jonman wrote:

I'm willing to give Harrow a shot to see if i can find enjoyment but it might just be that this feels too YA for my old-man tastes.

i enjoyed Harrow more than Gideon but I'm no sure if it'll be in ways that work for you. The thing that frustrated me with Gideon was just how many characters there were and how hard it was to keep track of them all and know which to care about. With Harrow, we already know a lot of the characters, and even as it's still very twisty, I think the twists are more fun and rewarding, and the climax it builds to is exceptional in a wild and manic sort of way. That said, it's still a lot of bratty teens, with some super-dysfunctional adults thrown into the mix now too, so that may just all still be frustrating for you.

If you didn't like Gideon, I don't think the Locked Tomb series is for you, Jonman. I really love it - It has this odd mix of highbrow Biblical and classical Greek references along with references to the very stupidest memes that I really appreciate.

Funnily enough the audiobooks helped me get the characters more straight in my head. The narrator, Moira Quirk might be my favourite audiobook narrator full stop. She gives each house its own very fitting accent (Welsh for the warm Fifth House, super posh for the elite Third House, sort of Yorkshire for the stolid, competent Sixth) and really conveys the humour.

4dSwissCheese wrote:

. The thing that frustrated me with Gideon was just how many characters there were and how hard it was to keep track of them all and know which to care about.

Bingo.

Here are nine pairs of teenagers, most of them have a weird name that you've never come across before, as well as nicknames.

Spoiler:

and half of them will be dead before you've even learned to tell them apart

Er I would not classify the Locked Tomb series as YA lol

A shame because the characters are all pretty great in this series. The author has a great way of dropping the reader into the story and pulling you along as the story unfolds with good and interesting characters and the mystery hooks. But I do agree if you did not like the way Gideon is written you will only get more confused moving forward.

Just finished Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng, and the novel has such wonderful promise but devolves into a surprisingly petty and claustrophobic Faerie cosmos. Her concept--Victorian missionaries venturing into the Faelands--is superb, plus she really leans into not only the religious instruction but Brontëan Gothic mystery. But it's all style no substance for me, as if someone bet the author that she couldn't write a book about Faeries and Protestantism. Well, she did, and it's unique and idiosyncratic, but it simply doesn't deliver on its brilliant premise.

Changing gears, I also devoured The Disappearance of Joseph Mengele by Olivier Guez, a novel re-creating Mengele's post-war skulkings and escapes. There's an ever-present tone of irony which is a great way to deal with a person and a regime of such breathtaking monstrosity. Highly recommended.

Lastly, I'm just starting John Williams' Stoner, which is an American classic and is already very good.

Hillary Mantle has died at 70, suddenly but peacefully with her family around her. She is best known for the Wolf Hall series of books about Thomas Cromwell, historical novels that portray many of the critical events of Henry VIII's lifetime while engrossing the reader in the feel of the times. I recommend that series highly; I will have to work on her other books.

She had just started a new novel in August and was very excited about it, according to her agent. However, she'd had poor health all her life and I guess it caught up with her.

This is a real blow to the historical fiction world. She was a treasure.

Eversion by Alastair Reynolds

I've a bit of a love hate relationship with his books (my dislike of Absolution Gap and Pushing Ice has not dimmed with time), but the blurb made it sound a bit like the Mountains of Madness, or a Jules Verne story. It turned out not to be that, and now I need to find something which is like that, but I quite enjoyed it anyway.

The Terror, by Dan Simmons?

Robear wrote:

The Terror, by Dan Simmons?

Hmm, I am dubious of that author. I liked the first two Hyperion books, but have hated everything else of his I've read.

I saw a bit of the TV show, and I hit my personal least favourite trope in this kind of story, the "we're all in mortal danger and will probably die, so now is the perfect time for a petty power play so I can lead" storyline. It's my main dislike of Seveneves, Pushing Ice, and a bunch of other books. I know Creative Writing courses tell you to a mixture of external physical danger and internal character conflict, but I just really dislike it.

Hmmm. Well, it certainly hits that trope, in a slow burn horror story.

I'm half way through Something Wicked This Way Comes. The movie is one of my favorites and the book is pretty good so far. Evil circus comes to town and only a couple of boys know what horrors they bring. Circus freaks vs boys from the 60s, lets get ready to rumble.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I'm half way through Something Wicked This Way Comes. The movie is one of my favorites and the book is pretty good so far. Evil circus comes to town and only a couple of boys know what horrors they bring. Circus freaks vs boys from the 60s, lets get ready to rumble.

This has always been one of my favorites and I read it to my kids last fall

Spoiler:

However, it simply hasn't aged well with time. The writing is great, but how certain things transpire and how certain events happen is not-great. Tons of atmosphere, but not enough meat on the bone.

DudleySmith wrote:

Eversion by Alastair Reynolds

I've a bit of a love hate relationship with his books (my dislike of Absolution Gap and Pushing Ice has not dimmed with time),

Oh man, Absolution Gap was such a disappointment. Haven't read Pushing Ice yet.

EvilDead wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
EvilDead wrote:
Natus wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

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

Thank you for posting. Most books are now on sale.

No problem. If anyone sees any great deals I would love some recommendations. Since I have monthly credits I try to find stuff for less than $8 during sales. The credits can take care of anything more expensive.

During the last "spend a bunch of credits, get a coupon" sale, I went through my last 6 credits on my annual plan, but never got the coupon. It ALWAYS happens, so I put something in my calendar to check and then contacted support. They credited my account $20, but I didn't get the email, so wasn't sure when it expired.

Apparently it was sometime before now. I was waiting for a sale like this to use it. I'm once again annoyed by the way their automated account stuff works. I'm probably going to cancel for awhile and sign up again on an annual deal, unless I can get offered the annual deal for $100 like I have the last couple of years. I'm sure there will be a deal before Christmas.

That is super annoying. Come to think of it I never received a $5 credit when it was supposed to be included in a 2 for 1 sale.

Got on chat and they recredited the coupon, which I promptly spent in the sale. Annoying I had to spend the time twice to get credit for one of their previous sales, but I guess it worked out.

DudleySmith wrote:

...I hit my personal least favourite trope in this kind of story, the "we're all in mortal danger and will probably die, so now is the perfect time for a petty power play so I can lead" storyline. It's my main dislike of Seveneves, Pushing Ice, and a bunch of other books.

Agree on hating that trope and yet still enjoyed Seveneves and loved Pushing Ice, as there was plenty of other stuff to tickle my fancy. Also had enough years in business to recognize that, as absurd as it seems from a rational perspective, it's a fact of human nature for some subset of the population. So it doesn't come off as unbelievable, just frustrating.

The world's gonna need Rick Grimes.

Scholomance book 3 is out

Mr Crinkle wrote:
DudleySmith wrote:

...I hit my personal least favourite trope in this kind of story, the "we're all in mortal danger and will probably die, so now is the perfect time for a petty power play so I can lead" storyline. It's my main dislike of Seveneves, Pushing Ice, and a bunch of other books.

Agree on hating that trope and yet still enjoyed Seveneves and loved Pushing Ice, as there was plenty of other stuff to tickle my fancy. Also had enough years in business to recognize that, as absurd as it seems from a rational perspective, it's a fact of human nature for some subset of the population. So it doesn't come off as unbelievable, just frustrating.

I agree with this, and it's also simply a frustration thing for me - it's entirely plausible to me that, for example, many of our politicians would do that.

Thanks Karmajay!

karmajay wrote:

Scholomance book 3 is out

Brilliant. I read the first two just long ago enough that while I remember the endings, the journey is a little vague.

Next up once I finish my current series. To my shame I've been sucked into litRPG in a big way.

Moggy wrote:
karmajay wrote:

Scholomance book 3 is out

Brilliant. I read the first two just long ago enough that while I remember the endings, the journey is a little vague.

Next up once I finish my current series. To my shame I've been sucked into litRPG in a big way.

Same. Amazing the amount of quality reads you can get in the genre.