Book Recommendations?

Thanks to whomever recommended The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle many pages ago.

Just finished it tonight. Excellent read. The author describes it as a “time-traveling, body-swapping murder mystery,” which seems apt.

The first third was enjoyable enough, but it really takes off after that. There was one spot where I wondered if my (Kindle) copy wasn’t missing a page or three. Don’t remember the details, but there was some leap with no context / explanation. Thought maybe I missed it. At any rate, it didn’t take away from the whole.

Also, does anyone else’s phone autocorrect “murder” to “murderbot?”

"Siri, play the most recent series of "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon", please."

Almost done with Prelude to Dune: House Atreides. I think it is one of the books people in general don't like. I wouldn't say it is good but I am finding it interesting. The world building is great. I didn't really care about the back story of of the people in the book but I found it all interesting. For example I found the Baron's fat situation interesting on wonder how did he get that way in a society that can genetically alter how you look. However, I could have lived without knowing why he was floating pig man. This book actually explained what happen to him. They go into the backstories of a bunch of people all of which I found interesting but not in a story way. I find it interesting like reading a D&D source book.

OG_slinger wrote:
mortalgroove wrote:

A Desolation Called Peace, the follow-up to A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine came out today. Instant buy for me and it's all queued up on my iPad.

EDIT: Spelling is hard.

I just finished it this afternoon and was not disappointed.

Agree, thought it was excellent.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Almost done with Prelude to Dune: House Atreides. I think it is one of the books people in general don't like. I wouldn't say it is good but I am finding it interesting. The world building is great. I didn't really care about the back story of of the people in the book but I found it all interesting. For example I found the Baron's fat situation interesting on wonder how did he get that way in a society that can genetically alter how you look. However, I could have lived without knowing why he was floating pig man. This book actually explained what happen to him. They go into the backstories of a bunch of people all of which I found interesting but not in a story way. I find it interesting like reading a D&D source book.

I read about this ret-conning here.

I've just finished The Galaxy, and the ground within , the final book by Becky Chambers in her Wayfarers series. It's a really lovely, beautiful little book. It's not a big epic story, it's just a few really well drawn characters meeting each other.

None of the main characters are human this time. They're all oddballs in their own way, at a sort of crossroads in their lives, and I deeply love all of them.

I was able to actually go INSIDE my library today to pick up my holds!

I have some work to do.
Thanks to Malor and others for enabling me.

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/7SGx94L/Salvation-PFH.jpg)

You should really enjoy those, I suspect. How odd to see them in paper form, though.

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Funny you should post this. My pandemic book club is now reading her Bloodchild short story and Mind of My Mind novel . I'm inexcusably late to her oeuvre.

The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington are both on Kindle sale for $2.99.

I finished S. A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy and it was quite good.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I finished S. A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy and it was quite good.

I've been hearing really good things and I think I've acquired the trilogy but the immediate TBR pile is huge.

DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Some of her work is more sci-fi. The Xenogenisis series takes place off of earth with a post-apocalypse humanity interacting with a very alien society.

Kindred (I think of this as her master-work) is similar, but it deals w/ time travel back to the antebellum south. Thematically, she chews on a lot of the same and similar themes in each of these settings.

Natus wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I finished S. A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy and it was quite good.

I've been hearing really good things and I think I've acquired the trilogy but the immediate TBR pile is huge.

Add me to the love pile. One of the best trilogies, top 5, I have ever read.

Oso wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Some of her work is more sci-fi. The Xenogenisis series takes place off of earth with a post-apocalypse humanity interacting with a very alien society.

Kindred (I think of this as her master-work) is similar, but it deals w/ time travel back to the antebellum south. Thematically, she chews on a lot of the same and similar themes in each of these settings.

I should clarify what I loved about those books. I’ll spoiler it for people who plan on reading them someday and haven’t.

Spoiler:

I appreciate the parallels to slavery and how societies can both progress and regress. I also appreciate the themes of independence and self sufficiency and the parallels to the history of the African diaspora in the Americas.

What I really loved in the books, though, and what I’d love to find more of in her books or other books were the sense of hope and community building.

I know “hope” may not be the first word that comes to mind when reading such dire books, but when she talked about The Destiny I genuinely got emotional. I can walk through the fire of a dystopia like hers if you give me a vision of mankind working towards a better way of living or a better future. I’d eschewed dystopias for the last 4
years for obvious reasons. These were my first in a long time. And what made them work for me is that there was the hope and the vision. I could use more of that in my fiction.

It was definitely light in those books. The books are very grim. But it really moved me that in the middle of all of that her character could find something worth working towards or building.

The Daevabad trilogy is fantastic, but one possible warning is that it's filled with a lot of abusive behavior by men toward the female protagonist. If you're extra-sensitive to that, you might not enjoy the first two books very much. (By the third, it's not so much an issue anymore.)

Other than that, two big thumbs up from Malor. Loved that series.

I didn't realize until after finishing the books that Suleiman is another name for King Solomon.

Malor wrote:

The Daevabad trilogy is fantastic, but one possible warning is that it's filled with a lot of abusive behavior by men toward the female protagonist. If you're extra-sensitive to that, you might not enjoy the first two books very much. (By the third, it's not so much an issue anymore.)

This is obviously a widespread thing in fantasy literature, and has been for decades. I remember a very prolific female writer (was it Sabaa Tahir?) on Twitter gloating that all her fans were afraid of what she would do to her heroines. I personally find this sort of thing distasteful unless it really contributes to the story, and even then it pulls me out of the narrative.

DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Fyi, both books on sale on audible today.

SallyNasty wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Fyi, both books on sale on audible today.

Thank you! As an Audible member, it drives me nuts that Audible hides its sales. It's great that you found the Butler sale, but are any other books connected to it?

Natus wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Fyi, both books on sale on audible today.

Thank you! As an Audible member, it drives me nuts that Audible hides its sales. It's great that you found the Butler sale, but are any other books connected to it?

It's on the home page. It's a series sale, where they give discounts on multiple books in series. Generally $5 to $7 per book. I filled out several series I'd bought early books for last night.

Today's the last day:
https://www.audible.com/ep/stacked-s...

EDIT: You're right about not seeing the sales. I currently get the daily deals emails, but I went for a very long time not being able to get those even though they were turned on. The big sales I'm more likely to find out about through apps notices, which in general I hate.

I bought like 30 bucks worth of books. This was one of their better ones.

SallyNasty wrote:

I bought like 30 bucks worth of books. This was one of their better ones.

I did too. I finished bought several books in series from authors I liked who's early books I'd picked up in a series, yet hadn't even started. Probably should have just waited until I tried the first book, but whatever

(I got down to $34 after culling some books I had in my wishlist, because I started with a cart up around $60.)

MannishBoy wrote:
Natus wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Fyi, both books on sale on audible today.

Thank you! As an Audible member, it drives me nuts that Audible hides its sales. It's great that you found the Butler sale, but are any other books connected to it?

It's on the home page. It's a series sale, where they give discounts on multiple books in series. Generally $5 to $7 per book. I filled out several series I'd bought early books for last night.

Today's the last day:
https://www.audible.com/ep/stacked-s...

EDIT: You're right about not seeing the sales. I currently get the daily deals emails, but I went for a very long time not being able to get those even though they were turned on. The big sales I'm more likely to find out about through apps notices, which in general I hate.

I really appreciate the info--thank you!--and I did pretty well with the sale. But I never see the announcements, and often just stumble on a bunch of discounted titles that I later learn are related. It's *such* an odd way to do business, I can't get over it.

Natus wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
Natus wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

I just devoured Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. How are the rest of of Octavia Butler’s books? Anything similar?

Fyi, both books on sale on audible today.

Thank you! As an Audible member, it drives me nuts that Audible hides its sales. It's great that you found the Butler sale, but are any other books connected to it?

It's on the home page. It's a series sale, where they give discounts on multiple books in series. Generally $5 to $7 per book. I filled out several series I'd bought early books for last night.

Today's the last day:
https://www.audible.com/ep/stacked-s...

EDIT: You're right about not seeing the sales. I currently get the daily deals emails, but I went for a very long time not being able to get those even though they were turned on. The big sales I'm more likely to find out about through apps notices, which in general I hate.

I really appreciate the info--thank you!--and I did pretty well with the sale. But I never see the announcements, and often just stumble on a bunch of discounted titles that I later learn are related. It's *such* an odd way to do business, I can't get over it.

The other thing I occasionally do to see about current or upcoming sales (people seem to keep track of what happens what time of year) is to hop into the Audible subreddit every couple of weeks.

SallyNasty wrote:
Natus wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I finished S. A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy and it was quite good.

I've been hearing really good things and I think I've acquired the trilogy but the immediate TBR pile is huge.

Add me to the love pile. One of the best trilogies, top 5, I have ever read.

Absolutely, loved the series too.

Add me to the Daevabad fan list. It's a series I want to have in hardcover for the collection.

Been reading The Elenium Trilogy by David Eddings. It is...problematic.

This may not be the right thread, but I wanted to get some thoughts. How do you feel about fantasy/sci fi authors using common measurements for distance and time? On the one hand, it doesn't make any sense logically for a world wholly separate from earth to refer to minutes or miles, etc. But on the other hand, it feels like an unnecessary burden on the reader to have to keep new methods of measurements in their heads. Obviously, currency and the like are a different matter, but some things are such shorthand in our heads that it feels like it'd be overwhelming to a reader.