What we're reading, the SFF edition

Finished The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan. This is one of his prequels to his Riyria Revelations. I really enjoyed this book. Sullivan says you can start with these or with the original, but I say you should read the prequels second. This book starts out a bit slow, and it was my already standing love for the characters that pulled me through that.

It's a great read if you're looking for more of Hadrian and Royce. It's actually quite interesting to see how they met.

Finished The Grim Company by Luke Scull. This has gotten mixed reviews, but I liked it. It felt kind of like if you found the halfway point between Joe Abercrombie and Brandon Sanderson. It has the grim (but not as grim) world and antiheroes (but ones who aren't so antiheroic) as Abercrombie. But it's more of a high fantasy, with a major focus on magic and a plot involving taking down a dark lord (like in Sanderson's Mistborn).

It was fast-paced and a fun read. I won't say it's as good as either of the authors I mentioned above (though I actually preferred it to Abercrombie's first book, I recognize that fans of grimdark will most likely prefer Abercrombie).

Despite the grimdark aspect, I actually found it was more of a fun read.

Parasite, by Mira Grant. A worthy entry to the zombie genre. Quite plausible.

rwm4768 said:

Finished The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan. This is one of his prequels to his Riyria Revelations. I really enjoyed this book. Sullivan says you can start with these or with the original, but I say you should read the prequels second. This book starts out a bit slow, and it was my already standing love for the characters that pulled me through that.

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I started with these, and I only got through the first half because it was loaned to me with high praise, and I always feel bad if I don't finish a book someone loans to me. I didn't know if I wanted to go on and read more, but they've been whispering in the back of brain for awhile and if you say the original books are better, I'll give them another shot.

harmonyisarine said:

I started with these, and I only got through the first half because it was loaned to me with high praise, and I always feel bad if I don't finish a book someone loans to me. I didn't know if I wanted to go on and read more, but they've been whispering in the back of brain for awhile and if you say the original books are better, I'll give them another shot.

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I'd say Sullivan's writing is better in the prequels, but the story gets going more quickly in the original series.

Finished Legion by Brandon Sanderson. I loved the concepts in this one, but I wish the story had been longer. It felt a bit rushed and like Sanderson only scratched the surface of what he can do with these ideas. I'm glad to see there's a sequel.

Finished Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. The worldbuilding was great. The story was nothing special. It was a good read, but I feel like Bear didn't quite hit on the potential of the world she created.

Reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. I had high hopes for this, but quite frankly, it's putting me to sleep. It's reminding me of why I don't care for epistolary novels.

Has anyone else read this book? I'm only on the first part, so I haven't gotten too far. Does it get better as it goes along?

Finally finished the Belgariad. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I recognize that it's not the best or most complex story by today's standards. It's worth reading as a classic quest of prophecy kind of story, but I feel no burning need to go out and read more by Eddings at the moment.

PandaMan said:

Reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. I had high hopes for this, but quite frankly, it's putting me to sleep. It's reminding me of why I don't care for epistolary novels.

Has anyone else read this book? I'm only on the first part, so I haven't gotten too far. Does it get better as it goes along?

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Finished it a few months ago.

I struggled with Cloud Atlas on occasion but it is worth it. It will jump from one person's story to another's, with the POV characters being vaguely linked, going further into the future until you get to a pre and then post apocalyptic world.

Not every character's story is shown epistolary-style.

It's not until you get to the very end that you fully understand what links the characters. It's a very beautiful / bittersweet ending.

Struggle through to the second character's story. If you still can't get into it with the new character, maybe dump it. Having said that, I'm really glad I struggled through it, it's worth it for the ending IMO.

Reading The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.

This is being marketed as middle-grade, which ordinarily wouldn't be my thing, but I'm finding it an entertaining and funny read, with glimpses of depth in the characterizations, and told in a voice sophisticated enough to appeal to adults. My 20-something daughter read this and loved it, so I decided to try it out.

Just finished The City & The City by China Mieville. Fantastically unique setting and great story - read it over two days which is very fast for me.

I finally finished David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. The first two parts were a real snooze fest but it did pick up after that. I usually stop reading if I don't like the first chapter, but I pushed on because I was really curious about the novel's structure.

BethS said:

Reading The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.

This is being marketed as middle-grade, which ordinarily wouldn't be my thing, but I'm finding it an entertaining and funny read, with glimpses of depth in the characterizations, and told in a voice sophisticated enough to appeal to adults. My 20-something daughter read this and loved it, so I decided to try it out.

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I currently have this book on hold with the local library. It's in heavy demand to read so it must be popular.

I just finished The Map to Everywhere by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis. I can't remember the last time I read a true MG fantasy, but this was just adorable. Loved it. Very well paced action-adventure story, with likeable characters and vivid, immersive worldbuilding. And the illustrations! The artist captured the characters and the situations so perfectly. If I were the author I would be endlessly pleased with them.

Finished The Merchant of Dreams by AW's own Anne Lyle. This was another good entry in the trilogy, and I really enjoyed it. Fast-paced with well-drawn characters and an interesting alternate history.

Finished The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. I liked The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and I thought this one was even better. It's still not quite among by favorites, but these are refreshing stories to read. They don't feel like something I've seen before in fantasy.

Finished The School of Good and Evil last week.

I have mixed feelings about it. Sophie's character was funny at first, then became annoyingly whiny, but about the halfway mark she suddenly decides to take charge of her life and the results are hilarious. I thought the ending of the book was right, and there were some things I didn't see coming.


The author plays with the whole concept of good and evil, and even though the rules of the school state that people are either born good or born evil, and cannot change their basic natures, the story itself refutes that, which is, of course, the point.

What I found annoying was the writing itself. The author is highly educated and award-winning, but the prose often reads like it's written by someone who doesn't quite grasp the nuances of the English language. Some word choices are iffy, and grammar is occasionally a little wonky. Descriptions are often over the top, action sequences are basically a train wreck--I found many of them nearly impossible to visualize--and holy cow, the dialogue tags. I think the one that jumped the shark for me was a character who "mooned" her dialogue. But this is MG fiction and I guess it's supposed to be colorful...

Speaking of the MG designation, I think it's more appropriate for the upper end of MG or the lower end of YA. It's a bit dark at times for kids at the younger end. The characters' ages are never mentioned, and I'm sure that's on purpose, but an age range is given (12-15). There is no doubt in my mind that Sophie, at least, is 15 going on 25. Agatha seems a little younger.

Currently reading Tabula Rasa by Ruth Downie (historical mystery set in Roman Britain), and Bernard Cornwell's new novel is next after that. Then I might get back to some fantasy or SF. Thinking of rereading Bujold's The Curse of Chalion, which I've read only once and that a long time ago, or maybe Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter. That one's one of the few print books I have with me here, and it's been awaiting my attention for awhile.

Finished Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell. This book had tons of action and a main character I felt like rooting for. It's so refreshing to see new talent in fantasy that isn't so set on making everything Grimdark. Don't get me wrong. There's some grittiness in this story. But it's also fun.

I just started Gods and Generals

I've been reading "The Winter Queen" by Devin Cary (the copyright on the inside says Cary Osborne) for a few years. Yeah, I'm a slow reader. I had gotten it at a used bookstore (which has since gone out of business) for free, because the owner saw me flipping through it a few times (he often gave stuff away).

The novel was published by Ace in December of 1999. The cover art is by Yvonne Gilbert.



I'm in the middle of chapter 8. It's an interesting story about a queen that's named by the king as his successor on his deathbed, even though females have never ruled. Palace intrigue, political maneuvering, and all of that good stuff.

I'd read on Amazon that the novel ends on a major cliffhanger - as if the author just had to end it and submit it. I flipped to the end, and...yeah. The MC doesn't die, but it does leave you wondering what will happen.

As far as I can tell, the author, despite having a picture of herself on Amazon, has never written anything else - or maybe so.

A few days ago, I finished Shadow's Lure by Jon Sprunk. I liked the first book in this trilogy, and I loved this one. It doesn't do anything revolutionary as far as fantasy goes, but it's action-packed and fast-paced, which is how I like my books.

Just finished The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker.
Really enjoyed it. I loved both the main characters, and the setting (immigrant communities in 1899 New York) was interesting and something I'd never read about before. I also loved the way the story was told - there are lots of different threads, but they all connect and work together well.

After a couple of decades, I'm re-reading some Frank Herbert. I just finished "The Santaroga Barrier" and I'm a couple of chapters into "Destination: Void."

I liked "The Santaroga Barrier" enough to keep a copy even though the ending didn't make much sense when I first read it 40 years ago. I now know that's because... the ending doesn't make sense. Herbert left some odd bits of plot dangling that might have explained things, but as it was printed... no.

Back in those days paperback publishers often had fixed page counts, and sometimes a book would be quite far down the production chain before someone took the scissors and started hacking out bits to make it fit. Herbert definitely knew how to write a story, so either it a brutal edit by the publisher or... heck, "New Wave" ambiguous stoner stories were hot in 1968; he might have intended it to be that way.

I first read "Destination Void" about the same time. It was written in 1965. Herbert rewrote and expanded the book at least twice; since I first read it in the mid-1970s, I would have read the original. The one I'm reading now is the 1978 version. So far none of the additional material seems to be relevant to the plot. The entire cast is thoroughly unlikeable. So is their civilization, for that matter. I can't remember why I found this book so fascinating long ago.

Something I hadn't noticed before, and which is probably coincidence, is how similar "2001: A Space Odyssey" is to this book, which predates it by a few years. The main difference is that instead of trying to destroy an AI, they're trying to create one.

Unless I'm vastly impressed with some of the new material further along in the book, this one will join the first in the discard pile.

Lest you think I'm down on everything today, before those I finished Tom Holt's "Nothing But Blue Skies." It would more or less fall into the 'urban fantasy' slot. TV weathermen, shapeshifting dragons, and a giant Australian media cartel, blend and serve... so far everything I've read by Holt has been ROFL funny.

Finished Rivers of London/Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovich. This was a good urban fantasy novel. Not my favorite, but it was entertaining.