[Hobbit]

This is where you talk to us about your monthly SF Reads: whether good or bad, we want to discuss with you what you thought.

Our Fantasy Book of the Month is Vellum by Hal Duncan. Discuss here (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32109).

Our SF Book of the Month is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Discuss here. (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32106)

Mark

[livens]

I started 2 books just today. I read a few chapters of each, going back and forth between the 2. Ill have to make a decision of which one to read first :(

Matter by Iain M. Banks and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Matter is starting off really good, although Banks has been a bit long winded with some of the medieval characters speeches. This is the second Culture novel Ive read, Excession was the first and I really enjoyed that one.

The Windup Girl has me hooked from the get go. Im completely sucked into the world he is building, and I love the was he writes. I may just go with this one.

[suciul]

After several days of little reading due to extreme tiredness, I finally got back into some books and in sf I read some 100 pages of an unexpectedly good indie Dancing with Eternity by John Lowrie which is a bit pricy for an indie at ~7$ as e on Smashwords or Amazon; I do not remember where I saw it first prerelease but it sounded intriguing and when it was released recently, I got the 20% sample and it hooked me that I had to buy it asap .

I also read a little from Bringer of Light (the 4th in J. Fenn series which was a big favorite in 1/2 but fizzled a little in 3) and it seems more interesting than the 3rd installment but Dancing with Eternity kind of took over for now.

I also got arcs of two interesting releases later in the year: Seed by Rob Ziegler (debut from Night Shade and it reads well) and Count to a Trillion by JC Wright which is crazy fun and I will get to soon also

[chitman13]

Currently reading The Short Victorious War by David Weber, the third Honor Harrington book. Picks up a year after the events of Honor of the Queen, but it's pretty much back into it straight away. I'm really enjoying these books and can easily see me finishing them off before the next one is out :)

[Ropie]

I picked up a like-new second hand copy of Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History, a collection edited by Dozois. Although most of the tales seem to be based in American History, something I know very little about, the first one by Harry Turtledove is really pretty good so I have hopes that the others will be of a similar standard. Some Gene Wolfe & Silverberg in here too..

[Hobbit]

Ropie: I'd recommend Worlds That Weren't as well, if you can get it. That one has a Mary Gentle/Ash story in it as well....

Just been reading some Turtledove myself: Hitler's War. When I'm in the mood, I really like the counter-history stuff...

Mark

[Shonsu]

Just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins. Not that great, just some light reading cause a friend recommended it. I'll probably finish the trilogy just because I hate leaving things unfinished lol

[algernoninc]

Hunter's Run - Abraham, Martin and Dozois: I don't know how this project came about, I usually think about writing as an individual effort or at most a 2 author cooperation where one comes up with the plot and another is fleshing out the dialogue and the scenery.
Anyway, Hunter's Run is interesting, with some echoes of Enemy Mine: an eartman and an alien forced together and isolated on a distant planet. It could still go in unexpected directions. The writing is straightforward storytelling, making it difficult to pinpoint the contributions or personal style of Abraham or Martin.

[Loerwyn]

Just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins. Not that great, just some light reading cause a friend recommended it. I'll probably finish the trilogy just because I hate leaving things unfinished lol
You're not going to like the direction of the series, then. It's downhill all the way.

I'm currently reading this month's science fiction book of the month, which is Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon. I'm already 25% of the way through it, and it's quite an interesting read once you get past the slightly strange writing at the start and the unusual way it's been written.

[Ropie]

Anyway, Hunter's Run is interesting, with some echoes of Enemy Mine: an eartman and an alien forced together and isolated on a distant planet.

This was the premise of a novel by Kate Wilhelm I read a few weeks back - The Killing Thing (although it was man v robot). It sounded exciting but in actual fact was fairly pedestrian - most of the novel was taken up with the hallucinations and recollections of the Earthman as he struggled with his limited supply of water on the desert planet. There was a poignancy to the back story about how the two ended up fighting each other on this planet but it fell a long way short of her classic Where late the Sweet Birds Sang.