Reading in June 2011

Went to the library today and picked up a few for the next few weeks. The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson is first. The others I picked up were Forge of God by Greg Bear, The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Leguin, and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
 
Im about half way through The Rise Of Endymion. I think it is alot better than Endymion (which you can almost do without, or at least Dan Simmons could have cut the book in half)
 
Finished Fuzzy Nation by Scalzi. Page turner, liked it, but somehow shallow.
 
Rather literally at the half-way point in Westerfeld's Behemoth.

It's just more of the same, really. I wouldn't say it's any better than Leviathan.
 
And I managed to finish it last night. My analysis still rings true - Behemoth is just more of the same, with no real improvements nor progression beyond that of the plot.
 
I'm reading a nice little Arthur C Clarke short story collection from the 60s called The Other Side of the Sky.
 
i've started Lord of Light by Zelazny because I've seen it mentioned many times as a classic.
It's a little slow to get going, as it is one of those books that start in the middle of the story with all the obliques mentions of a past history and characters / events I feel I should be familiar with, but I hope it will get better.
 
The Lost Fleet: Dauntless wanted to come to work with me today, and who am I to refuse? I'm on roughly page 80, and it's... Not bad. It's not particularly interesting nor exciting, but it's a fairly well paced read. It seems to be probably the "hardest" sci-fi I've read that isn't Weber, but like Moon's Ky Vatta books, it's not smothered in layers of inpenetrable technopornybabblestuff.

The main character is one heck of a sourpuss, however. It's not entirely unjustified behaviour, though.
 
I feel a bit like the only person reading sci-fi at the moment ;)

I finished The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell last night, and my thoughts are mixed. It really is a rather uninspiring and uninteresting book. Whilst a lot happens, nothing gets your adrenaline going nor makes you that excited. It plods along at a somewhat steady pace, and doesn't really come to any resolution at the end. The characters are good, and Campbell's writing isn't bad either, but it's just an unimaginative and non-exciting read. The only emotion I had was mirth (There's one scene, about page 200, that's rather funny), although I did feel a little happy once I finished it. However, I'm going to continue reading the series. Dauntless wasn't a bad read by any stretch of the imagination, and I honestly didn't consider putting it down and picking something else up.

One thing Campbell had in his favour were his characters. There was no mention of race, any sexualities were implied and gender played no part at all in it. Yes, there were female characters, but they were portrayed in the exact same way the males were, so kudos to Campbell on that.

It was let down by some unimaginative choices by Campbell (Although sticking to the default may have actually worked quite well) and some absolutely appalling editing by Titan Books, but for all its flaws it was a very readable book with a handful of interesting characters, and a main plotline that is somewhat refreshingly simple. If I had to give it a numerical score, somewhere around the 6 or 7 mark (Out of 10) would probably work.
 
I'm about to finish Peter F. Hamilton's The Dreaming Void, I'm liking it so far although I expected the pace to be a bit quicker than it is. I don't know if Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman would qualify as Sci-Fi or not, but it's on my list for next. Then probably Ilium by Dan Simmons.

Hi, by the way, I am kind of new here.
 
Im in the middle of Angelmass by Timothy Zahn. Its so-so. The characters are pretty flat and boring. Most of the character interactions just dont feel natural and I have a really hard time playing out the scenes in my head because of it. But I am a bit interested to see how the main plot plays out so Im going to finish it.
 
n0ak said:
Hi, by the way, I am kind of new here.
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Welcome!

I'm over halfway through The Lost Fleet: Fearless (I'm flying through these...), and it's a bit better than Dauntless. We see a bit more of the personal side of characters, rather than just their professional one, which means it's a bit easier to empathise with them.
 
I just finished Flowers for Algernon and am currently enjoying Watchmen.

Other reading for this month:

Dune
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Lord of Light
The Left Hand of Darkness
 
I'm over halfway through The Lost Fleet: Fearless (I'm flying through these...), and it's a bit better than Dauntless. We see a bit more of the personal side of characters, rather than just their professional one, which means it's a bit easier to empathise with them.
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I understand that the series is supposed to get better as it goes along.

I just finished Flowers for Algernon and am currently enjoying Watchmen.
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A nice 'to read' list, Chekhov.

Flowers for Algernon for me worked better in short story form than it did in the novel. Though the novel was deeper, I felt the story had more impact as a short story.

Both very moving though.

Mark
 
Hobbit said:
I understand that the series is supposed to get better as it goes along.
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If it does, then that's great. It starts off pretty well even with its flaws, and Fearless is looking to just be better. I might have to get Courageous earlier than I thought, but the next Ky Vatta book should be here soon so I'll likely be getting on with those until payday arrives.

I'm absolutely loving this space opera/military sci-fi binge I'm on, though. I'm going through books at a ridiculous pace (For me, at least), and hopefully I'll get plenty more done this month.

Chances are I won't get to either of this month's BotM books, though. I'm just not particularly bothered about either of them.
 
Cheerwell said:
If it does, then that's great. It starts off pretty well even with its flaws, and Fearless is looking to just be better. I might have to get Courageous earlier than I thought
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They do get better, but once you get to the end of Courageous you'll probably have to read Valiant straight away! :)

I'm struggling with Overkill at the moment, it's just not doing anything for me. I think it's the first person narrative that isn't helping, but I'm going to try and continue.

Also still struggling with Red Seas Under Red Skies.

Started The Eyre Affair though, and boy is it hitting the spot :) Here's another series I think I'll be tied into for the long haul!
 
chitman13 said:
They do get better, but once you get to the end of Courageous you'll probably have to read Valiant straight away! :)
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In that case, I may just wait until payday as I initially thought I would. I'll be able to get the last four in one go then, and even be able to pre-order the first book in the next series.
 
Finished Forge of Heaven, book two of the Gene Wars by Cherryh last night. I enjoyed it much more than Hammerfall, which, honestly, I had to force myself to finish. I really liked the concept of Forge of Heaven and the politics.

I could have done without so many scenes about Marak and Hati, though. I felt their scenes slowed the narrative. I'll admit it, I skimmed their scenes.

I've also really noticed that Cherryh loves exposition, and I think maybe too much. Instead of some internal rambling of a character trying to get a handle of a political situation, I'd much rather gain my information about the politics through other means. Through conversation, through (inter)actions of different characters. . . Read page after page of a character's thoughts on the matter can get tiresome some times.

All in all, though, I did enjoy the book.
 
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