Reading in June 2012

[Danogzilla]

I finished Caliban's War by Corey yesterday and it was good fun. Fairly consistent with Leviathan Wakes in tone and style. A good sequel. I like where the series is headed.

Spoiler

Hope Bobby stays with the crew.

I started On Basilisk Station by David Weber. I'm about 100 pages deep, and so far it's good but not great. Seems like it's going places though, and the series is well loved, so I'm optimistic.

 

[Loerwyn]

I've (finally) started on Sai King's 11/22/63. I'm about 25ish pages in and I'm... interested, definitely.

 

[Westy]

I finished Caliban's War as well, and my thoughts seem to generally agree with most so far - it was good, but fairly similar to Leviathan Wakes (making it not as exciting or new). It was a bit slow at the start but picked up, especially once the characters came together.

I liked the detailed way the effects of G-force were explained, and the authors have created some memorable characters.

Overall an above average read but without the impact Leviathan had.

 

[Luke_B]

I'm planning on starting 2312 by Kim Stanely Robinson tonight. This seems to be the big SF book of the year in a year of big SF releases. I'm really looking forward to it. Sounds like it will be right up my alley.

 

[Ropie]

I'm planning on starting 2312 by Kim Stanely Robinson tonight. This seems to be the big SF book of the year in a year of big SF releases. I'm really looking forward to it. Sounds like it will be right up my alley.

I'm halfway through. So far it's very good but actually quite formulaic in that it's basically a detective story with off-shoot adventures that happen in the different locations the team visit in the solar system. I'm enjoying it though and KSR's descriptions of things like the atmosphere of Saturn and sunrise on Mercury are top of the sense of awe SF class!

 

[cleasaal]

And in this week's update we have:

finished:
Clifford D. Simak's Our Children's Children

read:
Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End
Clifford D. Simak's A Death in the House and Out of Their Minds
Ursula K. LeGuin's Old Music and the Slave Women
Isaac Asimov's Fantastic Voyage
J.G. Ballard's Crash (I know, not really SF)

currently reading:
Cliffod D. Simak's Why Call Them Back from Heaven?

I'm having fun with the CDS books, got a kick out of Childhood's End take on the future (in fact I even blogged about that one), I endured Crash (yes, I know, I brought it on myself), and Old Music... and Fantastic Voyage added a nice bit of variety to my week.

 

[Rob B]

Starting up The Honor of the Queen, book #2 in David Weber's Honor Harrington series.

Some slow spots in this one, but some terrific spots as well. I'm reading THOTQ on my Kindle while today, I picked up my mmpb copy of Exogene the second installment in T.C. McCarthy's Subterrene War trilogy. Good stuff.

 

[Chrysippus]

Finished Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space. I liked it. Gonna start Isaac Asimov's Prelude to Foundation. Haven't read any Asimov since middle school, when I read I, Robot and The Gods Themselves. Really looking forward to finally starting the Foundation books.

 

[Loerwyn]

Some slow spots in this one, but some terrific spots as well. I'm reading THOTQ on my Kindle while today, I picked up my mmpb copy of Exogene the second installment in T.C. McCarthy's Subterrene War trilogy. Good stuff.

I managed maybe a third or so of THOTQ and just couldn't get further. Think I should start the series again?

 

[Hobbit]

Finished Robopocalypse. Hmmm. Entertaining but scarcely cutting edge. Review at SFFWorld soon.

Now reading Samit Basu's Turbulence, a superhero story but set in South Asia. Really impressed so far. Think Heroes, but with a better plot and a nicely different environment.

Mark

 

[PeterWilliam]

I started Existence by David Brin. Although there is a steep familiarization curve (i.e. adapting to a century, give or take, of cultural evolution), I like what I've read thus far (approx. 50pp).

 

[DDCOrange]

Started reading a couple of "oldies" Merchanter's Luck by C.J. Cherryh and In Honor of the Queen by David Weber while still working my way through The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter Hamilton (which I still enjoy but need a break from on occasion). Will let everyone know how it goes!

 

[Rob B]

I managed maybe a third or so of THOTQ and just couldn't get further. Think I should start the series again?

Sure. So far, good really outweighs bad for me.

 

[Ropie]

And in this week's update we have:

finished:
Clifford D. Simak's Our Children's Children

read:
Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End
Clifford D. Simak's A Death in the House and Out of Their Minds
Ursula K. LeGuin's Old Music and the Slave Women
Isaac Asimov's Fantastic Voyage
J.G. Ballard's Crash (I know, not really SF)

That's quite a list for a week Good going! Do you have time to enjoy them at that speed?

 

[cleasaal]

That's quite a list for a week Good going! Do you have time to enjoy them at that speed?

Yes, what happened was that several years ago I was left without a TV. I couldn't afford an HD one at the time (they were still kind of expensive), and I didn't feel like either wasting my money on an old-fashioned one or going into debt. Anyway by the time I had managed to save enough to afford the one actually I wanted I had already gotten used to being TV-less, and I just never went back. I read on average two or three hours a day, which is basically the same amount of time I used to spend watching TV on a daily basis, and that does translate into roughly 100 pages a day.

 

[MattNY]

I finished reading the first four of the 'Ender' series by Orson Scott Card..Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. Looking at these four as a series, I would say I enjoyed my time with these characters very much, though it decreased slightly in Xenocide and even more so with Children.

Ender's Game and Speaker are truly two highlights in the genre that I have read. Xenocide was a bit repetitive, but I still appreciated the struggles all the characters took in terms of protecting their own determinations in the right to life. Children was good in the parts where it felt it took the story forward, but some of the dialogue began to wane and the many parts that felt like a recap were a chore to push through.

 

[Colonel Worf]

I decided to stick with Scalzi and am almost through with Android's Dream. I think Scalzi is just a very funny version of Heinlein. Fun, quick reads.

 

[Loerwyn]

I've (finally) started on Sai King's 11/22/63. I'm about 25ish pages in and I'm... interested, definitely.

In roughly the mid-400s now, and it's a very intriguing novel. Stretches one's belief in Jake's abilities a bit, but it's not bad.

 

[Hobbit]

Finished Samit Basu's novel, Turbulence. Great read. Superheroes, but mainly in India rather than the US or Britain (although there's a great ending in London.) Gives a very different perspective on things. Fast, funny, intelligent. SFFWorld review to follow.

Mark

 

[Luke_B]

I got caught up reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick over the weekend. I’ve had it lying around for ages, but never read it. I picked it up on a whimsy and couldn’t put it down. What a book! People will at least have heard of it as the inspiration for Bladerunner, but it is very different to the film (much better actually if that's not too hard to believe). Don’t go into this expecting a cyberpunk action thriller. Instead, expect a very thoughtful, funny and dark examination of the nature of empathy and what it means to be human. I really liked Deckard’s character: a bureaucrat more than a cop, resigned to his own imminent death on a ruined world. It's a very existentialist book in a lot of way. Some of the scenes in this book will stay with me forever, especially the scene with the spider (people who have read it will know what I'm talking about). I’ll admit I was a bit confused by the ending, but in a good way because it left me with plenty to think about. This one goes onto my list of all-time favourites.