What Are You Reading?

[Ironclad Alibi]

I have started reading The Electric Church by Jeff Somers. The first few chapters have more action in them than a Die Hard movie.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Stopped by my storage unit today (just before the skies opened!) and ...

I HAZ FOUND THE BOX WITH MY TERRY PRATCHETT NOVELS!!

Huzzah!

#GNUTerryPratchett

[Pixelated]

Stopped by my storage unit today (just before the skies opened!) and ...

I HAZ FOUND THE BOX WITH MY TERRY PRATCHETT NOVELS!!

[Pixelated]

Just finished Ben Winters' The Last Policeman. An okay mystery but the real deal is the setting- modern Earth six months before an asteroid hit that will destroy civilization as we know it.

For once there is nothing listed on my Goodreads! I am in that terrifying, hopeful place between books. I'll choose a new one by tonight.

I found the first book of that trilogy on the "remaindered" desk at the local Big Box Bookstore and was so impressed with it that I special-ordered the remaining two books.

You're right, the mysteries themselves (each book has its own little mystery/mysteries and there is an over-arching one that goes through the entire series) are generally just okay, but it's the background that really catches the attention ... the impending global catastrophe and how different people are coping with it (or not).

[AnaKhouri]

Just finished Ben Winters' The Last Policeman. An okay mystery but the real deal is the setting- modern Earth six months before an asteroid hit that will destroy civilization as we know it.

For once there is nothing listed on my Goodreads! I am in that terrifying, hopeful place between books. I'll choose a new one by tonight.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I'm going to start reading Hogfather next. I've enjoyed the other books I've read in the Discworld series, so.

That is a good book. The movie version is one of my favorite movies.

[Ghel]

I gave up on reading Clan of the Cave Bear. After a section early in the book where a character was remembering being abused by her (now dead) mate, I went and looked at spoilers. They made me angry. So I threw the book in my donate box. (I was already disappointed by the patriarchal and hierarchical BS among the clan, but I was hoping Ayla would change that. Quite the opposite, according to spoilers.)

I'm going to start reading Hogfather next. I've enjoyed the other books I've read in the Discworld series, so.

[Pixelated]

Katherine Kurtz Saint Patricks' Gargoyle. An elderly Knight of Malta performs one last quest in time to be Home for Christmas. *snip*

That sounds interesting; I'll have to see if I can find it around here.

I discovered the first book (I think) in Linwood Barclay's Promise Falls series ... oops, I just Googled it, and it appers to be the second book in the series. It's titled Broken Promise and thank goodness I'd managed to untangle the characters and their storylines (sorta) while reading Far From True ...

The only drawback was that, having read Far from True before Broken Promise, I pretty much knew what was coming.

[dalesys]

Katherine Kurtz Saint Patricks' Gargoyle. An elderly Knight of Malta performs one last quest in time to be Home for Christmas. I'm loaning it to my Dad... It's been nearly 5 1/2 years since Mom got away and like Francis Templeton and Maeve, he misses her.

[Ghel]

I started reading Clan of the Cave Bear yesterday. I've heard it's good, but ... certain details are already making me uncomfortable.

[Nunavut Pants]

I started reading Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville. It is a book of short stories.

I read "Un Lun Dun" (also by Mieville) a while back, did not care for it. It seemed like the author was trying way too hard to be clever and cute, and failing pretty miserably.

I just finished David Drake's "Tom Kelly" books. I don't recommend them either. They have to go back to the library as soon as I get a chance.

[Jay 2K Winger]

After finishing up Ernest Cline's Armada (not quite as good as Ready Player One IMO, but I still appreciated the pop culture and video game references), I've now returned to Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series, with book 3, Ganymede.

For those unfamiliar, the Clockwork Century series is set in an alternate history of America, one where the Civil War didn't end in 1864, and some twenty years later, still rages on. The Republic of Texas is still going strong, as well. But to go alongside the steampunk-ish setting, there's also zombies ("rotters") which are caused by a gas known as the blight.

[Mental_Mouse]

It looks like I haven't mentioned "A Practical Guide To Evil" yet, so here goes: It's a web series which is currently working through book five, out of a projected six. The author ought to take editing more seriously (especially since his commentators are helping), but that's not so bad as to be distracting, and the story is really good.

Summary: In this world, Good and Evil are largely essentialist, backed by a wager among the gods. Certain people have Names which grant them various powers, making them Heroes and Villains.

Twenty years ago, the Good Realm of Callow was conquered by The Dread Empire of Praes and its Legions of Terror, led by the Black Knight. It was a very thorough conquest, destroying the royal line and most of the Good institutions. Today, Catherine Foundling gathers money in the fighting pits... she's saved nearly enough to enroll in the College of War, which will let her join the Legion and rise in its ranks. She has dreams of gaining power and reforming the Empire from within. Then, in a dark alley, she is rescued by the Black Knight himself. He offers her a shortcut -- a way to gain power and position within the Empire within just a few years, instead of a lifetime of struggle. Catherine will become the Squire...

The Black Knight turns out to have some interesting ideas about the practice of Evil: “The key to the Empire maintaining control over the lands it conquered isn’t fear, my dear, it’s apathy. As long as the common people can go about their business and live their lives mostly untroubled, what do they care who their taxes go to? The Governor is making people care about who rules them again, and that is a very dangerous thing.” (Obviously, that doesn't end well for the Governor.)

But gaining a Name is only the first of her transformations. Yes, she will gain great power to change things... many things. I can't say too much about the plot without spoilers, but I will say that in the current book (Book V), her machinations were literally enough to make a saint swear... when she surrendered! She does come out of that on top (big-time), but that was only the prologue to the current arc, still in progress.

[smfrazier]

I'm rereading the Hobbit for about the 6th time. I read it and Lord of the Rings every few years.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I started reading Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville. It is a book of short stories.