What Are You Reading?

[Nunavut Pants]

Finished "Automatic Noodle" and "The Virgin in the Ice" (a Brother Cadfael mystery). Re-read "All Systems Red" which I think does the artificial entities are people question much better than "Automatic Noodle", and is very much a comfort read.

Picked up "Small Gods" and reading it again.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I finished "Great North Road". A great read.

I am now reading "The Magic Goes Away Collection" by Larry Niven.

[Nunavut Pants]

Finished "Legends and Lattes", a lightweight fantasy book about an orc adventurer who retires to a city to sell this exotic new drink: Coffee.

Finally finished off "This Inevitable Ruin", the next book in the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series. This covered the ninth floor, and wrapped up a couple of story arcs. While introducing more complications, of course!

Now working on "Automatic Noodle", a tale of four robots manning a restaurant in quasi-post-apocalyptic San Francisco. Haven't gotten very far in it yet.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I finished "The Book of Dust" series.

I am now reading "Great North Road" by Peter F. Hamilton.

In AD 2142, where portal technology allows instantaneous travel to other planets, Newcastle police detective Sidney Hurst heads a high-tech investigation of the disturbing murder of a clone of the wealthy North family. Hurst has the added challenge of the politics and media associated with the high profile murder, as well as the opaque mystery itself. The body shows the same wounds as that of Bartram North, murdered twenty years ago on the tropical planet St Libra. The bio-fuel that flows from St Libra is a mainstay of Earth's economy and so powerful vested interests are watching over Hurst's shoulder.

Angela Tramelo was convicted and jailed for that murder but it seems that her story of an alien attack might be true. Tramelo, who has not aged in her twenty years in prison, is released into the custody of the Human Defence Alliance and taken on an expedition via the Newcastle gateway to St Libra.

A very good book that I have trouble putting down.

[Nunavut Pants]

"Termination Shock" was going kind of slowly for me, so I picked up and quickly blazed through "Nine Goblins" by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon). I also read the first Cadfael book and enjoyed it. I have now started in on the 6th "Dungeon Crawler Carl" book, "The Butcher's Masquerade". It's a SUPER CHONK of a book, but it does read pretty quickly.

I actually have four library books out right now; the last-named book above, plus the same author's "Operation Bounce House", plus the next two Cadfael books. I didn't expect them all to come in at the same time--but here we are!

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just finished "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman, the first book of a trilogy..

I am starting the second book of the trilogy: "The Book of Dust Volume 2: The Secret Commonwealth" by Philip Pullman.

[Ceir]

I didn't realize that Cadfael was first a book series! I was a big fan of the series starring Derek Jacoby...

They're fun old-school mysteries (and yes, the PBS series with Jacobi was quite solid). Not real heavy reading, and as much as I detest using the word 'cozy' it's very much genre comfort food for me.

[Nunavut Pants]

I didn't realize that Cadfael was first a book series! I was a big fan of the series starring Derek Jacoby...

Finished "A Closed and Common Orbit", as well as getting and finishing "The Gate of the Feral Gods" (Dungeon Crawler Carl book 4). Waiting on DCC#5 from the library, but in the meantime I have started on "Shift" by Hugh Howey, a sequel to "Wool" which was the first book in the "Silo" series. Hopefully it's not as immensely bleak as the beginning of the first book in particular was.

I recently picked up a Neal Stephenson book I hadn't seen before--"Termination Shock". Not sure when I'll be starting in on it. Likely after "Shift", but if the DCC#5 comes in soon enough I"ll be reading that.

[Ceir]

Finished Failure Is Not An Option. Man that was good, and it hurts that even when it was published, Kranz's epilogue is filled with disappointment at the state of the space program then. Now look where we are.

Taking it easy with Cadfael for the moment; and I was wrong, it's the second book in the series. Not that it matters too much, the first three or four aren't super connected yet. Once Beringar's his friend, order matters more.

[Nunavut Pants]

The annoyances in "Gideon the Ninth" were resolved/explained at least to some extent. Still not my favorite, but very stylish and somewhat thought-provoking.

I devoured the third "Dungeon Crawler Carl" book, and am waiting for the fourth to be available at the library.

I did a quick re-read of "The Curse of Chalion" while I was waiting for "A Closed and Distant Orbit" (sequel to "A Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet") to be ready at the library; I have started on that one now.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just finished "Sun Dogs" by Mark J. McGarry.

[Ceir]

I've made some progress to my list. So far I've finished Monkey King, as well as some lighter fare as a palate cleanser: A Princess of Mars is a classic; as well as The Gilpin Gold Tram, a short history of one particular narrow-gauge railroad in Colorado.

I'm still grinding through Failure Is Not An Option, it's fascinating, but dense and crunchy and slow going. I've also started up on another classic (to me), One Corpse Too Many, the first Brother Cadfael mystery. I've read it before, but it's been years; makes me want to find the PBS Mystery series too.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Yeah yeah I know, global warming is bad and climate change is slowly killing the planet on which we all live.

But it's February in Wisconsin, and I'm outside standing on the grass barefoot. I will never complain about that.

[Nunavut Pants]

Returned "I Capture the Castle" to the library without finishing it.

Read the first two "Dungeon Crawler Carl" books. The third is waiting at the library, which was closed for the Presidents' Day holiday today. (Rats!)

Working my way through "Harrow the Ninth", sequel to "Gideon the Ninth". There are a lot of things that annoy me about it, from the jumping around in timeline to the chapters randomly in second person ("you did this") or third person ("they did that") to the descriptive language always being so very negative. But I want to keep reading it for some reason! Is it just because it is very stylish? It's not just persistence or doggedness on my part.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am now reading an old book, the 1926 novel "Topper" by Thorne Smith. I recently watched the 1937 movie and decided to read the book.