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December book club canceled. Short stories instead!
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I've put together a collage of some books from last months What are you Reading? post. It's mostly random, but the more discussion something gets the more it stands out to me. Going forward I'm going to make a new post every month to talk about what people are reading.
Here is last months post. What are you Reading? (July 2023)
At any rate, what are you currently reading or plan to read in August?
Im halfway through The color of magic by Terry Pratchett, I've read a few other discworld books but I thought it was time to start the first book an try to read them all in the "right" order.
Listening to Making Money, read it a few years ago. Pretty good though I'm not a huge fan of the voice actor doing the reading. it's tolerable though. Pratchett is what got me into sci-fi and fantasy, he'll always be one of my favorites and always holds up when I go back to something of his.
Currently reading 11-22-63. Pretty bloody grim and depressing in places, but good enough to hold my attention.
Finished Locked In by John Scalzi not long prior. Great thought experiment considering it was written long before covid too.
Read Locked In recently and really enjoyed it! Would recommend it to anyone looking for their next adventure. Police procedural meets sci fi and a very satisfying read.
Project Hail Mary. Paid more than I liked for a single book but quickly found it is one of my favourite books of all time!
Frank Herbert's Dune
Very good decision, congratulations! In my opinion the best space epic ever written. I recommend reading all six Dune books by Frank Herbert, they are different from each other but all are great writing. I also recommend to ignore all "Dune" books by Brian Herbert. They are so bad I will forever regret every cent I spent on them.
I'm 6 books into expanse series, and I've kind of lost steam with it. Might need a break. Read bobiverse in full just before it. First children of time book was good but didn't know if I wanted to read book 2.
Also loved project hail Mary and the dark Forest/three body trilogy.
Any other suggestions?
I have Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy on my shelf waiting for me to finish The Expanse series. Maybe that?
Also, book 7 of The Expanse becomes a lot easier because you stop having the TV show to compare to. And let me tell you, you think you know what Duarte is doing on Laconia, but my friend you don't. The prologue of book 7 has one of those "I'm sorry, WHAT" moments that really launches you into the next story arc
I'm currently half way through the third book of the Children of Time trilogy. I LOVED book one. I think having just read "Other Minds" (Peter Godfrey-Smith, great non fiction about the mental processes of [the animal starring in the second book]) a while back made me appreciate the second book even more than I would have otherwise.
The Messengers by Lindsay Joelle is a short story only available on audible (free for members). It kind of reminded me of Children of Time and I really liked it.
Different style, but I liked all the books you listed and also loved Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut- time/space travel as envisioned in the 1950s.
The Bobiverse books were great. Can't wait for more. I've been reading Expeditionary Force which is where the Skippy's come from. Also Rythm of War by Brandon Sanderson.
I'm about half way through [The Fall of Hyperion](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_Hyperion_(novel)). It's great
Currently listening to The Dark Tower 7 and about to start The Fall of Hyperion. I’m new to The Hyperion Cantos, but the first book hooked me so I’m looking forward to diving back into it.
Just finished Leviathan Wakes today. Can't wait for my Amazon delivery of Caliban's War.
My favorite series, enjoy your read
Wool by hugh howey
Wife and I watched silo and enjoyed it so I thought I'd read the books.
You can buy the books DRM free off his website https://hughhowey.com/books/wool/
Make sure you get all 3. Wool shift and dust.
Neuromancer, count zero, blade runner (do androids dream…), burning chrome. Lots of cyberpunk stuff lately
I really need to read Neuromancer at some point. It seems like one of those classics that every science fiction fan should have already read.
I recall reading and enjoying Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep along with Man in the High Castle and A Scanner Darkly a while ago... I should attempt a re-read.
Everyone recommends Neuromancer, but when I tried it a while back... I got stuck in the first third and give up. I vaguely recall it had a lot of world building, which I'm not a huge fan of (at least at the time).
I'm currently in the middle of Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. I'm only about 15% of the way through so I don't have a great picture of what is going on or what it is about yet. It seems like the main premise is about an archeologist who has been working on an excavation of an ancient species on a distant planet for an extremely long period of time that likely has far reaching implications about the universe. I've definitely never read anything similar to this in the past.
The other book I plan on reading (listening to) is "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers. I tend to listen to a book whenever I can't read such as when I'm driving or bathing and then read at times that I can like before sleeping. I find it is a good system to get through 2 books at once.
Just started Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie and seems great so far. I have no idea what is going on with how people are gendered in the various languages but I'm looking forward to puzzling it out.
I just finished The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. Its so fucking good, amazing worldbuilding, story and message. It really explores all the potential interesting ways that you can envision different future worlds in ways that other SciFi often doesnt. I've never read anything like this before.
I was re-reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, which I read about 15 years ago and really enjoyed (even bought it for a friend as a gift). On the second read through... I found it much less entertaining (though the connection between the computer and the current LLM/AI hype is interesting), got about half-way through and basically stopped. I probably won't finish it, which is kind of sad. Oh well, tastes change I guess.
We are Bob is a great series, doesn't got something that fine in a time.
Just about to start Memories of Ice, book 3 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. It's my first time reading his work and I am absolutely loving his sense of humor.
Listening to Becky Chambers' novellas right now. Finished "To be taught if fortunate" and "A Psalm for the wild-built", gonna do "A Prayer for the Crown-shy" soon.
Also started the Murderbot diaries by Marth Wells and finished the first book so far.
Finishing off Abbadons Gate. Managed to get back into it after many months long break.
Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers.
Such amazing, lovely sci-fi that touches on so many topics.
Last one is based in a really nice intergalactic truck stop. Or like an airport hotel maybe.
And I didn't realise it until my second read-through, but it's basically all about cross-species accessibility/accomodations.
Really beautiful stuff.
I'm on the second book of Hugh Howey 's Silo Trilogy. Loved the show, loving the books even more
Children of Time - It's fantastic. Easily digestable space fair about giant intelligent spiders in their war with ants. Humans are involved but I care little for them. Not going to lie, I'm mainly there for the chapters narrated by the spiders and they are expectional.
The laundry files, a series by Charles Stross. He's brilliant and so precise with the details that even if it's science fiction it feels SO real.
Recently finished The Interdependency Series by John Scalzi. Reading Upgrade by Blake Crouch at the moment. I'm a huge fan of Murder Bot Diaries and The Bobiverse as well.
Death´s End - Third book of Three Body/Trisolaris series by Cixin Liu. I am positively surprised by the character Yun Tianming. After I really liked the character design of Ye Wenjie in the first book I was pretty disappointed to find that other characters in the series seem as shallow as cardboard cutouts in comparison to her. However, with Yun Tianming there is a believable and relatable character in this outstanding sci-fi story again. I´m super curious how he and how the relations between humans and Trisolarians will develop. Being in the third book, it is already clear that Cixin Liu still has some unexpected plot twists in his sleeve!
Just started player of games and I'm really enjoying it! My first Iain Banks book, but definitely not my last.
I started reading The Culture books this year, already on book 7, amazing series!
About halfway through Children or Ruin, the follow up to Children of Time. Really enjoy the series so far. Very impressed with the creativity.
Considering a re-read of Iain Banks suite about The Culture. There are some real unique and out there concepts explored in those books that aren't touch by many other sci-fi series.
Just finished the first three books for Red Rising. Really loved it. Not sure if I want to start the next part of the series. I just want the main character to be happy. Can't take more of his torture.
Lol I feel this comment in my bones. I’m trying to emotionally prepare myself to read Lightbringer.
"Roadside Picnic" is incredible. The Sttugatskys were prolific Soviet SF writers, and well worth a look; "The Doomed City" is another banger.
About halfway through Lords of Uncreation, the third book in the Final Architecture trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
They are to space opera what his children series is to hard science fiction. It has imaginative aliens that resist monoculture stereotypes and ominous, seemingly implacable foes. The technology never descends to Star Wars' (for better or worse), but standard tropes like FTL and gravitic control are all fundamental assumptions. However, once those assumptions are made, everything that follows is consistent and reasonable to the setting.
The cast is diverse, interesting and entertaining and the pacing is nothing short of breakneck.