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Was traveling for work, which gave me time to revisit Riverside -- I finished The Privilege of the Sword and The Fall of the Kings, both by Ellen Kushner (Fall was co-written with Delia Sherman, just to be precise) and started Thomas the Rhymer, just because I was on a Kushner kick and remember it as being really, really, really good.

Just started re-reading Abhorsen by Garth Nix.

Currently reading A Princess of Mars and even though it's a short book I'm finding it slow going. Apparently the next chapter is named "Love-Making on Mars" and to be honest I'm sort of dreading what kind of awkwardness awaits.

That term referred to courtship, not what it's come to mean now.

Burroughs was a product of his time and there is a lot of racism and casual justification of slavery in his work. Take it in historical context.

Kind of dreading what kind of awkwardness "courtship" awaits.

I finished reading A Court of Thorns and Roses and am working on the audio of Rebel Spring. I am also reading On Basilisk Station very slowly because is a pretty slow book.

I finished listening to Seveneves. I enjoyed it, though not as much as some of his others. And it won't be for everyone. (My Review)

Just finished Dragonsong yesterday, have now started Kushiel's Chosen.

I'm about halfway through Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. So far it's one of my favorite books of this year.

Finished A Princess of Mars, which wasn't good. But at least I can now be sure I'm not missing anything by not reading Burroughs.

Started Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories which I've been anticipating for literally years, since I think we heard about this book years ago and it just came out this month.

Brendan wrote: "Finished A Princess of Mars, which wasn't good."

That's too bad, but at least you finished it. I rather liked the Barsoom books, but had to forgive a lot along the way. Big parts of Barsoom wind up in Star Wars so it's interesting at least for historical aspects.

I'm certainly less willing to forgive things than you are, and for me it lacked even the cool stylistic elements that the Leigh Brackett story we read had. ERB is obviously an important dude in the history of SF but it doesn't feel like his work has held up particularly well.

I'm currently reading Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher. I loved the first book in the series so hoping it continues this way.
Also, I'm listening to The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Heard good reviews about this book and the narration is excellent.

I picked up The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. I'm loving it so far. It's utterly engrossing. Next I'll be reading You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day.

It's been a relaxing week in Vegas. I read The Rebirths of Tao, Half a War, and Armada. I loved all of them. I am about 20% through Nemesis Games. Back home tonight and back to my normal routine.

Finished Uprooted. Great in spots, pretty good throughout, did drag on in parts. Overall a good read. The ending was bangup and a bit unexpected.

Now on to Prudence by Gail Carriger. I'm a few pages in and it's fun to see Alexis in the older, fuddy-duddy role now.

Continuing the Virga series by Karl Schroeder with Queen of Candesce.

I've just just started The Daylight War but now I'm hesitant to continue reading because the book opens with Inevara's backstory and I don't want to read the kind of abuse that is probably required to plausibly have led a smart person to become the character that she does.

Mark wrote: "Just finished Dragonsong yesterday, have now started Kushiel's Chosen."

I love the Kushiel books! I re-read them almost every year. Can't wait to hear what you think about it! How did you like the first book?

John (Taloni) wrote: "Linnea wrote: "You should find a real science-heavy SF book and say the exact same thing back at him. "

So many possibilities! I say grab a copy of Niven's "Protector" and tell him you thought the..."

Protector and House of Suns are both officially added to my To Read list. Thanks for the recommendations! Protector has an excellent goodreads ratings. I noticed in the description the term "belter" is used. Is this a common term throughout science fiction? I first read it The Expanse series, but I haven't read all that many science fiction books so I can't identify trends yet. House of Suns has been sitting on my husband's bookshelf for a while now but I keep forgetting to ask him about it. Does House of Suns have anything in common with Ann Leckie's books?

Heart of the Comet and Dragon's Egg are also now on my To Read list, thanks Trike! Not much in the blurb on Dragon's Egg, but I liked the quotes and the reviews are good.

Genesee wrote: "John (Taloni) wrote: "Linnea wrote: "You should find a real science-heavy SF book and say the exact same thing back at him. "

So many possibilities! I say grab a copy of Niven's "Protector" and te..."

Yes, I think "belter" is a pretty common term. It may date back to Niven (most of the Known Space books came out in the 60s and 70s), but I wouldn't be surprised to find it used earlier than that.

Currently reading Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth.

So, I had preordered N.K. Jemisin's new book, The Fifth Season. Then I finished it in two days. It is so good. It is the beginning of a new trilogy, but enough threads are tied off of the first book that I will be able to wait for the next. It's kind of "hard fantasy", where impossible things are done, but the world and the implications of the magic are extremely well thought-out. The magic mostly reminds me of the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. It is a bit dark in places, and it explores prejudice and oppression and dehumanization pretty deeply, so some might dismiss it because it's kind of message fiction. But it didn't seem gratuitous to me. I really think that Jemisin is growing into being a thematic heir of Octavia E. Butler. I'm super excited for the rest of the series.

Finished Last First Snow by Max Gladstone, and it might be my favourite Craft Sequence book to date. Seeing as it's the first chronologically, I'm tempted to reread the rest in that order.

Almost finished Well of Darkness, the first Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman book I've read in like 15 years. (They were my favourite fantasy authors as a teenager.) It's pretty good--a great story about the rise of a Dark Lord. Sadly I've heard the sequels aren't very good.

I'm trying to keep up with my pile of non-fiction as well, so I'm going to try The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual—and the Modern Home Began, which is a history of how pre-Revolutionary France essentially invented modern home decor. (We're doing a lot of home renovation, so this is timely.)

Joe Informatico wrote: "I'm trying to keep up with my pile of non-fiction as well, so I'm going to try The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual—and the Modern Home Began, which is a history of how pre-Revolutionary France essentially invented modern home decor"

If your pile can take another book, I highly recommend (if you can find a copy) Orange Roofs, Golden Arches: An Architectural History Of American Chain Restaurants. At first the subject seems like it would be bland (like most fast food fare - bah dah dum! *tish*), but it's quite interesting, with a lot of cool historical tidbits about how Americans used to create and consume convenience food. The bit about the orders being sent ahead from trains in frontier days was fascinating.

Done a bunch of reading lately, catching up on my backlog. Currently listening to Spell or High Water and still reading the book on the history of Nintendo (it's a book I read in small spurts).

I'm seeing a lot of good things about The Fifth Season but am waffling on if I want to listen to it or read Kindle version. The sample on audible isn't helping much with that decision. From the sample I can only tell that I'll love or hate the audio version. ;)

Finished Midnight Tides, finally. Have begun Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History, and You're Never Weird on the Internet. Really looking forward to Felicia Days book!
Almost done listening to Turn Coat and will move on with Changes. Will be sad when I catch up, have been so nice to know I have so many books to look forward too.

Read Veiled. This whole series is good, very similar to Harry Dresden, but this one is just a bridging book. (My Review)

Read Shades in Shadow: An Inheritance Triptych. Not a prequel. Contains spoilers for the trilogy. (My Review)

Read The Fifth Season. Superb. (My Review)

Currently reading The Machine Awakes.

Dropped Queen of Fire, as this book just completely killed any motivation for reading. I'll probably read spoilers to see how it ends but I just gotta stop as I have fallen really behind on my year goal.

Almost done with Imager, this book is not a great book, but it is an enjoyable fun read so far if not really blowing me away, but it's grabbed my motivation back up for reading at least so hurray.

Going to play some cleanup with books/series I stalled on because something more exciting came out and I never grabbed back up. Hush is first on the list.

Started Dead Six in audio, I stalled on the book a while back and finally got some credits, narration is pretty good so far.

I finsihed Palimpsest last night and I thought it was very good. It is about a group of people who are desperately longing for connection and they find that in the mysterious city of Palimpsest, a city that one travels to in their dreams but only after they have had sex with someone else who has already been there.
This is the second Valente novel I've read and I can't wait to read more.

Finished Gateway - was well done, but the MC annoyed me the entire book. the only character I felt any sympathy for was the robot psychologist.

Next was As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride which was fun and easy to read and inspired a re-watch of my favoritist movie ever.

Dead To Me was a fun little urban fantasy, nothing mind blowing, but enjoyable.


Maisie Dobbs was a nice break from SF&F. Liked it except for the really long flashback chapters - I dunno, must be a better way to get that info across.

The Witch's Daughter nice historical fantasy about a witch's 300+ years.

Got Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet and read it practically in one sitting. I liked her before, now I'm convinced we'd be BFF's :)

Now I can't decide what's next.

Oh and still slowly listening to Armada - haven't had much time for audiobooking. Enjoying it so far though.

Michele wrote: "Got Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet and read it practically in one sitting. I liked her before, now I'm convinced we'd be BFF's :)."

I have 30 pages left and I'm also convinced Felicia and I would make excellent friends.

Dharmakirti wrote: "I finsihed Palimpsest last night and I thought it was very good. At its core, it is about a group of people who are desperately longing for connection and they find that in the myst..."
Ah it's so good.

Finished Thomas the Rhymer and started Bone Swans, a collection of C.S.E. Cooney's (longish) short stories.

Finished The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh. Like any collection it's a mixed bag but I often found the stories to be a little long winded. I did find I enjoyed the newer stories more than the old.
Starting Uprooted.

Just finished Space Captain Smith which I picked up on a whim knowing nothing about it. It's not bad - a little space opera romp that's trying to be a "Flashman in space" spoof I think.

I just finished The Liar's Key, which is the "Flashman in Fantasy." The second book in the series that started with Prince of Fools. It was a pleasure to listen to, as the narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds performed the book perfectly.

Now reading Prudence by Gail Carriger. It's a next-generation followup to the Parasol Protectorate series. So far I'm finding it fairly mediocre. The characters are a rehash of her Finishing School series and the plot so far uncompelling. I'll finish it, but unless the book gets a lot better really fast, I'm unlikely to read others in the series.

Finished The Fifth Season. It was stunning. My review. I think I'm going to read Two Serpents Rise next but I want to let The Fifth Season ruminate for a bit. I want to let it sink in still.

Almost done with "The Long Utopia", book 4 in the Long Earth series by Sir Terry and Stephen Baxter.

The Long Utopia

^ Oh, it's out? Gonna have to hunt that down.

Do you know if the fifth one is going to be done?

I believe so. These feel to me like pure Baxter, I think Pratchett was primarily at the outline stage.

This morning on the bus ride in to work, I started C.S. Friedman's latest, Dreamwalker. I'm only 20 pages in, but I'm intrigued.

When I get home from work and if I remember to recharge my Nook, I will begin reading American Indian Stories by ´Ü¾±³Ù°ì²¹±ô²¹-Å ²¹.

I previously commented that I was going to start reading Quicksilver but I think that will have to wait until 2016 because I don't think I will be able to finish it before another reading group starts reading Almanac of the Dead in a couple months.

I finally finished Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta, which I really only knew about because it was in the poll for an earlier S&L pick and lost to Station Eleven. My review is here. It isn't a long book, I just got 10% in and had to focus on other things before getting back to it.

I just finished up Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1952.

I'm getting ready to start reading Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1952.

Finished listening to Fool's Quest. Loved it. It was everything I wish Fool's Assassin had been. (My Review)

still reading Rebel Spring

Finished Prudence. Slow and boring the first half, not at all up to the quality of the Parasol Protectorate and well below Finishing School. It seems to be the same feel of Finishing School except the characters are now mostly in their early twenties.

The book picks up at about the halfway mark, but that isn't enough to save it. I'm not completely turned off the inevitable series, but will not be rushing out to binge read these like I did the Parasol Protectorate.

Finished Bone Swans, read Scavengers in Space by Alan E. Nourse (it was short; and recommended for people who want to know where the Expanse books came from) and am starting Riders of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Three by Harold Lamb.

Reading The Long Utopia. Nice writing style, I like Baxter. Got taken right out of the book when he describes a space elevator reaching down to Florida.

My initial reaction is that a geostationary orbit has to be on the equator. I want to be sure that's true before I criticize, because I figure Baxter has done his homework. Seems geostationary can occur at up to 15 degrees from the equator. I couldn't do the math on that but the references seem solid. Miami is at a latitude of 25. Ain't no way that satellite flies. Not without constant acceleration to stay over that point, which you really wouldn't be doing with a 26K mile long string.