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Red Rising by Pierce Brown this book is simply amazing!
An Epic Sci-Fi space opera that bubbles with the energy of Epic Fantasy.
Hope mingles despair and tragedy, breathtaking grandeur with Machiavellian plot twists.
And then there is the Song... the Song of Persephone, so powerful! sends shivers in my heart.
Can't stop listening to it (from the Audio-book)
You don't want to miss this.

Currently I'm reading Cyberbooks by Ben Bova who is one of my favorite sci-fi authors. It's about a man who invents a gadget that will revolutionize reading. So far it has been a page-turner.

Finished The Worldwound Gambit and am sticking with Pathfinder Tales -- up next is Master of Devils by Dave Gross.

Here my review of The Claw of the Conciliator which is the 2nd book in The Book of the New Sun series .

I started The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin during a book speed dating project. Seems interesting so far!

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I started The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin during a book speed dating project. Seems interesting so far!"

Book speed-dating?

Trike wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I started The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin during a book speed dating project. Seems interesting so far!"

Book speed-dating?"

Yeah something I do periodically to help .

Finished with:
A Darker Shade of Magic 3/5 - good but not great, worldbuilding is the strongest suit, characters not so much.
Magician: Master 2.5/5 - I liked the first part better. The pacing in this part (too fast) ruins the story for me. But then I read the non-revised version, maybe if I read the revised one it would be better.
The City Stained Red 2/5 - I wanted to like this so much (the author is hilarious) but the plot and subplots were all over the place.

Currently reading:
Toto's Tale and True Chronicle of Oz - so cute so far!
Non-genre: The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici - great writing so far, I like kickass historical female figures.

Soon will start:
The Mirror Empire - my nomination for the March Madness and while it didn't make the cut, I am still going to read it and will be glad to have people to do a buddy read :)
The Fall of Hyperion - just because I read Hyperion (3/5) a while ago and apparently I need to read this one too.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote:
Book speed-dating

Love the name! I usually do that with Kindle samples. But sometimes it does not work since some samples are only up to the intro part. And not all can be accessed in Kindle thanks to some country restriction stuff (and sadly, that includes The Fifth Season).

In the last week I finished up Calamity. It was alright, but I think I'm done with non-Cosmere books by Mr. Sanderson. (My Review)

I also tore through All the Birds in the Sky and came away a bit conflicted. I liked it, but I'm still not sure how much. (My Review)

I added all the books that were in the March Madness to my to be read stack, which is truly madness. Started Swordspoint . Continuing my Star Wars EU read with Star Wars: Darth Plagueis since I found Star Wars: Tarkin to be extremely entertaining.

Just finished Mind of My Mind. Such a great, climactic ending. Psychic battles are difficult to write.

In keeping with the pattern of people reading March Madness losers, started on Three Parts Dead.

Finished this month's pick this afternoon, I really enjoyed it and am a little sad it's over. Hopefully, I won't suffer too bad a book hangover. I want to jump back into the Valdemar series with Changes.

Reading Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen, one from the Nebula list I didn't anticipate finishing but got pulled in.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Reading Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen, one from the Nebula list I didn't anticipate finishing but got pulled in."

Loved it

Queen Sheba's Ring by Haggard. Off to an interesting start. Unknown Africa, a lost tribe of Israel, another Sphinx, ancient mysterious civilizations. Typical Haggard, so a good read.

David wrote: "Queen Sheba's Ring by Haggard. Off to an interesting start. Unknown Africa, a lost tribe of Israel, another Sphinx, ancient mysterious civilizations. Typical Haggard, so a good read."

Another one of his I haven't read yet. Someday -- I have pretty much his complete works on my Kindle, plus lots of dead tree editions (primarily the Wildside reprints from a few years back).

Because the Commonweath Saga ended well, I decided to tackle the sequel Void trilogy (Dreaming / Temporal / Evolutionary Void.) It was dull as dishwater. A 2 at best.

I hate to give up on a story, so I didn't. I had hoped that Hamilton had advanced as a writer since the last half of the second Commonwealth book was substantially than the first 1 1/2 books. That was not the case. The Void books started slow and then went mediocre, repeating themselves over and over again. Worse, Hamilton turned one of the best characters from the first series (Ozzie) into a humbug. Then a wish-fulfillment ending. Bleah.

(view spoiler)[Also, for a guy who gets a lot of science right, there was a puzzling lack of clarity as to where the Void is. If it replaces the galaxy's central black hole, what happens if they succeed in getting rid of it? The galaxy flying apart would be among the concerns. If it's not a replacement for that, what happens when the Void's enlargement encounters that black hole? (hide spoiler)]

I finished reading Toll the Hounds. I thought the first 2/3rds of the book was good, but not as good as the previous few books. It was a bit slow and I found myself missing the characters and action in Letharas. But the ending was great in usual Erikson style. All the pieces are starting to fall into place, looking forward to finishing the series with books 9 and 10.

Next up a short break from Malazan to finish Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne with The Last Mortal Bond.

Still working through The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life. I also started Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom in audio. I read about half of the book in print last year and was out of stuff to listen to in my commute while waiting for The Last Mortal Bond, so finishing that up.

Still plowing through Hikaru no Go, Inuyasha, Attack on Titan, and Naruto from the local library.

T-37 days until baby.

Finished Master of Devils and started the next Pathfinder book, Death's Heretic by James L. Sutter, while sitting in the bar drinking beer and waiting to head over to the theater for Boiled in Lead's annual St. Patrick's Day show.

Here is my review of 3rd book in the Gap series, this book was simple amazing!

I quite reading Star Wars sometime after Vector Prime. Since watching The Force Awakens I've been wondering about the original Sith son of the Solo's and how he turned to the Dark Side, so I'm working through the Legacy of the Force series. I fondly remember the character of Lumiya from the old Marvel series, so I'm really enjoying it.

Currently reading Tempest.

Just finished Leviathan Wakes. Absolutely loved it. I watched the TV show so I knew about half the story going in but I liked the characters' personalities much more in the book. Knowing that there are several more books in the series I was surprised that this volume seemingly wrapped up it's own story pretty well.
Starting Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge.

Welcome to the Expanse world, Phil! Agree with the character personalities part.

Currently reading The Last Mortal Bond too. Sad that this is the last book. I wish Brian Staveley writes again about this 'verse. Especially about the Kettrals.

Finished Death's Heretic and am reading El Borak and Other Desert Adventures, one of Robert E. Howard's heroes with whom I'm less well-acquainted.

Still working my way thorough "A Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss.

I just read 'Innocence Lost' by Patty Jansen, but really didn't much enjoy it. Lots of potential but it never came together and overall wasn't believable.

I finished The Spider's War, and really enjoyed it (My Review).

Finished March Madness loser Three Parts Dead. A good, if kind of fluffy book in the vein of City of Stairs. I feel no immediate need to continue with the series, but maybe will pick it up in the future.

Also finished The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, great book. Really substantial for a novella and the world he crafted was very filled out for using such few words. I can't yet decide if I loved it or only liked it a lot, I'll think about it a bit and may end up changing my score.

Currently reading Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler.

I'm just about finished with NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. A central theme of this book is that people hear christmas music in connection with the bad guy no matter what the time of year. Yesterday, I was sitting in the 80 degree sun on my patio and I hear 'Rudolph the Red Nose Raindeer' coming from an ice cream van. A real WTF moment!

Starting on A Dirty Job after speeding through Changes over the weekend.

I loved A Dirty Job as well as all his other books. In fact that's what I nominated for the March Madness poll but unfortunately it didn't get picked.

I'm enjoying it so far. Bought it a week or so ago when Amazon had the ebook for $1.99. I'd been tempted to buy it several times before but I just couldn't pass it up at that price.

Right now I'm reading Noir by K.W. Jeter which is set in a future Los Angeles. The protagonist is investigating a murder.

can't believe it took me THIS LONG to start The Aeronauts Windlass. it's been sitting around for a while as u was super busy with projects, but a crippling toothache (that, or someone shoved a hot poker through my face and I didn't notice) made me need some down time.

it. is. fantastic.

I didn't like the Alera series but loved Dresden. This is different again. Such a specific voice and what a glorious world!

Read Death Mages Ascent: Revised Edition, honestly because I liked the book cover of the second book of the series.

Read Death Mage's Fury because of the aforementioned cover and because the story seems cool. Self published story so some kinks to be worked out.

Read Calamity because it's Sanderson but it broke the 5 star streak that he had on my reviews. The YA is strong in this one.

Read Three Parts Dead because the premise was interesting. The story ended up being great but the world building is extraordinary. Only problem is you only come back to the story in book #4 of the series.

Finished Breakout. Was ok. A bit of suspension of disbelief to make sure the story finished ok but we get a glimpse of the Grimspace from the Jax series so it's nice.

Listened to The Elfstones of Shannara because I just recently joined the group and started listening to the podcasts and didn't make it into a re-read of TSOS.


Going to start listening to The Wishsong of Shannara and reading Bones of the Dragon because it's been sitting on my To-Read pile for a long long time and I'm making an effort to read more of those than adding new ones.

I am starting Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire the first of three. These books have been kicked off the Star War official canon and created the imbroglio of the last year and a half.

Stephen wrote: "I am starting Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire the first of three. These books have been kicked off the Star War official canon and created the imbroglio of the last year and a half."

It is sad they aren't part of the SWEU but it makes sense for Disney. Keeping continuity with that much material out there would be almost impossible and it also would restrict what the writers could do in future movies.

At least now Disney can control the franchise direction, whether that is good or bad we'll just have to wait and see.
But at least they didn't do a Star Trek, and hit the reset button

I'm now reading 'Thief of Lives' by Lucy Sussex, it's gorgeous to start off with, but I'm not far in.

Finished The Kingdom of Gods yesterday. A good conclusion to that series. My review. Going non-genre now and reading Room by Emma Donoghue.

I finished Room ins 24 hours. It was totally engrossing. My review. I'm dying for some scifi and the sample for House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds really grabbed me so I'm going with that.

Dara wrote: "I finished Room ins 24 hours. It was totally engrossing. My review. I'm dying for some scifi and the sample for House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds reall..."

One of my favorites. I enjoyed how Reynolds explores the concept of long time.

PT

After finishing our BotM, and while waiting for April Fool's Day (the birthday of one of my nieces, and she's beyond over it) for the next lineup to begin, am furthering my investment education with The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business.

(Which isn't really an investment book, it's more of a business book, but the lessons it teaches on why and how well-established and well-run companies lose out to up-and-coming competitors are like morality tales to investors who, like myself, follow growth stocks.)

As part of my resolution to read more non-SFF, my last two audio books were non-fiction and a thriller. Although the non-fiction deals largely with technology, and the thriller got pretty fantastical by the end.

First I finished listening to Steve Jobs, which I took a break from to listen to something else. I really enjoyed it, despite my general dislike of Jobs (My Review).

Then I listened to The Einstein Prophecy, which was OK, but not great (My Review).

Rob - Isaacson really missed Jobs, focusing on the 'genius asshole' trope. That's both not what made Steve special and not the full story, especially if we look at him post 1997 and his return to Apple (it was much more true of his first run at Apple). I doubt anyone who doesn't love design, technology and how products can be made to be more than functional but to also delight, really will get into the story of Jobs.

My bigger dislike of Jobs is not that he's an asshole (which of course is subjective). It's that he favors a closed system (which I hate) and tends to get too much credit for engineering feats he was not capable of. As an engineer myself I'm offended at how much credit he gets for the technology. I don't argue his importance in bringing it to market.

He doesn't get credit for engineering among anyone who knows what's up.

He DOES get credit for pushing on details of design, not settling for good enough, not setting for what people think can be done. Most engineers don't value design which is why PCs have always been lackluster in how they look and work. Jobs pushed on making technology only part of the equation, making it work for humans been the other part.

open/closed is a religious issue and bores me. There are advantages to each as well as disadvantages.

Yeah, except the people "who know what's up" are vastly outnumbered by think Jobs was an engineer.

I agree with your comments about design, though he did push that too far on occasion, but that's also what made him so sucessful (eventually).

I agree theer are advantages/disadvantages to both open and closed systems. I didn't say closed was bad, just that I hate it. Calling it a religious issue is patronizing though. The reason both exist is because both work. I'm not crusading to get rid of closed design, I just won't spend my money on it because I don't like it.

"... I just won't spend my money on it because I don't like it."

Which is pretty much the definition of approaching an issue religiously, i.e. based not on rational, evidence based grounds but on emotion. I use iOS and OS X personally... and run websites exclusively on Debian. I do that because the nature of the code isn't as important to me as the design and productivity I get from it.

More than that, though, I just don't CARE what other people choose to run or why. I've tried Linux desktops and could live with one but I find them less functional and less polished than OS X. However, if someone wants to use one for any reason whatsoever, great.

"Yeah, except the people "who know what's up" are vastly outnumbered by think Jobs was an engineer."

So your dislike of Jobs is based not on the man or his actions but on the misapprehensions of the uninformed? Yeah, that's reasonable.

I've just started reading My Life on the Road, it's from the library and given it's not fiction I'm hoping I get through it before I have to return it (there's a long waitlist to read it after me).

FWIW I read almost exclusively on the kindle app on my iPad mini. I used to use a kindle fire but the experience is better on the iPad mini. That is, Apple beat Amazon at their own game.

I will read on my Samsung Galaxy Note, but strictly when outside the house and at places I don't want to bring my iPad mini. Generally that's work or a restaurant.

I use Windows for computers, though. The installed base of stuff I like to use is just too big to change.