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Lindsay wrote: "I also love how this series moves along in roughly in parallel to real time and the genuine aging process changes the characters beyond just the character growth in each of the books. The 2014 Bob Howard is very different from the early-2000s Bob Howard.

Agreed. It also makes me very fearful for Bob and Mo, knowing that things can change on a dime even without the intervention of eldritch horrors from beyond space and time.

The other day Stross tweeted that he will try to write write more Laundry novels on an annual schedule for the next two or three years. Interesting times coming.

Sky wrote: "So I have about an hour left in Abaddon's Gate and was gonna pick up Cibola Burn on the Kindle tomorrow, but I came home and the hardback waiting on my doorstep. So..."

Awesome!

Just finished Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore. Loved it like I do all his books.
Starting World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks.

Finished China Mieville's Perdido Street Station
My review

Moving on to his next book in the series The Scar

Finished The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard and decided to rejoin the 21st Century/see what all the fuss is about with Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice.

John wrote: "Just finished Verne's The Mysterious Island which, despite the inclusion of Captain Nemo, is not arguably in any SF/F genre." Most of Verne I wouldn't call SF. More like travel/adventure. Sometimes he did invent methods of travel to have adventures in that bring in the SF element, but still they are travel stories. I love The Mysterious Island. Another of my favorites is 800 Leagues on the Amazon.

Yes, thanks to the Gutenberg Press for making these long forgotten reads easily available.

David wrote: "Yes, thanks to the Gutenberg Press for making these long forgotten reads easily available. "

There are a lot missing from their archives though. I believe there are some copyright issues with some of his books that makes a complete collection unavailable as public domain.
There are some very good collections available on Amazon however.
The complete Tarzan, 25 books, 5070 pages for $2.99

AndrewP wrote: "There are a lot missing from their archives though. I believe there are some copyright issues with some of his books that makes a complete collection unavailable as public domain.
There are some very good collections available on Amazon however.
The complete Tarzan, 25 books, 5070 pages for $2.99
..."

And even that's not actually "complete" -- it's missing Tarzan and the Madman and, I think, one of the juveniles.

(Which raises the question: Why hasn't the Burroughs estate put up decent, authorized eBook editions of his catalog? I'd certainly be happy to pay for them, and right now the only money being spent is going to the people who are skimming stuff from the public domain.)

Reading Tower Lord . Way different from Bloodsong and I don't know what to think as yet after the brilliance that was Bloodsong.

Just finished High Midnight by Rob Mosca.
My review.


Not sure what to pick up next. I'm currently feeling bogged down in two longer works, both would be better suited for winter reading... but it's summer, damn it. I miss the cold stormy dark of winter.

Andrew and Joseph, I noticed the Tarzan compilation on Amazon. It's not really all 25 books - it's missing "Tarzan and the Madman" as noted by David above, plus half of "Tarzan and the Castaways," specifically the shorts "Tarzan and the Champion" and "Tarzan and the Jungle Murders."

All of the others are available on gutenberg press or gutenberg press australia. The ones not available there have had their copyright renewed.

For "Juveniles," David, I think you mean the "Tarzan Twin" stories. Both of those are available at gutenberg press australia.

I join in wishing the Burroughs estate would put together an ebook compilation. I would gladly pay them for the joy I've had reading those stories.

Reading Bird Box by Josh Malerman.

It's been really good so far and darn creepy.

Jlawrence wrote: "About to start the July S&L pick, and also starting The Golem and the Jinni.

What about you?"

I loved that book! I read The Steerswoman's Road several months ago and wanted to keep reading but was put off by the fact that the series was dead-tree-edition-only. I lent the paperback I had to my mom and then discovered that the series has been Kindle-ized. I just read The Lost Steersman and I'm about to start The Language of Power. This is an absolutely incredible scifi series with fantasy notes, a little like Shadow and Claw, but I enjoy the prose and pacing of the Steerswoman series a lot better.

Things that I'm almost done with:
The Name of the Wind
A Time to Be Born
Ancient Egypt: Everyday Life in the Land of the Nile
Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men

After that I need to read:
The Left Hand of Darkness
I, Robot
Dune
Magic Slays

My Audible credit finally rolled in and since I downloaded the ebook of this month's pick, I'm using the credit to listen to The Wise Man's Fear. At 40 plus hours, it will probably last until it's time for my next credit to roll around, lol.

I just started with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and I'll dig deeper into the Nightside series by Simon R. Greene when I'm finished with Neverwhere (Agents of Light and Darkness is up next). Also I just started the Locke & Key series by Joe Hill. Busy month :)

This month I've read Half a King. Loved that book, nowhere near as long as most of Abercrombie's other output but still a damn good read. I'm almost finished with Winter's Heart, got about 3 hours left of the audiobook that I'll finish tonight when I get to work.

I've finally started on A Feast for Crows and that's coming along nicely. Loved the Cersei and Brienne chapters so far.

I'll be starting on The Hero of Ages to finish off the first trilogy of the Mistborn books soon (and by soon, I mean probably tomorrow night)

On the graphic novels/comics front I've done the complete run to date of Nick Spencer's Morning Glories... it's all very confusing. Some pretty cool characters though so I'm willing to keep going with it.

I'm currently reading:

Decameron
Dawn - so far, this is one of my favorite S&L picks.
The Journey to the West Revised Edition Volume 1
Iron Council

I normally take Sword and Laser recommendations with a grain of salt. I love the show but I think Tom and Veronica tend to see the good in books, rather than judging harshly. No problem with that, but I have colored my expectations accordingly.

However, I just went back to back with Ancillary Justice and The Blade Itself and HOLY CRAP! why didn't you guys make me read those before? Great reminders of why I love to read SciFi and Fantasy.

Geoff

So I've been pretty busy with reading for the past couple of weeks. I started off with Dune which was okay. Wasn't completely hooked, but I did move on to Dune Messiah, which for me was just meh. Once again I decided to continue with the series, Children of Dune which was a bit better then Messiah. And then I read God Emperor of Dune...and finally... no more. I will not read another Dune book. I followed those books by Gone Girl which was okay, I guess. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I've now moved on to another Scott Westerfeld book called Peeps.

I started One of Cleopatra's Nights: And Other Fantastic Romances but it is way too slow for me. In the first chapter she holds out her hand for a drink. The next starts off with a multi-page soliloquy about her ennui. Even knowing that later she has a night of passion is not enough to keep me reading this one.

I'll pass and see what's next on the reader.

Finished Blood Song by Anthony Ryan on Audible. My favourite read of the year so far.
My review

Going straight on to the second book in the series Tower Lord also on Audible

Finished Dawn, the experience reconfirming my belief that is continues to be one of the most powerful sf novels ever written.

Now reading The Wolf's Hour for another group. I found myself cringing a bit at some of the prose early on, but it has improved the further in I've gotten.

David Sven wrote: "Finished Blood Song by Anthony Ryan on Audible. My favourite read of the year so far.
My review

Going straight on to the second book in the series Tower Lord also o..."

I hope you enjoyed Tower Lord more than I did, man. Considering you're going in right off the high of Blood Song, you probably will.

Rabindranauth wrote: "I hope you enjoyed Tower Lord more than I did, man. Considering you're going in right off the high of Blood Song, you probably will."

I find myself reading two second books straight after two 5 star reads - this one and The Scar by China Mieville. Hopefully the goodness continues

Rabindranauth wrote: "David Sven wrote: "Finished Blood Song by Anthony Ryan on Audible. My favourite read of the year so far.
My review

Going straight on to the second book in the series [book:Tower Lo..."

I don't get why you didn't like it.

Rob wrote: "Rabindranauth wrote: "David Sven wrote: "Finished Blood Song by Anthony Ryan on Audible. My favourite read of the year so far.
My review

Going straight on to the second book in the..."

I'm on the fence with it, I neither loved it nor hated it. I went into all the myriad reasons for and against it in my review, but I figure it's mainly because I read the two books two years apart.

David Sven wrote: "Rabindranauth wrote: "I hope you enjoyed Tower Lord more than I did, man. Considering you're going in right off the high of Blood Song, you probably will."

I find myself reading two second books s..."

Well, I keep hearing that The Scar is even better than Perdido Street Station, so hopefully your luck will hold!

I finally finished Assassin's Apprentice, really absorbing stuff. Here's my review. I'm going straight on to Royal Assassin right now; who needs sleep anyways.

FINALLY! Got Red Mars into my donate pile. Good riddance. I won't be reading the sequels and at this point I don't see any reason why I would pick up any more Kim Stanley Robinson. What a freaking chore.

Currently listening to the audio book of The Lies Of Locke Lamora and I've just started reading The Book Thief.

So many books I want to read next but I got sucked in by A Promise of Blood so it'll probably be Crimson Campaign next.

Just finished World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks in my quest to read all the old club picks I missed. I loved this one. It really brought out the human story. I have also never seen a book/movie pair that were so completely different from each other.
Starting You Suck by Christopher Moore.

Just finished The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August which I quite enjoyed. It was certainly more fun than Life After Life which was in some ways similar. I read Life After Life last year and it was OK but I left feeling like I didn't quite "get it".

Just started All You Need Is Kill - honestly I wasn't thinking of a theme, just had heard it was different to the movie, short and might be fun.

Taking a break to participate in NaNoWriMo. It helps keep my SciFi/Fantasy brain not so cluttered.

Finished Best Served Cold. My favorite Abercrombie book so far. My review. Moving on to Stardust. Giving Gaiman another try. Haven't enjoyed what I've read by him so far (Coraline and The Ocean at the End of the Lane).

In the last week I finished listening to Tower Lord and really loved it! (My Review)

I also sort of finished Rogues. I say "sort of" because I only read about 1/3 of the stories before returning it to the library. I posted some thoughts on those I did read though. (My Review)

Dara, maybe give American Gods a look. It's his best, unless you want to go back to the Sandman comics.

Just finished All You Need Is Kill. What a rush!

Finished Ancillary Justice -- yes, give it all the awards! -- and decided to follow it with something completely different: Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. (Need to catch up on Pendergast and the rest of his freak show colleagues.)

Just finished You Suck. OK so I read this in one day. I guess I am Christopher Moore's bitch. Besides, he quoted The Barenaked Ladies.
Just starting The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

I just finished listening to The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross, narrated by Gideon Emery. Wow, it sure turns dark. For fans of the series, I just had a Twitter conversation with Mr. Stross. He says that the next book will be from Mo's point of view. The one after that is supposed to be from the POV of Alex, a character that's introduced in this book. I'm not sure why he's abandoning Bob Howard's POV for the next two books.

I just started listening to Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor. I hope it's better than the second book in the series.

Sandi wrote: "I just started listening to Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor. I hope it's better than the second book in the series."

I just finished that last week. I wasn't crazy about it. (My review [Spoiler free]: /review/show...)

I finished my Laundry yesterday too. I enjoyed The Rhesus Chart. Dresden and Hamilton get namechecked.

I'm still in the audio for The Bonehunters by Erickson. The reader is good. But I just got through the Y'Ghatan section, and that plus the tentacular horrors of The Laundry combined for some weird nightmares.

I finished listening to The Shadow Throne and enjoyed it. (My Review)

Tomorrow I'll be starting Spell or High Water

This weekend started From Hell by Alan Moore

Finished this month's pick. It wasn't for me. I'm currently re-reading the Dresden file series. I'm so far behind, I decided to start over.

kvon wrote: "I finished my Laundry yesterday too. I enjoyed The Rhesus Chart. Dresden and Hamilton get namechecked.

I'm still in the audio for The Bonehunters by Erickson. The reader is good. But I just got through the Y'Ghatan section, and that plus the tentacular horrors of The Laundry combined for some weird nightmares. "

The Y'Ghatan section is so long. I couldn't believe it when my kindle estimated a 3 hour reading time. I can definitely see how you got nightmares from that.

kvon wrote: "But I just got through the Y'Ghatan section, and that plus the tentacular horrors of The Laundry combined for some weird nightmares. "

So...Y'Ghatan made you need to do your Laundry with a capital "L"? Can't say I messed my own pants reading that part but it was horrific.

Starting Dust of Dreams while I wait for my copy of Half a King to arrive.

Finished Cibola Burn. Definitely did not enjoy it as much as the first 3 books, after reading all 4 back to back. Starting Half a King now. For some reason Amazon let me add the audio free to the kindle book even though it was listed as an additional ~$4.95...w00t!