So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Thrawn]

I recently read the three Myst novels, which were three really different stories, but suffered from the same weakness. The first 2/3 of each is a meticulous, fascinating setup, blown by a ridiculous and unbelievable rushed ending in the final 1/3. Oh well. Some nice details and ideas along the way.

Currently two books into The January Dancer, a 4-book series by Michael Flynn, one of my favorite writers. So far they're more like travel books than epics; various forgettable excuses to go planet hopping from one wild-ass place to another. Phenomenal invention and delightful prose, but not much by way of plot or character arcing.

 

[JD5000]

Still on A Dance With Dragons, and after reading all the Song of Ice and Fire novels back to back, am craving some Treklit again in the near future...

I have never been more relieved to finish a novel series and move on. Reading all of 'Game of Thrones' was exhausting.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Still on A Dance With Dragons, and after reading all the Song of Ice and Fire novels back to back, am craving some Treklit again in the near future...

I have never been more relieved to finish a novel series and move on. Reading all of 'Game of Thrones' was exhausting.

When I read them, I'd stopped enjoying it way before the end, but after investing that much time to get to that point, I felt I had to plod on....I wish I'd read something else instead, to be honest.

 

[JD5000]

It took me from the end of August, 2012 until February 2013 to read that series. I normally put down 30-40 books during that amount of time.

 

[Relayer1]

Still on A Dance With Dragons, and after reading all the Song of Ice and Fire novels back to back, am craving some Treklit again in the near future...

I have never been more relieved to finish a novel series and move on. Reading all of 'Game of Thrones' was exhausting.

When I read them, I'd stopped enjoying it way before the end, but after investing that much time to get to that point, I felt I had to plod on....I wish I'd read something else instead, to be honest.

Yes and no.

I'm certainly burned out and my reading has slowed down as a result. I don't think books 4 and 5 covering the same period from different perspectives helps either. Forward momentum has been lost by both the narrative and myself.

Against that, I have certainly enjoyed them very much and after a break of indeterminate length whilst the author completes the last two (?) novels I will complete the series.

I may even watch the TV show...

 

[Snaploud]

I recently read When the Devil Dances, Hell's Faire, and Eye of the Storm by John Ringo. I also read Star Trek: Voyager: Protectors.

 

[Use of Time]

Started reading Christopher Bennett's The Buried Age. I'd been wanting to read this one for some time now and grabbed it from B&N last week. Really thought the Maxia Zeta battle and ensuing court martial were well done. I'll never be able look at Phillipa Louvois the same ever again. I think you nailed her character in this one Christopher. Well done.

 

[JD5000]

I read that earlier last summer and finished it in two days instead of the normal three. I like Picard's pre-TNG storyline.

 

[Christopher]

Started reading Christopher Bennett's The Buried Age. I'd been wanting to read this one for some time now and grabbed it from B&N last week. Really thought the Maxia Zeta battle and ensuing court martial were well done. I'll never be able look at Phillipa Louvois the same ever again. I think you nailed her character in this one Christopher. Well done.

Thanks!

 

[ryan123450]

Finally started on the Typhon Pact with Zero Sum Game. Great so far!

 

[BritishSeaPower]

Finally started on the Typhon Pact with Zero Sum Game. Great so far!

I think that one gets a bad rap around here. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

[Corran Horn]

"Forged In Fire" after reading "The Sundered", a favorite of mine.

 

[Starbreaker]

Reading Protectors and still trying to get through The Abominable by Dan Simmons. I keep coming back to it month after month but I'm making no progress.

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

Reading Half Way Home by Hugh Howey. Interesting sci-fi book about planet colonization gone wrong.

 

[Christopher]

I just finished David Brin's Existence, which is a mixed bag. In some respects, it's a very potent work of optimistic SF, very much in a spirit that I think Star Trek fans would enjoy. It's not utopian, there's a lot of bad stuff portrayed both on Earth and elsewhere, but there's a spirit of optimism and humanism to it that's very appealing and Trekkish, and it has some terrifically imaginative ideas in it. On the downside, though, it's rather bloated and unfocused. It's an extremely long book and it takes a long time to find focus; there's at least one subplot in the first half of the book that has no real connection to anything else and no significant impact on later events, and that really would've made more sense in an Uplift-universe prequel than in Existence's reality. There's too much attention given to side bits of worldbuilding and character subplots that don't have too much impact, and conversely some key events are skipped over in time jumps between sections and just summarized afterward. And then, after the penultimate section of the novel focuses mainly on the POV of my favorite character in the book, the final section stays mostly in the POV of one of my least favorite characters, one whose most recent previous action in the book (quite some time before) had been a total jerk move that left him a very unsympathetic character and someone I was irritated to be stuck with.

So... great ideas, but poor pacing, and really needed a tighter editorial hand.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Read Dave Stern's Enterprise book "Rosetta" - liked it, though I couldn't help seeing Coruscant in the planet most of it is set on, and a certain other franchise towards the end...

Not that I'm complaining; it was fun, and the characters all sounded right, which is important in a tie-in franchise.

Now I'm on to Chris Roberson's "Book Of Secrets"...

 

[Christopher]

^Funny, when I see Coruscant in a movie/episode, I can't help thinking of Trantor...

 

[Lonemagpie]

^Funny, when I see Coruscant in a movie/episode, I can't help thinking of Trantor...

So do I, but in the case of Rosetta I was turned to Coruscant by the stuff about landing on floating platforms high in the sky, with narrow walkways to the buildings, etc.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

^Funny, when I see Coruscant in a movie/episode, I can't help thinking of Trantor...

So do I, but in the case of Rosetta I was turned to Coruscant by the stuff about landing on floating platforms high in the sky, with narrow walkways to the buildings, etc.

Also, there's an evil old man who secretly hates democracy running the democratic government.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Since I just finished the Justice League Unlimited series (Brilliant!) I read one of the collections, which escapes me at the moment. It wasn't one based on the cartoon series, but the general Justice League comic.

However, I'm switching from DC to Marvel to read "Marvels"...a graphic novel that I read a few years back. I remember the art looking good (especially in regards to Gwen Stacy) but I don't recall the story being anything special. We'll see what my thoughts are after reading this book again.