Other Books you are currently reading?

Currently working my way through the Expanse books - hoping to get through most of them before the season 4 premiere in mid December. Big ask though - only read two and I get very limited time to spend reading - usually a half hour at lunch and the occasional hour some evenings

 

Superpowereds by Drew Hayes (4 book series) is a consistently good read

 

I've read the first 3, but took a break and have forgotten where I was. Better see if Cibola Burn is at the local library, as I need to climb on the Expanse train again.
Haven't seen any of the series, but would be interested to see what they've done with the story.

 

By and large they've done a great job adapting it. They've made a few changes (amalgamating a few characters together, for example) but it's been fairly faithful to the source material, looks good, and captures the atmosphere well. I found that I suffered from the usual syndrome of thinking "That's not how I pictured character X" for the first few episodes but I think the casting has been excellent and the main cast in particular are great.

 

Best hard sci-fi series I can recall - it does differ from the books, but not massively (so far).

I blew an Amazon voucher on all the books for my Kindle. I got them a while back but I was iun the middle of reading something else when I bought them - only really started reading them in the last few weeks, but I'm enjoying them.

 

Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys by Michael Collins. The best written book I've read by any of the Astronauts.

I have a modest collection of around 300 autobiographies and biographies of Pilots, mainly from the Second World War and am currently reading 'Spitfire Strikes' a well written autobiography by New Zealand's Johnnie Houlton

 

'A gathering of Shadows' by VE Schwab. A relaxing read after finishing 'Chernobyl' by Serhii Plokhy.

Next to that reading several comics.

 

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Madaddam series)
We are all completely besides ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

If I have time before the end of the month I'll read Lord of the Flies by William Golding, if not, I'll read the second book in the Madaddam series.

I'm a fan of paper, but I haven't been bothered to pick up a book in years, but a Kindle has completely changed that.

 

Just finished the Arisen series. 14 odd books and started to takes its toll at the end but the narration by RC Bray was exceptional as always.

Also finally finished Circe by Madaline Miller. Not my normal choice in book but a good read none the less, just took ages due to not much time free for actual reading of actual books.

 

Interesting, may give them a look...
I have been following the Surviving the Evacuation series along with its sister/daughter/spinoff/prequel series
Have recently picked up the Old Man's War series, so really need to get on with it...

 

I have that one as signed first edition on my shelf. What's the spoiler-free summary, if you don't mind?

 

Not so much reading as listening (hence posting this in that thread too):

My wife and I are currently listening to The Princess Diarist on our way to and from work (she works a 10 min walk away from where I do). The audio book is an account of Carrie Fisher's casting and recording of Star Wars as noted in her diaries. The best thing about it is that Carrie is reading it and she's awesome. Her daughter does read a few bits from the actual journals as she is about the same age as Carrie was when she wrote them. Her parts are a bit boring and whiny though as she just doesn't have the comedy that Carrie did.

It was recorded in October of 2016 and Carrie died in December 2016 so she doesn't sound like the best of health on the recording, but that doesn't matter one bit, it's Carrie and I still miss her.

The recording won the 2018 Grammy for best spoken word recording and it is well worth a listen.

 

Fallen off the bandwagon recently with regular reading.
Had started Natives by Akala, so need to get back to that.

 

Just finished the series, was bloody brutal and bloody good, the early London stuff dragged but sets the scene well for the later books.
Give the standalone (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42969396-arisen)a try, I wish I'd have slotted it in in order, but it sort of works as a one off.

Deffo agree about Bray, so much so that I'm now adding books onto my wish list that he's narrated regardless of if they'd have tickled my fancy otherwise.

Also go and buy a copy of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38527078-arisen , some cracking one liners, a perfect toilet book or something to read whilst knitting Navajo blankets.

 

Burnt through the Old Man's War series since new year; kinda disappointing.

Some really interesting concepts; technology, universe, etc. but a lot felt under-utilised. A number of elements felt they were built up and then discarded/forgotten about.
Book 4 can get in the sea, really should have been interlaced with Book 3, adds very little on its own.
Books 5 and 6, really noticeable that they are combinations of serialisations; which not in itself bad; feels a bit "cash-in"-ey...

Generaly didn't maintain pace, build up, tension; lots of spikes and troughs.

Don't get me wrong, worth a read, but the Expanse they are not.

 

Read quite a bit since my last post, but the standouts were "Mystic River" and "Shutter Island", both by Dennis Lehane, as well as "The Fisherman" by John Langan.

 

Finished "The lost future of Pepperharrow" by Natasha Pulley recently. I just really enjoy all of her books.

Right now I'm about a third into "The Hunger" by Alma Katsu. A retelling of what happened to/with the Donner party.

 

re-reading the Expanse series.
The TV series might be good, but the books are great.

 

As is the case way too often.

 

Must get back into the Expanse... Got as far as book 3 I think and stalled. I watched S1 Ep1 of the TV series and also stalled there.
It didn't grab me, but TBF I was spending a lot of time explaining what was going on to SWMBO who wasn't getting it.

Revisting William Gibson from the 80s. 4 books arrived in the post today courtesy of ebay.

Burning chrome and the 'Sprawl Trilogy' - Neuromancer / Count Zero / Mona Lisa Overdrive

Cyberspace here we come!