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I finished The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch. My review:

/review/show...

So far in April, I enjoyed Red Rising and The Well of Ascension.

The end of Red Rising seemed a little busy while the beginning was a little slow, but I liked it over all.

Well of Ascension was great, but not as good as The Final Empire. There was too much angst for me, I think.
Audiobook-wise, I mentioned Sector Eight the litRPG, which turned out to be pretty good. I'm definitely intrigued and want to read the next one. Doesn't read like litRPG at all.

I also got in The Sword Chronicles: Child of the Empire and The Sword Chronicles: Child of Sorrows. The first was better than the second, but the second ended with quite the bombshell setting up for the next book.

I'm not sure what I'm listening to next, but I think I'm going to read Assassin's Apprentice. I loved the Tawny Man trilogy and I've been looking to read some of the books that preceded it.

I finished The Tyrant's Law, book 3 of Abraham's Coin & Dagger series; will get back to series after reading Range of Ghosts now.

I read a lot of SF&F magazines with short stories. Noticed either an odd coincidence or new trend this month: octopuses are the new dolphins, an intelligent lifeform just misunderstood or awaiting uplift in the scifi future. Maybe there's some new research I missed.

Read some very good books lately.

Memory of Water, a rather acclaimed near-future dystopia from a few years ago. Reminded me a lot of China Mountain Zhang, with the world-spanning chinese hegemony and the emphasis on putting climate change/desertification on a personal scale. ★★★★�.

The Library at Mount Char. I wouldn't be surprised if this is my favourite book I read all year. Terrific writing that pulls off both humour and horrifying. A great weird story in the tradition of Mieville, and an awesome protagonist in Carolyn. ★★★★�.

We Who Are About To.... Just good old-fashioned SF. Space travelers crash-land on an uninhabited alien planet, decide to make a go of trying to colonize it. If you recognize where the title comes from you can guess how well that goes. ★★★★�.

Two Serpents Rise. Second book in the Craft Sequence. Enjoyable, well-written fantasy. ★★★★�.

Currently reading: Rocannon's World

Finished The Temporal Void yesterday. It's the second in a trilogy. I didn't like it quite as much as the first, but did find it an easier read as I was familiar with the technology and politics. I did enjoy it enough to continue with the third book The Evolutionary Void which I will get started on today or tomorrow.

Thrawn it's my first true introduction to him and I see why the character has such a fervent fan following in Star Wars.

Oh man, in that case you HAVE to read Heir of the Empire afterwards! :) Be mindful though that it doesn't correspond with the new SW movies anymore.

Just finished The Gathering Storm, and it's turning out to be my favourite WoT book so far. Before jumping into Towers of Midnight however, I will be reading The Night Circus.

Read Throne of Glass at the request of my son. It had some good characters and ideas, but I was annoyed at some of the YA stuff.

Now I'm reading Dragon Avenger, Not enjoying it as much as the first book, but it's still a good read.

Will finish The Claw of the Conciliator today, only 20 more pages to go. Will save comments for when the discussion opens up.

I had won two books through Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ just recently, however neither has arrived yet so will grab one of the books I planned to read in May - Cast in Flame by Michelle Sagara. Based on its title I was hoping it would be dragon themed (she'll have to meet the Emperor eventually...) but based on the summary on the back it seems to be yet another Barrani themed one.

Currently re-reading Winter's Heart in my epic quest to finish WoT - I've read them all except the last one but there's so much I'd forgotten since first reading Eye of the World 15 years ago that I thought I'd better refresh my memory before I read the final instalment.
Also reading John Connolly's Every Dead Thing and Alan Moore's From Hell.

Brendan wrote: "Read some very good books lately.

Memory of Water, a rather acclaimed near-future dystopia from a few years ago. Reminded me a lot of China Mountain Zhang, with the world-spanning..."


I agree with you about The Library at Mount Char. I wish he'd write a sequel or anything else, really.

I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora and am reading American Gods now
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Just started Eric by Terry Pratchett

I just finished Appalachian Overthrow, the 10th book in the Vampire Earth series & new to me. I've decided to read some old favorites to justify keeping them around, so I started Wolfling, an old favorite, to round out my lunch time reading.

Just finished up Ancillary Justice and was blown away by it! I've a spoiler free review here, mostly looking at the writing which is the highlight for me.

Anyone into sci-fi who hasn't read this - go get it!

I've been re-reading some old favourites recently - Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad (it's Sir Terry's birthday this week) plus Hounded because it's silly and generally a little bit ridiculous and sometimes that's exactly what I need.

I'm getting stuck into Range of Ghosts so hopefully I'll be able to join in the conversation soon! As well as getting going with Shadow & Claw... not enough time, too many books! What a pity I can't give up my day-job....

I'm adding too many books to my to-be-read pile from here....

I'm currently halfway though The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer and really enjoying this one :)

Nimrod wrote: "I'm currently halfway though The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer and really enjoying this one :)"

Nimrod - The story overview looks really interesting but it doesn't have the best rating. How is the writing?

Finished Cast in Flame yesterday. It's one of those books that is written in such a way it's hard to find a place to stop so I got through nearly 500 pages in 3 days.

Now, I had won two different Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ giveaways about a week apart (after not winning any at all for quite a few months), and both managed to arrive on the same day! So going with the one I won first which is Dragon's Green by Scarlett Thomas

Finished The Wheel of Time series, read beginning to end, obviously didn't start in April. Now reading Hitler vs. Dracula.

Rachel wrote: "Nimrod wrote: "I'm currently halfway though The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer and really enjoying this one :)"

Nimrod - The story overview looks really interesting but it ..."

The writing is good, the pacing is just right, and the two main characters are well-portrayed.

Funny thing, the average rating among 19 of my friends who've read the book is 4.11, which I think reflects the quality of the book better than its rating on GR.

I finished reading Range of Ghosts on my eReader (I love Tor.com for giving away these books for free!) and now I'm switching to the Barsoom series. I've run into John Carter references in quite a few places in the last couple years so I've clearly got a big hole in my SF vocabulary :) It's already been read by the group so I can check out the discussion when I'm done.

So it's book number #1 right now, A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I'm reading some of my old Keith Laumer books now. I just finished Retief: Envoy to New Worlds & am now reading The Undefeated, another collection of short stories, but these don't have a common character, just tough circumstances & heroes who overcome them. Lots of fun.

Jim wrote: "I'm reading some of my old Keith Laumer books now. I just finished Retief: Envoy to New Worlds & am now reading The Undefeated, another collection of sho..."

I love the Retief stories.

Just started A Portal for Your Thoughts by Jeffrey M. Poole

I reread a bunch of old favorites this month including The Sun Wolf and Starhawk Series: The Ladies of Mandrigyn, The Witches of Wenshar, and The Dark Hand of Magic and The Windrose Chronicles by Barbara Hambly. I finally got around to reading The Martian Chronicles and I am currently reading Winston Graham's Poldark series.

Abby wrote: "I've just started Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire. So far I've only read his Reckoners series so I wanted to take the plunge with this series. It appears to be required reading for fantasy fans..."

Yeah, the original Mistborn trilogy seems to be a favorite.

Finished reading So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy recently. Great (mainly) sci-fi compilation. Only one story that I didn't really like at all but the rest had some cool ideas. Quite a few of them that I thought would make great novel ideas.

Now I've picked The Lies of Locke Lamora back up again. I'd stopped reading it during my first attempt because I just couldn't get into it. Now have a bit less going on so I'm getting much more into the flow. Enjoying it.

Also recently started up Mystic River, just a regular mystery novel. Think I saw the movie years ago. Anyway, will probably continue it after I'm done with Lies of Locke Lamora.

Brendan wrote:
"Memory of Water, a rather acclaimed near-future dystopia from a few years ago."

Loved this book so, so much. Definitely going to be one of my favourites that I read this year along with Station Eleven.

Finished reading Dragon's Green. It was a lot of fun, made me think of the Chrestomanci books in subject and British quirkiness.

Now I've started my other Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ giveaway win, Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh. This one is YA and takes place in feudal Japan. So far I'm enjoying it.