What are you reading in 2023?

[Zaukrie]

I bought the Scalzi humble bundle and read Kaiju Preservation Society in a few hours. I was entertained. As he says, it's a pop song of a book.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I did end up very much enjoying Jade City by Fonda Lee.

Spoiler: It definitely picked up

after the Pillar Lan was killed. I think his character was sort of inactive and dragging the story down - sort of like a player in an RPG who isn't pro-active...

I'll definitely read the next one after I read the following 3 books

• Jim Butcher's Olympian Affair, the 2nd book in the Aeronaut's Windlass series
• Seanan McGuire's next October Daye novel Be the Serpent. I'm almost caught up with the series. Then I'll probably turn to the Wayward Children series and get caught up there. Speaking of children...
• The first in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series, aptly named The Children of Time. Honestly, it was discussion here that spurred me to reserve it at the library.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm currently finishing up The City We Became by Jemisin (which is the most literal urban fantasy you can imagine) and though it took a couple chapters to grab me, when it did, it grabbed me hard.

 

[Zaukrie]

Just finished Old Man's War. Really good. Might need to read this and Forever War again and compare them.

 

[Parmandur]

Now that I finished Wheel of Time, I listened to The Origins of the Wheel of Time by Professor Michael Livingstone, which is a very cool examination of Robert Jordan's life story and the manuscript history of the books. Makes a good case for the literary merits of the books, really fun to go over when the series was fresh in my mind.

I followed this with 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed as a pallete cleanser, some pretty interesting stuff about the Late Bronze Age Collapse.

And then today, I started The Dragonbone Chair, which I have read before but found smooth going as an audio book. 7 hours in, 26 hours to go, the plot hasn't really started yet. Classic Tad Williams.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Re-reading The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I had remembered this being him at the height of his powers, and it sure is. Not sure what happened between his previous book and this one, but I hope his estate can bottle it and sell it, because an already good writer leveled up quite a bit in between the two books.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And then today, I started The Dragonbone Chair, which I have read before but found smooth going as an audio book. 7 hours in, 26 hours to go, the plot hasn't really started yet. Classic Tad Williams.

LOL isn't it? Tad you scamp!

I did really genuinely enjoy the sort of "35-40 years later" follow-ups to that series ("The Last King of Osten Ard"), despite similar "Yo when does the plot start?" as well as stuff going on. I think they definitely work better as audiobooks, even if the "Sithi voice" and "Troll voice" the narrator does are... a bit much.

 

[Parmandur]

LOL isn't it? Tad you scamp!

I did really genuinely enjoy the sort of "35-40 years later" follow-ups to that series ("The Last King of Osten Ard"), despite similar "Yo when does the plot start?" as well as stuff going on. I think they definitely work better as audiobooks, even if the "Sithi voice" and "Troll voice" the narrator does are... a bit much.

Haven't gotten to the Sithi and Troll voices yet! Apparently, the book narrator does a bunch of stuff in Tge Witcher gsmes and Baldur's Gate 3?

I read M, S & T way, way back in the day, when I could sit abd read a fat book for 10 hours on a lazy Saturday. I have the entire trilogy and the Last King of Osten Ard keyed up on Audible, so...the time is now.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finished reading REH's Conan. The Ace/Lancer series started off with a bang. Fascinating to see The Thing in the Crypt's direct influence on the Conan the Barbarian movie (and it being solely a de Camp/Carter work!). The Hall of the Dead feels almost exactly like an early D&D game - traps, undead, giant slug, treasure, gotcha trapped treasure.

I then read C.S. Lewis Prince Caspian. I was lukewarm on the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, but as an adult my fondness for the series only grows.

Now I'm reading Barry Strauss' The Trojan War: A New History.

 

[Autumnal]

The Builders, by Daniel Polansky. What a weird thing this is. It’s a grimdark novella set in a riff on history around the time of the European religious wars, like the Thirty Years’ War. It’s also frequently very funny - not Pratchett levels of absurd yet fitting comedy, but who does? Oh, and it’s a world of anthropomorphic animals. Our protagonists include a mouse, a salamander, a stoat, a badger, and so on.

It worked well for me and I wish there more of it, but it really is weird.