Started: 12/28/19
Finished: 1/4/20
Debut novel of an author I heard speak on a panel at a convention. I’d read a couple of her short stories and really liked them, and I liked her in person, so I was excited to read this one and…I LIKED IT. It was fun, fast, and a little twisty plotwise (in a good way). I’m glad it’s the beginning of a series.
Started: 12/1/19
Finished: 12/14/19
13 short stories, all SF, all really good. Two in this collection were up for Hugos in the last couple of years.
Started: 11/24/19
Finished: 12/1/19
Military SF with some weird circular time travel and a narrator who doesn’t know what’s going on, with a prisoner interrogation going on as a framing device, and really, I liked it. I’m not sure it got fully explained, or maybe I need to read it again, but it reminded me of Starship Troopers, and I liked it.
Started: 11/3/19
Gave up: 11/10/19
Young adult, time travel, heist/mystery. At around 50%, I’m not sure I’m going to finish it. I’m intrigued by the complication that arose around a quarter of the way in that has not been explained yet, but a) I feel like I can live without knowing what’s going on, and b) I’m not convinced it’s going to be explained in this book. Is this part of a series? I should find out.
I gave up at 70%. That’s when they explained exactly how they were going solve their problem. I’m sure it won’t go exactly as planned, but that’s close enough for me to know how it ends, and I put it down. Meh. Also, not part of a series.
Started: 10/21/19
Finished: 11/3/19
Sort of zombies, sort of apocalypse, sort of medical thriller, and really long. Really long is not usually a problem, but I’m reading at a glacial pace lately. It’s a problem.
Update: it reminded me of Stephen King, and separately but also specifically, it’s similar to The Stand. That’s not a bad thing, but I’m not a huge Stephen King fan, so I think it puts this book into the “not for me” category. Despite the fact that I finished it, which is saying something recently. I’ve given up on a LOT of books lately.
Anyway, it was good, made me laugh a couple of times, made me cringe (like HARD cringe, like I kind of wish I hadn’t read that scene because I’ll never be able to get rid of it cringe) at least twice, and if you don’t like books like The Stand, you won’t like this one.
Started: 10/12/19
Finished: 10/21/19
Sequel to Lock In, same issues with dialogue, but otherwise a good story and a good book.
Started: 10/2/19
Finished: 10/9/19
I like John Scalzi’s books. I haven’t read them all, but I’ve read most of them, and I’ve really liked the vast majority. They’re not perfect – the problem I run into is that all of the characters sound the same way. The dialogue, while on the one hand can be pretty realistic, is basically the same book to book. It feels like every character is a stand-in for the author – smart, an essentially good person, heavy on the snark. HEAVY on the snark. It’s amusing, and his stories are all good, entertaining, fast-paced. I like that his characters tend to have healthy and happy family relationships (it’s a nice change from all the death and orphans and drama I get in nearly everything else I read), but they all talk the same.
So I get stuck on that sometimes.
Started: 10/1/19
Finished: 10/2/19
I chose this novella deliberately as something I knew I would like, since I gave up on the last four books I tried to read. Imagine my relief to find I still like this universe and could enjoy this story. Yay for this series!
Started: 9/30/19
Gave up: 10/1/19
This book is supposed to be a) very good and b) a very good portrayal of an autistic person, from an autistic person’s point of view, written by an autistic person. It may very well be both of those things (all of those things?), but I got lost in the science fiction parts of it. Too many characters, too similar to each other (at least in the beginning), and WAY too many different aliens not differentiated from each other. And you KNOW I’m all about aliens. I gave up.
Started: 9/28/19
Gave up: 9/30/19
I’ve read that this book is funny, and Mel says this book is funny, but I gave up on it because one of the characters is an over-privileged disgusting teenage boy with an attitude and I really did not like being inside his head. I wasn’t a big fan of the other two point-of-view characters, either.
Started: 8/23/19
Finished: 9/14/19
I gave up on a different Peter F. Hamilton book a couple of years ago, but Erik convinced me to give the author another try. It started out good – I laughed, but then I got bogged down in some details. Part of the problem is most likely me. I’m too tired to read more than a paragraph at a time.
Update: The focus shifted to a completely different set of characters in a completely different situation, and that part of the plot caught my attention. And THEN I saw how the two sections worked together, and I found myself enjoying the characters and plot in the first section again, so whew. It all came together for me, and I did really like the book. The sequel is on my list.
Started: 8/19/19
Gave up: 8/23/19
Time travel story that’s a little heavy-handed on the SF aspect. I like hard SF, and I like time travel, but there’s something about the way we’re being told about the time travel bureau that feels amateurish. The plot device for it could work, but it’s too clinical, I think. Too much telling, not enough showing, maybe. And the fact that the guy is in trouble for something he a) couldn’t control, and b) CAN’T REMEMBER seems really crappy. Not finishing!
Started: 8/18/19
Finished: 8/19/19
Short story by an author I like, but I was led astray by the title. I assumed, since with one word changed, it’s the title of a Shirley Jackson book, that it would be similar or related to that book. It’s not, not at all. The title is perfectly appropriate to the story, and a cute nod to Shirley Jackson, but I spent a lot of time (for such a short story) trying to figure out the connection. I might have enjoyed it more without that. It’s about a virtual reality game company employee who has “volunteered” to do some training to avoid being fired for being a jerk, basically. Will she learn? Will she grow? Once I let go of the title, I liked it.
Started: 8/3/19
Finished: 8/4/19
I can’t tell you if I liked this book because I don’t know. There’s a really nice, very real family, maybe an apocalypse, definitely a home invasion, something TRULY AWFUL happens, and then…so, it was good? I mean, it was GOOD, but I don’t know if I liked it.
Started: 7/27/19
Finished: 7/28/19
For a novelette, it took too long to reel me in. I considered not finishing it, and come on, it’s a novelette. I did finish it, and it did get good, but there’s too much left to the imagination after the end. And I’m not sure I care enough to imagine it.
Started: 7/26/19
Finished: 7/27/19
In contrast to the previous novelette, I felt like this one needed more. As a family story, I think it had enough (and it was really good). As a science fiction story, it felt a little empty.
Started: 7/18/19
Finished: 7/24/19
This is the second novella in the Murderbot Diaries series, and it’s so great! Poor Murderbot.
Started: 7/14/19
Finished: 7/18/19
I had heard such wonderful things about this story, but at its start, all I can think of is how SAD it is. Update: at its end, all I can think of how sad it is. It’s an alternate history that combines two true events tragedies: Topsy the Elephant and the Radium Girls. It’s very good, but very hard to read. I suppose it’s a good thing it’s a novelette…
Started: 7/8/19
Finished: 7/14/19
I was just getting into the swing of things when it ended! That’s the problem with novellas, I suppose. Good story, but there’s a lot about the world and their mission that I didn’t completely follow. I care enough to wish I could find out more, but that also means I’m a little disappointed in it.
Started: 6/22/19
Finished: 7/1/19
Book 3 in the Wayfarers series. This was a NICE story, but I had a hard time getting into it at first. I enjoyed it, and I wholeheartedly recommend it (the whole series), but I don’t think it’s Hugo-worthy (this book is nominated, as is the series).