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What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? September 03 (discuss.online)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Finished Artemis by Andy Weir. It was a fun book, but a step below both The Martian and Project Hail Mary. Can't point out why, though I don't think it's because protagonist is unlikable. Still, not a bad book, and an enjoyable read.

I did get some Skyward's Spensa-like feel from protagonist. Maybe cause both of them were outcast, and has the attitude of being annoyed by the whole world.

Currently Reading The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Book 2 of The Passage trilogy. I am some 50 or so pages in, and I am not enjoying it much.

Slight spoiler about the setting so skip rest of the paragraph if you want to avoid it. The first book jumped some 100 years in the future after about 1/3rd of the book, and the future is now the "current" time. Book 2 started with a slight prologue of 4-5 pages, and then it jumped back to Year zero. Don't really care about Year Zero now, specially any new characters. Want to know what's happening in the "now". Maybe they will have some important part to play, I don't know, but right now I am not feeling much interested in the story.

Going to read at least 100 pages and then decide if I want to continue or not.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Just started Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. I read somewhere that they purposefully wrote Stalker (which I've seen) as very different to the book, so it'll be interesting to compare.

Finished Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. In the afterward, the author asked why a sword-wielding fantasy hero couldn't exist in the US, which I think sums up the tone pretty well. Some fun body horror, while also touching on the real horrors of slavery and racism.

Bingo squares: Award Winner (hard), Mashup, Minority Author

Also read Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, which was great. Sort of a mashup of lots of things (1920s in a mental asylum, on a version of the moon that has forests, with some gothic, medical, body, and cosmic horror thrown in). Sadly too short to explore the world, though I'm hopeful the planned sequels will rectify this. Avoid if you have arachnophobia.

Bingo squares: New Release, Mashup (maybe hard?), Among the Stars (technically), (alt) A Change in Perspective. Not sure about Institutional (hard) since it's a for-profit asylum.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Crypt of the Moon Spider sounds super interesting! I'm gonna have to have a look into that one!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Will it give me arachnophobia, if I don't like spiders, but am not at the level of full blown phobia?

Ring Shout sounds interesting, but am not a fan of racism and slavery in the (fiction) books, specially the ones that go to dark places. Does it end well? 😀

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Will it give me arachnophobia, if I don't like spiders, but am not at the level of full blown phobia?

Mmm if they give you the ick, then maybe avoid it. I don't think it's too bad, but YMMV, and I'd rather not mislead you accidentally.

Ring Shout sounds interesting, but am not a fan of racism and slavery in the (fiction) books, specially the ones that go to dark places. Does it end well? 😀

The author actually uses a much lighter touch on the racism and mentions of slavery than I was expecting. It's there, and it ties into the story, but the focus is really more on fighting literal demonic creatures. Like I said the other week, it's really more of an action-adventure than disturbing horror. It ends mostly well, with room for a sequel.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Cool. Thanks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hugh Howey's Silo series.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How are you finding it?

I found the second and first half of the third books a bit of a slog. Ultimately I enjoyed how it wrapped up but I struggled to get there at points, even though I'm glad I did!

Did you watch the TV show?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm re-reading them, liked them all, i find them immersive.

The TV show was ok i guess, i found it odd that they deviated quite a bit on some aspects even with the author as producer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Apparently authors generally don't have too much power when it comes to TV shows, unless they get it specially written in the contract, which rarely happens.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I put it off because the title alone made it seem like something I wouldn't like, but 3 weeks ago with nothing to listen to and some audible credits to burn, I gave Dungeon Crawler Carl a try.

I am now on Book 5 and having a blast! It's not some high fantasy epic, but it's a lot of fun and not what I was expecting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

The title for this also put me off but at the same time it does also sound like something I might like. Maybe I'll need to get the first and give it a try!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Im currently listening to the fourth wheel of time book. Very good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm finishing up Metro 2035 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. I think it's a big improvement over Metro 2034, but doesn't quite reach the heights of Metro 2033. Completely dropping the supernatural aspects of 2033 was a weird choice, but 2035 seems to be a very thinly veiled criticism of modern Russian society, attitudes and power structures. Luckily it works, but the series loses a lot of its character without the incogitable horrors. Though I guess in the end, humans are always the real monsters. Good book. Not yet sure what I'm reading next.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I have heard the good things about the series. Specially after the game got famous.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm listening to The Wise Man's Fear, and my rule is I can only listen while jogging (training for an event in about 5 weeks). It's working, I'm getting a good 40-50 minutes a day out of it and the workouts are much more tolerable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Heh, that's nice.

I did this with podcasts... I no longer listen to them now...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Just finished Death's End, by Cixin Liu which is the last volume of Remembrance of Earth's past trilogy (better known from the title of the first book The three body problem). I enjoyed very much the 3 novels, great Sci-fi and I also learned many things about Chinese culture through translator notes. (note: I've not seen the Netflix show before reading it, because I hate watching movies about novels I have not read, it block too much the mental image I do reading the book, therefore limiting the amazement of reading).

Next, I decided not to read the fan fiction sequel but rather what is presented as a prequel: Ball Lightning, by Cixin Liu.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Unseen academicals.

Pratchett ftw

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

GNU Terry Pratchett

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Rn I am reading capital by Marx but I am eyeing ishmael by Danial Quinn on my book shelf every day. I got capital for 4 more months... I could take a break

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Never got around reading capital. I have that book, but never got to it. How has it been so far?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Honestly a lot easier to comprehend than I expected. Marx has a way of describing concepts with analogy that works well for me. I'm only on chapter 2 though so it could get harder lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Lol. I'm going to try it in English then go Arabic if it's too difficult to understand

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Ishmael was amazing. Few books have actually shifted my worldview in the same way. The sequel book was good too. For some reason thinking about "Ishmael" got me thinking about "Little Fuzzy" by H. Beam Piper. There's no real relation aside from non-human sapiens and discussion of same. It's an older Sci-fi, so not for everyone, but I liked it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Bit of a scifi kick lately, so currently listening to the newly released - Not till we are lost, by Dennis E Taylor. And then I believe tuesday is book 17 in the Expeditionary force. So that will be next.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Two books:

The count of Monte Cristo (in Arabic)
Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (Also, in Arabic).

Next planning on getting into LOTR in English since I've never read the books. Just finished the Hobbit last week and loved it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I sometimes wish I could go back in time just to read some of the books for the first time again. Monte Cristo would be at the very top of that time-travel agenda. Enjoy the ride!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Thank you. That's why I chose to read it in my own language, because I want to enjoy it. For some odd reason, it gives me some "the merchant of Venice" vibes. I know it's not the same, but the vibe weirdly the same, and that makes it very enjoyable

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I started Confessions of a Crap Artist by Phillip K. Dick and am not yet sure how I feel about it. Also started Tai-Pan in the urge to keep Shōgun vibe in my life after literally devouring the book, but Tai-Pan didn't feel the same. Is on hold for now till I forget Shōgun a bit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I tried to read "Ministry for the Future", but it hit way too close too home and was causing me serious existential dread. So I started reading "Sirens of Titan" and now at least my existential dread is sprinkled with the absurd humor of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.