Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

It's Halloween time, or at least that's what I've been doing the past few years, adding some vampires and ghosts and other spooky stuff to my to-read pile. What about you?

Completed:
text:

Audible:

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Authors:
P. Djèlí Clark, Saad Hossain, Dan Jolley, Amie Kaufman, Cassandra Khaw, Dean Koontz, Jay Kristoff, Arkady Martine, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Anthony Ryan, Lisa Unger, John Wiswell
Narrators:
Josh Hurley

Finishing up The Broken Empire series and then continuing the Wardstone Chronicles (to keep with the theme)

I'm currently listening to the Leonard Di Vinci audiobook, rereading Tokyo Ghoul Re and finishing up on Demon Slayer-Kimetsu no yaiba volume 3, Yu-Gi-Oh volume 2,The Promised Neverland volume 2,Naruto volume 11,The Cain Saga volume 4: Seal of the Red Ram part 2.

I finished Og-Grim-Dog: The Three-Headed Ogre. Very funny short fantasy (in the LitRPG sub-genre) that mixes D&D and bureaucracy. It also fills the non-human protagonist slot in my Bingo.

Finished A Thousand Ships. I was worried it would be all about Helen but in fact the Muse inspiring the author didn't much care about Helen and found her annoying :) I think this one had the best retelling of the golden apple. Anyway, another excellent retelling from the POV of the women in Greek myth, covering several women who were barely mentioned in passing otherwise.

Now, though my library decided to go nuts and save all the books I had put on reserve weeks and months ago and have them available to me all in the same week, I'm going to put those aside for at least one October themed book on my TBR list, my Steampunk BINGO slot - Whitechapel Gods by S.M. Peters

Finally finished Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, it's part of the Canongate Myth series that had some amazing gems, but others where you really had to scratch your head to figure out how it could have any connection to myth or folklore. Other than a scholarly essay on the history of Baba Yaga at the end (which was technical and rather boring), the actual book I found to be a bit of a stretch. I was looking for retelling, not trying to pry a symbol here or there from the text.

Anyway, that frees me up my online reading to start on the Simon & Shuster free October books and I decided to start with Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw since I had enjoyed her Wicked Deep last year.

I have started The Werewolf of Whitechapel, which will fill the Published in 2021 Bingo slot.

Hardtack and Coffee or, The Unwritten Story of Army Life by John Davis Billings

Still following C J Cherryh's "Foreigner" Series. Have just finished No.12: "Betrayer". Now I have to search for second-hand copies of the next 2 or 3. Am buying these in UK on-line and so far no problem. I like it when I can get a hardback and am enjoying the cover artwork - Michael Whelan and Todd Lockwood.

Finished a couple graphic novels. First is The Kindly Ones in the Sandman series, the second was for kids about Norse mythology I stumbled upon in the library called Gods and Thunder.

Full Steam Ahead: How the Railways Made Britain by Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman

I wasn't planning to read another graphic novel right away, but I was in a situation where I needed something easy to hold and a mass market paperback wasn't it, so I started on The Problem of Susan and Other Stories by Neil Gaiman

A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History by Nicholas Wade was pretty good, but quite repetitious. His main points were the existence of human races & our continuing evolution, both points that are too often denied now since they're not politically correct. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm going to start Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool by Clara Parkes later today. We used to have a flock of sheep & I occasionally buy a fleece which I wash, spin, dye, & then knit or crochet into simple scarfs, hats, & such, so I'm somewhat familiar with the process.

Just starting on Hyperion. I’ve not read this before and viewed as a classic, should keep me busy for next few weeks. alongside this a daily read of A Night in the Lonesome October not read either and joined the discussion group which looks like fun.

Jeff wrote: "...alongside this a daily read of A Night in the Lonesome October not read either and joined the discussion group which looks like fun."

That is a fun book. I've led discussions for it in several groups over the years & have over 20 pages of notes. A chapter a day allows plenty of time for reflection & research. Zelazny hid a lot in the story.

I'm reading The Castle of Otranto . I have never read "the first Gothic novel" from which the genre sprung. Also Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales for a "modern twist" on The Castle. I'll likely read the other stories, as well. A Night in the Lonesome October sounds good!

Finished Whitechapel Gods which I enjoyed more than I expected I would. Seems a lot of review complained that everything wasn't explained up front but I think that's part of what I liked that I had to unravel what the city looked like, what are the motivations of the characters, and how exactly does a machine become a god (not sure that was fully explained but maybe they were gods first that took machine form?). It wasn't perfect of course, but I disagreed with the worst of the reviews. I figured those people were the ones that liked watching Columbo since you know who the murderer is from the start rather than working it out as you go.

Next on my list is a kind of vampire/angel creature in The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce. I've been fascinated by the cover of my copy, finally a good moment to read it to see if the inside lives up the the outside....in fact, the book is on a GR list about the cover artist...now I want to read more of those books just because the covers are so intriguing.

I have finished The Werewolf of Whitechapel - a story set in a different version of late 19th Century Europe, where the royal families of most of the continental powers are not human - the Germans are werewolves, the Russians are vampires, the Greeks are sirens, etc. It's a series starter and I quite enjoyed it. It would probably class as YA, and it also fills my Published in 2021 Bingo slot.

Finished Winterwood. I liked it, it had a similar vibe to The Wicked Deep, though I figured out the twist a quarter of the way in, in fact I think I liked it more, knowing the secret that the characters hadn't figured out yet. Now, on to the next free book from rivetedlit.com - Magic Dark and Strange by Kelly Powell

Stumbled upon "Dark Corners" from Amazon Original Stories and am reading through these horror /supernatural themed shorts before Halloween. The audio narrations of the two I've sampled have been weak. There are 7 stories, I've read 2 (after giving up on the audio version). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...

Finished The Darkangel, it was a first book but I really enjoyed it. Had a little extra surprise to find out the tale takes place on the moon with earth looming in the sky, wasn't expecting that. Continuing with the next one in the series A Gathering of Gargoyles by Meredith Ann Pierce

Mistress of the Waves by George Phillies

I finished the YA fantasy Mages By Chance. There were some good bits to it, but overall I found it somewhat unsatisfying due to the cliff-hanger ending. It does fill the author of colour slot in my Bingo.

Finished A Gathering of Gargoyles.

As I haven't decided yet if I'll finish Pierce's trilogy right away or pick up something else first, I'll give myself a little time by reading A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman. I've been rereading Lovecraft and I remembered I saw this Gaiman graphic novel in the library some time back and that it does a Cthulhu mythos / Sherlock Holmes crossover.

Aside - apparently my browser's spell check knows the word Cthulhu but not the word mythos.

Update - in the afternoon I finished Magic Dark and Strange, which was a good read, I didn't adore it, but it was enjoyable enough. The magic system was poorly explained though, like what was the reasoning that a watchmaker would use time magic but a girl in a print shop can raise the dead? Or maybe anyone could use any magic if they learned how? No idea.

I've still got plenty of time to read another free book from rivetedlit.com in the next couple weeks so I'll read Secret Admirer by R.L. Stine. I was never into Stine's stuff, I wasn't quite the target age group (though Goosebumps was huge at my sister's school) and horror is not something I generally read. But I'll give a free book a go. At 160 pages it's also very short.

Finished A Study in Emerald. It made me think of Tony saying he read The Werewolf of Whitechapel where each royal house was a different kind of supernatural creature, here the royal families are Old Ones (imagine Queen Victoria with lots of tentacles...)

I'd better get started on my anthology BINGO slot since it's a BIG book and only a couple weeks left of the month Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed edited by John Skipp

*cough* I still have 10 books I was hoping to read in October...I'll consider achieving that rather unlikely...

The Alpha Enigma by W. Michael Gear was fun, but not one of Gear's best. A bit of an action comic book. I gave it a 3 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm currently in the middle of rereading one of my favorite books, The Curse of the Mistwraithe

I finished Iron Gold. Although I did not find that book as good as the previous trilogy, I am still interested in finding out how the story develops, so that I'll be starting now Dark Age.

Finished Secret Admirer on rivetedlit.com, it certainly wasn't great literature, but then if you are writing 100 books or so in just this one series, let alone Goosebumps and the rest you gotta pump 'em out fast. Nothing SF/F in it either but to be fair, I didn't guess who the stalker was either, so kudos on that (the obvious suspect though is still incredibly creepy and stalker-ish, ugh).

Now there is one last book that's free this month that I had my eye on...but it's 700 pages long, not sure I can manage that in 1.5 weeks. Then I realized it's an omnibus of 3 Night World books. I should be able to manage a ~200 page book in what time is left of October. I'll see what it's like, and then use the library for the rest at some later date if I feel like it. So here goes Secret Vampire by L.J. Smith

In fact Smith's Vampire Diaries was my first foray into vampire literature after Dracula, which at the time I had only read because my cousin had this text based DOS computer game and we kept dying at the end, figured if we read Dracula together we'd get some insight how to survive the game (nope).

To bad the TV series forced Smith to write more books and basically messed up the whole storyline, I haven't bother with the million more books that came out after. It killed it for me when the Renaissance Italian vampires had to be converted into Colonial American ones to make it palatable for American audiences *gag*. Italian vampires are so much sexier... ;) Well ok, Jonathan Barrett, Gentleman Vampire was pretty good too, but at least he was American Colonialist to start with, not a rewrite!

At least the original books remain untouched and dear to my heart as my first clandestine purchase...didn't want people to know I liked "vampire" books, that was for goths and other "weird" people after all, haha! (I now freely admit to being weird). I also kept my reading of Dragonlance secret, after all that was for "boys" *smirks* Ah high school days...

Andrea wrote: "To bad the TV series forced Smith to write more books and basically messed up the whole storyline"

I had watched (and enjoyed) the first season of the TV show when I discovered a copy of the book in among the books I own but had never read. I was surprised at how different they were.

Just started https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... (don’t know how to link the book) - Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Seems up my alley so far, 50 pages in.

Marius wrote: "Just started https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... (don’t know how to link the book) - Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Seems up my alley so far, 50 pages in." In the comment box, at the top, you see "add book/author" Click that and type in the title of your book, search to find the correct one (usually it is at the top of the list) then click "add" It is recommended that you add both the cover and the link, chosen at the bottom of the window. The Midnight Library Happy linking!

Last night I finished the excellent The Curse of the Mistwraith, which was a re-read. I really enjoyed it, and caught some things that I had missed the first time. Also last night I began the next in Anthony Riches' ancient Rome series, The Emperor's Knives.

I've just finished The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier
The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier

A complex and rewarding read: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Jannelies wrote: "I've just finished The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier
The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier

A complex and rewarding read: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

Your link doesn't work Jannelies.

Needed a break from the demon anthology as all the stories were starting to mix together (the downside of reading an anthology straight through) so took a break yesterday and jumped into the final part of the Darkangel Trilogy with The Pearl of the Soul of the World by Meredith Ann Pierce

I have finished Toonopolis Gemini. It's a LitRPG style dive into Saturday morning cartoons. Suitable for primary school age kids, it also contains plenty of Easter eggs for older readers.

I have started The Parliament of Blood.

I've read , which was written after the last book of the series but takes place in between 2 books, so it's not tied to the main story but gives some background and very creepy stories.

I've also read whose protagonist (Kepler) can jump from body to body by a single touch, and sometimes lives in a body for hours, sometimes longer. It's a travelogue as Kepler is chased throughout Europe, and the worldbuilding is fascinating: there are also background stories, and all the details Kepler must think about when switching body (hiding stuff to get it back again later, jumping into a temporary body just to give his/her body money). The writing is as usual great.

I'm now reading . I haven't read much of his recent books but I thought I'd give this one a try, so far it's ok but the style and dialogue aren't great.

Finished The Pearl of the Soul of the World...must admit the ending wasn't what I expected. If I had to compare this trilogy with something it would be The Riddle-Master of Hed, only the worldbuilding is a bit more consistent and understandable :)

Now I've been working my way through Lovecraft's works, I'm not done yet, about halfway through At the Mountains of Madness with at least one other story to come after it but I'm running out of October so I'm starting on Summoned by Anne M. Pillsworth. I've actually read this one before too, in fact I won it through Goodreads, but it took years before I FINALLY found a copy of the second book on OpenLibrary. The third book looks like a lost cause though, must have been some dispute between publisher and author since it seems like the book may even have been written, just not published (I can pre-order it on Amazon.ca but I'll have to wait till October 2029), and with the other two being extraordinarily hard to find there must be a reason why it never got wrapped up. And it's weird because Pillsworth was also working for the Tor blog doing a Lovecraft re-read series of posts, so one would think they got along well enough.

I'm re-reading The Ships of Merior, the second book of the Wars of Light and Shadow. I love this series!!

Finished the free online read of Secret Vampire. I did not enjoy the first third, since I don't like reading about people being diagnosed with uncurable cancer (though what better reason to convince someone to give up their human life and become a vampire then if you're already dying). I liked the Vampire Diaries better (but then that one has nostalgia attached to it), otherwise it was ok. Looks like it could grow into interesting world building as the series progresses and we learn more about the Night World living among us and preying upon us.

I finally am starting the Jane Yellowrock series. Just finished book 2 and have no idea if I'll go on. Reading the remaining 12 is intimidating. Did I love it enough? Meh.

Andrea wrote: "Finished The Pearl of the Soul of the World...must admit the ending wasn't what I expected. If I had to compare this trilogy with something it would be The Riddle-Master of Hed, only the worldbuild..." I read some Lovecraft when I was a teen, until I was so creeped out I couldn't read anymore. Not sure I'll ever try it again! By the time your third book is available in 2029 (!!!) you'll have to reread the first 2 again to have any hope of remembering what happened. Happy waiting!

The Werewolf of Whitechapel by Suzannah Rowntree

I have read a bunch of books! :)
I finished a book from Karel Čapek, and started reading the deadly education by Naomi Novik. I also started reading the house in the cerulean sea and fimfárum by Jan Werich.

Finished Summoned, now I can finally start the sequel, Fathomless by Anne M. Pillsworth

But since that is through OpenLibrary and requires a computer, I'm also starting a dead-tree book for when I won't want to be staring at a screen. Now I've been reading an Anne Rice book every October for many years now as I worked through her Vampire Chronicles, then started on her other stuff. She conveniently had an angel one I haven't read yet to match my reading theme for the year - Angel Time

Yoshihiro Togashi's Yu Yu Hakusho.
It's a very interesting read and I highly recommend it.

Blue wrote: "Yoshihiro Togashi's Yu Yu Hakusho.
It's a very interesting read and I highly recommend it."

Been wanting to see the anime for like forever, it's got a kitsune in it :) But we had Inu Yasha on TV here instead (which is also good)

My review of The Extinction Trials by A.G. Riddle

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...