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General Discussion -> Roll-Your-Own Reading Challenge | Message format |
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | Here we go again,cant believe this is the 5th year for this challenge. This challenge caters for all kinds of people and their circumstances,so do come and join us for another year of fascinatingly diverse reads. | ||
Leyra'an |
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Regular Posts: 53 Location: USA | I'm in, even if most of my list this year is leftover from last year's failed challenge. Cross your fingers! | ||
ScoLgo |
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Regular Posts: 62 | I'm in too. Haven't picked half my mix yet but we'll get there! | ||
Mervi2012 |
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Veteran Posts: 100 | I'm in too! I've selected the more modest 20 books to start with. Thanks for hosting, Dustydigger! | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | Wow,people.everyone is quick off the mark this year,already 12 familiar Pick N Mixers signed up,and a newbie (I think),Nea! Welcome,all. And some of you have already picked your books! I had better get cracking adding mine,probably about 60 already chosen,just got to find the time to add them! I do have a fairly eclectic list,but certainly hope to get up to date with the Hugo winners. So far I've read 54/66 of the Hugo lists,and 43/53 of the Nebulas. But there are some seriously massive tomes on those lists,not sure whether I'll read them all this year. Oh well,there's always next year,isn't there? Good luck and have fun with your challenges! | ||
Weesam |
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Uber User Posts: 613 Location: New Zealand | My list this year is full of all the books I purchased last year, but never got around to reading. | ||
Leyra'an |
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Regular Posts: 53 Location: USA | Off to a promising start by finishing The War Against the Rull by A.E. Van Vogt. This is one of a group of novels I discovered in my hometown library, when I was between ten and twelve years old. The covers caught my eye and I was already hooked on science fiction, so that was the extent of my selection process back then. It's been decades since I read this one, but scenes from it remained stuck in my memory. This is one of his "fix ups," (like Voyage of the Space Beagle which I reread last year after a similar decades-long delay) and it suffers from a series of disconnects in the plot. The ending seemed weak to me, as if the author was having trouble wrapping it up and finally said enough's enough and walked away. Knowing no better as a boy, I apparently enjoyed the book - what I understood of it. This time around, it was a bit of a disappointment. Moving on - I'm well into Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. Very impressive work so far. | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | Lester Del Rey's Battle on Mercury was a rather cute little story ,one of the Winston juveniles about a young boy, a grizzled old prospector and an alien ball of electricity who head out through the wilderness to get to a communications relay station to get aid for their little community after the rocket carrying supplies to them crashed,dooming them to starvation. Typical tale of plucky boy coming of age,but nicely written and with an interesting background on Mercury. Good fun. Coming up.Robert Charles Wilson's Spin,my first book by this author, and a UF novel,Amanda Stevens The Visitor | ||
Mervi2012 |
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Veteran Posts: 100 | I finished Craddock's An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors. It was praised by several bloggers so I knew I would most likely enjoy it and wasn't disappointed. It was a fun ride with very detailed world-building. | ||
Weesam |
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Uber User Posts: 613 Location: New Zealand | My Pick & Mix challenge has gotten off to a great start. Only one disappointment so far, Anna Dressed in Blood. Loved Marcus Sakey's Brilliance series. And A God in the Shed was seriously good and scary. | ||
Leyra'an |
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Regular Posts: 53 Location: USA | Finished reading Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. A dark, violent, intense story, richly detailed and well-written. I can see why this made a splash when it first appeared. The main character is one of those rare anti-heroes that you have trouble not liking and rooting for. The plot was twisted and complicated, a description that could be applied to several of the characters. If Netflix does this book justice, it'll be a violent and likely controversial mini-series. Going for something quieter and (I hope) less bloody next - All Flesh is Grass by Clifford D. Simak. | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | I loved Simon R Green's The Man with the Golden Torc,such a fun wildly inventive romp. Sadly there is only one more of the series in our library system,I would have really loved to read the whole series. Also finished my first Robert Charles Wilson book,Spin Intriguing premise about aliens blocking off the earth while the rest of the galaxy continues on in time.Earth comes to realize that for every year on earth, time is rushing ahead at a 100 million years beyond the veil that blocks out the stars,so that within 40 years earth time our dying hugely expanded sun will swallow up our planet.Who are these aliens,what is their purpose and what can mankind do ? Interesting characters and complex relationship blend nicely with the plot. Very engaging.That makes 55/66Hugos read. Now all I have left to do this month,apart from 60 pages of a Clarke juvenile,Dolphin Island, is finish the extremely stodgy Foundation and Earth How can such an exciting premise be so dull in execution? The dialogue is excruciating,the protagonist has suffered a personality transplant since the last book.presumably to fit the plot here,and it is all deadly dull,stilted and long-winded.Wish Clarke had left the fun Baley and Daneel Olivaw books alone instead of adding all this stodge. | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | From my thesaurus synonyms for dull ''boring,tedious,flat,stodgy,Foundation and Earth,insipid,characterless........... Sorry but I was never much of a Foundation fan,nor a Robots fan really and havent found the attempt by Asimov to firmly link the two different series together very convincing.But then I never found psycho-history in the least convincing either.Unappealing characters,interminable tedious conversations,and a rather weak ending did nothing for me either. Relieved to have finished. Wont be reading the prequels...... | ||
Leyra'an |
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Regular Posts: 53 Location: USA | Finished reading All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak yesterday. Odd little book with what was for me a surprisingly disappointing ending. Someone suggests a potential solution to the crisis, the 1st person POV character decided it makes sense, and that that's that. Nothing about the implementation of the solution. It could work, so we'll end it here. It came across as incomplete. Next up, The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin. | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | Read and enjoyed C J Cherryh's Convergence. Cherryh's plots are like onions,you peel away one layer to find something else below. We are still learning more and more about the actions and motives of the crew of that ship that so memorably appeared way back when Bren,totally clueless back then,was having breakfast with Ilisildi and learned of the ship's return.Lot of water under the bridge since then! My main problem with the book was the horrible cover art. Bren-ji looks about 55 at least!!! lol.And fat!Too many teacakes perhaps? Bring back Michael Whelan.The cover for Invader sums up the whole series for me. Too little of Banichi and Jago for my tastes.And no Ilisidi at all.But still it was an enjoyable read. Robert Silverberg's Nightwings was interesting and absorbing Mankind got through the First Cycle of earth's history, the technology phase,but during the Second Cycle they tinkered too much with genetic manipulation and also ruined the climate bringing catastrophe on the world - and gains the disapproving attention of aliens. Now,hundreds of years later humans are living in a sort of mediaeval style in a world that has remnants of all of history.The protagonist, a Watcher,is a weak old man with a ritualistic job looking out for the return of the aliens However no-one really believes they will return,they think it is just a legend.The Watcher,with a winged female and a Changeling are about to live through turbulent times. The novella form of Nightwings won the 1969 Hugo and thisversion is made up of 3 novellas following the old Watcher.This is a rich and complex story in Vance's Dying Earth tradition.I've got to wonder if Gene Wolfe read and was influenced by this. I keep expecting Severian to come round the corner in the city! He would definitely fit in well! Catherine Asaro's Nebula winning The Quantum Rose,another in her Skolian series,was nice mix of romance,family ties,and space opera,with an interesting new world description and an intriguing new mystery in the mix.. Nice light comfort read really,not too sure how it won the Nebula - but the Nebulas are like that,they come in all sorts of subgenres and I am never quite sure why they pick certain books. David Drake's military SF Some Golden Shore was also very enjoyable light fare,the kind of stuff I read on buses and waiting for hospital appointments,which doesnt need much focus or brain power but keeps the mind occupied lol.Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving into the Wreck was also full of adventure but with a rather more sombre tone to it. And lastly,in this hasty update of my Pick N Mix reads I just completed a very odd mix of hard SF,romance,marine biology,aliens and large dollops of horror,Joe Haldeman's Hugo winning Camouflage,which I liked a lot better than his acclaimed Forever War sequence That makes 55/66 Hugos read | ||
Leyra'an |
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Regular Posts: 53 Location: USA | I'm remiss. Finished The Lathe of Heaven about a week ago. Enjoyed it completely, and I'm sorry I waited so long before reading it. The next on the official list is Emergence by C.J. Cherryh, but I've got a nonfiction book I've been picking away at for a couple of months, and I want to focus my attention on it and finish. | ||
Leyra'an |
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Regular Posts: 53 Location: USA | Certainly has gotten quiet around here. (Like I should talk!) Finished Emergence by Cherryh and thoroughly enjoyed it, which should come as no real surprise. As always, I'm anxious to see where the story goes from here. It's been a hell of a trip so far! Followed that up with Heir to Empire by Timothy Zahn. Well written and quite entertaining. Not sure I'll be diving into the vast array of Star Wars novels out there, but I will eventually read the other two in his trilogy. I'll also be checking out more of his other work. His writing style and attention to detail appeals to me. Next up is The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle. One of the consequences of being in groups like this one is that people will sometimes mention books I recall reading long ago. This led me to rediscover Andre Norton a couple of years ago. The Black Cloud is one I remember picking up in my home town library when I was in my early teens. I remember the title and recall being fascinated by it - and that's about it. Some of these old books from memory have held up well, others - not so much. We'll soon see how this one does. | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | Sorry I've been away so long. I have read very little SF lately,had lots of ill health and family issues. Woo-hoo! FINALLY completed Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars early March,thus wrapping up his mammoth 2300 page saga about terraforming Mars from a dry arid desert to a livable habitat complete with sea!. I really found it hard going,KSRs style is so super-detailed,ponderous and SLOW. That does work to give a solidity and super realism to the planet Mars,which becomes a true presence in the books. That is certainly an impressive achievement and I give him full credit. But on the side of plot,pace and characters I found the books a big irritating disappointment. I have one more KSR award winning book to read this year,2312 (a mere 500 pages,thats barely getting going with this man!) and then I will leave Mr Robinson on the library shelves in peace! That makes 56/66 Hugos read and 45/53 Nebulas. I read David weber's light but enjoyable young adult Fire Season,and Treecat Wars,about how Honor Harrington's ancestor first met and interacted with the treecats.Kept mixing the treecats up in my head with H Beam Piper's fuzzies,same sort of feel to the books. Seanan McGuire's A Local Habitation was only so-so.I am somewhat disappointed in this series,even if it is about the Fae. wont make much effort finding more of the books. Also not to happy with Catherynne M Valente's The Girl Who Soared above Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two. In the first two books of the series the rich ornate and elaborate style was fascinating and enriched the story. This outing the style overwhelmed the story,seemed to me to be saying look at me arent I a clever writer. Wont bother with the other 3 or 4 books in the series. Ben Aaronovitch's The Furthest Station was good fun as usual,though we saw little of the river deities this time,It was very short,more like a novella put out to prevent us being irritated at a long gap between books. Andre Norton's Night of Masks was a typically enjoyable read,competently written,aimed at the youth market,but she was never afraid to put in harsh issues. This one was about an orphan hideously scarred in a spaceship crash and his desperation to do anything to earn surgery to heal his face. Edgar Rice Burroughs Chessmen of Mars was surprisingly gruesome at times,but good fun. Next in the series is Mastermind of Mars - if I can find it. And last but certainly not least I enjoyed a reread of Larry Niven's Ringworld,just as much fun now as several decades ago. Still probably the most famous,and one of the most awesome, Big Dumb Objects ever devised. An artifact, a created enviroment a mere 3 million times the area of the earth? Awesome indeed! And thats it,not much to show for over 2 months. I am about 150 pages into N K Jemison's The Fifth Season. Interesting world building but certainly not full of joy and laughter!. Also ready to start Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio but I am behind in my planned reading to complete 17 Hugo and Nebula winners this year.Real life poking its ugly nose into my plans.Grrr! | ||
Leyra'an |
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Regular Posts: 53 Location: USA | Dustydigger - Sorry to hear about health and family problems. Seems you do get more than your share! Finished with The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle, one of those books gleaned from the home town library when I was very young. I have no idea why this one left such a mark on my memory. Reading it now, I realized that better than half of what went on in that story sailed right past the kid I was - I couldn't have been more than 13 years old at the time. Must have been the epic scale of disaster, even though it was described in the driest and most scientific of prose. This book is serious old school hard sci-fi, one of the most unusual 'first contact' stories ever written, and was an interesting reread. Still in reread land, though for a different motive (I'm ever so slowly working my way through the Hugo winners), The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. | ||
Mervi2012 |
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Veteran Posts: 100 | I'm sorry you didn't like McGuire's Local Habitation. It was the weakest book in the series for me, too. Chessmen of Mars is one of my favorite books in the Barsoom series, so I'm happy you liked it, too. I've read quite a bit: Jennifer Foehner Wells' Fluency turned out to be a disappoitment. It started out nicely with a huge alien object in the Greater Asteroid Belt. NASA sends a group of scientists to exlopre. Unfortunately, this turned to be a romance between the magical linguist and one of the astronauts. In contrast I really liked R. J. Stearn's Barbary Station which is about space pirates! Two engineers want to join up a space pirate fleet. They hijack a colony ship thinking it's enough to secure them jobs. But the pirates are in deep trouble and need the newcomers' help. It?s has lots of stuff I want to read about, such as an established couple (instead of courtship romance) working together, a sibling relationship, and cool space pirates. Some of the world-building stuff was pretty vague which might irritate other people. Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Miracles is the final book in the fantasy series. I loved this series and this is a great ending. Steven Brust's Vallista was a lot of fun. It's the newest book in a long series. It's weird and requires quite a bit of knowledge about the world and the characters, so I don't recommend it as a starting point. But for an old fan, it was great. Another final book in the series was Mercedes Lackey's Beauty and the Werewolf, a fantasy romance series set in the 500 Kingdoms. Perhaps weakest in the series, the male love interest doesn't have much presence in the book and Bella is a competent level-headed female lead, much like the other heroines in this series. It riff off of Red Riding Hood and werewolves. Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles was a pleasant surprise. It tells the story of Achilles and Patroclus from Patroclus' POV. It's set in a obviously magical world were deities and magic are real. I also really liked Martha Well's All Systems Red. The MC of the novella is a murderbot who has anxiety issues when dealing with humans. It's written in first person from the bot's POV and I was really charmed by it's voice. The bot just wants people to go away so that it can continue to watching the shows it loves. Finally, Olympus Bound by Jordanna Brodsky was another last in a series. It was a satisfying conclusion to the series. | ||
finminer |
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Regular Posts: 74 | Last year I read some massive tomes - among them Martin Gilbert's biography of Churchill and the first two books of Hamilton's Night's Dawn series - so in terms of book count, I did not do very well. (The Naked God is sitting there, watching & waiting its turn). This year I told myself, "you are not getting any younger, "so why waste time? Start reading all those classic sci-fi books you've always wanted to!" I resolved to start knocking them off. I took several top 100 sci-fi book lists and came up with a composite list, which also knocks out a good number of Hugo/Nebula winners. So I've been attacking that list and prowling the used bookstores for copies of the ones I'm missing. Of the top 30, I've read all but 6; but of the next 70, I've only read 19! I have 28 unread ones on my bookshelf, so that's the stack I've gone after. I've strayed a little from that list, but here's what I've knocked out so far this year: Childhood's End, Hitchhiker's Guide, The Stars My Destination, The Time Machine, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Gateway, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Wrinkle in Time, Altered Carbon, Earth Abides, The Door into Summer (re-read), Star Maker, Babel-17. Others outside the combined list: R.U.R., Camp Concentration, The City & The City, The Last Colony, Zoe's Tale, Lock-In, The Fifth Season. I'm just letting my mood take me anywhere in the list, but I hope I can knock out those 6 unread in the high 30. Not only am I enjoying the quest, but I feel like I am accomplishing something! | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | Hi finminer,so glad you are having fun making your way through your list. I am a list lover too,and was shocked when I joined WWEnd way back in 2012 to find just how much I had to read to reduce my woeful ignorance.Still a long way to go but at least my award and list stats look fairly respectable now,(at least on the SF side,I am not much of a fantasy reader) I felt quite smug when I looked at your lists of books you've ''knocked out'' this year.I've read all but 3 of your main list 11/14(still unread Altered Carbon,Earth Abides,and Star Maker).Plus all but 2 of your off list books 5/7(still to read Camp Concentration,R.U.R) Thats a great reading list I am sure you have thoroughly enjoyed them. I am attempting to complete the Hugo and Nebula winners lists this year,with 11 titles still to go,but what with illness and family issues my reading is way down this year,so I'm not at all sure I can manage them. Some of them are massive tomes and they are daunting me. Anyway keep up the good work! | ||
finminer |
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Regular Posts: 74 | Thanks dustydigger! I joined the "Books I've read in 2018" challenge because I saw you were in there and looked over your list as well. Like you said, I've read a number of those in previous years, some long, long ago in a galaxy very far away. I just keep plugging away and should have 3 more to add within a week. I've had some major scores in the used bookstores recently: the 7 books of the Lensman series, the first 3 Earthsea books, a few PKD books, Clarke's The City & the Stars, Parable of the Sower. Again, focusing on my composite Top 100 list, many of which are the Hugo/Nebula winners. I'll pick up the rest of those later. The sub-200 page ones are easy to knock out but when you get to those monster tomes, they are a bear. I want to get The Naked God (1300+ pages!) out of my hair, so I plan to clear out other books I'm reading and start that one around October 1 so I can finish by year end! Hang in there! | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | Wow Finmine, you did very well at the bookshop! I envy you.Secondhand bookshops are an endangered species here on UK,the nearest to me is an hour away,and its pretty sparse in the SF field anyway,especially the older books I enjoy.A mere 4 shelves,and not one book to tempt me! I did visit the nearest bookchain branch 6 miles away recentlyy,and actually was rather impressed at the big improvement in stock.Maybe someone on the staff is a fan?. They had no less than 22 of the SF Masterworks series,in the past I rarely saw any.And someone must love PK Dick,because there were at least 6 of his titles. But not a single Heinlein or Clarke.And - apart from the ridiculous prices,I cant afford to buy new books - my pet peeve was still in force,no Lois McMaster Bujold or C J Cherryh at all. You dont find them in the libraries either. For a decade the old bookchain which used to be at the same store would order each new LMB and Cherryh for me from the USA,but the next chain didnt do that,nor does this one. Thank heavens for Abebooks and the rest! As for mighty tomes,I know that I should grab Neal Stephenson's Anathem while it is still available at the library. But the first time I saw it,saw the 1000 pages of the most godawfully tiny print I have ever seen,and hefted it - heavier than a brick - I hastily put it back and scuttled away!Normal size print would probably make it about 1200 pages long lol. Now I keep my eyes averted from it.But it never goes out on loan,I keep expecting it to disappear for ever. Then when I need to read it I will have to buy it .I have only read 2 of Stephenson's books,Diamond Age and Snow Crash,and didnt like either,despite being only a modest(for Stephenson) 500plus pages,so buying it was be punishment. . | ||
dustydigger |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1031 Location: UK | I normally try to give at least some idea of my opinions about the books I read,but life is so hectic nowadays that I have failed entirely to do this in the last 2 months.At least I should list them!: May reads; Robert A Heinlein - Methusaleh's Children Emma Bull - Bone Dance John Scalzi - Head On T H White - Mistress Masham's Repose Greg Bear - Darwin's Radio Charlie Jane Anders - All the Birds in the Sky John Scalzi - The End of All Things Harry Harrison - Planet of No Return Thomas Watson - The Plight of the Eli'ahtna And in June: Piers Anthony - A Spell for Chameleon Becky Chambers - The Long Way to a Small,Angry Planet ERnest Cline -Ready Player One Robert J Sawyer - Hominids Clifford D Simak - All Flesh is Grass Cherie Priest - Wings to the Kingdom Ann Leckie - Provenance The next Hugos are doorstoppers - Paladin of Souls,Deepness in the Sky and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.so I am veering off to read 2312 and The Obelisk Gate before girding my loins for the battle of the big books. | ||
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