What are you reading?

[Carnifex]

It would be a huge mistake to say when Going Dark actually takes place, let's just say the head of IT at Silo forty-nine hears part of a conversation that he shouldn't have and things get wonky from there. If you enjoyed the original trilogy you'll likely glam onto this one, and you definitely want to have knowledge of the first series before trying this one on.

 

[Redglyph]

When and where do the events in that book take place in relation to Howey's stories?

It runs in parallel. As @Carnifex said, it's hard to give more details without giving away anything, but you shouldn't read Christy's books before the originals because it reveals a major spoiler.

I'm in the middle of her 2nd book, now, which is more introspective and descriptive than the first or even the original series. It's pretty well done. I wonder where this story is going to go.

While I enjoy her books and her style, I prefer Hugh Howey's books for the originality, of course, but also the style and how the plot is built.

 

[Carnifex]

I finished the Good Father this morning and it's predictable at the end, the signs are all there and in the end you have to deal with reality and let go of the fantasy. A solid read and one I suspect I'll revisit at some time.

Next up for me is a new series, book one is titled Robopocalypse.

 

[daveyd]

I never finished Joe Dever's Lone Wolf gamebook series, so I recently decided it's high time I remedy that. I own the paperback books up to #20 but I am using an Android app a fan made that keeps track of stats and equipment management for you and of course handles the random number table generation. I'm now up to book 13, Plague Lords of Ruel, the first of the "Grandmaster" series.

So today I made it basically to the end of the book, and then while escaping from the enemy's stronghold I had to pick a random number from the number table. And the number I picked resulted in instant death. As much as I love this series, the way you can occasionally die from a bad random number roll like this is just awful. Anyway, I'll have to restart the book since the app won't let me cheat.

 

[soola]

I never finished Joe Dever's Lone Wolf gamebook series, so I recently decided it's high time I remedy that. I own the paperback books up to #20 but I am using an Android app a fan made that keeps track of stats and equipment management for you and of course handles the random number table generation. I'm now up to book 13, Plague Lords of Ruel, the first of the "Grandmaster" series.

So today I made it basically to the end of the book, and then while escaping from the enemy's stronghold I had to pick a random number from the number table. And the number I picked resulted in instant death. As much as I love this series, the way you can occasionally die from a bad random number roll like this is just awful. Anyway, I'll have to restart the book since the app won't let me cheat.

Cool.

Back in the day I remember there was an awesome module for Neverwinter Nights that had an implementation of a/some lone wolf book(s). It was the best module I’d played back then but I think I recall the developer had given it up.

Something to check out if you have NWN. I need to see if someone else picked up that work.

 

[daveyd]

Cool.

Back in the day I remember there was an awesome module for Neverwinter Nights that had an implementation of a/some lone wolf book(s). It was the best module I’d played back then but I think I recall the developer had given it up.

Something to check out if you have NWN. I need to see if someone else picked up that work.

Yeah, I think I tried those years ago. They were intended to be prequels to the book series. But as I understand it the creator stopped making them because he was actually hired by Bioware to make a premium module called Shadowguard. Shadowguard was also a pretty cool module but it is kind of short and also ends on a cliffhanger.

Not sure what happened to "Altaris" after that; if he still works in the industry or made mods for any other games.

 

[Carnifex]

I completed Robopocalypse earlier today and it's a good start in a series. You come in near the end of a war and then things back up and show how little incidents escalated into an all-out war for supremacy of Earth. I'm going to keep going and see how the second book carries things on.

But first, a dip back into all things Spenser with a visit to Rough Weather. Spenser gets hired to be an escort at a wedding and things go gnarly real quick, leaving our detective alone to figure out exactly what happened, and why. Oh, and the Gray man is back!

 

[Carnifex]

And I blew right through Rough Weather, boy golly what a ride it was! We have a resolution putting the Grey man and Spenser in a situation-relationship quite unlike anything they've had before, it'll be interesting to see what happens next.

Yet that will have to wait because the sequel to the Robot series is next, book two, Robogenesis.

 

[Carnifex]

Robogenesis is quite different from the prior book, this one sees a resurgence of the robots in various ways, some benign and others very aggressive. Overall I'd say maybe it's not as good as the first novel yet still well worth reading.

 

[Redglyph]

I just finished Fix the System, Not the Women by Laura Bates. The statistics and many of those testimonies are more than chilling, and it's at all the levels, even to the smallest, apparently innocent details like the type of toys you'd give a boy or a girl.

After reading this, I have the impression the institutions are more patriarchal in the UK (for example, when you see the rules to be MP), but it's far from looking rosy in Europe in general. Changing anything like that seems a daunting task.

 

[Carnifex]

I completed Robogenesis earlier and it does, at the end, more than set up for yet another sequel. I don't think I'll be going for thirds, though, the story is over for me. Now I'm back to Spenser with Chasing the Bear.

 

[soola]

I completed Robogenesis earlier and it does, at the end, more than set up for yet another sequel. I don't think I'll be going for thirds, though, the story is over for me. Now I'm back to Spenser with Chasing the Bear.

If you liked that kind of book and want one by another author, I’d recommend The Robots of Gotham by Todd McAulty. Fun read and has nothing to do with Batman, btw.

I’d also recommend the short story “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang in the collection “Exhalation: Stories”. Ted is probably my favorite author and has serious chops in doing profoundly deep worldbuilding within a short narrative. All the stories in “Exhalation” are awesome.

Both of these authors have a background in tech and it brings an interesting styling to their storytelling.

 

[Shagnak]

I’d also recommend the short story “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang in the collection “Exhalation: Stories”. Ted is probably my favorite author and has serious chops in doing profoundly deep worldbuilding within a short narrative. All the stories in “Exhalation” are awesome.

Ted Chiang is superb. I haven't read Exhalation yet, but I've read some that appear there separately, and I have Stories if Your Life and Others - which is so, so excellent (it got republished as Arrival, to help publicize the movie of the same name).
It's amazing how consistently good he is.

 

[soola]

Ted Chiang is superb. I haven't read Exhalation yet, but I've read some that appear there separately, and I have Stories if Your Life and Others - which is so, so excellent (it got republished as Arrival, to help publicize the movie of the same name).
It's amazing how consistently good he is.

I felt that Exhalation was head and shoulders above “Stories of Your Life and Others” and I loved Arrival.

Yeah you gotta read it. Half the fun of “Exhalation” for me was thinking “wow the story could go this way and it’d be awesome or that way and also be cool…” with respect to that world-building I was talking about. Absolutely spellbinding stuff.

 

[SveNitoR]

I've almost finished the Hyperion quadrilogy by Dan Simmons. Mostly a great read and a very different take on SciFi to what I've read before.

 

[Redglyph]

I have finished the two first books of the Silo 49 series, so it's time to take a break.

Now I'm reading Le mage du Kremlin, by Giuliano da Empoli (the original is in French, and I don't think it has been translated to English yet). It has received two prestigious awards, Goncourd (nominee) and Académie Française, and it's about historical fiction in Russian politics, so I was very curious about it.

It's a little confusing because one of the characters (inspired by Vladislav Sourkov, a real person, but under another name in the story) relates a lot of history, and it's not always obvious for me to see if it's fictional or not. From what I understand, it's mostly accurate, except the main characters of course.

 

[Carnifex]

I'll keep an eye out for those and thanks for the suggestions.

 

[SveNitoR]

I've almost finished the Hyperion quadrilogy by Dan Simmons. Mostly a great read and a very different take on SciFi to what I've read before.

Just finished this completely. I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

 

[Carnifex]

I liked the Hyperion books, though the first was my favourite by far.

 

[SveNitoR]

I liked the Hyperion books, though the first was my favourite by far.

Yeah, I really enjoyed that it was told very differently by the different characters and also the strong sense of mystery. It must've been fun to write