What are you currently reading?

[ScarletBea]

So I finished Jen Williams' The poison song, and it was a super book!
I just love those characters
Jen manages to write stories that 'flow', that's the best word I can find to describe it: things just happen, and you're carried along, happily and easily, living with them, until suddenly you're at the end and you wonder how you got there so quickly (note: how come it's June already? )
For all the bad things that happen (generally in her books, not just this one), she's firmly in the group of "happy books" for me
The ending was ok, it didn't reach the levels of The silver tide, which I think is up there with the best of endings in my opinion (a very restrict club, for me)


Yesterday I started Mark Lawrence's One word kill.
Very different, not even sure if it can be considered fantasy, but if so, firmly in the realm of urban fantasy. I won't say more as that'd be spoilery.

[xiagan]

Finished the Invisible Library and liked it enough to get the next book soon.

[DrNefario]

Next is my KOLL book for May, We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson, another finalist from the recently-concluded SPFBO 4, ending up 3rd (joint 2nd? are there any rules for a tie-break?) I'm enjoying it so far. Weirdly, although I have read a handful of books from each year of SPFBO, I have yet to read a winner, even though I own all 4 of them.

I finished this last night. It was good, but I felt it lacked a bit of a driving force. It's well-written and readable, but I wasn't all that keen on any of the leads, and even at the end of the book it's hard to see what the series story is actually about. I would like to see where it goes, though.

I'm moving on to Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, although I think I've talked myself out of signing up for the Hugo voting. I'm still going to want to read the winner to maintain my 100% record, so I might as well read the other pre-requisite (although my money is on The Calculating Stars).

[Alex Hormann]

I'm onto Whispers Under Ground. Found the last Peter Grant book pretty mediocre, but this is a huge step up. Particularly liking the day-by-day approach.

[Lanko]

Finished Dracula by Bram Stoker. 3/5

It shows its age, but the good things are really masterful good things.

[xiagan]

Started A Natural History of Dragons. Quite good so far!

[ScarletBea]

I'm onto Whispers Under Ground. Found the last Peter Grant book pretty mediocre, but this is a huge step up. Particularly liking the day-by-day approach.

Funnily enough, I bought this one today for 20p, as a library discard!!
(I'd read it from there a couple of years ago)

[Lanko]

Just reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for a massive change of style.

I knew something about the story and style, but never actually read it in full.

Curiously enough, I'm blazing through it, already 12 chapters in. There's the wit, the nuances and the great passages, sure, but above all, so far, the best is that it's a very... sincere book, so to speak. No holds barred speaking truths, specially about love and society, but done in a very classy, lighthearted way.

[JMack]

Just reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for a massive change of style.

I knew something about the story and style, but never actually read it in full.

Curiously enough, I'm blazing through it, already 12 chapters in. There's the wit, the nuances and the great passages, sure, but above all, so far, the best is that it's a very... sincere book, so to speak. No holds barred speaking truths, specially about love and society, but done in a very classy, lighthearted way.

I like “Persuasion” next best.

[isos81]

I finished Prince of Thorns, starting King of Thorns

[DrNefario]

Just reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for a massive change of style.

I knew something about the story and style, but never actually read it in full.

Curiously enough, I'm blazing through it, already 12 chapters in. There's the wit, the nuances and the great passages, sure, but above all, so far, the best is that it's a very... sincere book, so to speak. No holds barred speaking truths, specially about love and society, but done in a very classy, lighthearted way.

I like “Persuasion” next best.

I really enjoyed P&P when I read it a few years ago. Persuasion is somewhat ruined for me by the fact that I studied it at school. I ought to read the rest of her books, really.

[ScarletBea]

I finished One word kill, Mark Lawrence.
It was super interesting and very very different from his usual books, as it can be classified as urban fantasy or even sci-fi. His characters are great, as usual, and the inclusion of quantum physics is super interesting (for me, hehe - it also helps I read popular science physics books, so a few of the ideas explained there were already familiar)
I commented on the small triggers it caused in another thread, but I was able to overcome them and really enjoy the book.

I got his book 2 Limited wish yesterday, but I'll do a break in the series and I started reading @CameronJohnston 's book 2, God of broken things.

I had to ask him for a quick summary of book 1, poor me, but I'd started reading it before he replied and I remembered more than I thought!
Note: because he's so nice, I let him get away with one of my personal bugbears (in books or tv series) - when there's a scene at the start and afterwards you get a caption "X hours/days earlier..." and it explains how the characters ended up there.

[NedMarcus]

I'm rereading Asimov's Foundation for the first time in over three decades, and it feels surprisingly fresh.

[S. K. Inkslinger]

I finished Snapshot sometime ago and it was another stellar piece by Brandon Sanderson. The twist at the end totally took me off guard, hah. 

[tebakutis]

I'd also recommend Casey Glanders' "Gailsone" series,

Finished Book 1 "Big in Japan". Loved it. The female lead is so refreshing with none of the usual romantic tropes attached. Probably one of the best female characters in SFF.

Off to read the next in series!x

I just finished Big in Japan, and found it entertaining. It was fun to see the classic Justice League archetypes (Batman, Aquaman, Superman) twisted around a bit. If anything, some characters bore so much resemblance to their DC counterparts that I almost wonder if an early draft started at DC Universe fanfic.

To be clear, this is not a negative for me - my most recent scifi novel started off as Star Wars fanfic, after all - just something I noticed. The characters based on Bruce Wayne/Batman, Aquaman, and Superman were all fairly easy to spot. However, since they were mainly background characters (Alice/Dyspell was the focus) I was fine with that, and though Alice/Dyspell was a fun character.

I think I only have two real complaints - one, the head-hopping bothered me on a authorial level (there's a lot of it, even though the book isn't written omniscient) and, also, Gods, the character names!

In order, we have:

The protagonist: Alice
Her adopted niece: Allison
Her nemesis: Anna
Her employer: Alan
Her rival: Lotus (but whose real name turns out to be Aeka)

There's even a couple of spots where the A names get get swapped on accident (I assume typos) which added to my confusion. I was able to keep the characters straight, but it was a struggle.

Still, it was a fun take on the superhero genre. Thanks for the recommendation!