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Mervi2012

Posted 2016-06-29 1:06 PM (#13866 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I finished Becky Chambers' The long way to a small angry planet which I enjoyed a lot. But it's not an action adventure book; it has a series of events, like a season in a TV show. It follows the cargo ship Wayfarer and her crew. Each crew member gets a chapter to themselves so they're very well rounded. It has also three fascinating alien cultures.

Weesam

Posted 2016-06-29 3:52 PM (#13867 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Finished! Standouts from my reading this year have been:

Simon Green's Nightside series continues to be so much fun. As does Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series. Looking forward to more of these. And they are both an excellent substitute while I wait for what I really want - Ben Aaronovitch's next Peter Grant novel! Seriously, when it is coming out?
Finished off both Kate Griffin's (aka Claire North) Matthew Swift and Mike Carey's (aka M R Carey) Felix Castor urban fantasy series. Both are outstanding.
Paul Cornell's Shadow Police was a surprising win for me. Very dark and gritty urban fantasy, and so well done. I normally don't like dark and gritty, but I fell for these ones.
Matt Ruff continues to please with Sewer, Gas & Electric. I have loved every book Ruff has ever written, so I don't know why this one has sat on my shelf unread for so many years.
I have always enjoyed reading Robert J Sawyer, so it comes as no surprise that I enjoyed Triggers. I just don't understand why it took me three goes at reading this book to finally get into it.
The Eternal Sky series from Elizabeth Bear was wonderful. Her best work yet.
And rounding out the favourites would be Transcendental from James Gunn and Memory by Linda Nagata.

Thanks for another fun challenge.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-07-01 5:43 PM (#13881 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Wow! Well done Weesam,I'm glad you have had so many great reads.I am doing very badly by comparison,as we old Shelfari fans were ejected when Shelfari closed down ifollowed by the abrupt ending of Leafmarks with only one months warning,shutting down today. Now we are over on LibraryThing,the third home in 5 months! All the work moving our stuff ,setting up new groups,trying to edit the often inadequate data transfer from site to sitehas meant ,actual reading has taken a beating. Here's hoping we can hunker down for a long time now,and I can get some reading done!
This month I am hoping to read Michael Bishop's No Enemy But Time and James White's The Watch Below,as well as Zelazny's Isle of the Dead and maybe Larry Niven's The Integral Trees,but I wont commit myself to more than that,I have family health issues apart from the book site business.
Another great month for the PIck n' Mixers,27 active participants have read 591 books.compared with 337 books read in the whole of last year. Keep it up!

Leyra'an

Posted 2016-07-07 6:39 PM (#13946 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Finished reading Dying of the Light by George R. R. Martin. A strange, dark, violent story set on a dying world. The setting is a tale by itself, with the planet Worlorn arguably one of the characters. The story is largely driven by each character's inability to deal with life as it is, rather than how they wish it could be, with naive pride, confused love, and misguided devotion to an obsolete code of behavior defining what happens along the way. None of the characters emerges unscathed; change comes to them all by the end. Beautifully written and realized.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-07-08 2:00 AM (#13947 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Weesam, I've read a lot from Elizabeth Bear but I haven't read that series yet. It's great to hear that it's good. And I'm glad you chose such good books.

I've finished Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book. It's a sequel to the Eyre Affair and I recommed reading that one first. The main character, Thursday Next, is a literary detective. In the first book she went in to Jane Eyre to capture a criminal who had gone into the book. Now, Thursday is plagued by strange coincidences which turn out to be attempts to kill her. It doesn't have a proper ending but continues to the next book, the Well of Lost plots. It's very funny and has lot of referencies to books.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-07-13 7:57 AM (#14001 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I finished Catherynne Valente's Deathless. It's retelling of Russian fairy tales set in Soviet Union. The latter half is set in Leningrad during WW II and it was actually hard to read about the suffering of the starving and dying people. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it. It centers on Marya Morevna, who is the bride of Koschei the Deathless. Apparently Koschei is a devil like figure in Russian fairy tales but in this book he's the Tsar of Life who is constantly at war with the Tsar of Death. It's strange book but also beautiful one.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-07-20 6:54 AM (#14048 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Well, I couldn't resist reading Fforde's next book: the Well of Lost Plots. It's just as funny as the previous book and was another enjoyable read and I had again blast with the various literary references. However, the plot started from the previous book didn't wrap up in this one. Instead, it had another plot. This time Thursday Next tries to live quietly in an unpublished book for some months. Of course, she gets mixed up with the characters in that book and happenings in the BookWorld in general.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-07-24 2:13 PM (#14078 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I enjoyed the first book in the series,but couldnt get into the second book very well,thought it was a one joke series,so I gave up. I may try again sometime

I normally avoid books about the holocaust,or slavery,or about child abuse etc,these days I tend to want lighter books on lighter topics. So I have been putting off Olivia E Butler's Kindred where a young modern black woman has an irresistible link with her slave owning white ancestor ,born back around 1810,so that whenever he is in physical danger she is transported back in time to save his life,switching back and forth in time till she is sure that her great great grandmother has been born to one of his slave women . I was surprised at how accessible the style was,since was expecting a typical literary fiction style,dry and erudite. The book did move smoothly and easily,and was tense and gripping. But I just found the whole heartbreaking slavery situation very distressing to read about,I only read one flashback section at a time because it was so grim and disturbing,as this modern american woman had to struggle to become servile to survive ill treatment and the heartbreak of numerous abuses of the slaves. So its taken quite a while to finish the book,but it was a good book I'm glad I read it. I think I will wait a few months before tackling another of Butler's works!
Co-incidentally I was also reading a very different time travel novel,Michael Bishop's No Enemy But Time about a time experiment where a young man is sent back to the Pleistocene,and when the technology for his return to the present fails,he joins a group of hominids and even falls in love with one! The book is vividly written,often hilarious,or harrowing,sexually frank,and addresses themes of racism and identity in a vibant way. Good fun.One more Nebula off the list!That's 31/52 completed :0)
How interesting that time travel can be used for such different authors themes! Butler uses it only as a device to get a modern character back to the 1820s where she can be a foil for the state of blacks back then,as well as showing that even the most sensitive or well-intentioned of people are affected by the whole social milieu,so that the whole society can fall into gross injustices and cruelty.I found it sad to be reading this at a time when any sort of progress of justice seems to be faltering badly,just one more reason for finding the book a hard read in some ways
Bishop uses a form of spirit travel combined with military equipment to thrust his protagonist much further back in time,while being careful to avoid pitfalls of pulp SF novels time travel gaffes That was my second Bishop book,and it was very different from Transfigurations,though both are rather anthropologically themed,and both interesting and thought provoking. Good stuff.

Leyra'an

Posted 2016-07-26 3:47 PM (#14083 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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After a strong first half, my reading rate has slowed somewhat. Life happens. Finally finished one, though.

I've been hearing about the Discworld stories for many years, now, and when I mentioned to a friend my intention to finally pick one up, Guard! Guards! was his recommendation. That's turned out to be some of the best reading advice I've received in quite some time. Comedy, in any genre, is difficult to write, no less so in a fantasy. Pratchett pulls it off, and that's an understatement. I smiled a lot and laughed out loud from time to time. A very clever book. I begin to understand why his fans mourn his relatively recent passing to the degree they do. I'll be back for more Terry Pratchett's Discworld in the future.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-07-28 8:19 AM (#14090 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I loved Guards! Guards! Thomas.Its always a pleasure to visit Ank-Morpork( wonder if I am right in assuming that is an homage to Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar?).I love the way Terry slyly cuts our society to ribbons with many people not even noticing! lol. I liked Sam Vimes,but as ever when I am reading about Discworld I am eagerly searching for crumbs about The Patrician,Lord Vetinari. What a wonderful character! Terry himself once said that when he was writing about the Patrician,he had Alan Rickman firmly in his mind. Brilliant! Ever since that is who I see and hear in scenes with Lord Vetinari.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-07-29 5:05 AM (#14093 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Larry Niven's The Integral Trees,a Locus award winner, was a hugely enjoyable romp,but as is usual with Niven it has a jaw dropping setting
.500 years ago the ship Discipline was exploring with an eye to colonization,under the watchful eye of a computer tasked with monitoring the crew's loyalty for the all powerful State. They came across the Smoke Ring,a massive gas torus surrounding a neutron star with no planets,but with a variety of plant and animal life-forms evolved to thrive in conditions of continual free-fall. A mutiny occurred,and the crew abandoned ship, setting up home on some of the vegetation,setting up a variety of social and political systems.Scratching for a living on the tree like vegetation,and now with no memory of their past,and a pitiful amount of old tech slowly dying out,life is hard.
A small group of survivors from a dying Tree have a hair raising series of adventures,including slavery, before they steal an aged shuttle craft and make brief contact with the ship Discipline's computer,which is still patiently obeying orders to monitor the crew,before setting up a new colony on a new Tree.
Sketchy characterization of course,but lots of derring do,narrow escapes and wild adventures. A fun,quick read,and of course that weird and wonderful setting of the Smoke Ring. Excellent.
That makes 28/46 Locus award winners completed.I am trying to read 2 or 3 Hugo,Nebula or Locus winners per month,it should take about two more years to complete them all! lol.
But now the nice short,easy SF/F reads are going to give way to all the massive wristbreaking tomes,so progress may be a bit slower. Having a great time though,and have had some wonderful reads since getting back into the genre after decades away.
Next up for August on the awards roster are Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman,and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's The Healer's War,both new author's to me.(Scarborough did some rather dull collaborations with Anne MacCaffrey many moons ago,but I havent read any of her personal stuff.)

dustydigger

Posted 2016-08-07 11:14 AM (#14145 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I needed to read a title beginning with the letter ''H'' for a challenge,and chose to reread C J Cherryh's Heavy Time. Big mistake. I had been away from the space station helldecks for a couple of years,and once I revisited I was hooked again. Heavy Time is perhaps one of the weakest of the Alliance/Union series,very confusing even to an old Cherryh fan,(we need at least a smidgen of exposition sometimes C J!) but the intensity,the gripping hold that world has on you so that you are dazed when you surface from the tale, dragged me in and I just had to read the sequel,Hellburner, one of my faves in the series.This was my 3rdreading of the book and I think I am getting my head around it,and probably another couple of reads and I will fully grasp things! lol.. Cherryh does not make it easy for us,and I'm sure a lot of people are put off by the unusual style,but we see new things every time we read,
Once started the book I had to keep going and reluctantly left the last 50 pages at 3 a.m. when my eyes were refusing to stay open.,and finished it next morning. Tiny snippets in the story were glances at others in the series and I very much fear that I will feel the need to check in on the rest of the series,despite all the challenge books I still have to read......sigh.....

Leyra'an

Posted 2016-08-07 5:57 PM (#14146 - in reply to #14145)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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The closest thing to a "light" sci-fi read by C.J. Cherryh I've encountered was the Chanur saga, which still taxes those with impaired attention spans. I also haven't read anything by her in the way of sci-fi that disappointed me. Curiously enough, I've never really been taken by her fantasy work

DrNefario

Posted 2016-08-08 7:16 AM (#14150 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I'm the same. The fantasy's not terrible, but it doesn't seem to grab me as well as the SF. It seems to me that it's in a different voice, and it's just not one that I find very appealing. I did like the Chernevog books, but I guess they're not quite the same thing.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-08-12 9:05 AM (#14169 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I haven't yet read any of Cherryh's fantasy but I have her Fortress series on my shelf and I plan on reading it later this year.

My next Pick and Mix read was Adam Roberts' Salt. It's a culture clash science fiction book. Humans from different ideologies travel to a plant which is covered in salt. There the people from different societies which utterly fail to communicate with each other, with tragid results. The story is told from the first person POV of two men, each the leader (sort of) of their own society. I found the book very interesting but not very enjoyable.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-08-19 4:07 AM (#14208 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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It may be all flashand little real substance,but Roger Zelazny's Roadmarks,reread for a challenge where I needed a original world creation, was hugely enjoyable. I probably grasped a lot more than my bewildered first attempt (inaudible mumble) decades ago,or my second read maybe a decade ago. If you want amazing settings,quirky characters,mythology,a headcracking plot,a hero who is living backwards like Merlin,time travel,French poetry(in the original French!) AIs in the form of books of poetry, a ninja,a tyranosurus rex, rollercoaster adventures and DRAGONS no less,Mr Zelazny juggles all these effortlessly in the air and masterfully somehow produces some sense out of it by the end! lol.And its only 185 pages long! Enormous fun,and, sure sign of being one of my all time favourite books, I could have happily turned by to the beginning and reread it! Superior popcorn read,and its made me want to sink back into Zelazny again. I do have the second set of Amber books on hand,I am ready to read book 7,Blood of Amber,but I know for a fact I would want to read the other three books of the series straight after,and I still have nearly 50 other books on my TBR for the rest of the year.Think I had better leave Merle in the Shadows for a while,or I'll never finish my challenges!I'll join Merle on his travels in Shadow in December I think. Then if I must read more of one of my fave authors,I can put them on next year's list! :0)

Leyra'an

Posted 2016-08-26 8:48 AM (#14227 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Anyone able to point me to how books are added to WWE? Reading one now that's worthy of note, but it isn't listed.

Weesam

Posted 2016-08-26 5:27 PM (#14228 - in reply to #14227)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Leyra'an - 2016-08-27 1:48 AM

Anyone able to point me to how books are added to WWE? Reading one now that's worthy of note, but it isn't listed.

Just go to this thread and ask for what you want.

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1...

Is is called "Can't find the book you want? Make your book requests here! Part II" and it can be found in the "Books, Awards and Lists" forum

Edited by Weesam 2016-08-26 5:28 PM

dustydigger

Posted 2016-08-30 7:19 PM (#14239 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Completed Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think as a winner of the Grand Master of Science Fiction award. Odd mixture of noir,fantasy and science fiction with some good ideas and it is fairly enjoyable,with your typical femme fatale of the noir genre luring some weak sap into committing crimes - only she is a witch/shapeshifter dedicated to destroying a device which could exterminate the shifters forever! Lots of psychology gobbledegook,so common at the time (1948).the blackest of noir with a very downbeat ending. Quite good fun,but the writing is clunky flat and repetitive. Could have been excellent in the hands of a better writer.
I found it impossible not to picture Lana Turner and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity as the protagonists! lol.But without the sparkling dialogue and sexual tension.Here the guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He persists in believing that he only dreams of going off as a wolf,tiger or huge snake and murdering people,all of them old dear friends. He only comes to believe its true 20 pages from the end.Ah well Jack did his best,and I did find it interesting.
That makes 24/27 of the Grand Masters sampled,only Damon Knight,Michael Moorcock and James E Gunn left to go....next year!
Also finished Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman all about an archaeologist in Mexico unearthing the ruins of a Mayan temple. She has always been able to see shadows of the people of the past but now an ancient Mayan priestess of a mother goddess is urging her on to kill her estrsnged daughter as a sacrifice,claiming this will bring the goddess back to power. Odd sort of book,almost a travelogue for Mexico. Masses of stuff about ancient Mayan life,their calendars and religion etc. Plus the difficulties between a mother and daughter. Apart from the ancient priestess popping up now and again,and a would be dramatic climax in an ancient temple which didnt really get me excited at all,I didnt really take to this book probably because the characters never struck a chord with me,and the book somewhat tailed off. Not really award winning material IMO,but it had all those womens issues so beloved at the time. Certainly a riproaring adventure like fellow nominees Brin's The Uplift War,or even Gene Wolfe's offbeat Soldier in the Mist didnt have enough gravitas! lol. Oh well,that makes 32/52 Nebulas completed,still a long long way to go
Well done Pick n 'Mixers,747 books read,compared with 337 books in the whole of last year. Well done Pope Stig and weesam,who have completed 80 books each. Many others are doing a great job well on the way to reaching their challenge totals. Yay for the Pick n' Mixers.Two thirds through the year,still four months to go, so many of you will reach your goals for sure.

Edited by dustydigger 2016-08-30 7:29 PM

Leyra'an

Posted 2016-08-30 7:50 PM (#14240 - in reply to #14228)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Weesam - 2016-08-26 4:27 PM

Leyra'an - 2016-08-27 1:48 AM

Anyone able to point me to how books are added to WWE? Reading one now that's worthy of note, but it isn't listed.

Thanks!

Leyra'an

Posted 2016-08-31 12:55 PM (#14246 - in reply to #14240)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Well, apparently WWE doesn't add books by "unknown" self-published authors. The book in question is Inish Carriag by Jo Zebedee. It's an interesting take on the alien invasion theme, in this case dealing with the aftermath. (We lost. And that's not a spoiler.) Believable characters and dialog, a well-managed pace, if a bit rushed at the end. An enjoyable read.

So my challenge this year will have an unofficial +1 when all is said and done.

Sushicat

Posted 2016-09-05 11:30 AM (#14271 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Yipee! Dancing the jig! I just completed 20! Notching up a bit to 40!
Looking at the list, I can't pick a favorite - there's so many very different things on it.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-09-06 10:24 PM (#14279 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Congrats Sushicat!. Your list is very varied. I love looking at Pick n' Mixers lists,they are so much more varied than most challenges,no parameters or boundaries,which makes it fun to browse. Hell on trying to reduce the TBR though!

(Missing you on the Trove,by the way! would have loved to have seen notes on these books on the What Are We Reading thread!)

dustydigger

Posted 2016-09-11 4:18 AM (#14298 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Whew! At last I finished Connie Willis's Doomsday Book A fair read that could have been even better if there had been less repetition and the stressing of themes had been less heavyhandedly pointed.Willis never heard that less is more
Most of the historical inaccuracies were minor or passed me by completely so didnt bother me much,except the irritation of the times ''The NHS phoned you'' and the measurements being in centimetres. Written in late 80s I would have expected feet and inches would have been more sensible,both for US and UK audiences. Instead,every time I saw centimetres it brought back the French Revolution when centimetres and metres were invented,400 years after the plague!
But I did like the theme that human beings are human beings in all their variety, strengths and weaknesses,and historians are too fond of simplifying, even dismissing this for the ''big picture''.The same attitude that dismissively states that back in ye olden days when parents lost three or four of their children before they reached five years old they didnt feel it as much as we much more sensitive modern people do.OK,cultural mores and religion may have muted things in some ways but tragedy,grief and pain were still there to be suffered.
Also read Asimov's [The Currents of Space] It was an OK read,typical Asimov,with the usual rather flat characters,but a reasonably interesting depiction of the relationship between two planets,one of which produces the only known plant kyrt which is processed into a beautiful material,the other rules and exploits the workers shockingly. Typical Asimov pessimism over human nature , and has the usual Asimov conspiracies and a slight mystery,complete with a Poirot like revealing of the culprit.{ Asmov must have been a Christie fan and enjoyed producing his own mystery series,The Black Widowers series.} To me however the writing is so dry and clunky it detracts from the story sometimes. I felt that in spades in Robots and Empire when I recently read it.
You've got to love Asimov'sboundless faith that some day humans will inhabit not hundreds,not thousands,but a million planets across the galaxy! :0)

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-09-12 1:21 PM (#14303 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Congrats Sushicat!
I read Willis' Doomsday Book years ago and remember enjoying it but nothing specific. Maybe it's time to reread?

I just finished Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters. I enjoyed it a lot: it's fun and light book with interesting world-building and characters. It's set in a fantasy world where magic is done through nature spirits, the kigh. Only bards can command the kigh, or rather ask for their help. The book has several point-of-view characters. Annice is a bard who finds out soon that she's pregnant and spends most of the book on the run and very pregnant. Stasya is her girlfriend and also a bard. Pjerin is the duc of a remote but tactically important keep. He's fraimed as a traitor and Annice helps him to run. While this might look like a setup for romance, it's not. Annice and Pjerin can barely tolerate each other. They're both very proud and convinced that they're right.

I've got the second book in the series and I'm going to read it next. It's set in the same world but has different characters.

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