Beyond Reality discussion

Please let us know what you are reading or are planning to read in June.

Ready to start The Chaos Balance. I have a few other things in my stack but not sure what I'll read next.

I just started a new job with a bit of a longer commute, so I've been making some good progress on my audiobook, Seveneves. I'm pretty bad with audiobooks, so I've been stalled on this one for almost a year. It's nice to finally get somewhere with it.

I'm also reading A Quiet of Stone, the final book in a trilogy about assassins, and thinking I might actually make some progress on that tonight, after a week of very little.

haven't been doing much reading lately besides student work - but The Bristling Wood is waiting for me at the library when I have a minute to go pick it up!

I just finished Eon: Dragoneye Reborn which I highly recommend. Now about to start On the Edge of Gone

Finished Dune last month and then started another book that's been on my "to read" list forever: Red Mars. Making good progress (again with the aid of the audiobook). Assuming I finish within the month (likely), well - it'll depend on my mood (always), but I've spent a lot of time in classic sci-fi of late, so I might move to something more modern. Or maybe leave the genre altogether (Alexander Hamilton sits there, beckoning!).

I've also been on a graphic novel kick lately, but that's much more "what's available at hand" than pre-planned.

I seem to be on a bit of a horror kick. I am reading HEX, and listening to NOS4R2 by Joe Hill, which may possibly be the best-narrated audiobook I have ever experienced.

Tani wrote: "I've been making some good progress on my audiobook, Seveneves.
I'm also reading A Quiet of Stone, the final book in a trilogy about assassins"

Seveneves isnt his best book but it was pretty good.
You are the only other person I have ever hear of to read this book. I picked them up when I was a kid. I liked the cover. I read the first book in the series last summer. This reminds me to read the second soon

Well I am still reading The Only Rule is it has to Work,
It's pretty good.

Christine wrote: "I just finished Eon: Dragoneye Reborn which I highly recommend. Now about to start On the Edge of Gone"

I liked Eon: Dragoneye Reborn quite a lot! Haven't read the sequel yet, but I intend to!

Ken wrote: "Seveneves isnt his best book but it was pretty good.
You are the only other person I have ever hear of to read this book. I picked them up when I was a kid. I liked the cover. I read the first book in the series last summer. This reminds me to read the second soon "

I read and really enjoyed The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Stephenson last year (I think?), so I thought I would hop on the bandwagon with Seveneves, but it's been slow for me. Not terrible, but I think it's just too long for me to want to listen to it on an audiobook. I have limited patience for being read to. I'll have to be more aware of length when I pick my next audiobook.

My fiance picked up an omnibus of the Hoorka trilogy a year or so ago, and he suggested I read it when I was looking for a new book. I liked it more than I thought I would. I think it has good characters, and the complexities of the politics are interesting. I actually just finished A Quiet of Stone a few minutes ago. It had a slow start, but a strong finish.

My next book is going to be To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts. It's my first book by her, but I've heard a lot of good things, so I'm excited.

Tani wrote: "My next book is going to be To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts. It's my first book by her, but I've heard a lot of good things, so I'm excited. "

ooooooh, you're in for a treat :)

Viv wrote: "I seem to be on a bit of a horror kick. I am reading HEX, and listening to NOS4R2 by Joe Hill, which may possibly be the best-narrated audiobook I have ever experien..."

That's awesome to here about NOS4R2. I absolutely love Kate Mulgrew & I have this one on my Audible wishlist.

Jenny - did you see that Kate Mulgrew is also narrating The Fireman? That's next on my wishlist!

Just finished Anansi Boys so will go for Martian Time-Slip as my next book.

I plan to try and read Lord of the Silver Bow next. Maybe go for Abaddon's Gate as my final book of the month

Viv wrote: "Jenny - did you see that Kate Mulgrew is also narrating The Fireman? That's next on my wishlist!"

I did & it was on sale so I bought it!!

I have been following three Tor.com readalongs and trying to keep up with new books and it has been a bit of a struggle. I did get some decent reading time in recently though, and I'm getting closer to up to date.

Right now I'm reading Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell.

Next to start for readalongs will be Camber of Culdi by Katherine Kurtz and Sky Coyote by Kage Baker.

I'm also reaading The Song Of Homana by Jennifer Roberson. This is where I'm struggling as I'm only halfway through and I'm meant to have finished the next book by now. It's enjoying the story and the prose, but it's a bit too easy to put down. I'm not sure why. But I shall persevere.

I've got three pre-orders for June (Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh, Rise: A Newsflesh Collection by Mira Grant and The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross) and I'm looking forward to all of those.

It's wintery and cold here now, so hopefully that will make for good reading weather.

Just finished The Book of Phoenix which I really enjoyed despite its flaws. About to start the Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North, which I've been looking forward to for ages, and then Children of Time and Glorious Angels - to finish reading the Clarke Award shortlist books.

Children of Time was one of my favourite books last year, it's absolutely brilliant. I haven't read The Glorious Angels, but I keep meaning to get around to it.

Here is what I've been reading lately:

Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan - this is a YA fantasy standalone loosely based on a retelling of A Tale of Two Cities. I didn't think it was very good though, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you happen to be a real fan of this author.

Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee - a YA SF standalone on the Andre Norton shortlist for 2015. I thought this one was very good. I'm not a sports fan, but the story here kept my interest and the world building was quite good. I thought it held its own amongst the other very impressive books that made the shortlist. (Those are here, for anyone who is interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...)

Ruin by John Gwynne - this is the third book in the epic fantasy series The Faithful and the Fallen. Although the storyline in this series isn't very original, it is very good and well told, particularly in books 2 and 3, where the writing and the pacing improved markedly over book 1. I would recommend this one if you like epic fantasy. The final book in the series comes out in December, so you can read the whole thing this year even:)

Double Dead by Chuck Wendig- vampire wakes up to find that zombie apocalypse has occured. The tropes aren't very original but the genre mash up itself is and is done quite well. The story falls apart a bit towards the end, but overall it was entertaining and was well written. I would recommend this if you like your zombie apocalypse books.

I'm currently reading HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt with Viv!

Hex is kinda fun. Reminded me of early King. Decent old-school horror but with a modern sensibility.

It's funny that you say that Ian because as I was reading it yesterday I was thinking that the tone reminds me a bit of Pet Sematary:)

I am in the middle of David Falkayn: Star Trader by Grand Master Poul Anderson, book 2 of his "Technic Civilization Saga". It's a compilation of a short novel, novels and short stories about his Polesotechnic League of star traders. This volume concentrates on my fictional hero David Falkayn.

Tani wrote: "I read and really enjoyed The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Stephenson last year (I think?).."
It's older, I think late 90s early 0s. My favorite by Stephenson is Cryptomicon which got me interested in cryptography. Anathem is a favorite also.

Finished The Only Rule is it has to Work. Not a bad baseball book. I suspect though it might have worked better if they had worked their theories over two or three seasons.
It really didnt prove anything except it's hard to run a baseball team.

Dove back into Dust of Dreams.

I'm reading Fevre Dream by GRRM. I'm enjoying the historical detail and rich descriptions as well as the vampire mythology.

Because I can't just read one book at a time, I'm also reading Seraphina which seems like an intriguing take on dragons.

I finished On the Edge of Gone earlier in the week; I enjoyed it and have now moved on to Railhead which is very engrossing. Quite a world imagined in this book!!

I'm belatedly reading The Library at Mount Char - my loan didn't come in time for the group discussion, but I'm not that far off! About a third of the way through and loving it!

I just finished Railhead; what a great story.Now on to Eona: The Last Dragoneye

I just finished The Aeronaut's Windlass. It had some good world building and a big cast of characters but almost no character development, which made it difficult for me to become invested in.

I ended up tossing Dust of Dreams. I just couldnt get into it. All I was reading was Blah Blah Blah. I thought the first seven books were pretty good, but I think when the author went the Lether the books started to go the way of too much. At least for me anyway.
When I hit Toll of Hounds the books stopped for me

Maybe I will revisit in a couple of years

Started Private Wars

I finished The Library at Mount Char last night and loved it! I have the next Deverry book waiting for me at the library when I can get there, hopefully tonight, so that will be next.

Ken wrote: "I ended up tossing Dust of Dreams. I just couldnt get into it. All I was reading was Blah Blah Blah. I thought the first seven books were pretty good, but I think when the author went the Lether th..."

Dust of Dreams was the toughest book for me to get through, I think, but The Crippled God made it worthwhile. If you come back to it at some point, please let us know.

Kathi wrote: "Ken wrote: "I ended up tossing Dust of Dreams. I just couldnt get into it. All I was reading was Blah Blah Blah. I thought the first seven books were pretty good, but I think when the author went t..."

I'm with Kathi. Dust of Dreams was a slog, but I really loved The Crippled God. I agree with you, though, that Lether felt like it brought the series down for quite a while, even though it ended up worth it in the end for me.

Robert Silverberg's short novel To Open The Sky, from a time - 1967 - when Venus still could have humans on its surface, and having psi-powers wasn't frowned upon.

Here are the SFF books I have been reading recently -

HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt- I finished this one and would recommend it; it is pretty creepy actually and has a similar feel to some old style King.

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard - this is a YA fantasy novel starting a new series. It was OK, but not great for me. I can't really recommend it without reservations, although a lot of people really did like it a lot more than I did. The magic system was pretty interesting, but the characters were only moderately so and there were way too many plot lines floating around at once.

Starflight by Melissa Landers - this is a really entertaining YA romantic adventure SF that is heavy on the adventure and light on the actual science. If you enjoyed Firefly, you might enjoy this book. I would recommend this one.

Dissension by Stacey Berg - this is a solid post apocalyptic tale about a cloned female warrior who starts to question herself and her place in the system she is helping to keep intact. The book is low key but well executed, and a nice surprise from a new author.

Arena by Holly Jennings - I can't really recommend this one either. It was OK on the entertainment scale I guess, but ultimately there are so many problems with this book it's probably easier if I just put a link to my review and if you are interested you can read more about them there:

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

Daughters of Ruin by K.D. Castner - solid YA political fantasy told in four alternating POV's. The story didn't have a lot of surprises but I thought the writing was good, particularly for a debut novel. I would recommend giving this one a try. Whether you like it would depend on whether the author's writing style appeals to you because from the other reviews, it seems that is where a lot of people were put off. It worked for me though.

I'm currently reading Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.

Haven't made it to the library yet for The Dragon Revenant - but in the meantime my digital loan came through for When Breath Becomes Air, a memoir that a friend recommended, so I'm going to start that for now and read Deverry next!

Kathi wrote: "Dust of Dreams was the toughest book for me to get through, I think, but The Crippled God made it worthwhile. If you come back to it at some point, please let us know.."
It was the book before this. Toll the Hounds that was the killer for me. All the momentum from the previous six books just stoped. it continued on in this book. I was halfway through and nothing happened yet.

Kathi its going to be a long time before I try again cause I really like most of the series. It feels to me that he needed to put some pieces on the board in certain places and he spent these two books doing it.

Ken wrote: "Kathi its going to be a long time before I try again cause I really like most of the series. It feels to me that he needed to put some pieces on the board in certain places and he spent these two books doing it."

I get it. During the parts that were really slow for me (and there were more than a few), I tried to concentrate on his writing--the way he fashioned his descriptions and how he could move from something horrible to humor in just a few words. But I hear you.

It has now been 18 days since I have cracked open a book! Good thing I am ahead of schedule on my annual reading challenge. There has been a lot going on. I had to rearrange my "to read" shelf, but I hope to start the next Deverry book this coming week.

I finished up To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts last night, and loved it! Janny Wurts has a wonderful way with characters. The world-building and politics of the beginning of the book were fascinating, and the action-based second half was epic! Highly recommended.

I also finished listening to Seveneves today on the ride to see my dad. I'm very glad that book is done, as I've been listening to it for a long time. It was OK, I liked the characters, but it felt tremendously slow, and I'm not sure if that's just because it was too much audiobook for me to handle, or if it was actually slow. Either way, a pretty neutral listen for me.

For a change of pace, I'm reading Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal. I very much enjoyed the first book in the series, so I'm excited to get to this one. I also started listening to The Man in the High Castle.

I am reading An Unattractive Vampire on a recommendation by Patrick Rothfuss. Really witty and funny. Definitely outside the box!

I am planning on starting a re-read of the VALIS trilogoy by Philip K. Dick, this on top of his having been our sci-fi BOTM author for the last two months. The VALIS trilogy includes:

VALIS
The Divine Invasion
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

VALIS is a rewrite of Radio Free Albemuth, which I discuss in May's The Man in the High Castle's Intro and First Impressions folder, now listed below. But "...Albemuth" was not published until after PKD's death , after the VALIS trilogy.

PKD was at work on a different "3rd chapter" to the VALIS trilogy when he died, but that one is uncompleted. Rather, the "...Timothy Archer" novel touches on the VALIS themes tangentially, and includes a major character from VALIS, so when publishing, "...Timothy Archer" was substituted as the completion of the trilogy. It's a great book, and probably my favorite, from a sheer story point of view. I am looking forward to a re-read.

Hi all! So far this month I've finished The Library at Mount Char & Cress. I liked both a lot. I'm taking a break before finishing The Lunar Chronicles with Winter because it's loooong.

On Audible I started The Death of Dulgath. I really hope Michael J. Sullivan writes more Riyria Chronicles- I don't want this to be the end of my time with Royce & Hadrian.

I also started We Have Always Lived in the Castle and hope I have some time to read more tonight.

Jenny wrote: "Hi all! So far this month I've finished The Library at Mount Char & Cress. I liked both a lot. I'm taking a break before finishing The Lunar Chronicles ...I also started We Have Always Lived in the Castle and hope I have some time to read more tonight. "

Synchronicity. I am reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle for a "real life" book club.

Nick wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Hi all! So far this month I've finished The Library at Mount Char & Cress. I liked both a lot. I'm taking a break before finishing The Lunar Chronicles..."

How cool! I think it will be a quick read if I actually have time to sit down and enjoy it. Having a family member stay with us is cutting into my book time :)

Just started The Long Mars. It's not doing much for me so far but it is noteworthy for being the second sci fi I've read in a row with a talking cat. (The Aeronaut's Windlass was the other).

Finished Private Wars. It was ok. It felt like two Novellas stuck togather.
Started an old BBC Eighth Doctor book
Doctor Who: The Burning

Working on Ninefox Gambit currently, and just finished The Book of Phoenix which I decided to read before Who Fears Death which has been in my TBR queue for ages when I found out that Phoenix is a prequel. Gambit has spaceships, but the tech feels more like fantasy than science. It's quite interesting

I just finished reading Eona: The Last Dragoneye and highly recommend it to lovers of fantasy. Onloy two books in this series. Next up is The Raft

The Improbable Rise of Singularity Girl ranks as one of my top 5 books of 2016, and it's the best book on Artificial Intelligence I've ever read.