What are we reading in July 2022/

Dusty's TBR for July
SF/Fantasy
Kat Richardson - Labyrinth✔
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Childen of Time
Arthur C Clarke - Against the Fall of Night
V E Schwab - Conjuring of Light
Paul Capon - The World At Bay ✔
Seabury Quinn - Horror on the Links ✔
Daniel O'Malley - The Rook ✔

from other genres
Gail Bowen - The Wandering Soul Murders ✔
Jenny Joseph - Warning: When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple✔
Ethel Turner - Seven Little Australians
Darcy Coates - The House Next Door✔
Darcy Coates - The Carrow Haunt ✔
David Blake - Moorings ✔

I have in hand Last Exit, The Atlas Six, These Prisoning Hills, and Far From the Light of Heaven.

Last week I finished The Fifth Season. This week I started The Obelisk Gate. I’m really enjoying it thus far. And my family’s book club has started reading Ines of My Soul. We are reading one chapter a week and discussing over Zoom. Interesting historical fiction of Chile’s origins. I am interested to see how/if Isabel Allende deals with decolonization of the history.

>3 Neil_Luvs_Books:

"decolonization of the history" or "history of the decolonization" ?

>4 elenchus: hmmmm… hadn’t thought of it that way… maybe both then?

Continuing with Schismatrix Plus. Have finished the short stories and am about to dive into the main novella.

Also e-reading Kushiel's Dart and my e-loan request for Siren Queen just came in so that will be next.

And... waiting in the wings is another library e-hold for Light From Uncommon Stars.

The Astreiant series by Melissa Scott and Lisa A Barnett. Not bad so far; LGBT fantasies, but very delicately handled. The bromance flowed as part of the story and isn't forced, unlike some books where it seems to be added as part of a box-ticking exercise rather than a natural part of the story.

Still making my way thru All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay. Only two chapters left.

About half-way through a re-read of The Algebraist.

>8 seitherin: I'm reading Children of Earth and Sky so I'm ready for that one. How do they compare?

I think your touchstone is incorrect though.

>10 Karlstar: Thanks for the head's up on the touchstone. I guess I forgot to check it yesterday. It's been five or six years since I read Children of Earth and Sky so I remember nothing about it, but I did give it 4.5 stars so I must have really liked it. For what it's worth, I am enjoying this one and plan to give it 4 stars.

I started the last Terra Ignota book, Perhaps the Stars, today. The first three came out in pretty quick succession, but now it's been so long I am struggling with the details; this volume does no work really to orient you! That said, if I ignore my inability to remember who J.E.D.D. Mason is, I am enjoying it as a tale of war come to a peaceful but ingenious world.

But I am going to put it on pause for a little bit to finish up my last few Hugo finalists starting tomorrow.

I'm reading Primary inversion by Catherine Asaro, and Take back Plenty by Colin Greenland.

Having put to bed and reviewed Letters from the Earth, I've now begun reading 2061 in earnest. My sf queue includes Consider Phlebas and Tigerman.

>13 Sakerfalcon: Apologies for the pun (not really sorry), but that sure takes me back plenty. I loved this as a kid.

Started End of the world blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood.

>13 Sakerfalcon: Have you read any of the Asaro books before?

I'm reading The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente, my second-last Hugo novella finalist.

In SF-adjacent territory right now with Rocket to the Morgue and Up, Up and Oy-vey.

>19 ChrisRiesbeck:

I read Rocket to the Morgue as a para-biographical source on Robert Heinlein and Jack Parsons. It's a very curious book!

>19 ChrisRiesbeck::, >20 paradoxosalpha:: Anthony Boucher was, of course, a fan and sometime professional sf author; his post-apocalypse short story The Quest for St.Aquin has often been anthologised. Here in the UK, Rocket to the Morgue appeared in an omnibus of classic pulp-era thrillers under the series title Black Box Thrillers, the Boucher title bringing together The case of the Seven of Calvary; Nine times nine; Rocket to the morgue;… and the Case of the Crumpled Knave. This volume has a foreword by David Langford.

>15 igorken: It's a great read so far!

>17 Karlstar: I haven't. They seem to have mixed reviews and some sound like they veer too much towards the romance end of the spectrum for my taste, but I'm enjoying Primary inversion so far.

>22 Sakerfalcon: I've tried a couple of her works, including Primary Inversion, and bounced really hard off the saccharine romance. Won't be looking for any more.

Finished Last Exit, which I started with high expectations, but the execution of which left me with questions. My suspicion is that, at a certain point, Gladstone decided he was writing the Great American Fantasy Road Trip Novel, instead of just telling a story (he's apparently been thinking about this book for eight years). I can respect the intent, but I think I can tell when someone is trying too hard to Make A Statement.

>21 RobertDay: Don't forget founding co-editor of Fantasy and Science Fiction!

I’m still in the midst of my break from reading SciFi. Just finished The Obelisk Gate which I really enjoyed and am now starting book 3 The Stone Sky.

I have just been reading trashy fluffy kindle SF about people discovering spaceships under their farms and whizzing around the universe,Hornblower in Space type of books etc No literary merit whtsoever,but enormously entertaining. Also read rubbish about demons,and grim reapers and the like,paranormal romance as guilty pleasure. All the what might be called legitimate reads worthy of this group are 700,800 pages long,and will take forever at the snail's pace I am reading at.
And why have I been reading fluff? I have needed distraction from health issues. There have been serious cocerns about pancreatic cancer,and I got the all clear yesterday. Major relief,as a 90% death rate within the first year is NOT the most delightful situation.But I am all clear so maybe I can get through a few more hundreds of great SF before popping my clogs :0) Have you SEEN the length of my TBR?

>27 dustydigger: Wow - best wishes on the health front Dusty - you'll get through that TBR pile!

>27 dustydigger: So glad you've been given the all-clear. I wish you many more years of happy, healthy reading!

>27 dustydigger: Good to hear that: My sister-in-law's mother went that way and it's a really bad way to go.

>27 dustydigger:

Great news, and no more excuses for not tackling Mount TBR.

>27 dustydigger: but why read trashy fluffy kindle SF, when you could be adding to Mount TBR? :-)

>27 dustydigger: Glad to hear the scare was just that. And sometimes trash reading is what you need to clear the palate, so to speak.

Added Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch to my reading rotation.

>27 dustydigger: Glad to hear that you've avoided that particular scare. Yikes.

Hi people! Yup,very glad it turned out to be nothing,as it is a terrible disease,terrible death. I'll be content with my arthritis,constant infections,inflammation,eye problem,UTIs,diabetes,pernicious anaemia and a few other delightful gifts from my totally rubbish immune system. Plenty of choice,can have a different symptom presenting every single day.:0) Variety is the spice of life.
I am getting back into V E Schwab's A Conjuring of Light. About 200 pages in,but since I only manage about 20-25 pages an hour at best (need constant rests for eyestrain) the other 600 pages are going to take a while.Interesting worldbuilding,attractive protagonists,but it seems to veer between YA and adult from page to page!

>36 dustydigger: it seems to veer between YA and adult from page to page

I have noted Schwab's Shades of Magic books with interest (high marks for the physical book design!), and I'm not surprised to hear this verdict from you. My suspicion of the same is what has kept me from trying them out.

>27 dustydigger: really good news! Gotta squeeze every spare minute to read. 😀

>27 dustydigger: Pleased to hear this. We lost Iain M. Banks to that appalling illness, which was one too many.

Which neatly links to my having just finished The Algebraist - lots of running around after a McGuffin, and a surprising quantity of expository lumps - but Iain Banks expository lumps, which makes them not such a problem because of his skill at making them palatable.

Now picking up a genre writer in a non-genre mode - China Miéville's consideration of The Communist Manifesto, A Spectre, Haunting. The title is taken, of course, from the opening line of the Manifesto: "There is a spectre haunting Europe; the spectre of Communism." The mysteries of LT's touchstones gave me a reminder that an earlier work of sf took that quote as a starting point: Fritz Leiber's A Spectre is haunting Texas.

>39 RobertDay: I'll read anything by China Mieville - that one is on my wishlist now.

>40 SChant: You've read his October, I take it...

>36 dustydigger: Congrats and I hope you have a day with no difficulties!

>36 dustydigger: So glad to hear the good medical news! I'm a big believer in trashy fluff myself, and always layer a good amount into my mix (which also includes classic fiction and good nonfiction). A compost pile needs a variety of material.

>41 RobertDay: Yes - it was way more detail that I ever needed about the Russian revolution, but interesting nevertheless.

The Confederation series by Tanya Huff. Tongue-in-cheek mil SF by Tanya Huff.

The Young Races (of which Humanity is one) have been accepted into the Confederation to fight their war - otherwise they'd have been locked onto their planets until they'd evolved enough to eschew violence. Fun and has some pertinent commentary on what do you do with millions of ex-vets who know nothing but violence once the war is ended.

A couple of historicals by Marjorie Bowen:
The Burning Glass A treatment of the life of Julie de Lespinasse. I found it very much overblown and overwrought.
The Poisoners The Affair of the Poisons. Better than the previous, but oddly passive.

The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes. The aftermath of the Oedipus legend. I thought it was going to be a mythological fantasy, but it was pure historical. Not bad.

The Plague of Ghosts and The Lust of Conquest by Rafael Sabatini. Historical short stories.

Whitehall Season One by Liz Duffy Adams. Not bad and reasonably historically accurate. However, I tend to find these Serial Box a bit choppy; there's only so much the editor can do to even out the different styles.

Just started Queen of Storms by Feist, the 3rd book in the Firemane series.

I have finished and posted my review of 2061. On an impulse borrow from the public library, I have started The Past Is Red.

Finished Diving into the Wreck y Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Enjoyed it.

Finished The Atlas Six; "Dark Academia," with a dash of paranormal romance, and a lot of skullduggery and intrigue. I liked it; that a lot of people over at Goodreads bounced off it in disgust I find fascinating. A lot of this seems to boil down to spending a lot of time in the heads of a collection of not very nice to downright sociopathic individuals; but only thoroughgoing outsiders would have taken the deal on offer at the start of the novel.

>48 seitherin: I liked the first three or four books in the series. While I hope to get back to these books sometime, diminishing returns had begun to set in for me.

I'm not a huge fantasy fan, but I read The Lions of Al-Rassan many years ago and quite enjoyed it, and heard a couple of guys on a podcast enthusing about a Song for Arbonne, inspired by the High Middle Ages in the region of what was to become France, with troubadors, political intrigues, and, unlike in the real-world environment, women having actual agency, so thought I'd give it a try. I plan to finish it but 90 pages in and it's OK but not really grabbing me.

>50 Shrike58: While I liked it well enough, I don't really plan on reading anymore unless some really ridiculous sale on the books comes up. I've way too many books on my TBR pile as it is.

>52 seitherin: These were all library reads for me; I reread very seldom so the money I spend on books tends to go for things unlikely to be carried by a good public library.

Deadly Edition by Paige Shelton

Deadly Edition, A Scottish Bookshop Mystery by Paige Shelton

The Past Is Red is wonderfully weird but sadly feasible cli-fi that I read in about three sittings. I've posted my review. Next I'll read the last of Delany's Neveryon books, The Bridge of Lost Desire.

>56 paradoxosalpha: I must be living in a bubble; I'd never noticed the term "cli-fi". Thanks for enlightening me!

>57 rshart3:, same. I need to add it to my tags!

>58 vwinsloe: If you want to dip your toe in the sub-genre try The Stone Weta by Octavia Cade. It's excellent.

>58 vwinsloe:, >59 SChant:, or for some scary prescience, try something like The Sheep Look Up.

Look at that cli-fi n-gram take off starting in 2009 (scroll down on the linked tag page).

>60 Cecrow: Stand on Zanzibar was the first book in the duo also scary.

I just got through reading the apparatus (factual and fictional) for The Bridge of Lost Desire, but it's getting sidelined, because the public library just furnished me with Seven Demons and The Memory Theater.

>61 paradoxosalpha:. Thank you! I have read quite a bit of the cli-fi sub-genre without realizing that it had a label.

>51 SChant: I know some GG Kay fans who say that A Song for Arbonne is their favorite Kay book. I have heard that it takes a while to get into and for some it was a little too violent. I enjoyed it, I don't think it is my favorite GG Kay, but it isn't the least favorite either.

>65 Karlstar: Not for me. I had to bail at page 134 - found the characters one-dimensional and the story more like a series of set-pieces to demonstrate how evil the bad guy was, how mysterious the priestesses were, how magnificent the protagonist was etc, rather than an actual plotline.

>66 SChant: If you are at all interested in trying any of his other books, try Sailing to Sarantium. It may also take a bit to get into, but it is much better, in my opinion. I've read The Lions of Al-Rassan long ago, it was good but not my favorite and I don't remember it well.

My list of his books, in my order of preference, starting with my favorite:

The Summer Tree
The Wandering Fire
Sailing to Sarantium
Lord of Emperors
A Song for Arbonne
The Last Light of the Sun
The Darkest Road
Under Heaven
Children of Earth and Sky
Tigana
A Brightness Long Ago

>67 Karlstar: Looks like I read Sailing To Sarantium 20-odd years ago and quite liked it, but I'm done with Kay for a while - maybe come back to something shorter later. Now I'm reading a collection of Ursual K Le Guin stories The Unreal and the Real which suits my mood better at the moment.

Unsurprisingly, it took me little time to finish Seven Demons and post my review--an adulatory one, as it turns out. The Memory Theater is next, returning to f/sf.

Finished Hammerfall by CJ Cherryh. Not at all her best. It seemed like the whole book was one long desert march under threat of impending doom. The genetic-engineering warfare lacked tension, and a somewhat implausible years-later epilogue was tacked on to show a happy ending. I'm a big Cherryh fan, but this one disappointed.

>69 paradoxosalpha:
He has jokingly said he is thinking of calling the next one “Seven Angels”.

I thought it might just be "Eight Demons," although that seems a little uninspired.

Knocked off These Prisoning Hills, my first exposure to Rowe, who has been acclaimed for his short fiction; he deserves it.

>3 Neil_Luvs_Books: I discovered Jemisin here a few years back and she never stops surprising me with her writing and stories. Hope you continue to enjoy her books (I have the city we became and really need to read it already!)

>3 Neil_Luvs_Books: discovered Jemisin here a few years back and am amazed by her talent. need to read the city we became soon

>8 seitherin: I used to love his books till I got tired of the same characters and plots. This looks interesting. What did you think of it?

My book group is reading assassins apprentice this month. Not read her work before, this looks intresting

>70 rshart3: That was exactly my reaction to Hammerfall, just so much slogging through the desert. Not Cherryh's best work.

>70 rshart3: >76 Karlstar: I agree but at least it wasn't mud, eh? ;-) I found Forge of Heaven to be a worthy sequel that improved quite a bit on the first book - or maybe I just liked it better because there was less slogging...?

>73 Shrike58: If a book can be judged by its cover, that one looks fairly dramatic. I'm intrigued. Is it better to read the two short stories first or can those be read after the novella?

I finished Take back plenty which I loved. Great characters, including aliens, good worldbuilding and a very fun plot.

Now reading The evidence by Christopher Priest which is very good so far. I like his Dream Archipelago books.

>78 Sakerfalcon:
I have gad Take Back Plenty for decades snd not read it yet. Thank you for reminding me of it.

My reading of Priest has stalled as well. I must get back into his books. I do not have “Evidence” but do have many more of his books.

Finished the young adult Barbary by McIntyre after two nun detective books, Rocket to the Morgue and The Squire's Tale. Doing another mystery, B is for Burglar then probably a Chestromanci book.

>75 cindydavid4: I enjoyed it but I like the way Kay writes and the tone of the stories he tells. It's a comfort read for me.

Finished Shadowed Souls edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes. Light reading but mostly enjoyable. Next up is Into the Narrowdark by Tad Williams.

I finished N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth trilogy. Very good - well worth reading. My favourite fantasy series remains Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson. But it has been a few years since I read all 10 volumes in that series. I'll have to re-read them soon to see if they have weathered well. I suspect they have.

Next up for me is one that has been on my TBR list for years (actually decades!): Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. I have been running across references to this novel for the last few months. Its time has come.

>83 Neil_Luvs_Books:, I'm on nearly the same page as you in nearly every detail. The Broken Earth is well worth reading, but didn't top my favourites either. I've a deep respect for the original six Thomas Covenant novels, part of my initial love of fantasy (less fond of the more recent four.) Just got to sampling John Brunner recently, only for me it was The Sheep Look Up. But Zanzibar is definitely his best known.

Finished so far this month...

Schismatrix Plus - 8/10
Kushiel's Dart - 7/10
Siren Queen - 6/10
Light From Uncommon Stars - 9/10
Binti - 9/10

Currently a little over halfway through, and enjoying, We Are Satellites. Also reading a couple of non-genre political non-fiction books at the moment. Next up I plan to read the 2nd Binti volume, (Binti: Home), and also to re-read Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather. The first time I read The Fault Lines books, I inadvertently picked up the 2nd volume without realizing it was part of a trilogy so it should be interesting to take them in order this time around.

>81 seitherin: I understand. Ill look for that; its been awhile and willing to give Kay another chance!

Started Project Hail Mary today, my penultimate Hugo finalist. (I finished She Who Became the Sun yesterday, and Light from Uncommon Stars should arrive next week to finish me off.)

>83 Neil_Luvs_Books:
I meant to re-read The sheep look up back when it was the year the book was supposed to take place, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. (I hope that it and Zanzibar both remain as good as they were when I was a teenager, back in the last century.)

>88 karenb: yeah, sometimes what was good in our youth doesn’t transfer well into the 21st C.

>84 Cecrow: I agree that the last four Thomas Covenant novels were not as good as the first six. But I still really enjoyed going back to that world. And I think Donaldson did a good job of tying up that series at the end of the 10th volume. Sometimes I think when an author has some success, their editors are not quite as careful as they should be and as a result they get a little long in the tooth after they publish a couple of bestsellers. JK Rowling, Stephen J Gould, Stephen King, RA Heinlein, and Donaldson are all examples of that I think. Great writers, but their later work would have been better if their editor had leaned on them a little more. IMHO. 😉

Having finished with the political book by China Miéville, I've switched to unwinding from that with some undemanding comic fantasy, Terry Pratchett's Eric, in its original illustrated format, decorated by the hand of Josh Kirby.

Unaccountably, Gollancz later issued Eric as an A-format paperback, without the illustrations. Hence a number of reviews from later, unsuspecting readers who feel rather short-changed as it makes for a rather meagre novella if the pictures are taken away.

>91 RobertDay: really, I would not have been pleased. Did you read his last hero Kirby outdoes himself on that one

>92 cindydavid4: The Last Hero is still on the TBR pile...

oh its so good, and so short!

Finished The evidence which I really enjoyed. Now I'm reading Explorer, another adventure for Bren and the atevi.

I've started Roger Zelazny's short novel To die in Italbar. I have no real memories of it since last reading it as a teenager, other than a vague impression of a large cast and a weakly-cohering plot, so I figured it might be time for a reappraisal.

Finished dragon republic and was really disappointed to what happen to rin. she ends up being a whiny demanding little girl, i loved her character in the poppy war

Now reading she who became the sun for this months Asian Challenge China. Hoping its better

Polished off Pratchett's Eric in fairly short order - it's fairly minor Pratchett, after all - and have now moved on to Gene Wolfe's Lake of the Long Sun.

Finished Project Hail Mary. I think it would have been a fairly entertaining 200-page novel, but at over 400 I got pretty bored by the formula in the end. My last Hugo finalist, Light from Uncommon Stars, should turn up today, so I plan to start it tomorrow.

I wrapped up The Memory Theater and posted my review, so now I'm returning to The Bridge of Lost Desire.

I finished Tad Williams' Into the Narrowdark yesterday, and I thought it was great. Originally supposed to be a trilogy, this was the 3rd book of what is now a 4 book series. Can't wait for the next one.

>101 Karlstar: Originally supposed to be a trilogy, this was the 3rd book of what is now a 4 book series

This seems to have been the case for all Tad's series, apart from the Bobby Dollar UF novels! He can't write just 3 ...!

>102 Sakerfalcon:
It is probably a case of the characters taking over.

Finished Far from the Light of Heaven, which I've been meaning to get around to all year. This is more like a terror thriller in space than a locked-room mystery, but I enjoyed it, and it might make a better introduction to Thompson's writing than the "Wormwood" Trilogy.

>102 Sakerfalcon: >103 pgmcc: He mentioned in a recent newsletter that he is sticking to a strict timeline, so if a week passes in one plotline, the other plotlines then all experience the same week, there's no skipping or jumping time. That seems to stretch things out a little, as he has 4 major and 3? minor plotlines going in this one.

Finished Kat Richardson's Labyrinth 5th in an urban fantasy series about a PI who battles witches,vampires,ghosts etc - as you do......Dragged a bit in the middle,but picked up near the end.It ended a story arc of 5 tales,but apparently the series goes for 4 more books.
Spent the whole month reading fluff popcorn reads,instantly forgettable. Left loads of my TBR unread.Will try to get back to sensible reading next month,if my wonky eye will let me!
For now I think I will do a reread of Daniel O'Malley's fun supernatural tinged spy novel The Rook . Great fun. After six years apparently a third book in the series will be published later this year.

>106 dustydigger: The Rook was good fun.

Finished my reread of The Rook. Great fun.I liked the earlier parts of the book,when Myfanwy was clueless and trying to work out what has happened to her. The mystery was fun,the satire of beaurocracy was sharp and clever,and it was a glorious romp. I wasnt quite so fond of the last third of the book. Rather than satire at times it became outright farce,but all in all it was a fun romp.
The author is american,but it a fair job of making a fai stab at a London background. Only glaring mistake,to a Brit anyway,was getting a title wrong. Sir Hanry Wattleman would be Sir Henry,or his whole name,but NEVER Sir Wattleman. But a pretty good effort :0)
I think I may read Paul Cornell's London Falling next. I love the whole subgenre of police and urban fantasy,like Ben Aaronovitch's work. I also loved Mike Carey's Felix Castor series.
Still getting over health shocks and requiring fun light reads. Hope Cornell is good.

>108 dustydigger: Thanks for reminding me of "The Rook," as it's a book I wanted to read at one point and it sort of slipped my mind before it made it to one of my lists.

Finished The Pinhoe Egg and about a third into The Pillars of Eternity.

just finished with she who became the sun and really loved it, its a gender twist on the story of the founder of the Ming dynasty, with the character the same name, but its definitely a fantasy, . Like my previous read dragon republic the main character has desires of greatness that she comes to understand comes at great costs. but I liked her strenght, intelligence, compassion despite what she she has to do to get what she wants. The ending lends itself to a sequel which I hope comes soon!

Note: people are comparing this with Mulan and Song of Achille. Dont be decieved: its not a heart warming tale of female empowerment, and except for the battles I have now idea how its connect to the Achilles story. But regardless its very much worth reading!

>108 dustydigger: According to the brief biography of him on the National Library of Australia website, Daniel O’Malley is Australian—he was born in Canberra at any rate. Did his tertiary education in the US. Worked (works, maybe, if he still has a day job) at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in Canberra. I remember from some website or other him describing the work of the Bureau people who coordinated the search for MH370, the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared over the Indian Ocean in 2014.

He still should have been able to get Sir Henry’s style right, though, and so should his editor.

I have read some Borges before, but never Ficciones. I am filling that educational gap now. (In Swedish translation.)

>108 dustydigger:
I only heard of The Rook two years ago when someone on LT was discussing it. I read it and enjoyed it. My reaction was similar to yours in that I enjoyed it, forgave it the melodrama of the last part, but I have no inclination to read the sequel.

Finished Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes. A bit tedious, and not helped by each footnote being a separate page leading to page bloat. Actual content was around 1/4 of the page count...

Brayan's Gold. A grimdark fantasy novella. OK, but a bit lit RPG for my taste.

Kinsmen. An interesting series of SF novellas. A bit romance-y, but not slushy.

Survival Tactics. OK.

A New World. A fun alt hist take on the discovery of America by Columbus.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain. What it says on the cover.

The Enchanted books by Nancy Madore. The first one was not bad, the others not so good. I leave it to others imagination to consider what good means in the world of erotica.

Killer Karma. A police procedural from the pov of a murdered police officer. Unusual.