I have just finished a remakably good thriller, Five Decembers by James Kestrel which I strongly recommend (do not be put off by the cover - this is not a bodice ripper although it does include a love story): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTPO5U7q0EI

Now delving back into SF with Hammerfall by the ever impressive C J Cherryh.

I just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Wow! Just wow!

I somehow find myself deeply mired in the WOT series, which I never finished. It just went on and on and then Jordan died. I quit in a fit of pique when it was announced that Brandon Sanderson was taking over; I'm not a fan . However, I decided I really should get to the end, having invested so much time in the series.

Hagatha, life is too short for unrewarding reading, however reluctant one may be to admit defeat...!


And, LadyK, glad to see you enjoyed The Old Man's War - wonderful stuff: have you read the whole series yet?

I will be ordering the rest of the series, Lex. Right now I'm in the middle of Accomplice to the Villain, the 3rd book in the the Villain series by Hannah Nicole Maehrer. They're fun fantasies mixed with romance and some serious themes, and I've grown very fond of the characters, except for the king. (Hiss! Boo!) Assistant to the Villain and Apprentice to the Villain are the first two books and should be read in order.

I'm re-reading a decades old book "Coma by Robin Cook". I bought it when it first came out in 1976, and I decided to download it to my kindle fire from Amazon. Although it's dated, the story is still very good.

Have pre-ordered the new Old Man's war novel (thanks Lex ) but in the meantime I am about halfway through Blood Meridien. Very dark but compelling.

Judith,
I also read Coma when it first came out. It's a good thriller.

I'm all caught up with Louise Penny's Gamache mysteries, and the most recent one, Grey Wolf, was a real page turner. I think her new one will be out later this year. Tonight I started the second book in the Old Man's War series, The Ghost Brigades.

Just read Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak on the strength of Ghostlady's recommendation passed on by Drac a few months ago: excellent stuff!

Now immersed in Forge of Heaven, C J Cherryh's great sequel to Hammerfall (which I had much enjoyed - very different from her Foreigner series which was where I started in terms of her work).

Waiting in the wings are The Dark Room by Jonathan Moore (thriller by author of Five Decembers), The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (SF) and A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto ( detective story/thriller following a glowing review in the weekend paper), probably to be followed by Matt Haig's Humans and Stephen King's The Gunslinger: Libby's holding system means that I simply read whatever comes off my list next...

I remember enjoying Coma.

Great thriller Judith!! Enjoy

Reading Tom Michell's book 'The Penguin Lessons' (what I learned from a remarkable bird) based on his experience as a British teacher who travelled to South America to teach at a boys' boarding school.

I think Blood Meridien is going to wear me out! I might put it aside for the moment and wait for the new Old man's War book.

I have been on a Stephen King binge. First I read Holly, then I read Revival, and now I'm reading The Long Walk.

Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades was excellent, and I especially liked The Last Colony, the third book in his Old Man's War series. I also read Zoë's Tale, which is told from the perspective of the adopted daughter of two of the important characters in the other books. It's a coming of age story, but it also fills in some gaps about events that were only touched on in the previous book.

I have two more books in Scalzi's series to read, but I'm taking a break to read Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire (love his name!). I just started it this morning, and I'm already smitten.

Marian,
I just got King's latest story collection, You Like It Darker, which I hope to jump into soon.

[quote=LadyKestrel]

Oldbroad,
I really like China Mieville's books. He has an off-center and often unexpected way of looking at things that appeals to me. I haven't read Un Lun Dun yet, so I'll be interested in what you think of it.]


Well, it took two months but I finished Un Lun Dun yesterday. I am not good at describing books so I will just say that I did like it though I didn't feel compelled to read more than the few pages a day that I usually read.

Today I started a Nora Roberts book called The Obsession.

I mentioned the Norwegian Sci-Fi fanzines I found. Now at #6 from 1976 there was a review of the prolific Swedish Sci Fi profile Sam J Lundwall's futuristic tale written mid 70'ies about the A.D. 2018. The King Kong blues. I have totally missed that book and the reviewer was not impressed. Still cool to read the review. Apparently 2018 was so far in the future that the author felt it was safe to be very imaginative.

Fogfighter,
George Orwell's 1984 was written in 1949, and that book still scares me.

Oldbroad,
Thanks for letting me know you liked Un Lun Dun. It's on my buy-soon list.

Nora Roberts' books are usually quick reads, although I've only read a handful of them, mostly the Eve Dallas stories under her pseudonym J. D. Robb.

LadyK, I'm looking forward to You Like It Darker but will probably wait for the mass market paperback next year (unlike many authors, they are still doing mass market versions of his books, but the wait time is about two years between hardcover and mass market). I hope you enjoy it.

Indeed still scary and worth reading.

I'm reading "American Elsewhere" by Robert Jackson Bennett. I've skimmed through some of it & other parts held my attention, but it's a really weird book. Looking for a category for it, I guess I would call it science fantasy, it has elements of Lovecraft to it. I'm about half way through the almost 700 page book. Not sure I like it or it's just meh.

I have two of Bennett's books, The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption, coming this week, along with Katabasis by R. F. Kuang. They're both new authors for me.

I just finished and enjoyed How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin. After having her chilling fortune read at the county fair, Frances Adams spends a most of her life trying to solve a murder that hasn't happened yet, her own. Annie Adams, her great niece, is invited to the English village of Castle Knoll to meet her great aunt for the first time, but by the time she arrives there, Frances is found murdered, just like she said she would be. Annie wants to find out who killed her, but the list of suspects is long and someone on that list may be dangerous.

I liked the way the author alternated between Frances' past and Annie's present, while slowly peeling back the layers of the mystery. There are some small loose ends regarding the secondary characters that need to be tied up, but there's a sequel called How to Seal Your Own Fate already out, and a third one coming in April.

I also started The Human Division by John Scalzi. It features a secondary character who appeared earlier in the Old Man's War series. So far, so very good!

Just bought the Kindle version of Dan Brown's new novel The Secrets of Secrets. The printed copy is about 700 pages, and I'm only on chapter four, so there's a long way to go.

Just started The Shattering Peace, No.7 in Scalzi's Old Man War series, and enjoy the choice of central charater. A touch of familiarity without being the centre of things previously, I look forward to the 90% still to come

Just started reading "Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon. I read it when it first came out, but I've since lost my copy of it, so I bought it again from Amazon for my kindle fire.