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Mervi2012
Posted 2019-10-21 2:33 PM (#21428 - in reply to #19521)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2019 challenge		Quote Reply



Veteran

Posts: 100
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I'm sorry for not posting my progress for so long.

Anyway, dustydigger, I too found the Expanse series a bit too gritty. While I (mosty) enjoyed Abbadon's Gate in February, I haven't read the next book, even though I have it. Master Mind of Mars is one of my favorites in the Barsoom series and I agree with you that Ras Thavas is a nasty piece of work.

I read S. A. Chakraborty's "City of Brass" which was very, very long and wordy tale in a world with Middle Eastern inspired folklore come to life. I enjoyed it a lot but unfortunately the second book in the trilogy "Kingdom of Copper" left me cold. Perhaps is was the newness of the setting which drew me in the first time. The third book isn't yet out and I honestly don't know if I'll read it.

Planet X by Michael Jan Friedman was quite fun. It's a cross-over of two of my favorite franchises, Star Trek (TNG) and X-Men. Most such cross-overs are usually either horrible or almost pure fanservice. However, this was a bit too short to give me all the character interactions I wanted, but it was still fun. (Come on, both Geordi LaForge and Nightcrawler are in the book but have only one scene together? And no scenes about Kitty Pryde and Geordi? Or Kitty and Data?!! At least Storm and captain Picard had a couple of short scenes.)

I listened two novellas from Aliette de Bodard: "On a Red Station, Drifting" and "Vanishers' Palace". Red station is space SF set in a space station in an Empire at war. But this is the story of the people struggling not in the front lines but behind, with little resources and spouses gone to war. It's also the story of two strong women in their own right but they loath each other. Vanishers Palace is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the main character is sacrificed to a dragon. Of course, the dragon turns out to be rather different than a beast. Very complex world-building.

Theodora Goss' "The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter" is probably the most unique and fun book I've read for this challenge this year. It's set in Sherlock Holmes' London and yes both Holmes and Watson appear but both are secondary characters. But the strange writing style guarantees that the reader will either love it or hate it because the characters critique the book while it?s written. This sounds like a cute or even charming style, and it is, at first. But ultimately, it robs the book of any tension. We know that the characters will not only survive the fight scene, they all become such good friends that they feel free to give snarky comments while reading the (presumably) first draft. It frustrated me at time but I got used to it.

"Rogue Protocol" from Martha Wells is the third in the wonderful Murderbot SF series. I recommend the whole series, it's lots of fun. But it's in first person so everything depends on how much the reader likes the voice of Murderbot.

"Till We Have Faces" by C. S. Lewis is historical fantasy and retells the story of Cupid and Psyche from the POV of one of Psyche's sisters. The gods are the only supernatural element in the story. I mostly like it, but the end got a bit too preachy for me.

"Ancestral Night" from Elizabeth Bear turned out to be the first in a new space SF series. It's about a small crew of space salvagers who encounter the relic of a previous civilization. One of the crew is a sentient AI. The main character is infected with an alien techological parasite. I liked it very much.

I've throughly enjoyed Becky Chambers' two previous space SF books. While "Record of the Spaceborn Few" isn't my favorite of the three, I very much enjoyed it. It doesn't have a plot really. Instead it follows five very different human characters for some years.

I thought about upgrading my challenge level but decided against it because I've got quite a few indie books to read.

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