Finished The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. Book 1 of 2nd era of Mistborn. This was a very interesting book. Set about 300 years after the first era. The changes in the world, and to learn about some of the characters, it was all very interesting, and I am very glad that I re-read the first era before reading this.

Finished Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. The book was surprisingly good. I quite enjoyed it, and it didn’t even feel old.

My kid is already on book 5. So, highly recommended your for your 9-12 year olds.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

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  • GreyShuck@feddit.uk
    11·
    2 days ago
    • Finished Hyperion - excellent tale all round and I am impressed with Simmons’ breadth of styles within the each of the pilgrim’s tales. To me, the open ending was perfect and since there seem to be some division around the later books and they way that they resolve the mystery, I will leave it there for now. I may return to the other ones at some time though.
    • Finished Project Hail Mary - which has a lot in common with Dennis E. Taylor’s Bobiverse books in overall approach. I suppose that they could be termed ‘procedural’ SF, with the focus being on the resolution of successive problems. Intellectually rewarding, but with limited emotional engagement, I found. It was certainly entertaining, and I enjoyed the worldbuilding but, between this and the Bobiverse, I far preferred the latter.
    • (Re)Started Consider Phlebas - I had started this a few years back, but put it aside for some reason and never resumed. I can just about recall the overall scenes, but none of the detail. I have never read any of the other Culture tales and am eager to get to grips with these books. So far it is taking a while to develop, but I only started it a couple of evenings ago.
    • theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      8·
      2 days ago

      I think the second Hyperion book rounds out the story nicely. I’ve never read about what is said online but I listened to both a couple of times, loved them, but never felt the need to read any further than that.

      • frigidaphelion@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 day ago

        Agreed! The first novel is by far the most unique and the second is a nicely paced sequel. The third and fourth books have a drop off in quality but I still really like them as sf novels in their own right. Much more tame in style and execution. Simmons is an interesting author to say the least.

    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      Consider Phlebas isn’t really characteristic of the Culture series as a whole—don’t hesitate to start somewhere else if you tried Phlebas before and it didn’t hook you. (They all work as stand-alone novels, with just a few tangential recurring characters.)

      • zout@fedia.io
        5·
        2 days ago

        I agree with you, also The player of games is a lot more accesible as a first book in the series. I’ve never read the last three books though, at some point I decided I had enough SF for a while.

        • frigidaphelion@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 day ago

          Completely agree with this and the other comments, except I wouldnt really recommend anyone start with Inversions (because you’ll miss all the explicitly-unstated context) or Look to Windward (as it is essentially a sequel to Consider Phlebas). Absolutely love the Culture series, you can really see how Banks was just trying stuff out with the various books. Use of Weapons and Player of Games are phenomenal, in particular.

      • GreyShuck@feddit.ukEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        Yes, I had read that they were all stand alone and I may do, but I will give CP a while longer before I do. I don’t dislike it, but following PHM, it is a rather different pacing.