Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2017/What I've Read in 2017

Happy New Year, fellow FolCs.

Here's this year's book thread. Looking forward to seeing what everyone's been reading over the year. For the 'rules' - such as they are - on the challenge part, go here:

http://www.lcficmbs.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/topics/268307/1

Happy Reading!

LabRat

The Wild Hunt
The Conquest
Shields of Pride
The Autumn Throne

The last of my current batch of Elizabeth Chadwick novels. Which I'm kind of sad about as they've provided me with some thrilling reading over the past week. I've been so absorbed that I've been sitting up late into the night to finish them. The first three are historical romances, the last the final part of the Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy. I'd think I'd read my favourite but the next would surpass it.

LabRat

1. Enemies & Allies, by Kevin J. Anderson

This novel about Batman and Superman is set in the 1950s. The two heroes don't start out as allies: Superman (mostly called Kal-El in this story, although he is also referred to as Superman and Clark Kent) thinks that Batman is a common thug, and Batman thinks that Superman was created by Luthorcorp and is working for Luthor. Luthor is truly evil in this novel, exploiting Cold War tensions for his own profit and almost triggering a nuclear war. Lois Lane also plays a major role in the story (she doesn't know that CK=SM, but she loves Superman and has a certain amount of affection for Clark; meanwhile, Clark/Superman/Kal-El loves Lois, but can't show it).

The story takes certain liberties with history (explained by the author in a postscript), but is a good book overall. This author has also written a book about the last days of Krypton, which I intend to read when I have a chance.

1. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly - The untold true story of the female mathematicians (focusing on the black female mathematicians) that were the backbone of the US government's aeronautical/aerospace engineering research. Before computers became boxes, they were 'girls' with pencils, slide rules, and adding machines.
2. Deadly Sky by John C. McManus - The American Combat Airman in WWII. (An oral history.)

I'm working on Paris by Edward Rutherfurd. The sucker weighs in at 805 pages. I'm also waiting for Amazon to deliver more of W. Bruce Cameron's dog stories. (I read A Dog's Purpose over the holidays.)

#1 The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Prequel to the Throne of Glass series. Series of novellas describing some of Celaena's adventures.

After finishing the third book in this series, it was jarring to revert to how the character used to be. However, my daughter insists that this book provides lots of background which will make the rest of the books in the series more enjoyable. And it did flesh out some characters and background issues.

Joan

2. The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson

Journalist Jon Ronson took a course on identifying psychopaths using the Hare Test (developed by psychologist Bob Hare), and set out to identify and interview people who met the criteria, including a man identified as "Tony," who was in a British psychiatric facility called Broadmoor, a Haitian death squad leader, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, imprisoned for mortgage fraud in the United States, and "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap, who gleefully fired thousands of people while for the purpose of enriching himself and the stockholders of the companies he was CEO of. Along the way, he learns that few if any people meet all of the criteria for being a psychopath (despite the statistic that psychopaths make up approximately 1% of the population as a whole, and a higher percentage of prisoners, CEOs, and politicians).

My note: Few if any people meet none of the criteria, which are quite broad and can be skewed by such factors as age, experience, and culture. An infant would score high on the Hare Test due to their level of brain development (as far as an infant is concerned, they are the center of the universe, and they have little or no empathy -- and such traits of probably necessary for their survival, and usually start to to fade as their brains develop and they become more self-sufficient), while some of the criteria, such as multiple short-term marriages and sexual promiscuity, are common in some subcultures.

3. The Dogs of Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron - POV from a human named Josh.
4. A Dog's Journey by W. Bruce Cameron - sequel to A Dog's Purpose - Journey is darker as the main human (C.J.) has a very difficult life.

5. The Dog Master by W. Bruce Cameron - a story of the very first dog (ala Jean Auel's Valley of the Horses)

Like Auel's works, Cameron's is a nicely researched speculation on life 30,000 years ago when there weren't enough modern humans to fill a football stadium and humans were pretty decent eating for predators with big sharp teeth.

My note: I laugh when scholars claim they have no idea why modern humans won out over Neanderthals - even though said scholars had just run through a list of things that would have given modern humans a leg up on the competition (lower protein requirements, ranged weapons) - but they also always forget the one piece of disruptive technology some modern humans did have - four-legged hunting partners who had come to the conclusion that humans were useful for more that just eating. We call them dogs.

6. The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. Anyone who has played D&D in the Forgotten Realms knows Drizzt Do'Urden.

3. Insane City, by Dave Barry

Seth Weinstein is en route to his destination wedding in Miami, Florida, where, to his astonishment, he is about to marry a woman out of his league in every way. Of course, nothing is smooth sailing, as he soon becomes embroiled with desperate Haitian refugees, a stripper with a heart of a gold, a pimp the size of the Death Star, an eleven-foot albino Burmese python named Blossom, and an orangutan named Trevor (and, oh yes, the bride, who cares about many causes, her parents, who can't stand him, and his parents, who eat marijuana brownies).

Classic Dave Barry -- absolutely hilarious (along with some very dark moments).

#2 Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

Fourth installment in the Throne of Glass series.


This series has been slowly building up and this book did not disappoint. Lots of exciting developments.

Joan

Caught - Harlen Coben
Missing You - Harlen Coben

Coben has been one of my go to guys for lightweight, pulp thrillers for a number of years. These two were pretty much as you'd expect. An intriguing plot and characters to root for.

Nightwalk - D. Nathan Hilliard

I've been eager to read more from this author since reading Spiderstalk a while back. This horror novel reminded me a lot of King's The Mist - an idiot meddles with things he doesn't understand, causes a rift to another, deadly dimension & suddenly the sleepy little gated community of Coventry Woods is inhabited by monsters. But it was a good romp nonetheless. Lots of action, some genuinely heartstopping moments and solid characters.

The Ways of Khrem - D. Nathan Hilliard



An outing away from horror and into the fantasy market, this was an excellent fantasy novel. I loved the group of characters and the world they inhabited was well formed. And Cargill's snide, deadpan snarking manservant is an absolute joy.

It's a stand alone, but the ending gave hints that the author might return to these characters in the future. I certainly hope so.

The House of Reckoning - John Saul

The usual horror fare from Saul. It was enjoyable and the young heroine someone you could root for. The plot got a tad ridiculous towards the end but that didn't really spoil things much.

Cruel World - Joe Hart


I just loved this PA novel. Genuinely inventive, action packed and with characters you could empathise with. I saw the big revelation coming from pretty far out, but that didn't detract from the adventure.

LabRat

4. Invitation to the Game, by Monica Hughes

The year is 2154. Robots now occupy most jobs, leaving a large number of permanently unemployed people who are supported by the tax dollars of the few who can still find employment.

Lisse has been in despair since she finished school and failed to find employment. She and her friends are confined to a dirty, violent "Designated Area," which they are forbidden to leave. They have money for shelter and food, but nothing else, so all other things they need must be scrounged for.

One day, the hear about The Game. No one seems to know quite what it is or how one gets to play it, but everyone seems to have heard about it. Then, one day, they receive an invitation to play The Game.

I liked this book, although the ending was a little too easy (but then, it is a young adult novel, written in the 90's before the current spate of more sophisticated YA novels). The book makes some excellent points, like the fact that once something is done, it's very hard to undo (in this case, replacing people with robots).

Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King

A hugely disappointing short story collection. Many of the stories might have been decent enough if it weren't for the fact that they seemed like prologues that went nowhere. Barely worthy of the name story at all. I was left feeling frustrated as though I was waiting for a punchline that never came. King notes in his foreword that in his profession, phoning it in just isn't acceptable. Sadly, with this collection, I feel he did just that.

Nightwalk2 - D. Nathan Hilliard

Just as much of a rollercoaster ride as the first, this sequel kept me enthralled into the wee hours. And the ending suggests a third book may arrive at some point. I'll be hoping it's soon.

Feast of Souls: Magister Book I - Celia Friedman

It's always a red letter day these days if I find a worthwhile fantasy series and this was a joy from the start. Fantastic characters, a fascinating world, shades of grey. I devoured it in one sitting and have already started on book two.

LabRat

5. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, by Matthew Stover

This is the adult novelization of the movie Revenge of the Sith. The author looks into the minds of the characters and what they are thinking and feeling in the moment, especially for Anakin Skywalker, tracing his fall from Jedi hero to Darth Vader. The book begins and the sections of the book are divided by meditations on the Dark, but ends on a hopeful note, observing that in spite of everything, the Dark's weakness is that it can be pushed back by a single candle -- and that love, the ultimate expression of the Light, is more than a candle. It can light up the stars.

#3 The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

Biography about the Wright brothers. I'm not much of a biography fan but once I got into the book, I enjoyed it.

Joan

6. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

I resisted reading this for years because it didn't look interesting to me, but my boss kept talking about this series, so I finally checked the book out of the library. For once, he was right. This is a good book. It's a good combination of mystery and thriller that kept me interested and also taught me a bit about the country my great-grandparents came from (Sweden).

The Magister Trilogy - Celia Friedman:

Wings of Wrath
Legacy of Kings

This trilogy never flagged. The great success of the author was in making characters that in any other trilogy would be the stone-cold, black-hearted villains of the piece the heroes and heroines. Given the dark evil at the heart of their existence and the casually callous way they used it, it should have been impossible to root for them - and yet....

The Fireman - Joe Hill

I did enjoy this PA novel, but I didn't find it the classic or phenomenal piece of work that the rave reviews suggested and I do wonder how much of that adulation is down to his famous father. Having said that, it was a decent enough story.

The Absent Gods Trilogy - David DeBord:

The Silver Serpent
Keeper of the Mists
The Gates of Iron
The Glyphs of Riza (short story bonus)

I thoroughly enjoyed this fantasy trilogy. There were strong echoes here and there of Jordan's Wheel of Time but that didn't detract too much and I greatly enjoyed that the 'chosen one' was a woman for a change. Strong characters and an exciting plot kept me entertained.

The Imposter Prince - David DeBord and Ryan A Span

A bit more simplistic than Absent Gods but engaging all the same. My only complaint was that it ended rather oddly as far as the romantic sub plot was concerned, as though the authors realised they'd boxed themselves into a corner and didn't have the nerve to take the big decisions to properly resolve it.

LabRat

7. Operation Mincemeat by Ben MacIntyre. The story of the actual WW2 British plan that lead to the movie 'The Man Who Never Was'

8. The Women Who Wrote the War by Nanvy Caldwell Sorel. Stories of some of female journalists and photojournalists who covered WW2.

9. Domesticated - Evolution in a Man-Made World by Richard C. Francis. A look at the domestication of animals - including humans.

7. Mammoth, by John Varley

In a barren province of Canada, a mammoth hunter has made the discovery of a lifetime: an intact frozen woolly mammoth. But what he finds during the painstaking process of excavating the huge creature boggles the mind. Huddled next to the mammoth is the mummified body of a Stone Age man around 12,000 years old. And he is wearing a wristwatch.

I enjoyed this book. John Varley presents a well-written tale of time travel (and also references other time travel tales, like The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells and Back to the Future). A wealthy man with an obsession with cloning a mammoth, Howard Christian, hires a mathematician, Matt Wright, to figure out how the time machine found with the body of the Stone Age man works (for it must be a time machine; how else would the man have gotten a watch?)