Found Jazz to be a tough character to root for.

Project Hail Mary is on my list to read this year and I'm glad to hear it's more on The Martian level.

Currently listening to Troubled Blood by Ronert Galbraith (JK Rowling) #5 Cormoran Strike Book

I really enjoy the narration and the characters.

I've been debating starting this series, is it pretty entertaining overall?

Yes, very good! The cases are generally pretty complex and she is great at character development.

"Rhythm of War": Brandon Sanderson A-
Is there any real value to the fabrial tutorials before each chapter?
as others have stated, the mental health part got a little old but many of the storylines developed much further
"New Spring" Robert Jordan: B+/A-
David Gemmel's Troy series: A (I actually read this trilogy years ago but figured I'd mention it here because I assume, like me, people look here for book ideas.)
"Malazan: Gardens of the Moon": Steven Erikson: B-
Holy crap! This book makes me feel dumb! I'm 3 chapters in and there is so much going on that it takes delving into Malzan Wiki to explain to me what I just read. Way too many characters, places and things introduced for me to process. Do I stick it out because it will get better or cut my losses?
I stuck it out, still confusing. Hard to tell who are good guys and who are bad guys and soooooo many characters, places, species and world specific words. It became a little clearer toward the end but still.
"Masters of the Air": Donald L. Miller: B+ ( I read this because it is supposed to be the basis of a third mini-series following "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific"; it covers the daylight bombing campaign of the 8th AF during WWII; some pretty amazing stories but seemed to jump around quite a bit and was more air warfare philosophy driven than story driven.)
"Firefly: Big Damn Hero" : James Lovegrove: A- (Only thing better would've been if Nathan Fillion had been the narrator)
"Sidekick:Raptor Book 1" Jaime Castle/C.J. Valin : B (Audible Original YA I think)
"Dusty's Diary" : Bobby Adair : A
"Bound No More" : Faith Hunter : B
"Malazan: Deadhouse Gates" : Steven Erikson: B-
Still struggling to figure out who is who and they just keep piling on new characters and killing off established characters that I like. I might give it one more chance on the next book in the series but DANG!
"Off the Grid--Jane Yellowrock" (Audible) : Faith Hunter: C
"Bound No More--Jane Yellowrock" (Audible) : Faith Hunter: C
"Kings of the Wyld" : Nicholas Eames : A (Thanks Eliminatus for the referral on this one)
"Superteam: Raptor Book 2" Jaime Castle/C.J. Valin : B (Audible Original)
"Scions: Raptor Book 3" Jaime Castle/C.J. Valin : B (Audible Original)
"Robert E. Howard's Conan The Cimmarean Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus": Robert E. Howard/Finn J. D. John: B
"Project Hail Mary": Andy Weir: A- (not as good as The Martian in my opinion)
"Make Mead Like a Viking": Jereme Zimmerman: B+ (interesting concept, wish it had more exact instructions but I guess that is kind of the point)
"Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods": Sandor Ellix Katz: A (helps fill in a few of the gaps I had in Make Mead Like a Viking)
"Bloody Rose": Nicholas Eames (only halfway through, almost quit reading it but it finally became interesting 200 or so pages in)

Listened to The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket with the 8 and 5 year olds on the way from Alabama to Texas. They have asked for book 2 and 3 for the drive back.

Started reading Hail Mary based on this thread. It's a fun book, no doubt.

I just finished Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez. It was an interesting read about how he created El Mariachi. It is a little repetitive due to it being is journal entries at the time, but offers a cool insight into the movie making process and the inner workings of Hollywood.

Just finished listening the last WOT book last night. The last three books are incredible.

Finished
Hell's Angels
Storm Front
Full Moon
The Sinful Seven
The Ask and the Answer
In the Garden of Beasts
Creativity, Inc
The Bullet Journal Method
Perelandra
Crazy Love
The Cruise of the Snark
Smuggler's Cove by Martin Cate: A book with a bunch of Tiki/exotic cocktail recipes mixed with the history of rum and popularity of the "Tiki Culture" in America. Having fun making a few of the drinks from the book so far.
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton: Really intense Sci-Fi with some horror elements. He has some really cool futuristic concepts in here and is a pretty talented writer. I plan to continue with this series and read some more of his stuff. I see a lot of inspiration for The Expanse writers in this.

Currently Reading
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher and picking up a copy of the novelization of Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino which I'm very excited about.

I liked Grave Peril (Michael Carpenter is awesome) but a lot of people think the first three books of the Dresden Files are sub-par and the series doesn't really get good until book four Summer Knight. Hope you like them as much as I do!

rynning said:

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Started reading Hail Mary based on this thread. It's a fun book, no doubt.

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Thought the ending was great, but I'm surprised the author didn't include Grace eventually sending a Beetle-like capsule back to earth explaining what happened and describing "first contact." Also, did the author explain how Eridian's discovered Tau Ceti? I think there was a brief mention, but I'm too lazy to go back and find it.

(double post)

Finished the latest Cormoran Strike novel and it was as good as the others in the series. JK Rowling is a solid writer

Did you know they made the books into a TV series on the BBC? If you have HBO Max you can stream it. Almost finished with the ****oos calling and I really like it so far. Can't wait to see the show and see how it compares.

Edit - the filter doesn't like the name of the first book apparently

Finished Elantris by Sanderson. I really enjoyed it!

Just finished Streets of Laredo. It's not quite Lonesome Dove, but really enjoyable.

Yes. We just finished the series. Robin is perfectly cast, but Strike is too polished. Husband and I both liked it, but felt they simplified way too much of the plots.

Chipotlemonger said:

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Finished Elantris by Sanderson. I really enjoyed it!

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I was a fan as well. I hope he eventually gets around to the sequel.

Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune in-progress

Same series, same outcome. I go long stretches without reading and then read a few hundred pages in a few days. Part of that seems to be because the last 1/4 of the books always get pretty intense.

The time jump and seeing Leto II's change into a worm was pretty cool. I know there have been adaptations of part of the story after Dune, but does anyone know if they ever got that far into the story?

Just finished Justin Cronin's "The Passage". Love it.

Starting book two, "The Twelve", tomorrow.

Nice! Grave Peril is the book where the series really gets going. You are in for quite a ride. Michael is the best side character in the series.

Just finished Project Hail Mary. I am not a huge sci-fi fan but absolutely loved it.

Just started Last Looks and enjoying it so far.

Listening to True Believer while running and while it's not nearly as engaging as The Terminal List it is enough to keep my attention.

Completed
- Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)
- Billion Dollar Whale
- A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness #1)
- Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4)
- Death Masks ( The Dresden Files #5)
- Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)

Just finished:
The Saints of Salvation (Salvation Sequence #3) - Peter F Hamilton

Final book in this trilogy. Said it before but I think this is my least favorite Hamilton series. It's still good and his fans will like it. I just didn't get into it as much as others although this third book was better than the first two. To be fair, it has a lot of hard science in it and time travel and other complex stuff which is not personally conducive for audible setting. I might have enjoyed this more if I had read it.

Now going to finish up Swan Song so I can reread Dune for first time in decades.

Andy Weir must be a happy man judging by this thread. I'm not sure I've seen another book read this much by so many that loved it.

Read Split Field Coverages, think it is a solid tome on the topic.

I read Reality Dysfunction and am going to finish the Night's Dawn Trilogy. I like Hamilton so far. What should I read next?

Was leaning towards the Commonwealth Saga.

PDWT_12 said:

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I read Reality Dysfunction and am going to finish the Night's Dawn Trilogy. I like Hamilton so far. What should I read next?

Was leaning towards the Commonwealth Saga.

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You're on the right track. I've pretty much read his stuff in order that he's written it. You basically read Commonwealth Saga, then Chronicles of the Fallers, then the Void trilogy. All in same universe. The Void trilogy has some detractors because it's essentially two completely different stories in the same series. I'll leave it a that. I enjoyed it though.

The only thing I haven't read by him is his very first series - the Greg Mandel books.

Thanks for the tip, I'm looking forward to reading more.

I think you've got the order flipped there, the void trilogy is before the fallers books.

Karrde said:

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I think you've got the order flipped there, the void trilogy is before the fallers books.

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I may have. I looked at the years the stories take place and thought I got it right.

Edit: You are correct. I just looked at teh order in which I read them in GoodReads and it's Commonwealth, Void, then Fallers.

Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile - love her and her music, and therefore loved the book too.

Us Against You by Fredrick Backman - enjoyed this one as well.

Just finished S.C. Gwynne's The Perfect Pass

Excellent book. Even after devouring pretty much everything I can find on Hal Mumme and Mike Leach and the Air Raid, there was still some new information in this book. I did laugh when I read the 'Notes' section at the end, because there were times I thought some of the material sounded incredibly familiar. Some of the sources for his research were books or articles I had already read.

I actually recommend this book for all Aggie fans, because I think it will cause you to re-evaluate the early years in the SEC with Johnny and KK and Sumlin.

Jack Carr- Savage Son, True Believer, The Terminal List , The Devil's Hand - in order.

Former Seal getting revenge. Highly detailed but most interesting !

Lee Child - Without Fail - Close look into protecting VP and Pres. Similar writing style to Carr's.

Middle to Child's series - going to start with First next.

Quote:

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Jack Carr- Savage Son, True Believer, The Terminal List , The Devil's Hand - in order.

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Im about to finish Savage Son, and The Devil's Hand will be delivered tomorrow.

I really like these books, but does anyone else have to flip back sometimes, to remember who is who?

He'll introduce characters in short little random chapters at the beginning, and Im all...'wait, was he the Russian Kingpin, or the CIA Mole?'