…on his site; it (Darkship Renegades) is the second book in the series, so I figure that I’ll grab the first one (Darkship Thieves) and give THAT a read, first.
What the heck: book recommendation thread. I do read ’em, even if I don’t always respond; besides, other people may not have read a book even if I have.
“Into the Black: Odyssey One” by Evan Curry. Kindle self-published. Good entry in the “humanity’s first star ship stumbles into a bigger mess than we imagined could exist” sub-genre.
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“Man’s Hope” by William Zellmann. Kindle self-published. A modernized “Man Who Sold The Moon” romp/rant.
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“Breaking News: An Autozomniography” by N.J. Hallard. A Zombie apocalypse novel that distinguishes itself by being set in Britain, being intelligent, and not taking things too seriously.
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“The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy” by Adrienne Mayor. I can’t get a handle on Mayor’s place on the accuracy vs. sensationalism balance, but she’s fun to read, checks out in other sources pretty well, and her primary thesis appears to be “the ancients weren’t stupid, they observed the world as well as we do, and they accomplished some amazing things”. This book — as the title says — focuses on the Greco-Persian king who became Rome’s biggest enemy right after the fall of Carthage. Mithradates organized the murder of 50-80,000 Roman citizens IN A SINGLE DAY, ACROSS ASIA MINOR. The bit players in his drama are as fascinating as his story — with Caesar and Spartacus making appearances, and Pompey cementing his name fighting Mithradates.
I started ‘Darkship Thieves’ when it was new, gotta go finish it.
I’ve been enjoying Larry Coreia’s ‘Monster Hunter’ series, good violent zombie death fun.
Stross’s ‘Atrocity Archives’ holds up nicely, need to see if ihe’s written anything new in that series. Very dark, though. Stuff of nightmares.
Mew
Stross has three sequels out to “Atrocity Archives”: “The Jennifer Morgue”, “The Fuller Memorandum”, and “The Apocalypse Codex”. Haven’t read the last one, but the middle two are outstanding.
“Clockwork Angels”, by Kevin J. Anderson and Neal Peart, is based on the Rush album of the same name. It’s not bad, but I don’t know if I’d pay $16 for the dead tree version of what’s basically a YA bildungsroman.
I’ve been making short work of two urban fantasy series, the “PC Peter Grant” books, (/Moon Voer Soho/, /Rivers of London/, /Whispers Under Ground/) by Ben Aaronovich, and the “Alex Verus” books (/Fated/, /Cursed/, /Taken/) by Benedict Jacka. Both are entertaining, but I think Aaronovich’s books are more likely to have a long, healthy run like Jim Butcher’s “Harry Dresden” series, the latest of which is due out in November.
I’ve also set a goal of reading all of Alastair Reynolds’ “Revelation Space” works. I’m halfway done.
Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter: Legion just came out. My wife is gone for work this weekend, and the kids are going camping with grandparents. Life is good.
As for recommendations, Tim Powers (Declare, The Anubis Gates, Three Days to Never, Last Call) is pretty hard to beat. Although Neil Gaiman (American Gods, the Sandman graphic novels) and Terry Pratchett (Guards! Guards!, Small Gods) sometimes come awfully close.
I liked Stross’ Atrocity Archives series, but have several dents in my wall from his attempts at science fiction.