Started Tom Clancey's "Without Remorse"

L4L, have fun with the Gamache mystery.

Thanks, Chief, I am ;o)

Finished the Gamache books and pre-ordered the next one. Gotta keep up with the Chief.

In the meantime, I'm rereading the Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson. Huge books all. I actually started reading the last one in the is arc, but quickly realized I was going to miss a lot unless I went back and refreshed my mind on what had happened so far and who all these people were. So back to the beginning i went. Way of Kings is a great book....complex....but so enjoyable. it's a challenge to put down at night. It will take me awhile to get through them all and be ready for the final one.

What is entertaining everyone else these day?

L4L, you are a fast reader.

I'm half way with the last one: "All the devils are here".

Enjoy it when you get it .

I've been reading the Will Trent mysteries by Karin Slaughter, and just finished Broken. They're gritty and the characters are flawed but well written, and the suspense makes for white knuckles.

Yesterday I changed authors because I had The Final Twist by Jeffery Deaver sitting on my shelf begging to be read. It's the final book that ties up his Colter Shaw trilogy and is also a nail-biter. My favorite series of his are those with Lincoln Rhyme, but I read anything that man writes.

I don't think I had read any Karin Slaughter since her first two or three, but I recently quite enjoyed The Silent Wife which I think is the latest Will Trent (bought as a special cheap deal on Kindle): a really twisted serial killer tale, but with what is for me a little too much of the central love story mixed in (not being a great fan of cross-over romantic thrillers which seem to be the currently favoured genre).

I have just finished the excellent Jack McDevitt series I mentioned earlier and am now back with John Sandford's Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers for some tongue in cheek and not very politically correct cops'n'robbers entertainment in Ocean Prey.

After that it may be back to SF, possibly Adrian Tchaikovsky again...


Afterthought: I am going to try the Amelia Peabody series on the strength of recommendations above and a quick look at a sample, and have just bought the Crocodile on the Sandbank on Kindle!

That's great about Amelia Peabody, Lex! You have a lot of reading pleasure in store if you enjoy the first one.

I was trying to remember some of the post-apocalyptic SF I read back in the 60's and early 70's. I remember the classics like A Canticle for Liebowitz, I am Legend, V, Barefoot in the Head, Dahlgren, and so on, but I suppose some of those books are lost to time and poor memory.

Anyway, in the process I went to a couple of sites listing the best post-apocalyptic fiction of the last few decades and got a few ideas.

I settled on The Passage, by Justin Cronyn. It's part of a trilogy, so I've bought all three on my Kindle.

I have read the first two of those Cronyn books, Hagatha, but didn't realize there's a third. Since I don't remember much about them, I'll have to reread them.

It's about super-vampires. Now that I'm halfway through the first book I remember reading it a while back, and then abandoning it when I realized it was part of a trilogy that wasn't finished. Now it is. It's pretty well-written.

It's interesting to read the synopses of the books mentioned on those lists. Back in the 50's, 60's and early 70's it was nuclear war, of course, or a new ice age, with the books being about the aftermath or post-apocalyptic society. Of course, given what the 60's were, a lot of it is pretty off the wall. I tried re-reading Dahlgren a while back and gave up. V I found similarly unreadable. I have no idea how I got through them and even enjoyed them back in the day. I guess it all made sense at the time but I have to admit it all seems a bit pretentious now.

These days, of course, we're into vampires and Zombies.

Thanks for those thoughts: while looking for some of the titles I stumbled across various Wildside Press Megapacks which offer very inexpensive trips down memory lane in various genres, including the First Science Fiction Megapack.

Perhaps of interest to some of you.

If you like fantastical world building sci fi/fantasy, the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin is well worth a read.
There is a post-apocalyptic element as well.

Some of those megapacks look pretty good . All the old masters.

A few years ago I was reading The Year's Best Science Fiction and the Year's Best Fantasy, absolutely massive books that had some great reading, short stories and novellas. They were edited by Gardner Dozois. I always used to grab these every year. I think they stopped publishing them in 2019.

Many of them are available on Amazon as Kindle volumes and Paperbacks. I would strongly recommend checking these out. I've had many hours of reading pleasure out of these books, and found some new writers, too! For the $26.00 you get months' of reading.


EDIT: Oops! I shouldn't have looked on Amazon. Now I have about 8 massive SF/Fantasy collections coming my way.

My problem with Amazon is downloading too many Kindle samples to try later, but then letting them pile up - currently around 350...

Been there, done that...

Riviera Gold by Laurie R. King. The Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes books are my favorite series.

Copper, those look like fun: thanks for putting them in the mix. I am going to try the first one in the series after I finish the first of the Amelia Peabody books (mentioned earlier in this thread).

Have you read any of the books by Alexander McCall Smith?

Lex, the first one of the series is The Beekeeper's Apprentice, it's really good.

I have not tried any Alexander McCall Smith books, I'll add them to my ever growing list...

I did love the tv series of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series" from his books.

I have downloaded the kindle sample...

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed most or all of the books about the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, although I acknowledge that they may resonate particularly with me because of my early years living in Africa. I think that I tried the TV series but found that it did not match up to the books (not unusual).

Still very much enjoying my first foray into the world of Amelia Peabody, but Amazon has just coerced me into buying the kindle edition of Project Hail Mary, a new SF book by Andy Weir (author of the Martian, which I have only experienced on film)...

That's funny, Lex. After a recent read of Weir's Artemis about a feisty and likeable (but not always honest) heroine living on the moon, I also ordered Project Hail Mary and The Martian. Both are nearing the top of my pile. After the books arrived with a couple others, I decided that this is the month I cull some books that I know I won't read again to make room for more. My motto is, it's not hoarding if it's books (or games...or craft supplies...or...nevermind).

I have never previously read Andy Weir, but I see that he seems to like writing about solo exploits.

Naturally, I am now wondering what else you might hoard that does not count...

Although I still have a couple of paper books in my pile of unread, my wife Linda and I both now mainly read on the Kindle which has made a huge difference to space as we are both prolific readers, also keeping the price down! Neither of us likes the backlit versions, but so far we have been able to stick with the second model (still available on eBay), keeping the experience surprisingly close to that of a real book if you have a good cover.

As a slight diversion I am currently trying a Dean Koontz series about Nameless which is free to borrow with Amazon Prime (Linda and I both having been an avid reader of his books a few years ago), and after that I will probably read The Beekeeper's Apprentice as recommended by copper: I have already read the free sample (another great advantage of Kindle) and been very impressed.

I'm now on the third and final volume of Justin Cronin's post-apocalyptic vampire series. It's good, though perhaps a teensy bit over-long.

I have a very long to-read list on my Kindle but lately I've been hankering for another read through the entire Discworld series. I think it got mentioned a while back. It has some of the most memorable characters; Rincewind, the world's worst wizard, Captain Vimes, Granny Ogg, the Nac Mac Feegles and of course, Death.

The Discworld tales are great fun, and I came to them quite late: I particularly enjoyed Death taking on an apprentice, but Terry Pratchett created many other memorable characters and situations!