Shattered does not seem to have made it to kindle, so I may have to buy an actual book for a change...!

I hope you enjoy Sapiens, Lady K (or should I say birthday girl?): I am only 70% through it, but already contemplating buying the follow up Homo Deus, and there is another due out later this year, Nexus.

Just finished reading "Don't look now" by Mary Burton; it's a very good serial killer thriller, I'm now starting "Quicksilver" by Dean Koontz.

I have Quicksilver in my to-read pile, judith.

It's really good but a little quarky, but that's Dean Koontz for you.

It sure is, judith!

I read a gothic mystery by Rebecca James called The Woman in the Mirror. It has some common tropes, such as a cursed mansion on a lonely bluff in Cornwall and the women who come to it at different points in history. It also has some twists that add some goosebumps. It's not the best I've read, but it was entertaining.

I am now nearly halfway through The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, and I have to thank Lex for another 3 AM bedtime because I couldn't put it down. It's an excellent sci-fi first contact story with a strong female protagonist, and I have no idea yet where it'll end.

I'm on book 3 of the Foreigner series now. They're slow going, and you have to pay full attention. It's really a fascinating world she's created, very dense and real-feeling, of an alien race that is very similar to Humans in every way but one, and essential emotional difference that launched a war.

I read the first 12 books in the series decades ago, when they first came out. I see she's up to volume 21 or 22 now. I would have to say that CJ Cherryh ranks as one of my favourite writers. She's prolific, too.

Glad I have hit the spot for you a couple of times LadyK.

On your recommendation I am currently enjoying some short stories by John Brunner in The Society of Time: The Original Trilogy and Other Stories (British Library Science Fiction Classics Book 16) - this seems like a good introduction to his work and has an interesting foreword about him, all for a very low price on kindle!

Hagatha,
I've been waiting patiently for book 22 in the Foreigner series but haven't seen any signs of it yet.

Glad to hear that the Foreigner series is still worth reading. I hope the overall story gets finished and not left hanging like WOT.

I just found that Foreigner book 22 has been published, but Cherryh now has a co-author. She is 81 now, so I'm hoping she gets a chance to resolve the series.

What series is WOT? I was thinking of Sue Grafton and her alphabetical series of Kinsey Millhone mysteries. She finished Y is for Yesterday but never had a chance to complete Z.

WOT is Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. He died before the series was done and left the rest for Brandon Sanderson. Unfortunately I don't like Brandon Sanderson's writing, so all of the years I put into the series were wasted because I never finished it. I'm hoping Amazon manages to produce the whole series (I thought Jordan stretched things out needlessly long in the later books, so it would be an improvement).

Hopefully the same will not be true for CJ.

Doug Johnstone does it again with a great sequel to his foray into SF first contact: he is an author who has really found his voice and is also churning the books out at a great pace!
https://dougjohnstone.com/page/2/

Lex,
The Collapsing Wave sounds good. I hope it'll make it across the pond in a timely manor. I see that Johnstone also plans on writing two more Skelf books.

I'm currently reading The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten. It's the sequel to The Foxglove King and a bit convoluted so far. I'm not very far into it yet, so I'm hoping the story will smooth out as it goes along.

LadyK, the Collapsing Wave is the second instalment, so you need to read The Space between Us first.

I think you might also enjoy Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

I did read both Johnstone's The Space Between Us and Weir's Project Hail Mary, Lex. They were both excellent!

Hannah Whitten's The Hemlock Queen took off soon after I posted about it above, and it had some unexpected revelations and very suspenseful twists. The story isn't finished, however, so that means I have to wait for the next book to find out what happens.

I just started Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan. It concerns an old manor house, dark family secrets, and ghosts. I'm already hooked.

I just started A Painted House by John Grisham. I've only read the first chapter so far but couldn't help thinking of young Opie Taylor while reading it.

Grisham is always a good read, although I have to admit that I have not read any of his recently.

On someone else's recommendation I have just read Dark Eden by Chris Beckett: not my usual sort of SF and a bit slow at first while setting the scene, but a real page turner once it got going and with some interesting examination of human nature under unusual circumstances https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18166988-dark-eden

I haven't read any of Grisham's books in quite awhile either. I'm grateful for the reminder because I own at least two I haven't read yet.

Dark Eden sounds very good, Lex. I'll have to include it in my next book haul.

Her Little Flowers is a very good modern-day gothic tale that doesn't use many of the usual tropes. The main character is a 50-something reclusive woman who lives alone with some ghosts in her large ancestral home. She much prefers her ghosts to the living, but when her younger sister visits after many years of estrangement, she learns of a family secret that turns her life on its head.

I'm now halfway through Defiance, the 22nd book in C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, and I'm happy to report that she hasn't lost her touch. Her co-author, Jane S. Fancher, is a friend who has written some fantasy stories, but the book is definitely Cherryh's style, thank goodness!

LadyKeatrel, I'm glad to hear that. I'm on book 5, where Bren and company are about go go off in the Phoenix. I guess I haven't read these books since they were first published. They really are good.

I have just ordered the first Foreigner book, second hand on eBay and being shipped from Germany: it obviously remains popular enough to hold its price quite well more locally, as well as not being available on kindle in UK.

I hope you enjoy it it, Lex.

I'm looking to pickup something new to read and this thread has given me some good suggestions. Thanks everyone.

I had lunch yesterday with a newish friend who also lost her husband a couple of years ago. We were chatting about what was important to our spouses towards the end, and she mentioned that before he went into hospice for his advancing Alzheimer's her husband told her that he never wanted to be without his favourite book, which was Snowcrash. Not being a science fiction fan, she had no idea about that book and was really surprised that I knew it so well. Apparently he was a speculative fiction fan and had a leather-bound collection of signed first editions, all science fiction and fantasy.

I haven't read some of Neal Stephenson's books for a while and it might be time to re-read them when I'm finished with the Foreigner series.