I just finished American Assassin by Vince Flynn. It was fast moving and pretty good.

I have just finished John Scalzi's wonderful debut novel Agent to the Stars first published in 1997, laugh out loud funny in quite a lot of places, but also poignant: I read the tenth anniversary revised version with a twentieth anniversary introduction which was also quite entertaining. Strongly recommended (along with most of his books)!

I'm reading 15th Affair, a Women's Murder Club novel, by James Patterson. It's the last unread book I have by him.

I just finished Wyrd Sisters, which is one of my favourite Pratchett books. It's a twisted and very funny take on Shakespeare.

I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. One of those books I had always been interested in reading but had never gotten around to it. And now I am, finally.

That's one I've never read, Marian. Let me know what you think of it. Oh, and happy birthday! I hope you had fun on your special day.

Hagatha,
I need a mood lifter, so I'm thinking about starting the Discworld series again.

Oldbroad,
Thanks for reminding me of the Women's Murder Club series. I have a couple of the books that I haven't read yet.

Lex,
Ever since reading Starter Villian, I have Scalzi's books on my to-buy list.

Right now I'm reading Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. So far it's like reading different in depth and fascinating stories about different characters that are being experienced by a tech-enhanced policewoman in a supremely interconnected and transparent future society.

LadyK, I've read the Discworld novels twice over a twenty year period, and the one thing I've noticed is that the books get better and better as the series goes on. The next one I'll be reading is the first Sam Vimes book. He's my favourite character in the series.

Thank you, LadyK, for your good wishes. Much appreciated. I am almost halfway through Dorian Gray and will try to remember to comment on it after I'm done.

I remember being fascinated by the Dorian Gray movie when I was a tot.

Am about half way through the last part of the Children of Time trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
If you like world building on a long time galactic scale I would highly recommend it.

That is a great trilogy, flotsam, and I have been enjoying a number of other books by Adrian, most recently Alien Clay.

I have also just started reading Word Puppets, a collection of short mainly SF stories by the highly impressive Mary Robinette Kowal (new to me), with an amusing and fascinating introduction by Patrick Rothfuss (also new to me) who may on the strength of that be the author I try next.

Meanwhile, I am nearing the end of the Foreigner series with number 22, Defiance on the waiting list...

Rothfuss is someone I have heard about, even though I have never read any of his books. Very popular, and probably worth checking out.

The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Rothfuss are excellent. I just finished Boy's Life by McCammon but it was not my cup of tea.

Foundation and Earth (Asimov), the final novel in his Foundation Universe series.

I have just finished a particularly stimulating compendium of mixed length SF stories, The Hugo Award Showcase, 2010 Volume which I highly recommend (several authors familiar to me but not all)

Marian, be forewarned; Patrick Rothfuss's books are amazing, but he's another writer who never got around to finishing his series.

Lex, I have many Omnibus volumes of year's best sci fi and fantasy. Every now and then I delve into one for some fresh new writers. The books are excellent for my sci-fi-loving family, as they can read a few stories and not have to leave a book unfinished when they leave.

It looks as if the book I mentioned may well have been planned as an annual series, but was in fact a one-off: it is made up of winners and nominees for the Hugo award, with no fillers!

Now enjoying Defiance before perhaps delving into some of C J Cherryh's other books beyond the Foreigner series.

I'll be starting Killer by Jonathan Kellerman tomorrow.

Lex, CJ Cherryh is a wonderful writer. Her Alliance Space novels are great. Her world-building is amazing. She also wrote a very good fantasy series, the Fortress series.

If you haven't read the Expanse novels, they are very, very good. The TV series captured them amazingly well, so much so that when I read the books after watching the series, the characters in my head as I read were exactly as portrayed in the series. I only wish the TV series had gone on to the last three books, though it did have a decent ending.

I enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Gray. Fortunately I had never watched the movie so I had no idea what to expect going in, and the plot surprised me at several points. I also thought the book would be an easier read than it was. I found myself reading it rather slowly because there were a great many ideas per page. This is not a complaint, just an observation.

Now I am reading (and getting towards the end of) Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. There is so much more to the book, and a great deal more depth, than anything I have seen related to Frankenstein previously. It is simply astonishing that Mary Shelley wrote this when she was 19 years old. It has been a really interesting read thus far.

Oldbroad,
I read the Alex Delaware series quite faithfully for many years but got sidetracked and didn't keep up with them. I passed his early books on to a friend but still have a few I haven't read yet.

I finally finished Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. It's a 663-page and very dense book that's a sci-fi mystery and warning about AI technology and privacy. It has a strange cast of distinctive characters from different places in history, and it's loaded with references and events that may be metaphors, dreams, real, or something else entirely. Most answers are revealed in the final chapters, but some are left up to the reader to decide. It's a book I'm glad I read, but one that needs some perseverance before the answers begin to coalesce.

And now for something completely different, I just started my first Armand Gamache novel, Still Life by Louise Penny. I know several of the readers here like her mysteries, so I thought I'd give one a try.

Nice stuff you guys are reading. Both Sci Fi and 19'th century classics. Come to think of it both Dorian Gray and Frankenstein are if not Sci Fi directly so at least not far from it. Over here I just got access to a bunch of Scandinavian language fanzines from the 1970ies. The Algernon from Oslo. Very interesting reading. Both fun and a historical document at the same time. Since AI was discussed here earlier I (Fogfighter) got some inspiration and wrote a very short sci-fi story about an AI (Grok), a fictional user (Friendly User) and a page from that fanzine (not shown here).

Enjoy the story.

A most excellent very short sci-fi stroy Fogfighter.

I have just enjoyed a thriller by Jonathon King, a new author to me, The Blue Edge of Midnight first in a series about ex-cop Max Freeman set in the Everglades - an entertaining bit of thud and blunder! https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/145506.Jonathon_King

Thanks Dan. And the fanzines are very interesting. I'm having a blast reading them.