Time for another roundup I guess.
The Three-Body Problem- Liu Cixin
This was pretty different, apparently translated from Chinese. It's a fairly epic science fiction where first contact with an alien race is made by a unwilling worker at a Chinese experimental military site. I enjoyed it, and will probably read the rest of the series at some point, but I am in no hurry currently.
First Light/The Trials/Going Dark- Linda Nagata
Mostly milsf trilogy about a 'linked combat squad' ( a squad of marines that use brain implants and powered exo-skeletons ) and a surprisingly subtle rogue AI. I liked that the AI was relatively plausible and quite different to normal fiction in the way that it worked. There wasn't any indication that it was sentient, it doesn't spend any time talking to people, and no-one can really tell what the fuck it is up to, or what it wants, assuming it actually wants anything. I found it enjoyable enough to read all of them consecutively.
Touched By An Alien- Gini Koch
This was pretty entertaining, if absolutely ridiculous. This is a very chick book, the male characters are all either super hot potential love interests, in love with the main character or villains. Sometimes all of them at once. Basic premise is that the 'men in black' are a group of refugee aliens from alpha centauri fighting a covert war against transforming monsters and assorted conspiracies.
Poor Man's Fight/Rich Man's WarElliot Kay
I had previously read the guy's other series (Good Intentions), and was expecting something similar, i.e. teenage boy wish fulfillment fantasy, but I was surprised. This series is pretty series and I thought it was really good. Sort of space opera, about a smarter than average student that fails to qualify for any university assistance, so stuck with a crippling education debt, goes into the military.
Medusa's Web- Tim Powers
Sort of about time travel, via means of written glyphs called 'spiders' that cause the second person reading them to take over the mind of the first person who read them for a short period of time. The story is a bit 'grubby', the magic is about of as exciting and healthy as heroin, and all the characters are horrible people. I thought it was ok, but wouldn't really recommend it.
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen- Lois McMaster Bujold
I felt a bit cheated with this one, Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga are, for the most part, fantastic science fiction and of a particular adventurous style. This book was essentially a romance, with the most signficant action being a minor mishap with fireworks.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet- Becky Chambers
Woman with 'horrible' past joins the crew of a hyperspace tunneling ship, using false credentials. The captain accepts a suspiciously good deal to take a really long trip to construct a tunnel to a potential new galactic federation member that has apparently gotten sick of their millenniums of civil war. I liked this one a lot - a rich and colorful world, with a lot of different alien viewpoints.
The Quantum Thief- Hannu Rajaniemi
This is probably the most imaginative book about the transhuman state that I have read in a long time. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would based on the fascinating concepts and characters. It was still good, but didn't inspire me to read the rest of the series straight away. Ironically, what I'd mark as one of it's strengths, the strangeness of far future factions, makes them a lot less relatable and ultimately less readable.
The Bands of Mourning- Brandon Sanderson
I really liked this one - I'd thought he was losing a bit of steam on the Waxillium setting after Shadows of Self, but this one was a great return to form.
The Shootout Solution- Michael R Underwood
Similar to some of Jasper Fforde's stuff, where stories are real to certain extent, and there's a group of 'Genrenauts' that make sure they run properly. It was ok, but I don't think I'll read any further of these books.
Morning Star- Pierce Brown
A satisfying conclusion to the Red Rising trilogy. It didn't have the impact of the first two books, but was still a great read. There's not a lot I can say about this one without going into spoilers, but then again if you've read Red Rising, there's no reason you wouldn't read it anyway, and starting with the third book makes no sense.
Calamity- Brandon Sanderson
Third book of the Reckoners series, in which a great deal is revealed about what's happening in that setting, and David brings things to a more or less permanent conclusion. Reckoner's was never my favorite of Sanderson's series, but I liked this one a lot and was happy with how it wrapped things up.
Crimes Against Magic- Steve McHugh
Suggested by someone here, this was pretty fun urban fantasy. Only downside is the guy is in dire need of an editor - the number of grammatical and the like errors was quite distracting, particularly in the second book.
Renegade- Joel Shepherd
This was a really good read - large scale space opera. It starts with one of the most famous battle carriers in a centuries long interstellar war coming home to celebrate the victory of the humans and their allies. Things take an unexpected turn when the ship's captain is arrested and then killed in custody while the victory celebrations are still ongoing.
The Devil You Know- K. J. Parker
A famous philosopher offers to sell his soul to the Devil. As he is known as one of the greatest liar and cheat in the world, the demon handling the contact is pretty suspicious that he's up to something, but a deal like this is just too good to pass up. This one was great fun, although as pre-warning, like most of Parker's stuff, the main character is a scumbag ;p
