Just finished Fugitive Telemetry - good escape reading.

I've been rereading Rebecca Ore. Her aliens are quite different from CJ's. Ore seems to focus more on biology. Although there is quite a lot of social/instinctual conflict. Accommodation seems to be the focus rather than understanding.
I've also been reading some "end permian mass extinction" stuff. If anybody is interested:
Peter Brannen THE ENDS OF THE WORLD. Written by a science journalist, he describes the 5 instances of mass extinctions in earth's past (the present being #6) Actually very well written, with lots of interviews with paleontologists around the country.
I've also got 2 on the specific permian one. working through it.

I have been indulging in the Lee/Miller Liaden universe. Fun. But like all fun things, I will be done with it in two more volumes.

Aja Jin, I think there are about 23 books in the series so far. I have read them nearly in chronological order, although that is not the publication order. I got the chrono order by googling reading order Liaden Universe, and I recommend it. I can provide the link if it would be useful. 
The setting, for the most part, is in a space faring galaxy populated by humans with jump technology, so the books present as science fiction. There is a lot about trade, which made me think of Pyanfar and other trading books, and also space piloting. But in addition some of the folks have “healing” powers and so on, which enable the authors to have a bit of fun pushing into the fantasy area.The authors love cats, which is nice for this cat lover. 
The first few books are well self contained, and all of them tend to wrap up the immediate plot line so there are no truly obnoxious cliff hangers, but some evil doers appear about five books in and they continue to impel  the overall story arc forward.
the diction is fine Some of the predicaments the characters encounter get a bit repetitive over 20 books, but I like the characters quite a lot and I will be be bereft when I am done. 
so, I don’t want to oversell these but I am enjoying them. I wouldn’t say they are ground breaking or sophisticated but they are good escape fiction to read on the treadmill. 

Last edited by Kokipy (6/20/2021 12:06 pm)

I've been reading (or trying to; the brain weasels keep getting distracted by all the shiny things in the world) historical things.  I read Tetlow's The Enigma of Hastings, which was pretty intriguing -- talking about the history leading up to the Battle of Hastings that the author feels lead to the outcome, and about the Bayeux Tapestry as propaganda (magnificent work of art, but its accuracy as a source of information about what happened should be taken with a grain of salt).  The book was written in 1974, so Tetlow briefly advances some pretty outdated thinking regarding homosexuality (he's talking about Edward the Confessor), but other than reading that and thinking, "well, we've come quite a way from that," I thought the book was solid.

I'm trying to get through "Complete Old English (Anglo-Saxon)", but it's a Kindle edition, and I'm thinking that at some point I'm going to need to buy the actual physical copy of it -- when it comes to language learning, I work a lot better when I have something physical I can flip through, and flip back and forth through (especially helpful for memorization).

And when I do get back to non-fiction, my tasker is to go through the full Foreigner series and work on collecting place names and locations for the maps I've been working on (minus "Divergence", which is done, though I want to try to do another version of it in a more painterly style).  I think it would be a handy thing, if non-official, to have maps for the books that don't have them.  Other than that, I have a huge HUGE list of things waiting to be read (Megan Starks' "House of Ash and Brimstone", Rivers Solomon's "The Deep", Brandon Dixon's "The Chronicles of Tikor", Nnedi Okorafor's "Binti" series, among some of them).

I have not yet dipped my toes into the Alliance-Union books. I want to, but at this point, I need another obsession like I need a hole in the head. ; )

Last edited by Jackalgirl (6/21/2021 8:04 am)