"Comfort reading" has been the theme. I reread nearly all the CJC I have (I cannot find my Rider at the Gate books, hmmm), and am now skipping through some light Anne McCaffrey.  No dragons, but the Crystal Singer and Ship that Sang books.

We leave for some extended fall camping in 3 weeks, and I intend to read some of the Kindle purchases made when Greg Bear and other authors' book were deeply discounted. So far I have about 20 books uploaded!

82Eridani wrote:

No dragons, but the Crystal Singer and Ship that Sang books.

I loved (and still love) the Crystal Singer books.  I just read a book by Megan Starks, the writer at Obsidian who did the writing for Vicar Max in The Outer Worlds, called House of Ash and Brimstone.  It was very interesting and I tore through it and I'm looking forward to reading the next one when she finishes it, but there were some whiplash post-cliffhanger scenes that made me think that she was mightily constrained by her editor in terms of word count.

I do need to get back to Foreigner, though, and get my master map updated.
 

Kokipy wrote:

Report on the Bob books- there are four in all, so far I guess. I finished them yesterday. The first three I listened  to, and the Audible pace worked for me. The last one I read, and that was fine too. Bottom line, they are enjoyable but possibly not groundbreaking except in the way they do credibly imho include all those various themes. I wonder if other readers would feel a bit of a Mary Jane thing going on. And sometimes I wondered about the incessant references to sci fi culture. A bit meta, perhaps. I will be curious to hear if any of you guys read them and what you think. 

 
good to know! Thanks!
 

Please bear with me because this book is not entirely the execrable midden it may seem, but I can’t talk about it without the accumulated rant. I am a third of the way through Andy Weir’s Hail Mary. I don’t intend to offend anyone by suggesting that if Weir is not exactly the Dan Brown of SF, he may well be the Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum. Which is to say that he is a writer with redeeming ideas but lacking the craft to express them skillfully. He is either uninterested in character, or unable to invent a protagonist other than the one he already created for his breakout The Martian. And to the chagrin of fans who saw potential in that first novel, he has again written a story of a lone individual, stranded apart from all other humans, attempting to save the day using only his sheer problem solving skills and the memory of high school physics. (Do we really need another iteration of Mr Dimsdale’s 11th grade semester one physics formulas, like distance equals half gravity times the square of time? I don’t think so. It doesn’t ignite intellectual fireworks.) His work is not as puerile as that of, for instance, Ernest Cline (Ready Player One), but on that very dimension is unfortunately considerably to the left of Steven Gould (Jumper).
That said, Weir has invented one of the most scientifically realized alien life forms I’ve ever encountered. Granted it is unicellular, but the microbiological details are thoughtful and considered. So if you like your SF to come with plausible biochemistry and a complete microbial lifecycle, this may be the book for you. Weir is committed to offering up literary comfort food, no need to chop or braise: it’s all ready to eat with no fuss or work. It’s not hard to see why his books sell; we are a busy people, and one is to be congratulated for reading at all. Naturally, being spoon fed beats the hard work of a Cherryh novel. And yet, embarrassing as it is to admit, the book is almost a guilty pleasure.

Kokipy wrote:

Thanks for that input, Star! ! I have been skirting the edge of buying this for a while, but may hold off until I see guilty pleasure as a present need. I did enjoy the Martian - the problem solving with the limited resources at hand was a gratifying experience 

Can’t argue with that. I’ll update when finished. Maybe the GP/Outrage ratio will increase.