What are you reading now?

[QualityChimp]

I finished Shift (Hugh Howey) and it was enjoyable enough, but didn't feel it added to the story.
It's the 2nd book in the Wool series, which is Silo on AppleTV.
It also confused the narrative a bit for me:

->Open Spoiler<-

In the first book, it was suggested that it was a nuclear holocaust that wiped out mankind on the surface, but this was saying it's nanobots too.

Reread Batman: The Dark Knight Returns because I love it and seem to be drawn back to it.
I dug out the sequel as I couldn't remember much about it, then remembered why. It's awful.
Terrible story and artwork:

->Open Spoiler<-

Tower of Jack: A LitRPG Adventure (Sean Loomer)
I do like a LitRPG as a book and game fan. I find LitRPGs lend themselves to audiobooks particularly well.
This sees a smart-mouthed assassin, who's like a wise-cracking 80's action hero, thrown into a dungeon and adventures follow.
Yeah, pretty funny and I like the protagonist, but can see how he annoys other readers.

Murder at the Book Festival (Jane Bettany)
Book 2 of the Violet Brewster Mystery series. Violet is such a lovely character that doesn't try to be nosy, but the instinct to do what's right leads her into trouble.
Really nice cosy murder mystery series and we'll listen to the next one as a family on the nxt long journey!

The Puppet Show (M.W. Craven)
I love Craven's series with Ben Koenig, a guy with no sense of danger after an accident, but there's only 2 of those books, so thought I'd investigate some of his other work, starting with the first Poe and Tilly book and it was brilliant.
Some real deduction going on, but some proper twists too.
Washington Poe is a grizzled detective on leave after he accidentally let the parents of a kidnapped girl know the lead suspects' name. He's called back in when a murder victim is revealed to have his name carved into the corpse. He's teamed up with the specialist, Tilly, that found the clue, who is on the autistic spectrum so struggles with social situations and it's a really good team-up as they learn each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Powered through this and despite the very dark subject matter, managed to laugh throughout because of the wittily-written dialogue.
Recommended!

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)
Heard people talking about the Netflix series and started this ages ago. Lost mometum and picked it up again whilst waiting for my next Prime Music audiobook credit.
I found it a real slog.
I had to get 48% through the book to find out what it's ultimately about.
The final payoff was not worth the effort to get through it.

[QualityChimp]

Back to Stephen King and a classic I hadn't read before: Needful Things.

I'm looking forward to a couple of King stories being made into movies, The Longest Walk and The Running Man. The latter is directed by Edgar Wright, so particularly pumped to see how he tackles that.

Might check out another King book as it's been a while.

[Atticus]

Yeah, really looking forward to Edgar Wright’s The Running Man. Not read The Longest Walk yet though.

Needful Things is far from top tier King but I enjoyed the Castle Rock factor/setting/call backs

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, really looking forward to Edgar Wright’s The Running Man. Not read The Longest Walk yet though.

I'm in the "Watch the film first" group when it comes to books.

Everyone who reads the books first moans that there's not as much content in a 90 minute film as an 800 page book or that they're pronouncing Hermione wrong, it should be Hermy Oh Knee or Hermy One...

Reading the book after seeing the film (if it exists), feels like it's the Director's Cut with the extra content, but any action scenes or jump scares play out better on the medium of cinema, IMHO.

[QualityChimp]

After really enjoying the first Poe & Tilly book, The Puppet Show, I jumped into the next book, Black Summer (M.W. Craven) and enjoyed that immensely too.
As with these things, the less you know the better, but one of Poe's old cases is reopened when it looks like he got it wrong, so he has to solve the case and prove he was right in the first place. Again, I loved the deduction of this, but also the characters around the main duo too. Looking forward to making my way through the series.

I was asked to participate in a customer feedback group on his books, but never get a response, but I would have said how much I've enjoyed the 4 books of his I've read.

Moved onto A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World (C.A. Fletcher) as it had a great review in Starburst magazine.
This is another one I've really enjoyed. A couple of Goodreads review said it was boring and nothing happens in the first 20 pages so didn't finish, but ignore those losers, it's a lovely tale of Griz living in a Children Of Men-style apocalypse where the population has dwindled.

They live on an island with their family and dogs until the day that someone steals their dog and they head off to the mainland to get their dog back.
There are scrapes and adventure and serious danger, but it was like a post-apocalyptic travelogue with Griz recording in their diary what they see.
I particularly enjoyed the section in a deserted Blackpool.

A work friend who's also into audiobooks recommended Red Rising (Pierce Brown).
It's a strong start, but the final 2/3rds have been a bit of a slog and I'm ready for it to end. He says the books get better after 1, but I'm not invested!
It's a Hunger Games/Ender's Game tale of a young miner on Mars being forced to reassess his reality.

[QualityChimp]

I finished off Red Rising, and it was okay.
About 2/3 of the book was about about these survival games for the candidates to upper class families, when I thought it would be a few chapters and then move on.
Co-worker loved the series and says they get even better, but I'm not sure I'll listen to the other books.
Maybe book 2, then make a decision.