April SFFKit - Series

__

Some of our most-loved books in both science fiction and fantasy are part of a series or trilogy, and this month we get to delve into these books. Whether you are reading classics like The Lord of Rings trilogy, or following the adventures of the Murderbot, set some time aside in April for catching up with your favorites.

Let us know here both what you are planning on reading and, when completed, how the read was. Please don’t forget to update the Wiki, which can be found here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2021_SFFKIT#2021_SFFKIT

I think I'm going to read Paladin of Souls.

I have been looking forward to this Kit as I am trying to focus on series reading this year. I have four books set aside for this month:

Diplomatic Immunity by Lois Bujold McMaster
The Last Escape by Bobby Adair
Dark Days by Manel Loureiro
Monster Nation by David Wellington

I'm going to try to read both Leviathan Wakes and Witch Fire.

I have too many unfinished series novels languishing on my To Read shelf so this should hypothetically be easy. The largest physical book is a hardback of Empress of Mars, which was my last unread novel by Kage Baker when she died - and I just couldn't bring myself to read it while knowing it was the end in several senses. Hopefully I've got over myself now. :-)

My most likely options for this are The Sandman Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections and The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives, both by Neil Gaiman

I'm planning to read Return of the Thief, the sixth and final book in the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. I adore this series and can't wait to see how everything turns out!

My only ongoing series is apparently the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire, starting with Every Heart a doorway, so I might read the 3d novella.
I'll probably start with The calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal though.

I'm planning to read Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch and A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - by Suzanne Colins.

I wasn't able to get to Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells) when the challenge was "Sentient Things"; but I'll get another chance in April!
The sixth book in the series, Fugitive Telemetry will also be coming out next month; but I don't think I can get in before May as it releases April 27.

>10 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Hmm, need to clear my schedule for the last four days of April!

Great idea! Thank you, >1 DeltaQueen50: DeltaQueen! I've been meaning to finish Irene Radford's "Merlin's Descendants" series, so this might be the month to do it. It will bump up my personal Series challenge which is a good thing.

And OMG Old Man's War! I read that last October and really, really, really liked it.

>12 threadnsong: Glad you are going to enjoy this theme! Keeping up and catching up with series is almost a full time job - but of course, there are also so many stand-alones that I can't wait to read!

>12 threadnsong: I thought the Old man's war series was so much fun! Enjoy!

Although it wasn't planned as such, I've just realised my current read Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (admittedly started in March) counts for this. It is part of the Outlander series, and thus involves time travel and also has the healing scene with Raymond after Claire's miscarriage.

>15 Robertgreaves: I‘m trying a reread of this series and read Outlander last year, but I don‘t know when I‘ll get to Dragonfly in Amber - its size is so intimidating!

>16 MissBrangwen: It is quite an easy read though. Certainly much easier than my previous doorstopper, Cromwell, Our Chief of Men.

>17 Robertgreaves: Oh yes, no doubt of that!

currently listening to Horizon Storms. There will be more series reading.

I have finished my first book for this month's SFFFKit with Monster Nation by David Wellington.

I read Red Rising, the first volume in the Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown. It is a new series for me and not sure if I will continue, but I might. Rating 3.5.

Just finished Gideon the Ninth. After that ending I'm by no means sure I want to continue with the series, but it sure kept me turning pages to get there.

I've gone back to the Vorkosigan universe and currently making my way through Miles in Love. I've finished the first of the 3 collected stories in Komarr and have made a brief start on the next, A Civil Campaign. The novella length tale Winterfair Gifts completes the collection.

>23 AHS-Wolfy: I read Winterfair Gifts last year. Vorkosigan universe is always a satisfying place to fall back on.

>23 AHS-Wolfy: I think A Civil Campaign is my favorite book in the series! Enjoy :)

I am currently listening to The Way of Kings which is the first book in the Stormlight Archive series. I don't know if it is the fact that it is narrated by Michael Kramer & Kate Reading or not but it seems to remind me of The Wheel of Time series...

I also plan to read some more novellas or short stories in the Adventures in the Liaden Universe series. Certainly Loose Cannon and maybe more.

WOW! New book by Martha Wells in the Murderbot universe: "Home" (no Touchstone) is only 99 cents for pre-order at Amazon today!

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/martha-wells/home.htm?utm_source=ff&utm_m...

And it fits this month's challenge!

>Ooh, thanks! I've pre-ordered.

>27 fuzzi: Thank you! I've pre-ordered as well :-)

>27 fuzzi: I thought this book was supposed to be called Fugitive Telemetry? This is one series I like so much that I've written the date it goes out in my calendar. :p Though I probably won't pick it up right away as I have books for group reads that I have to read.

For this month's theme I'm reading The calculating stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. It's alternate history based on the women who did the computations needed to fly rockets in the early ages of space flight. I'm enjoying it quite a lot.

>30 chlorine: "Home" is a short story addition to the Murderbot universe. Fugitive Telemetry is coming soon.

I've finished off the last (so far) of the Vorkosigan omnibus editions, Miles, Mutants and Microbes. I'd already read the first 2 of the stories contained therein at the end of last month before realising that I'd missed something out and had to grab the previous book pretty sharpish. Falling Free and Labyrinth being set earlier in the timeline so I didn't realise until Diplomatic Immunity came around. Going to have to sit down and work out what stories I've missed out on so far by going the omnibus route and play catch up one of these days.

I have completed The Last Escape by Bobby Adair and T. W. Piperbrook. This was the second book in their series, "The Last Survivors" but I have decided not to continue on with these books.

>33 AHS-Wolfy: I started off reading that series via the omnibus editions and, if my memory serves, the main novel missing from them (before the end of the omnibuses - there are a couple that come after) is Memory, which fits between Cetaganda (in Miles, Mystery and Mayhem) and Komarr (in Miles in Love) in publication order. It has always puzzled me why Memory wasn't in one of the omnibus editions...

Now reading False Value by Ben Aaronovitch, No. 8 in the Rivers of London series.

>35 leslie.98: Thanks for the input. Always appreaciate somebody else putting in the work for me ;)

>37 AHS-Wolfy: You're very welcome! Reading your comments has me thinking about rereading the series (again!) - as if I didn't have library books & ROOTs awaiting me...

I have completed my read of A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is one of the Vorkosigan sagas and was an excellent read. This book is my favorite read of the year so far.

>39 DeltaQueen50: The dinner party scene is such a tour de force of writing skill, IMHO. To weave together all those plot threads, in a scene with so many characters, and to blow everything up so brilliantly (and so painfully for the characters). As a writer myself, I'm blown away every time I re-read it.

>40 susanna.fraser: I thought it was fabulous - funny and cringe-worthy!

>40 susanna.fraser: That is one of my favorite scenes I have ever read. It makes me chortle just to think on it. So heartbreakingly funny! So deserved of a mess! Like leslie.98, that book is also one of my very favorites in the series.

I don't have any SFF series that are screaming at me to be read right now, and I can't seem to find an easy way to double-up on my personal challenge. This might be the kind of challenge that would be best if I find my way to an open library and walk the shelves for something famous with multiple copies that I haven't read.... (I really have no idea how feasible that actually is.)

OK, I am giving in and rereading some of the Vorkosigan books!! I discovered that many of them are available to borrow in audiobook from Audible through their Audible Plus catalog (for members only) which tipped the scales. I already own most of the books in paperback AND Kindle but I love Grover Gardner's narrations.

This time instead of starting with Shards of Honor, I'm going to start with Falling Free. That one is separated enough from the rest of the series that maybe I won't get sucked into rereading the whole thing (yeah, right!)...

May thread is up : https://www.librarything.com/topic/331479

COMPLETED False Value by Ben Aaronovitch.

Now re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy by Douglas Adams because it is referenced so much in "False Value"

>32 fuzzi: Thanks for explaining about Home and Fugitive Telemetry!

I joined the Vorkosigan party and read The Warrior's Apprentice.

For those who have read the series: I have read the first two published (this and Shards of Honor). I tend to like to read in publication order rather than chronological order. Am I being wrong-headed here--should I correct course and start filling in the chronological gaps? Or am I OK to stick with publication order?

I've finished Children of Blood and Bone and am now listening to The Fated Sky.

>47 NinieB: do what you want to 😎

>47 NinieB: Bujold is pretty good about making books accessible in either order, I think. It's people like me who skipped literally all around the series that didn't get enough to really see all the threads and character arcs progressing -- until a reread, at least.

I really had to push myself to complete Monster Planet but I managed to finish it and can now mark this trilogy as completed. I do not recommend these books to anyone even die-hard zombie lovers will find them confusing.

>49 fuzzi: >50 pammab: Thanks! My theory on reading in publication order is that I will see the story lines progress as the author conceived them, and I'll see the development of the author's writing style.

I have finished The mortal word and am now ready to continue with the Invisible Library series.

I read The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers, which is a novel in her Wayfarers series although as with all Chambers' books it reads perfectly as a standalone. A well-written story focussing primarily on a small group of disparate characters and the complexities of their relationships. The simple classic plot of confining several strangers together in a stressful situation and seeing how they cope also works updated into this futuristic setting. 5*

I enjoyed The Fated Sky . Although it wasn't as good as the first in the series, it was a strong second book. Primarily there was less happening in this book, so the author was somewhat limited.

>47 NinieB: I would suggest reading Barrayar before continuing on with publication order. She wrote it 7 years later but the story follows directly upon Shards of Honor. Other than that, publication order is fine.

I read Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory last night, loved it!

>47 NinieB: I second >56 ronincats:'s suggestion. Much about Miles & Vor culture in other books is more understandable with Barrayar under your belt, so to speak.

I didn't avoid being sucked into the whole Vorkosigan series despite my ploy of starting with a book with no Vorkosigan in it! I've been rereading & relistening to the audiobooks like mad and am now up to my least favorite book - Mirror Dance. It is a good book but so painful... I'm tempted to skip it this go round.

>58 leslie.98: "my least favorite book - Mirror Dance. It is a good book but so painful... I'm tempted to skip it this go round."

I feel exactly the same way. If you know who Mark is and why then you don't need to read it again unless you want to do so.

I read Descender Vol. 1: Tin Stars by Jeff Lemire (author), Dustin Nguyen (artist), GN/space opera/AI - 5 stars

I loved this one! Jeff Lemire is a favorite of mine, and I have liked pretty much everything he has done. This might be my favorite, and that is saying something. It's space opera where AI has been outlawed because of a robot uprising years before. Tim-21 is a robot that had been specifically designed to be a child companion to a human child, and he went to sleep in a reality that he loved but wakes up ten years in the future to find that his way of life no longer exists. He now has to worry about bounty hunters and humans whose motives he cannot trust. And what happened to his family? The artwork here is just beautiful.

PS This thread is making me want to reread the Vorkosigan books! I read in chronological order up to Mirror Dance, and then got side-tracked. Starting it allover again and then finishing it might be a fun project for summer.

>58 leslie.98: Mirror Dance is where I stalled on the Vorkosigan series, can I safely skip it?

>56 ronincats: >58 leslie.98: That's good to know--thank you! I will see if Barrayar is available at the book sale I'll be going to soon.

ETA:
>58 leslie.98: >61 fuzzi: Looks like I have a ways to go before I get to Mirror Dance.

And apologies to >60 Crazymamie: for increasing the temptation . . .

I read Empress of Mars, by Kage Baker, which is a prequel science fiction novel in her Company series (and should be compulsory reading for anyone considering becoming indentured to Elon Musk's company, with a one-way ticket to Mars). It reads well as a standalone, unlike most Company stories. This tale is a pastiche of old west gold rush narratives about Irish immigrants, saloon owners with a heart of gold, navvies and prospectors, conmen and gamblers, except the expected evil American cattle barons have been replaced with capitalist English landlords, all successfully transposed to a futuristic Mars that doesn't quite achieve escape velocity from earlier science fiction about pioneering colonials... because why would it want to? Barsoom Day is even an official Martian holiday in this milieu. Characterisation of the stock types isn't especially strong but plot and subplots romp along fast enough to be interesting, and I laughed aloud a few times here and there. 4*

SFFKIT: April: Series (Company)

COMPLETED The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

Finally read All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I have to be the last to read this one. I enjoyed it and will probably read more.

Turns out To be taught, if fortunate is not part of the Wayfarer series, so I won't add it to the wiki. I'm just reporting that it is a wonderful read and that I am impatient for the paperback edition of the next Wayfarer book.

>61 fuzzi: Sorry for the delay responding but I am still devouring the Vorkosigan books! I am up to my 2nd least favorite book which is the last one - Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

I was strongly tempted to take >59 spiralsheep:'s advice but didn't and can say that anyone new to the series should read Mirror Dance (so in answer to >61 fuzzi:, my answer is no). The relationship between Mark and, well, everyone else (not just Miles) is affected by the events in this book. And a lot of Miles' future actions and motivations spring from this book.

Love this thread!

>54 spiralsheep: Didn't realize The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is out. Really excited by your thoughts. Now to figure out how to get a copy...

>60 Crazymamie: Even your description of Descender Vol. 1: Tin Stars breaks my heart. Sounds beautiful, and not for me.

Now reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, part of the Discworld series.

>67 leslie.98: I agree that Mirror Dance is an essential pivot point for the later Vorkosigan Saga books, but if anyone does decide to skip it then I guess they could probably read the remainder of the series but would think Mark was an arse and Miles was occasionally inexplicable.

>68 pammab: I reserved The Galaxy and the Ground Within from the local library before it was published, as soon as it showed on their system, and I was still not first in the queue! :D

>67 leslie.98: thanks, no problem regarding a delay. I have some of the future Miles books on my shelves, but Mirror Dance was a library book that I took out twice without getting more than 1/3 into it, if that. The other books have grabbed me, not so much this one.

Finished reading Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold. I was really excited about this one, but in the end, it felt like the author was far more interested in writing about court intrigue/politics than the fantasy concept which served as the focus of the blurb and plot. I doubt I'll pick up the next book in the series since this was a pretty big disappointment. In fact, it's the first time I remember actively deciding to just skim through the second half of a book, reading only the chapters based on the main character/fantasy element--that's how divided the book was. In my opinion, it would have been much better had it been 300 pages instead of close to 600 :(

On the upside, I'm close to finishing another long one for this challenge--Leviathan Wakes--and that one's been wonderful.

I finished one more series read with Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater. This is the 2nd book in the "As the World Dies" series.

COMPLETED The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett.

Starting another in the same series, The Shepherd's Crown

>72 whitewavedarling: agreed on your take of Through Wolf's Eyes, it was a wasted opportunity.

I loved Leviathan Wakes, and the second book Caliban's War. I need to get to book three Abbadon's Gate, which is on my shelves.

>75 fuzzi:, that's a much more succinct way of putting it then I did--'wasted opportunity'--but you're absolutely right!

Meanwhile, I finished Leviathan Wakes last night, and it even managed to surprise me, and make me both laugh out loud and cry in the final chapters. I'll give my wrist a break before picking up the next one, they're so thick, but I'll definitely be reading the next book in the series this summer. Full (short) review written--kept short because I think I'm one of the last to know about this series anyway lol.

LOL, It was pretty much a Muderbot month for me :-)

• The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (The League of Princes #1; by Christopher Healy and Todd Harris; narrated by Bronson Pinchot) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (Murderbot #5.5; by Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐
• Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot #6; by Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐-1.2

Murderbot for me too. Read the four novellas on the Sunday and Monday before Fugitive Telemetry was released, read the new book on Tuesday, and then read Network Effect. I also worked in Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory before I started the others.

>72 whitewavedarling: I love Jane Lindskold's Changer duology but was never able to get into the Wolf series either.

>74 Robertgreaves: Hope you've read the previous 4 Tiffany Aching books first.

>63 spiralsheep: Wasn't Empress of Mars fun??!?

>78 ronincats: Even in Kage Baker's grimmer books she usually managed to find some fun and her romps, such as Empress of Mars, are pure fun. I recall her pirate novel Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key was also very entertaining.

Yay! Finished the series and this challenge! Read extensively through the many pages of Irene Radford's Guardian of the Freedom. It is the final book in her Merlin's Descendants series, and it is good that it ended when it did.

I'm also grateful that either Radford or her editors chose not to write about every single key event in British history! Her second book, Guardian of the Trust, was pretty convoluted in its journey to figure out how the various noblemen would come around to sign the Magna Carta, and how Robin Hood fit in, and it was my least favorite in the series.

#5, though, dealt with the decades leading up to the American Revolution and puts both British and Colonial history into a good historical perspective.