Reading Now

I’ll have more to say on these next month:

Complexity and Management, Ralph Stacey.

Life Out of Order, Audrey Niffenegger.

Finished

The Dragon Has Some Complaints, John Wiswell. Garrodigh is a formerly four-headed dragon, having lost one head in a battle he no longer remembers. When Garrodigh becomes a casualty of a battle he’s not even part of, he sneaks into one side’s dragon academy, hoping to hide out, recuperate, and then rain death upon all humanity once he’s well. But he is claimed by a would-be dragon rider who rehabilitates him and shows him there’s more to humanity and gives him a reason to fight for his adopted homeland. Simply delightful, with deftly handed draconic observations of human behavior, equally compelling human and dragon characters, and a world that is fantastical and yet felt real.

Old Man’s War, John Scalzi. I’ve been hearing how good this book is for two decades. The first time someone recommended it to me, he Described it as being a lot like Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. I loved that book in junior high, but I wasn’t eager to read it again, so I never got around to this one.I’ve read a lot of other Scalzi books; my favorite being Redshirts, And I thought it was finally time to read his debut novel. It did not disappoint. I see the comparison to Haldeman, but thematically, it’s not even close. I look forward to picking up others in the series.

Abandoned

Detour, Jeff Rake and Rob Hart. The least thrilling sci-fi thriller I can remember picking up. The jacket copy said it was about a space shuttle crew returning to an Earth that’s different than the one they left. Sounds interesting, but the first chapter is a slogfest of stock characters setting up the premise with about as much drama as a turtle race. When the second chapter started by introducing two more stock characters, I gave up. Ten percent of the way into the book, and I had no reason to care about any of these boring people.