You are way ahead of me.

OTOH, I did read a Black Tide Rising anthology and one of Eric Flint's Ring of Fire universe. My wife, a late comer to the RoF, has read 5 (of maybe 26 on hand) in a binge. In SF, she's out reading me.

Also, they come roughly from the true Golden Age - when I was around 12.

so.... had a date with the car folks today ... needed to take something to read.... only 3 heinlein paperbacks i had access to were the star beast, farmer in the sky and double star (didn't want to take a hard back.... too cumbersome for a waiting area )

which of those would you have chosen ... i read the backs of all three and didn't remember any of them so it was a crapshoot... the one i chose i managed to get half through waiting on the car

STAR BEAST.

the reason i didn't choose that one is there was mention of the humor in the story.... wasn't in much of a humor mood so i picked double star ...perhaps i'll go ahead and go with star beast since i put such a dent in ds today... could have finished it today had i not come home and decided to go comatose after catching up on computer duties

Probably The Star Beast since it's the one of those I've not read. If I had to choose from among those I've read, Double Star, even though I don't particularly like it - but it's better than Farmer.

If you like Boy Scouts (as was, in the day), FARMER is not bad.

I can't believe this thread is over 2 years old! Anyway:

I've recently (in the past 2 weeks) finished Speaker for the Dead. Very powerful. Is Xenocide worth reading or would I just be disappointed?

They go downhill rapidly as Card descends into Mormon-influenced silliness.

Right, I had heard that, which is why I asked specifically about Xenocide and not further sequels.

Xenocide is good most of the way through before falling off a cliff at the end.

I've read the entire Enderverse, which is currently 18 novels and two books of short stories. What Obi-Wan is referring to as 'Mormon silliness' is that the story employs the Mormon ideas of the pre-existence of the soul as a kind of long-winded pseudo-scientific explanation for what can only be called teleportation that certain characters develop. I don't see the problem here, I don't find the crypto-Mormonism at all threatening, one would expect that Card would draw on his own background and beliefs to frame his story. If a non-Christian can appreciate works like Narnia or The Lord of the Rings that are filled with Christian symbolism and imagery, and they do, then I don't think a non-Mormon should be offended when Card does something similar. Either the narrative is compelling, or it isn't, and I don't think I need to agree with the author's worldview to appreciate his narrative. Certainly, I find the crypto-Mormonism in Card less offensive or threatening than the often overt atheism and nihilism that often creeps into the writings of writers like George RR Martin, Arthur C Clarke, or Issac Asimov.

I've read 10.5 SF books in the past 28 days.

Been a hard tax season.

I've read 7 volumes of The Wheel of Time since January 1, But that is a bit misleading because I've actually read 4 of those 7 volumes in the last 2 weeks, including 2 volumes on 8 days. I have 4 left, and at this rate, I will be done on 2 weeks. The deeper I get, the more compelling I find it, I really like the slow pace and the fact that it takes a long time to pay off plot points. I like how things are hinted at and then not addressed until 4,5,6 or more volumes and thousands of story pages later. As lots it is l, I have the feeling that when I'm done my main complaint will be that it is too short. It will require all my will power to stop me from going right back to volume 1 and starting over.

Eventually...as Manuel says in Fawlty Towers.

I didn't find it threatening. I found it tiresome.