What Are You Reading?

eVeNtInE

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Trojan

Finished Elizabeth Moon's "Serrano Legacy" trilogy. 6/10 Good characters, thought the plot was a bit weak, she could have done more. There is a 2nd trilogy, so I'll give that a look (any comments?).

growler

"the Steel remains" Richard Morgan, bit of a departure from his woken furies/ altered carbon stufff, much more into the fantasy realm, featuring gay cross- species sex which is a bit out of the ordinary !

Sarky

Yeah, the amount of gay sex in that book is a surprise after all the other fantasy I've read. Good book though. Hilarious in places.

Demeyes

I'm reading Servant of the Empire by Feist at the moment, it's the 2nd in the Empire trilogy. It's a bit of a slog to get through at the moment, I'm hoping it picks up a bit.

Trojan

I had a look at Feist's bibliography, realised how many of his books I haven't read yet. Might go hunting in Chapters second hand section sometime.

ixoy

Dunder Mifflin wrote: »

Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear. Found it a bit of a struggle to get stuck into but I'm about halfway through and enjoying it. Will probably pick up the sequel too.

I enjoyed it years back. Bear really seemed to spend a lot of time studying up on genetics before writing it and it did get bogged down into detail about chromosomes and telomeres at time. I've looked into getting the sequel but haven't yet (it's not available on Amazon.co.uk. Reckon it's out of print).

growler wrote: »

"the Steel remains" Richard Morgan, bit of a departure from his woken furies/ altered carbon stufff, much more into the fantasy realm, featuring gay cross- species sex which is a bit out of the ordinary !

I went a bit off Morgan after I felt the Kovac series went downhill and an underwhelming book in "Black Man". Might read this - the gay element could be interesting. I do know that Morgan found that some reviewers criticised this element strongly and he took issue with them being side tracked from the main storyline.

Trojan wrote: »

I had a look at Feist's bibliography, realised how many of his books I haven't read yet. Might go hunting in Chapters second hand section sometime.

There's a lot... and a lot that that are only middling. I've read them all bar the very latest two. The latter ones, in general, tend to be weaker. I would recommend "The Serpent War" saga for example, but found that the Krondor trilogy was somewhat poor. Picked up a bit with more recent books but, at this point, they're definitely geared towards the longer term fan.

Myself, I'm still reading "The Judging Eye" but also dipping into Neal Asher's "The Engineer [Reconditioned]" short story collection.

growler

ixoy wrote: »

I went a bit off Morgan after I felt the Kovac series went downhill and an underwhelming book in "Black Man". Might read this - the gay element could be interesting. I do know that Morgan found that some reviewers criticised this element strongly and he took issue with them being side tracked from the main storyline.

it's not a bad read, thought it was going to be a series but story wrapped up in one go, lots of potential for him to expand on his new world... the gay stuff doesn't get in the way of the story so much as is weird to see in a fantasy book

ixoy wrote: »

There's a lot... and a lot that that are only middling. I've read them all bar the very latest two. The latter ones, in general, tend to be weaker. I would recommend "The Serpent War" saga for example, but found that the Krondor trilogy was somewhat poor. Picked up a bit with more recent books but, at this point, they're definitely geared towards the longer term fan.
.

I also think he's picked it up a bit of late, but a lot of fluff in the intervening years, still bought them all though :-)

ixoy

Just began "Fatal Revenant" by Stephen Donaldson, the 2nd book in his Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. Need a bit of time to get into this... and a dictionary. That guy knows a lot of words.

Zapp Brannigan

I hated the Donaldson's Chronicles. Just found them boring.
I'm sure I would've appreciated them if I read them when they first come out, but nowadays they don't seem relevant.

I also found it hard to like Covenant after he raped that girl

ixoy

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

I hated the Donaldson's Chronicles. Just found them boring.
I'm sure I would've appreciated them if I read them when they first come out, but nowadays they don't seem relevant.

They were one of the first fantasy series I read, so they did seem edgy at the time - to have such an anti-hero. I didn't find the first instalment in this latest series all that fascinating (or fun) but I'm going to keep on with it.

matrim

About half way through the painted man by Peter Brett now. I'm liking it so far but will wait to see how it pans out before giving a full judgement

mcgovern

mcgovern wrote: »

Finished that, very good, great sense of unease or something the whole way through.

Now onto the Mammoth Book of Mind Blowing Science Fiction.

Nothing particularly mind blowing about it in the end

Started the first book in the Otherland series.

P.S. I also hated the Thomas Covenant books

spender.j

I had such a hard time the first time I read the Otherland series! took me ages to get into it. The second time was much better, the same with the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series...

I also hated the Thomas Covenant books, won't be reading any more of Donaldson.
I did feel Canavans' Magician series was less than it could have been, it really felt like it was aimed at younger readers... However I am very much looking forward to the Last of the Wilds series!

I am currently reading Hobbs' Liveship Traders series, I love all of her work though!

Zapp Brannigan

How are the Liveship books? I skipped right over them after the Farseer and went on to the Tawny Man books.

Gonna finish up The Prince of Nothing series tonight

Really hate Kellhus as a character, rooting against him the whole novel so I hope Cnaiur gets revenge

ixoy

spender.j wrote: »

I had such a hard time the first time I read the Otherland series! took me ages to get into it. The second time was much better, the same with the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series...

I really liked both, straight out. I actually wrote to Tad Williams about some Irish in the book. I got a reply too!

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Gonna finish up The Prince of Nothing series tonight

Really hate Kellhus as a character, rooting against him the whole novel so I hope Cnaiur gets revenge

I recently read the first book in the sequel trilogy and very much enjoyed it. Let us know your opinion of how it pans up. Personally the third book got too dragged down in philosophy for me, but maybe you'll like it more than I did.

spender.j wrote:

I also hated the Thomas Covenant books, won't be reading any more of Donaldson.

mcgovern wrote: »

P.S. I also hated the Thomas Covenant books

Did anyone like the damn things?! I'm nearly halfway through this one. It's not too bad but there's far too much time spent listening to Linden Avery go over and over the same thoughts.

Zapp Brannigan

Was not impressed by the ending of the series at all.

My main problem being Kellhus. It's impossible to empathize with him as he's just such an ubercharacter. I ended up becoming invested in any other character that showed an ounce of passion/likeability (Cnaiur, Akka, hell even The Consult!) Basing the series around Kellhus just didn't allow the reader (well, me) to really get in to the books.

Also the final confrontation between Akka and Kellhus was a bit of a damp squib, especially considering the preceding battles. I assume it continues on in the next series as there were a lot of loose ends to tie up; The Consult, Maithenet etc.

That aside, I will probably pick up The Aspect Emperor books at some point as Bakker is a very good new writer in Fantasy.

Ixoy, I did feel the book did get bogged down a little with philosophy but I felt it was a nice change of pace for a fantasy book. And despite being confused by some of it at times, I enjoyed it for the most part.

matrim

matrim wrote: »

About half way through the painted man by Peter Brett now. I'm liking it so far but will wait to see how it pans out before giving a full judgement

Just to come back to this. I enjoyed the book but it really felt like a 1st in a series kind of book. Set things up well and made me want to keep going.

I will definitely be getting the next one in the series.

spender.j

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

How are the Liveship books? I skipped right over them after the Farseer and went on to the Tawny Man books.

I like them, I don't think they are as good as the Farseer and Tawny Man but I would still rate them highly, still very raw and relevant concepts, moreso than the Farseer in fact (which to my mind makes them less 'comfortably' entertaining, they definitely have darker storylines). It isn't necessary to have read the Liveship books in-between though the timelines are written that way, it was a pleasant surprise to see certain characters appear in the Liveship books from Farseer... (well more specifically from The Tawny Man but I didn't realise that when I had read them first)

Dades

Have just started Galileo's Dream, by Kim Stanly Robinson.

Loved the Mars books, and thought the story sounded interesting.

I also need something smaller than The Passage to carry in and out of work as my shoulder was wrecked. :pac:

marko93

Jurassic Park...
A must read imo

KidKeith89

Just picked up a copy of Iain Banks' Transition today in Eason's. I've read about 50 pages so far, and it seems quite complex. (As the rest of his novels are, I heard; this is my first Iain Banks novel.) I'm not even sure if this should be in the sci-fi thread - don't attack if that's the case! :eek: Has anyone read it? I think it has potential.

AnCapaillMor

Hopefully i'll be reading the final book in the Peter F Hamilltons Void trilogy by today or tomorrow. A long bloody wait.

mcgovern

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Hopefully i'll be reading the final book in the Peter F Hamilltons Void trilogy by today or tomorrow. A long bloody wait.

I'd forgotten that was out soon, will have to order it.

mise

Just coming to the end of A Storm Of Swords 1, and I'll be starting up the second one straight away. I'm absolutely loving the series so far.

Just started Foundation and Empire too

apsalar

Just finishing up Jean Auel's earth's children....loved the first book but now on the shelters of stone and am bored......her detail is fantastic and the scientist in me loves the vividness of her paleolithic world, not to mention the sheer amount of research that must have been done!..but her characters are boring, stale, too outrageously one-dimensional, especially the heroine and there's way too much boring sex every 15 pages or so;)

Excited about starting on an old favourite: Diana wynne jones: picked up howl's moving castle in a charity shop...yay!

Demeyes

I'm just starting King's Dark Tower books now. I've heard great things about them so I'm looking forward to it.
Just an aside question. Do any of you read more than 1 book at a time? I don't like skipping between 2 books at the same time, particularly for sci-fi and fantasy stuff because of the complex worlds/characters involved, yet it seems some people have no problem being half way through several at once.

Revolution9

Demeyes wrote: »

I'm just starting King's Dark Tower books now. I've heard great things about them so I'm looking forward to it.
Just an aside question. Do any of you read more than 1 book at a time? I don't like skipping between 2 books at the same time, particularly for sci-fi and fantasy stuff because of the complex worlds/characters involved, yet it seems some people have no problem being half way through several at once.

The Dark Tower is a fantastic series. King gives very little of the plot away in the first book, so many readers fall at the first hurdle. Stick with it though. The 2nd book to the 5th is some of the best fantasy you'll ever read. Many people divided on the final two books. But without doubt an excellent series.

And no, I've always been a one book kinda guy :rolleyes:

ixoy

Currently reading "The Born Queen" by Greg Keyes. Enjoying it so far, much like the previous three books. Hope there's a decent ending.

BlaasForRafa

I'm reading Acacia by David Anthony Durham which is apparently the start of a fantasy trilogy. Its pretty good, the world-building and characterisation are excellent although the pace is a bit on the slow side. I'm only 1/3 into the book so far though so it might pick up towards the middle and end.

At work I'm reading Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke which is full of imaginative ideas but reads like a bit of a science paper sometimes.