What Are You Reading?

Kewreeuss

Loved great north road. Due another read soon.
reading Dark Eden by Chris Beckett. Ship crashed onto planet with no sun. Or too far away to have useful light. Out of 5 people two try to get back to Earth for help, three stay behind. Book set 120 odd years later, population is now at 500 ish. I'm reading to see what happens. Three books in the series, first one is setting everything up.
Anyone like Simon Morden? I loved the metrozone books
Cant seem drum up the enthusiasm to finish Le Carre's little drummer girl. Ready Player One is languishing too.
Looking forward to the latest Ben Aaronovitch and also Mark Lawrence's grey sister

Dades

shootermacg wrote: »

I don't really see myself buying a Kindle for myself, I don't like being stuck with mobi.

Software like Calibre can manage your library and convert any format to put on your Kindle. Free and simple to use.

shootermacg

Dades wrote: »

Software like Calibre can manage your library and convert any format to put on your Kindle. Free and simple to use.

I don't know guys my Kobo has no issues with any format. So why would I bother? I do use Calibre though, great app.

nhur

Dades wrote: »

Software like Calibre can manage your library and convert any format to put on your Kindle. Free and simple to use.

+1 for calibre

Xofpod

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James.

coffee_cake

Licanius trilogy by Islington... Tore through the first two and preordered #3. I think 2 is better than 1. Comparisons with Jordan and Sanderson, very much recommend

mcgovern

bluewolf wrote: »

Licanius trilogy by Islington... Tore through the first two and preordered #3. I think 2 is better than 1. Comparisons with Jordan and Sanderson, very much recommend

I bought the first one a year or two ago but haven't gotten around to reading it yet, must bump it up the TBR list.

I found Permafrost by Reynolds to be a bit disappointing, it had one interesting idea and that's about it.
After that I read One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence. It's a short YA book, it was quite good but not sure I could stomach paying full price for the sequels considering the size. Feels more like a full length novel split into 3 for more sales.
Then I read The Hematophages by Stephen Kozeniewski. It's a sci-fi/horror which is a sub-genre I really like when done well, but find very hard to find well done ones. This one is ok, though I struggled with the explanations behind some of it.
Then read Priest of Bones by Peter McLean. It's essentially Peaky Blinders with a bit of magic thrown in. Like almost word for word Peaky Blinders. I enjoyed it all the same though.
Now I'm reading The Warship by Neal Asher, second book in his latest Polity trilogy. It hasn't really got going yet but I'm confident it will.

Lady Haywire

I'm reading the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, though might slow it down as I see the last book isn't out until 2020. It's ok, not really into it, was hoping it would be more Discworld-esque but it's just nowhre near as captivating.
Plus moved all my books/shelves so going to have a clearout of old books/double books and put all the unread ones into one shelf & try to work through them or at least attempt it.

smacl

Finished "How long until black future month" which I really enjoyed and now about half way into Cage of Souls which is great fun. First time reading Adrian Tchaikovsky after seeing him mentioned here a few times and he doesn't disappoint.

Thargor

On to the Gathering Storm, book 12 of the Wheel of Time. It's a long road but not a chore, I'm definitely enjoying it. There are a lot more tedious chapters than the epic bits though and tbh books 8/9/10 were just boring. Looking forward to reading something else now, probably Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Ruin, loved the first one.

Neal Asher just released a new Polity aswell, The Warship, book 2 of the Rise of the Jain trilogy. Love the Polity novels, like a more Hollywood action oriented Culture series.

homosapien91

Finishes Lev Grossman's The Magicians Trilogy, immensely enjoyed it! Tried watching the TV show but gave up after 2 episode really doesn't do the books justice.

Having a bit of a change up at the moment by reading some Dan Brown 'Origin' enjoying it so far

Fian

Finished the book of the ancestor trilogy by mark lawrence. Enjoyable read.

Now on to seveneves - Neal Stephenson.

kirk buttercup

Xofpod wrote: »

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James.

started it a few weeks ago and put it down , not sure I was in the right mood for it . so started red sister by Mark Lawrence

fenris

Time for a re-read of the Dresden Files I think!

keane2097

fenris wrote: »

Time for a re-read of the Dresden Files I think!

Is there a new one out or something?

Jayd0g

Just finished Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft following recommendations here.

Really enjoyed it, unashamedly wears it's tropes on it's sleeve before subverting them

Looking forward to the rest in the series.

Before then, reading the Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski from the Witcher novels. About a third in and it hasn't got going yet. This is par for the course with these, and I've enjoyed the previous books so still have high expectations for this one.

Paddy Samurai

Finished Deadman’s road by Joe R Lansdale .A series of short horror stories set in the old west featuring zombies,werewolves etc ,hunted by a preacher gunslinger.Found it to be a ok read.

Just started Cardinal Black by Robert McCammon. 70+ pages in a loving it.

fenris

keane2097 wrote: »

Is there a new one out or something?

No, I have just started a re-read of the Malazan book of the Fallen and want to intersperse it with lighter but good series, it has been long enough for me to forget enough of Dresden to both enjoy and be infuriated

keane2097

fenris wrote: »

No, I have just started a re-read of the Malazan book of the Fallen and want to intersperse it with lighter but good series, it has been long enough for me to forget enough of Dresden to both enjoy and be infuriated

Two good ones there, nice picks

coffee_cake

Mark Lawrence, impossible times books 1&2. No book 3 yet

More jeff wheeler - series i haven't seen before. How does he get so many books out?
This one is the "whispers from mirrowen" series and it's more in depth, less light than his usual. Book 2 & enjoying it

coffee_cake

Finished the mirrowen series... Great reading weekend. I know I'm aways on about him but would recommend that series

Tchaikovsky next

lordgoat

Malazan Book 5. My target of 20 books this year will be offset by the fact these books are huge.

FYI Weeks has submitted the last instalment of Lightbringer.

Jayd0g

lordgoat wrote: »

FYI Weeks has submitted the last instalment of Lightbringer.

Nice!

Xofpod

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, by Mark Hodder - second in his Victorian steampunk "Burton & Swinburne" series. Lively read, with good character assassinations of (the alternative versions of)some of the Victorian era's leading lights...

Igotadose

"Paradise Sky" by Joe R. Lansdale. Nice, easy read, interesting historical fiction about an ex-Slave on the run in Texas.

Started, and abandoned 1/3 the way through, Joe R. Lansdale's "The Drive In." Ugh. Just not all that interesting and it seemed to be about graphic descriptions of violence, with lame attempts at humor. A much better series with loads of graphic violence and a lot of humor that I read a year or so ago, was the "John Dies in the End" series by David Wong. Highly recommend that and the other 2 novels in that trilogy.

Dades

Started Cage of Souls last night.

Not what I expected, really liking it.

smacl

Dades wrote: »

Started Cage of Souls last night.

Not what I expected, really liking it.

About two thirds of the way in myself, finding it a bit hit and miss.

cdgalwegian

Fian wrote: »

Now on to seveneves - Neal Stephenson.

Even though Neal Stephenson is my favourite sci-fi author, I didn't buy this coz of the reviews (at 800 pages, that's a big gamble). Will ya post a review please?



I knew the title was a (meaningful) palindrome, but the publishers bring the title to another level:


Screenshot_2019-06-08 Seveneves - Wikipedia.png

Fian

cdgalwegian wrote: »

Even though Neal Stephenson is my favourite sci-fi author, I didn't buy this coz of the reviews (at 800 pages, that's a big gamble). Will ya post a review please?



I knew the title was a (meaningful) palindrome, but the publishers bring the title to another level:


Screenshot_2019-06-08 Seveneves - Wikipedia.png

Im about 65% through.

I am a fan of Neal Stephenson, not at all a fan of this book. Will probably finish it anyway, but i probably shouldn't if I were rational about it.

It is pretty poor tbh. Some very clever concepts but the characters are not particularly interesting and there is far, far, far too much technical explanation of orbital mechanics. That and using "chains/whips" to manipulate objects in space - I don't mean by hand I mean using robots to connect to each other and whip themselves as chains around other objects.

To a large extent that is the core of the "action" in the book - waiting until perigee or apogee then firing rockets to adjust orbital parameters. Which is a bit of a pity considering it opens with the moon exploding....drama kind of steps back after that.

spoiler heavy synopsis is :

the moon is shattered by an unknown cause. The pieces collide with each other and break into smaller bits, this increases exponentially until the number of fragments/bolides is huge. It is calculated that this will give rise to meteor showers/rain that will cause so much heat as they enter the atmosphere that the earth will be uninhabitable. They send people up in ships to escape. various mishaps mean the population dwindles down to 8, seven of whom are fertile women. One is a geneticist. They decide they will each be able to engineer their offspring. Curtain drops and then rises 5,000 year later as they terraform the earth and there are effectively 7 races descended from each of the seven eves. Those who decended from the good mothers are in a cold war with those who descended from the "bad" mothers. (seriously!). most people still living in orbit. that is as far as i have gotten.

All in all it is far too much science and not enough fiction. And I say that as someone who occasionally reads physics/science books for fun. It is clear he got swept up in his interest in the science part and nerds out over that on the pages rather than focussing on the drama/story.

coffee_cake

That was my feeling on seveneves also