What Are You Reading?

Johnny Storm

NotInventedHere wrote: »

Just saw the TV film of the Lathe of Heaven which was very good, must read the book now. I have read the dispossessed which is excellent.

AFAICR its a pretty good book. I read somewhere that the Lathe of Heaven was an homage by Ursula L. to her then favourite SF author - Philip K. Dick.

ixoy

Almost finished "The Family Trade" by Charles Stross, the first book in his Merchant Princes series about parallel worlds. Enjoying it so far - it's got some very interesting ideas. Looking forward to reading more in the series.

pH

Reading my free copy of Accelerando (Charles Stross) - as with other books of his I love his ideas, but I'm not sure at all about his plots or characters - haven't really enjoyed anything of his as much as Singularity Sky.
http://manybooks.net/titles/strosscother05accelerando-txt.html

ixoy

Currently reading Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book". Nice, light and enjoyable so far.

pH wrote: »

Reading my free copy of Accelerando (Charles Stross) - as with other books of his I love his ideas, but I'm not sure at all about his plots or characters - haven't really enjoyed anything of his as much as Singularity Sky.

I liked "Accelerando" but there isn't really a storyline threading through it. It's probably because it was originally a series and compiled together for the book form.
If you haven't read it, try "Glasshouse". It's set (loosely) in the future of "Accelerando" but has a much more cohesive plot. I really enjoyed it.

Zapp Brannigan

On to 'Lord of Chaos' fell a bit behind of my 1 book a week challenge. Damn social events getting in the way of valuable reading time.

ixoy

bonkey wrote: »

My copy of Stonewielder (Ian Cameron Esselmont) arrived today. Good timing - I can start reading it tonight.

And now I'm reading "Stoneweilder" too. Enjoying it so far. Esselmont's writing style is brisker, if less witty, than Erikson's. The Malazan world really is so very rich - full of many potential stories yet.

pljudge321

I've decided I'm going to read all of the "classic" sci-fi and fantasy books I've never gotten around to. Currently reading Dune, would appreciate some suggestions for the next one.

BigDuffman

Starting back over the WOT series before I buy the new book. Its a lot to get through though so I may just read through every second one and read the summaries online for the rest.

Also have Nemesis in the Horus Herresy series lined up and ready to read!

Dades

pljudge321 wrote: »

I've decided I'm going to read all of the "classic" sci-fi and fantasy books I've never gotten around to. Currently reading Dune, would appreciate some suggestions for the next one.

I could give you a list of 50... but instead I suggest you read Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.

Zapp Brannigan

BigDuffman wrote: »

Starting back over the WOT series before I buy the new book. Its a lot to get through though so I may just read through every second one and read the summaries online for the rest.

Also have Nemesis in the Horus Herresy series lined up and ready to read!

Bah, quitter!

mcgovern

Finished American Gods, which I have to say, I really enjoyed.
Now onto Inverted Worlds by Christopher Priest.

Trojan

The Name of the Wind - Rothfuss.

Best fantasy I've read in years. Highly, strongly, vehemently recommended.

mcgovern

pH wrote: »

Reading my free copy of Accelerando (Charles Stross) - as with other books of his I love his ideas, but I'm not sure at all about his plots or characters - haven't really enjoyed anything of his as much as Singularity Sky.
http://manybooks.net/titles/strosscother05accelerando-txt.html

As a purely tech exercise to see if I could do it, I downloaded this to my iphone, to see what reading on it was like.
So far, its actually a lot better than I expected, much easier to read than I thought it would be.
On top of this, Charles Stross just got added to my list of books to buy

bonkey

Trojan wrote: »

The Name of the Wind - Rothfuss.

Best fantasy I've read in years. Highly, strongly, vehemently recommended.

Book 2 looks set to arrive next March.

Yay!

Zapp Brannigan

bonkey wrote: »

Book 2 looks set to arrive next March.

Yay!

Can't come fast enough! Although I do look forward to re-reading the first!

Trojan

I couldn't hack Accelerando, had to give up on it (as time passes I've become a lot better at dropping books I'm not enjoying!). Glasshouse is very good, as is Iron Sunrise, which is a sequel to Singularity Sky.

I'm still in shock at how good The Name of The Wind was.

ixoy

Trojan wrote: »

I'm still in shock at how good The Name of The Wind was.

Best fantasy debut I've ever read and one of the best fantasy books I've read in years. Very hard to believe it was his first book given many writers would never get up to such skill levels after decades in the trade (isn't that right Mr. Eddings/Goodkind/Anderson!)
Rothfuss is a perfectionist and took time to deliver a quality novel. He's being equally fastidious over the second one and I'm happy for him to be if it'll deliver something of the same quality.

Playboy

Just ordered R Scott Bakkers new book .. Disciple of the Dog .. Its about a Private Investigator who never forgets anything.

“And you wonder why I’m cynical. I’ve literally ‘seen it all before.’ The truth is we all have, every single one of us past the age of, say, twenty-five. The only difference is that I remember.”

No matter how hard he drinks, gambles, or womanizes, Disciple Manning simply cannot forget: not a word spoken, not an image glimpsed, not a pain suffered. Disciple Manning has total recall. Whatever he hears, he can remember with 100% accuracy. He can play it back in his head for an infinite number of times without a single change. This ability makes him a dangerously unorthodox private investigator.

When a New Jersey couple hires Manning to find their daughter, who joined a religious cult before vanishing in a small rust-belt town called Ruddick, he finds himself embroiled in a mystery that will pit his unnatural ability to remember against his desperate desire to forget"

Really loved his Prince of Nothing Series so have high hopes for this.

Zapp Brannigan

On to 'Crown of Swords' have to say starting to notice the drag of the series now. So many similar names!

bonkey

ixoy wrote: »

And now I'm reading "Stoneweilder" too. Enjoying it so far. Esselmont's writing style is brisker, if less witty, than Erikson's. The Malazan world really is so very rich - full of many potential stories yet.

So finally got to the end of this. It wasn't hard reading....it was a question of finding itme.

On one hand, I really enjoyed it. On the other hand, I'm not sure ICE got the balance fully right. Some story-lines seemed to be given more time then their relevance to the main arc demanded, whilst others were perhaps given less.

Overall, the quality of writing is another step up from RoTCG, but I'm not sure that the story was.

I think I'll have to re-read both to decide.

Outkast_IRE

I finally finished stephen kings dark tower series , man that was a epic trip and for anyone that has read them i thought the ending was good !!!
I think i will give dune a read soon

ixoy

bonkey wrote: »

On one hand, I really enjoyed it. On the other hand, I'm not sure ICE got the balance fully right. Some story-lines seemed to be given more time then their relevance to the main arc demanded, whilst others were perhaps given less.

I'm 2/3 of the way through it. Which arcs do you think weren't balanced right? Would you think, for example, that

Kiska's arc in the Chaos-tainted Shadow realm didn't get enough? Or that Bakune's arc got too much?

.

Overall, the quality of writing is another step up from RoTCG, but I'm not sure that the story was.

The writing is definitely gotten better. The battle scenes are much better described and the characters are more interesting. There's also more humour than before (such as Manask).

I think I'll have to re-read both to decide.

Don't forget "Night of Knives" too! And to re-read the 9 Malazan books because they're very relevant. May as well check out the 4 novellas too...

fenris

Hmmmmmmmm - Rotfuss you say, I feel the book token in my pocket drawing me towards Waterstones for my christmas read!

Playboy

fenris wrote: »

Hmmmmmmmm - Rotfuss you say, I feel the book token in my pocket drawing me towards Waterstones for my christmas read!

Just ordered it too! Hopefully it will live up to my expectations!

sxt

Lord Of Light - Roger Zelazny

First chapter was a bit confusing as in places you in this world without any backstory, Seccond chapter commences the backstory and is making for an intriguing read

mcgovern

mcgovern wrote: »

Finished American Gods, which I have to say, I really enjoyed.
Now onto Inverted Worlds by Christopher Priest.

I thought Inverted Worlds was good, but I found it tough to undestand, and I didn't really get the ending

Now reading "Shadow of the Scorpion" by Neal Asher.

pljudge321

Got a large amazon voucher from my godparents for christmas and my birthday and went book crazy with most of it.

I ordered.

Raymond E. Feist - Magician, Silverthorn & A Darkness at Sethanon
Stephen Donaldson - The first three Thomas Covenant books.
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind (because everyone here is raving about it)
Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End (As per Dades' suggestion)

Should keep me going

ixoy

Started into "The Evolutionary Void" by Peter F. Hamilton. Looking forward to it a lot as I though the first two instalments were great - an intriguing mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

Now reading "Shadow of the Scorpion" by Neal Asher.

Let me know what you think. I've read most of the Polity books (and all of the Agent Cormac series bar this one).

pljudge321 wrote: »

Raymond E. Feist - Magician, Silverthorn & A Darkness at Sethanon

Good books (particularly the first and third). Of course if you get caught up in it, you've got about 25 sequels to wade through!

Stephen Donaldson - The first three Thomas Covenant books.

I liked this, even if many didn't. The current (third) trilogy is weak but it shouldn't detract from this.

Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind (because everyone here is raving about it)

I read a lot of fantasy and I'll firmly stand by my statement: Best debut fantasy novel that I've ever read and one of the best fantasy novels period I've read in the last decade. So yeah, it's good.

mcgovern

ixoy wrote: »

Let me know what you think. I've read most of the Polity books (and all of the Agent Cormac series bar this one).

It's quite short (~300 pages) and the style can be quite jarring (changes from one time to another regularly, but it's worth a read, and answers some small questions about Cormac's past.

Started Deadhouse Gates, already a bit lost

chopperbyrne

Bought the three omnibus editions of The Serrano Legacy by Elizabeth Moon yesterday.

Hopefully they're good as I've about 2600 pages to get through.