What Are You Reading?

Trojan

I'm really looking forward to reading that Merchant series. I like Stross's stuff, particularly Singularity Sky/Iron Sunrise.

bonkey

At the risk of being banned-er....

About 250 pages in, and quite literally speechless at how epic this book is.

ixoy

bonkey wrote: »

At the risk of being banned-er....

About 250 pages in, and quite literally speechless at how epic this book is.

Dammit! How many pages is the book in total? How epic is it? Are they at Forkual Assail? No, I don't want to know. I can't know. I've banish you to the Imperial Warren if I could, or a splinter of the Shadow Realm.

Trojan wrote:

I'm really looking forward to reading that Merchant series.

It's good to see how Stross thinks about how somebody might really use the ability to travel between alternate worlds and leverage their ability/knowledge. If you've ever read any K.J. Parker, you'll recognise the sensible engineering type of mind applied to such a scenario. I'm not quite sure there's anything like it out there. Plus there's four more books to go after this one.

Dan_Solo

ixoy wrote: »

It's good to see how Stross thinks about how somebody might really use the ability to travel between alternate worlds and leverage their ability/knowledge. If you've ever read any K.J. Parker, you'll recognise the sensible engineering type of mind applied to such a scenario. I'm not quite sure there's anything like it out there. Plus there's four more books to go after this one.

If you like that you should try some Hugh Cook. The **** they get up to with those magic bottles is devious.

LionelNashe

Just finished The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. The whole book is about a battle that takes place over the course of about 3 days. Some of the characters are the same as those in his trilogy that starts with The Blade Itself.
Good story and characters - the good guys are not that good and some of them are downright evil. The bad guys are fairly entertaining.

guitarzero

Henry Rollins, Portable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuVXJyjU4Iw

Dan_Solo

LionelNashe wrote: »

Just finished The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. The whole book is about a battle that takes place over the course of about 3 days. Some of the characters are the same as those in his trilogy that starts with The Blade Itself.
Good story and characters - the good guys are not that good and some of them are downright evil. The bad guys are fairly entertaining.

As a matter of interest, is there any magic or pixies or anything in that book? Not expecting any I suppose.

LionelNashe

Dan_Solo wrote: »

As a matter of interest, is there any magic or pixies or anything in that book? Not expecting any I suppose.

No pixies. Magic is used very sparingly - hardly at all. There is a lot of violence. If you were going to try one I'd recommend The Blade Itself. It kind of takes the old cliched characters, such as 'The Barbarian', 'The Charming Prince', 'The Wizard' and so on, and turns them on their heads. There's a lot of moral ambiguity in the characters' actions; a lot of backstabbing and dark humour. Its not Terry Pratchett or Tom Holt though. I don't want to say too much in case I hype it too much. The first few pages are previewed on Amazon.

ixoy

Dan_Solo wrote: »

As a matter of interest, is there any magic or pixies or anything in that book? Not expecting any I suppose.

The book contains the sort of characters, such as Black Dow, who would snap a pixie's neck and use its head to play marbles. And they'd be the "good" guy..

Dan_Solo

I guessed that from the only Abercrombie I've read, a short called The Fool Jobs in the Swords And Dark Magic collection. The "magic item" is a McGuffin of the highest order.

katarin

Just finished Memories of Ice by Stephen Erikson. Couldn't sleep, had to finish it, absolutely unreal ending. Worth reading for just the last 100 pages even.

Zapp Brannigan

Finished Stonewielder. I'm still undecided about Esselmont, he definitely has some way to go to match his buddy.

Began 'The Gathering Storm' only halfway through the prologue but hopefully Sanderson can get things kicking again after Jordan dragged the series out.

Black Sheep

Recently finished Larry Correia's 'Monster Hunter Vendetta'. I've always had a soft-spot for some the pulpier offerings from Baen, and this fits that bill 100%. I would hazard a guess that it won't appeal to many, particularly if you have a bent towards the more 'literary' end of SF and Fantasy, but as a light read it has its moments.

Thinking of doing a re-read of George R.R Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' before the HBO series properly breaks over here.

Last week I read 'Skin Trade', his werewolf novella: Excellent stuff, although my favourite werewolf novella of all time remains Clive Barkers' 'Twillight at the Towers', a sort of hybrid of werewolf horror with coldwar hardboiled espionage.

OwaynOTT

Been reading 'The Magician' by Raymond E Feist and eventually after struggling through about half of the book, just gave up on it. For what is perceived as being one of the best fantasy books of all time, it's rather bland and generic. The only thing interesting is the whole rift traveling and that didn't save it for me.

Got the third book of The Wild Card series the other day and have to say rather liking it so far. Easy, light and has a nice take on the whole super powered people and the unfortunate jokers. Still some of the characters are a little uninteresting.

Have that new book by Joe Ambercrombie and Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch(or some such name) waiting to be read. Oh, and one by Tim Powers also.

fionny

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Been reading 'The Magician' by Raymond E Feist and eventually after struggling through about half of the book, just gave up on it. For what is perceived as being one of the best fantasy books of all time, it's rather bland and generic. The only thing interesting is the whole rift traveling and that didn't save it for me.

Wow im really surprised. Magician is a fine bit of writing in my opinion, it does take a while to lift off as the back story and run up is set.

Each to their own I suppose.

Dan_Solo

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Been reading 'The Magician' by Raymond E Feist and eventually after struggling through about half of the book, just gave up on it. For what is perceived as being one of the best fantasy books of all time, it's rather bland and generic. The only thing interesting is the whole rift traveling and that didn't save it for me.

Are we allowed say that around here?;)
Me too though. I thought Pug and Tomas were annoyingly powerful, which put me off entirely.

bigperm178

Reading Legend by David Gemmell again. Amazing book.

AnCapaillMor

Yeah the only thing that book was missing was skillgannon.

bigperm178

No way! I like Skilgannon and all but I dont think Legend would be nearly as good with him. Druss is the man!

WolfForager

Ah the Riftwar series is beast, reading it for the third time now, currently on the "Krondor" series.

Legend is a brilliant book, think i might read it again soon, however i have to make my way through the entire Wheel of Time again before the 13th book is released, still have to read the 12th for the 1st time

OwaynOTT

I've only got as far as where Pug got captured. Does it pick up after that? The whole elves being all elvish, there being dark elves and the dwarves is what is turning me off the book.
I'm surprised myself that I haven't liked it, as it seems everyone else does.

WolfForager

Picks up a good bit then yes, especially concerning Tomas and his part to play in the scheme of things!

LionelNashe

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Been reading 'The Magician' by Raymond E Feist and eventually after struggling through about half of the book, just gave up on it. For what is perceived as being one of the best fantasy books of all time, it's rather bland and generic. The only thing interesting is the whole rift traveling and that didn't save it for me.

I read it before Christmas. I think its fairly dated at this stage.

Black Sheep

I don't think 'Magician' is a classic of the genre in the sense of being groundbreaking or notably well-written, but it's one of those books that falls into the 'well loved' / 'stood the test of time' categories.

I've skimmed the last several books from Feist but of late there's been a by-the-numbers feel to things.

FWIW in terms of 'Magician' things do pick up and resolve themselves quite nicely towards the end of the book - particularly after Pug's capture. The Tomas plotline likewise.

I can understand the criticism regarding them being 'stupidly powerful' (it only gets worse as the books progress), but perhaps this is one of the guiltly pleasures of the "farmboy makes good and saves the planet" subgenre of fantasy ... There's a temptation for authors to take them from an absolute low in terms of social station to a ridiculously high alternative.

fionny

Ive said it before and ill say it again, read the Empire series co written with Janny Wurts, its basically the time when Pug is captured in Tsurani, really really good books.

Black Sheep

About 100 pages into William Hope Hodgeson's 'The House on the Borderland'. Reading it in the Fantasy Masterworks edition from Gollancz....

Already gotten through 'The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"' which is in the edition. Still got 'The Ghost Pirates' and 'The Night Country' to go after this.

I quite like Lovecraftian horror, and Hope Hodgeson is obviously one of HP Lovecraft's biggest influences. Similar concern for the weird, and an old-world sensibility. Lots of dusty mansions, stiff upper lips, brandy flasks and alien horrors creeping up from some interdimensional pit.

Shryke

I finished The Heroes and it was excellent. It was a slightly different kind of story telling to Abercrombies usual. The entire book is set over 3 days during a huge battle. It's pulled off really well but it's a book that's much better appreciated if you've read his other work first, what with recurring characters and mentions of previous events. I imagine it would do well enough as a stand alone.
It's a pity there was no

Bloody Nine

. I did hope for an appearance but Shivers was still great.
I suppose The Heroes feels like a sort of epilogue to The First Law Trilogy, or even more like an interlude for Abercrombie as far as his writing goes. It covers an interesting event that connects characters from his previous 4 books and sets up something for the next hopefully!

katarin

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Yeah the only thing that book was missing was skillgannon.

But Skilgannon is in it. He's just not mentioned in the particular volume of 'Legend.' You'd wonder how the Drenai would have felt watching him ride off into the sunset with Snaga..

pH

Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed it, but wasn't as impressed as I'd expected to be. I quite like the take on fantasy where the fantasy world is overlaid on ours a la Harry Potter or Strange and Norrell, however, the central theme of forgotten gods I feel was dealt with better by Pratchett, and I was distracted by Gaiman's refusal to deal with the real religions extant in the US.

In summary, well written, memorable in parts, but for me personally ultimately unsatisfying.

That said, I jumped into The Gunslinger (Stephen King), and am finding it hard to get into, may put it down and try something else.

bigperm178

But Skilgannon is in it. He's just not mentioned in the particular volume of 'Legend.' You'd wonder how the Drenai would have felt watching him ride off into the sunset with Snaga..

Not too sure how to quote here so i just copied and pasted the quote i'm referring to above!

Touché good sir!