What Are You Reading?

Dades

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 can see where you are coming from... the first half is almost written as a childrens book - "My First Fantasy..." I don't know if this was Feist's first book or what...

Anyhow it does get a lot better. I read the trilogy and enjoyed it despite the rocky start, but tbh I've never been inspired to pick up any more of his stuff.

Zapp Brannigan

Finished 'The Gathering Storm' and have to say it was the best WoT in a long while! Now whether that has to do with the story coming to a close or the new writer, I'm undecided.

Now on to 'Best Served Cold' and a little bit of 'The Black Company' (always meant to check these novels out since they're praised by Steven Erikson)

Dan_Solo

pH wrote: »

Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

I loved that book. Then I hated Anansi Boys which made a big joke out of the same world.
Dunno if I'll trust Gaiman again so quickly.

mcgovern

Finished Deadhouse Gates, after a slow start it really caught fire, can't wait for the third one now, but need to take a break from the series, they take a good while to get through.
Started Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks for a change of pace.

bonkey

Finished The Crippled God. Moved on to The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain & Korbal Broach.

meditraitor

bonkey wrote: »

Finished The Crippled God. .

Just finished it 10 minutes ago,,,,wow

katarin

mcgovern wrote: »

Finished Deadhouse Gates, after a slow start it really caught fire, can't wait for the third one now, but need to take a break from the series, they take a good while to get through.
Started Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks for a change of pace.

I'm halfway through House of Chains (bk4), and I have it on good authority from someone who's read all the books (Erikson and Esselmont) that it's a good idea to read Gardens of the Moon to House of Chains in one run, to get a feel for what's going on because Midnight Tides is apparently completely different (so there is a natural break). I found that a bit hard to stomach by the middle of DG because I find them a long run to get through. But then I got to the Chain of Dogs. The whole Memories of Ice and the first 250 pages of House of Chains (thus far) are unreal.

groovie

Has anyone read The Once And Future King? I read the first chapter last night, and it's very funny stuff.

Wiki link for anyone who's interested...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Once_and_Future_King

ixoy

Reading "The Crippled God", Stephen Erikson's grand finale for his Malazan "Book of the Fallen" series. Very good and epic so far.

Black Sheep

TH White's 'The Once and future king' ?

Excellent - read it a bunch of times as a kid, but I imagine it would be just as good if I went back to it now.

Still reading 'One second after' by William Forschten but I also polished off a few Robert Heinlein essays from his 'Expanded Universe' collection.

OwaynOTT

Dades wrote: »

I can see where you are coming from... the first half is almost written as a childrens book - "My First Fantasy..." I don't know if this was Feist's first book or what...

Anyhow it does get a lot better. I read the trilogy and enjoyed it despite the rocky start, but tbh I've never been inspired to pick up any more of his stuff.

I doubt I'll read the rest of it now to be honest. Have a copule more books lined up. Just got 'A Wise Man's Fear', excited is I, also have 'The City and The City' by China Meiville. So they will both get bumped to the top of the reading list next to 'Rivers of London' and 'Heroes'.

Dades

Just finish Ark by Stephen Baxter, which I really enjoyed - much more than Flood. He really writes so like Arthur C Clarke it's bizarre.

Just started China Mieville's Kraken.

Enjoying it so far. The guy really loves throwing commas about, though.

groovie

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Just got 'A Wise Man's Fear', excited is I

Phwooooarrr!

ixoy

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Just got 'A Wise Man's Fear', excited is

Me also. It's the first e-Book that I've bought for my Kindle. I figured that "The Crippled God" (c 900 pages) was too short, so I'd follow up with a book whose page count reaches into four figures....
Nice to see it got some prominence in Easons with a very visible display in their Fantasy section. Less nice was to see they still hadn't got "The Crippled God". Just as well I bought elsewhere.

rickyjb

On book six of the Wheel of Time series. Really enjoyed the first couple but less and less seems to be happening in the last few books, I'm hoping it picks up soon...

OwaynOTT

rickyjb wrote: »

On book six of the Wheel of Time series. Really enjoyed the first couple but less and less seems to be happening in the last few books, I'm hoping it picks up soon...

Well it pick up again around Knife of Dreams. So only a couple of so so books and one diabolically bad book to slog through. Best of luck.

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

Me also. It's the first e-Book that I've bought for my Kindle. I figured that "The Crippled God" (c 900 pages) was too short, so I'd follow up with a book whose page count reaches into four figures....
Nice to see it got some prominence in Easons with a very visible display in their Fantasy section. Less nice was to see they still hadn't got "The Crippled God". Just as well I bought elsewhere.

The problem is that the book doesn't have enough sexy vampires to warrant being on sale on it's release date.

Yeah had same problem with Towers of Midnight way too short. Way of kings was a lovely long read.

rickyjb

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Well it pick up again around Knife of Dreams. So only a couple of so so books and one diabolically bad book to slog through. Best of luck.

That's five books away considering I'm only starting the 6th one now!!

Which one is diabolically bad? If I wasn't such a completist I'd consider skipping on a few books, the whole thing has a very "inevitable" vibe to it anyway...

OwaynOTT

rickyjb wrote: »

That's five books away considering I'm only starting the 6th one now!!

Which one is diabolically bad? If I wasn't such a completist I'd consider skipping on a few books, the whole thing has a very "inevitable" vibe to it anyway...

Ah no it was just a massive disappointment when you waited for like two years for it, the way your reading them straight through negates that effect as you can just tear into the next one.

Winters heart is so so but the ending is great and was expecting so much in Crossroads of TWilight didn't build on it, took a step back from it really. Also MAt is missing from one of the books entirely.

As for the vibe your getting, there's a few surprises along the way and it's a great series and I hate that it's ending.

What's been your most enjoyable book?

pH

Got to say I didn't love Gunslinger (Dark Tower I) by King, probably will continue reading them, but might take a break and read Rivers of London first.

Zapp Brannigan

Man I'm so disappointed that the bookstore near where I live didn't get 'Wise Man's Fear' in, and I can't even order it in!

Sucks! It's not like it's a small shop either, its a feckin massive 3 storey Chapters!

rickyjb

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Ah no it was just a massive disappointment when you waited for like two years for it, the way your reading them straight through negates that effect as you can just tear into the next one.

Winters heart is so so but the ending is great and was expecting so much in Crossroads of TWilight didn't build on it, took a step back from it really. Also MAt is missing from one of the books entirely.

As for the vibe your getting, there's a few surprises along the way and it's a great series and I hate that it's ending.

What's been your most enjoyable book?

They've nearly blended into one at this stage, so it's more sections or storylines that I'd remember rather than actual books. I thought the whole sequence in Tear was good from when they arrived, also enjoyed the second book a lot. Some parts get a bit repetitive at times but I guess that's hard to avoid when you're writing so many books about the same characters.

fionny

Its well worth sticking with the WoT, they are nearly over and all put together reading them was brilliant a series I will miss.

fionny

Some really really good news guys and gals!

George R.R. Martin's next book has a FIRM date,

12th of July. (I know this has its own thread but the news is mucho exciting)

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/if-update.html

For anyone who hasnt read the other books they are sheer genius brilliant brilliant stuff... soon to be a TV series (April on Sky Atlantic)

rickyjb

pH wrote: »

Got to say I didn't love Gunslinger (Dark Tower I) by King, probably will continue reading them, but might take a break and read Rivers of London first.

It picks up alot, the first one is very slow compared to books two three and four so it is worth sticking with it. Wizard and Glass is especially good.

OwaynOTT

rickyjb wrote: »

It picks up alot, the first one is very slow compared to books two three and four so it is worth sticking with it. Wizard and Glass is especially good.

Got to say loved The Gunslinger and its very different from the rest. Drawing of the three is brill as well. Overall I quite liked the series, does get a bit muddled near the end though but still loved it.

The Wise Man's Fear is also excellent, just over one hundred pages in and loving!

Black Sheep

'The Dark Tower' definitley pulls together around 'Wizard and Glass', and is worth sticking with. 'The Gunslinger' is, in my opinion, the weakest book in the series and also the most opaque. It starts to make more sense from then on, and the style also gets a little less lyrical.

If you're a King fan this series is almost essential reading in that it offers a prism to view all of his work through. You'll never look at some of his other offerings like The Stand or Hearts in Atlantis in the same way. He has managed to create a kind of 'Dark Tower' mythos that encompasses all of the plots of his other horrors, one way or another (albeit sometimes with a bit of stretching...).

That's good news on George R.R Martin. I'm preparing to do a re-read of 'A Song of Ice and Fire', starting at the very start. I last read them about seven or eight years ago (I think), and can barely remember the plot other than some of my favourite characters ended up dead or maimed rather quickly - meanwhile the evil ones seemed bulletproof. Not unrealistic really.

katarin

Black Sheep wrote: »

my favourite characters ended up dead or maimed rather quickly - meanwhile the evil ones seemed bulletproof. Not unrealistic really.

What I love about these books is that there I don't think there really are any 'evil' characters (well... maybe one). It's more a study of human nature: some people are selfish, some people are greedy, some people just like to sleep with their siblings. I think he's big on 'getting comuppance' at least, so lets hope the new books delivers.

Black Sheep

Hmm.... It's admittedly been a good few years, but I thought there were at least a few characters I would have put in the 'evil' category (judging them by their actions alone). Admittedly it's a matter of perspective and I've never been much for moral relativism :pac:

mcgovern

Finished Looked to Windward by Banks, which was pretty good but I didn't like the ending, and now halfway through Spook Country by William Gibson.