What Are You Reading?

OwaynOTT

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

She-Wolves by Helen Castor is great. It deals with several influential queens of medieval England like Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Margaret of Anjou. You can see a lot of where George RR Martin got inspiration for Catelyn Stark and Cersei Lannister (no brother/sister incest in this book though!)

That was on bbc lately as well, i watched an episode.

Shryke

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Struggling to get interested in "Kraken" and after not finishing "The City and The City", it's not looking good for me and MEiville. Still have Peridido Street Station to read so hopefully that ignites a passion.
In a book lull at the moment and it sucks. Anyone care to recommend a non fantasy book

Don't bother with embassytown then. Perdido and the scar would be two of his best and one follows on from the other.
Avoid Iron Council.
Kraken is fairly decent so I'd encourage you to give a bit more effort.

OwaynOTT

Shryke wrote: »

Don't bother with embassytown then. Perdido and the scar would be two of his best and one follows on from the other.
Avoid Iron Council.
Kraken is fairly decent so I'd encourage you to give a bit more effort.

I read another bit this morning. Must get the scar

shaneor

I recently finished Fall of Hyperion. Thanks to everyone who recommended that I had to follow up on the sequel, I'm glad I did. It was a very good read and wrapped up the story nicely.

After starting into Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and so far so good. I've read so many different fantasy worlds at this stage it takes awhile to get into a new one but its promising.

Ms.M

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Struggling to get interested in "Kraken" and after not finishing "The City and The City", it's not looking good for me and MEiville. Still have Peridido Street Station to read so hopefully that ignites a passion.
In a book lull at the moment and it sucks. Anyone care to recommend a non fantasy book

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell.
Set in the real world (bit of surrealism); multiple first person perspective, lovely style of writing. I couldn't get into his other books, just really enjoyed this one.

AnCapaillMor

shaneor wrote: »

I recently finished Fall of Hyperion. Thanks to everyone who recommended that I had to follow up on the sequel, I'm glad I did. It was a very good read and wrapped up the story nicely.

After starting into Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and so far so good. I've read so many different fantasy worlds at this stage it takes awhile to get into a new one but its promising.

Stop reading that and start on endymion, set a good few years later on.

OwaynOTT

Just preordered "The Coldest War" by Ian Tregilis. First book in the trilogy was only old not excellent but the extended wait has be geared up for this.
I can't imagine what it will be like for Memory of Light or Republic of Thieves.

Vastly Blank

shaneor wrote: »

.

After starting into Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and so far so good. I've read so many different fantasy worlds at this stage it takes awhile to get into a new one but its promising.

Having read my way through Tolkien, Eddings,(as a teenager) Hobb while I was in Uni and Erickson(just finished last month). I enjoyed Tigana and I would also recommend Guy Gavriel Kays trilogy The Fionavar Tapestry. The first book is called the summer tree. It has been my go too fantasy fiction book when I can’t find anything else to read for the last number of years. I finished last week for the fifth time

shaneor

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Stop reading that and start on endymion, set a good few years later on.

Hmmm ... I had been debating about whether to finish the series alright. Sounds like you'd recommend it I'll add it to my long to-read list!

ixoy

Reading "A Betrayal in Winter" by Daniel Abraham, the final volume in his Long Price quartet. Very much enjoying it so far - I really like how each volume is about 14 years apart and watching how the characters grow, facing the consequences of the scale of their actions in previous books.

Zapp Brannigan

Reading one of my guilty pleasures "The Crystal Shard" by RA Salvatore. Read them when I was younger, and I know they're not the most well written books and the story is a bit samey but I still like them!

Zapp Brannigan

And now I'm beginning Michael Sullivan's Riyria series. Had never heard of them before but the author is very involved in r/fantasy so I want to see what he's like. So far it's decent (only 2 chapters in though) kinda getting a Gentleman Bastards vibe (though not as good)

growler

Just wrapping up Web Site Story by Robert Rankin and starting into Un Lin Dun by China Mieville, after thoroughly enjoying Perdido St. Station

Trojan

growler wrote: »

Just wrapping up Web Site Story by Robert Rankin

Any good? I've often thought about having a look at his stuff, but other stuff always takes precedence.

mcgovern

Just back from the euro's, a lot of travelling so managed to finish A Dance with Dragons which I really enjoyed (even if nothing much happens) and The Night Eternal (book 3 of the Strain trilogy). It was ok, popcorn movie-ish. Story is full of glaring plot holes and inconsistencies, but an easy read. Also started Before They Are Hanged by Joe Ambercombie, enjoying it more than the first one, pretty good so far.

OwaynOTT

Just started 'Whispers Under Ground' by Ben Aaronovitch.

ixoy

Reading "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. I'm 10% in and it's a hard sci-fi novel about first contact. Reminds me a little of Greg Egan. Bit early to say yet - it's quite technical but it's interesting having a lead character who is a sociopath. Bonus though it was free, released by Watts himself under some creative licence thing.

Also reading the short story collection "Manhattan in Reverse" by Peter F. Hamilton. Nice and enjoyable to read although I'm only on the first story (it's short in the sense of 80 pages being short). A nice tide-me-over for him until "Great North Road" gets published in September.

Trojan

ixoy wrote: »

Reading "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. ... Bonus though it was free, released by Watts himself under some creative licence thing.

Link: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

ixoy

Trojan wrote: »

Link: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

And go here to download it in the Kindle's .azw format.

growler

Trojan wrote: »

Any good? I've often thought about having a look at his stuff, but other stuff always takes precedence.

hard to say really, i've read his stuff since the mid 80's and the main reason I like him still is that I'm certain to *actually* laugh out loud at least twice in the course of any of his books. I guess he's an acquired taste, its not science fiction or fantasy really, more a category of his own. Suggest you try one of the early ones, like East of Ealing , if you can pick it up second hand and you'll probably know by chapter 3 if you love it or hate it.

gufnork

Doctor Who: Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell. I've read two others but wasn't overly impressed. This one has a reputation for being one of the best and tends to get good reviews from almost everyone as far as i can see. It's very good so far, very emotional and the characters are so real they pretty much jump off the page.

Patrick Kerry

The Hunger Games

Trojan

Re-reading my Iain M. Banks stack. Consider Phlebas, Against A Dark Background, Use of Weapons, The Player of Games, Excession, The Algebraist, Surface Detail.

Banks stuff is pretty damn awesome even the 2nd or 3rd time around.

Realised I lost my copy of Feersum Endjinn, which I've never read (couldn't get into the phonetics). Might give it another go. Look to Windward gone AFK too...

Demeyes

Just read the first Hunger Games book, I'll probably finish the series as my sister has the rest of the books lying around. Not a terrible read but it's very straightforward. Looking forward to seeing what the film is like now!
Also just finished the Mistborn trilogy. I liked it, some good mix of action and story and the magic system is very cool. My interest was dropping in the 2nd book but I think the 3rd was paced better and was a better read.
After that I'm thinking of going with something more serious from my stack of unread stuff, I really need to start working through it before I start buying more!

AnCapaillMor

After hearing everyone bang on about a wise mans fear, i'm listening to Name of the wind on audio book. It's good, looking forward a wise mans fear now. Gutted as well, i was listening to it while in work and the battery went dead at a what happens next bit, the next 3 hours are going to be painful.

Angel8ie

Just finished Insurgent, nice read. Onto the dexter books next I think

AnCapaillMor

Angel8ie wrote: »

Just finished Insurgent, nice read. Onto the dexter books next I think

Dexter the serial killer dude? One of the few books where the film\tv show is better. Was very dissapointed in them.

Angel8ie

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Dexter the serial killer dude? One of the few books where the film\tv show is better. Was very dissapointed in them.

Oh really? Yeah I love the programme so I thought I'd give the books a go. I was told that only the first one is similar to the tv programme. Are they worth a read at all or am I better off with something else so you think?

AnCapaillMor

The first is similar alright, but there's some big changes on the main plot. Give them a go but i just didn't like them, can't even remember did i even finish the 2nd. They're a lot darker than the TV show. The only good thing is the sister is not as much of a pain in the ass as in the tv show.

Angel8ie

Ha ha, well that's good. Well I might just read the first one anyways, it's not too long:) thanks for the advice ancapaillmor