What Are You Reading?

docmol

eVeNtInE wrote: »

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One of the best books you will ever read, make sure to read the whole series though.

docmol

Gene Wolfe, 1 of the best, a pity about his other stuff....

Shryke

Trying to get into The Anubis Gate but it's just not catching me. I may move on to The Dreaming Void. I'd very much like some good sci-fi.

bonkey

Anubis Gates was ok, I thought, but far from Powers' best. Last Call and Drawing of the Dark grabbed me a lot more.

Currently onto book 7 of Seven Suns, now that its finally out in regular-sized paperback. I dunno...it just feels "more of the same"...

ixoy

I've put "Black Man" aside for now to get more into China Mieville's "The City and the City" (I got my copy before they'd even had time to put it on the shelves). It's naturally a bit screwed up, but wonderfully so - if most authors had only 10% of his talent, the sci-fi and fantasy literary world would be a much richer place.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

this might not technically be the right thread, but I don't wanna start a new thread just for this. I have david zindell - the broken god here, i've never read Neverness and apparently this trilogy is a sequel.. should I put off reading the broken god until I've read neverness? If I'll be able to pick it up without reading Neverness, I'd rather just wait until I can afford to buy that and read what I have now.. but if it will "ruin" either of the books for me I'd rather just wait until I can afford them all.

--edit

apparently the printers made my decision for me.. pages 786 -815 are about a cm shorter than all the other pages and missing a line or two of text at the top of the page... and the very end of the book is not somewhere you wanna be missing words.

in the sprit of the thread.. I am now reading the dragonbone chair - tad williams. it's been so long since I've read it I think I've forgotten enough that it's gona be all new again.

albetty31

half way through 'hour i first believed' by wally lamb.cant put it down.

Shryke

Currently reading The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett. Don't know what to think of it yet.

ixoy

Captain Mords Spiced Bum wrote: »

this might not technically be the right thread, but I don't wanna start a new thread just for this. I have david zindell - the broken god here, i've never read Neverness and apparently this trilogy is a sequel.. should I put off reading the broken god until I've read neverness? If I'll be able to pick it up without reading Neverness, I'd rather just wait until I can afford to buy that and read what I have now.. but if it will "ruin" either of the books for me I'd rather just wait until I can afford them all.

I'd read "Neverness" first. It's not 100% necessary (there's a generation gap before "Requiem for Homo Sapiens" trilogy) but you'd lose out on various themes and explorations. I can't say much more without spoiling it but you'd spoil "Neverness" if you didn't read it first (and "Neverness" is a damn good book).

eVeNtInE

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Johnny Storm

bonkey wrote: »

Anubis Gates was ok, I thought, but far from Powers' best. Last Call and Drawing of the Dark grabbed me a lot more.

Dinner at Deviant's Palace also VG, IMHO. I also really enjoyed Declare.

I just finished re-reading Banks' Consider Phlebas, the Player of Games and Use of Weapons.

I'd forgotten how good Use of Weapons is. Seems to me it's Banks best ever by a mile and up there with very best of SF?

Shryke

The Painted Man was well written and kept me reading. It never really took off but it went into a kind of pleasent glide for a bit near the end. It's very farmboy leaves home type stuff but if you can take that then it's probably worth the read.

Now reading Moving Pictures by Pratchett. It seems a bit weak but that may be because I have Best Served Cold sitting beside it, and I'm dying to get into it. I might have to put Pratchett on hold.

bonkey

bonkey wrote: »

Currently onto book 7 of Seven Suns, now that its finally out in regular-sized paperback. I dunno...it just feels "more of the same"...

To be fair to Anderson, he did manage to pick up the pace nicely in book 7, and brought all of his various threads together...although I think he rambled on a bit too much, giving ech of the characters/groups their "farewell" chapters.

Felt a bit like the movie of Return of the King....its all wrapped up, and then the movie goes on for another hour with everyone having their own "closing scene".

starchild

just finished rides a dread legion by raymond feist, i really liked it but im a big fan of all his work, i think this is probably the best of the past 2-3 books though, the new characters give plenty scope for the future

Has anyone been reading the Darkglass Mountain Tilogy by Sara Douglass, im just waiting on the Infinity Gate to arrive

Sarky

Finished Toll The Hounds on the train today. F*ck me sideways, what an ending.

Now I'm off to have a look at The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It's recommended by a friend, I have high hopes.

eVeNtInE

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ixoy

starchild wrote: »

just finished rides a dread legion by raymond feist, i really liked it but im a big fan of all his work, i think this is probably the best of the past 2-3 books though, the new characters give plenty scope for the future

Currently I'm reading "Into a Dark Realm", Part 2 of the Dark War series (so chronologically two books behind you). It's pretty standard Feist fare so far - It's my 22nd Feist novel so it's like putting a comfortable glove on. I know what I'm getting when I go in.

Sarky wrote: »

Now I'm off to have a look at The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It's recommended by a friend, I have high hopes.

Did you like this? I've read four of his other books and I've liked each one more. I'm curious about this and its companion novel (Jennifer Morgue?).

Ping Chow Chi wrote: »

would you let me know how you found this book, I tried reading it when it came out and got bored of the book going over the same social political statements over and over again and gave up about half way through. It's a shame as I LOVED altered carbon!

Full review here, but in short I wasn't all that impressed. Social commentary - alpha male, feminism of society, racism, etc. - were a bit tedious at times and I don't think the future society was all that interesting.

Zodiac is the next one I have to read, and I now dont have high hopes for it ;P

Well given I dampened your expectations - what did you make of it?

Trojan

I'm trying to re-read Cities in Flight (James Blish), but finding it incredibly tough going. I first read it about 15 or 16 years ago and I remember it being quite good. What I'm reading now is not how I remember it at all, I'm not enjoying the first book at all. Trying to decide whether to stick it out. Anyone read it recently?

mcgovern

mcgovern wrote: »

Finished Black Man by Richard Morgan which was really enjoyable, Morgan is fast becoming one of my favourite authors.
Now reading A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, language is making it a hard read so far, but I'm starting to get the hang of it (I hope!).

Finished A Clockwork Orange, and while it was good, it was tough going at times.
Taking a break at the moment from Sci-Fi, reading Generation Kill while I wait for next order of books to arrive from bookdepository

Mal-Adjusted

finished Ghosts of Onyx, i'm going to try and read Heretics of Dune again. (i could only get about fifty pages in before) haven't been to Arrakis in 4 years!:D

Shryke

Reading Best Served Cold and it is excellent.

Ronanc1

Reading Best Served Cold and it is excellent.

Ahh cool i didnt know it was out yet ill definitly be picking it up soon loved the other 3 books

growler

cities in flight, james blish.

interesting read this

Johnny Storm

I got some kind of collected edition of all the Cities in flight books a few years ago, I found what I read of it to be a bit dated TBH.
No doubt that it's an SF classic though.

eVeNtInE

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entropi

Just finished The Spook's Sacrifice by Joseph Delaney. 6th book in a fantasy series called The Wardstone Chronicles, waited a good 7 months for it to be released, was well worth it too:D

Shryke

Finished Best Served Cold. Brilliant and highly recomended, just read the First Law trilogy first. There are plenty of references and some cameos you'd be lost without.

Starting Alice in Wonderland and might go with Through the Looking Glass while I'm at it. I just might loose interest since I know the story so well.

ixoy

Just getting into "Line War", by Neal Asher - the 5th in his Agent Cormac series. Liking it so far and it's already tying in lots of plot threads from the previous four. Hoping for lots of hi-octane action and imaginative conflicts and aliens.

mcgovern

mcgovern wrote: »

Finished A Clockwork Orange, and while it was good, it was tough going at times.
Taking a break at the moment from Sci-Fi, reading Generation Kill while I wait for next order of books to arrive from bookdepository

I seem to be jumping from one book to another at the moment
My order arrived so I put Generation Kill down and read Ayn Rand's "Anthem" in one night, very short but enjoyable.
The world is like a further gone version of 1984.

Dades

"Use of Weapons"

Slowly making my way through the 'Culture' novels.

Great stuff altogether.

Shryke

Use of Weapons blew me away.

As predicted I gave up on Lewis Carroll and I'm already a good bit into The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan.

growler

Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan.

Read the Black Magician series which wasn't too bad, but for some reason I've always avoided reading Canavan's stuff, so after being reasonably pleasantly surprised by the black magician stuff picked up the next 3 books and after a few chapters I'm very unimpressed, puny flying human / birds and impotent immortal priesty types.


Black Magician also seems liek a patchwork of every other fantasy novel ever written, Feist's loveable rogues meets Jordan's evil magicians @ university (except for the bit of gayness thrown in, which was a new angle) !

Should I bother or quit while ahead?

shanegj

just started reading Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter,
it just stood out from everything else on the shelves after about half an hour of looking for something good to get.

Ronanc1

Should I bother or quit while ahead?

One thing my mother taught me when she fiirst started me off reading scifi and fantasy as a 12 year old, was no matter how boring ,dull or predictable a book ive started ALWAYS finish it!! because you never know what you might come across or when the enjoyment might start cause i know thers been plenty like that for me, aswell as plenty of poor ones that i slogged through too even if ther poor you can at least say you finished them and ther not left half read and you can say for sure from reading til the end that tehy were indeed poor

sry didnt mean to sound preachy but ive always thought it the best advice

eVeNtInE

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Trojan

Ronanc1 wrote: »

no matter how boring ,dull or predictable a book ive started ALWAYS finish it!

I used to agree with that. Then I started a business and realised the true value of time. A book gets 40-80 pages (an hour, max) from me, and if I'm still not enjoying it by then, screw it. My relaxation time is far too short and valuable to waste on something that I don't enjoy.

Accelerando was the latest one I tried and dropped. Just not my cup of tea at all. Glad to see a lot of reviewers online weren't into it too, so not just me.

--

I'm not reading any sff at the moment, have some there but it's buried under business stuff. I need to get some new material!

growler

Ronanc1 wrote: »

One thing my mother taught me when she fiirst started me off reading scifi and fantasy as a 12 year old, was no matter how boring ,dull or predictable a book ive started ALWAYS finish it!!

i'd have agreed with you, until I Dan Brown and Paulo Coelho arrived on the scene, not sci-fi I know but that rule doesn't hold for me any longer

Hossbox

Just finished "The Swords of Night and Day" by David Gemmel

Starting into "Matter" by Ian M. Banks

eVeNtInE

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Trojan

eVeNtInE wrote: »

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Cheers, I'm going to have a look at that. Here's a link to the download page (see bottom for Tor hardback version as PDF).

What's really interesting is aspiring authors could compare versions to see how it's worked and reworked from version 1 up to 6.

eVeNtInE

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Sarky

ixoy wrote: »

Did you like this? I've read four of his other books and I've liked each one more. I'm curious about this and its companion novel (Jennifer Morgue?).

Not finished yet, but I am certainly enjoying it. Might be better if there was more focused plot instead of the "just a bunch of stuff that happened" approach, but what's there is funny, clever and makes me want to read more.

fenris

I read the Poison Study trillogy last week, not the worst cliche fest ever and quite readable, while you would not stay up late to finish any of the books, they were easy to pick up again!

Just finished "Then Painted Man" - looking forward to the next one.

Feeling the urge for some traditional Sci-fi I have started the Pip&Flinx series and "Hymn before Battle" by John Ring

mcgovern

Now reading The Temporal Void, been waiting for this one for awhile!

Ronanc1

Eventine you seem to have read most of sandersons works, since hearing that he is finishing the WoT series ive been looking to pick some of his stuff up, i got Elantris a couple of months ago and thought it was quite good. Ive been looking to pick up the mistborn series though i cant seem to find them in town where abouts did you get yours? chapters or hodges and fidges thats where i saw elantris but no others

ixoy

Reading "Crown of Stars" by Kate Elliot, the final book in the "Crown of Stars" septology. It's pretty good but I'm struggling to remember what happened in the previous six as I read them years ago.

myk

bonkey wrote: »

He says he's changed from a trilogy to a 4-parter. I'll believe that when the next book finishes the saga, like Brisingr was supposed to.

Not a bad read, though...if you liked the first two.

It is ok. Pulp read in my opinion. A very easy read, but he has stolen plot devices from other sagas and has very little original material himself. I'll read the rest of the saga, and enjoy it, but I'll never call the work classic or brilliant or genius or original.

Shryke

Getting very little reading done lately. I'm half way through The Steal Remains and haven't picked it up again in ages. I may have officially given up on it. It just doesn't hold me at all.
I have just finished The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. I wasn't a big Sin City fan. It was all style, no substance so I didn't expect a lot even though it's considered one of the best Batman graphic novels. I can say now it was brilliant! I won't rant. It was just nail on the head when it came to Bruce Wayne/Bats.

Sarky

Odd, I couldn't put The Steel Remains down myself. Had a nice irreverent tone to it that you don't often get in fantasy. I'm just starting into the third Death's Head book by David Gunn. Day Of The Damned. If it's anything like the first two I'll be happy.

orestes

Ronanc1 wrote: »

One thing my mother taught me when she fiirst started me off reading scifi and fantasy as a 12 year old, was no matter how boring ,dull or predictable a book ive started ALWAYS finish it!! because you never know what you might come across or when the enjoyment might start cause i know thers been plenty like that for me, aswell as plenty of poor ones that i slogged through too even if ther poor you can at least say you finished them and ther not left half read and you can say for sure from reading til the end that tehy were indeed poor

Gotta agree, the first 100 pages of Donaldsons Covenant Chronicles bored me to tears (I had to be physically forced to read it, no joke) but once I got into it I fecking loved it

I'm reading Piers Anthonys Bio of a Space Tyrant atm, on the second one now and frigging loving them.

I'm only just getting into sci-fi, any recommendations greatly appreciated folks