What Are You Reading?

keane2097

Almost finished "The Call of Cthulhu". Pretty great tbf, reads a bit like a supernatural Sherlock Holmes story.

Johnny Storm

Necronomicon wrote: »

Reading William Gibson's "Neuromancer" at the moment. I must confess, it hasn't been the easiest read. I've been finding myself stopping intermittently realising that I'm not entirely sure what's going on.

Probably a bit dated now? It predates the fall of the Berlin wall even, hence there's mention of an arcade game called Tank War Europa.
Also in a recent interview Gibson said the Ono_Sendai 7 was directly inspired by what he then knew of the Sinclair Spectrum 48K (talk about state of teh art)
Anyway, I can assure you that that book was absolutely the coolest SF book of the decade when it first came out. An astonishing achievement at the time.
His writing style is deliberately obscure at times to make the reader work to figure out whats going on. I'd persevere if you can.

Dan_Solo

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Probably a bit dated now? It predates the fall of the Berlin wall even, hence there's mention of an arcade game called Tank War Europa.

I think that's a real game, there was a game of the same name for the home computers back then anyway.

giftgrub

Making my way through Peter F Hamilton's Great North Road.

you cant go wrong with that guy, I love the way he writes about future tech.

fenris

Just finished "Rule 34" by Charles Stross, a great read if you have even though about building a 3d printer!

Still persevering on the W0T reread, nearly finished Lord of Chaos. The braid yankers and skirt smoothers get more irritating every time around!

old hippy

Have put the Robert Jordan to one side for now and am zooming through Tana French's "faithful place".

I should hate it because of the cliches. The divorced cop who has to put family obligations on hold because of "the job" and the Dublinese used sounds straight out of The Committments

Having said that, it's still gripping and I may just read another one of her books.

Zapp Brannigan

Got myself the Kindle Paperwhite, it's fantastic.

Still on my re-read of LoTR but don't know what to read after that. I do have A Memory of Light sitting on my shelf but I really want to read it on the Kindle...

DarkDusk

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Got myself the Kindle Paperwhite, it's fantastic.

Still on my re-read of LoTR but don't know what to read after that. I do have A Memory of Light sitting on my shelf but I really want to read it on the Kindle...

I've got a Kindle 3 (one with a keyboard) and I love it. However, when I saw the paperwhite I was pretty amazed by the new backlight feature, which I have to say is very innovative.

Did you have a kindle previously? How much did it cost incl. postage to get the paperwhite (guessing you got it from amazon). Do you think its worth getting ifI already have a kindle?

Thanks,
James.

Zapp Brannigan

DarkDusk wrote: »

I've got a Kindle 3 (one with a keyboard) and I love it. However, when I saw the paperwhite I was pretty amazed by the new backlight feature, which I have to say is very innovative.

Did you have a kindle previously? How much did it cost incl. postage to get the paperwhite (guessing you got it from amazon). Do you think its worth getting ifI already have a kindle?

Thanks,
James.

I had the kindle keyboard previously. I'm in Canada so it cost me 200 dollars all together.

I love the new screen, page turns are super quick and it's amazing being able to read with the lights off! The touch only page turns take a little while to get used to but they work just fine.

I don't know if its worth it for everyone to upgrade but I'm definitely happy that I did.

Johnny Storm

Just finished Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds. I liked it. IMHO his best since the Revelation Space books.

AnCapaillMor

Reading the shadow series from Alexey Pehov, finished the first book, starting the second still undecided on whether i like them.

Bits_n_Bobs

Just finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, like a lot of his other work it really dragged in the middle. I've read a few of his books this year and won't be reading any more...too much filling.

About to start Rule 34 by Charles Stross and looking forward to it

fenris

I am enjoying dipping into Charles Stross and Simon R Greene in parallel with my WoT reread, it gives a nice contrast.

The rest of Stross's Laundry Files are well worth a look and are quite snigger worthy. He is a clever author with a nicely warped view of the world but at the same time books like Rule 34 do give a bit of an idea/social comment on where the official reaction to certain technologies could quite easily go.

I should probably start thinking of what single books I will use as "mixers" during my Song of Ice an Fire re-read later this year!

Dades

Started Greg Bear's The Forge of God, yesterday.
I needed a return to a favourite author so had a route through his back-catalogue for unread stuff.

DarkDusk wrote: »

I've got a Kindle 3 (one with a keyboard) and I love it. However, when I saw the paperwhite I was pretty amazed by the new backlight feature, which I have to say is very innovative.

Just an FYI - it's not actually backlit - which is the innovative part!

Trojan

Finished: The Black Company (it was ok)

Started: The Black Company #2 Shadows Linger (pretty awesome so far)

keane2097

Trojan wrote: »

Finished: The Black Company (it was ok)

Started: The Black Company #2 Shadows Linger (pretty awesome so far)

Thought the first book was a lot better than the second funnily enough, both good but thought the first was great. Haven't read farther yet.

fenris

I think that the Black Company really are the original of the species.

Glen Cook has a later series that is. really interesting, I think that it is called The instrumentalites of the night, it is almost like completing a circle as it is a bit Malazanesque. Where as the Bridgeburners are pretty obviously close cousins of the black company.

keane2097

fenris wrote: »

I think that the Black Company really are the original of the species.

Glen Cook has a later series that is. really interesting, I think that it is called The instrumentalites of the night, it is almost like completing a circle as it is a bit Malazanesque. Where as the Bridgeburners are pretty obviously close cousins of the black company.

Yeah Eriksson was very forthright in his Reddit AMA about the influence Cook had on him and Esselmont.

fenris

What I liked was the way that the instrumentatilies went a bit Eriksson in how it handles gods and belief, seemed like a fair exchange for the influence of teh Black Company on the Bridgeburners.

ixoy

pH wrote: »

Currently Reading The Cold Commands enjoying it as much as I did the first one (The Steel Remains) - 2 great books (if you like that kind of thing!)

Enjoyed this mostly but what was interesting - and something I didn't pick up on - is

how it's directly linked to the Kovacs novels and seems to be set in their future. Big thread on it here: http://forum.malazanempire.com/index.php?showtopic=22725&st=0

Trojan

keane2097 wrote: »

Thought the first book was a lot better than the second funnily enough, both good but thought the first was great. Haven't read farther yet.

I understand why a lot of people like this, but I don't like the style where the author skips across the surface of the story like a flat stone skipped across water. It's far too close to being a synopsis rather than a story.

Note that I have a totally different opinion on book #2 of the series.

Zapp Brannigan

Started reading 'The Alloy of Law', alright so far. Just a lot of setting up the story so far.

Have a couple of books I want to read in mind but thought I'd give Sanderson a bash as he's a lot lighter to read than the others.

raze_them_all_

Sanderson is good.


Just finished Traitor Queen. ****ing disaster of a book tbh

ixoy

Reading Neal Asher's "The Technician". Already got the nasty alien in it, now I'm just waiting for a cranky AI to appear

Alongside that dipping in and out of the joyful "The Road" just to cheer myself up.

pH

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Penumbras-24-hour-Bookstore-ebook/dp/B00A25NLOU/

Despite appears on fantasy/SF "lists" (eg) this is not fantasy/SF. It's well written, and a love letter to many things that interest me - this should have been a book I loved, but 2 monstrous gaping plot holes ruined it for me.

AnCapaillMor

Started on weeks prism series, still trying to get my head around the magic system but i like it, planned to go bed early last night, read a few pages and go to sleep, ended up reading about 300 pages. My one problem though is

the glaring similarities to the night angel series, the lost illegitimate son of the hero, the hero sacrificing his love for duty etc, the twist with gavin and the imprisoned brother was kinda obvious but still it was done well.

mcgovern

Tempted to start the Black Company series myself, but I want to try finish off a few series before I start more.
Finished The Twelve last night, I enjoyed it more than The Passage, it's a decent read, but not as good as the hype around them.
Inkeeping with the apocalypse theme, I started The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.

Playboy

ixoy wrote: »

Alongside that dipping in and out of the joyful "The Road" just to cheer myself up.

Excellent book! It might be depressing but it's wonderfully written and quite profound in parts.

Enjoying 'The Red Kight' at the moment. Quite a large book and an intersting blend of fantasy and historical fiction. Havent read anything quite like it before.

Dades

Yeah, The Road is grim, but gripping.

Have no interest in watching the movie - once through that tale is enough.

old hippy

Dades wrote: »

Yeah, The Road is grim, but gripping.

Have no interest in watching the movie - once through that tale is enough.

Viggo Mortensen is most excellent in the role, mind