What Are You Reading?

groovie · 17-03-2011 09:43PM

Hi lads, I have read Kraken but found it fairly unrelenting, with the exception of a few light-hearted moments. I was reminded of a Tim Willocks book - Bloodstained Kings - most of the characters have no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. Every time I put the book down my mood was definitely darker than when I picked it up. YMMV, though.

AnCapaillMor · 18-03-2011 08:41AM

Finished Knife of Dreams and started The Gathering Storm, knife of dreams was pretty good compared to crossraods of twilight, crossraods was ok but ended well.

Loved Leiws Therin taking over and decimating the trollocs with the gateways and mats just a plain cool character, Egwene going around tower gradually breaking down\converting people there

Really really loving the series i'm praying he doesn't do a gemmill and finish it up in 3-5 pages. Series needs a proper epic ending with goodbyes and some later ons....

Dades · 18-03-2011 11:45AM

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Ive just got that very book last week. Whats the problem with it?

groovie wrote: »

Hi lads, I have read Kraken but found it fairly unrelenting, with the exception of a few light-hearted moments. I was reminded of a Tim Willocks book - Bloodstained Kings - most of the characters have no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. Every time I put the book down my mood was definitely darker than when I picked it up. YMMV, though.

Yeah, maybe it's the character thing. I just don't care what happens. And the plot just seems to be just spiraling into a very complicated mess.
(Of course as groovie suggests - you may love it!)

Am going to start Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo as I don't have any Clive Cussler to hand.

Nodin · 19-03-2011 04:53PM

Just finished "The handmaids Tale" (Margaret Atwood) and am breaking my normal sequence of fiction then non-fiction by starting onto "The steel remains" (Richard Morgan).

chopperbyrne · 20-03-2011 04:31PM

Dune

Never read it before, even though I've watched the movie and series and played the games.

150 pages in and it's all been good so far.

pH · 20-03-2011 10:34PM

Finished the third book (The Waste Land) in The Dark Tower series, can't say I liked it much, I just find myself not engaging with or caring for the the characters, and some of the themes that King dwells on I just find not to my tastes or plain boring and uninteresting.

Just started The Family Trade by Charles Stross.

ixoy · 20-03-2011 10:45PM

Reading "Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss - 26% of the way through and really enjoying it so far, despite the fact not much has happened.

Zapp Brannigan · 21-03-2011 05:34AM

ixoy wrote: »

Reading "Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss - 26% of the way through and really enjoying it so far, despite the fact not much has happened.

Not much happens at the start, true, but it's so beautifully written.

*has a man-crush on Rothfuss' style*

I'm nearly finished it now.

pH · 22-03-2011 10:26PM

Finished The Family Trade by Charles Stross, gotta say I loved it. It's another one of these 'fantasy' books, not set in a standalone fantasy world, but in a world which intersects with ours, of which I've read a number of recently.

I'd loved Stross' Singularity Sky (and to some extent Saturn's Children) but not really liked Halting State and Accelerando. This book however, was just a cracking read, which seems to promise so much for the rest of the series (there are 6).

Anyway, onto book 2 The Hidden Family ...

ixoy · 22-03-2011 11:52PM

pH wrote: »

Anyway, onto book 2 The Hidden Family ...

I really liked this one too - it did a good job of building on the premise of the first one. It's great to see someone think logically about the applications of parallel worlds.
I have Book 3 to read soon - must get books 4-6 as well.

bloodforcream · 22-03-2011 11:57PM

love this book recommend to anyone who likes 40k

bigsmokewriting · 23-03-2011 12:02PM

We have loads of these books on our bookshelf - can't wait to read!

old hippy · 23-03-2011 08:26PM

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; really enjoying it - must be the last person who hasn't read it.

And a fab comic book guide to the nation(s) & people of Korea - picked it up for £6 the other day & it's on 'zon for £30!

Zapp Brannigan · 23-03-2011 09:29PM

Finished 'The Wise Man's Fear'

On to Brent Weeks' 'Night Angel Trilogy'.

ixoy · 23-03-2011 10:15PM

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Finished 'The Wise Man's Fear'

On to Brent Weeks' 'Night Angel Trilogy'.

Okay that's just scary! I'm reading "The Wise Man's Fear" and moving on to the first book in the Night Angel Trilogy after that!
I'm assuming the sad face is that you enjoyed "Wise Man's Fear"? I'm 39% through and just love how easy it is to get into Kvothe's world.

Zapp Brannigan · 23-03-2011 10:44PM

ixoy wrote: »

Okay that's just scary! I'm reading "The Wise Man's Fear" and moving on to the first book in the Night Angel Trilogy after that!
I'm assuming the sad face is that you enjoyed "Wise Man's Fear"? I'm 39% through and just love how easy it is to get into Kvothe's world.

Yup sad face is because I know it's gonna take ages for the 3rd book!

OwaynOTT · 24-03-2011 11:51AM

Finished The eroes by Joe Abercrombie. Really enjoyed it, some interesting characters, a couple of laugh out loud moments always a good thing and think it was better than Best Served Cold.
Can't wait for the next and loving the whole series.

mcgovern · 25-03-2011 01:44PM

ixoy wrote: »

Let me know what you think of this - I didn't care for it at all.

Finished Night Sessions, and thought it was ok. The motivation of the main antagonist was lacking, as what much of the back story, but I guess I liked it more because the whole state without church interference appealed to me.

Now going to give into the hype and start A Game of Thrones. Probably a bad idea with the amount of series I've left unfinished that I want to finish, but oh well!

Johnny Storm · 26-03-2011 12:22PM

Just finished "The Technician" by Neal Asher.
Not his best book. First 80-90 pages are very slow to get going with too many confusing and pointless flashbacks/forwards. Also there is no evil augmented super-genius-villain or galactic level threat until the last couple of chapters. I was expecting more fun from the gabbleducks too.
He's still one of my favourite current authors.
Anyway, I've started re-reading Gridlinked.
Also if you're interested he's pretty active on Twitter.

Bits_n_Bobs · 28-03-2011 01:50PM

Dades wrote: »

Thinking of ditching China Mieville's Kraken, as after a great start I'm finding it a bit of a chore, which reading should never be.

I stuck with it for about 100 pages or so and ditched it. Never really got involved with it - the main character I just found boring and of no great interest, most of the other characters were actually repugnant. Has anyone made it through to the end and enjoyed it??

Have made a start on The Iron Council which I admit I am not galloping through either...is it worth persevering with?

28-03-2011 01:54PM

Just finished "Saturn's Children" by Charles Stross. I usually love his stuff but this one was all over the place and just didn't work. Trying to decide what to read next now, might actually read something on the kindle, having owned it for a few months!

pH · 28-03-2011 05:46PM

Finished The Hidden Family by Charles Stross, the 2nd book in the Merchant Princes series. Certainly not as wowed by it as the first one, but a good solid read and I'm interested in where it's all going, so onwards to book 3 ...

Shryke · 29-03-2011 02:34PM

I finished Wise Mans Fear which was as good as I expected it to be. I don't feel like reading anything I have lying around here so I'm ordering stuff off the Book Depository. Tim Powers, Banks and Neil Asher. I'll pick when they arrive.

Zapp Brannigan · 29-03-2011 11:02PM

Not really enjoying Weeks' The Way of Shadows.

I don't like the skipping of years, just felt like the narrative was too disjointed. Don't think I'll carry on with the series.

Trojan · 29-03-2011 11:53PM

I am reading Hyperion! One of those ones where you can't believe you missed it - been on the list a long time.

I found it a very slow starter, and with my current shockingly low tolerance to anything slow paced, I almost put it down.

But I've stuck with it, and I am finding it quite interesting now. I'm just started into the PI's tale, so I guess I'm ~1/2 through book one (I have the omnibus).

groovie · 30-03-2011 09:18PM

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

I stuck with it for about 100 pages or so and ditched it. Never really got involved with it - the main character I just found boring and of no great interest, most of the other characters were actually repugnant. Has anyone made it through to the end and enjoyed it??

I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it but I got to the end, what got me through was that he switched focus from Billy to his mate's girlfriend for some of it and her predicament was more compelling than his. It was my first Mieville so I wasn't going to let it get the better of me.:D

Trojan · 31-03-2011 04:44AM

When is Rothfuss #3 due?

I haven't started WMF yet, wondering how long I should try leave it. I have a stack of books & I'm suppressing the urge to run & get the hardback.

(Seeing as ixoy managed to hold off Towers of Midnight for ~10 weeks, he's setting the self-control bar pretty high!)

Zapp Brannigan · 31-03-2011 05:33AM

I'd say Rothfuss' next will be 2 years?
Total guess though.

old hippy · 31-03-2011 11:19AM

Jah Wobble - Memoirs of a Geezer.

Zapp Brannigan · 01-04-2011 07:23PM

Okay finished Way of The Shadows. Meh.

A trip to the library has ended up with me checking out The Space Wolf omnibus. (I read the first two books as a kid, so thought why not give it another go.) It's probably horrible!

I also got The Well of Ascension by Sanderson. I've read Mistborn but then launched into the WoT so didn't finish the trilogy.

Which should I start first fine folks of the S&F boards?

What Are You Reading?

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