What Are You Reading?

ixoy

Reading "Lord of Emperors" by Guy Gavriel Kay, the sequel to "Sailing to Syrantium". Not much has happened so far (15% in) but Kay is such a good writer that it barely matters.

Angel Knightess

I'm reading Maggie Furey's The Artefacts of Power series book one Aurian. I've read the series before so I know its good and book one is easily the best. Unfortunately I feel the series ends with a lot of loose threads but still a good read and a decent female lead for a change.

InReality

reading the bowl of souls series. Its good stuff , easy reading with some good characters and story.

Thargor

Has anybody read that Dwarves series? Is it any good?

Nody

Nody wrote: »

Finished the Prague Cemetery and the first two books in the lost fleet; started the third and about 1/5th in (interesting series but you fly through the books, thankfully I bought the first six in one go).

Only to add I've finished the 5th one and I'm about 60 pages in on the sixth one. As far as I'm aware this arc ends with the sixth but there's a second story arc that's still being written?

Thargor

Are they good? Goodreads reviews arent exactly glowing.

Nody

Thargor wrote: »

Are they good? Goodreads reviews arent exactly glowing.

Depends what you want out of them; they are not Dune or Foundation trilogy level depth but taken as a light SciFi Galactica style story they are perfectly fine. I'm finding myself making up excuses to read "only one more chapter" and they are very easy to read without spending hours trying to figure out the connections and as someone with military service I'm enjoying some of the jokes about it as well.

kirk buttercup

starting dune tonight , never read it before dont even know that much about it , just that everyone seems to rave about it

Thargor

Dune is a great book, just finished a reread, don't know why I haven't been answering Dune whenever anyone asked my favorite book of all time all these years because it definitely is.

BlaasForRafa

Nody wrote: »

Only to add I've finished the 5th one and I'm about 60 pages in on the sixth one. As far as I'm aware this arc ends with the sixth but there's a second story arc that's still being written?

The second arc is called "Beyond the Frontier" which I thought had finished with the 3rd book but upon checking there seems to be a fourth book this year. There's another arc which is seperate from the main sequence and it deals with characters from the Syndicate Worlds side, this series is called The Lost Stars.

I'd echo what you said, they aren't sophisticated but they're extremely readable and have likeable characters. Sometimes it's good to have a book to rattle through quickly in between other tomes.

GerB40

Thargor wrote: »

Has anybody read that Dwarves series? Is it any good?

Every time I go to my local bookshop the Dwarves series jumps out at me. I hate starting a series and not finishing it so I'd like to know if it's worth delving into...

Zubeneschamali

GerB40 wrote: »

Every time I go to my local bookshop the Dwarves series jumps out at me. I hate starting a series and not finishing it so I'd like to know if it's worth delving into...

I see what you did there.

OwaynOTT

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I see what you did there.

I'm in the dark here, the deep down dark.

GerB40

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I see what you did there.

Haha, believe me that was very subconscious wordplay...

Thargor

kirk buttercup wrote: »

starting dune tonight , never read it before dont even know that much about it , just that everyone seems to rave about it

Thargor wrote: »

Dune is a great book, just finished a reread, don't know why I haven't been answering Dune whenever anyone asked my favorite book of all time all these years because it definitely is.

The sequel to dune, Dune Messiah is great btw, none of the action of the first really but plenty of political/mentat maneuvering and you know its all going to explode before the end, nowhere near the disappointment I remember it as. Still have 4 more Dune sequels to read after it aswell.

Nody

Nody wrote: »

Only to add I've finished the 5th one and I'm about 60 pages in on the sixth one. As far as I'm aware this arc ends with the sixth but there's a second story arc that's still being written?

Finished the 6th book on Saturday; great little series while still leaving a arc open for the next series (which I believe already has a few books out). I'd put it at Belgarion level over all; easy to get into, easy to read with out any overly deep or complicated plots/devices to wrap your head around but still a good read.

kirk buttercup

Thargor wrote: »

The sequel to dune, Dune Messiah is great btw, none of the action of the first really but plenty of political/mentat maneuvering and you know its all going to explode before the end, nowhere near the disappointment I remember it as. Still have 4 more Dune sequels to read after it aswell.

Really enjoying it so far (im slow enough reading so I am only just under half way through the first book) two things have really struck me
1. how close to the middle east situation this story is
2.how lots of movies and tv series have tried to use similar ideas. This book seems to be the inspiration for alot of the sci fi genre.
its amazing that this was written so long ago

Thargor

Yeah it must have been mindblowing when it first came out, Im on to Children of Dune now and the quality level is still high.

Agree about the ME situation parallels, especially in Children of Dune, the herd-like behaviour of the followers is very similar to what we're seeing on the news now 30 years after it was written.

BTW stay away from the blurbs on these books if you're getting the rest of the series and just assume they're worth reading, I gave myself a major spoiler the other night in the first line of one.

ixoy

Dune is a great series and it's where my boards username comes from . However only read Frank Herbert's Dune books. There's loads of books written by his son and Kevin J Anderson and they're an abomination that the Bene Gesserit would have wiped out.

OwaynOTT

Never read Dune, might give it a go after I finish re-reading ASOIAF, started the first book last week.
Been a good few years since I read it the first time and I have forgotten how good a series opening it was. Starts with a bang and then two more bigger bangs and then it fizzles.

Any word on when Winds of Winter will hit our kindles/bookshelves or will we be watching it first?

GerB40

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Never read Dune, might give it a go after I finish re-reading ASOIAF, started the first book last week.
Been a good few years since I read it the first time and I have forgotten how good a series opening it was. Starts with a bang and then two more bigger bangs and then it fizzles.

Any word on when Winds of Winter will hit our kindles/bookshelves or will we be watching it first?

All signs point to an early 2015 release. Little tidbits from his editor and the man himself suggest he's not far from finishing it.

Then again it wouldn't surprise me at all if we saw it first, ya know him now..

GerB40

Has anyone read the Dwarves series? Is it worth a look?

Thargor

I asked that a page back and didn't get an answer.

Wabbit Ears

yep, I thought they (Heitz's Dwarves) were pretty good, I ripped through the entire series. You can tell they are translated from the original language into English but that is only a very minor niggle.

They aren't amazing and in many places very predictable and RPG formula but yea, worth a read for sure.

Just finished Mira Grants 'parasite' and will read the second in the series at due the end of this month. I quite enjoyed the book but the 'twist' at the end was patently obvious from the first chapter, it was almost annoying how it was hinted at with the subtlety of a brick in the face with all the required skill of, ehhh hitting someone with a brick in the face.

Thargor

He/she is a brutal writer, cant believe how successful those zombie novels were, they are seriously awful writing.

OwaynOTT

GerB40 wrote: »

All signs point to an early 2015 release. Little tidbits from his editor and the man himself suggest he's not far from finishing it.

Then again it wouldn't surprise me at all if we saw it first, ya know him now..

Not too bad, looks like I started a re-read at the opportune time. Hopefully this book picks up a bit on Dance with Dragons.

GerB40

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Not too bad, looks like I started a re-read at the opportune time. Hopefully this book picks up a bit on Dance with Dragons.

Apparently he wanted to finish A Dance with Dragons with those massive battles (you know the ones) but his editor talked him out of it by suggesting that starting The Winds of Winter with full scale mayhem would be better for the story. I would've given her the Bolton treatment at the time but considering how huge the pace/action will be after the last two books, I think she was right..

OwaynOTT

I can't really remember the last book but I don't think some battle scenes would have helped all that much. Hopefully I appreciate it more on the read through.

Wabbit Ears

Thargor wrote: »

He/she is a brutal writer, cant believe how successful those zombie novels were, they are seriously awful writing.

The newsflesh series? Once I got past the initial "this really should have been proof read properly and never published in this state" the actual story was pretty good IMHO. Kellis amberlee is one of the better and believable zombie viruses, its better than solanum even if max brooks is an infinitely better writer.

pH

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

The newsflesh series? Once I got past the initial "this really should have been proof read properly and never published in this state" the actual story was pretty good IMHO. Kellis amberlee is one of the better and believable zombie viruses, its better than solanum even if max brooks is an infinitely better writer.

I read the first one, hated it, struggled through to the end.