What Are You Reading?

fenris

Enjoying The Peripheral by William Gibson, takes a bit of effort at first but it's gathering pace nicely

pH

Finished Foxglove Summer (ben aaronovitch) book V in the Peter Grant urban fantasy series. Excellent as usual, my favourite book published in 2014.

Also for some weird reason I decided to read the Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy books - very patchy, I'm now on book VI I think but it's pretty much the same story repeated over and over - anyone know if it ever gets a move on with the overall story.

Zapp Brannigan

Finished Words of Radiance.

I enjoyed the first book, but during the second I just couldn't help but think of it as Mistborn set in a different era. I know all of Sanderson's stuff happens in the same universe but it doesn't feel original anymore. Will probably only pick up further books in the series if I see them on offer.

Will once again attempt to finish the Dark Tower now though.

Trojan

Sticking with re-reading some old school sf, I went on to "The Mote In God's Eye" and now "The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye", first contact military sf set in Pournelle's Falkenberg universe. Recommended for sure, but be aware it'll feel a bit dated.

Thargor

Never knew it had a sequel thanks. Im usually very put off by 70's sci-fi but the Mote in Gods Eye is fairly timeless.

Trojan

Thargor wrote: »

Never knew it had a sequel thanks. Im usually very put off by 70's sci-fi but the Mote in Gods Eye is fairly timeless.

US title is "The Gripping Hand".

ronoc 1

read theft of swords by michael j sullivan,very enjoyable.id recommend to people who are new to fantasy and need a good introduction to it.

Dades

Started back reading The Martian again - lost interest last year about 10% in.

Really liking it... not sure why I left it down!

Trojan

Sticking with the Jerry Pournelle military scifi thing, read Jannisaries 1 & 2 about '80s soldiers who end up in a medieval culture, with a hint of intergalactic politics. Not amazing, but not bad light reading, popcorn stuff, calling it a 6/10. May read #3 if I can get it without re-buying book #2, Pournelle says the final book (#4) is at 180,000 words and waiting for him to write the final scene... but it's been sitting on his hard drive for quite a while.

Going to look at The Grim Company by Luke Scull now.

davidrowe

The Talismans of Shannara, by Terry Brooks (I'm re-reading it). It's the 7th book in his Shannara series. It's essentially fantasy, but it's set in a future version of our own world - where things are very different. The books are going to be adapted for TV soon, starting with the second one: The Elfstones of Shannara.

Trojan

Finshed "The Grim Company" by Luke Scull. Almost didn't finish it - found myself not giving a damn about any of the characters - but it was short so finished it out. Don't think I'll bother with the sequel.

Spookyspook

Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. Slow start, but actually a really well written novel. Got super into it after the 4th chapter. Very detailed.

ixoy

38% into "Ancillary Sword" by Ann Leckie, the second book in her Imperial Radch series. Good so far, although a tad slow. I'm expecting the pace to ramp up soon - or at least I hope so. Her somewhat contentious use of pronouns continues but by now it barely registers.

Kovu

Three on the go right now :pac:
Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card (actual book)
Dragonriders of Pern- Dragonquest (phone reader)
and
The Widow's House (The Dagger and the coin) - Daniel Abraham (iriver bookreader)

Really enjoying the Pern series, although I was a bit confused as to which book I wanted to start at!

Dades

Finished The Martian - absolutely loved it. Can't wait to see it on screen, too. I think it will make a great movie if they focus more than the book did on

the reaction on Earth to his predicament.

Started "The Human Division" - the fifth Old Man's War book. I've heard it picks the series up from books 3 and 4, which I though were "okay".

Nody

Nody wrote: »

Finished The Last Four Things a few days ago; nothing to shake the world and not really overly impressed but will probably pick up the third down the line to finish the series. Started up on Devices and Desires (Engineer Trilogy) by K. J. Parker and about 60 pages in so far. Still getting to grips with the new universe and people but liking what I've read so far.

10 pages to go on Devices & Desires and it has not set my world on fire to be honest. It's enjoyable enough but it simply does not grip me; not sure what I'll grab next (I have something like 50 books waiting inc. full series I bought on impulse). Are the next two better than the first or is it more of the same? I'll probably read them anyway but it will help to prioritize them.

TwoShedsJackson

Nody wrote: »

10 pages to go on Devices & Desires and it has not set my world on fire to be honest. It's enjoyable enough but it simply does not grip me; not sure what I'll grab next (I have something like 50 books waiting inc. full series I bought on impulse). Are the next two better than the first or is it more of the same? I'll probably read them anyway but it will help to prioritize them.

I thought they were all very good but the latter two are more of the same; if you weren't mad about the first one the other two probably won't change your mind.

Manach

Sanderson's co-joined novellas, Legion & Emperor's Soul. Finished the first, interesting and thoughtful take on religious faith & science.

Trojan

Got bored with The Grim Company book #2, and not crazy about the YA stuff in the multipack I mentioned here (see the follow on post below it).

Work is fairly cerebral at the moment so time for some Feist re-reading, starting with Serpentwar

OwaynOTT

Trojan wrote: »

Got bored with The Grim Company book #2, and not crazy about the YA stuff in the multipack I mentioned here (see the follow on post below it).

Work is fairly cerebral at the moment so time for some Feist re-reading, starting with Serpentwar

Were you a big fan of grim company book 1? Was kinda looking forward to the second one, hoping it would be better.

Trojan

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Were you a big fan of grim company book 1? Was kinda looking forward to the second one, hoping it would be better.

Not really. It was okay but not setting my world alight. Feist is a thousand times better IMO.

(Now reading Conclave of Shadows for the first time)

Zapp Brannigan

Just read and finished my first Terry Pratchet book "The Hogfather". Really enjoyed it.

Tonight I'm starting "The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison, heard really good things about this so excited to try it out.

ixoy

41% into The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham, the second book in his Dagger and Coin series. I'm enjoying it so far : it's a good pace and his writing style is very accessible.

Kovu

ixoy wrote: »

41% into The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham, the second book in his Dagger and Coin series. I'm enjoying it so far : it's a good pace and his writing style is very accessible.

I'm about 80% through book four, possibly the least captivating of them so far as the story seems to repeat itself in places. No spoilers from me though

5live

Well, I finished the 'Fitz and the Fool' sections of Robin Hobbs world. I enjoyed the plot and the pacing of the story, which a few will not agree with me on, but I found the characters a bit 2 dimensional. Fitz particularly annoyed me in places with his internal dialogue about his mistakes in life.

I give it a 6/10 overall.

I moved onto 'The Liveship Traders' but again the flipping internal dialogue is overdone to my taste and I am struggling to move on.

It might be time to take a break from fantasy for a while and dig through a pile of science based books that are starting to fall over.

keane2097

5live wrote: »

Well, I finished the 'Fitz and the Fool' sections of Robin Hobbs world. I enjoyed the plot and the pacing of the story, which a few will not agree with me on, but I found the characters a bit 2 dimensional. Fitz particularly annoyed me in places with his internal dialogue about his mistakes in life.

I give it a 6/10 overall.

Only read the first one but agree re:the characters, found the whole world a bit washed out and lifeless.

vasch_ro

Just finished The Grim Company 1 and 2 ( Sword of the North) and really enjoyed both, to my mind the 2nd is the stronger, but really liked it, great setting in The Age of ruin, nothing appears as it seems, and left me looking forward to the third in 2016

vasch_ro

Dades wrote: »

Started back reading The Martian again - lost interest last year about 10% in.

Really liking it... not sure why I left it down!

I read it during the summer , super, super book, got it DLR Libraries as well so it was free read !

OwaynOTT

Just finished Prince of Fools by mark Lawerence.
Set in the same world as the marmite of fantasy trilogies that was the Broken Empire with Jorg.
Tis a good read, nothing spectacular but still has the wit of the first 3 books and easier to like leads.
Simpler structure to the narrative with it moving mostly forward on the one timeline and we don't see much like the convoluted structure of the Jorg books.
If I had to rate it our of 5, I'd give it 3.5.

dudara

vasch_ro wrote: »

Just finished The Grim Company 1 and 2 ( Sword of the North) and really enjoyed both, to my mind the 2nd is the stronger, but really liked it, great setting in The Age of ruin, nothing appears as it seems, and left me looking forward to the third in 2016

Same here, found them quite enjoyable. It's not the best fantasy ever, but decent reading.