What Are You Reading?

Thargor

Agent Cormack from Neal Ashers Polity universe is also similar.

Paddy Samurai

150 + pages in and IMO its Brilliant ,top notch fantasy. Might be even better than part 1 ,time will tell.:D

The Banished Lands are torn by war as the army of High King Nathair sweeps the realm challenging all who oppose his holy crusade. Allied with the manipulative Queen Rhin of Cambren, there are few who can stand against him. But Rhin is playing her own games and has her eyes on a far greater prize . . .

Left for dead - her kin have fled and her country is overrun with enemies - Cywen fights to survive. But any chance of escape is futile once Nathair and his disquieting advisor Calidus realize who she is. They have no intention of letting such a prize slip from their grasp. For she may be their one chance at killing the biggest threat to their power.

Meanwhile, the young warrior Corban flees from his conquered homeland with his exiled companions, heading for the only place that may offer them sanctuary. But to get there they must travel through Cambren, avoiding warbands, giants and the vicious wolven of the mountains. And all the while Corban struggles to become the man that everyone believes him to be - the Bright Star and saviour of the Banished Lands.

Zapp Brannigan

Finished Lord of Emperors last night! Did I just read two books (Sailing to Sarantium) about mosaic and a mosaicist? And more importantly did I enjoy it?

You bet your sweet arse I did! What GGK should I read next. I'm thinking Lions of Al Rassan or Under Heaven.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Finished Lord of Emperors last night! Did I just read two books (Sailing to Sarantium) about mosaic and a mosaicist? And more importantly did I enjoy it?

You bet your sweet arse I did! What GGK should I read next. I'm thinking Lions of Al Rassan or Under Heaven.

I enjoyed Lions of Al Rassan, if that is any help. If you don't like it, you can ignore my other recommendations:D

A good overview of Christian, Muslim and Jewish relationships in Spain while it was Al Andalus.

Zapp Brannigan

Lions it is.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Lions it is.

I'll be sweating for a few days now:eek:

Dan_Solo

Paddy Samurai wrote: »

150 + pages in and IMO its Brilliant ,top notch fantasy. Might be even better than part 1 ,time will tell.:D

Low/no magic? I like my fantasy a bit more, er, fantastical...

Thargor

Paddy Samurai wrote: »

150 + pages in and IMO its Brilliant ,top notch fantasy. Might be even better than part 1 ,time will tell.:D

This series is just what I came in here looking for methinks, thanks.

InReality

Paddy Samurai wrote: »

150 + pages in and IMO its Brilliant ,top notch fantasy. Might be even better than part 1 ,time will tell.:D

pretty bad I thought , too many pov's at about 33% have given it up for now. about a 2/5 not 5/5 imo.

Manach

Finished off Poul Anderson's Tau zero (old school scifi) and rereading Hamiltons pandora's star and enjoying the twists and how a society exists when immorally is possible.

ixoy

21% into "The Rook" by Daniel O'Malley. It's pretty decent so far although its setting - a secret British agency defending the country against the paranormal - reminds me strongly of Charles Stross's Laundry series. Stross's series, with its geeky tones, has the edge for me but this is still fine from what I've read.

seagull

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Finished Lord of Emperors last night! Did I just read two books (Sailing to Sarantium) about mosaic and a mosaicist? And more importantly did I enjoy it?

You bet your sweet arse I did! What GGK should I read next. I'm thinking Lions of Al Rassan or Under Heaven.

Was that courtesy of a recommendation in here? I think I need to dig those out and read them again.

Zapp Brannigan

seagull wrote: »

Was that courtesy of a recommendation in here? I think I need to dig those out and read them again.

I'm not sure. I've always been meaning to read more GGK after I read Tigana in late 2013, but just never got round to it.

I'm also enjoying the Lion of Al-Rassan. He just sucks you in to the story so well. Definitely one of the best modern writers of Fantasy.

daUbiq

Just finished "The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham - short and snappy and worth a read.

Paddy Samurai

InReality wrote: »

pretty bad I thought , too many pov's at about 33% have given it up for now. about a 2/5 not 5/5 imo.

TBH i did'nt find that the case with this series.For me ,the story flew so i did'nt notice if there was a lot of POV's.
IMO a real page turner ,I am now up to page 450 and loving it big time.If it keeps this up till the end i will be ordering part 3 as soon as I can.

AlbionCat

Just finished reading Wool/Shift/Dust [Silo Trilogy] by Hugh Howey. Wow - just wow - have not read a new book in quite a while and I could not put these down. It has been a while since I found a sci fi author I enjoyed.

Dades

I'm thinking of starting Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star which is waiting on my Kindle.

Worth giving it a go? Haven't read any of his stuff before but I want to get into some good SF again with a new (for me) writer.

daUbiq

Dades wrote: »

I'm thinking of starting Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star which is waiting on my Kindle.

Worth giving it a go? Haven't read any of his stuff before but I want to get into some good SF again with a new (for me) writer.

Definitely worth reading...

Trojan

Dades wrote: »

I'm thinking of starting Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star which is waiting on my Kindle.

Worth giving it a go? Haven't read any of his stuff before but I want to get into some good SF again with a new (for me) writer.

I think it's his best work. Absolutely incredible.

Thargor

I dont think its his best, that for me has to be his Nights Dawn Trilogy which is still my favourite sci-fi series ever but its still a spectacularly good series, literally could not put them down at night, I always had to see what happened in the next chapter. I have a signed sealed first edition of Pandoras Star at home aswell, random bargain in Charlie Byrnes in Galway one day. Seriously read the Nights Dawn books first, he's still writing Commonwealth stuff, the Abyss Beyond Dreams is just out, also very good but wont be concluded until Christmas or 2016.

Raging_Ninja

I don't get the love for Peter Hamilton tbh - his writing is only average really, and his plots seem to be just long-winded exercises that in some places go nowhere.

Granted, Pandora's Star (and the sequel) are pretty decent, but the trilogy with the space ghosts and the space captain riding everything in sight I really didn't like.

Ian M Banks is much better.

Trojan

I like Night's Dawn, but the

whole ghost reincarnation thing

just doesn't do it for me. I like

fantasy to be fantasy, and scifi to be scifi

.

Dades

Thanks all. I'll give it a lash as most people seem to think it's worth it.

ancapailldorcha

Making my way through the Lord of the Rings. People have said that the Fellowship will make or break you. I never noticed that. The biggest stumbling block so far has been Lothlorién. Well into The Two Towers at the moment.

Thargor

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Making my way through the Lord of the Rings. People have said that the Fellowship will make or break you. I never noticed that. The biggest stumbling block so far has been Lothlorién. Well into The Two Towers at the moment.

I'd kill to read it for the first time again tbh, don't understand why anyone considers it hard work, there's nothing else like it really. Must reread it this year.

Ping Chow Chi

ixoy wrote: »

26% into "Jupiter War" by Neal Asher, the final book in his Owner trilogy. Definitely prefer his Polity stuff over this overly-harsh dystopia but it does have some good moments and you got to stand back in awe at just how ruthless his characters are and the scale of it.

I gave up after the first book, it seemed very 'preachy' if you know what I mean?

Sleepy

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

There's a thread on that series here. Read it first.

Read the thread and after all the fawning over it had to give it a go. I'm about a quarter of the way through Gardens of the Moon and, while I have an idea as to what's happening with most characters I'm lost on the overall story (which I suspect I'm supposed to be?).

One thing I'm finding difficult is the lack of descriptions of some of the non-human things... It took me ages to figure out that Moon's Spawn was some sort of flying fortress for instance.

ancapailldorcha

Sleepy wrote: »

Read the thread and after all the fawning over it had to give it a go. I'm about a quarter of the way through Gardens of the Moon and, while I have an idea as to what's happening with most characters I'm lost on the overall story (which I suspect I'm supposed to be?).

One thing I'm finding difficult is the lack of descriptions of some of the non-human things... It took me ages to figure out that Moon's Spawn was some sort of flying fortress for instance.

When I said "read it first", I meant that the thread contains several warnings about how much work is involved.

I was annoyed about the lack of descriptions for the non-human races as well. It's never really explained what a Trell is for example.

The general consensus is that Gardens improves upon multiple readings. I don't read a lot of fantasy so I might have missed out on why it's so good.

Sleepy

So far, I'm enjoying it but every so often I find myself having to re-read sentences due to Eriksons phrasing which often seems quite odd to me.

Trojan

Bleh. Reading shouldn't be such hard work.

I'll stick to my braid tugging!