What Are You Reading?

Manach

Brandon Sanderson's Firefight, the sequel to Steelheart. So far, so good.

Trojan

Just finished The Abyss Beyond Dreams by PFH.

Not bad at all, it was a bit slow starting until it go into EdeardSlvasta's story.

I'm going to give some of the suggestions from the Space Opera thread a go next, starting with Neal Asher's Politi stuff.

theboy1

Lord of the Rings: the two towers.

Just one question I'm slightly confused about: How did Lord Voldemort accidentally create a horcrux in Harry?

Thargor

Trojan wrote: »

Just finished The Abyss Beyond Dreams by PFH.

Not bad at all, it was a bit slow starting until it go into EdeardSlvasta's story.

I'm going to give some of the suggestions from the Space Opera thread a go next, starting with Neal Asher's Politi stuff.

Did you skip the Nights Dawn trilogy and go straight to the Commonwealth stuff? You should definitely correct that if so.

The Hyperion/Endymon stuff by Dan Simmons is also spectacular.

Trojan

Thargor wrote: »

Did you skip the Nights Dawn trilogy and go straight to the Commonwealth stuff? You should definitely correct that if so.

I read Nights Dawn, and I love the universe it's set in, but the whole

dead people

thing... not mad about that at all.

matrim

Picked up The Skull Throne from Peter V Brett. The first in the series was a great book but the others have been going downhill so I don't have high expectations for this one, but am going to give him one more chance.

TitianGerm

theboy1 wrote: »

Lord of the Rings: the two towers.

Just one question I'm slightly confused about: How did Lord Voldemort accidentally create a horcrux in Harry?

I think you mixed up two very different books

keane2097

theboy1 wrote: »

Lord of the Rings: the two towers.

Just one question I'm slightly confused about: How did Lord Voldemort accidentally create a horcrux in Harry?

mcgovern

I finished The Dark Defiles which was quite good, and left room for further books, but not sure if I'd go back for more of them.
Now reading The Casual Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. It's interesting, but tough to follow so far, a lot of terms thrown at you with little or no explanation.

Sleepy

daUbiq wrote:

Sleepy wrote:

How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise by Chris Taylor

Any good?

Finished this over the weekend and really enjoyed it. It rather lifts the curtain on Lucas's BS about having had Star Wars envisioned as a part of a trilogy of trilogies while still managing to remain affectionate towards the series and it's fandom. I'm not a massive Star Wars fan but I liked this a lot.

Johnny Storm

Neal Asher -Dark Intelligence: Transformations. This is the first of a trilogy, apparently. He is back in the Polity, many Prador meet grotesque ends, all is well in the world. Very much a return to form IMHO

keane2097

Reading The Ghost Brigades at the moment which is the follow-up to Old Man's War.

Old Man's War was most enjoyable, Ghost Brigade's is pretty terrible for the first ~30% at least. It's like a young adult novel or something, really boring cliched overdone people getting to know each other in military barracks stuff that you've read 100 times before.

Thargor

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Neal Asher -Dark Intelligence: Transformations. This is the first of a trilogy, apparently. He is back in the Polity, many Prador meet grotesque ends, all is well in the world. Very much a return to form IMHO

Ah brilliant thanks, thought that was Owner not Polity. He can fairly churn the books out aswell so hopefully not too long to wait.

Trojan

Reading Gridlinked from Neal Asher. I think this is the first Polity one?

It's the first of his I've read, I'm 26% of the way through and it's good enough to keep reading but not amazing either.

kirk buttercup

Whats the best space opera to start with ive read dune and really liked it. So I want to start something new and was thinking hamilton / asher / bainks ? any suggestions welcome

SpaceSasqwatch

kirk buttercup wrote: »

Whats the best space opera to start with ive read dune and really liked it. So I want to start something new and was thinking hamilton / asher / bainks ? any suggestions welcome

Try the gap series by Stephen Donaldson too.

Thargor

Thats the first Agent Cormac novel and the third in the reccomended reading order:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/49128-polity-universe

Well worth reading Prador Moon, great introduction to the universe.

Dades

kirk buttercup wrote: »

Whats the best space opera to start with ive read dune and really liked it. So I want to start something new and was thinking hamilton / asher / bainks ? any suggestions welcome

Have a read of this ongoing thread.

kirk buttercup

Dades wrote: »

Have a read of this ongoing thread.

Thanks I actually posted on this thread too as I was about to start Peter F hamiltons series but Was looking for Peoples thoughts on whats the best before starting one. cheers anyway

OwaynOTT

Having a bit of a resurgence in reading in the last month or so, having read; Ringworld, Legend, Skin Game, Half a King, Firefight, Steelheart, Murderstone Trilogy and now reading Tower Lord.

Took me a while to get into Tower Lord but not because of the book, just couldn't remember the significance of the characters and places seeing as it was so long since I read Blood Song.
I have to say that the sequel has lived up to the quality of Blood Song. I really don't mind if the focus on Vaelin has been lost as some of the other povs are really good.
If anything the Vaelin chapters are not as interesting as the others.
Not finished the book yet but if nearly there and if Anthony Ryan can keep up this quality for the remainder of the trilogy, it has to be one of the best of the last twenty years.
He has to be commended for looking like he is keeping to the trilogy and still having an epic feel to the events while keeping a streamlined narrative.

Johnny Storm

kirk buttercup wrote: »

Thanks I actually posted on this thread too as I was about to start Peter F hamiltons series but Was looking for Peoples thoughts on whats the best before starting one. cheers anyway

IMHO Banks is the best
Would also recommend Alaistair Reynolds Relevation Space series
Asher's Polity books are very entertaining. Kind of Banks-lite ( I mean that in a good way)
Also Richard Morgan's books starting with Altered Carbon are pretty good.

Thargor

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Having a bit of a resurgence in reading in the last month or so, having read; Ringworld, Legend, Skin Game, Half a King, Firefight, Steelheart, Murderstone Trilogy and now reading Tower Lord.

Took me a while to get into Tower Lord but not because of the book, just couldn't remember the significance of the characters and places seeing as it was so long since I read Blood Song.
I have to say that the sequel has lived up to the quality of Blood Song. I really don't mind if the focus on Vaelin has been lost as some of the other povs are really good.
If anything the Vaelin chapters are not as interesting as the others.
Not finished the book yet but if nearly there and if Anthony Ryan can keep up this quality for the remainder of the trilogy, it has to be one of the best of the last twenty years.
He has to be commended for looking like he is keeping to the trilogy and still having an epic feel to the events while keeping a streamlined narrative.

Book 3 is done, going to be released in July:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18405221-queen-of-fire

OwaynOTT

Thargor wrote: »

Book 3 is done, going to be released in July:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18405221-queen-of-fire

Impressive work. He has a pace akin to Sanderson but with far higher levels of quality.


Okay, some might say 'he has had years to work on these before he published the first one.', but he has said that he only had a brief outline done for books two and three before Blood Song took off.
Also when you look at how Rothfuss has been faffing around with his trilogy, despite having spent years on them before releasing Name of the Wind, Ryan and his Raven Shadow trilogy is even more impressive.

A mix of Sanderson and Rothfuss, the good parts of each, that should really be a blurb on his books.

Yawlboy

Just finished The Three Body-Problem by Liu Cixin.

He's is being called Chinas Arthur C Clarke apparently http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/chinas-arthur-c-clarke

I have to admit I liked the book, interesting to see the world from a chinese viewpoint.

Thargor

Yawlboy wrote: »

Just finished The Three Body-Problem by Liu Cixin.

He's is being called Chinas Arthur C Clarke apparently http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/chinas-arthur-c-clarke

I have to admit I liked the book, interesting to see the world from a chinese viewpoint.

Interesting, is it a good translation? As in is it a good read or can you tell it was written in another language first?

Dades

Thargor wrote: »

Book 3 is done, going to be released in July:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18405221-queen-of-fire

Best news I've heard all week!

Second book was slow to get off the ground but really got good after that.

Sleepy

Yeah, I'd second that. Loving the Ravens Shadow series.

In defense of Sanderson his Stormlight Archive is shaping up to be fantastic too.

ixoy

ronoc 1 wrote: »

speaking of kj parker read sharps by her and really enjoyed it.has a really interesting and intricate plot about two nations who have been at war for years who agree to a truce with addition of a fencing tournament between them.

Finally KJ Parker has been revealed as actually a he, author Tom Holt. I read one of his Holt books, years ago, and can't remember being particularly impressed but I definitely like his KJ Parker output.

mcgovern

Finished The Casual Thief, which was ok, but not upto the hype it sometimes gets.
Now reading The Rithmatist for something a bit lighter, again, just ok so far.

pinkstars

How do you all get so into reading? Do you not watch tv? I sit and smoke and do neither but I need to be doing something more productive with my time!!!!!!!