What Are You Reading?

shockwave

Just started on The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, on book 3 now and really enjoying it.

Hes a very likable hero and it really makes a nice change from high fantasy.

Taltos

shockwave wrote: »

Just started on The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, on book 3 now and really enjoying it.

Hes a very likable hero and it really makes a nice change from high fantasy.

Just starting Dead Beat, 3rd or 4th time reading the series. As you said nice relief from high brow, nicely written and fun. Love reading the characters progression through the book and how he just keeps fupping things up for himself. Reminds me a bit of Mike Hammer "Trust me. I know what I'm doing!"

daUbiq

Just finished A Time Of Changes by Robert Silverberg.. Felt a bit sad when it ended. Gonna read Downward to the Earth next, also by Silverberg.

Anyone wanna recommend some other lesser known classics?

keane2097

Reading Dune for the first time ever - it's really good!

Thargor

Such a good book alright, there's really nothing else like it, crying out for a proper film treatment.

ixoy

16% into "On the Steel Breeze" by Alastair Reynolds, the second book in his Poseidon's Children trilogy. It's a step up from "Blue Remembered Earth" and feels more like typical Reynolds meaning I'm enjoying it so far.

Thargor

Slow Bullets is out this month aswell, suppose I should force myself to finish Blue Remembered Earth and Steel Breeze before I get it though, he is one of my all time favs but BRE was a turkey, I see it for sale in dealz all the time, €1.50 for the hardback, others obviously agree.

ixoy

Thargor wrote: »

he is one of my all time favs but BRE was a turkey, I see it for sale in dealz all the time, €1.50 for the hardback, others obviously agree.

It wasn't great. Not as bad as 'Terminal World', but really quite bland. This one is set several hundred years in the future so we've got more tech such as space travel, cloning, etc. Also remember it's a trilogy so you've got three books in total

'Slow Bullets' seems to be more novella length but priced like a novel. It will need to drop in price before I get it.

daUbiq

keane2097 wrote: »

Reading Dune for the first time ever - it's really good!

It is awesome.. I reread it every four or five years. I even have a soft spot for the David Lynch movie.

keane2097

daUbiq wrote: »

It is awesome.. I reread it every four or five years. I even have a soft spot for the David Lynch movie.

I have a very vague memory of being given a video of that movie about 20 years ago by a cousin and not being able to understand what was going on in it. Since I started reading the book I've been dying to finish so I can go back and check it out again!

daUbiq

keane2097 wrote: »

I have a very vague memory of being given a video of that movie about 20 years ago by a cousin and not being able to understand what was going on in it. Since I started reading the book I've been dying to finish so I can go back and check it out again!

It will be easy to follow... although the plot is different.

reece289

I just read the Forever war.....****

Zapp Brannigan

Finished Empire of Black and Gold last night. Quite enjoyed it, although the little short stories at the end I didn't quite get? Were they setting up plotlines for future novels?

Began re-reading Blood Song in anticipation of the new one out next month. What the hell happened to the Kindle ebook? Font is horrible and also miniscule!

ixoy

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Finished Empire of Black and Gold last night. Quite enjoyed it, although the little short stories at the end I didn't quite get? Were they setting up plotlines for future novels?

Not hugely - some of them are a series of connected short stories and others feature minor characters from the series. The author's written loads of stories set in the same universe and available on his web site, as well as art, maps, etc. In fact I collated all the short stories together - there's 17 of them, plus 5 more by other authors. Adds up to at least an extra novel's worth.

fenris

Just started Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence, nicely over the top with little tie ins to his Prince of Thorns series.
Pure commute fodder

Bits_n_Bobs

About 15% into 1Q84. Have heard many great reviews of it and it's been on my to-read list for a while, though as yet it hasn't exactly grabbed me. Anyone stuck with it for good or for bad?

Thargor

Just read Earth Unaware supposedly by Orson Scott Card but apparently ghostwritten by some graphics novel artist with very little input from Card, the guys a bigot but at least he can write sci-fi, this is the worst crap Ive read since The Martian, its like it was written by a child and is so dull and dragged out, at least the Martian tried to be scientifically accurate, this novel talks about spacecraft like they're large naval ships or something, the physics seem all wrong. A lot of it is actually painful to read its so badly written and the whole novel could have been covered in a chapter by any other author, wont be bothering with the rest, absolutely brutal stuff probably rushed out to capitalize on the Enders Game film release.

Moving on to the Long Utopia to hopefully finish the Long Earth series because I was kind of sick of that by the end of the last novel.

daUbiq

reece289 wrote: »

I just read the Forever war.....****

You liked it?

Bits_n_Bobs

Thargor wrote: »

Just read Earth Unaware supposedly by Orson Scott Card but apparently ghostwritten by some graphics novel artist with very little input from Card, the guys a bigot but at least he can write sci-fi, this is the worst crap Ive read since The Martian, its like it was written by a child and is so dull and dragged out, at least the Martian tried to be scientifically accurate, this novel talks about spacecraft like they're large naval ships or something, the physics seem all wrong. A lot of it is actually painful to read its so badly written and the whole novel could have been covered in a chapter by any other author, wont be bothering with the rest, absolutely brutal stuff probably rushed out to capitalize on the Enders Game film release.

Moving on to the Long Utopia to hopefully finish the Long Earth series because I was kind of sick of that by the end of the last novel.

Totally agreed with your summation of The Martian. Finished it and felt it was utterly meh, no idea what the hype was about. Could not face another Long Utopia having read the first three of them, an awful shame as the first one was great.

Similarly have no idea what the fuss surrounding Old Mans War is. Found the chief protagonist a bore, the wise-cracking was infantile and the humour more miss than hit. Tried twice to finished it and gave up half-way both times.

shrapnel222

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

About 15% into 1Q84. Have heard many great reviews of it and it's been on my to-read list for a while, though as yet it hasn't exactly grabbed me. Anyone stuck with it for good or for bad?

heard good things about it but also gave up a 1/3rd of the way through. I just couldn't get into it

halfway through "lies of Locke Lamorra". Really enjoying it so far.

keane2097

shrapnel222 wrote: »

heard good things about it but also gave up a 1/3rd of the way through. I just couldn't get into it

halfway through "lies of Locke Lamorra". Really enjoying it so far.

I thought that was very good fun to read. Sadly, had to quit the second one half way through because it was shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite.

shrapnel222

keane2097 wrote: »

I thought that was very good fun to read. Sadly, had to quit the second one half way through because it was shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite.

Cheers for the heads up! Shame though as has real potential.

ixoy

shrapnel222 wrote: »

Cheers for the heads up! Shame though as has real potential.

I disagree, for what it's worth. I didn't enjoy it as much but I still liked it and there are others who preferred it. I also liked the third instalment in the series.

reece289

daUbiq wrote: »

You liked it?

Amazing.

One of those books you read that totally changes your view set. On top of that a great read, with heart.

That's before I read up on the author and realised the links with him and the Vietnam war.

One of the greatest I have read to be honest.

Sleepy

Finished "The Spooks Apprentice" by Joseph Delaney last night. It's aimed at kids but well written and has a nice Irish feel to it. Only really reading it because my 8 year old step-son is and wanted to encourage him to keep up his reading over the summer by having books we could talk about together. Actually rather looking forward to the next one

ElWalrus

keane2097 wrote: »

Reading Dune for the first time ever - it's really good!

Just started this too, enjoying it so far.

Prior to that read the two books in the 'Firefall' series by Peter Watts. Thought 'Blindsight' was awesome, but enjoyed 'echopraxia' too. Very interesting take on the direction of humanity in the near future, consciousness

and whether it's worth the hassle from an evolutionary point of view

, and a couple of other curve-balls thrown in for good measure

(i.e. an evolutionary explanation for vampires, heaven, and our place in the universe, etc.)

.

Thargor

Never heard of Echopraxia thanks! Is it set after the events of Blindsight? I thought at the end of that

humanity was fooked

?

Will throw it on the pile anyway I loved Blindsight.

keane2097

On Dune, I'm about 75% through it now. Seems to me like there's enormous scope for additional books, but the consensus seems to be that many of the follow ons are pretty bad.

Any opinions on that front from anyone here?

Zapp Brannigan

Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan

I can definitely see why he's using multiple POV's but I do miss just seeing things from Vaelin's perspective.

Bits_n_Bobs

keane2097 wrote: »

On Dune, I'm about 75% through it now. Seems to me like there's enormous scope for additional books, but the consensus seems to be that many of the follow ons are pretty bad.

Any opinions on that front from anyone here?

The original ones written by Frank Herbert himself are all worth reading, though they do get somewhat outlandish. I read the first few of the newer ones by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson and didn't rate them at all.