What Are You Reading?

ixoy

sydthebeat wrote: »

Legion (which was highly enjoyable and which I'd love to see in further novels)

You're aware there's a follow up "Legion: Skin Deep" available? I enjoyed that too.

They've also announced that his upcoming Cosmere short story collection will include some of the novellas / short stories you've mentioned so I'm holding off on purchasing any more!
cy, his language and thoughts are exceptional.[/QUOTE]

Trojan wrote: »

Sounds very Terry Goodkind! Epic fantasy?

Oh, I hated Goodkind so not like that. It's more epic - while there's a focus on about 7-8 core characters, there's a long Dramatis Personae at the start. Story is spread over multiple kingdoms but he manages to keep it focused.

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

You're aware there's a follow up "Legion: Skin Deep" available? I enjoyed that too.

They've also announced that his upcoming Cosmere short story collection will include some of the novellas / short stories you've mentioned so I'm holding off on purchasing any more!
cy, his language and thoughts are exceptional.

Oh, I hated Goodkind so not like that. It's more epic - while there's a focus on about 7-8 core characters, there's a long Dramatis Personae at the start. Story is spread over multiple kingdoms but he manages to keep it focused.[/QUOTE]

From what I gather, it's old school epic fantasy in the mould of Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, GRRM (albeit much cleaner than him) Fiest etc.
Kinda a counterpoint to the more down and dirty 'grimdark' stuff.
A bit like Anthony Ryan and Micheal J Sullivan. Epic fantasy as it use to be. Nothing much new but really pushing the old formula at a high level.

Whereas Goodkind has chickens who aren't chickens, plenty of rape and crushing of jaws with swift kicks to the head.

Trojan

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Whereas Goodkind has chickens who aren't chickens

"This was no ordinary chicken. This chicken was evil manifest."

That is epic right there. How can you not love it?

wyrn

I always loved that bit about the chicken

Thargor

The Long Cosmos is out, conclusion to the Long Earth saga, I always enjoyed these books.

GhostInTheRuins

I'm having a hard time getting through Robin Hobb's Fool's Errand. I'm only two thirds of the way through (after starting it weeks ago!) and I think I've lost interest in Fitz and his moaniness.

After the Liveship Traders I couldn't wait to get back to see Fitz and the Fool but now the Fool has lost all that made him interesting and Fitz is a curmudgeon.

I'll slog through the rest of it anyway and see how it develops, but I think it suffers from only having one point of view character compared to liveships.

Sleepy

Finished The Republic of Thieves on a long flight. Enjoyed it a lot, it was nice to finally see something of Sabetha after all her mentions in the previous books. Not enjoying the idea that

Locke is the re-incarnation of some long lost and uber-powerful maege

though...

Started into Daniel Abraham's The Dragon's Path on the same flight and enjoying it so far. First of his work I've read.

Buford T. Justice XIX

I was away for a few days and came across 'Leviathan Wakes' by James Corey, recommended by a few on here.

I'm about half way through and enjoying it, not too much ultra Scifi ship/gun/tech details just an easy read detective/thriller novel so far anyway.

shrapnel222

started the new Guy Gavriel Kay, Children of earth and sky. set in the same world as a few of his previous ones but at a different period. Main places seem to be venice, croatia and turkey. Only 50 pages in, but enjoying it so far

stesaurus

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I was away for a few days and came across 'Leviathan Wakes' by James Corey, recommended by a few on here.

I'm about half way through and enjoying it, not too much ultra Scifi ship/gun/tech details just an easy read detective/thriller novel so far anyway.

Watch The Expanse tv series afterwards. It follows quite faithfully to the book and is an excellent tv show in it's own right.

Books are excellent, really enjoying the series. Next one is due towards the end of the year, looking forward to it.

stesaurus

Sleepy wrote: »

Finished The Republic of Thieves on a long flight. Enjoyed it a lot, it was nice to finally see something of Sabetha after all her mentions in the previous books. Not enjoying the idea that

Locke is the re-incarnation of some long lost and uber-powerful maege

though...

Started into Daniel Abraham's The Dragon's Path on the same flight and enjoying it so far. First of his work I've read.

powerful maege?

Did I miss something as I can't recall that!

keane2097

Sleepy wrote: »

Finished The Republic of Thieves on a long flight. Enjoyed it a lot, it was nice to finally see something of Sabetha after all her mentions in the previous books. Not enjoying the idea that

Locke is the re-incarnation of some long lost and uber-powerful maege

though...

Read the spoiler, glad I quit half way through book two :pac

The first book was still tops though.

shrapnel222 wrote: »

started the new Guy Gavriel Kay, Children of earth and sky. set in the same world as a few of his previous ones but at a different period. Main places seem to be venice, croatia and turkey. Only 50 pages in, but enjoying it so far

Definitely going to give this guy a spin next, as your recommendations have always been great.

Finished Do Androids Dream etc a while ago, it was great.

Started Red Mars last week. The prose in it is very good, and this guy seems to get the human condition well. Characters are well differentiated by believable character traits without having to resort to them talking funny or tugging braids, which is pretty important considering that behind all the Mars exploration it seems to be as much of a political drama as anything else.

Enjoying it quite a lot so far.

Nody

s.welstead wrote: »

powerful maege?

Did I miss something as I can't recall that!

It's in the end of the last book out mainly; it comes down to

the fact he used forbidden magic to extend his life which made him lose his memory

if memory serves.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Nody wrote: »

It's in the end of the last book out mainly; it comes down to

the fact he used forbidden magic to extend his life which made him lose his memory

if memory serves.

You can't remember, eh?


Hmmmm....:pac:

Kovu

About 1/4 way into the second GoT book. Really enjoying it so far, although I've watched the tv series I just didn't get as involved with the characters as I feel I have now. Books have ruined tv for me :D

drake70

Kovu wrote: »

About 1/4 way into the second GoT book. Really enjoying it so far, although I've watched the tv series I just didn't get as involved with the characters as I feel I have now. Books have ruined tv for me :D

Hopefully by the time you finish "A Dance with Dragons", "The Winds of Winter" will be released.

Currently half way through "Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton. The pacing is a bit haphazard but still enjoyable.

Nody

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

You can't remember, eh?


Hmmmm....:pac:

Oh Sabetha; why are you always so cruel to me?

Kovu wrote: »

About 1/4 way into the second GoT book. Really enjoying it so far, although I've watched the tv series I just didn't get as involved with the characters as I feel I have now. Books have ruined tv for me :D

It gets worse around book 3 and 4 when you start to see the interesting stuff they cut out from the tv show and you go "But why did they remove X?!

Glebee

Last Argument of Kings (Final book in the first law series)
After steaming through the second book( Before they are hanged) decided to go straight into the final book in the series. Its not gripping me like the second book, ill defo stick with it though.

On a side note with Abercrombies books, does any others apart from the First Law books feature Glokta.?

Adventagious

Glebee wrote: »

On a side note with Abercrombies books, does any others apart from the First Law books feature Glokta.?

Love him or hate him?

Glebee

Adventagious wrote: »

Love him or hate him?

Love him. Everybody loves the bad guys, dont they.

Sleepy

Nody wrote: »

It's in the end of the last book out mainly; it comes down to

the fact he used forbidden magic to extend his life which made him lose his memory

if memory serves.

More specifically, that's what

Archedama Patience tells him is the case, though as her motivations are questionable, he (and the reader) have no idea if it's true or not, and since the Falconer killed his mother she can no longer reveal that either so the answers will have to come from a new source...

A Divided Spy by Charles Cumming
It's #3 of a character series.
The first 2 were very good.
More accessible and contemporary than the likes of Le Carre.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Divided-Thomas-Kell-Thriller-Book/dp/0007467516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468335943&sr=8-1&keywords=spy+divided

Thargor

Great news for anyone who was a fan of those Timothy Zahn books in the Star War Extended Universe, his Heir to the Empire trilogy were some of the best sci-fi Ive ever read and I dont even like Star Wars that much, the new films should have just been based on that series, it was proper epic stuff.

New Thrawn novel and other stuff in the way:

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/4t8snf/grand_admiral_thrawn_the_main_villain_in_the/

ixoy

53% into "The Three-Body Problem" by Liu Cixin, one of the big sci-fi writers in China. It's pretty interesting and having a story told from the perspective of a Chinese writer does add a few things. In tone it reminds me a little of Greg Egan with the story set around solving a problem of physics / maths mixed in with some cultural lore. Translation seems good - story is flowing well.

nhur

drake70 wrote: »

Currently half way through "Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton. The pacing is a bit haphazard but still enjoyable.

one of the first Sci-Fi books I read - fantasy only prior to that. Also one of the best Sci-Fi books (when paired with Judas Unchained) - great concepts, though it takes a while to get into it.

I've lashed thru the Fitz books by Hobb... two trilogies in about 1.5months... Even better the second time around. finally on the first book of the new trilogy.

dubred

nhur wrote: »

one of the first Sci-Fi books I read - fantasy only prior to that. Also one of the best Sci-Fi books (when paired with Judas Unchained) - great concepts, though it takes a while to get into it.

I am about 40% through this, struggling to continue, I think it is because I am only reading in short sessions 10-20 pages at a time (bedtime). There are so many characters to keep track of, I think I need to take bigger bites out of it.

Took me ages to get through the Night's Dawn trilogy as well. I found the Greg Mandel series much easier to get through.

nhur

dubred wrote: »

I am about 40% through this, struggling to continue, I think it is because I am only reading in short sessions 10-20 pages at a time (bedtime). There are so many characters to keep track of, I think I need to take bigger bites out of it.

Think you nailed it.. it's quite a tome and prob doesnt suit reading it in bursts... but the characters take better shape as the story progresses - possibly by design so there isn't a lot of exposition at the start... Overall I found a bit of patience with it really rewarding and by the end I was devouring the book.

if you're going for something lighter/shorter and still very much sci-fi... i really like Robert A. Heinlein (also Philip K Dick - though his are more psychological)

Trojan

I wasn't mad about Night's Dawn trilogy, but the Commonwealth stuff is awesome. Worth sticking with.

keane2097

Finding Red Mars a bit of a bore about 40% in.

shrapnel222

keane2097 wrote: »

Finding Red Mars a bit of a bore about 40% in.

lol gave up half way through also tbh.