What Are You Reading?

Thargor

The 4th Lightbringer novel has appeared, interesting magic system and a decent enemy and pretty good writing, not as good as the Night Angel trilogy though:

Trojan

Thargor wrote: »

The 4th Lightbringer novel has appeared, interesting magic system and a decent enemy and pretty good writing, not as good as the Night Angel trilogy though

Shows the range of preferences - I thought Lightbringer was a far superior series to Night Angel, which I thought was a bit simplistic.

Thargor

Definitely looking forward to reading it, its completely superior to most of the other muck that gets released these days.

Mars Bar

I'm almost coming to the end of "The Enchantress" by James Maxwell. It's the first in the Evermen Saga. I'm enjoying it so far.

shootermacg

Trojan wrote: »

Shows the range of preferences - I thought Lightbringer was a far superior series to Night Angel, which I thought was a bit simplistic.

Night Angel is in my top 10 worst reads ever.

ixoy

16% into "Sword of the North" by Mike Scull, the second in his Grim Company series. Enjoyable grim-dark fantasy and was very aptly described as "Abercrombie with magic" - maybe not quite as cynical.

Speaking of, I finished "Sharp Ends" by Joe Abercrombie, a short-story collection set in the world of the First Law. A few of the tales feel more like chapters in the lives of certain characters from his series meaning they don't feel quite like a whole story. There are enough good ones in there for a fan of the series.

Also finished "A Night Without Stars" by Peter F. Hamilton, the second of the two part "Chronicles of the Fallers". Little disappointed with this - felt it was a bit too long, suffering from pacing issues. Until the end it lacked the epic pace of some of Hamilton's other works and it didn't seem to bring enough new ideas. The ending was way too twee as well. Hopefully, he'll go with something new next time as the Commonwealth universe seems a little exhausted now.

Trojan

ixoy wrote: »

Also finished "A Night Without Stars" by Peter F. Hamilton, the second of the two part "Chronicles of the Fallers". Little disappointed with this - felt it was a bit too long, suffering from pacing issues. Until the end it lacked the epic pace of some of Hamilton's other works and it didn't seem to bring enough new ideas. The ending was way too twee as well. Hopefully, he'll go with something new next time as the Commonwealth universe seems a little exhausted now.

Agreed with this, it just didn't do it for me. His stuff has been on a slight downward trend since Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained.

I think he needs a change too, not necessarily a change of universe, but something. I'd be happy enough with something set elsewhere in the Commonwealth, e.g. something like "A Quantum Murder" with Paula Myo. Hmmm... another Mandel book, or something like Fallen Dragon - one of my all-time favourites - would be great.

nhur

Most of the way through Tigana... it's fine... IMO it's not living up to the hype of the posters in this thread!!

Fian

I went to Germany for Work for Wednesday - Friday last, meant I had plenty of time on flights/in airports/in hotel to do some reading. Finished house of chains, then read "stone mattress" a book of short stories by Margaret Atwood and then "Stories of your life" by Ted Chiang - another book of short stories.

Would heartily recommend both of those but especially the Ted Chiang book, really excellent. I think I got that one based on a recommendation in this thread, will have to find the post to thank it.

Now back to re-reading the tales of the malazan - so have started midnight tides.

Thargor

Thargor wrote: »

The 4th Lightbringer novel has appeared, interesting magic system and a decent enemy and pretty good writing, not as good as the Night Angel trilogy though:

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Trojan wrote: »

Shows the range of preferences - I thought Lightbringer was a far superior series to Night Angel, which I thought was a bit simplistic.

Thargor wrote: »

Definitely looking forward to reading it, its completely superior to most of the other muck that gets released these days.

Ugh, I take it back, I remember the series properly now and I wasnt too much of a fan, the central character Kip and his band of merry cliches is extremely irritating. Its all a bit too American aswell, theres no place for the word "awesome" in a fantasy world.

Buford T. Justice XIX

nhur wrote: »

Most of the way through Tigana... it's fine... IMO it's not living up to the hype of the posters in this thread!!

It a novel of its time. There wasn't a whole lot of fantasy available not to mind good fantasy.

Just starting Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan. OK so far, trying to remember who the characters are.

OwaynOTT

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

It a novel of its time. There wasn't a whole lot of fantasy available not to mind good fantasy.

Just starting Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan. OK so far, trying to remember who the characters are.

I had that problem too and in the end, I just retread the first two.

david75

Reading the Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman on the recommendation of someone in this thread.

It's enjoyable but lately the more fantasy adventure books I read the more it feels like the author is writing to hope to pitch to a tv series. It's no bad thing when it's done well which it certainly is here. It's almost written in a quick scene snappy dialogue way, you could easily imagine it being a series. But it seems to be the thing now the last few books like this I've read.

Well worth reading though. Interesting magic system and different dimensions of our own reality all called alternates that the protagonists have to go to to solve a mystery.

Dades

OwaynOTT wrote: »

I had that problem too and in the end, I just retread the first two.

Bloody hell, oh for the time to do that.

Was it worth it? I'm afraid to start QoF as I've forgotten it all.

OwaynOTT

Dades wrote: »

Bloody hell, oh for the time to do that.

Was it worth it? I'm afraid to start QoF as I've forgotten it all.

I dad the first two in a very fractured go. Started blood song read 100 pages left it for months started again and finished it. Tower Lord I read very quickly and the minute it came out. Got Queen of fire but never opened it. A year later, I started forgot who everyone was and had to stop after 90 pages.
So, I think it was worth it.
Kinda like how people don't mind crossroads of twilight when they get to it nowadays, whereas, 10 years ago it was hell on paper.

smacl

Finished the Inheritance trilogy and the two accompanying novellas yesterday by N.K. Jemesin which I thoroughly enjoyed and will probably come back to read more of her other work shortly. Also been reading a couple of histories on Catharism which worked really well alongside the Inheritance stuff. Just started into Lock In by John Scalzi last night which has had some great reviews so looking forward to it.

ixoy

Since it was released the day after I finished "Sword of the North", I'm reading the final book in Luke Scull's Grim Company series: "Dead Man's Steel". 13% in and it's good strong pace. It's less Abercrombie and a bit more Erikson now. Nice to see an author keeping a fantasy novel under the 500 page mark too..

machalla

smacl wrote: »

Finished the Inheritance trilogy and the two accompanying novellas yesterday by N.K. Jemesin which I thoroughly enjoyed and will probably come back to read more of her other work shortly. Also been reading a couple of histories on Catharism which worked really well alongside the Inheritance stuff. Just started into Lock In by John Scalzi last night which has had some great reviews so looking forward to it.

Interesting about the Catharism link, thanks for the pointer. I'm slowly getting round to finishing the third Inheritance book (Kingdom of Gods). I've enjoyed the series, its nice to read something that isn't typical epic fantasy or grimdark.

I heard Lock In was not up to Scalzi's usual standard from one big fan. I see its now book 1 of a series.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/135720-lock-in

mickmac76

Finished The Girl with All The Gifts. It's OK I suppose, aimed at teenagers and I wouldn't be surprised to see a cinema version in the next couple of years.

Zirconia

mickmac76 wrote: »

Finished The Girl with All The Gifts. It's OK I suppose, aimed at teenagers and I wouldn't be surprised to see a cinema version in the next couple of years.

Like this maybe?:

david75

mickmac76 wrote: »

Finished The Girl with All The Gifts. It's OK I suppose, aimed at teenagers and I wouldn't be surprised to see a cinema version in the next couple of years.

Wasn't that film released earlier this year?

david75

mickmac76 wrote: »

Finished The Girl with All The Gifts. It's OK I suppose, aimed at teenagers and I wouldn't be surprised to see a cinema version in the next couple of years.

Wasn't that film released earlier this year?

Paddy Samurai

About 100 pages in and liking it so far.

Twenty eight florins a month is a huge price to pay, for a man to stand between you and the Wild.

Twenty eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern's jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men - or worse, a company of mercenaries - against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder.

It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.

The Red Knight has all three, he has youth on his side, and he's determined to turn a profit. So when he hires his company out to protect an Abbess and her nunnery, it's just another job. The abby is rich, the nuns are pretty and the monster preying on them is nothing he can't deal with.

Manach

Rereading the Deatstaker series. Pure escapist space opera.

Dades

About 1/3rd through Pushing Ice.

Quite enjoying it, too.

conacks

Reading the 3rd book in Kristian Britian's green rider series. Really good reading so far......would recommend

Nody

Paddy Samurai wrote: »

About 100 pages in and liking it so far.

Have to return to it; was my business travel book but only a couple of hundred pages in on that one.

mcgovern

Finished Dauntless, I'll probably read more of the series but won't be in a huge rush to do so.
Then read The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley. There are several different races (that I couldn't really find any difference between), several sexes (with the only difference being that 'women' are great and 'men' are mostly just there to look pretty) and several types of magic (most of which had very little difference between them). Needless to say I wasn't a big fan of it, which was a shame as the world had potential, it just doesn't really explore the interesting parts of it.
I'm now reading Death's End, the final book in Liu Cixin's trilogy. I'm about 30% in and I'm not really sure where it is going, I was hoping we were going to get to see more of the universe, but it's still focused on Earth/Trisolar.

smacl

machalla wrote: »

Interesting about the Catharism link, thanks for the pointer. I'm slowly getting round to finishing the third Inheritance book (Kingdom of Gods). I've enjoyed the series, its nice to read something that isn't typical epic fantasy or grimdark.

I heard Lock In was not up to Scalzi's usual standard from one big fan. I see its now book 1 of a series.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/135720-lock-in

Finished Lock In last night, enjoyed it well enough but not quite enough to pick up the sequel just yet. Had a feel of Daemon or Ready Player One meets CSI. I read one of Scalzi's other books is reminiscent of Haldeman's The Forever War which I was a big fan of back in the day and may try next.

machalla

smacl wrote: »

Finished Lock In last night, enjoyed it well enough but not quite enough to pick up the sequel just yet. Had a feel of Daemon or Ready Player One meets CSI. I read one of Scalzi's other books is reminiscent of Haldeman's The Forever War which I was a big fan of back in the day and may try next.

Old mans war most likely. Its always an easy read and entertaining as well. I'd recommend them highly.

Anything I've read of his I've enjoyed.

If you like well written military sci-fi Marko Kloos is well worth a look for his frontlines series.