What Are You Reading?

david75

Nody wrote: »

Be warned it really goes extreme deux ex in the second half. Not necessary telling a poor story but you'll need to stretch your imagination quite a bit for things to fit in the universe in general but still a good book.

Getting that full on. Again it seems like one of these new fantasy books that the writer is pitching to make into a film. It would be exciting enough too I guess. Almost finished. Didn't realise it was part of a series.

nhur

finished Ready Player One in no time. Great, easy read.

Reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms atm - recommended in this thread

david75

Had to share this.
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/01/top-10-2017-fantasy-novels-want-now/

Bits_n_Bobs

david75 wrote: »

Had to share this.
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/01/top-10-2017-fantasy-novels-want-now/

Bit of a mixed bunch.

I can't believe Brooks is still writing those Shanara novels, thought (hoped ) they had died off years ago.

The Neil Gaiman one sounds interesting and definitely looking forward to the new ones by Hobbs, Jemisin and Mark Lawrence. The Tad Williams one sounds like its going on my wish list too.

Just have to quote one line from the Sanderson blurb however;

<The Stormlight Archive has become the new multi-volume series that Wheel of Time and Malazan fans need filled>

There are people that can enjoy both these series? I absolutely love Malazan and absolutely detest Wheel of Time, they're polar opposites in terms of fantasy as far as I'm concerned. The only thing they have in common is a massive page count.

mcgovern

Half a War was pretty good, and left plenty of room for more books.
Then I read Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. It's good if you can get your head around what is going on, and don't think too deeply on it. Technology is somehow powered by belief, related to calendars. So if you can get people to follow a different calendar, you can stop the weird weapons from working (think bombs that cut off everyone's limbs etc).
Back to Fantasy and reading A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab. It's a nice easy read, not too deep but enjoyable.

coffee_cake

I finally read the 3 body problem and it was brilliant. Going to read the next one

donegal_man

Girlfriend presented me with two short story anthologies for Christmas. "Chicks in Chainmail" and "Did You Say Chicks?!", both edited by Esther Friesner. They were published maybe twenty years ago with stories featuring female protagonists. Have only read a couple of stories at random from the first one.

Prenderb

bluewolf wrote: »

I finally read the 3 body problem and it was brilliant. Going to read the next one

I'm into the third (Death's End) at the moment. It's great! Refreshing, in certain ways.

smacl

Finished The Ghost Brigade and The Last colony, both very enjoyable but getting a bit samey so have started on The Fifth Season which has had some good reviews. Also just started The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer for something slightly different.

david75

I'd given up on Joe Abercrombies the blade itself but have gotten back into it for lack of anything to read. Glad I did. It's really picked up and it seems to have a lot more to it than I first thought. Like the way it jumps around across multiple storylines though that was disconcerting at first given it goes long ages stretches without jumping.
There's 2 other books after it so let's see.


Also finished Six of crows. It was good. Make a better film than a book I think.
There's a follow up I might get.

drake70

Finished the "Raven's Shadow" trilogy. I enjoyed them.

Now reading "Ready Player One", as it's been mentioned a good few times on this thread.
Loving it so far.

lordgoat

Just about to finish Mark Lawrence Thorns series. It's grand. I don't see what the huge fuss is about him. He's a good writer but there's a lot of padding in there too. Great story though and I enjoy the setting.

Not sure what I will do yet. I might go back to Stover's Caine series or Tad Williams for a re read.

RDM_83 again

Just finished listening to all of the Medusa Chronicles by Alaister Reynolds and Stephen Baxter, I say finished listening to because if it hadn't been the only audiobook I had and a few long shifts I would never have got through it.

One great author (Reynolds) and one skilled workman author (Baxter) manage to cancel out each others talents in some strange way and produce this bland uninteresting mess.
The Cardboard cut out hero becomes involved in every important event in human history for a span of

500-1000 years, always meeting the same characters or their relations.

The book wouldn't be so bad if the character had any depth or self awareness, he's a horribly crippled cyborg but you never get a sense of this torment, he's also one of the least self aware protagonists I've ever read in a semi-serious work,

he literally directly contributes to events that lead to robots becoming sentient generally fcuking with humanity, he tangentially contributes to the events that lead to a war between robots and humans that lasts 100's of years, and despite this he never reflects that maybe his way isn't always right and nobody seems that annoyed with him really that he contributed to an extinction level conflict

The book actually makes me angry that its so incredibly mediocre (and that I couldn't download a podcast instead to listen to), I can't see any of Reynolds normal flair or grimness evident and it reads like something Baxter hammered out.

Shallow Cash grab that features the names of three very well known sci-fi writers on its front cover.
2/5

mickmac76

Finished Sandersons mistborn trilogy books. I taught the first book was quite good but books 2 & 3 were a little bit weaker. Still I like his writing and will continue with his other books in the mistborn world.

Nody

mickmac76 wrote: »

Finished Sandersons mistborn trilogy books. I taught the first book was quite good but books 2 & 3 were a little bit weaker. Still I like his writing and will continue with his other books in the mistborn world.

Book 1 was great, book 2 was meh and book 3 I've failed to finish the last 200 pages 4 times now...

Thargor

RDM_83 again wrote: »

Just finished listening to all of the Medusa Chronicles by Alaister Reynolds and Stephen Baxter, I say finished listening to because if it hadn't been the only audiobook I had and a few long shifts I would never have got through it.

One great author (Reynolds) and one skilled workman author (Baxter) manage to cancel out each others talents in some strange way and produce this bland uninteresting mess.
The Cardboard cut out hero becomes involved in every important event in human history for a span of

500-1000 years, always meeting the same characters or their relations.

The book wouldn't be so bad if the character had any depth or self awareness, he's a horribly crippled cyborg but you never get a sense of this torment, he's also one of the least self aware protagonists I've ever read in a semi-serious work,

he literally directly contributes to events that lead to robots becoming sentient generally fcuking with humanity, he tangentially contributes to the events that lead to a war between robots and humans that lasts 100's of years, and despite this he never reflects that maybe his way isn't always right and nobody seems that annoyed with him really that he contributed to an extinction level conflict

The book actually makes me angry that its so incredibly mediocre (and that I couldn't download a podcast instead to listen to), I can't see any of Reynolds normal flair or grimness evident and it reads like something Baxter hammered out.

Shallow Cash grab that features the names of three very well known sci-fi writers on its front cover.
2/5

Bang on, I absolutely hated it, my 2 favourite authors cancelling each other out just as you said.

Got this lined up next from Baxter, the official sequel to War of the Worlds:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27405762-the-massacre-of-mankind

Wish he'd stop fiddling around with collaborations and short stories and other peoples work and go back to his strengths like Xeelee and Evolution/Flood etc, he's amazing when he's on form.

ixoy

Reading "Barrayar", the 7th / 3rd / 2nd book in Lois-McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga depending on whether you go by published / chronological / recommend reading orders.
Despite little happening, I'm really enjoying it and I think a lot is that Bujold is a much better writer than a lot of what you get in sci-fi. Characters are more rounded and believable, there's a nice dash of humour and the politics are interesting.

Thargor wrote: »

Wish he'd stop fiddling around with collaborations and short stories and other peoples work and go back to his strengths like Xeelee and Evolution/Flood etc, he's amazing when he's on form.

Also currently reading Baxter's "Obelisk", a short-story collection. I'm finding his prose to be very weak, and so the stories come across as bland. Contrasts very unfavorable with Bujold.

Dades

Thargor wrote: »

Got this lined up next from Baxter, the official sequel to War of the Worlds:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27405762-the-massacre-of-mankind.

Let us know how you get on!

Just started Footfall by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle. Not sure why - seems interesting and always liked Larry Niven.

david75

Just finished the blade itself by joe Abercrombie. Finally.
Really takes a long time to get going. Then ends when it gets going. Some great characters though and some plain annoying ones. Have the follow ups ready to go but wanna jump over to ready player one next.

Can't decide

machalla

david75 wrote: »

Just finished the blade itself by joe Abercrombie. Finally.
Really takes a long time to get going. Then ends when it gets going. Some great characters though and some plain annoying ones. Have the follow ups ready to go but wanna jump over to ready player one next.

Can't decide

Ready player one is mindless fun if you are not in the mood to plow into the next couple of books in that series.

The second book in Abercrombies series is weaker than 1 and 3 in my opinion. Still a decent read but it is sort of making a point about fantasy tropes for the entire book I felt. The portions of the book with Sand Dan Glotka are as usual the best parts.

nhur

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

There are people that can enjoy both these series? I absolutely love Malazan and absolutely detest Wheel of Time, they're polar opposites in terms of fantasy as far as I'm concerned. The only thing they have in common is a massive page count.

I love both... though I read WoT as they were being published ... think the ending was great - not sure Jordan could have finished them as well as sanderson did.
Malazan I read recently and was completely bowled over.

I've discussed this kind of thing with people before... I really think that the order in which you read fantasy books has a huge impact... I grew up on Eddings and Brooks etc .. tried to re-read Eddings after the Malazan and they were like children's books. I think that even if I had read WoT I wouldn't be able to enjoy Eddings anymore.
(however, I still enjoy eddings but with a more nostalgic buzz)

machalla

nhur wrote: »

I love both... though I read WoT as they were being published ... think the ending was great - not sure Jordan could have finished them as well as sanderson did.
Malazan I read recently and was completely bowled over.

I've discussed this kind of thing with people before... I really think that the order in which you read fantasy books has a huge impact... I grew up on Eddings and Brooks etc .. tried to re-read Eddings after the Malazan and they were like children's books. I think that even if I had read WoT I wouldn't be able to enjoy Eddings anymore.
(however, I still enjoy eddings but with a more nostalgic buzz)

That's an interesting idea, a chronology if what you read as a youngster and how it fed into what you enjoy now.

I went through Tolkein, Eddings, Brooks, Donaldson, Gemmel (Druss the Legend series), Feist (Magician), Pratchett that I can recall in my early teens and younger. Most of the usual sci-fi culprits (Clarke, Asimov, Silverberg, Herbert) as well.

I wonder what a young teens chronology would be today? J.K.Rowling probably? Tolkein at some point. There are so many young adult options to read nowadays and easy access to them via ebooks that it has to be different. Do they read the classics and find them disappointing?

david75

Tangent but I found this guy Alastair Stephens. He's brilliant. He's doing a podcast series on each chapter of the hobbit and lord of the rings. He's academic but not in an off putting way. Really gets into it all. Well worth subscribing to. It's only 3 or 4 episodes so far.
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/there-and-back-again/id1189402107?mt=2

mcgovern

A Gathering of Shadows was good, but it was pretty much just a build up to the next book, very little of consequence happens in this one.
Following that I read The Ember War by Richard Fox, it's fairly light Sci-Fi but enjoyable and a very quick read. It reminds me a bit of the Saga of Seven Suns, but not so bloated (yet anyway).

Just started Fionn: Defence of Ráth Bládhma by Brian O'Sullivan, too early to give any view on it yet.

Dades

david75 wrote: »

Tangent but I found this guy Alastair Stephens. He's brilliant. He's doing a podcast series on each chapter of the hobbit and lord of the rings.

Thanks. I love this type of nerd podcast. Am now halfway through the second episode already.

I listen to the "Now Playing" movie podcasts and am gutted I missed their LOTR retrospective series which is now unavailable.

Fian

nhur wrote: »

I love both... though I read WoT as they were being published ... think the ending was great - not sure Jordan could have finished them as well as sanderson did.
Malazan I read recently and was completely bowled over.

I've discussed this kind of thing with people before... I really think that the order in which you read fantasy books has a huge impact... I grew up on Eddings and Brooks etc .. tried to re-read Eddings after the Malazan and they were like children's books. I think that even if I had read WoT I wouldn't be able to enjoy Eddings anymore.
(however, I still enjoy eddings but with a more nostalgic buzz)

I read Eddings as my introduction to fantasy, Won a book voucher in school and went out and bought enchanters end game. Afterwards I managed to buy the preceding four books. I thought they were epic, a teenager going off to fight a god - what could be cooler. Granted I was in sixth class.

I still have them in my bookcases, had a flick through them a while back, not a read just had a look at them. nope.

Eddings, catcher in the rye, shannara books, sword of truth series. These are all books I once thought were good, now not so much.

Yes Catcher in the Rye too. It was a great book when I was an angsty teenager, if you enjoyed it do yourself a favour and don't re-read it, you're better off with the fond (though false) memories. I really regretted re-reading it.

Banal mindless childish stories have their place of course, but nowadays we have netflix series for that sort of "zoning out", without the effort of actually reading.

Just to be clear I think netflix is great, there are loads of really excellent series on it. There are also some that are just what i want when i want unchallenging, mindless zoning out time. In fact I found myself watching a few episodes of a Shannara TV series on it a few weeks ago.

nhur

Fian wrote: »

In fact I found myself watching a few episodes of a Shannara TV series on it a few weeks ago.

I quite liked that series - though i did read the books as a young teenager!

have to say, i never liked tolkien - read the hobbit but couldn't bear lotr - made it about halfway thru the first book... so boring... the films too... Perhaps I was ruined by the more modern stuff i had read by that stage...

rough chronological order:
CS Lewis, Eddings, brooks, pratchett, weis and hickman (dragonlance/rose of the propet), feist, Modesitt Jnr, Jordan,donaldson,hobb, card, rothfuss, erikson
- they're the standout ones anyway...

only started reading sci-fi more recently... started with Pandora's star... have since read a bunch of heinlein, phillipk dick, vonnegut, Dune etc etc

machalla

Fian wrote: »

I read Eddings as my introduction to fantasy, Won a book voucher in school and went out and bought enchanters end game. Afterwards I managed to buy the preceding four books. I thought they were epic, a teenager going off to fight a god - what could be cooler. Granted I was in sixth class.

I still have them in my bookcases, had a flick through them a while back, not a read just had a look at them. nope.

Eddings, catcher in the rye, shannara books, sword of truth series. These are all books I once thought were good, now not so much.

Yes Catcher in the Rye too. It was a great book when I was an angsty teenager, if you enjoyed it do yourself a favour and don't re-read it, you're better off with the fond (though false) memories. I really regretted re-reading it.

Banal mindless childish stories have their place of course, but nowadays we have netflix series for that sort of "zoning out", without the effort of actually reading.

Just to be clear I think netflix is great, there are loads of really excellent series on it. There are also some that are just what i want when i want unchallenging, mindless zoning out time. In fact I found myself watching a few episodes of a Shannara TV series on it a few weeks ago.

I just went full-on obsessive about Tolkein when I was younger. I played the hobbit computer game on the spectrum 48k which lead me to the book.

I watched all the first season of Shannara in the hope that it would turn into something good. It didn't. There was a decent start to the series and then it became generic teen fantasy. There was a truly awful moment when Star Trek made an appearance as a link to the pre-apocalypse times.

I've taken to graphic novels if I want something easy going. Fables is superb if anyone is looking for a good suggestion. Much harder edged than the Once upon a time TV series which used the same concept.

machalla

nhur wrote: »

I quite liked that series - though i did read the books as a young teenager!

have to say, i never liked tolkien - read the hobbit but couldn't bear lotr - made it about halfway thru the first book... so boring... the films too... Perhaps I was ruined by the more modern stuff i had read by that stage...

rough chronological order:
CS Lewis, Eddings, brooks, pratchett, weis and hickman (dragonlance/rose of the propet), feist, Modesitt Jnr, Jordan,donaldson,hobb, card, rothfuss, erikson
- they're the standout ones anyway...

only started reading sci-fi more recently... started with Pandora's star... have since read a bunch of heinlein, phillipk dick, vonnegut, Dune etc etc

Dragonlance, I loved that too when it came out. I gave up at some point in the extended series.

A recent convert to sci-fi. You're so lucky, there's so much good reading ahead of you then. My personal favourites would be Iain Banks Culture series, Charles Stross (Saturn's Children, The Laundry Files), John Scalzi (Old mans war) and so on.

keane2097

Dades wrote: »

Thanks. I love this type of nerd podcast. Am now halfway through the second episode already.

I listen to the "Now Playing" movie podcasts and am gutted I missed their LOTR retrospective series which is now unavailable.

There's a guy called Tolkien Professor you might enjoy if you haven't come across previously.