What Are You Reading?

Thargor

ednwireland wrote: »

Just got fleet of worlds. Ordered rest of series. Finished protector / ringworld. Bit of a niven reader at the moment.

Great series, you can tell Niven is a proper scientist, love the huge scale of things and the properly advanced technology with true aliens like the Puppeteers.

david75

Just finished assassins fate and I'm an emotional wreck.

mcgovern

Finished off Lightless, it wasn't bad I suppose but I wouldn't be pushing it on anyone.

Next up was The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French, winner of Mark Lawrence's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off.
It is good, but probably not up to the massive hype it had been getting in places. It's about a half-orc with largely standard fantasy races though they don't all act the way they normally would, set in a wasteland. The language is very coarse, but I think that is intentional to show how un-civilized the half-orcs are (though they are essentially just stronger humans). It was quite predictable but a good page turner and I'll read the rest of the series - I think it has been picked up by a traditional publisher now too.

Followed up by All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. This one had been nominated for quite a few awards. It's a strange one to classify, it's set in current times and near future, with a witch and a tech genius as the main characters from when they are bullied school kids up to early adulthood. I don't think I could call it Fantasy or Sci-Fi really, it's more of a slightly YA coming of age story with some elements of both. It has a certain charm to it but it wouldn't one I would be nominating for any book of the year awards.

About to start Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald now.

nhur

Have to say that i sympathise with a lot of the Fitz talk... it's a little irritating to watch someone repeat self-destructive behaviour - but that's what makes his character who he is... a lot of what he does and the role he plays in the larger storylines depends on this trait...

Anyhoo - i've been making my way thru the Asimov books (in the order he suggested) and absolutely loving them... just finished Robots and Empire.

Can't believe I didn't read these years ago! Absolutely love them

Trojan

Finished The Girl With All The Gifts. Nothing exceptional going on, just a quick

zombie sf

read. Characters are quite flat. Makes for a half decent sequel to

I Am Legend

.

Nody

Finished Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan; more in the same theme as previously but now with 5 main stories going on in parallel which is why people think it was weaker. Personally I found it similar enough in quality and style

Neames

Just started The Son by Joe Nesbo...

Early days but so far so good. Decent thriller.

david75

Reading Old Mans War by John Scalzi thanks to a recommendation from someone here. Really enjoying it so far.

Trojan

Finished the first of the PC Peter Grant series, Rivers of London. I really like Ben Aaronovitch's humour. I really enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the book, but I wasn't crazy about the way it tied together. I'll definitely give the next one a go.

david75

Trojan wrote: »

Finished the first of the PC Peter Grant series, Rivers of London. I really like Ben Aaronovitch's humour. I really enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the book, but I wasn't crazy about the way it tied together. I'll definitely give the next one a go.

They get better and are really great reads. They're just dying to be made into a series for tv

wyrn

david75 wrote: »

They get better and are really great reads. They're just dying to be made into a series for tv

I think it'd be a great tv series and all the characters have such depth. I'd love to see Peter's mum in the tv series, she's brilliant. I died laughing when she met Peter's gf in book 2. They're really clever and funny too.

I actually bought it because initially it was 99c I think from Bookbub but because it was one of those deals that was US only, I ended up paying full price. I initially only bought it because I fell in love with the cover. I love randomly finding a great series out of the blue like that.

There's a graphic novel versions of the series too.

saneman

david75 wrote: »

Reading Old Mans War by John Scalzi thanks to a recommendation from someone here. Really enjoying it so far.

Just started this book last weekend. After finishing Marko Kloos' Frontlines series I was looking for something similar and so far this fits the bill.

Trojan

saneman wrote: »

After finishing Marko Kloos' Frontlines series I was looking for something similar and so far this fits the bill.

Is this any good?

david75

saneman wrote: »

Just started this book last weekend. After finishing Marko Kloos' Frontlines series I was looking for something similar and so far this fits the bill.

Just finished it. Couldn't put it down. Really great stuff.
Gonna get the follow up.

mcgovern

Finished Luna: New Moon. Editing was bad in places (lots of little typos etc) which I wouldn't really expect from a fairly new release from established publisher but not the end of the world. The story itself was very good, I liked the take on what an early moon settlement would be like. My main gripe was it uses a mixture of about 5 or 6 different languages for titles, names etc (e.g. Brazilian family use Portuguese terms of endearment as expected but use Korean titles in their business) and I found it quite confusing at times. Overall though I would still recommend it.
I'm not reading The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. It was described as Fantasy/Horror but I haven't seen any horror yet. It's about a bunch of kids who were raised in a library, each given a specific topic to learn. There is magic involved as they can learn things much faster than normal and also some of things they learn would be considered magic. Story switches between the time they spent learning (around 10-13 years old) and present day when they are around 30. This may be intentional but the 30 year olds (who in some ways are even older) act like teenagers which is kind of annoying.

Dades

Half way through Scalzi's "The Collapsing Empire".

Quite enjoying it, though as The Stranger says in The Big Lebowski... "do you have to use so many cuss words?"

One of the character swears so much it's grating.

kirk buttercup

just started oryx and crake recommended to me by a friend I haven't got a clue what its about.

Fian

Great book. So is everything else Margaret Atwood writes. After you the trilogy try "a handmaids tale" and "the blind assassin."

ixoy

17% into "The Dark Forest" by Liu Cixin, the second book in his Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy.
It's a little slow so far - a lot of dialogue, including a significant amount of philosophical musings. It's interesting, although reads a little strange - I'm not sure if that's on account of the author's style or how it translates. It actually helps a bit, making the prose stand out a bit more.
Going to keep on and hope a bit more happens!

david75

ixoy wrote: »

17% into "The Dark Forest" by Liu Cixin, the second book in his Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy.
It's a little slow so far - a lot of dialogue, including a significant amount of philosophical musings. It's interesting, although reads a little strange - I'm not sure if that's on account of the author's style or how it translates. It actually helps a bit, making the prose stand out a bit more.
Going to keep on and hope a bit more happens!

I'm doing that series next. Finishing by the old mans war series first.

30% into the last colony. Weird but great the way this series jumps focus from one book to the next but in the same story. Love getting that when it's done right.

Trojan

Finished the Peter Grant series - all of them, got a bit addicted once I got into it! Mostly loved, although there were a couple of times he did a Gemmell and ended quicker than I'd have liked (particularly Foxglove Summer). Overall: 5/5, looking forward to the next one.

mcgovern

I finished The Library at Mount Char, it was... strange. I guess it could be classified as Fantasy as there is magic in it but it's not a typical Fantasy novel. It's set in present day and does have guns etc as well. It's also not Horror really, though some things that happen could be described as horrifying. Not sure how to really classify it. As to the quality, it was ok. Nothing to write home about but not bad. Possibly worth a read if you are looking for something different.

Now readying A Night Without Stars by Peter F. Hamilton. It's been a while since I read the last one so I'm a bit confused about what's going on and who's who. 50% through and apart from ~5 pages it's all been in the Void so far, but with a more technologically advanced civilization this time.

Fian

I decided to put aside dust of dreams and go for something a bit lighter for a break. Started "prince of thorns". Turns out it is pretty great, at least so far. Very dark/gritty, reminds me of ASOI&F. May have to finish the trilogy before returning to finish Malazan books.

Kiith

Wenty back and read the Farseer Trilogy and the first two of the Tawny Man trilogy, and will finish the 3rd one next. Also went through Magician again, as i love that book. Fancy re-reading some Gemell books soon though, as they are short and action packed.

Nody

Kiith wrote: »

Wenty back and read the Farseer Trilogy and the first two of the Tawny Man trilogy, and will finish the 3rd one next. Also went through Magician again, as i love that book. Fancy re-reading some Gemell books soon though, as they are short and action packed.

That means Druss then and honestly if I'd pick anything Druss it would be Legend on the top of the list.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Nody wrote: »

That means Druss then and honestly if I'd pick anything Druss it would be Legend on the top of the list.

Legend is my go-to book if I feel the need to have a light read but I still end up staying up waaaay too late reading it each night until it's finished.

Neames

Neames wrote: »

Just started The Son by Joe Nesbo...

Early days but so far so good. Decent thriller.

Just finished this tonight.

Highly recommended, brilliant storyline, an abundance of interesting characters, a must read for fans of crime novels.

smacl

Just read the farseer trilogy after all the discussion here. Entertaining enough but I found the characters rather lacklustre and no real surprises in the plot. Don't think I'll be reading any more by this author. Starting The boy on the bridge which I've high hopes for.

smacl

Dades wrote: »

Half way through Scalzi's "The Collapsing Empire".

Quite enjoying it, though as The Stranger says in The Big Lebowski... "do you have to use so many cuss words?"

One of the character swears so much it's grating.

Just bought it recently but have yet to read it, how are you finding it in comparison to the previous three? (Aside from the cussing).

OwaynOTT

Heading into Assassins Fate now to say so long to a bastard.