What Are You Reading?

smacl

shrapnel222 wrote: »

He's definitely one of my favorite writers, and one of the few i track to see when his next book is coming out. Only 2 which i've found disappointing, Ysabel and the last light of the sun (and children of earth and sky was slightly weaker but still enjoyable), and would not recommend, but his Chinese based ones are superb. One thing he manages to do, almost better than any author i can think of, is to draw you in to the story from page 1.

Interesting. Just finished the windup girl last night and quite like the idea of something set in China. Might give Under Heaven a go next.

kirk buttercup

funny I've had Tigana sitting on my shelf for a couple of years must give it a go , meant to read it ages ago just haven't got around to reading it . It always seems to get rave reviews .

L

Finished reading the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix there. Mixed opinions.

Sabriel - very enjoyable and well written. Quite self contained.

Lirael - Quite good but suffers from lacking a proper end and having odd pacing. It and Abhorsen are really a single book that's been cut in half at an arbitrary point.

Abhorsen - Quite good but should have been a single book with Lirael. Literally could not be read without Lirael as nothing would make sense.

To Hold the Bridge - good short story that broadens the world a little.

Clariel - Pretty pointless. It would have made an interesting short story (or a setting in its own right) but it suffers from having the least interesting character in it as the main character and ending before you get to the part of her story that might be interesting.

Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case - Reasonable short story. Revisited in part at the start of Goldenhand.

Goldenhand - Good but feels quite oddly paced. 90% of the book is setup with the "main event" being covered in a sprint in the last 10%.

Overall, if I was reading it again, I'd skip Clariel and I might skip the Creature in the Case and Goldenhand as well.

nhur

I started Tigana and got bored pretty quickly... not sure what the appeal is - I was keen to give it a try after all the positive things said about it here... historical fiction is certainly something i'm usually into...

keane2097

Anyone read this? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/311864.Heroes_Die

Sounds a bit weird but kind of interesting...

shrapnel222

keane2097 wrote: »

Anyone read this? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/311864.Heroes_Die

Sounds a bit weird but kind of interesting...

that cover would put me straight off!!!

keane2097

shrapnel222 wrote: »

that cover would put me straight off!!!

Yeah it's lolbad.

On a tangent - it only just occurred to me to google 'fantasy with noir elements' in the hope of finding something Amber-ish. Had no idea this appears to be a whole sub-genre, with the Dresden Files books featuring prominently.

I've seen them mentioned loads of times but never read any of them. I think they will have to be my next stop. Possibly will get them on audio as they seem to have good versions.

ixoy

keane2097 wrote: »

Anyone read this? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/311864.Heroes_Die

Sounds a bit weird but kind of interesting...

Yes, I read it. It's pretty decent and I like the concept . It's very grim mind you, almost relentlessly so. Haven't yet got to book 3 of the series.

lordgoat

keane2097 wrote: »

Anyone read this? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/311864.Heroes_Die

Sounds a bit weird but kind of interesting...

ixoy wrote: »

Yes, I read it. It's pretty decent and I like the concept . It's very grim mind you, almost relentlessly so. Haven't yet got to book 3 of the series.

Same as this. Not that bad at all. Never got back to the series but remember thinking he tied the book up well...

shrapnel222

nhur wrote: »

I started Tigana and got bored pretty quickly... not sure what the appeal is - I was keen to give it a try after all the positive things said about it here... historical fiction is certainly something i'm usually into...

Give it another go. It's such a good book.

Dades

Started Scalzi's The Human Division.

Enjoying it a lot.

Also, on a slightly unrelated note, I'm nearly finished watching Season 2 of The Expanse. It's really well made.

s8n

Flyfishing by JR Hartley

Nody

Finished Desert Spear and started book 3; Day war by Peter Brett.

ixoy

58% into "The Malice" by Peter Newman, the second book in his Vagrant trilogy. Takes place some years after the first, switching protagonist. I enjoy the post-tech demon-fuelled world, which is fairly unique. Plot is a little ambling currently but it moves at a swift easy pace.

keane2097

vasch_ro wrote: »

Just finished the new Anthony Ryan book The Waking Fire and really loved it, great ideas and well realised industrial revolution fantasy world setting, I would recommend it and better than his bloodsong books,

Anyone else second this recommendation?

keane2097

Also, Ilium by Dan Simmons?

I love the first two Hyperion books. Endymion also very good. Rise of Endymion I'm still (still!) reading and enjoying but getting fairly aggravated at the editing of.

The middle section when they are at

T'ien Shan, I think it's called - the planet populated by Buddhists, there is just so much description of irrelevant stuff, irrelevant characters and their functions in the society etc. It really reads like 'I did a lot of research about Asia for this, so it's only fair that you have to read about it'. Not blown away by his ham-fisted approach to Zen either but I suppose if I hadn't read some better (albeit sort of for-dummies) treatments of the topic it probably wouldn't have stuck out

.

I'm still engaged by the story just finding myself scanning and skipping the increasingly long periods of prosaic and unnecessary descriptions. Someone really should have made him chop out a heap of it.

mcgovern

keane2097 wrote: »

Anyone else second this recommendation?

Its on my TBR list but the general consensus seems to be that it is much better.

Been awhile since I gave an update myself.
All Systems Red was short but pretty good, there are some full length novels now based on the main character (MurderBot) and I'll definitely be trying them at some stage.
Also read Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve in advance of the film coming out. It's pretty generic YA stuff, so don't think I'll bother with the rest of the series.
Finished listening to Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, another solid book in the series.
Then read City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. I didn't find it as good as it is often touted on /r/Fantasy so rest of the series will be low on list.
Now reading Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams. I'm trying to finish off a few series before I start anymore and it has been quite a few years since I started the Otherland series. It's perhaps not as unique now as when it first came out but is progressing along at a solid 3/5.

smacl

Read 'The Stars my Destination' last week on holidays and thoroughly enjoyed it. Surprising how little it shows its age. Currently reading 'Snow Crash' which is also great fun though rather annoying with unnecessary explanations of very basic computer related stuff. Entertaining all the same which is all that really matters.

lordgoat

Still stuck on Fahrenheit 451, enjoying the story put parts of it really really drag for me.

I have zero time for whingy characters... (this is a big flaw on my part) even if they are initially whingy and get better it does bias me!

After this, I'm going to start The Expanse (last book of it to be published next year so with 8 books to read think it's a good time to start!) and alternate it with re-reading Daughter of the Empire series again, and probably that new Feist book

keane2097

smacl wrote: »

Read 'The Stars my Destination' last week on holidays and thoroughly enjoyed it. Surprising how little it shows its age. Currently reading 'Snow Crash' which is also great fun though rather annoying with unnecessary explanations of very basic computer related stuff. Entertaining all the same which is all that really matters.

Really enjoyed that when I read it sometime not too long ago.

Gave Storm Front (Harry Dresden first book) a whirl on audiobook over the weekend and while it's not quite Nine Princes In Amber, it really does scratch the itch for noir style fantasy.

It's seems to be quite lightweight but enjoyable all the same. Quite likely to read/listen to another one or two after at least.

Trojan

Arcana: The Fool's Path (Book One)
Arcana: The Magus's House (Book Two)
Arcana: The High Priestess's Vigil (Book Three)
by H. T. Brady

Fantasy with very interesting magic system and world-building. It's fairly YA so it's very light reading.

I found it a pretty compelling read, my main criticism is that it's too short. The first 3 books are novellas and combine to make what would be a single regular novel in length (and they are priced accordingly).

TLDR: Very short, fun read, good magic system and world-building. I will read more from this author.

--

I've started Senlin Ascends, not sure if I will stick with it as I find the main character very irritating - we'll see how it goes.

Next up will be Anthony Ryan "The Waking Fire".

Lady Haywire

Read the Caster Chronicles- (Beautiful Chaos etc)
Was ok, light, easy reading but ohmygod enough with the pining and lovesickness and the lamenting i'll love you until i die crap. :pac:
Theres a second set of them but might give it a while before I read them.
So currently on Philip Pullmans 'The Ruby in the Smoke', not going too strenuous these days

nhur

Dades wrote: »

Also, on a slightly unrelated note, I'm nearly finished watching Season 2 of The Expanse. It's really well made.

am partway through season 2. I think I'd like it a lot more if I hadn't read Alastair Reynold's books while watching it - the show suffers by comparison. I'll certainly read the books (probably after I finish the Reality Dysfunction series)

also on a slightly unrelated note - I saw Ready Player One - which defo suffers by comparison to the book. Decent job of translating what parts of the book they used for the screen though.

Xofpod

Arm of the Sphinx, the second of the Senlin books. I'm enjoying these much more than i thought I would and can't quite put my finger on why.

Dades

nhur wrote: »

also on a slightly unrelated note - I saw Ready Player One - which defo suffers by comparison to the book. Decent job of translating what parts of the book they used for the screen though.

I watched this on Saturday and absolutely loved it. Go figure!

The book could not have made such a blast of a movie without an overhaul, imo. I like what they did.

Seven years between the book and the movie helps, too.

Trojan

Xofpod wrote: »

Arm of the Sphinx, the second of the Senlin books. I'm enjoying these much more than i thought I would and can't quite put my finger on why.

I think I'm at the tipping point in book one, I'll either get completely hooked, or quit after this chapter.

He's just entered the party, to steal the painting

keane2097

Trojan wrote: »

I think I'm at the tipping point in book one, I'll either get completely hooked, or quit after this chapter.

He's just entered the party, to steal the painting

I'd give it another while, pretty sure I had similar feelings about that point when I read it.

ixoy

51% into "Axis" by Robert Charles Wilson, the second book in his Spin trilogy. Set about 30 years after the first book, this one is very slow. Nothing much has happened yet. The writing and characters are fine but they seem to just be slowly moving towards a goal. It's not tedious but it's certainly lacking any excitement too.

smacl

Dades wrote: »

I watched this on Saturday and absolutely loved it. Go figure!

The book could not have made such a blast of a movie without an overhaul, imo. I like what they did.

Seven years between the book and the movie helps, too.

Just watched the movie now and found it really disappointing, typical Hollywood schmaltz and special effects that for me totally failed to capture the spirit of the book. It felt more like bad Pixar movie than anything else. For such a long movie they really could have got a bit more of the story in there.

smacl

Finished Snowcrash this morning which I found entertaining and awful in equal measures. Lots of action and an easy read but didn't really work for me. Would probably make for a great movie where some of the cheesier plot twists and overdone action could be glossed over.

Hiro's dad fighting Raven's dad in the back story, really?

Enjoyable for all that, and if you can switch of your inner cynic (i struggle), solid high octane stuff with plenty of interesting characters (loved the rat dog) and meaty plot.