What Are You Reading?

pH

pH wrote: »

Post again when you've finished Evolutionary Void!

Ok, will do although I have skimmed over most of her multi-page bonking so far!

mcgovern

Use of Weapons was good, but for some reason it felt as if I'd read it before, seemed very familiar somehow.
Started The of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss based on all the reviews here. About 10% in, and not much has happened yet

AnCapaillMor

baz8080 wrote: »

Ok, will do although I have skimmed over most of her multi-page bonking so far!

I reckon hamilton's a dirty git, that or the wife has him under the thumb and she doesn't read his books. some of those scenes were crazy, i remember reading 1 part again because something happened and i thought i was going crazy. It was a good series in the end, not half as good as previous one though.

Do you mean the dysfunction series? I really enjoyed the first book and half of the second but the third one was a right kick in the balls!

I reckon he is a bit of a dirty git though. I'm often reading his stuff on the Luas. If someone looked over my shoulder they'd think I was reading a "romance" novel,

AnCapaillMor

baz8080 wrote: »

Do you mean the dysfunction series? I really enjoyed the first book and half of the second but the third one was a right kick in the balls!

The first 2 commonwealths set before the void series same universe, pandora's star and judas unchained. great books, liked the reality dysfunction but the 3rd kinda pissed me off too.

JD1763

Finally got to start the Cold Commands, really enjoying it so far. Like the gritty and violent feel it has in common with Abercrombie's series.

Also finished Flashback by Dan Simmons, liked the characters and the setting. But I think the story itself and its ending was a bit 'meh'.

nesf

Trying to read "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay but finding it tough to concentrate at the moment so am making poor headway.

Tym

The killing Kind, by John Connolly.

Blegh, Mr Pudd

I'm also reading a couple of short stories from George RR Martin's Dreamsongs.

Yeah, I still have one other book I keep meaning to read, but it's the second of a trilogy so I might just stop or get the first book. Its called Evil for Evil, by Kj Parker.

Oh does anybody know an author called Joe Abercombie? Is he any good?

gufnork

'Wildcards' by 'George R R Martin', and I didn't even think much of the first volume of a song of ice and fire. Very different from those books so if your thinking, hmmmm.... I liked 'A Game of Thrones' so I'll like 'Wildcards' then, well maybe, but maybe not.

Still, I can whole-heartedly recommend these.

AnCapaillMor

Tym wrote: »

The killing Kind, by John Connolly.

Blegh, Mr Pudd

I'm also reading a couple of short stories from George RR Martin's Dreamsongs.

Yeah, I still have one other book I keep meaning to read, but it's the second of a trilogy so I might just stop or get the first book. Its called Evil for Evil, by Kj Parker.

Oh does anybody know an author called Joe Abercombie? Is he any good?

I enjoyed the connolly charlie parker books, think i read the one after that and then i started on scifi.

KJ Parker, weird books couldn't put them down but at the same time wasn't overly impressed.

Abercrombie, i know of an author that name, and yes get his books, very very good books. Start with the law trilogy first.

OwaynOTT

Quite like the wildcards books. Only read about 5 of them though.

Reading The Painted Man at the moment and so far I'm liking it. It's a really good concept.

Trojan

I'm currently reading "Yet another f$#king delayed release date for Republic of Thieves".

It's the 17th in the series, quite good - reminds me of Duke Nukem Forever.

mcgovern

mcgovern wrote: »

Use of Weapons was good, but for some reason it felt as if I'd read it before, seemed very familiar somehow.
Started The of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss based on all the reviews here. About 10% in, and not much has happened yet

I thought The Name of The Wind was very well written, but not much of a story there, and quite predictable.
Started The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which has not impressed me so far.

ixoy

"The Parasite" by Neal Asher. It's out-of-publication except as an e-book. It's a very early work by him and a bit rough around the edges but it's interesting enough. It's fairly short (it's a novella) but hopefully as much as fun as some of his Polity work (this is neither Polity or Owner-based material).

Zapp Brannigan

mcgovern wrote: »

I thought The Name of The Wind was very well written, but not much of a story there, and quite predictable.
Started The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which has not impressed me so far.

You, sir, are hard to please!

mcgovern

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

You, sir, are hard to please!

There were some gripping parts in The Name of The Wind. I remember my heart beating when he was playing in the Eolian? and thinking to myself that it was mad I was getting so drawn into an event which seemed quite mundane, but the story itself lacked excitement for me. Perhaps the sequels will be better, I'm guessing they are set when he is older.
The Road seems quite similar in ways. Not much happens, and in addition I don't like the writing style, but I still struggled to put it down last night. I think a lot of the shocking scenes to the likes of the Oprah Winfrey bookclub though have little to no impact on people who would have read more post-apocalyptic novels. It does draw you into the world very well though, I keep finding myself wondering what sort of event could have caused it all.

@ixoy
Thanks for the heads up on that, big fan of Asher so just ordered that. The whole 1-click ordering is a bit too easy

OwaynOTT

Red Seas Under Res Skies.

So far so good but going to read this one slow as possible.

Republic of Thieves where are you?

Manach

David Weber - Out of the Dark.
This has not had great reviews, but I like the concept of an alien invasion/supernatural creatures mash-up. So far, so good.

Shryke

Woken Furies by Morgan. As good as you'd expect a Kovacs novel to be. Waiting for The Cold Commands to arrive. Can't wait to see how certain characters twist..

spookwoman

Started RingWrold dont know what to read next

constantg

any idea when the 'final' Wheel of Time book is due out in 2012???

OwaynOTT

constantg wrote: »

any idea when the 'final' Wheel of Time book is due out in 2012???

It was meant to be out for a spring release but they decided to push ah it back till a fall(read autumn). So it can be revised and editors to a higher degree than the last two.

constantg

OwaynOTT wrote: »

It was meant to be out for a spring release but they decided to push ah it back till a fall(read autumn). So it can be revised and editors to a higher degree than the last two.

balls was always a nice thing to read by the fire in winter with a mug of something!!



Any similar recommendations over the holiday season instead? Getting snuff by pratchett regardless....how much longer until we see an ankh-morpork fire brigade one??

OwaynOTT

constantg wrote: »

balls was always a nice thing to read by the fire in winter with a mug of something!!



Any similar recommendations over the holiday season instead? Getting snuff by pratchett regardless....how much longer until we see an ankh-morpork fire brigade one??

Snuff wasn't great, was alrite kinda like unseen academicals.

Have you read Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson? It's a good long read and is similiar to a WoT book.

Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is excellent but nothing like a WoT book.

The Unremembered by Peter ORuillian. Cannot get any similiar than that.

Or Robin Hoobs Farseer trilogy, highly recommend that series. Assassins Aprentice is the first book. I think you would get them in o'Mahoneys in town.

AnCapaillMor

OwaynOTT wrote: »

It was meant to be out for a spring release but they decided to push ah it back till a fall(read autumn). So it can be revised and editors to a higher degree than the last two.

Meant to be feb(actually originally down for now) and is now down as next nov. Kick in the ass, just starting the crippled god and was hoping to have esslemonts stuff read by the time a memory of light came.

Contant i'd highly recommend the malazan books by eriksson if you haven't already rad them, its a more complex WOT but absolutely mind blowing.

OwaynOTT

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Meant to be feb(actually originally down for now) and is now down as next nov. Kick in the ass, just starting the crippled god and was hoping to have esslemonts stuff read by the time a memory of light came.

I think it's a good thing. Last two books felt rushed and a bit chaotic. Let him take his time with this one instead of bashing it out. An extra year is nothing when you look at GRRM.

Your right about originally being planned to be out now but it has been know for so long that it wouldn't be out till 2012 that I forgot.

Anyway at least it won't end up like republic of thieves.

TwoShedsJackson

Just finished 'Gardens of the Moon' which I though was decent but not amazing, does the series improve?

Now reading 'The Iron Jackal', the third in Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay series. The usual shenanigans going on, it's a good fast read, if you were a Firefly fan and haven't heard if this series check it out, he pretty much ripped Firefly off but they are very fun reads.

AnCapaillMor

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Just finished 'Gardens of the Moon' which I though was decent but not amazing, does the series improve?

I think so and it took me 2-3 attempts to finish gardens of the moon. Once you get your head around all thats going on, its a pretty amazing series.

Trojan

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Just finished 'Gardens of the Moon' which I though was decent but not amazing, does the series improve?

I'm only on #3 but I'm finding it hard going - I'm just not all that bothered reading it. I think the style appeals to some and not to others.

I don't know if I'm getting more intolerant as I get older or read more, but I seem to have read a lot of stuff I'm not impressed with lately - from Trudi Canavan, Karen Miller, the Serrano Legacy (yeah I see a pattern there which I'm ignoring), and Malazan didn't grab me. Even Larry Niven's latest Dream Park one was rubbish, which was highly disappointing from one of my favourite authors (the editing was atrocious too which is just not professional).

Enough of the negative and on with the positive. The best thing I've read recently is Name of the Wind, that was awesome, particularly for a debut. Maybe I should read the Servant of the Empire series from Feist, haven't touched that yet.

fenris

Just finished Skulduggery Pleasant -very entertaining and set in Dublin - kind of!

mcgovern

Finished The Road, fairly crap ending. Now reading The Parasite by Asher. Not as good as his Agent Cormac stuff, but pretty decent and you can see a lot of similarities with his later work.

ixoy

mcgovern wrote: »

Finished The Road, fairly crap ending. Now reading The Parasite by Asher. Not as good as his Agent Cormac stuff, but pretty decent and you can see a lot of similarities with his later work.

Mr Golem is one of the most obvious bits Mentions of augs, etc as well make it seem like a bit of a fore-runner for his Polity-based works.

OwaynOTT

Just finished Red Seas Under Red Skies. Excellent follow up book and I couldn't put it down.

In my view better than the first book. The flashbacks in the first book affected the flow and slowed down the pace a bit, although I did find some of them interesting, whereas here the time shifts weren't as frequent and they werent so far back in the past.
I enjoyed the high seas bits immensly and didn't feel they were a flaw in the book, like some reviews felt.
Best bit in the whole book is near the, when you find out how Locke and Jean benefit from the scam.

Have to say that was irked at the cliffhangerish ending though and more so when it looks like the next book is still miles off.

9/10

Up next Sea of Ghosts, funnily another book involving the sea going excursions

Zapp Brannigan

I liked the flashbacks in the first books. Led in to some great humour.

Like when Locke hears about the Bondsmage and then as soon as we're back in the present day; "Nice bird, arsehole"

pH

Read "Ready Player One" a few weeks back - enjoyable enough but if you are into old video games and the 1980's then it's a must!

Currently struggling with Stephenson's "REAMDE", about quarter way through, and it reads like a lecture by an idiot into how he would have designed an online MMORPG. Silly plot, crap writing, unlikeable characters, glacial pacing and a lot of it reads like the author is lecturing and trying to show how clever he is (to be fair I hated Cryptonomicon for much the same reasons after loving the earlier work).

mcgovern

ixoy wrote: »

Mr Golem is one of the most obvious bits Mentions of augs, etc as well make it seem like a bit of a fore-runner for his Polity-based works.

Yep, and AI's, big weapons etc. Was a good read, worth the few euro it cost, I wonder if it will tempt him or others to ditch their publishers and go down the self-publishing route...

Decided to go back to Malazan books and started Memories of Ice next.

gufnork

mcgovern wrote: »

ixoy wrote: »

Mr Golem is one of the most obvious bits Mentions of augs, etc as well make it seem like a bit of a fore-runner for his Polity-based works.

Yep, and AI's, big weapons etc. Was a good read, worth the few euro it cost, I wonder if it will tempt him or others to ditch their publishers and go down the self-publishing route...

Decided to go back to Malazan books and started Memories of Ice next.

I was reading malazan, but kinda got tired of em after finishing the second one. I've heard memories of ice is one of the best though so I'll almost certainly continue with them at some point. Am reading The Alloy Of Law at the moment. Highly recommended. Am enjoying it immensely. Also reading the second volume of The wildcards series too. I'm liking them. They're a nice little diversion from my usual fare.

OwaynOTT

gufnork wrote: »

I was reading malazan, but kinda got tired of em after finishing the second one. I've heard memories of ice is one of the best though so I'll almost certainly continue with them at some point. Am reading The Alloy Of Law at the moment. Highly recommended. Am enjoying it immensely. Also reading the second volume of The wildcards series too. I'm liking them. They're a nice little diversion from my usual fare.

The wildcard books are great. Think I'd read first 4 of them. Pity the guy who wakes up with new abilities, croydan?, isn't in it more.

Memories of Ice is excellent. Read it years ago and it was unlike anything I read at the time. Strangely though I never picked up another Malazan book after it, I do now have Gardens of the Moon in my to read pile.
Unfortunately so are Alloy of The Law, Dragons Path, Scar Night, City and the City, songs of a dying earth, chronicles of amber and it goes on.


Sea of ghosts is what I'm currently reading and it's a book that I can't put down. Simple plot but the trimmings are highly inventive.


edit Just finished it in work and I really liked the book but the ending was a bit slight and felt rushed and kinda ended on a cliffhanger. Looking forward to the next one but hope some of the secondary characters get fleshed out a bit. Brilliant line in it near the end, "Hows that for some accelerated entropy" or something along those lines.

gufnork

OwaynOTT wrote: »

gufnork wrote: »

I was reading malazan, but kinda got tired of em after finishing the second one. I've heard memories of ice is one of the best though so I'll almost certainly continue with them at some point. Am reading The Alloy Of Law at the moment. Highly recommended. Am enjoying it immensely. Also reading the second volume of The wildcards series too. I'm liking them. They're a nice little diversion from my usual fare.

The wildcard books are great. Think I'd read first 4 of them. Pity the guy who wakes up with new abilities, croydan?, isn't in it more.

Memories of Ice is excellent. Read it years ago and it was unlike anything I read at the time. Strangely though I never picked up another Malazan book after it, I do now have Gardens of the Moon in my to read pile.
Unfortunately so are Alloy of The Law, Dragons Path, Scar Night, City and the City, songs of a dying earth, chronicles of amber and it goes on.


Sea of ghosts is what I'm currently reading and it's a book that I can't put down. Simple plot but the trimmings are highly inventive.


edit Just finished it in work and I really liked the book but the ending was a bit slight and felt rushed and kinda ended on a cliffhanger. Looking forward to the next one but hope some of the secondary characters get fleshed out a bit. Brilliant line in it near the end, "Hows that for some accelerated entropy" or something along those lines.

Am nearing the end of the alloy of law and am loving it more and more. Have seen reviews that describe it as a bit of a sideline between his first 3 mistborn novels and the next 3(?) which are going to be set in a similar more urban setting, which I'm really looking forward to if they're anything like this one. I don't care how un-cool it is to say it, but I liked this more than the final empire(haven't read the next 2 yet) and I really liked that one.

Can also recommend the city and the city too. I'm not really into mystery/detective novels, but really enjoyed that one, but then I'm generally a fan of his stuff anyway. A fan that is except of the kraken, which was an unbelievable carbon copy of Neil gaimans neverwhere, and to be honest I really can't understand how he hasn't been hauled through the courts for it yet, but what do I know?

Anyway, read the alloy of law next, you'll not regret it, I promise.

constantg

read the wiki entry on Alloy, seems a bit confusing with all of the metal guff, this the case?

gufnork

constantg wrote: »

read the wiki entry on Alloy, seems a bit confusing with all of the metal guff, this the case?

No, I haven't read that wiki but theres an appendix at the back of the book listing all the metals and their powers etc that would have confused me too if I hadn't already read the final empire. I'd go as far as to say the appendix in the book doesn't do anywhere near as good a job at explaining the whole metal magic system as the actual story itself. I'm reasonably confident I would have been fine with it even if I'd not read the final empire. Just don't read the appendix first, or probably, any more wikis either. Just dive straight into the story instead.

constantg

Currently reading book #2 of Humanity's Fire: Orphaned Worlds by Michael Cobley.

Also last started the Saga of the Seven Suns: Book #1; good read, but the library were out of book #2 so working away at my HF in the meantime.

AnCapaillMor

Tried humanitys fire, but couldn't get into it.

saga of the seven suns nearly killed, started it when book 2 came out and the yearly wait for the next in the series nearly killed me. Great books, first book and a half is basically an introduction and setting up everything.

constantg

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Tried humanitys fire, but couldn't get into it.

saga of the seven suns nearly killed, started it when book 2 came out and the yearly wait for the next in the series nearly killed me. Great books, first book and a half is basically an introduction and setting up everything.

Hadn't read book 1 in ages and book 2 took a good while to get back into it properly!


re 7suns, read that he lets 5 yrs between book 1 and book 2. good idea or bad? i like the idea, but does it work???

ixoy

Reading "The Modern World" by Steph Swainston, the final book in her Castle trilogy. Enjoying it so far - it's got a pretty original world.

gufnork

Am reading snuff by terry pratchett now. He's guaranteed to be a good light read. Also have the third volume in the wildcards series to start too. Am looking forward to that one in particular. Is supposed to be better than the first two I hear.

Dades

Finally finished Surface Detail after a few months sojourn.

Really liked it. Only a few Iain M. Banks left to read - I'm going to save Matter for next year.

In the meantime just started Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides (finally getting around to it after Paddy Samurai talked them up in the best fantasy books thread a year ago!)

Needed some pirates after hi-tech Culture stuff. Arrr!

Trojan

Finally got around to the Feist/Wurts "Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire" Tsuranni trilogy - very, very good stuff. Reminded me why I liked Feist in the first place. Highly recommended, 8/10.

L

Dades wrote: »

In the meantime just started Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides (finally getting around to it after Paddy Samurai talked them up in the best fantasy books thread a year ago!)

Tim Powers is well worth reading. Especially 'The Anubis Gates' and 'On Stranger Tides'

Just finished 'The Prestige'. Entertaining but the ending is a much rougher genre shift than the film. Feels a bit like the author tossed in the towel and started rushing a few hundred pages into 50 or so.

Currently reading "the first book of Lankhmar" by Fritz Leiber.

BlaasForRafa

Just finished 1632 and 1633 by Eric Flint, rattling good reads I have to say, fairly flew through those books. I'm not a big alternate history fan but these were so bloody readable.

I'm about halfway through The Peace War by Vernor Vinge at the moment, its a fairly trad sci-fi maguffin plot but its written well and keeps you turning the pages waiting to see what happens next.