What Are You Reading?

scillaria

Currently rereading the malazan book of the fallen by steven eirkson on bonehunters. Got confused in Toll of Hounds book. The series is well worth the read its by far one of the best fantasy series written that ive read. Going to finish the series and start my reread of wheel of time.

vasch_ro

vasch_ro wrote: »

just ordered it hope its good !!!

finished it over the Christmas, really enjoyed , could not put it down at all, looking forward to getting into his other stuff, would people recommend it ?

Also finished the another trilogy that I found out about from this forum
The Castle Series,i.e. The Year of Our War, No Present Like Time and The Modern World by Steph Swainson, its a really different take on fantasy with sci fi elements and a cracking original story, really loved the last book The Modern World thought it was the best piece of Fantasy I had read in a long time.Heres to more great discoveries in 2010 !!!

AnCapaillMor

pH wrote: »

Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie *****

Must give it a go, read the first law series over the christmas and was well impressed. Is it a one off or is it a 1st of?

Shryke

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Must give it a go, read the first law series over the christmas and was well impressed. Is it a one off or is it a 1st of?

Best Served Cold is a stand alone. It's set shortly after the events of The First Law trilogy. You may recognize a face or two.

ixoy

Currently reading "The Charnel Prince" by Greg Keyes, the second book in his "The Kingdoms of Throne and Bones" quartet. Enjoyable so far - nice brisk chapters and a large font mean I'm getting through it quickly.

I'm also reading "The Father Thing" by Philip K. Dick - the third collection of his short stories. Some great ones here, as well as some very dodgy entries.

AnCapaillMor

On the 3rd of Brent weeks shadow trilogy. Read the 2 books over 4 days, can't put them down, for once a cold came in handy.

BlaasForRafa

Just finishing Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson at the moment, I think I'll hit the fourth Temeraire book by Naomi Novik next.

bonkey

Currently reading Shadowmarch, by Tad Williams.

Bought this yonks ago, started it, and put it down again for some reason. No idea why...I'm quite enjoying it now.

ixoy

Reading "Spirit Gate", the first book in Kate Elliott's "Crossroads" series. Really enjoying it so far (close enough to its end). Very different to her "Crown of Stars" sequence and the move away from the Medieval settings so common to fantasy is very refreshing. Very impressed so far.

PADRAGON

Just finished Toll The Hounds by Erikson.
No spoilers here i'll just say out of the
series its one of my favourites.
Cant wait to start Dust of Dreams.
To me nothing i've read so far has
topped Covenant but the Malazan comes closest.

Johnny Storm

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross - bit disappointing IMHO - struggling to finish it off :rolleyes:

pH

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross - bit disappointing IMHO - struggling to finish it off :rolleyes:

Have to agree, the ideas are brilliant, but the characters dull, and I lost track of the plot half way through and couldn't really be bothered.

Also wasn't much impressed with Halting State either, which is a pity as I loved Singularity Sky to bits, as it is I'd be reluctant to pick up any more of his.

Currently reading:

The Death of Grass - John Christopher

Zapp Brannigan

I have a decision to make, hope you guys can help! Bought the first books from Joe abercrombie and R. Scott Bakkar today, which should I read first?

ixoy

Currently reading "Jimmy the Hand" by Raymond E. Feist and Steve Sirling. It's easy to read, moves along at a brisk pace - typical Riftwar stuff really.

pH wrote: »

Also wasn't much impressed with Halting State either, which is a pity as I loved Singularity Sky to bits, as it is I'd be reluctant to pick up any more of his.

Damn it - "Halting State" is the very next book that I intend to read! I thought "Glasshouse" was superb as well as "Accelerando" and now this...

pH

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

I have a decision to make, hope you guys can help! Bought the first books from Joe abercrombie and R. Scott Bakkar today, which should I read first?

Joe A gets a from me - just make sure you have book 2 handy, you'll just want to keep reading!

ixoy wrote: »

Damn it - "Halting State" is the very next book that I intend to read! I thought "Glasshouse" was superb as well as "Accelerando" and now this...

I'd be interested in what you think when you read it.

Zapp Brannigan

Started The Blade Itself, really enjoying it so far. Nice bits of humour thrown in.

Trojan

Just finishing Brent Weeks Night Angel Trilogy. 7-8 out of 10, definitely worth a look.

ixoy

pH wrote: »

I'd be interested in what you think when you read it.

Well I posted up a review here on my reading log of "Halting State".

Generally it's quite good but I never got fully involved in the story. I also thought it was a little unbelievable that we'd reach this world in the 2018 (despite the author's assertions in the interview at the end of the book) and, being pedantic, I'd quibble on some of the character's histories.
It was also extremely nerdy - something I liked, to be honest. How many other novels mention: Java APIs, grep, traceroute, root server certificates, code repositories, inline debugging, backbone networks and one-key passes, etc.
However, it's not quite enough. The characters are fairly weak - this could be in part due to telling their stories in the second person (I can guess why he did this but it doesn't really help engage the reader).

If you're a fan of Stross I'd still give it a go, but if you're looking to get in, I'd point out "Glasshouse" first and then "Accelerando" (which, while great, can be a bit of a difficult read).

Baron Floyd

Alastair Reynolds’ redemption ark, Christ I miss engrossing new sci-f, I got through the first book then thought he deserved another go. He doesn't, bring on the void!

Saint Ruth

amatheum wrote: »

Alastair Reynolds’ redemption ark, Christ I miss engrossing new sci-f, I got through the first book then thought he deserved another go. He doesn't, bring on the void!

I felt exactly the same way.

BLINDSIGHT by Peter Watts was the last good SF book I read.
Though initially the 'Vampires' thing was offputting...

Trojan

I'm struggling with A Game Of Thrones. I'm not sure if it's the different viewpoints not letting me empathise with any one character, or if I just don't like the feckers. Anyway, I've read 150 pages of it in 3-4 weeks which is pretty horrenduous. Will give it another 100 pages and give up if it doesn't grab me by then.

btw I feel similarly to above posters about some of Reynolds stuff. Some of his plots are brilliant, but I don't like his characterisation much. But then some of the stories are simply brilliant, e.g. Skyes Edge. Might be the dystopian viewpoint, it's fairly dark sf.

Trojan

Trojan wrote: »

I'm struggling with A Game Of Thrones. I'm not sure if it's the different viewpoints not letting me empathise with any one character, or if I just don't like the feckers. Anyway, I've read 150 pages of it in 3-4 weeks which is pretty horrenduous. Will give it another 100 pages and give up if it doesn't grab me by then.

Around page 350 now where

she just met her sister in the high place

. It's good enough to keep my attention, but I'm not finding it as pleasant going as I'd hoped. I'll have to finish it out now though.

ixoy

Currently reading Stephen King's "Under the Dome" which, given its premise, does fall under sci-fi/fantasy. And it is a great premise. The characters so far are small towns-folk, very familiar to anyone who has read a few King novels. Very enjoyable so far.

chopperbyrne

Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton, the second and last book of the Commonwealth Saga.

Almost finished and both it and Pandora's Star were brilliant.

Bought the first two books in the follow up trilogy today and look forward to reading them.

ixoy

Currently on "The Escapement" by K.J. Parker. Enjoying his/her usual cynical style and thankfully not too much in-depth study of engineering.

bonkey

Just finished Shadowplay, the followup to Shadowmarch from Tad Williams.

Now onto "The company", also by KJ Parker.

Johnny Storm

The Quiet War by Paul McAuley.
It was OK - could have done with less jaw-jaw and more war-war. Now on to the sequel .....:D

ixoy

Currently reading "Cowl" by Neal Asher. It's one of his few non-Polity books. It's a decent time travel yarn although, at times, the prose is a little ropey. Still it's one of the few full-length time travel novels I've read (mostly temporal stuff is confined to short stories).

BlaasForRafa

I'm just finishing The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemsin and its very good indeed, its different from the normal fantasy book. Its more concerned with the political machinations of a tyrannical empire than the usual battles n'quests type book.

I'm going to something more traditional next though I think , Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey.

Zapp Brannigan

Just finished up The First Law series and am now starting The Prince of Nothing series by Scott Bakkar.

ixoy

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Just finished up The First Law series and am now starting The Prince of Nothing series by Scott Bakkar.

Whereas I'm just now reading "Last Argumewnt of Kings", the last book in "The First Law" series.

pljudge321

Re-reading Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson and then I'm going to launch into the first three books of Glen Cook's The Black Company.

PADRAGON

Just finished dust of dreams.Have to wait now for the last one.
I'm about to read Allen Carr:Easy way to stop smoking.
We'll see...

Manach

Madhouse by Rob Thurman. Enjoyable urban fantasy.

meditraitor

pljudge321 wrote: »

then I'm going to launch into the first three books of Glen Cook's The Black Company.

I found these a bit dissapointing, maybe expecting too much with the bit of hype he gets.

moncai

ixoy wrote: »

Whereas I'm just now reading "Last Argumewnt of Kings", the last book in "The First Law" series.

Same as here, and i have myself a fresh copy of the first book in Prince of Nothing series ready and waiting to have it's spine broken.

Can anyone give me an opinion on what to expect? My fav series is George RR Martin's so how does Prince of Nothing series compare?

Shryke

Prince of Nothing seems to be a bit divisive. I've read the whole trilogy and utterly despised the main character. There were some really interesting second characters but Kullhus, (spelling may be wrong), I hated.
It's well written with some great scenes and I wanted to like it enough that I read the whole thing but without spoiling anything all I can say is that the main character is essentially Super Ninja Jesus. And he's a tool. And not in a "this should be good" kind of way.

For context I love Martin and Abercrombie.

(Edit)
I might add I've just read Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
Now starting The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut.

Shryke

Not Vonneguts best but a good read all the same. I think it suffered as I wasn't really in the mood for it.

On to Ship of Magic by Hobb!
I loved the Farseer trilogy so I'm really looking forward to this.

Dutchess

Currently re-reading the Harry Potter series. I wanted to read them all in English before the last film comes out so bought the boxset with the nice adult/dark covers. Almost done though as I am Half Blood Prince already.

grosser

A good set of books from Glenn Cook. They came out in the eighties and pretty much helped redefine the fantasy novel concept. Are the basis for the bridgeburners in steven eriksons Malazan books.

WolfForager

Just finished my second run through of the wheel of time, bloody well love that series.

Question, should i read David Edding's Elenium series or should i invest in the new Fiest series?

growler

Dust of Dreams the latest Malazan book, although I've quickly realised i've forgotten more about the 10,000 characters in this series than I've remembered, not sure whether to go back to book one or go for it and hope it starts to come back to me.

Just finished the Dragon Keeper by Hobb, tempted back by the return to the more familiar waters of Bingtown having abandoned the Fat Boy Magic Whinger series very early on, unconvinced again , slow and predictable I thought.

ixoy

Over halfway through "Matter" by Iain M. Banks. It's a good Culture novel, and the ShellWorld concept is interesting, but I'd have prefered slightly less of the medievael milieu.

WolfForager wrote: »

Question, should i read David Edding's Elenium series or should i invest in the new Fiest series?

Have you read any of the other series by him? If not, the Elenium is pretty good but I find overall he tends to repeat certain themes and tropies in his works a bit too much.

Macca3000

Black Powder War, the third book in Naomi Novik's dragon rampage through the Napoleonic era. Really liking them so far.

Apparently Peter Jackson owns the film rights.

WolfForager

ixoy wrote: »

Have you read any of the other series by him? If not, the Elenium is pretty good but I find overall he tends to repeat certain themes and tropies in his works a bit too much.

Read Belgariad and the Malloreon. On the second book of the Elenium now, can already see alot of similarities to the his previous series!

Trojan

Still haven't been motivated enough to pick up A Game of Thrones (have ~50 pages left). Just didn't do it for me.

Shryke

Trojan wrote: »

Still haven't been motivated enough to pick up A Game of Thrones (have ~50 pages left). Just didn't do it for me.

The series starts to pick up momentum in the second book. The third would blow you away if you could get that far. If you enjoyed the characters and the world so far then I would say persevere. Just food for thought.

Currently reading The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Loving it.

"Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place
And death's my destination."

ixoy

Currently reading "Crack'd Pot Trail" by Steven Erikson. Pretty good so far if a little waffly!

Zapp Brannigan

ixoy wrote: »

Currently reading "Crack'd Pot Trail" by Steven Erikson. Pretty good so far if a little waffly!

One of the novellas on those two necromancers, or another thing altogether?

ixoy

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

One of the novellas on those two necromancers, or another thing altogether?

One of those novellas on the two necromancers! Although they've yet to appear and I've 30 pages to go... It's a nicely bound book and there's 3 colour plate illustrations in the book (180 pages in it). You have to focus when reading it - not because there's a detailed plot, but the characters tend to talk in a long-winded fashion and you need to pay attention to enjoy the metaphors, etc.