What Are You Reading?

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True_Believer

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 6:45 am

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Joined: Nov 05, 2013
Posts: 2803
Location: Brazil

Tevish Szat wrote:

A few of the things I've been considering
1) The Hunger Games, but I'm not sure how much I want to get into the book versus film mess, so I may just stick to watching
2) Discworld, but where to start?
3) the WH40K Caiaphas Cain novels, since I've heard they're pretty good. But I'm hesitant to launch into anything so long (also an issue with Discworld) or to give GW so much as a cent right now.

The books are much better than the movie, but even so they are only good. I didn't even watch any after the first, but after the mess of the first I am pretty sure.

Tevish Szat wrote:

Since I've got problems with all my ideas, I'm also up for recommendations in any of these spheres...
* Space-faring Science Fiction (Hard or soft doesn't matter much to me, but I tend to get way more into stuff that can leave Earth and Sol behind even if they're a setting in the work)
* Dark Fantasy and/or Cosmic Horror (Lovecraftian stuff, including/especially in the vein of his Dreamlands work)
* Sword and Sorcery/Fantasy Adventure (often including that branded "young adult", amidst which I have found gems of if not surpassing quality than at least vast enjoyment in the past)

For Sci-fi:

- Hard Science Ficton: Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson. Really great science, with very accurate geography of Mars, and it has anything even culture. It is a bit boring, but if you can overcome this fact, really good.

- Action/Comedy: Old Man's War by John Scalzi. The action is top notch and I don't know a better author for comedy. Really god mix. I read many books from John Scalzi and they are all good.

- Space Opera: Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons or Uplift Saga by David Brin. They are really good space opera books. Easy to recommend.

- Weird Sci-Fi: The Golden Age by John Wright. I don't know this genre existed until I read this book. Really weird and imaginative. Many plot twist too.

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rstnme

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 8:14 am

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Joined: Sep 23, 2013
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I like Robert Aspirin for funny and light reads with a dash of satire. He has a "hard sci fi" spoof called Phule's Company--it's a long series, but quick read--and another one about high fantasy starring two con artists (a terrible magician and a demon named Aahz) tricking a kingdom into hiring them. It's called the Myth series, the 1st being "Another Fine Myth."

Jasper Fforde is great if you like fantasy AND have read a bunch.

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True_Believer

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 3:02 pm

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Joined: Nov 05, 2013
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Finished Shadow and Claw at this very moment (work is slow as this before a holiday) and I liked it a lot. I will certainly move to the next book of the series, but first I will read other thing to cleanse my mind, probably something belonging to the weird science fiction genre or a straight mystery thriller. It was a long time since I read something of these genres.

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Cateran

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:49 pm

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Joined: Jul 25, 2014
Posts: 633

Tevish Szat wrote:

House of Leaves was... interesting. I won't say it held me the whole way through (in particular I couldn't get into the Johnny Truant stuff) but I really liked Exploration #5 and the ending of the Navidson Record, in part because it was not at all the way I thought a book like this was going to go.

The King in Yellow was pretty great. I'm referring to the Thom Ryng play that attempts to recreate the hinted-at text from the Robert W. Chambers short stories. I'm not going to claim it totally lives up to the title, but nothing could, and if nothing else it tells a good story and I'll give it props for actually incorporating everything Chambers made clear about the play.

A Deepness in the Sky was... well, it cemented my opinion that Vernor Vinge is among the best when it comes to modern scifi writers. I was pretty sure with A Fire Upon the Deep, but I'm convinced -- he can pull off scifi that's both harder than cream cheese and does space/planet speculation. He creates a ton of engaging characters, and manages to tell what's a sprawling narrative in a very tight, page-turning way. The best part is that unlike in the more grandiose space operas, it's not the fate of planets and suns that carries the weight of the piece, it's the fate of humans (and spiders), even if larger things are at stake, you care because the characters care and you've learned to care about them, not because faceless statistics say something is important.

Now Reading: The Night Land: A Story Retold. The original is an astounding, macabre, fantastical vision trapped in prose that was archaic and overwrought even when it was written. I'm about halfway in Story Retold is a GOOD adaptation thusfar. Like, it does what you're supposed to do when you adapt a work to a new media: grow and explore what was already there in new ways, trying to show what's already great in a new light, or with a new technique.

Next: Um... yeah, I'm actually going to have to find something since my current schedule leaves me with 15 minutes to half an hour where a book is to be my sole escape from simply sitting in my car and waiting. A few of the things I've been considering
1) The Hunger Games, but I'm not sure how much I want to get into the book versus film mess, so I may just stick to watching
2) Discworld, but where to start?
3) the WH40K Caiaphas Cain novels, since I've heard they're pretty good. But I'm hesitant to launch into anything so long (also an issue with Discworld) or to give GW so much as a cent right now.

Since I've got problems with all my ideas, I'm also up for recommendations in any of these spheres...
* Space-faring Science Fiction (Hard or soft doesn't matter much to me, but I tend to get way more into stuff that can leave Earth and Sol behind even if they're a setting in the work)
* Dark Fantasy and/or Cosmic Horror (Lovecraftian stuff, including/especially in the vein of his Dreamlands work)
* Sword and Sorcery/Fantasy Adventure (often including that branded "young adult", amidst which I have found gems of if not surpassing quality than at least vast enjoyment in the past)

Dark Fantasy: The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Book one is Prince of Thorns.
Sword and Sorcery: A Land Fit For Heroes by Richard K Morgan. Book one is The Steel Remains. Then the usually lineup of REH, Moorcock, Leiber.
Fantasy Adventure: ERB's John Carter books, The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The Black Company by Glen Cook.

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Glasir

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 1:51 am

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Joined: Sep 23, 2013
Posts: 515

I've been a bit too busy to read much lately, but did pick up and read all of Brandon Sanderson's short stories, along with Charlie Stross's Singularity series. I actually like the second book in the series (Iron Sunrise) better but all three are good.

Tevish Szat wrote:

Next: Um... yeah, I'm actually going to have to find something since my current schedule leaves me with 15 minutes to half an hour where a book is to be my sole escape from simply sitting in my car and waiting. A few of the things I've been considering
1) The Hunger Games, but I'm not sure how much I want to get into the book versus film mess, so I may just stick to watching
2) Discworld, but where to start?
3) the WH40K Caiaphas Cain novels, since I've heard they're pretty good. But I'm hesitant to launch into anything so long (also an issue with Discworld) or to give GW so much as a cent right now.

Since I've got problems with all my ideas, I'm also up for recommendations in any of these spheres...
* Space-faring Science Fiction (Hard or soft doesn't matter much to me, but I tend to get way more into stuff that can leave Earth and Sol behind even if they're a setting in the work)
* Dark Fantasy and/or Cosmic Horror (Lovecraftian stuff, including/especially in the vein of his Dreamlands work)
* Sword and Sorcery/Fantasy Adventure (often including that branded "young adult", amidst which I have found gems of if not surpassing quality than at least vast enjoyment in the past)

Too lazy to go back and see what you've already read, or even what i've already recommended, so my usual recommendations:

Discworld: Small Gods is a brilliant novel and a good place to start. Night Watch is among my favorites but works better if you're close to the characters, so maybe begin with Guards, Guards!. Thief of Time is fun.

Space-faring sci-fi: My standard recommendations are Stephen Baxter's Xeelee sequence and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. My particular favorite of the Xeelee books is Vacuum Diagrams, but it's a bit less plot-driven so maybe Exultant will be more your style. Of the Vorkosigans, pretty much all are fantastic; Cordelia's Honor is chronologically the first in the series and is great; or, start with the hilariously-funny Young Miles to meet the central character for most of the books. Iron Sunrise, referenced above, is also a good fit into this category.

Cosmic Horror: Charlie Stross's Laundry Files series is a bunch of books that are 50% Lovecraftian horror, 50% days-in-the-life-of-a-Government-employed-necromancer, and all style tributes to various authors.

Fantasy Adventure: omg Brandon Sanderson. Start with Mistborn and watch his writing get progressively better. The Stormlight Archive series has only 2/10 books done but both are amazing. If you'd like a novella The Emperor's Soul is great. and best of all, most of his books take place in the same universe with the same underlying logic and there are a ton of cross-references to find if you like that sort of thing.

Like rstnme said, Jasper Fforde is a fantastic author if you've read a lot of books. Brilliantly surreal.

rstnme wrote:

I then read "The Ocean at the End of the Lane," which I don't think was very good and would never have been published if Gaiman's name wasn't tacked onto it.

i will fight you

But actually, yeah, it wasn't great overall; I just dearly love the writing style and particularly the prologue.

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mjack33

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 1:21 pm

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Joined: Oct 30, 2013
Posts: 16394
Location: Secret Lair

Alien Isolation

^^ Wanted to get it and heard its a good 15 hour campaign, so I got it today.

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True_Believer

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 11:45 am

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Joined: Nov 05, 2013
Posts: 2803
Location: Brazil

Cateran wrote:

Dark Fantasy: The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Book one is Prince of Thorns.

This is one I cannot recommend, despite it has some very good reviews. I barely finished the first. I didn't read the second and third, but i don't plan too. I cannot recommend it, unless you just want pure entertainment and don't care for a weak plot and characterization.

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Heartless Hidetsugu

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:54 pm

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Joined: Mar 27, 2015
Posts: 1659

I concur. I just could not root for Jorg.

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squinty_eyes

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 10:00 pm

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Been reading the complete works of Bloom County.

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Tevish Szat

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 8:30 pm

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I'd like to thank everyone for the recommendations. Between those and others I've been able to generate a sizable "to-read" list.

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I have a blog. I review anime, and sometimes related media, with an analytical focus.

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The Accursed, a standalone young adult fantasy adventure.
Witch Hunters, book one of a young adult Scifi-fantasy trilogy.

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Rush_Clasic

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:05 pm

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Tevish Szat wrote:

I love this book so thoroughly. It's more of an experience than a book, really.

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Tevish Szat

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 12:22 am

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Almost through with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I... can't recommend it. I really don't want to go off on a major rant because it's not strictly bad: the writing is competent, the style is interesting even if I think there might be a reason it's not used more, and it at least holds my attention even if it's not to my tastes. But yeah, a lot of the world and character building really falls flat.

That Rant

The conflicts are too black and white, is a big one. Or even if one side might technically be grey like our main character, they're set up against black-hole black that makes them a stark white by comparison. It's hard to see one side as grey when the other side tortures (even to death) for fun and light entertainment, finds genocide the reasonable response to sedition, and is implied, just off hand, to be cannibalistic for the heck of it. No reason, the author/narrator just wants you to know they're that evil.

Similarly, it's got a few of those inconsistencies that, once you notice them, kind of get under your skin. Now I'm a Fantasy/SF reader. I will take things that aren't consistent with reality if they're consistent with themselves. But when you tell me that 1) Wars must be approved by the planetary council; 2) Any deaths in the midst of an unapproved war are prosecuted as murder, and there's not really any way to be out of reach/beyond jurisdiction, you will be prosecuted; 3) No wars have been approved in over a century; and 4) Someone can hire a large army of mercenaries, a kingdom-level threat or more, on extremely short notice AND someone else would have an inkling of how much that costs.... That doesn't add up.

Where do the Mercs come from? Have they just been in a hitherto unmentioned suspended animation for the last century since they had a line of work in the world? Armies don't just spring out of the ground if you throw gold at it. Even if you can find thousands of outlaws or people willing to become them for the right price, they have to be contracted, assembled, trained, outfitted, and deployed to where you need them. That's just one example that made me actually stop and respond "Wait, what?". There are others, but I don't think I really need to go into that.

Also, have an A plot. Hundred Thousand Kingdoms kinda doesn't. It has what we're lead to believe is the A plot that gets more time devoted to complaining about nothing getting done on that end, and the B plot that feels like a B plot and starts trying to creep up to primacy but never quite makes it. All the threads braid together OK, but each one is kinda weak and sometimes the entire novel feels like it's forgotten what its point is.

I'm not even going to get into the gods except to say that Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn did some of the major ideas better. It approached its topics with subtlety, reason, and even a respectable amount of nuance given the medium it's playing with. This book? Not so much.

The d% versus wishlist gave me Hidden Empire (Saga of the Seven Suns) next, and I'm hoping I enjoy it a little better.

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rstnme

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:37 am

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Joined: Sep 23, 2013
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Finally finished The Map of Time. I can see why a lot of people thought it was good, and it's definitely one of those books that gets better as you read it... but still, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't an English Lit major.

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True_Believer

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:20 am

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Joined: Nov 05, 2013
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Tevish Szat wrote:

That Rant

The d% versus wishlist gave me Hidden Empire (Saga of the Seven Suns) next, and I'm hoping I enjoy it a little better.

I read that one. Actually I did not finish it, which is somewhat rare. I read almost 80% of the book. I didn't like it at all. All you said, plus a pitiful heroine and too much deus ex machina.

Reading Desolation Road by Ian McDonad. It started really good, but lost steam in the middle.

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Heartless Hidetsugu

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 10:56 am

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Reading an omnibus, The Books of the South, by Glen Cook.

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rstnme

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:01 am

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Joined: Sep 23, 2013
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Reading my friend's novel The Dreamer, available to preorder on amazon.com. Her name is EJ Mello. Very well-written so far, can't wait to see what happens.

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Tevish Szat

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 12:01 pm

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@rst: Looks fascinating, by the blurb it's the kind of story I could really get into. Is it coming out in print? Amazon only seems to admit a Kindle version, which is a non-starter for me .

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Tevish Szat

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Wed May 06, 2015 11:03 am

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Finished Hidden Empire. Enjoyed it a lot, even though it's clearly entry 1 of a series and not a complete story in itself. It's exactly what I needed to wash the taste of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms from my literary mouth.

Impressions

Next up is All the Windwracked Stars, by Elizabeth Bear.

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True_Believer

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 3:26 pm

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The Bones Beneath by Mark Billingham. Moving a little away from fantasy/sci-fi. Considering trying Embassytown again. I dropped it and I don't remember why. I like the books from China Mieville.

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The Doctor

Post subject: Re: What Are You Reading?

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 3:41 pm

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Joined: Apr 08, 2015
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The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Dawkins really is a genius, and one of the most rational and logical thinkers of our time. Every book he has put out is a must read

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