Author Topic: What are you reading? (Read 849250 times)

Gamercow · **Reply #2250 on:** December 31, 2012, 03:18:28 PM

Started reading Old Man's War by John Scalzi 3 days ago, and I'm already 3/4 finished. Simply flying through this book. It is a little bit of an "Ender's Game" story, but from the viewpoint of an old man. That said, I'm enjoying the ride, and enjoying the mental reprieve from Cloud Atlas.

danooli · **Reply #2251 on:** January 01, 2013, 06:47:54 PM

Quote from: kibitzer on December 21, 2012, 08:43:18 AM

Quote from: danooli on December 19, 2012, 01:21:37 AM
I just went out and bought the first two for my nephew after reading that.

I hope he likes! Seriously, I don't think he'll be disappointed.

I got a call from him on Sunday just so he could tell me how much he loves the first book so far

(By the way, his favorite author is Greg Van Eekhout. This kid is so cool.)

kibitzer · **Reply #2252 on:** January 01, 2013, 09:24:22 PM

Quote from: danooli on January 01, 2013, 06:47:54 PM

Quote from: kibitzer on December 21, 2012, 08:43:18 AM
Quote from: danooli on December 19, 2012, 01:21:37 AM
I just went out and bought the first two for my nephew after reading that.

I hope he likes! Seriously, I don't think he'll be disappointed.

I got a call from him on Sunday just so he could tell me how much he loves the first book so far (By the way, his favorite author is Greg Van Eekhout. This kid is so cool.)

Nice! GVE, eh? Wow. That IS pretty cool.

DKT · **Reply #2253 on:** January 02, 2013, 04:44:05 PM

Quote from: Gamercow on December 31, 2012, 03:18:28 PM

Started reading Old Man's War by John Scalzi 3 days ago, and I'm already 3/4 finished. Simply flying through this book. It is a little bit of an "Ender's Game" story, but from the viewpoint of an old man. That said, I'm enjoying the ride, and enjoying the mental reprieve from Cloud Atlas.

Scalzi has it, whatever "it" is. Whenever I'm reading one of his books, the pages just fly by.

lowky · **Reply #2254 on:** January 04, 2013, 04:22:14 AM

Just started Only Superhuman by Christopher L Bennett

Listener · **Reply #2255 on:** January 04, 2013, 01:07:13 PM

Quote from: lowky on January 04, 2013, 04:22:14 AM

Just started Only Superhuman by Christopher L Bennett

His Star Trek tie-ins are great, and heavy on the science as well as the fiction. How's his other work?

lowky · **Reply #2256 on:** January 05, 2013, 12:12:21 AM

Quote from: Listener on January 04, 2013, 01:07:13 PM

Quote from: lowky on January 04, 2013, 04:22:14 AM
Just started Only Superhuman by Christopher L Bennett

His Star Trek tie-ins are great, and heavy on the science as well as the fiction. How's his other work?

Science seems to be decent science, only on page 45 so far.

Quote from: Mike W. Barr, author of Camelot 3000

"Knowing Chris Bennett's Writing as I do, I expected Only Superhuman to have an imaginative plot and a compelling superheroine in Emry Blair. What I hadn't expected was for the backstory to make so much sense. Usually science is the first causality of superhero stories, tossed aside with the breezy rationalization: 'Hey, it's comics!' Only Superhuman is, to my knowledge, the first hard science superhero story. And the Story is the better for it."

lowky · **Reply #2257 on:** January 10, 2013, 02:58:27 AM

Quote from: lowky on January 05, 2013, 12:12:21 AM

Quote from: Listener on January 04, 2013, 01:07:13 PM
Quote from: lowky on January 04, 2013, 04:22:14 AM
Just started Only Superhuman by Christopher L Bennett

His Star Trek tie-ins are great, and heavy on the science as well as the fiction. How's his other work?

Science seems to be decent science, only on page 45 so far.

Quote from: Mike W. Barr, author of Camelot 3000
"Knowing Chris Bennett's Writing as I do, I expected Only Superhuman to have an imaginative plot and a compelling superheroine in Emry Blair. What I hadn't expected was for the backstory to make so much sense. Usually science is the first causality of superhero stories, tossed aside with the breezy rationalization: 'Hey, it's comics!' Only Superhuman is, to my knowledge, the first hard science superhero story. And the Story is the better for it."

***Update upon finishing***

Excellent book 5 starts out of 5! Science is great. at end of book Appendix A Glossary of terms including Kuiper Belt, Lagrange Points. Appendix B Sol System Geography including Orbital Radius of each body. Earth being one, Mercury 0.39 for example. thanks his college astronomy professor as well as others for his understanding of Sol System. Highly recommend this book.

lowky · **Reply #2258 on:** January 12, 2013, 02:12:33 PM

Darkness Rising by Lis Wiel book two in her east salem series

lowky · **Reply #2259 on:** February 03, 2013, 11:06:07 PM

Just finished Blood Trillium by Julian may, the sequel to Black Trillium by Marrion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, and Julian May. Not quite as good as the first book. Starting Red Rain by R.L. Stine, who is attempting to write adult horror fiction instead of kids books.

kibitzer · **Reply #2260 on:** February 04, 2013, 01:42:04 AM

On the basis of lowky's recommendation I borrowed Only Superhuman from the library.

Wow.

If you like plausible sci-fi and superhero comics, you'll love this book. Bennett manages to capture the spirit of superheros -- including many of the scrapes and traps and bad-guys they encounter -- whilst telling a very human tale of loss, wrestling with inner demons, and the ties that bind with family. Excellent, highly recommended.

Listener · **Reply #2261 on:** February 04, 2013, 01:10:23 PM

Finished Ernest Cline's Ready Player One this weekend. Review TK today at 10 on Escape Pod.

Now reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

Scumpup · **Reply #2262 on:** February 07, 2013, 04:04:30 PM

Comic books. Specifically, I am reading as many Elseworlds stories as I can get ahold of. I'd read several of the Batman Elseworlds over the years and generally been pretty pleased with them. The ones centered on other characters have been rather variable in the enjoyment they gave me.

Kat_Rocha · **Reply #2263 on:** February 07, 2013, 07:19:21 PM

The last book I read was "Let Me In" which was an amazing tale. Now I'm torn between "Pebble In the Sky" by Asamov or finding something different.

-kat

lowky · **Reply #2264 on:** February 07, 2013, 08:26:29 PM

Torn between Lore of the witch world and finding something else at the library. Just finished Red Rain by R L Stine.

Animachina · **Reply #2265 on:** February 07, 2013, 09:39:56 PM

Just finished re-reading the entire Lone Wolf and Cub manga series.

I'm currently reading vN and The Hydrogen Sonata

lowky · **Reply #2266 on:** February 08, 2013, 05:26:58 PM

picked up Dean Koontz Frankenstein #4 Lost souls, World of the 3 moons #3 Golden Trillium by Andre Norton, and Tell All by Chuck Palahniuk from the library. Now do I go alphabetical by title, Author, or some other scheme for which to read first?

Uncanny Valley · **Reply #2267 on:** February 17, 2013, 02:46:11 PM

I'm reading Alien Contact, a collection of stories about... well, you know. I've been reading a lot of short story collections, as it fits into my reading times, and I figure it improves my odds of finding stories I like.

Talia · **Reply #2268 on:** February 17, 2013, 05:26:29 PM

Quote from: Uncanny Valley on February 17, 2013, 02:46:11 PM

a collection of stories about... well, you know.

Wombats?

Uncanny Valley · **Reply #2269 on:** February 17, 2013, 08:41:22 PM

Aren't all good stories about wombats, when you get right down to it?

lowky · **Reply #2270 on:** February 17, 2013, 10:50:29 PM

except for the ones featuring the platypus protagonist. Those are good too.

I enjoyed the Lost Souls Dean Koontz Frankenstein 4. Golden Trillium was good, Not sure I am gonna make it through Tell All. It's name dropping for the sake of name dropping and taken to ludicrous proportions. Trying to slog through it, but it's rough. There really doesn't seem to be a story yet. I love Chuck Palahinuk normally, but not this one.

Listener · **Reply #2271 on:** February 19, 2013, 02:31:02 PM

Finished This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong. Review goes up at 10am EST today.

Now reading Mirage by Matt Ruff. I _almost_ put it down, but then it got sfnal and I was like oohhhhhhhhh... NOW I'm interested.

lowky · **Reply #2272 on:** February 19, 2013, 07:05:29 PM

had to run some errands today so gave up on Tell All and returned the library books two days early; picked up Dean Koontz Frankenstein: the dead town, Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Special Agent Pendergast Mystery), and Cold Days by Jim Butcher (Most recent Dresden Files).

Scumpup · **Reply #2273 on:** February 20, 2013, 11:18:51 AM

Some books on early 20th century combatives. The Bartitsu compendium volumes I and II primarily, but also some books specifically about use of the walking stick.

Umbrageofsnow · **Reply #2274 on:** March 05, 2013, 07:44:13 AM

The problem with this thread is that I love to talk about what I'm reading, but the answer is usually "I should be reading slush" and then the real answer is that I read random short stories scattered around the hundred or so anthologies I own and all the new magazines I get and webzines I read. I'm even behind on Escape Artists podcasts right now and that is unacceptable!

That said, I'm slowly slowly making my way through Ray Bradbury's "Death is a Lonely Business". The first mystery novel he wrote. I might follow it up with the other two. It is weird, it isn't as good as most of his stuff, fairly self-indulgent if you ask me, but this is Ray-Frickin'-Bradbury so he can still write an amazing description of anything. I'm really going to try to finish it this week, and I'm making this post to hold myself to that. I really need to get working on finishing the giant number of things I've started reading.