Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845564 times)

Listener

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Reply #2450 on: July 02, 2014, 02:00:16 PM
Finished Jacqueline Carey's "Kushiel's Scion", the fourth in the series and the first in the Imriel trilogy. It didn't quite have the punch that the first and third books had, and it bogged down severely when they were in Lucca, and I think there were places where Carey just didn't feel like writing anything complicated so she made it simple. Still, the ending was strong and I really felt for the characters I was supposed to feel for.

Decided to start book five, "Kushiel's Justice", before I move on to the third Game of Thrones book.

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Darwinist

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Reply #2451 on: July 07, 2014, 01:14:19 PM
I'm revisiting the Foundation Trilogy.  I read it 30 years ago and I remember thinking very highly of it.  It is fun reading it again but my enjoyment is a bit lower than it was when I first read it. 

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


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Reply #2452 on: July 08, 2014, 11:58:50 AM
Finished "Kushiel's Justice". It was long and slow, but kept my attention the entire way through. Be warned that the cast list at the beginning of the book (at least, in the epub version) is a spoiler. I'd skip it if I were you.

Trying to decide now if I want to start GoT Book 3 or read the next Kushiel book. I have a day to figure it out.

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Reply #2453 on: July 08, 2014, 02:48:49 PM
Reading Stephen King's Blaze.  Not speculative at all, not particularly horror either.  Which usually means I'm not that interested, but I like it.  Characters in the story are directly inspired by Of Mice and Men, but in this case George is a con-man who has taken the Lenny character (the titular Blaze) under his wing, but George died a few years ago and so Blaze is on his own to try to make his own way.  He decides to try to do an old con they'd been meaning to do for years, kidnapping a rich family's baby for the ransom.



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Reply #2454 on: July 08, 2014, 02:51:36 PM
My friend who finally convinced me to read A Game of Thrones has been on me for a couple of months to listen to "Blood Song," by Anthony Ryan. If you're looking for the continuing adventures of Jon Snow, it's not bad. But for all the praise it's received, I thought it was a competent yet by-the-numbers Epic Fantasy. The narrator - Steven Brand - I thought gave an excellent, minimalistic performance, which made the going easier. That said, I'm pretty sure I won't be going back for Book 2.


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Reply #2455 on: August 02, 2014, 04:00:40 PM
Currently reading "The Day of the Triffids" (there's a movie showing in a week), and I'm pleasantly surprised how well-written it is. Very British, and very good (so far at least - at the 50% mark)



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Reply #2456 on: August 02, 2014, 06:56:51 PM
Currently reading "The Day of the Triffids" (there's a movie showing in a week), and I'm pleasantly surprised how well-written it is. Very British, and very good (so far at least - at the 50% mark)

That book is amazingly good. You may also like The Chrysalids, another Wyndham novel, this one too post is apocalyptic and sets up a world where only two books survived "the tribulation" Gray's Anatomy and The Bible, but only pieces of each book.

The Midwich Cuckoos is also very very good.

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InfiniteMonkey

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Reply #2457 on: August 02, 2014, 06:59:58 PM
The Midwich Cuckoos is also very very good.

I have that in paper...



bounceswoosh

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Reply #2458 on: August 02, 2014, 07:40:27 PM
I'm in the middle of Dangerous Women. I put it down for a while. So far, not impressed. Most seem to be a sexist/stereotypical view of dangerous women.



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Reply #2459 on: August 04, 2014, 09:57:42 AM
I'm not actually reading anything speculative at the moment. When I can summon the energy, I'm reading Charles Dickens's Barnaby rudge, but it's proving surprisingly hard going. It reads well, but the damned plot won't move!

Otherwise, I'm listening to a couple of Bernard Cornwell audio books. When I'm busy in the kitchen, I'm in the middle of Rebel, which is about a young man from Boston who joins The Confederate Army...

And when I'm on my exercise bike, I'm revisiting Stonehenge - A Novel Of 2000BC, which is about... Oh come on! You don't need me to spell it out do you?

Actually, Stonehenge does have magic in it, but only if you're one of the characters. To the reader, it's easy to see the coincidences and natural phenomena which are being mistaken for magic, but I'm certain that's deliberate.

And then at the end you're left wondering if maybe you were wrong and the characters were right after all.

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Reply #2460 on: August 04, 2014, 12:23:40 PM
In the middle of "Storm of Swords" by GRRM, interspersed with occasional chapters of "Grim Up North" by Dave Turner.

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Reply #2461 on: September 18, 2014, 06:05:10 PM
I just started One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Even though it was written in 1967 and translated into English in about 1970, I'll admit I hadn't heard of it until last week when I read the Wikipaedia article on Magic Realism. The article seemed to recommend the book, so I parted with £5.99 for the eBook. (Shock Horror!)

I've only read the first chapter, but WHAT a first chapter. It's practically a short story in its own right! :)

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Reply #2462 on: September 19, 2014, 08:12:38 AM
"Old Man's War", by John Scalzi. Freaking awesome!

I've become something of a Scalzi fan. "Redshirts" was awesome, "Lock In" was great and "Old Man's War" has distinct overtones of "The Forever War"  but a voice all its own.

And have you checked out his blog? He's erudite, funny and goddam good at what he does.


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Reply #2463 on: September 19, 2014, 11:59:36 AM
Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey. Next, probably Lock In or the fourth GoT book.

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Reply #2464 on: September 25, 2014, 04:07:00 AM
I just started One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Even though it was written in 1967 and translated into English in about 1970, I'll admit I hadn't heard of it until last week when I read the Wikipaedia article on Magic Realism. The article seemed to recommend the book, so I parted with £5.99 for the eBook. (Shock Horror!)

I've only read the first chapter, but WHAT a first chapter. It's practically a short story in its own right! :)

All of that book is like that, it's magnificent. You should seek out his shorts, I had a collection of them once but gave it to a girl I loved who didn't love me anywhere near as much as I loved her- Stories like "Death Constant Beyond Love" and "There Are No Thieves in This Town" and "Prayers for Rain" are so unbelievably good it's almost criminal.

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SpareInch

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Reply #2465 on: September 25, 2014, 01:10:56 PM
I just started One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I've only read the first chapter, but WHAT a first chapter. It's practically a short story in its own right! :)

All of that book is like that, it's magnificent. You should seek out his shorts,

Seek out his WHAT!?  :o

Oh, right... I see what you mean. ;)  :D

Actually, the ePub I got lists a load of his other stuff also published by Penguin, so they shouldn't take too much finding. I'm getting through 100 years a bit slower than planned though, but that's due to Penguin's formatting of the file not being very friendly to blind readers.

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Reply #2466 on: October 08, 2014, 03:44:17 PM
Back issues of Heavy Metal, in digital form, downloaded in a torrent.
Currently on the December 1980 issue. My dad had a stack of these back in the day; I'm really getting my nostalgia on.

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Reply #2467 on: October 08, 2014, 05:27:31 PM
Early Matt Howarth strips in those!



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Reply #2468 on: October 08, 2014, 08:09:46 PM
A Feast For Crows (Game of Thrones 4) by GRRM.

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Reply #2469 on: October 08, 2014, 08:27:31 PM
Early Matt Howarth strips in those!

Yeah, I think this issue (December 1980) carries the end of Changes which has been a really weird bit of work that I don't completely understand, but interesting. The Post brothers are some definite anti-heroes.
I'm really partial to the stuff by Caza; I always liked those stories featuring the bearded guy with the glasses (and his bald, mustachioed sometimes-neighbor Marcel). And The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer, which might actually be the first instance of steampunk.

Looking forward to another I remember fondly, Tex Arcana. I think that might have started later in 1981.

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Reply #2470 on: October 08, 2014, 10:25:50 PM
I'm listening to Jeff VanderMeer's Acceptance - Book 3 of his excellent Southern Reach trilogy. Can't recommend this whole trilogy enough.

On deck I've got Lauren Beukes Broken Monsters, Daniel Abraham's The Widow's House, and Carlos Ruiz Zafron's Marina (among others).


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Reply #2471 on: October 22, 2014, 04:40:19 PM
Finished VanderMeer's Acceptance. It was excellent, and I think I'm gonna try and relisten to all three of the Southern Reach books sometime next year.

Listened to most of Cherie Priest's Maplecroft and am generally liking it - a little slow at first, and I don't know that I care quite as much about Lizzie Borden as I do her sister and the Doctor. It feels a bit like Dracula in the term of the structure - only if Dracula actually starred Mina Murray, was trying to save her lover Lucy Westenra instead of Harker with Dr. Seward's help. (There is also a Van Helsing-esque inspector, who reminds me of Fox Mulder a touch.) So, yeah, pretty good.

Joe Hill's Horns, OTOH. Holy shit this book incredible.


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Reply #2472 on: October 23, 2014, 12:07:35 PM
GRRM, A Feast For Crows

I really am not enjoying this book. Too many new characters, not enough time with the ones I do like, and the fifth book is concurrent with the fourth. Le sigh.

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Reply #2473 on: November 05, 2014, 03:59:19 PM
Just finished Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. Not impressed. This series is no Hunger Games.

I thought the premise is silly, and I wasn't buy the worldbuilding, and I was wondering why all of the action in the book is happening in Chicago with no connection to any other part of the world. Well, near the end of the second book it turns out the big shitstorm starts over information about what's "outside the fence", so presumably the third book will redeem the series.

I'm number 200-something on a list of holds for 24 copies of the third book, so in the meantime I just started The Giver.

(all of the above being read via Library2Go and the Overdrive app on my iPod Touch).

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Reply #2474 on: November 18, 2014, 03:10:38 AM
I'm listening to Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan. It's the sequel to Blood Song, which I originally signed out from the library because it was very long, and I needed entertainment while working on a manual labour project. To my surprise, I really liked it. It's been a while since I enjoyed sword and sorcery type of stuff, but this is more George R. R. Martin rather than Terry Brooks, which could explain why it works for me. So far, the sequel does not disappoint.