Author Topic: What are you reading? (Read 1058985 times)

Boggled Coriander · **Reply #1125 on:** November 07, 2009, 06:19:28 PM

Quote from: Sandikal on November 07, 2009, 05:41:38 AM

Quote from: Boggled Coriander on October 31, 2009, 04:25:50 AM
Just started Dan Simmons' Hyperion. After pushing through a slow start, it's really begun to hook me.

It's funny that, despite having grown up on a diet of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Babylon 5, I really tend to shy away from "space opera"-type written SF. But if I hear of a book's awesomeness often enough, I'll eventually be persuaded to check it out.

You might just want to have The Fall of Hyperion on hand. I have to warn you that the first book ends in a cliffhanger and you'll want to jump right into the next book.

Having just finished Hyperion, I can report that Sandikal speaks the truth.

I'm impressed with Dan Simmons. As I've mentioned, I'm usually not a big fan of the space opera subgenre. And Hyperion brings together rather an uncommonly large number of various SF tropes: FTL travel, various kinds of slower-than-light interstellar travel, androids, obvious cyberpunk homages, guys fighting with swords, and a character who ages backward like Benjamin Button*. And the novel's got more than a couple of scenes that could have been taken from your standard Hollywood action-SF movie where the director had plenty of money and the latest CGI effects to work with. Maybe I'm weird, but I usually don't find that to be a promising combination in my written SF, where I guess I'm of the mindset that restraint in world-building is good for believability.

But if the author's capable of pulling it off, I'm prepared to throw that out the window. Dan Simmons pulls it off. This is some impressive worldbuilding on a massive scale, and I shall immediately start scouring local used bookshops for the sequel.

* Okay, not exactly like Benjamin Button.

cdugger · **Reply #1126 on:** November 13, 2009, 01:57:50 AM

Well, I am listening to EP from newest to oldest. Doing so, I have heard the entire add series for Contagion. I don't do new hardbacks, so I have been waiting.

Found it as the discount book store today and already started it.

Way cool.

Sandikal · **Reply #1127 on:** November 14, 2009, 05:05:21 AM

I just finished "Julian Comstock" by Robert Charles Wilson. He just keeps getting better and better. I really didn't think he could do better than "Axis", then he comes up with this truly unique post-apocalyptic novel. I highly recommend it to every reader.

I'll be starting "Dracula: The Un-Dead" by Dacre Stoker tonight. It's due back to the library next Saturday and I suspect I won't be able to renew it.

MacArthurBug · **Reply #1128 on:** November 14, 2009, 01:48:18 PM

Re reading my De Lint collection. I'm on Moonlight and vines. I find reading these in any kind of order difficulet a there dosn't seem to be much of an order for them. Wonderful beautiful books. I always forget how pretty his worlds are until I visit them again.

stePH · **Reply #1129 on:** November 17, 2009, 03:03:22 PM

Quote from: Ms_Mac on November 14, 2009, 01:48:18 PM

Re reading my De Lint collection. I'm on Moonlight and vines. I find reading these in any kind of order difficulet a there dosn't seem to be much of an order for them. Wonderful beautiful books. I always forget how pretty his worlds are until I visit them again.

If there's a series of books in the same milieu that don't have any specific order (like DeLint's "Newford" books), one might read them by publication date. Or just hang it all and read them in no particular order at all (like I did with C.J. Cherryh's "Alliance/Union" books).

DKT · **Reply #1130 on:** November 17, 2009, 09:47:31 PM

Quote from: Sandikal on November 14, 2009, 05:05:21 AM

I just finished "Julian Comstock" by Robert Charles Wilson. He just keeps getting better and better. I really didn't think he could do better than "Axis", then he comes up with this truly unique post-apocalyptic novel. I highly recommend it to every reader.

Ah, cool. I was interested in checking that one out.

Finished Heart-Shaped Box. I thought the first 100 or so pages were incredibly scary, the rest of it was a pretty great thrill-ride, if not as terrifying. But wow, I'm blown away by how much I care about the characters. Will definitely reread it!

Now finishing Charlie Huston's No Dominion aka Joe Pitt book 2. I was kind of so-so on it, then there was this twist in the last 50 pages that's essentially shot down all my concerns and convinced me to dive into the third book.

lowky · **Reply #1131 on:** November 18, 2009, 12:46:24 AM

listening rather than reading per se , but have been reading Greg Crites. The first book I read was Devlin Abnormal Investigations: The Hell Hermit, then I read Dunkin the Vampire Slayer: Something Porcine This Way Comes, and am currently reading Dunkin the Vampire Slayer II:Death Rides a Pale Pink Porcine Horse. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. This is seriously laugh out loud funny. The one liners and insults almost mean you dare not listen while eating/drinking unless you want it coming out your nose.

Sandikal · **Reply #1132 on:** November 21, 2009, 12:47:24 AM

I'm about 100 pages into "Dracula the Un-Dead" by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt. I think it's safe to say at this point that it's one of the very worst books I've ever read. It's so awful that I must finish it to see what other horrors the authors can commit. They commit every literary crime imaginable with this one book. I am not exaggerating. It is truly awful.

CryptoMe · **Reply #1133 on:** November 25, 2009, 06:06:15 AM

I'm one of those people who used to read voraciously, but just hasn't had the time recently.

Today, however, I discovered that my local library system just started offering audio book loans via download!!!
The selection is still small, but there is a selection, and I expect it will grow.
With all the busy half-mind work I have to do in a week, this may be a great way for me to get back into SciFi books again.
I downloaded Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga. I'll see how it goes....

Listener · **Reply #1134 on:** November 25, 2009, 01:48:04 PM

Finished a reread of William Brinkley's "The Last Ship" -- technically sci-fi because in the first 150 pages there's a worldwide nuclear holocaust. A very slow, very heavy book, but very good if you like naval stories.

Now reading Michael Swanwick's "The Iron Dragon's Daughter". I'm not 100% sure of the world they're in -- one of the characters gets hurt and he starts spouting off early-90s commercial jingles? -- but the storytelling is compelling enough. Not a huge fan of the font, but I can live with it.

Planish · **Reply #1135 on:** November 30, 2009, 01:43:23 AM

I just started with Harry Turtledove's Opening Atlantis, which I must have bought last Spring or thenabouts (is that a word?).

I think it's been almost two years since I sat down and read a book on dead tree substrate. I have been so corrupted by fiction podcasts and audiobooks.

Sandikal · **Reply #1136 on:** November 30, 2009, 04:39:09 AM

I just started Stephen King's "The Shining". Seeing a discussion about it on GoodReads made me realize that I'd never read the book, even though I though I had. The movie is one of my absolute favorites and Jack Nicholson is perfect as Jack Torrance. However, the book is confirming my suspicions that Shelley Duvall was a hopeless miscasting.

I'm pretty sure the only other Stephen King books I've read have been "Firestarter" and "The Gunslinger". I really like the book "Firestarter". It's much better than the movie.

Boggled Coriander · **Reply #1137 on:** November 30, 2009, 02:45:23 PM

Just finished Monstrous Regiment, my second Terry Pratchett. Enjoyed it quite a bit, particularly the preposterous lengths to which the "girl dressed up in boy's clothing" trope is taken. The shocking surprise ending is that a few characters really are the gender they appear to be! But it probably would have strained credulity had Sam Vimes turned out to be a woman, too.

Listener · **Reply #1138 on:** December 02, 2009, 01:26:55 PM

Finished "The Iron Dragon's Daughter" (Michael Swanwick). I did not like the ending at all. Felt cheated after spending all that time fighting my way through what was a pretty damn good story.

Then read "The Abyss" novelization by Orson Scott Card. Apparently, Card worked very closely with the production team on the novel, and it showed. However, it also suffered from a lot of the problems with novelizations -- long paragraphs of introspection that can usually be told by a single look in a film between delivered lines. Also, the scene where Lt. Coffey cuts his arm because of HPNS in the film was downplayed pretty far in the book. Still, Card did a great job explaining just WTF those aliens were doing underwater.

Now reading Terry Pratchett's latest, "Unseen Academicals". I'm not done yet but to me it feels like he's telling WAY too many stories in this one, as if he's concerned his disease will rob him of the ability to tell them in separate books. Being American, I don't really relate to the concept of really crazed football (soccer) fans -- in the US, really only the Raiders fans are batpoop insane, IMO -- but the individual storylines are good and because it's Pratchett I know everything will be paid off in the end.

After that, I'll probably take a brief genre break to read "Summer People" by Marge Piercy, author of the exceptional cyborg/android novel "He, She, and It" -- which is probably one of the earliest "hebrewpunk" books. Definitely worth picking up. (Mods: go ahead and amazon-ize that link for EA

)

Listener · **Reply #1139 on:** December 05, 2009, 12:25:19 AM

Well, I finished Unseen Academicals. I was right. Pratchett tied it all together. Great stuff.

Listener · **Reply #1140 on:** December 16, 2009, 03:04:59 PM

Finished "Summer People" by Marge Piercy. It was sort of nouveau-lit in that there wasn't really a defined climax, just a lot of small peaks throughout the book. It was interesting but not great. I was sort of disappointed with the way the book didn't end, it just stopped.

Now reading "Liberation: The Adventures of the Slick Six After the Fall of the United States of America" by Brian F. Slattery. I really don't like the writing style -- there aren't a lot of scene breaks so you kind of get thrown into scene after scene, and his use of time for storytelling is quite shifty and sometimes hard to follow. However, the criminals are very realistic, as is the scenario that caused America to fall. It suffers from some of the same problems that the Batman: No Man's Land series did, in that it's hard to believe the rest of the world would cut off America altogether in the same way the US cut off Gotham City, but there you are.

Next up: Scott Sigler's "Infected", which I picked up for a dollar at the library book sale.

lowky · **Reply #1141 on:** December 16, 2009, 04:50:48 PM

Reading Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, a mother daughter team who wrote yet another book about teenage vampires. The selection of novels here in China sucks, it's either the classics (dickens, shakespeare, the bronte sisters) or a small selection of Novels. I probably won't enjoy it much, but I needed something for my plane ride. I leave for America tomorrow. I wish it was like the ticket reads leave at 4:50 PM arrive at 6:35 PM, but alas all times are local, so it's actually as if I am leaving at 3:50 am and arriving at 6:35 PM.

Talia · **Reply #1142 on:** December 16, 2009, 05:10:28 PM

I'm reading about 12 different things at once, but trying to focus on 'Dead Men's Boots' by Mike Carey. This series has really grown on me.

Quote from: lowky on December 16, 2009, 04:50:48 PM

Reading Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, a mother daughter team who wrote yet another book about teenage vampires. The selection of novels here in China sucks, it's either the classics (dickens, shakespeare, the bronte sisters) or a small selection of Novels. I probably won't enjoy it much, but I needed something for my plane ride. I leave for America tomorrow. I wish it was like the ticket reads leave at 4:50 PM arrive at 6:35 PM, but alas all times are local, so it's actually as if I am leaving at 3:50 am and arriving at 6:35 PM.

Just coming to visit, or moving back?

Listener · **Reply #1143 on:** December 17, 2009, 08:38:22 PM

"Infected" -- impossible to read without scratching. Reads very fast. Gruesome. Like it so far, but glad I'm reading it instead of listening to it because I can consume words faster when they are printed.

Anarkey · **Reply #1144 on:** December 17, 2009, 09:42:14 PM

Ok, so I have a question for the reading hivemind.

I recently got a Sony E-Reader, which I love (this is not a holy war about tech).

I had a bunch of free e-books from back when Tor was handing them out like candy, in the run up to the launch of their website.

I started reading them, and because I got a wide swath of stuff, I'm reading them whether they seem like something I'd be interested in or not.

And now I'm stuck. And haven't picked up the thing in two months (went back to regular books), because I'm in the middle of this book that's totally bewildering. It's "Battlestar Galactica" by Jeffrey Carver. And so, it seems like a novelized version of the tv show. Like, scene by scene. Now since I don't watch much tv, I can't say that I've read many novelizations of this type. Hence my question: is this standard? Is this how it's supposed to work? Where the book is a page by page duplication of the show?

Because OMG BORING. I had no idea.

Question two, presuming the answer to question one is DUH, that's how it's supposed to work...People read this stuff? Instead of rewatching the show? Why?

I'm not trying to be a jackass here. I'm totally bemused, and I need it explained to me. What is the point of this exercise?

Also, in case someone has actually read this particular novelization, does it get any better? Should I just skip it and go on to the next book?

gelee · **Reply #1145 on:** December 18, 2009, 02:18:07 AM

"The Empire of Ice Cream" by Jeffery Ford, whose story "The Annals of Eelin Ock" was featured on Podcastle. As much as I enjoyed that story, it is by no means the best piece in the collection. Simply wonderful writing. I'm loving it.

Listener · **Reply #1146 on:** December 18, 2009, 02:25:21 PM

Finished "Infected". I wonder if Sigler put in the sequel hook quite so glaringly in the original. I think SPOILER once Perry was brought to the hospital and pronounced "not dead" that the whole blowing-up-of-the-small-Wisconsin-town thing was tacked on. It felt rushed. END SPOILER But I would like to read the second book.

Now reading "The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes", a short-story collection of American detective fiction from the Holmesian era. Right now in the middle of "Cinderella's Slipper" by Hugh Weir. It's interesting so far.

CryptoMe · **Reply #1147 on:** December 19, 2009, 01:47:25 AM

Okay, finished listening to the Worthing Saga, by Orson Scott Card. It was just okay, I thought. Didn't much like the portrayal of humanity as a bunch of people I would rather not know

Seriously, I thought many of the characters were mean and petty and pretty unimaginative as to solutions to their problems.

Oh well, on to Ringworld, by Larry Niven. I'm curious to see if I have read it before or not. I can't remember....

Listener · **Reply #1148 on:** December 21, 2009, 01:57:53 PM

Gave up on the Holmes Rivals book for now -- just wasn't in the mood -- and am rereading David Mack's "Destiny" trilogy. As any ST novel fan knows, when you want to kill a LOT of people, you call David Mack. I think his body count in the trilogy might be in the trillions, or possibly quadrillions.

DKT · **Reply #1149 on:** December 21, 2009, 11:51:09 PM

Reading Cherie Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds, kind of a Southern Gothic Ghost story, and really enjoying it.