What are you reading?

[Talia]

I just finished 'The Girl who kicked the hornet's nest'. Absolutely fantastic, totally riveting. I'm only sad Larssen didn't live to see his books achieve success.

[DrMcCoy]

Currently reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. Started with the tor.com reread, but since they only read 2 chapters per week, I'm already way ahead. They're now at Deadhouse Gates, while I just began Midnight Tides.

[stePH]

Finished Hogfather; now listening to Wyrd Sisters audiobook, and reading Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World which I've never read before.

[kibitzer]

Reading Changes by Jim Butcher. I can't see Harry -- or anyone -- coming out of this well.

[eytanz]

Reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Not sure what I think of it so far.

[Scattercat]

Reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Not sure what I think of it so far.

I have very mixed feelings on those books myself. 

---

Night Watch remains awesome, in case anyone feared otherwise.  And it is so very Russian.

[Sandikal]

Reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Not sure what I think of it so far.

I have very mixed feelings on those books myself. 

---

Night Watch remains awesome, in case anyone feared otherwise.  And it is so very Russian.

I finished Night Watch this weekend.  It was so different from anything else I've read.  I'm still trying to formulate what I'm going to say about it in my GoodReads review.  I know that it's the first of three books, but it felt very complete to me and I'm not really feeling compelled to get the next one.

[Scattercat]

The books are all fairly self-contained, but the others in the series are worth the time and effort, I think.  They have different tones to them, like the keys of an organ.

[stePH]

I'm going to have to get a hardcopy of Wyrd Sisters. My mp3 audiobook has several chunks of story dropped out of it (the scene changes abruptly in the middle of a sentence, picking up in the middle of another sentence in the new scene.)

[Boggled Coriander]

Finally reading The Colour of Magic.  My two previous Discworld books were both from much later in the series, so it's fantastic to actually read the proper beginning.

I wasn't sure if I'd like it, since I'd heard from many Discworld aficionados that Pratchett only really hits his stride later on in the series.  But I'm liking it fine so far.  Twoflower is turning out to be one of my favorite comic characters from the whole fantasy-comedy subgenre.

[Listener]

Finally reading The Colour of Magic.  My two previous Discworld books were both from much later in the series, so it's fantastic to actually read the proper beginning.

I wasn't sure if I'd like it, since I'd heard from many Discworld aficionados that Pratchett only really hits his stride later on in the series.  But I'm liking it fine so far.  Twoflower is turning out to be one of my favorite comic characters from the whole fantasy-comedy subgenre.

I read "Interesting Times" before "TCOM", so I didn't really understand the Twoflower character, and I'm glad I didn't start with TCOM -- which was good, but not as good as the later books.

Night Watch remains awesome, in case anyone feared otherwise.  And it is so very Russian.

I finished Night Watch this weekend.  It was so different from anything else I've read.  I'm still trying to formulate what I'm going to say about it in my GoodReads review.  I know that it's the first of three books, but it felt very complete to me and I'm not really feeling compelled to get the next one.

Actually four books. And they do get even better -- I really liked "Day Watch" because it makes the villains just as full, character-wise, as the heroes. By the end of the third, you may be surprised who you're rooting for, and by the end of the fourth, your entire concept of the Twilight will be thrown into disarray.

[Listener]

As you know from the EP blog, I recently read "For the Win" by Cory Doctorow.

Just finished "Glimpses" by Lewis Shiner, which is fantasy of a sort. Very compelling and hard to put down in places, especially if you like what is now termed "classic rock".

Started a reread of the original Margaret Wander Bonanno (or is it Bonnano) version of the Star Trek novel "Probe", which she called "Music of the Spheres" and which was (according to her, and I have no reason to doubt) almost completely rewritten by another author. My guess is Laurell Hamilton, given the style of writing, but I haven't found any corroboration nor any other info about who it could be.

I've also completely caught up on "Daily Science Fiction" and have been loading various internet-published short print works (Crossed Genres, Tor, etc) into Goodreader on my iPad for reading later. Seriously, it's so much easier to read on the smaller screen than on a computer screen. I just wish I could adjust the color temperature.

[stePH]

Got Wyrd Sisters from library yesterday and will start it today, since my audio copy was like reading a book with some pages torn out here and there.

As for The Colour of Magic, it pretty obviously spoofs specific writers: Lieber in the first section, Lovecraft in the second, and McCaffrey in the third, am I right?

[edit] fixed italics formatting

[kibitzer]

Re-reading Startup by Jerry Kaplan, which I received for Christmas. Great book describing the trials and travails of a tech startup, in this case GO Corporation who attempted to create a pen-based tablet computer in the early 90's. Engaging and entertaining.

[Boggled Coriander]

As for The Colour of Magic, it pretty obviously spoofs specific writers: Lieber in the first section, Lovecraft in the second, and McCaffrey in the third, am I right?

I'm not terribly familiar with Lieber (or McCaffrey for that matter, though I know the latter wrote lots about dragon riders), but yes, Pratchett does appear to be parodying a different subgenre in each section.

The Colour of Magic seems far more of an overt parody of fantasy conventions than the later Discworld books I've read.  Parody's not my favorite form of literary humor, but Pratchett is doing a pretty competent job keeping me entertained, and he's writing with far more intelligence than your average run-of-the-mill parodist.

[Sandikal]

Last night, I started How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.  As far as I can tell, it is not science fiction.  However, I'm not sure yet what it is.

[stePH]

Last night, I started How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.  As far as I can tell, it is not science fiction.  However, I'm not sure yet what it is.

Self-help? 

[Scattercat]

Read The Drunkard's Walk yesterday.  A fun pop-sci book about probability and randomness.  Not a lot of new stuff for those familiar with the field, I imagine, but it was well-written and very readable.  I'd recommend it for anyone with a casual interest in but no prior knowledge of randomness, chaos theory, probability theory, and statistics.

Working my way through The First Emotion, based on the plug from the Brain Science Podcast.  It was pretty good to start with, but at this point they seem to be just circling aimlessly and repeating their main points over and over and trying WAY too hard to let readers know that this is a Serious Theory with Important Implications that is totally based on Respectable Research.  There was a whole chapter that was just name-dropping science dudes and dudettes who did other studies that correlated with the theory.  I feel like it would have been a better book if they'd been a little less concerned with conveying just how Ground-breaking and Revolutionary their honestly rather tepid and unthreatening theory was.

Also finished up the last trade book of Ex Machina, and wasn't that a kick in the pants?  Just ouch.

[stePH]

I'm not terribly familiar with Lieber (or McCaffrey for that matter, though I know the latter wrote lots about dragon riders), but yes, Pratchett does appear to be parodying a different subgenre in each section.

The Colour of Magic seems far more of an overt parody of fantasy conventions than the later Discworld books I've read.  Parody's not my favorite form of literary humor, but Pratchett is doing a pretty competent job keeping me entertained, and he's writing with far more intelligence than your average run-of-the-mill parodist.

Well, Ankh-Morpork is recognizable as the analogue to Lankhmar, and Bravrd and The Weasel are obviously meant to be Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser, to those who've read Lieber. But then Pratchett's also spoofing Robert E. Howard with "Cohen the Barbarian" so I suppose it's not just Lieber, but heroic fantasy in general, that's getting the treatment in TCoM section 1.

[kibitzer]

Reading a collection of short stories by Christopher Fowler titled Uncut. Never read this guy before; I'm reading him on a recommendation. He is good.

[Listener]

Finished Margaret Wander Bonanno's "Star Trek: Music of the Spheres" (which eventually became "Probe").

Now reading "Kraken" by China Mieville. I'll do a review for the EP site when I'm done, but my overarching opinion here is that he's going ape-poopie with his language use to hide the fact that this takes place in a real universe, in which he doesn't have to do nearly as much worldbuilding but still needs to keep the word count up.

[stePH]

Finished Margaret Wander Bonanno's "Star Trek: Music of the Spheres" (which eventually became "Probe").

Hey, what? I've read Probe (the written, linear sequel to the film Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home); is Music of the Spheres an earlier draft, or what?

[FireTurtle]

Just eeking my way to the finish of the Wheel of Time Towers of Midnight. Yes, I probably should have stopped reading this series a long time ago but dammit, they owe me an ending. I must say the last two books have been without the substantial ramblings of the middle books.
Also, "kindleing" my way through Cryptonomicon. Mostly while sleep deprived at work. It adds an extra-dimensionality to the somewhat confusing triplicate story lines.

Also finished Patricia Cornwell's latest. Better than the last one but I always feel like a sucker for buying her books lately. Maybe its because they all take place within 24hrs???

[jrderego]

The Passages of H.M. - Jay Parini. A novelization of Herman Melville's later life.

[DKT]

Just about finished reading with N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which - WOW. I really can't say enough good things about. I've already picked up The Broken Kingdoms to read next.

Have been listening to Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell's The Alchemist and the Executioness and am really enjoying it thus far. I imagine it will be pretty dark and depressing in the end.