What are you reading?

[danooli]

FINALLY finished A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin.  I've been a huge fan of the series since...1998?  Wow, this one was pretty boring... 

Now I can finally go back The Dragons Path by Daniel Abraham!

well, I decided against picking up The Dragons Path again for the time being.  Not that I am not enjoying it, but because I just finished something on a serious, grand scale and would prefer something a bit less intense.  So, I've started book 4 of The Parasol Protectorate series, Heartless, by Gail Carriger.  I love Alexia Tarabotti, I just can't help it.

[Sandikal]

(I have a couple of Scalzi's other books at home, but haven't had time to crack them yet )

You CRACK your BOOKS?? Aee you saying you CRACK THE SPINES??

BLASPHEMY!!

(On the rare occasions I lend my own copy of a book to someone they're like to ask, "Is this new?" to which the answer is, "No, I've read it through several times."

Ha. I remember how back when we first got married, and I'd finish reading a book and give it to my wife to read, I would be somewhat aghast at the way she handled them. We both love books, but she'd bend the pages back around to read them, crack the spine, etc. Maybe that's why they call the first year of marriage "Paper"?

Now that she has a Kindle, I guess it's not much of a problem...

My husband takes books to the beach and pool and props them on his wet stomach while reading.  He ruins books so badly that nobody can read them after him.

[Talia]

Just finished 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Kline. SO MUCH FUN. It's about a teenager competing in an online tournament to find a game Easter Egg hidden by the programmer, a dying eccentric billionaire obsessed with geek culture and the '80s. It's worth his entire fortune. The world they're exploring in is like a much-improved Second Life plus every MMPORG ever made all rolled up in one. There are bad guys, of course, corporate drones out to get the fortune for themselves, thus villified by all other egg hunters ("gunters").
The Evil Corporate Drones are a bit cliche, but I found I could forgive that.

The whole book is a constant string of '80s and geek/gaming references (during one part the protagonist is challenged to recite every line from part of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' from memory). Now the most apt criticism of the book is that it's written like a YA novel, but full of references your average teen would never get. The writing itself isn't that strong. But the concept is great, the storyline is fantastic and the author clearly "gets" gamer culture. I guess mostly his characters are pretty weak. Still, terribly fun. I guess it's being adapted into a movie too, which I will happily watch the hell out of.

[stePH]

A teen/YA novel called Emily the Strange: The Lost Days.
Youtube Trailer

[Spindaddy]

Just finished 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Kline. SO MUCH FUN. It's about a teenager competing in an online tournament to find a game Easter Egg hidden by the programmer, a dying eccentric billionaire obsessed with geek culture and the '80s. It's worth his entire fortune. The world they're exploring in is like a much-improved Second Life plus every MMPORG ever made all rolled up in one. There are bad guys, of course, corporate drones out to get the fortune for themselves, thus villified by all other egg hunters ("gunters").
The Evil Corporate Drones are a bit cliche, but I found I could forgive that.

The whole book is a constant string of '80s and geek/gaming references (during one part the protagonist is challenged to recite every line from part of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' from memory). Now the most apt criticism of the book is that it's written like a YA novel, but full of references your average teen would never get. The writing itself isn't that strong. But the concept is great, the storyline is fantastic and the author clearly "gets" gamer culture. I guess mostly his characters are pretty weak. Still, terribly fun. I guess it's being adapted into a movie too, which I will happily watch the hell out of.

I might have to check that one out. It sounds like it would be a fun little romp.

[Talia]

So I have done nothing else today but read 'His Majesty's Dragon' by Naomi Novik, from her 'Temeraire' books. I had the opportunity to pick up the first three (or maybe that's all of them? I'm not sure if its a trilogy or what) for cheap some time back and did so without knowing much about them but that they were pretty much what Novik had made a name for herself with. I sat down to finally read the first one today and started off with a glance at the back cover, which was not promising. Military historical fiction + dragons? The concept didn't appeal. But I made myself give it a shot and was swiftly hooked, as one might guess from my opening statement Oh man, so good. I'm so excited I have the next two right at hand to get started on and don't have to wait

I won't copy the whole thing, but here's a quick synopsis from my LibraryThing review:

Set during the Napoleonic Wars, 'His Majesty's Dragon' tells the tale of British naval officer Will Laurence, whose career takes a 180 when he inadvertently finds himself the caretaker of a young dragon. As all dragons are a part of a separate military service, he soon finds himself starting a new life, and taking his battles from the sea to the air.

Interjecting dragons into 18th-century battle scenes works surprisingly well, actually, and said scenes were VERY well written and exciting. More than just a military story, the relationships between riders and their dragons (with human or human+ intelligence, and can talk) is explored as well.

Just really, really good.

Now I'm off to grab book two.

[Listener]

I forget where I left off.

Finished:
* Hugh Laurie, "The Gun Seller" -- went from funny to overpolitical way too quickly
* Mark Walden, "H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education" -- writing the review for EP now
* Stephen King, "The Colorado Kid" -- review for EP is in the hopper

Reading:
* Neal Stephenson, "ReaMdE" -- no opinion yet, only 93 pages in (of 1000+), but it's interesting enough. Lots of Stephenson-ian family drama so far.

[NomadicScribe]

Pump Six and Other Stories by Paulo Bacigalupi: Wow, just wow. If you ever had a preconceived notion that science fiction and literature were mutually exclusive, read this. This is important work.

Definitely a wake-up call for me to step outside of Escape Pod/castle for my short fiction.

[iamafish]

started reading Brandon Sanderson's additions to the WoT series - starting with The Gathering Storm. I love the series, but i'm really not enjoying Sanderson's writing style. Jordan was always good at leaving things unsaid, allowing the reader to arrive at his own conclusions and work out a lot of the characters themselves, whereas Sanderson seems too keen to spell everything out to us, which gets annoying. The pacing is also really slow because he keeps on dropping detailed reminders of what has happened previously. Jordan did this as well, but he kept it much shorter and it was a lot easier to skim past.

I'll probably stick with it because I've invested too much time into the series to stop now, but I don't think, on the evidence so far, that i will be picking up any of Sanderson's other work. That opinion might change, but at the moment i'm finding hos prose just doesn't flow as well as Jordan's.

[Scattercat]

Tried to read "Blood Engines," which is Tim Pratt's Marla Mason series and widely praised on the Intarwebs.  Good Lord, that was awful.  I gave up after forty pages.  Stiff dialogue, buckets of irrelevant backstory infodump, and a cast of really unlikeable characters.

Tried to read "The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" by Stephen Hunt, which had similar problems.  My wife promises it got better later on, but I put it down when the bodyguard started to lecture the rich man about his childhood.  ("But sir, you yourself came up from nothing as a street orphan...")  Attention, authors!  My hair wants you to find a better way to incorporate character backstory!  That is all.

Then I started "Swordspoint," which was written by Ellen Kushner in like 1989 or something, and ZOMG!  Dialogue that sounds like people talking!  Innuendo and subtle conversational jokes that aren't explained in the narration!  BACKSTORY THAT ISN'T INFODUMPED AT FIRST OPPORTUNITY BUT LEFT A LITTLE MYSTERIOUS, TO THE BENEFIT OF THE ONGOING PLOT AND KEEPING THE CHARACTERS INTERESTING!  I think it's not actually the most amazing book ever, but coming off of a spate of stiff and awkward writing, it was like the first glass of water after a desert hike.

[eytanz]

So this is a bit cheating, since it's a podcast series rather than a book, but I've been listening to the "Harry Strange" series (followed an ad there from Decoder Ring Theater). I've been enjoying it - but in the same way I occasionally enjoy straight-to-cable B horror movies. Anyway, I can't really express what I think about it without coming out as rather obnoxious, so I'll just say this - if you are in the mood for something that hits just the right spot of cheesiness (both deliberate and not deliberate) to be entertaining, you might want to check it out. But, if you're the kind of person who thinks "stiff dialogue, buckets of irrelevant backstory infodump, and a cast of really unlikeable characters" (to quote a conveniently located post above) are deal-killers, then you should stay the hell away from this series, as these are just the beginning of the list (well, except that the characters are all too inconsistently sketched to be unlikable in my opinion - disliking a character requires some suspension of disbelief).

[Scattercat]

I do enjoy bad movies every now and then, but I tend to gravitate to bad *horror* movies, where I can be reasonably sure that at least some of the characters will die in amusing fashion at some point.

[Talia]

I enjoyed the Marla Mason books myself, though I didn't very much like the protagonist.. she wasn't written to be likeable, I don't think, which seemed odd. Overall I found them fun, though.

[eytanz]

I'm waiting for the Marla Mason books to be available on Kindle.

[DKT]

I'm waiting for the Marla Mason books to be available on Kindle.

They are! Enjoy 'em! (Uh, along with a lot of short stories...)

Tried to read "Blood Engines," which is Tim Pratt's Marla Mason series and widely praised on the Intarwebs.  Good Lord, that was awful.  I gave up after forty pages.  Stiff dialogue, buckets of irrelevant backstory infodump, and a cast of really unlikeable characters.

Yeah, I actually picked up Blood Engines waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when it first came out and was a bit surprised because it was so not what I was expecting and not at all like the Pratt stories I'd heard at EP (don't think PodCastle had come to pass at that point, but I'm not sure). I read the first one and thought it was okay. Maybe a year later I picked up Poison Sleep and liked that a lot more. Not sure if the book was better or if I was in a better frame of mind to read it?

Then about a month ago I picked up Bone Shop from Audible (which is the Marla Mason prequel) and holy crap was that fun. It's a serial novel, and the plot is...not as clear cut as the others I've read. But I wonder if that worked to Pratt's advantage, because he juggled all the threads so well. That said, no small part of my appreciation for Bone Shop is due to the awesome narration by Jessica Almasy. She just absolutely nailed the character and tone of the story. I'd like to think the story was so much better (you can read it for free here, or buy it on Kindle). I liked Almasy's reading so much, I'm severely tempted to actually try listening to Blood Engines, just to see if I'll enjoy it so much more this time around.

Either way, I do definitely plan on listening to the ones I haven't read because Almasy just nailed Pratt's characters - particularly Marla.

[eytanz]

I'm waiting for the Marla Mason books to be available on Kindle.

They are! Enjoy 'em! (Uh, along with a lot of short stories...)

Ok, let me amend that.

I'm waiting for the Marla Mason books to be available on Kindle in the UK.

(Also, the American Kindle doesn't have them either - the link you gave just lists the audio books, which are not what I'm after. I have plenty of audio fiction queued up - hell, I'm still 3-4 episodes behind on each of the EA podcasts. I want books I can read with my eyes, on the device I take to read books when away from the house.)

[DKT]

Ah, bummer about Kindle UK not having them

(Kindle North America does have them (here's the link to Blood Enginesspecifically). Maybe because they're not available in the UK, they list the link to audio?)

In any event, I definitely understand about having too much to listen to I just enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd mention it.

[Scattercat]

DKT, I love you platonically and I generally respect your taste in literature, but I seriously would need to be paid to go back to that book right now.  Not a huge amount, but at least, like, a burrito at Chipotle and a bottle of Gold Peak Iced Tea.

It wasn't that it was awful per se - "awful" is something like "Secret Agent Nanny," from that romance publisher that literally has a formula to write the books by - but it was so aggressively mediocre.  Especially compared to, say, "The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl" or his short story collections, both of which I love.  Blah blah smarmy sidekick blah blah tragic past involving Justin Dumorne an abusive teacher blah blah power at the price of evil, all related in big blocky narrative monologues.  And then her personality was like someone tried to make a badass but forgot the first three letters.

"Rangergirl" is one of my favorite books, period, but Marla Mason is going to stay on the shelf.  The Discworld series got off to a rocky start, too, but I didn't want to punch anyone after I read "The Colour of Magic."

---

I did also read "There Is No Wheel," by James Maxey, which I won via random drawing at his blog.  I'd been... unimpressed with the Bitterwood series.  (Got through the first one, gave up on the second when the irritating characters showed up again and continued being irritating.)  The short stories were a little uneven in terms of tone, but overall pretty solid.  They seemed to improve a bit as the book went on.  Not sure if that was a chronological thing or what.  The net result was in the green, anyway.  The superhero piece, in particular, amused me in a dark-humor/Watchmen/Dark Knight kind of way.

[DKT]

Sir, I expect to be paid in Chipotle! Not the other way around! 

I do totally get what you're saying about Blood Engines. Like I said, I had a similar reaction to it the first time around. Which I guess is why I was so pleased and so surprised by listening to Bone Shop.

The only Maxey I've read is Nobody Gets the Girl, which I enjoyed. Haven't tried the Bitterwood books.

Let's see, in addition to Bone Shop, I've read or listened to:

Read Greg van Eekhout's Boy at the End of the World. Between the giant carnivorous parrots and the genetically enhanced prairie dogs, I think it's about as much fun as the post-apocalypse can be.

Finished listening to Dandelion Wine. I read it about ten years ago and didn't love it then. Still don't love it, but maybe appreciate it a little bit more.

Tried listening to Cherie Priest's Bloodshot, stopped after the first half because I realized I just didn't buy the character at all.

Still kind of soldiering through Black Hills by Dan Simmons. It's not that it's badly written or anything, it's just slow. That's not a bad thing, but damn. It's taking me so long to get through it, and I'm not even halfway. I've learned a good bit reading it, though, and I don't dislike it or anything, so will continue to soldier on.

Will probably start Embassytown tonight...

[Scattercat]

Sir, I expect to be paid in Chipotle! Not the other way around!  

Well, drive down to Charlotte and I'll buy you one.  We've got three of 'em in a fifteen-minute radius.

The only Maxey I've read is Nobody Gets the Girl, which I enjoyed. Haven't tried the Bitterwood books.

I read the title of "Nobody Gets the Girl" and went, "Oh, cool!  A superheroine book in which the female protagonist is unapologetically non-romantic and thus can focus on the plot and characterization!"  Then I read the blurb about how "Nobody" is the superhero name of the protagonist and how he actually has TWO super-hot super-babes that he gets to pick between, and my interest just wilted away.  I might enjoy the book, but the disappointment will linger.  Not anyone's fault but my own, I know.

Still kind of soldiering through Black Hills by Dan Simmons. It's not that it's badly written or anything, it's just slow. That's not a bad thing, but damn. It's taking me so long to get through it, and I'm not even halfway. I've learned a good bit reading it, though, and I don't dislike it or anything, so will continue to soldier on.

I read and greatly enjoyed "The Terror," for instance, but Mister S is going to take his sweet patootin' time about the plot and there's nothing you can do about it so just you wait, Mister Man.  I can dig that, though.

Angela and I picked up the "Atomic Robo" tradebooks at a comic shop yesterday, and they are grand.  Reminiscent of early, more comedy-infused Hellboy.  (Even the art resembles it, a bit.)  Any book that includes the line, "Judging by how these things usually go, it's safer to assume mummies until proven otherwise," racks up a significant point advantage on the win side that can cover a multitude of sins.  Also "violent science."

[stePH]

Finished Emily the Strange - The Lost Days, and tomorrow plan to start Alan Moore's Lost Girls.

[kibitzer]

(Kindle North America does have them (here's the link to Blood Enginesspecifically). Maybe because they're not available in the UK, they list the link to audio?)

I just checked that link myself. It's for the Kindle edition but it explicitly says "This book is not available to customers in Australia." That is just incredibly annoying and pointless. I have a Kindle, an international delivery mechanism is there, why can't I buy the freakin' book? It'll be because they haven't (and may not ever) sorted publishing rights in Australia. Old publishing structures in place don't allow me to get an ebook. I don't mind for the printed copies -- local deals on printing and paper and whatever else -- but why for an ebook??

[kibitzer]

I've discovered an Aussie author -- who lives in Melbourne! -- named Max Barry. Really enjoying his books!

The first I read was Machine Man, about an extremely smart guy who is barely socially functional but is employed by company to make cool future tech. After he loses a leg in an industrial accident he begins building a prosthesis, which he finds to be better than his actual body. What's the logical thing to do? This is a funny and very entertaining romp and Barry manages to keep the sharp humour going right up to the end (although the ending was a little weak).

Then I read Jennifer Government. In this not-too-distant future, many countries ahve become absorbed by the USA. (Apparently I live in USA, Australia region). People are so grateful for the prosperity of rampant comsumerism that they take the name of their employer as surname. John Nike, marketeer in USA Australia, hatches a plan to increase demand for Nike Mercurys. First: withhold supply. Second: on one night, make them suddenly available. Third: in the ensuing sales frenzy, shoot some people thereby raising Mecruy's street-cred. This is a tale of consumerism, morality, desire and coroprate greed. Also very funny.

I'm now reading Company. Anyone who has worked for any kind of large organisation will recognise the characters in this one! The co-worker obsessed with finding out who stole his doughnut. The ever-changing and barely understandable company policies. The creeping suspicion that the company does not, in fact, have any purpose at all. Jones, the new guy, is trying to steer his way through the corporate jungle and understand his place in it all. All that's in the way is the company itself. This one is very darkly funny. It's one of those books that could go right off the rails very quickly -- you know, you get the gimmick or vibe early on but it wears off quickly. But it doesn't. I'm about halfway through and it's still going strong.

Really great stuff by a talented Aussie. IMHO.

[raetsel]

Finished reading Prador Moon by Neal Asher. Really enjoyed it. It's a fast moving romp and an excellent introduction into the Polity milieu.

At only 240 pages it's a good taster to see if you like what Asher does before trying the longer Polity books. Of those The Skinner is my favourite and really part of a separate series from the one started in Gridlinked

I'm now reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I've never read any of his stuff before but been wanting to for ages and by happy coincidence it's this month's choice for my local independent coffee shop's book club.

Only 60 pages in but enjoying it tremendously. Some turns of phrase put me in mind of Douglas Adams, which can only be a good thing.

[kibitzer]

Finished Company (see above). Verdict: Extraordinary. How he sustained the whole thing through 300 pages is beyond me. One of the best books I've read this year. Very highly recommended.