They've split AFfC up
Read on, it gets good, the general plot is mounting and it's quite good getting inside their heads!
What book are you reading...
- Thread starter agnes
- Start date
They've split AFfC up
Read on, it gets good, the general plot is mounting and it's quite good getting inside their heads!
Soldato
Just finished Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. Holy **** what a book, was looking for recomendations on dark/gritty fantasy and apparently this bloke was an inspiration for Abercrombie and the other new darker authors.
Really fantastic stuff and quite different from most fantasy you see, good twist to it all the seperatea it from the run of the mill stuff.
Big book and read it In about 4 days, already bought the next one.
Really fantastic stuff and quite different from most fantasy you see, good twist to it all the seperatea it from the run of the mill stuff.
Big book and read it In about 4 days, already bought the next one.
Read a few books recently:
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris - A book about a dentist who gets his online identity stolen and is portrayed as a religious nutjob. Decent book but a bit slow at parts and quite religion heavy which isn't really my thing. Interesting concept but didn't really grip me. 4/10
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer - Quite an original book in terms of writing style, captures the turmoil of mental illness very well. Starts off quite slow but good levels of suspense build towards the end. 7/10
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson - Interesting concept which kept me semi interested throughout, without getting too immersed in it. Anything could happen right up until the end which keeps you reading. 6/10
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - Really enjoyed this book about an extremely logical (probably on the spectrum) academic looking for love. Had me laughing out loud in parts and I'll definitely be picking up the sequel at some point. 8/10
Just bought We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler so I'll be back in a couple of weeks!
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris - A book about a dentist who gets his online identity stolen and is portrayed as a religious nutjob. Decent book but a bit slow at parts and quite religion heavy which isn't really my thing. Interesting concept but didn't really grip me. 4/10
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer - Quite an original book in terms of writing style, captures the turmoil of mental illness very well. Starts off quite slow but good levels of suspense build towards the end. 7/10
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson - Interesting concept which kept me semi interested throughout, without getting too immersed in it. Anything could happen right up until the end which keeps you reading. 6/10
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - Really enjoyed this book about an extremely logical (probably on the spectrum) academic looking for love. Had me laughing out loud in parts and I'll definitely be picking up the sequel at some point. 8/10
Just bought We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler so I'll be back in a couple of weeks!
Last edited:
The Martian - Andy Weir. Story of a lone astronaut stranded on Mars. Unable to put it down, very well written and paced until the end where it seems a bit rushed. The main character seems a little too fun and geeky to be true.
Coming Home - Jack McDevitt. Seventh book of the Alex Benedict series, very well written, but nothing new and not as good as some of the previous books. Rounds off the story well, and connects it back to the first book (that I originally read when it was published twenty-six years ago!). No one does sci-fi archaeology adventures mysteries like Jack McDevitt.
Ancillary Justice & Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie. The last surviving body of a warship's distributed AI sets out to kill the emperor of known space after she orders the ship's destruction - and uncovers a galaxy spanning cold war between the Emperor's distributed consciousness that goes hot due to his actions.
I enjoyed both books, has some clever ideas and interesting characters & background, but I can see why people are very Marmite over this book. Viewpoint jumps around a lot, back and forwards in time, and the fact the main character doesn't have the language to discern sexes means that every character is referred to in the feminine. It can be hard to follow what's going on, and while lots of things happen in the second book, the main story hardly progresses at all.
Read a lot of Andy Remic. He's like a 30's pulp author, but he does all kinds of mad action sci-fi, a lot of which made me laugh. How can you argue with a man that creates a character called Franco Haggis?
The Dark Defiles - Richard Morgan. I love every other book that Morgan has written, so it was some dismay when I found that he'd got a fantasy trilogy on the go. This book rounds out the series with a lot of pages, though some of the ending is deliberately left ambiguous. I don't generally do fantasy, but the quality of Morgan's writing, characters and backgrounds is of it's usual stellar standard, and it turns out to be a nominal SF book at the end. I was glad to read on his blog that he's got these characters out of his system and will be returning to hard SF next time around. Bring back Takeshi Kovacs!
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross. It's a Laundry Book from Charles Stross - 'nuff said. This time out top secret IT admin/apprentice Eater of Souls takes on vampires that aren't supposed to exist, even though they are a hothouse banking research group in the City of London, run by his nightmare ex-girlfriend. A lot of people die.
The Causal Angel - Hannu Rajaniemi. Last of the Quantum Thief trilogy. Clever and mindbending, but sometimes hard work. It reminds me of early Iain M Banks with a large portion of 1001 Arabian Nights mixed in.
Extinction Game - Gary Gibson - ultimately, I found this somewhat disappointing, and the idea is done much better in the Long Earth books by Stephen Baxter & Terry Pratchett.
I've just started Peter F. Hamiton's The Abyss Beyond Dreams, but I'm wondering if I've lost interest in the Commonwealth, especially if (like the previous Void books), half of it takes place in the pseudo-fantasy setting of the Void. It's not grabbing me in the first hundred pages. These mega space operas are all well and good, but when are we going to see the sharpness, pacing and cleverness of his earlier Mindstar books?
Coming Home - Jack McDevitt. Seventh book of the Alex Benedict series, very well written, but nothing new and not as good as some of the previous books. Rounds off the story well, and connects it back to the first book (that I originally read when it was published twenty-six years ago!). No one does sci-fi archaeology adventures mysteries like Jack McDevitt.
Ancillary Justice & Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie. The last surviving body of a warship's distributed AI sets out to kill the emperor of known space after she orders the ship's destruction - and uncovers a galaxy spanning cold war between the Emperor's distributed consciousness that goes hot due to his actions.
I enjoyed both books, has some clever ideas and interesting characters & background, but I can see why people are very Marmite over this book. Viewpoint jumps around a lot, back and forwards in time, and the fact the main character doesn't have the language to discern sexes means that every character is referred to in the feminine. It can be hard to follow what's going on, and while lots of things happen in the second book, the main story hardly progresses at all.
Read a lot of Andy Remic. He's like a 30's pulp author, but he does all kinds of mad action sci-fi, a lot of which made me laugh. How can you argue with a man that creates a character called Franco Haggis?
The Dark Defiles - Richard Morgan. I love every other book that Morgan has written, so it was some dismay when I found that he'd got a fantasy trilogy on the go. This book rounds out the series with a lot of pages, though some of the ending is deliberately left ambiguous. I don't generally do fantasy, but the quality of Morgan's writing, characters and backgrounds is of it's usual stellar standard, and it turns out to be a nominal SF book at the end. I was glad to read on his blog that he's got these characters out of his system and will be returning to hard SF next time around. Bring back Takeshi Kovacs!
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross. It's a Laundry Book from Charles Stross - 'nuff said. This time out top secret IT admin/apprentice Eater of Souls takes on vampires that aren't supposed to exist, even though they are a hothouse banking research group in the City of London, run by his nightmare ex-girlfriend. A lot of people die.
The Causal Angel - Hannu Rajaniemi. Last of the Quantum Thief trilogy. Clever and mindbending, but sometimes hard work. It reminds me of early Iain M Banks with a large portion of 1001 Arabian Nights mixed in.
Extinction Game - Gary Gibson - ultimately, I found this somewhat disappointing, and the idea is done much better in the Long Earth books by Stephen Baxter & Terry Pratchett.
I've just started Peter F. Hamiton's The Abyss Beyond Dreams, but I'm wondering if I've lost interest in the Commonwealth, especially if (like the previous Void books), half of it takes place in the pseudo-fantasy setting of the Void. It's not grabbing me in the first hundred pages. These mega space operas are all well and good, but when are we going to see the sharpness, pacing and cleverness of his earlier Mindstar books?
Associate
Any recommendations on survival style fiction?
Really enjoyed I Am Legend and The Road and looking for something similar.
Really enjoyed I Am Legend and The Road and looking for something similar.
Just finished Tyrannosaur Canyon - Preston part of the Wyman Ford series.
Now on to no:2 Blasphemy
unfortunately I read no:3 first, not realising it was part of a series. Not that it's to important. But I'm loving these books. Pretty basic but interesting and griping and always goes slightly beyond reality into science fiction.
Now on to no:2 Blasphemy
unfortunately I read no:3 first, not realising it was part of a series. Not that it's to important. But I'm loving these books. Pretty basic but interesting and griping and always goes slightly beyond reality into science fiction.
Man of Honour
He/she/it does, but doesn't care. The narrator points out that everyone is androgynous, so takes the easy option. Of course, if the author had called everyone "he" we wouldn't be having this conversation because no-one would have noticed. For example,pretty much no-one complained that every character in The left Hand of Darkness is "he" despite the fact that most of the characters actually have no gender at all. Double standards etc.
I read a couple of his books but wasn't that keen, I always got the feeling that he didn't like his characters.
Soldato
"Bigfoot crank stomp" by Erik Williams. How could you not love a book with the strap line "Bigfoot is real and he's addicted to meth!"? Absolutely hysterical! Not high literature but just a blast to read! 
In the first book it is explained that the main character "has difficulty" distinguishing the sexes, and in the second book there's a scene where he has to guess at referring to someone as a "brother" and then correct himself and say "sister" when he gets it wrong. There's also a reference to referring to people as female "even those that have penises".
I actually found it the most confusing of Leckie's style. Everyone is referred to as female, but then now and again it seems characters might be male. It's difficult to get a feel for a character in your head when your not sure if they are male or female and it seems to switch back and forth.
Associate
I recently started Dune but after about 50 pages in it just doesn't grab me. I have no idea what is going on and it feels like I've started on book 2 of the series (I haven't - I checked!)
Soldato
Persevere and the threads pull together, it's certainly worth it.
On the second book of the Caine series I mentioned on the last page (name escapes me at the moment) not grabbed me like the last did. It's moved from action in a string story to strong story (well interesting) but very little has happened even a fifth of the way through. I'll persevere as I'm sure it will come good.
On the second book of the Caine series I mentioned on the last page (name escapes me at the moment) not grabbed me like the last did. It's moved from action in a string story to strong story (well interesting) but very little has happened even a fifth of the way through. I'll persevere as I'm sure it will come good.
Soldato
Currently reading Stuart MacBride's Dark Blood, its no.6 in the Logan McRae series.
Really enjoying the series so far, they are crime thrillers set in Aberdeen but with some lol moments in them.
Really enjoying the series so far, they are crime thrillers set in Aberdeen but with some lol moments in them.
Soldato
Economics: A users guide by Ha-joon Chang. Excellent overview of economics both history and theory
Associate
Will Jordan, sacrifice. I'm besotted with the Anya character 
Finished The Walking Dead, the fall of the Governor part 1 and 2. Holy **** I'm glad they changed the story for the TV program. Horrific torture and rape that makes GOT look like a disney film. I really hope they do a spin off series on how he became Philip Blake. Enjoyable books now I'm well and truly into the tv show.
Just finished reading Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy - found them tough going in places, but enjoyed it overall. Not sure that I'll read any more of his stuff yet though.
I've now started on Sand by Hugh Howey - the Wool Trilogy is up there with my favourites, so hoping this will good too.
I've now started on Sand by Hugh Howey - the Wool Trilogy is up there with my favourites, so hoping this will good too.
Just finished 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline. Loved it. If your formative years were the 80's, it's well worth a go.
TBH, I listened to the audio book of this. Since I walk a lot these days it passes the time nicely. This audio book is read by Wil Wheaton (snotty nosed Wesley Crusher in ST:TNG). He does an utterly fantastic job! Will look out for other books read by him.
Next up is 'Firefight' by Brandon Sanderson, second book of 'The Reckoners' series. Loved the first one, 'Steelheart', so have hight hopes for this
TBH, I listened to the audio book of this. Since I walk a lot these days it passes the time nicely. This audio book is read by Wil Wheaton (snotty nosed Wesley Crusher in ST:TNG). He does an utterly fantastic job! Will look out for other books read by him.
Next up is 'Firefight' by Brandon Sanderson, second book of 'The Reckoners' series. Loved the first one, 'Steelheart', so have hight hopes for this