What book are you reading...

Bickaxe · 17 Oct 2015 at 16:06

Itchytrigg said:
Finished Ready Player One last night and very much enjoyed it. Parts near the end I think got a little predictable in places, I think the pop culture references were the most fun for me.

Just finished it and i agree. The end was a bit frustrating too.

The film will be interesting.

leemk · 17 Oct 2015 at 17:48

Swan Song : Robert McCammon.
Had this sitting in the garage for the last 20 years at least , after a recent garage clean up i found it and gave it a go.
Normally like my scifi but this has got to be one of the best books i have read in years .
Pretty similar to The Stand from what i can gather , have not read that yet so will give that a go after this.

BriT · 18 Oct 2015 at 18:09

Finished The Martian, great book. Looking for another sci fi series, any recommendations?

xaldub · 18 Oct 2015 at 21:35

BriT said:
Finished The Martian, great book. Looking for another sci fi series, any recommendations?

For more recent sci-fi try Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword both by Ann Leckie. As a stand alone novel I also enjoyed City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett.

BriT · 18 Oct 2015 at 22:46

Thanks mate, looks like City Of Stairs is my next book

noj · 19 Oct 2015 at 12:13

Itchytrigg said:
Need some Sci-Fi recommendations, my favourite genre by far.

Evan Currie - The Odyssey One series are all quite good. The On Silver Wings series is also a good read

Ramez Naam - Nexus, Crux and Apex are all good

rixx · 19 Oct 2015 at 12:33

I'm working my way through "shantaram" by Gregory Roberts.. awesome so far..

melmac · 19 Oct 2015 at 13:21

The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend by David Gemmell.

Great book.

ThePirateHulk · 20 Oct 2015 at 05:17

Star Wars: Aftermath

Only a couple of chapters in but so far so meh.

ThePirateHulk · 20 Oct 2015 at 05:20

Curio said:
Wool (finished): 8/10. Hardly original, but really easy to read and difficult to put down after the half way point.

Lost Stars: 1/4 of the way in and I'm underwhelmed. I thought I leaned my lesson with Star Wars books being pants (even the ones people rave about...), but heard great things about this one. "It's young adult fiction, but it doesn't seem like young adult fiction" everybody said. Erm, no, it's exactly like young adult fiction.

It was totally "young adult" but I liked it none the less. It actually gives quite a good insight into the Empire and really does give them proper character instead of just being "evil".

jc0 · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:52

Just started Arcadia by Iain Pears. Read two others of his "Stone's Fall' and "An instance of the finger post", both excellent. His latest is so complex it, there's an accompanying app for it!

Egon · 22 Oct 2015 at 09:34

Reading Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman at the minute, I've been meaning to read it for a while. Pretty much as expected so far, enjoyable, light and entertaining.

pingwing · 22 Oct 2015 at 21:06

Chapter house of Dune...

It's back to more like the slog bit of the first Dune instead of the enjoyable thrill of Messiah and beyond.

Going to make it through as I've had it half read for at least a year now.

strumpusplunket · 22 Oct 2015 at 22:34

Finally getting around to finishing off The Sandman series. Been a while since I read the first few. Loved them, but somehow never got around to getting and reading the later ones. Volumes seven, eight and nine have now arrived

Just finished volume seven (Brief Lives) and thought it was excellent. Right back up with the best of the series (some of the anthology stories in between weren't so great tbh).

Currently reading episode 8 and (sadly) about to finish my Sandman engagement quite soon...

Seanspeed · 22 Oct 2015 at 22:36

Curio said:
Wool (finished): 8/10. Hardly original, but really easy to read and difficult to put down after the half way point.

Definitely read the rest of the trilogy. It's a very well told story and some of the revelations are really interesting.

Anyways, I'm currently reading The Neutronium Alchemist.

It's the second book in the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton(first book being The Reality Dysfunction). It's set about 600 years in the future, when mankind has colonized 'local' interstellar space(relatively speaking). Humanity has separated into two general camps, the Edenists, those who adopt hyper advanced technology that allows them ESP-type communication along with developing machines that are essentially organic and have real human personality, and the Adamists, who shun the Edenists specific way of life, though both groups are generally amicable with each other. But then some crazy **** happens. And it really is crazy. Wont spoil anything, but it becomes a bit of a horror-like situation.

I cant say it's *great*. It's decent. The books are very long(around 1300 pages) and honestly, after finishing the first, I was invested enough after all that time that I felt like I had to continue and read the second one. I'm not sure if I would have done that if it were a shorter book, but I dont necessarily regret it, either. The story has been compelling enough for me, it's just some of the details I'm not liking. There's an annoying amount of male power sex fantasy stuff, like with one of the main characters being this ultra charismatic young guy who sleeps with every girl he meets and is so incredible in bed and every girl is enamored with him and everything and he's a bit of an ******* but this super amazing pilot, too. That's probably my biggest gripe. It feel so unnecessary and detracts from the seriousness of everything else. And it really is serious in tone otherwise. Proper dramatic space opera stuff.

The writing is serviceable, nothing particularly elegant or ultra insightful, but it's hard to criticize. Maybe some of the descriptions are hard to grasp, but that's not unusual with far future sci-fi books. Mainly, it's just one of those things where you just kind of have to know what happens next and you need things explained. You get invested in the story. That's what is keeping me going more than anything.

I'd recommend it if you want some interesting far future sci fi and dont mind it taking up your reading time for at least a month or three, but it's not the best I've come across or anything.

No1newts · 27 Oct 2015 at 15:23

Can't believe Annihalation Score by CharlesStross is £11 for an ebook. That's an obscene price for an ebook.

melmac · 27 Oct 2015 at 16:19

leemk said:
Swan Song : Robert McCammon.
Had this sitting in the garage for the last 20 years at least , after a recent garage clean up i found it and gave it a go.
Normally like my scifi but this has got to be one of the best books i have read in years .
Pretty similar to The Stand from what i can gather , have not read that yet so will give that a go after this.

Yeah it's one of my Favourite books ever. The Stand is right up there as well. Another one you should try is the Tailsman by King and Straub.

Bickaxe · 27 Oct 2015 at 19:57

Itchytrigg said:
....and a new series starter of Pelquin's Comet from Ian Whates. The last I found excellent with a real firefly vibe which I think is probably more the angle I'm looking for.

Just finished this and found it quite good. Bit more to cover the history would help as I has no idea what was going on where it was set.

dannyjo22 · 29 Oct 2015 at 15:11

Read the first two war of the roses books by Conn Iggulden. Now on the third. Interesting as I know little of the story/history but no way near as good as the other series of books.

Grey M@a · 29 Oct 2015 at 15:22

Just about to start Armada due to reading Ready Player One around a year ago and enjoying it. Seems people aren't digging it, will see what its like.

I guess Armada maybe a let down coming off the back of The Great North Road by Peter Hamilton and Synners by Pat Cadigan.

I am having an on/off period with Station Eleven, has so much potential but the book is so full of idea's that go nowhere and the story is lacking big style. Refuse to put it down though as hate leaving a book unfinished.