What book are you reading...

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. I'm only seventy or so pages in, but it's very good. I almost wish I hadn't seen the film (which I loved) before reading the book. :D
 
Cityboy by Geraint Anderson - fictionalised expose of life in the City of London. It's OK, but it's really overdone and so heavily stylised that it feels like a parody rather than anything resembling the truth. It's like the Fast Show sketch "It's a right royal cockney barrel of monkeys".
 
toshj said:
Is this the one about the role the Europeans played in everything? Apparently it's pretty good.

Incidentally, I just picked up Moneyball by him yesterday. Sports + Stats = :D
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I think so! This is what was written about it:

Boomerang is a tragi-comic romp across Europe, in which Lewis gives full vent to his storytelling genius. The cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge.

Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack. The Irish wanted to stop being Irish. The Germans wanted to be even more German. Michael Lewis's investigation of bubbles across Europe is brilliantly, sadly hilarious. He also turns a merciless eye on America: on California, the epicentre of world consumption, where we see that a final reckoning awaits the most avaricious of nations too.
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Im going to pick up his other books too, seem like an interesting read!
 
Salsa said:
I just finished Alloy of Law this week and was also very pleased by it. Was a little short and ended rather abrubptly but then it was never meant to be a sequal to the Mistbourne Trilogy. Those are comming later. Two Trillogy's if I remember correctly. I love the magic system in the Mistborn series it works really well and makes for very engaging reading during hectic battle scenes.
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Yeah, one think I love about his writing of the combat and use of allomancy is that it's very well thought out. I tend to start seeing the trajectories of everything in my minds eye. Good stuff.

Thinking about starting to read his Way of Kings(?) series, heard its a ood read.

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Salsa said:
I finished the Hyperion Quartet just after New year and it is hands down the best piece of SF and probably the best piece of fiction I have ever read. I was blown away from start to finish. The characters, pacing, scale all were spot on and some of the concepts behind it all were mind boggling. Never meen moved so close to tears by any fictional work either. I thoroughly enjoyed it although the size of the omnibus editions read were daunting and rather heavy to hold.
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If you liked the Hyperion lot of boots, then definately pick up Illium by Simmons as well, its a brilliant book, but don't let its small visual size put you off. It's cram packed full of very very good writing. In this, Dan takes his inspiration from the Greek epics (Illiad, lol)

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Pondering reading through my Iain M Banks collection again completely. Other than his books, Dan Simmons' books and the Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin Anderson, my sci-fi collection is woefully lacking. Any recommendations? I know theres tons of sci-fi writers out there, it's just trying to get a general feeling of whats hot and not.

In other news, China Mieville's Kraken is a thoroughly enjoyable read.
 
Last Book I read: The Hunger Games (I couldn't put it down and read all 3 books within a week).

Currently reading: The Night Circus
Not sure what to make of it yet, but has caught my interest, but hasn't gripped me like The Hunger Games.
 
Got Praetorian by Simon Scarrow for xmas and its definetely my sort of book, can anyone reccomend me some novelists along the same lines?

I gather bernard cornwell is the big one, any others?
 
Been on a NASA kick recently. Currently reading Moonshot by Dan Parry, about the Apollo program and specifically the Moon landings. Previously it was Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane, an autobiography from one of the original 25 'TFNG' Shuttle Astronauts. That was a terrific book i might add.

Of course, the best of this genre has always been The Right Stuff by Tom Woolf. Read it if you haven't. It'll blow you away!
 
TehBluebear said:
*snip*
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Try the Inhibitor Trilogy by Alastair Reynolds. I thoroughly enjoyed the premise, characters and scale of the work.

Pushing Ice by Reynolds is also great although some of his other work is a bit hit and miss.

If you havent read any Asimov then do it!

If you fancy reading some nice enjoyable fantasy then Brent Weeks' Night Angel Trilogy is fantastic. Sex/Violence and a pretty dark sense of humour throughout!

Sanderson's Way of Kings books are sitting on the shelf waiting to be read at the moment but I tend to read Sci Fi and Fantasy in rotation so they will have to wait a couple of weeks until I finish Elantris and then the next bookin my Sci Fi pile.

I have Illium on order at the moment but my stack of new books is growing far faster than I can read them. Im going to need more shelf space at this rate.#

/Salsa
 
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Syph said:
Is that the series that starts with 'The Strain'? Looked at that on Amazon earlier, though it has very mixed reviews.

How have you found them?
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Yeah thats the one, I've actually found them pretty good. Kind of reads like a movie, if that makes sense, which I suppose is not surprising given its Del Toro. I actually wouldnt be surprised if they end up as a movie. Plot is a little predictable in places and the characters have the usual sort of damaged personalities/history that is prevalent in hollywood films, but they are likeable. Particularly Fet, the Ukranian Pest control exterminator. I've completed the trilogy now, I would say the 3rd book was the weakest of the trilogy and the 2nd book was the strongest.
 
Game of Thrones Book 1 at the moment.

Got the first "Hunger games" book for Xmas and may delve into that until I decide if I want to read or watch the next part of Game of thrones.
 
Eames said:
Got Praetorian by Simon Scarrow for xmas and its definetely my sort of book, can anyone reccomend me some novelists along the same lines?

I gather bernard cornwell is the big one, any others?
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Try Ben kane, great writer, if you like Scarrow, you will certainly like his books:)
 
finished recently:

St Michael Great Science Fiction Stories -
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
A Time Of Changes - Robert Silverberg
The Day Of The Triffids - John Wyndham
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

The Cats of The Seroster - Robert Westall

Currently reading:
Berlin Game - Len Deighton

Looking for:
Death Of Grass - Samuel Youd (aka John Christopher 'The Tripods')
 
Currently on holiday with a friend who found a copy of the hunger games, she has read them all and recommended it so am reading this. Around 200 pages in after 2-3 days and its very good so far enjoying it.
 
This might be very uncool but ive just read Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, and whilst not so much a novel but more of a travel log of his travels throughout the states with his dog. Anyone interested in travel and especially travelling through the states i can reccomend this.
 
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