What book are you reading...

I've started reading the Horus Heresy books again after a few years to let it get ahead of me.

Does anyone still read them? The thing I'm finding most irritating about them is the absolute godhood every book bestows upon the title character/legion and how it then makes the others garbage compared to them (only for it to change again as the next book changes focus)

Another irritant is the changing powerscales of everyone every two minutes. One page a marine can kill two hundred unaugmented humans in minutes without a bother, a page later a single human takes out a marine without blinking. One minute a Primarch can destroy a titan without a thought or wipe out a few hundred marines solo, a moment later they are being driven off by small amounts of marines. So random.

I appreciate they aren't "good" books and are just bolter pron and a light read but after just finishing Betrayer and listening to the book turn the previously unbeatable Ultramarines into, essentially, irritating confetti that the Bearers and Eaters just Wade through time and again I finished the book rather jaded with it all.

Has anyone else noticed the above or am I just getting too carried away?
 
Flinkman said:
The Expanse books are excellent, as with everything, so much better than the tv series. Holden and the gang get up to more exciting things in the book, whereas the TV series skips or fluff's a few things due to budget i'm guessing.
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Picked up the first book on the back of this reply.

I only really read at work during my break. Considering how hard going the first season was during the first few episodes, the book flows remarkably well. Done about 80 pages across my last two 30 minute breaks.
 
On the last book (number 14!) of the Arisen series by Michael Stephen Fuchs.
England is the only country to survive in a zombie filled World. Follows an elite team of soldiers trying to find a cure...

Very entertaining, would recommend.
 
I am reading the Fifth Wave series of books.
On the second at the moment "Infinity Sea" which is good.
But its not the finest Sci-fi series I have read. Certainly funny, and full of geeky references to other sci-fi series.

Can any one recommend Star Trek Books?
What series and in what order to read them? To me there looks to be loads and not sure which ones are best to start with.
Big fan if Enterprise, TNG, BS9 and VOY. So any recommended books in those series that include those crews + captains, would be great.
 
I'm reading Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One - Adam Parr/Ross Brawn. Interesting read from an F1 fan perspective. Lots of discussion of Ross Brawn's career, a dialogue between the two, and comparing the Art of War with the experience of working in F1...
 
Is Dune actually a good read? I keep plucking books off the shelf at home (mostly my girlfriend's or ones I've randomly picked up at the charity shop) but am thinking I should really make some purchases. My two favourite books are probably The Stand and Blood Meridian. Have read a few by both authors, keep investigating what SK books to go to next. The Cell sounds interesting.
 
Scam said:
Is Dune actually a good read? I keep plucking books off the shelf at home (mostly my girlfriend's or ones I've randomly picked up at the charity shop) but am thinking I should really make some purchases. My two favourite books are probably The Stand and Blood Meridian. Have read a few by both authors, keep investigating what SK books to go to next. The Cell sounds interesting.
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There is a reason that Dune is considered to be the best selling sci-fi book of all time. If there's a sci-fi version of Lord Of The Rings, it's probably Dune. It dates very little despite being written in 1966.
 
Dennis E Taylor

For We Are Many

Follow up to We Are Legion (We Are Bob).

As a reader of fantasy books a bit of a change (and an audio book at that). Loving it, completely bizarre and out there.
 
Seanoog said:
Can any one recommend Star Trek Books?
What series and in what order to read them? To me there looks to be loads and not sure which ones are best to start with.
Big fan if Enterprise, TNG, BS9 and VOY. So any recommended books in those series that include those crews + captains, would be great.
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anything written (solo or collab) by Peter David is fairly decent. I'm yet to come across anything particularly great as a book, but his aren't cringey like some.

Scam said:
Is Dune actually a good read? ... The Stand and Blood Meridian.
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Yes. Extremely. I don't think I finished Blood Meridian, should probably go back to it. Cormack McCarthy's writing is excellent and wonderfully bleak.

sihartley25 said:
With dune books stick to the originals. the newer ones, House Corrino Bulerian Jihad etc, are rubbish!
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cannot +1 this enough. brian herbert is a tool.

Fluffybob said:
Excession, Iain Banks
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a thousand times this

Squid Vicious said:
That was my first and still one of my favourite Culture books - love the concept of the ship minds and the Culture in general - can't wait to see what Amazon do with Consider Phlebas.
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Excession isn't a good one to start with in that series though - I went Player of Games, Consider Phlebas, all good, then tried Excession and was like 'what the hell is this about and what is going on?'. It is now my favourite and most re-read, although I think Player of Games is objectively a better book, and Look To Windward gets me in the feels every time.
 
Recently finished The Willpower instinct by Kelly McGonigal PhD

After years of watching her students struggling with their choices, health psychologist McGonigal realized that much of what people believe about willpower is actually sabotaging their success. Committed to sharing what the scientific community already knew about self-control, she created a course called The Science of Willpower which was an instant hit for Stanford University.
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Based on her 10 week course she ran at Stanford University, this is an amazingly insightful book on what willpower is, how it works physiologically and psychologically and how to get more of it in your own life. I can recommend this book to everyone, but especially if you have areas in your life you wish you had more control over.




Currently reading Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions

A radically new way of thinking about mental health. What really causes depression and anxiety - and how can we really solve them? Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking anti-depressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true - and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong.

Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today. Hari´s journey took him from a mind-blowing series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin. Once he had uncovered nine real causes of depression and anxiety, they led him to scientists who are discovering seven very different solutions - ones that work.
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Only a few chapters in and the insights are already amazing, not only challenging conventional wisdom but blowing it out of the water. Put down those pills and pick up this book.
 
Anyone have lights recommendations? Looking for something that will clip to something like a headboard and has a decent light. Nothing that will illuminate the room though as people will be sleeping next to me.

Oh and if it's good enough, will also be used to do cross stitching.
 
World War Z - For about the dozenth time and I still can't understand why the morons of Hollyweird thought that making a generic Zombie film and slapping the WWZ title on it would be a great idea. The book is at least eleventy billion times better than the Brad Pitt garbage and I'm actually quite annoyed that Max Brooks jumped abroad the hype train for the movie despite seeing what they'd done to his story. At least Clive Cussler had the decency to rubbish the two movies adaptations of his books when he saw how awful they were.
 
No1newts said:
I've started reading the Horus Heresy books again after a few years to let it get ahead of me.

Does anyone still read them? The thing I'm finding most irritating about them is the absolute godhood every book bestows upon the title character/legion and how it then makes the others garbage compared to them (only for it to change again as the next book changes focus)

Another irritant is the changing powerscales of everyone every two minutes. One page a marine can kill two hundred unaugmented humans in minutes without a bother, a page later a single human takes out a marine without blinking. One minute a Primarch can destroy a titan without a thought or wipe out a few hundred marines solo, a moment later they are being driven off by small amounts of marines. So random.

I appreciate they aren't "good" books and are just bolter pron and a light read but after just finishing Betrayer and listening to the book turn the previously unbeatable Ultramarines into, essentially, irritating confetti that the Bearers and Eaters just Wade through time and again I finished the book rather jaded with it all.

Has anyone else noticed the above or am I just getting too carried away?
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It's not you. The series has a fair few ups and downs In quality. Anything by Dan Abnet is amazing, see his eisenhorn and gaunts books.
Demski, abnett,Thorpe,McNeil are the better writers.

Funny that the heresy books are said to be finishing soon with the siege of terra on the horizon. 45 books and 11years.

Also new Dune readers, God emperor of Dune is where it's at!
 
Dune books, god I loved them so much.

Should never have let (and continue to let) his son Brian butcher the series, the new stuff is tragic.

I've decided to have a swerve in focus and read Brothers Karimov by Dostoevsky which has been sat waiting to be read for about 4 years on my shelf. 100 pages in and it is extremely engaging and readable for a old classic. Thoroughly enjoying it so far.
 
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