What book are you reading...

divebod · 4 Jun 2019 at 12:31

Finished 'He' by John Connolly about Stan Laurel - really enjoyed it. Also 'The First Casualty' by Ben Elton, a murder investigation in the trenches in 1917, also enjoyable

MadMossy · 4 Jun 2019 at 12:49

Finished Delta-V by Daniel Suarez yesterday, good book, recommended if you like spacey stuff. Think it would make a great screen adaption for a TV series or even a Movie although I doubt they could get the whole story condensed to 2 hours.

IvanDobskey · 4 Jun 2019 at 17:23

Just about to start children of ruin. Hopefully as good as children of time.

dodg3rman · 5 Jun 2019 at 09:22

Finished 'Pegasus Bridge' last night , just in time for the D-Day commemorations. I'll probably have a read of Ambrose's 'Citizen Soldiers' next. I do love reading first hand accounts of conflicts

hood1971 · 5 Jun 2019 at 16:23

JunglistE said:
Not necessarily reading it but I've recently been recommended a audiobook called Blood Meridian.

It seems to be nothing but mindless killing so far. I like it.

Cormac McCarthy is brilliant - writer of No Country for Old Men and The Road, amongst others.

TonyM19 · 5 Jun 2019 at 19:02

Just finished Kellanved's Reach - Part 3 of the Path to Ascendancy Malazan prequel series. Tied some loose ends off but left quite a few dangling. Are there plans for another in this series? I presume that sales will dictate that. I did find it a bit rushed and not as densely layered as the original series - my complaint about all the Paths to Ascendancy books. Might just be me though.

No1newts · 9 Jun 2019 at 00:16

TonyM19 said:
Just finished Kellanved's Reach - Part 3 of the Path to Ascendancy Malazan prequel series. Tied some loose ends off but left quite a few dangling. Are there plans for another in this series? I presume that sales will dictate that. I did find it a bit rushed and not as densely layered as the original series - my complaint about all the Paths to Ascendancy books. Might just be me though.

It was written as a trilogy but I felt like you there was a lot more to tie up. I really hope there's another trilogy though as there are a lot of threads that could be closed off before Erikson picks up the tale in Gardens of the Moon.

ninezerofive · 9 Jun 2019 at 00:37

I bought a Bible, always wanted to read it

Meridian · 9 Jun 2019 at 10:26

ninezerofive said:
I bought a Bible, always wanted to read it

"Any apparent resemblance between characters in this book and real people is entirely coincidental..." Personally I have the KJV, the only proper version in English.

I find myself with a lot of reading time now, as my commute is 45 minutes each way on the Metro, usually with a seat. That means I can't afford to buy all new books, so I'm working my way through some old stuff. Mainly I'm reading all the (adult) Discworld books from the beginning - the last one I read was Making Money. My feeling remains that Peak Pratchett was Lords and Ladies, and Men at Arms. After that there was a slow but steady decline, as issues beat our humour.

I also reread "Lord Valentine's Castle", aka Robert Silverburg does fantasy and show the the youngsters how it's done. The successors were never up to much, and came close to milking the idea, but the original is a great book. I've now donated all the new books I've been reading, so can't remember what they were - which indicates how memorable they must have been. The one exception was "Nevernight" by Jay Kristoff. It was very derivative, but then so are the vast majority of fantasies. This was essentially Arya Stark in Scott Lynch World. But well done. It was also, annoyingly, first of a series, which is not made clear. But it is a stand-alone.

"Next up is "Austral" by the under-rated Paul McAuley.

sleazy · 10 Jun 2019 at 11:00

Picked this up the other day.......

GiraffePencils · 10 Jun 2019 at 11:14

Just finished Count Zero
Which was good but I would say I preferred Neuromancer.

Started 'Endangered Species', the collection by Gene Wolfe

ninezerofive · 10 Jun 2019 at 12:54

Meridian said:
"Any apparent resemblance between characters in this book and real people is entirely coincidental..." Personally I have the KJV, the only proper version in English.

Went to Canterbury, had to bring back a souvenir

sHo0sH · 10 Jun 2019 at 13:30

Onto the second book of Red Rising saga - absolutely hooked.

PlacidCasual · 10 Jun 2019 at 13:42

Meridian said:
I find myself with a lot of reading time now, as my commute is 45 minutes each way on the Metro, usually with a seat. That means I can't afford to buy all new books, so I'm working my way through some old stuff. Mainly I'm reading all the (adult) Discworld books from the beginning - the last one I read was Making Money. My feeling remains that Peak Pratchett was Lords and Ladies, and Men at Arms. After that there was a slow but steady decline, as issues beat our humour.

I know what you mean there are books that are very "Discworld" so I get your Peak Pratchett, but some of the later books like Thud or Night Watch have some different qualities. There are really deep moments of pathos in some of the later books that aren't as focussed or clever in the earlier books.

Personally I find the pre-Guards Guards books fun but the sequence that follows are some of his best. The later books have more restrained plotting but there is some better writing. Love them all, only 4 or 5 books from having a complete collection of 1st 1st Harbacks.

RobDogDog · 17 Jun 2019 at 15:24

I'm about a third of the way through Expanse 6, Babylon's Ashes. I've seen that it's one of the less popular of the series but I'm quite enjoying it. Lots of different character perspectives this time but I think because I've read the series pretty much back to back (the odd interval book) I'm not finding it difficult to follow.

I've had a sudden urge to read the Hellblazer comics after seeing how fantastic a character Matt Ryan has potrayed Constantine to be. Are they any good though?

PlacidCasual · 17 Jun 2019 at 15:53

I'd like to know that about Hellblazer too. I'm reading the Lucifer comics at present bit by bit and quite enjoying them after Sandman.

Also just started Sapiens, not got very far but I'm finding the style easygoing with a nice balance of the science and narrative. I can understand why it did so well. I haven't finished Blood of the British by Oppenheimer which is quite a lot heavier, still enjoyable but you have to really pay attention. Sapiens is flying by in comparison.

pepp77 · 17 Jun 2019 at 15:54

Currently working my way through the Gone Series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_(novel_series)), just started book 4.

SixTwoSix · 17 Jun 2019 at 16:39

Steampunk said:
You have two choices - gird your loins and keep going, or take a break with something lighter to give your brain a rest. The books are linked with a thread of continuing the stories of characters and stories set in the same universe, but you might get through half a book of what seems like a separate story before you realise where the link is to the one before. The stories are more like a web rather than a linear progression, so they can feel standalone, but set in familiar places. Each book can seem like something new, but it's set in the same universe, and the amazing world building just continues again and again with new characters and links to what has come before.

I read them consecutively as they were published, so I did get breaks, but it may be easier to read them together as it holds the story and universe in your head. If I took breaks, I would probably intersperse the Revelation Space books with short story anthologies just to put a different, less dense style of reading in my head for a while. If you want to stick with Reynolds, try some of the more standalone of his books that are set at a different time, such as the two Prefect books, or Chasm City. While technically a standalone, it was the book published after Revelation Space, and pretty much takes place at the same time, but on Yellowstone, so you get that world built for you.

Wiki has a list of his novels, and I would say they are all worth a read, but his weakest are the Poisidon's Children trilogy, and Terminal World, as they didn't particularly grab me, but everything else is worth a read.

So finished Revelation Space last week but didn't post straight away as needed a few days to digest. On reflection it's one of the most rewarding books i've read in many years. A wholly satisfying ending and look forward to reading more at some point.

I literally don't have the mental stamina to read another of his books immediately so i've gone onto Children Of Time and it's almost light reading by comparison.

In regards to Children of Time, i'd never thought reading about spiders and ants could be so utterly engaging and addictive.

Steampunk · 17 Jun 2019 at 17:29

SixTwoSix said:
So finished Revelation Space last week but didn't post straight away as needed a few days to digest. On reflection it's one of the most rewarding books i've read in many years. A wholly satisfying ending and look forward to reading more at some point.

I literally don't have the mental stamina to read another of his books immediately so i've gone onto Children Of Time and it's almost light reading by comparison.

It's quite an experience isn't it? You feel like you've climbed a sci-fi Everest. You've accomplished something incredible, but it's left you exhausted. It makes you wonder what it was like for Reynolds to actually conceive and write these books.

SixTwoSix said:
In regards to Children of Time, i'd never thought reading about spiders and ants could be so utterly engaging and addictive.

It is very clever, especially way you skip down through the spider generations, with the parallel story of the human generation ship and the one main character there skipping down time not through his children, but through the suspended animation freezers.

I'm probably going to start the sequel in the next few books I've got lined up to read.

SixTwoSix · 18 Jun 2019 at 08:08

Steampunk said:
It's quite an experience isn't it? You feel like you've climbed a sci-fi Everest. You've accomplished something incredible, but it's left you exhausted. It makes you wonder what it was like for Reynolds to actually conceive and write these books.

You've firmly hit the nail on the head, does feel like an achievement. I have no idea where someone gets the inspiration for ideas like this, while there are recognisable elements throughout the novel, it's so far removed from previous sci-fi i've read to feel almost wholly unique.

Steampunk said:
It is very clever, especially way you skip down through the spider generations, with the parallel story of the human generation ship and the one main character there skipping down time not through his children, but through the suspended animation freezers.

I'd be quite happy to just read an entire book about the spiders/Portia, it's that well written