What book are you reading...

Steampunk said:
I really didn't like Dead Moon. It just felt rushed and stupid, with characters doing dumb things all the time. Even if you could get past the dumb initial premise, every time a character got killed because they acted very, very stupidly, it just made me roll my eyes. I struggled to finish it because of that.

I thought The Fold was much, much better, and on par with 14. It has a sort of similar feel about it.
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I'm just a sucker for space zombies :D
 
Tombstone said:
I'm just a sucker for space zombies :D
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I actually thought the zombie part was quite good. If you put aside the premise and just say "okay, that's the mcguffin, that's the setup for the fictional universe", I can let that go. It's just all the people doing dumb things and getting themselves and others killed. It just seemed lazy and disrespectful to the both the characters and the reader. Instead of figuring out ways for people to die because they got outnumbered, caught by surprise, out-thought, etc, it was all stupid decisions leading to stupid and deadly outcomes. It's not shocking or clever when Clines just kills yet another member of the ensemble cast by having them try and do something dumb, in a dumb fashion, that gets them dumbly killed.
 
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Just finished Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson. Pretty sure someone recommended it on the Devs forum in reddit. Easy enough read I guess.

Re-reading The List of Seven by Mark Frost. Excellent page turner with Arthur Conan Doyle as the protagonist.
 
Started The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin.

Her Inheritance and Broken Earth trilogies were fantastic, so I have high hopes for this one....although from the beginning it seems a bit of city-dweller lovefest...but I'm only just started.
 
SixTwoSix said:
Dune arrived yesterday, will be starting to power through on my lunch break today.
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About a quarter of the way through and it's flowing so well, there is just one thing that's really jarring me. All the twists, turns and surprises I know from the movie and mini series are laid bare immediately. You know straight away in early chapters that certain people will die, who the traitor to the Atreides is, that Paul is the chosen one...nothing emerges gradually.

Maybe it's a sign of the times it was written and doesn't rely on cheap story telling gimmicks, I suspect had it been written know, all these points would be slowly and painfully teased for big reveals.
 
SixTwoSix said:
How did you get on with this? As I mentioned earlier in the thread, it's one of my favourites of the book series, mainly due to the change of backdrop.
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Yes, thoroughly enjoyed it :) Catching up with season 4 of the show now. There seems to be quite a few threads in the TV version not present in the book. Also started book 5.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Not far off finishing book 4 of the expanse.
Book 5 arrived this morning :)
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Just finished book 5, it was a real change in the series for me, a lot of stuff happens and comes together. This changed my feelings towards one or two characters and groupings. Really good book, the general plot is a bit bleak but you get a lot of time with the Roci crew individually which is great.
 
SixTwoSix said:
I'd hold back on the TV show for now, they've thrown in some stuff from book 5 into season 4 of the TV show.
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I like the way the TV show has rationalised the characters a bit to make it work. So why use the books new character when an old one can do that and combined characters. It's efficient, the books have more plot than the TV show but the TV has been a really elegant way of bringing it together and I can totally understand moving plot points forward and back because they want to keep all the characters in motion in a way the books are happy not to focussing on the more immediate plot. Both are great.
 
PlacidCasual said:
I like the way the TV show has rationalised the characters a bit to make it work. So why use the books new character when an old one can do that and combined characters. It's efficient, the books have more plot than the TV show but the TV has been a really elegant way of bringing it together and I can totally understand moving plot points forward and back because they want to keep all the characters in motion in a way the books are happy not to focussing on the more immediate plot. Both are great.
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Totally agree, my comment wasn't meant in a negative way. Just didn't want @IvanDobskey to have any book parts ruined, especially as the end of S4 has a mahoosive book 5 spoiler. :D

PlacidCasual said:
Just finished book 5, it was a real change in the series for me, a lot of stuff happens and comes together. This changed my feelings towards one or two characters and groupings. Really good book, the general plot is a bit bleak but you get a lot of time with the Roci crew individually which is great.
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I assume one of the characters you mean is Amos? I really like getting to know more about him, he's an intricately complex character which isn't apparent at the start of either the books or the series
 
@SixTwoSix
Learning about Amos was good but my feelings toward Naomi changed. She is quite selfish in regard to Holden high handed. When she doesn’t like who he has become in book 3 she leaves him and although he finds a way out of his problems her thought isn’t to help him find his way just accept the improvement. Book 5 also crystallises my dislike of the belters. In the first 2 books they are much more sympathetic characters, book 3 is neutral but we see widespread selfish murderous behaviour from 4 onwards. I’m really enjoying the series and the changing perceptions on the characters is part of it. I hope book6 sees Naomi develop in a more likeable way.
 
PlacidCasual said:
Just finished book 5, it was a real change in the series for me, a lot of stuff happens and comes together. This changed my feelings towards one or two characters and groupings. Really good book, the general plot is a bit bleak but you get a lot of time with the Roci crew individually which is great.
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First four books were excellent, I like the way each one is different from the last. The writers certainly aren't content to just churn out the same stuff each time. Story arc is really well plotted out too. Only 50 pages into book 5 so far, but I'm looking forward to getting properly stuck into it :)
 
Took a break from The Expanse series (just about to start book 6) and read The Second Sleep by Robert Harris. Good idea for a book (society has collapsed and we are back into a sort of Middle Ages existence) but can't say I enjoyed it tbh. At the end I tought that there was something wrong with my Kindle download as the story ended so abruptly and with so many loose ends
 
Working my way through Wheel of Time book 5. The middle was a drag but it's getting better. The aim is to have the series finished for Christmas.

I'm also going to start going down the Stephen King rabbit hole. I've just got Carrie and Salem's Lot. I tried reading The Shining when I was younger but my reading back then was nowhere near mature enough for it.
 
Just finished The Shadow of What Was Lost, the first of the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington. Get a strong Sanderson vibe from this one, really good start to the series.
 
Just finished Wheel of Time Book 5, Fires of Heaven. It definitely needed an edit in places haha - the middle of the book was a slog and a half. I've just seen that the prologue of Lord of Chaos is 75 pages. Good thing I've got Friday off work! I'm still enjoying myself with the series though.

Think I might read Storm Front (Dresden 1), by Jim Butcher before I tackle the above, just as a proverbial palate cleanser.
 
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