What book are you reading...

[Destination]

Saturnine, part of the Siege of Terra ending to the Horus Heresy series.
It is superb, I think the best book in the entire series.
Onto to the Fury of Magnus and then Mortis next.
Warhawk will be released later this year, and that'll leave just 2 books until the series reaches the inevitable conclusion.

 

[potatolord]

Tell me how you got on with Admiral Hornblower.

I can't decide which is my favourite. Commodore is great as is Lieutenant Hornblower (the West Indies one?). The TV show is really faithful to the books in most regards.

I have two left- Lord Hornblower and Admiral Hornblower In The West Indies.

Every book has been excellent. Lieutenant is written from Bush's perspective and is set in the Caribbean.

I'm not looking forward to finishing them off, so am padding it out with scifi and a Flashman book.

Flashman is another excellent character- the polar opposite of Hornblower. He is a coward and a scoundrel, but very funny. Give one of those a try, if you haven't already- you won't regret that.

 

[potatolord]

I just finished Flashman At The Charge, by George MacDonald Fraser. Excellent- very funny and well-written. He's a cowardly scoundrel, with no morals. But strangely likeable.

I'll definitely be reading more of the Flashman books.

 

[Shamikebab]

I'm reading the original Mistborn trilogy again in prep for the new one. I'd forgotten how fantastic this series was

 

[Vern1961]

Currently re-reading the LOTR trilogy, about a third of the way through Two Towers. Still good, but can’t help visualising the characters as portrayed by the cast in the PJ movies. Also find quite irksome, Tolkien’s very formal dialogue style (no contractions or idiom) for the majority of the non hobbit characters. What was wrong with using before, rather than ere? Although I wasn’t (sorry was not!) a huge fan of the movies, I can sort of understand why PJ changed the screenplay to sit better with a modern audience and increased the role played by the female characters.

 

[checjb]

"Locked in time" by Dean R. Lomax. The tag line explains it all really: "Animal behaviour unearthed in 50 extraordinary fossils". Covers dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, as well as showing similarities to extant life. Absolutely amazing. Easy to read and utterly captivating. Lomax is up there with Brusatte for easy-to-read paleontology, IMO.

 

[RobDogDog]

The Day it Rained Blood by Anonymous. Part of The Bourbon kid series. The only way I can describe it is like if Buffy and True Blood had a drug binge together. I love it!

 

[DrToffnar]

Just finished Shadows of Self, book 5 in the Mistborn series. Of all the Sanderson novels I’ve read so far this one tried me the most. I genuinely thought I wouldn’t be able to get through it by the half way mark. The plotting is so bizarre and the pacing... well, there wasn’t any up until the final third. It shares a lot of with Well of Ascension in that regard but where I felt that book ran on some cool novelties and revelations, SoS just offered me next to nothing. The ending was interesting and caught me off guard (something Sandersons been able to do consistently so far which is great), but the crisis of faith stuff feels rehashed and I felt he’d already addressed it so well thematically in Hero of Ages.

Ahhh, who knows. Maybe it all comes together wonderfully in Bands of Mourning but this one really killed the momentum for me. I was hoping that the Wax and Wayne novels as a whole where going to be plucky little adventure novels in a world established after the original trilogy, instead Sanderson seems to be building it up to be on a level with them.

I'm reading the original Mistborn trilogy again in prep for the new one. I'd forgotten how fantastic this series was

Aye. I finished them over a month ago and I still think about them several times a week. One of the best conclusions to a fantasy series of I’ve ever read.

 

[potatolord]

Tell me how you got on with Admiral Hornblower.

I can't decide which is my favourite. Commodore is great as is Lieutenant Hornblower (the West Indies one?). The TV show is really faithful to the books in most regards.

Just finished Lord Hornblower, which was as good as the others.

Only one left to read now: Hornblower In The West Indies.

I'll have a look at some of Forester's other books in future, in the hope they are as good as his Hornblower books.

 

[potatolord]

I finished The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King today.

That was a good read, and very short for a Stephen King book.

 

[dave28]

Just started Colony by Rob Grant, I have seen every Red Dwarf series so why not read his book

 

[Lonewolf]

I'd love to be able to pick up a book and disappear into the world of the author but I can never immerse myself for more than a couple of chapters at a time. Any tips on how to stick with it when it comes to reading?

 

[Bickaxe]

I'd love to be able to pick up a book and disappear into the world of the author but I can never immerse myself for more than a couple of chapters at a time. Any tips on how to stick with it when it comes to reading?

You need to find something that grips your attention so narrow it down by genre.

Or find something that doesn't have chapters.

 

[potatolord]

I'd love to be able to pick up a book and disappear into the world of the author but I can never immerse myself for more than a couple of chapters at a time. Any tips on how to stick with it when it comes to reading?

Try books of short stories. At least half my reading time is spent on short stories.

Short stories come in anywhere from 2 pagers to a mini novel, and come in all genres and styles.

 

[Tohrazer]

started the mistborn series recently, have heard really good things!

 

[potatolord]

I finished The Three Arched Bridge by Ismael Kadare earlier. It was ok, not great. A bit disappointing, as I normally love his books.

 

[Mittens]

Roger Zelazny - the chronicles of amber.
I'm finding it very uneven; I appreciate it was written predominantly in the 1970s and I have no problem with that - I like classic fantasy, and wanted to try some of the big names I never got around to (EG Michael Moorcock) but it's quite jarring in places.
As one goodreads reviewer put it, one minute we are talking about "why art thou garbed in those vestments" and the next line is "we need to get out of here or we're screwed, dig?"

if only Rothfuss would finish doors of stone

 

[potatolord]

Roger Zelazny - the chronicles of amber.
I'm finding it very uneven; I appreciate it was written predominantly in the 1970s and I have no problem with that - I like classic fantasy, and wanted to try some of the big names I never got around to (EG Michael Moorcock) but it's quite jarring in places.
As one goodreads reviewer put it, one minute we are talking about "why art thou garbed in those vestments" and the next line is "we need to get out of here or we're screwed, dig?"

if only Rothfuss would finish doors of stone

I couldn't finish that, it was just too long winded for me.

I remember the Elric books being good, but a lot of Moorcock's books haven't aged well.

I find a lot of 70s scifi tried too hard to be shocking and "out there" and neglected telling a good story. Norman Spinrad, in particular, is awful.

I guess it's just my opinion but, having read literally thousands of scifi short stories over the years, quality drops off a lot after the late 60s.

 

[potatolord]

I just finished Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C Clarke. It is excellent- a strong story with a real sense of mystery.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

If you like scifi, it should definitely be on you "to read" list.

 

[melmac]

Mr Mercedes By Stephen King.

Been reading this for the last few days. It's a Stephen King Novel, but a different to his normal horror books, it's a detective novel, part 1 on a trilogy.

I am enjoying it, but, the detectives treatment of Olivia Trelawney is just a stupid, forced plot filler. Which is unlike Stephen King.