What book are you reading...

PlacidCasual said:
You definitely need to have different expectations when reading classic sci-fi. Been a while since I read Fahrenheit 451 but it is a different beast to say the Expanse trilogy or something by Peter F Hamilton. I'm planning to re-read Brave New World at some point and knowing how thin the book is I know it will be a very different experience to modern Sci-Fi.
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Entirely fair point. I also recently read BNW and didn't enjoy it much. I'm not the biggest sci-fi reader though, anyway.

Blackjack Davy said:
Yeah fahrenheit451 is the temperature at which paper spontaneously ignites its s treatise on book burning and anti-intellectualism in 50's america, peoples expectations have really been dumbed down by hollywood action/sci-fi movies all flash bang boom and brain definitely not required.
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I'm not a good book reviewer but it was like reading a decent story whilst squinting through a frosted glass. I could kind of understand the world he had built, but so much was lacking in clarity, half of the conversations seemed to take place in a dream state. I just thought it was full of flowery language and metaphors that did nothing to either build the world or help the story along. I'm sure it's rated so highly because it vindicates uber book nerds and English language teachers. A decent read, it is not. I'm sure it would have been a better read in it's time, and I enjoyed the last quarter of it but still...
 
opethdisciple said:
OK, I am probably going to get grilled for this but.....

Ursula K. Le Guin...

I recently finished 'The Left Hand of Darkness'. I read it because I am on a big binge of sci-fi books at the moment.

I thought the book was very poor. Maybe 2 chapters in the whole thing that was any good.

Was expecting more. Thoroughly disappointed.

Currently reading 'The word for World is forest'. Another meh book.

I have the 'The Dispossessed' lined up next. I hope it's better.

Honestly I have no idea why 'The Left Hand of Darkness' is so highly regarded.

Poor book. Its hardly even sci-fi.
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Tell me some books you have liked, and I might be able to answer. Although I suspect the answer boils down to: too literary. LeGuin is _right_ up the literary end of SF - far further than most people who read SF go. And out of sight of anyone who uses the term SciFi unironically. (That last bit is not aimed at you, but a general observation.)
 
Meridian said:
Tell me some books you have liked, and I might be able to answer. Although I suspect the answer boils down to: too literary. LeGuin is _right_ up the literary end of SF - far further than most people who read SF go. And out of sight of anyone who uses the term SciFi unironically. (That last bit is not aimed at you, but a general observation.)
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Well I read the Three Body Problem Trilogy before hand and that was pretty good.
 
I abandoned the book about ants halfway through. It was ok, but a little dull.

I just finished Last And First Men, by Olaf Stapledon.

It was hard going, but very imaginative. I think it's one of those books that will stay with me. It covers a sweep of billions of years of man's evolution into the far future, and days with the physical and social changes over all that time.

Recommended if you like very odd scifi.
 
Just about to finish the second GOT book - A Clash Of Kings by George R. R. Martin. It's been a great read, more than 800 pages. Much more background and insight as regards what the characters are thinking and doing and quite a few differences to the TV adaptation, too. Compared to the first book, a few more swearies and mild erotic passages too (not really into dwarf pron). The lurid description of Sansa's first menstrual cycle was too much information as well! A bit uneasy when you have to think unlike the TV show many of the principal characters in the book are around 13 or 14 years of age. But apart from that an excellent story and looking forward to moving on to Book 3 in a day or two.
 
Because it came up in conversation on here, I decided to re-read the Mordant's Need books by Stephen Donaldson - so reading The Mirror of Her Dreams currently.

I wasn't sure how long it had been since I read them last - but the answer to that was revealed by what I used as a bookmark last time around. It was a scratchcard from a promotion to win tickets to the premiere of Catwoman, back in 2004.
 
And how are you finding them? I read the first Covenant trilogy iin my early teens and loved them. I enjoyed the second but didn't think they were as good. Loved Mordant's Need too.
However, I re-read Lord Foul's Bane a couple of years ago and find it preachy, dour and rather 'run of the mill'. Hence, I've stayed away from the rest of the books.
 
The Three-Body Problem - About 75% through and can wait for it to finish. Hope there's a decent payoff, as I've found it pretty dull to this point!
 
checjb said:
And how are you finding them? I read the first Covenant trilogy iin my early teens and loved them. I enjoyed the second but didn't think they were as good. Loved Mordant's Need too.
However, I re-read Lord Foul's Bane a couple of years ago and find it preachy, dour and rather 'run of the mill'. Hence, I've stayed away from the rest of the books.
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Still finding them very enjoyable. It's borderline scary how much I remember despite the near 20 year gap. But there's enough detail being re-filled in that it's not ruining the read.

I loved the first and second Covenant trilogies. But struggled with the third, and never got the last book.

Both sets of books can be a struggle because the central character is very damaged, but in a way which means their actions make you want to scream at them sometimes!
 
I'm about halfway through Leviathan Falls. I couldn't think the authors could build up the expanse story anymore after 8 books but the last book is just relentless!
 
Just finished The Best Of RA Lafferty. A couple of great stories ("Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne" is one of the finest ever scifi shorts, in my opinion), but a lot of meandering, confusing ones as well. It was an effort to finish it, to be honest.

Today I started on Accursed Tower by Roger Crowley, a book about the fall of the crusader city of Acre. I'm 50 pages in and it is just as good as his other books, so far.

I'd recommend any of his books to someone looking for a good history book, with plenty of stabbing and sieges. He's an outstandingly good writer.
 
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