What book are you reading...

Just finished 1983 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald Wollheim. More sf short stories, these published in 1981/2.

This one was really good. No stinkers, one or two ok-ish, with some excellent stories. I particularly liked the one where a robot was made redundant and had to attend job club before being assigned a new job as a mugger.
 
opethdisciple said:
I finished "The Heroes" by Joe Abercrombie. Although on paper this has the potential to be my favourite of his novel I think it is the worst of the 5 I've read. Not enough actual narrative in the book to make it that interesting. A missed opportunity in my opinion considering some of his best written has been with the Northmen and battle scenes. A whole book dedicated to this should have been epic. Instead it was a disappointment.

However "Best Serves Cold" the book before "The Heroes" was exceptional.
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I'm listening to Best Served Cold (again) at the moment. Abercrombie's books are made even better by Steven Pacey's reading.

I did enjoy reading The Heroes, but I agree it doesn't quite hit the heights of BSC.
 
toshj said:
I'm listening to Best Served Cold (again) at the moment. Abercrombie's books are made even better by Steven Pacey's reading.

I did enjoy reading The Heroes, but I agree it doesn't quite hit the heights of BSC.
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I hear they're adapting this to a movie or TV show.

I can't wait.

Currently making my way through the Discworld series. Just finished book 29 with someone revisiting the past. Great book.
 
I just finished Carrion Comfort, by Dan Simmons. It's about psychic mind-control baddies who, instead of just getting free stuff and loafing about, needlessly kill lots of people and therefore attract attention.

The first half was OK, the second half got worse and worse to the point I was skim reading it.

The heroes are ridiculously good and lucky. The usual US style writing- all the goodies are dead shots, with mates who are former helicopter pilots and so on.

Avoid.
 
I finished Storm Of Steel, by Ernst Junger today.

It's the memoir of a German officer who served in the trenches from 1914-18. He's also a very good writer.

Excellent!

Junger is a national stereotype, but a very capable and dangerous soldier. Extract:

"Leaving aside trifles such as ricochets and grazes, I was hit at least 14 times, these being 5 bullets, 2 shell splinters, 1 shrapnel ball, 4 hand grenades and 2 bullet splinters, which with entry and exit wounds, left me an even 20 scars."
 
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Reading the SimCavalier Trilogy by Kate Baucheral.

Enjoying it very much so far, its set in the near future (2040) and is about cybercrime, the possible use of future technology used in the book is very interesting.

I would think many on here would enjoy these books.
 
I just finished Old Soldiers Never Die by Frank Richards. It's his ww1 memoir. It's a fantastic read and pretty funny in places.

Richards was at Le Cateau, the first British battle, and was still on the front line on armistice day. He was on the front line in nearly every major battle of ww1.

It's not a literary book, like Junger's, but the account of a front line fighting Tommy. He spends a lot of time stealing chickens, getting drunk and gambling. It's a brutally honest account of the trenches and nearly everyone he knew died.

Sample:
"(Paddy and Frank) and two young signallers stayed in a shack.. and played pontoon by the light of a candle. After we had been playing for some time the enemy started shelling. Some of the shells were bursting close to the shack and blowing out the candle. One of us would remark "that's a near one" as we relit it...."
 
Finished Famous by Blake Crouch. I quite enjoyed seeing where it went but Crouch struggles with endings at times. Some of his stuff I love, some stuff I think is nonsense. This probably sits somewhere in the middle.

Moved on to The Black Ice, Bosch 2, Michael Connolly. Excellent so far. I just love how the mystery unravels.

Nearing the endgame of Wheel of Time 13 too. It's taken me ages to get through this one, but the second half of the book really picks up and I'm not flying through it.
 
I read Bill Bryson's 'A Brief History...' last year and rather enjoyed it, but have just finished 'The Body: A Guide For It's Inhabitants' and would say I enjoyed it a lot more. It was just more relatable and was actually quite handy to learn about the human body and things we can do to be healthier, as well as hearing about some of the amazing things people did in the past to progress our knowledge of the human body!
 
Just finished The Wheel of Time - Lord of Chaos. The last act had me at the edge of my seat. Just started A Crown of Swords. Things getting really good.
 
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Kyo said:
Just finished The Wheel of Time - Lord of Chaos. The last act had me at the edge of my seat. Just started A Crown of Swords. Things getting really good.
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I've just finished Towers of Midnight, book 13! An up and down book for me. Only Memory of Light left to go now.

Before I start that last journey, I'm going to read Roadwork by Richard Bachman (Stephen King pseudonym) and possibly Joe Pickett book 4. Maybe Berserk Volume 2 too :D.

Still working my way through Bosch 2. Very much enjoying it and Connolly does such a good job of making it so I can visualise everything.
 
Just finished the chalk man by C.J Tudor, was recommended to me, and I really enjoyed it. The author has a great turn of phrase and thought provoking lines are casually mixed in. The mystery has multiple reveals. I'm still kinda new to this reading thing,this is probably my 12th book since I took it up recently in my later life, and I found the pacing great and the characters relatable.
 
I have a stack of books to get through right now.

The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson and Follow the Money by Paul Johnson are top of the pile.

Then I have a bunch of Chess books to get through as my son wants to play and I want to get better and play too - Modern Chess Openings, Simple Chess: New Algebraic Edition, Logical Chess: Move by Move and Silmans Complete Endgame Course.
 
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Moley said:
I have a stack of books to get through right now.

The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson and Follow the Money by Paul Johnson are top of the pile.

Then I have a bunch of Chess books to get through as my son wants to play and I want to get better and play too - Modern Chess Openings, Simple Chess: New Algebraic Edition, Logical Chess: Move by Move and Silmans Complete Endgame Course.
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Just some friendly advice if you are not doing so already. If your prepping or studying chess books always use a board to help rather than just read it from page to page. It really helps. Chessbase is really good for reference too.
 
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Whilst i was on holiday last month I read Eisenhorn by Dan Abnet, its part of the Warhammer 40k series.

I didn't think it would interest me that much but a friend gave it to me and suggested i give it a read. I honestly cannot remember the last time I read 700+ pages in 10 days :D
 
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