What book are you reading...

After reading the first three Dune books, which I enjoyed immensely, I've decided to continue on my Sci fi journey. Have started re-reading the Iain Banks Culture books, starting with Consider Phlebas. I'm half way and enjoying it so far. It was so long ago that I read it originally I can't remember much of the plot.
 
tangey said:
Finished Edge of Collapse, damn good read. as I got to 85% or so I was wondering how it was going to resolve in the rather short time left, and now I find its book 1 or 7. ow I thought 15% was a bit short to finish, but clearly there is a LOT left in this story.

Very easily read and well written I thought. I'm glad there is a whole series to get thru.
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I'm now towards the end of the 4th book, and the storyline is really good and really invested in the main chars. 7 books in the series
 
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AndyCr15 said:
I just finished Last Light (Nick Stone book 4) and I'm wondering if these are getting worse? I really enjoyed the first one, but maybe it was the realism and the weird chemistry with the kid while trying to do what he had to do. This 4th one, the pacing seemed slower than normal. Has anyone gone through the whole series? Should I just stop now or do they get better again? I guess it's just his style, all the detailed description, but as I say, I did enjoy it earlier.
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Today I finished 'Liberation Day' (Nick Stone book 5) as I'd bought it on Audible already, so figured I'd better 'read' it. Nope, I think I'm out now. Of the 12 hour book, I would suggest 3 hours of that were Nick walking about streets doing surveillance. If this book was in a Mission Impossible movie, it would have been maybe 15 minutes. I do love the detail and how real it feels, things always go wrong etc, but it just takes too long for anything of interest to happen. I was kinda looking forward to it ending so I could move on. Such a shame as the first book, with the kid (Kelly) is still one of my fav books so far.
 
Actually having read through the climax of Book One, would say the "Green Man" is closer to Treebeard. Loail is more like a genial Chewbacca!

About 150 pages into Book 2 (The Great Hunt) now which again is a slow start but suddenly gets going. Lots of Aes Sedai intrigue to get through before the action and Rand is acting a bit of a prat!
 
The first time I've got through a book in under 24 hours, finished We Are Legion - Bobiverse #1 and really enjoyed it. I think I enjoyed the start more than the end, but it was generally a fun read. I look forward to the next few.
 
Re reading Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. Can be hard to follow as you have to sound out the words and think about context clues sometimes.

Thousands of years post apocalyptic event , about the new society that has survived and their legends about what the time before the event was like and as you can imagine with a long time oral tradition, how that story mutates and becomes infused with mysticism over many years. Trying to make sense of what's left of the world they've been born into.
 
Finished "Babel" by R F Kuang. Generally i enjoyed it, but I can imagine the right-wingers are going to be going puce if they read it: it's a trenchant and very accurate criticism of Imperial Britain in 1839, and in particular the efforts of some rich traders to provoke what in our world became the first Opium War. For the non-historians here, Britain desperately wanted Chinese goods such as porcelain, but the Chinese had no interest in any British Goods. So the British went to war to force the Chines to allow in opium from India, thus causing massive amounts of drug addiction in the Chinese population.

I also recently read Arkady Martine's "A Desolation Called Peace". Moderately interesting, but far inferior to her first book, "A Memory Called Empire".

Now reading "Sarah Canary" by Karen Joy Fowler. Enjoyed "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" a few years ago, and this was the next thing of hers I saw.
 
Lartyconshayo said:
Re reading Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. Can be hard to follow as you have to sound out the words and think about context clues sometimes.

Thousands of years post apocalyptic event , about the new society that has survived and their legends about what the time before the event was like and as you can imagine with a long time oral tradition, how that story mutates and becomes infused with mysticism over many years. Trying to make sense of what's left of the world they've been born into.
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I read this probably 20 years ago and had forgotten all about it. Thanks for the reminder! I may have to re-read it sometime. I remember it being very good and strange.
It's interesting when authors develop their own spelling and language as part of the story. Can make it tough to follow at the beginning though. I seem to remember clockwork orange was a bit like that, although long time since I read that too.
 
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I've just finished reading Consider Phleabas on my journey to re-read the Iain M Banks Culture novels. Next is The Player Of Games.
On the topic of making new language/spelling as part of the story Iain Bank's 'Feersum Endjinn' uses phonetic spelling for a large part of the book.
 
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rangor gubbins said:
I've just finished reading Consider Phleabas on my journey to re-read the Iain M Banks Culture novels. Next is The Player Of Games.
On the topic of making new language/spelling as part of the story Iain Bank's 'Feersum Endjinn' uses phonetic spelling for a large part of the book.
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Also one I read, like yourself about 20+ years ago. The phonetic spelling takes a few chapters to get used to, but while I can remember nothing of the story I remember the effort it took to read it.
 
I've just finished "The Lost Metal", book 4 of the second era of Mistborn. I loved the first trilogy and was a bit hesitant about these but they're just as good. Some brilliant characters. :D
Now I find that Sanderson is planning third and fourth era series. Third in an "80s computer" era and the fourth as a space opera.
Although I'll probably die before he actually gets that far. :cry:

Now on to "On Basilisk Station", Honor Harrington book 1.
 
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potatolord said:
I finished The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers, last night.

It is a highly regarded literary book.

I didn't enjoy it at all. It is, like many literary books, miserable as sin.
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I read Infinite Jest a long time ago, and did not enjoy it despite it being highly regarded. However, for years and I'd find myself sometimes thinking of it, so despite not really enjoying it somehow got into my brain, which is pretty much what a main part of the story is.
 
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