What book are you reading...

Just finished the Black Company series, phew! Was tough going in some of the middle parts but finished off nicely :)

What next I wonder :p
 
Meridian said:
Against a Dark Background and Use of Weapons are great, but then it went downhill. All are worth a read, but don't expect any more as good as those ones. As for books like them, there's a whole thread on the topic somewhere.
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Pumpkinstew said:
I thought Excession was as a good as Use of Weapons personally. Look to Windward was also good.

Matter was bobbins tho.
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Hikari Kisugi said:
I loved Use of Weapons
I loved Excession

Against a dark backgound isnt scifi
Feersum engine takes some getting used to in certain chapters
Matter was regarded as pants by many

I liked look to windward
I loved surface detail
And i liked the algebrist
And i liked the hydrogen sonata

What two of the books are you not enjoying?
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Surprised to see Inversions hasn't been mentioned, I had always enjoyed that. Even though it isn't a Culture book, I enjoy all the allusions spread throughout it ;)

I have to say my favourite ones have been (in no order):
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
The Algebraist
Player of Games
Hydrogen Sonata

An honorable mention goes to the novella State of the Art (from the collection also called State of the Art), if only for this paragraph:
"Also while I'd been away, the ship had sent a request on a postcard to the BBC's World Service, asking for 'Mr David Bowie's "Space Oddity" for the good ship Arbitrary and all who sail in her.' (This from a machine that could have swamped Earth's entire electro-magnetic spectrum with whatever the hell it wanted from somewhere beyond Betelgeuse.) It didn't get the request played. The ship thought this was hilarious."

(Also, is it bad that I want to see Use of Weapons adapted into a film with Ryan Gosling playing Charadenine? :o)
 
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Rich_L said:
Just finished the Black Company series, phew! Was tough going in some of the middle parts but finished off nicely :)

What next I wonder :p
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I just finished the second omnibus (books of the south) was good if a little strangely paced at times.

Now reading Coffin Dancer, the second Jeffrey Deaver book and its really enjoyable, a lot more compelling than the first.

Going to attempt to carry on with the Thomas Covenant chronicles after.
 
Took back to Martin Cruz Smith yesterday and read Stalin's Ghost in the Arkady Renko series.

I didn't find this one as enjoyable as its predecessors but it was a nice enough read.

Will start Three Stations (the next in series tonight)
 
I'm on the last Hunger Games book. I started the trilogy a year ago... read the first one and thought it wasn't that good so didn't bother with the rest. However, I picked the second book up again last week for a spot of reading in the sun and I'm enjoying the story more this time around :)
 
FinglisHobbit said:
I'm on the last Hunger Games book. I started the trilogy a year ago... read the first one and thought it wasn't that good so didn't bother with the rest. However, I picked the second book up again last week for a spot of reading in the sun and I'm enjoying the story more this time around :)
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The second one is quite good, and the first. The third one lets the trilogy down. Feels like it was rushed and doesn't make much sense.
 
"The Book of Riley" by Mark Tufo. I really enjoyed his Zombie Fallout novels (all 6.5) and I wanted to stay in that universe a little longer. The 'Riley' books are short novellas really and he's only put out two so far but they're nicely different. Not least because the main character is a female American bulldog.
Once that is finished, I'm going to read 'Timothy' 1&2 (also by Tufo) which look to be about a very bad man who becomes a zombie and the gorey fun that ensues thereafter. :)
 
I started reading Zombie Fallout - its Ok but its all a bit americanised for my tastes.

I switched to The Undead: The First Seven Days by R. R. Haywood. This is a collection of novellas by an amateur and they are really excellent, rip roaring pace, set in twee Britain during a zombie apocalypse. I am on Book 4 now and enjoying every page - can't put it down.
 
Lt_Red said:
I started reading Zombie Fallout - its Ok but its all a bit americanised for my tastes.

I switched to The Undead: The First Seven Days by R. R. Haywood. This is a collection of novellas by an amateur and they are really excellent, rip roaring pace, set in twee Britain during a zombie apocalypse. I am on Book 4 now and enjoying every page - can't put it down.
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I agree that it is very American but then again it is written by an American. :) Personally I love the humour that runs through the whole series and the supernatural (beyond the zombie, of course) aspect is really well done and not something that I had encountered before. I can also recommend the audiobook versions. The narrator is really good!
 
No1newts said:
I just finished the second omnibus (books of the south) was good if a little strangely paced at times.

Now reading Coffin Dancer, the second Jeffrey Deaver book and its really enjoyable, a lot more compelling than the first.

Going to attempt to carry on with the Thomas Covenant chronicles after.
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Yeah for sure, it's a cool world he created though and interesting perspective from the Annalists viewpoint etc.

Haven't read the Deaver books in a while, they are a fun read though nice and fast-paced :D

I keep thinking about starting Thomas Covenant but ended up starting Book 1 of Codex Alera, seems quite entertaining so far, reminds me a bit of Mistborn in the tone and writing.
 
"Among Others" by Jo Walton. Previous book was the first of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, which was enough fun to make me want to read more, but certainly not a great book.
 
Just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I've got a feeling he's going to become one of the most significant authors of our generation. He's doing things with language that I've only really seen Scots authors do.

Now reading The Business by Iain Banks. First Banks book and I'm enjoying it so far.
 
I'm on book 3 of the Live ship traders by Robin Hobb.

I've enjoyed them so far as I've started reading all her work from the beginning,

i'm going to need a break when I've finished this one before i start on the next trilogy... thank you Dan Brown for that break!
 
I've finished Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith and am glad to say it was a lot better than Stalin's Ghost.

I'm now reading We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka who also wrote

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

I suppose it is probably aimed at the female reader but I'm loving.

Really funny.
 
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