What Else Are You Reading? February 2013

[David Sven]

Aloha wrote: "I like Atwood's writing. I enjoyed Oryx and Crake"

I enjoyed it. Very thought provoking.

[Ken]

The Kronos Interference which admittedly could use an editor and maybe another pass through by the author. Just finished Drive to the East which is good, but I'll be glad to get the final two books of this series behind me as I've been with it since the beginning. The book that's really blowing me away right now is Great North Road. 1/2 way through and awesome is an understatement.

[Kate]

Kristina wrote: "
You really liked the movie? It was so different it kinda put me off. My husband got the spiders book for xmas and I'm totally plotting to steal it-he's had long enough to get around to it...."

I think I benefited from having a long gap between reading the book and seeing the film, and so not remembering a lot of my favourite stuff that they took out of the film (though I was a little annoyed that they changed the ending).
Overall I was impressed that they'd managed to make quite a tight focused movie out of a book that was emphatically neither of those things without losing the slacker spirit of the book.

[Misti]

Last night, I finished Deadlocked and will start The Last Colony sometime today. I think I've become addicted to John Scalzi and it's all Sword & Laser's fault!

[Carolina]

Misti wrote: "Last night, I finished Deadlocked and will start The Last Colony sometime today. I think I've become addicted to John Scalzi and it's all Sword & Laser's fault!"

How was Deadlocked? I was very disappointed with Dead Reckoning and even though I enjoy the series I've been hesitant to go on

[Misti]

How was Deadlocked? I was very disappointed with Dead Reckoning and even though I enjoy the series I've been hesitant to go on"

I thought it was kinda meh. I kept waiting for something exciting to happen but it never really did. It's probably a good thing that Charlaine Harris is ending the series with the next book.

[Jimi]

Moonweavers. by. J.T.Savage. good so far

[terpkristin]

Lately most of my time seems to be spent reading ops procedures for work, bleh! But I have been listening to The Rook when I get home and can focus enough to do anything but check email and play video games.

I'm also still stuck/stuck again at around page 50 in Downbelow Station. I tried listening to the audio and the narrator wasn't doing it for me. I'm trying again in print, but I look at the book and then suddenly reading ops procedures doesn't seem so bad...I think I may be lemming this one. A shame I can't just read the second half of the book without missing a bunch of context. I hear it's quite good.

[Carolina]

Misti wrote: I thought it was kinda meh. I kept waiting for something exciting to..."

Bummer. I felt like she started trying to hard to keep the line of the TV series and the books just lost their charm

[Sandi]

I'm so embarrassed to admit that I got sucked into a romance trilogy. Recently, Audible gave away a free copy of The Next Always by Nora Roberts. I don't read romance novels. They're too darned predictable. But, I needed something light, so I listened to it last week. I'm halfway through the last book in the trilogy now.

I read the ebook of The Raven Boys last week too. It was one of the best books I've read in a while. I had to force myself to put it down. I'm having a hard time getting into anything in print now. Ugh.

[Jim]

Right now I'm reading "The Lies of Locke Lamora" (yes I know it was a pick last year). I just finished "Redshirts". I was considering "Old Man's War" when my friend Jack said "I liked it better as 'The Forever War'". I liked Redshirts more than he did (he said he liked Scalzi's posts and blog more than his books) so I was wondering if I would like Old Man's War.

Has anyone else found they didn't like Old Man's War because it was similiar to Forever War (yes I know it's the inverse but I loved Haldeman's book and read it several times).

[Br1cht]

Jim wrote: "Right now I'm reading "The Lies of Locke Lamora" (yes I know it was a pick last year). I just finished "Redshirts". I was considering "Old Man's War" when my friend Jack said "I liked it better as ..."

Ive read them both and I loved them! Regarding your friend......I think that maybe he got confused...Yes they both deal with war and it´s ramafications on humans but that it´s a ripp-off from Haldeman....NO it aint!
Read them yourself and you´ll thank Mr Scalzi;)

[Jim]

Br1cht wrote: "Regarding your friend...I think that maybe he got confused..."

I don't buy it (but then he is a good friend). I rather think that he views stories much more critically than I do. He has a phd in english (specialized in folklore) and had taught assorted english classes at MU for years. I don't see him getting confused by this.

Rather I see him interpreting it differently than I may and expressing his opinion. I've learned over the years that my reading pleasure threshold is much lower than his. Things which entertain me won't pass muster for him for a variety of reasons but knowing what he likes and how it relates to what I like caused me to search out other opinions.

Yours is noted and appreciated. I may look for samples of it to get a feel for it and decide for myself. Thanks. :)

[AndrewP]

Having read both in the last 18 months, I have to agree with Br1cht. Apart from a a few action/battle scenes there is really no similarity whatsoever between the stories of 'Old Mans War' and 'The Forever War'. That's almost like watching Star Trek and saying you liked it better as Star Wars :)

[[deleted user]]

/loots thread

[Serendi]

Jim: Your friend might still have been confused, misremembering somewhere. The Forever War and Old Man's War have elements in common as they're both about Space Soldiers, but they're very different books.