What Else Are You Reading - March 2012 Edition

[Nevan]

Finished Blood Meridian. Judge Holden is one of the greatest characters I've ever met.

[Dana]

I may be a little behind the curve here at S & L but I've been reading thru Cory Doctorow's books. In the past few weeks I've read "Little Brother", "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and am now reading "Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves". I have enjoyed all of them, although "Little Brother" stands out as my favorite so far. I also read the three "James Potter" fanfic books which were much better than I expected. "Geek Mafia, Mile Zero" by Rick Dakkan was very good. The best part of all this reading? All ebooks and all free...thanks to these authors for making these works available !!Little BrotherSomeone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves TownCory DoctorowJames Potter and the Hall of Elders' CrossingGeek Mafia: Mile Zero

[Bree]

Ala wrote: "Read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Bree."

Ok! Quick response means you win. Will start it tonight. :)

[kvon]

Shades of Milk and Honey was a very quick read--for people who like Jane Austen type stories. I want to clean up my half-read shelf, and either finish or lem a couple books, starting with The Half-Made World.

[Stuart]

I am reading Scary Maryby S.A. Hunter

[Kate]

I finished The Real Life of Sebastian Knight last night, somewhat snooze-worthy in places but it had a good ending.
Next up, Grail, the final book in Elizabeth Bear's Jacob's Ladder series.

[AndrewP]

Yesterday I finished up The Lies of Locke Lamora and found myself reading nothing. Wow, have to get back into one or two books today. I think I will read Grave Witch and see what all the buzz is about.
John Carter is out on Friday, so I might reread A Princess of Mars before then. It's in the public domain so it available for free. There is even a free audiobook on Librovox.

[Keith]

On to another Dresden book for me, Summer Knight. Can't wait for more pages of Dresden ogling dames while himself looking like a crazed hobo

[Dharmakirti]

Ala wrote: "Read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Bree."

Yes! And don't stop there. NK Jemisin's The Inheritance Trilogy is excellent!

[[deleted user]]

Dharmakirti wrote: "Yes! And don't stop there. NK Jemisin's The Inheritance Trilogy is excellent!"

Second book is probably the strongest. Third was a letdown.

[kvon]

Kate wrote: "Next up, Grail, the final book in Elizabeth Bear's J..."

Kate, I'd like to hear what you think about Bear's series once you've finished.

[Kate]

kvon wrote: "Kate wrote: "Next up, Grail, the final book in Elizabeth Bear's J..."

Kate, I'd like to hear what you think about Bear's series once you've finished."

Just finished. I loved it. It's not my favourite of her series, mostly because I didn't sort of bond with the characters as much as I have with some of her others, that's not to say that they weren't interesting characters, but their necessarily more alien and often damned unsympathetic. But what really got me in Jacob's Ladder were the ideas. Using science fiction to interrogate the tropes of fantasy works brilliantly, and there's all this unbelievably cool stuff, and the whole thing is so clever...

Ok, it's almost 2am, I'm exhausted and rambling, I'll probably throw up a proper review tomorrow.

[Brad Theado]

I started Wool Omnibus Edition and have fallen in love with it so far. Basic premise is after a nuclear war people retreat into silos built a hundred stories into the ground. And two hundred years later they are still in the silo.

[Jonathan Cate]

Finished Halting State and starting Ender's Game. I'm 50 pages in and already really enjoying it. I'll be with this one soon.

[Rob]

Silvan wrote: "I'm reading Post Captain, the second book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series. I got the audiobook narrated by Patrick Tull who does an excellent job in bringing the charact..."

Did you notice how the names of the admirals are characters in the harry potter novels?

Love these novels, I had to take a break for a while, all that talk of port and toasted cheese made me want to eat.

[AndrewP]

Silvan wrote: "I'm reading Post Captain, the second book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series. I got the audiobook narrated by Patrick Tull who does an excellent job in bringing the charact..."

I looked on Audible and found that for most of the Patrick O'Brian books there are two versions. One narrated by Patrick Tull and one by Simon Vance. I know Simon Vance does a great job but has anyone actually listened to both of them and can make a comparison?

[Jenny]

Another group I'm in is reading Warbreaker. I wasn't planning on reading it but I was able to download it to the iPad for free and I'm so glad I did. When I have the time to read it I really whip through the pages. It's exactly what I'm in the mood for.

[Keith]

Wrapping up Summer Knight and most likely moving on later today to John Shirley's BioShock: Rapture, because it's John Shirley. Never read a movie/video game tie-in, but this one has snared me.

[Noel]

AndrewP wrote: "Silvan wrote: "I'm reading Post Captain, the second book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series. I got the audiobook narrated by Patrick Tull who does an excellent job in bring..."

O'Brian's series is the pinnacle of English literature IMHO. If you'd like a science fiction version/tribute to this series the RCN series by David Drake is terrific fun too.

[Stephen]

I am starting on Bitter Seeds and then I am going to move on to The Coldest War. Figured I would check them out from Audible.

[Noel]

Also reading The Coldest War.This book picks up where Bitter Seeds finished although nearly twenty years has passed and the cold war between Britain and the Soviets is rapidly approaching open conflict. This book brilliantly develops leading characters, especially Marsh, Will and Gretel and skilfully weaves pathos, emotion and atmosphere into a superb and utterly compelling whole.

If you liked Bitter Seeds, you will love this book. If you haven't read Bitter Seeds, you really should read that first because the plot is so skilfully woven through time into the events of Coldest War. But whatever you do, read these superb books.

[Esther]

Reread The Hunger Games before seeing the film with my daughter. A quick enjoyable read.
Started what I thought was paranormal but turns out to be straight romance. Considering DNFing but I feel bad as the author signed and dedicated it!

[Jonathan Cate]

Finished Ender's Game and now moving on to the parallel novel Ender's Shadow.

[Kevin]

I just finished Gil's All Fright Dinerand The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. I enjoyed the first book a lot, but the second book not really. Now Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which could be better, then on to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

[Shane]

I started some books a while ago, but classes have kept me busy. Now that that's almost over I'm getting back into my reading.
Currently I'm reading:
The Measure of the Magic (Legends of Shannara 2) by Terry Brooks
Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth by Christopher Golden
The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive 1) by Brandon Sanderson
The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind
The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles 2) by Patrick Rothfuss
and for a bit of non-S&L flavor, Naked Heat by "Richard Castle"

And yes, I am actually reading them all at the same time. I just pick up whichever one I'm in the mood to read at whatever moment I get some free time to do so.

[Kam]

I'm currently working my way through, and trying very, very hard not to lem, The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco. There are bits of it that are good, but there are times when I can't stand the "protagonist." Will get through it as soon as reasonably possible without trying to just rush through it, and then I'll get to Crucible Of Gold.

[Ken]

Just finished the last book in Ivan Doig's Montana trilogy (not that I've ever been to Montana.) So, just random reading until S+L comes up with something that hooks my brainstem. Probably Harry Turtledove in the meantime.

[Denis]

starting up on The Way of Kings Part Two (I absolutely loved the first part ;) )

Also reading Aftertime as a snack between meals ;)

[John]

Now that I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora maybe I can finally finish Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America. But I also started to re-readA Princess of Marsto refresh my memory before going to see the movie.

[Stuart]

I am reading Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

[Kate]

I'm about half way through The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov, which is a novelisation the somewhat tragic life of Vladimir Nabokov's younger brother.
It's very slow so far, and everyone is unlikable, but it's well written enough that I'm enjoying it anyway.

[Joseph]

Finished A Cruel Wind: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire and went straight into A Fortress in Shadow: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire.

[Procrastinador]

I'm reading The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton. At first I was like, "HE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE" due to all the rich details of the spaceships and worlds but after the first 200 pages, I'm enjoying it more, now being familiar with the universe. It was a bit of a slow and confusing start but as the story is moving along and you see all the different players coming into action, it's becoming very interesting.

André

[Alterjess]

Finished Empire State (bleh), now onto 1Q84 (already SO GOOD).

[Jenny]

I've started reading Nightlife on my Kindle.

[Diego]

I am finishing re-reading The Hunger Games for the upcomming movie, after that, I have The Dresden Files and The Assassin's Apprentice.

[Kate]

I started The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan, which has been getting some rave reviews. It's pleasingly twisty and satisfying my love of unreliable narrators.

[Josh]

I recently finished Wool (the Omnibus edition), by Hugh Howey. I loved it and would definitely recommend it for a Sword and Laser pick. I finished Mockingjay today and felt it could have been better. Other than that, I'm into the third Game of Thrones book and I'm really liking it so far.

[Been]

Finally finishing reading Throne of the Crescent Moon as my alt. pick. It really shows how much my reading has shown down recently when it takes me so long to get through a book that's not all that large.

In general I really enjoyed it. As the few other people who read it have said, it was a good read. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was something a bit different and was generally quite enjoyable. I did hate the final showdown, but the ending overall was good so I'm not particularly annoyed with it.

[Joe Informatico]

Reading a really good non-fiction book, At Day's Close: Night in Times Past. It basically relates what people in pre-industrial Europe and the American colonies did at night. It mostly covers the 14th to 18th centuries, with a particular focus on the 16th and 17th. It's really changing my perceptions of historical eras.

[Brandon]

I just finished A Madness of Angels,The Midnight Mayor and The Neon Court. The first one was a bit hard to start because of the descriptive text and the I\we changes but it made sense and found it a great series with a wonderfully unique magic system.

[Joseph]

Finished A Fortress in Shadow: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire by Glen Cook and started An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat, a collection of short stories set (more or less) in the Dread Empire world.

[JRush]

Finished up The Lies of Locke Lamora and WWW: Wake. I started Revelation Space on audible and half way through The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.

[Zach]

I just discovered sword and laser about a month back from Felicia Day and was looking at the back catalog for some good reading material and started upon Ready Player One. I'm about 60% of the way through now. Really enjoying it.

[Jonathan Cate]

Finished:
Ender's Shadow - Great
A War of Gifts - Meh
13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time - Pretty good science related book

Started:
The Picture of Dorian Gray

[Rob]

Halfway through the second Feed book and I am about to stop reading. All the characters seem to be whiney.

Has anyone read the Oath of Fealty? The third book is tops on the audible customer list.

[Rob]

Completed the star carrier series and now reading the LZR-1143 series.

[Ken]

Just finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which was good, but not great. Just started The Name of the Wind which I'm not far enough into (~10%) to rate, but I'm liking it so far.

After that? No idea.

[Sean]

Just got a big box from Amazon with the latest installments of the manga I'm following. On the sci-fi side of things, there's:

A Certain Scientific Railgun 3
Gunslinger Girl Omnibus 4
Amazing Agent Luna Omnibus 3
Is This a Zombie?, Vol. 1 (I don't know why, but when I see that title, I imagine it being said by a New York Jew -- "You call this a zombie? Oi vey!")

In non-SF, there's Young Miss Holmes being the adventures of Sherlock Holmes Cuter Niece and Bunny Drop 5 which I'm reading despite already knowing the unfortunate turn the series takes.

[Joseph]

Finished An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat and started Reap the East Wind, the first book in the last cycle of Glen Cook's Dread Empire series.