The Sword and Laser discussion
What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - June 2012
I just finished Alexander Outland: Space Pirate and it was fan-frelling-tastic! Go read it now! Lots of humor, lots of action, lots of leering - and the setting is very reminiscent of Firefly.
Almost finished with my re-read of Erikson, at Toll the Hounds. In between I've been reading the Wizard of Earthsea books, which I never got to before. Listening to Island of the Sequined Love Nunby Christopher Moore. His books are always good for a giggle.
I'm reading The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company, which I'm done with the first two books. The book is just simply amazing. Its loaded with actions and with character you care about.
Finished Stonewielder by Ian Esslemont.Review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
Moved on to Dust of Dreams - book 9 of the Malazan series and I'm on the home stretch.
David, it looks like you put your review in your comment, because I couldn't find the "like" button. The Malazan series is on my soon to read.
I've been listening backwards through the podcasts (I'm back to #53 now). How did I manage to miss the last 5 novels in the Vlad Taltos series? I am temporarily setting aside Death Is a Lonely Business for Issola.
I just finished Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig, highly recommended if you prefer a little horror (Palahniuk, King) in your fantasy. The main character is amazing. I really need to get going on my Hugo nominee reading since I have to submit my votes by July 31.
I'm also halfway through The Orphan Master's Son, and enjoying it, although it is a slow burn.
I recently finished Salsa Nocturna (ebook), which was fantastic. I also finished Dead Witch Walking (audiobook), which I liked and plan to continue the series.I'm currently reading ::deep breath:: (I leave books all over the house so I can just pick up whatever one is nearby and read when I am in the mood) Gabriel's Ghost (ebook), Grimspace (paperback), Unshapely Things (paperback), Indemnity Only (paperback), Leviathan Wakes (audio), The Man Who Crossed Worlds (ebook), and Doomed: Tales of the Last Days (ebook on my phone--collection of flash fiction stories so perfect for waiting in line).
Aloha wrote: "David, it looks like you put your review in your comment, because I couldn't find the "like" button. The Malazan series is on my soon to read."Fixed. Glad you liked it.
I am currently reading Gotrek & Felix: The First Omnibus. Not being very interested in the Warhammer Universe, I am surprised how much I like this. I love how William King made each chapter into something of a vignette. My next book will be On the Oceans of Eternity. I want to finish the trilogy, but I am not at all excited about reading another S.M. Stirling book. The characters feel flat and 2 dimensional. The writing feels like a cold race to a predictable and uninspired ending (hopefully he puts a twist at the end of this trilogy). For the sake of closure, I am ready dive in and get'er done.
I abandoned Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti a few weeks ago after about 15 pages because I wasn't feeling it. I loaned to to a guy I met on a flight last night, he liked it enough that he took down the name so he could buy his own copy, so I'm giving it another go on his recommendation.
I like it much more this time around.
Still have not finished Tigana, but I went ahead and started The Way of Kings. After The Magicians and Tigana, I need a boost to rejuvenate my interest in the Sword genre :)
Hey,I'm Sean, new to the Goodreads forums. But this month Im playing catch-up with Hyperion and I'm preparing for the upcoming "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hinter" movie with the book that it's based on.
Expecting to be appaled by the historical innacuracies of this abomination of historical fiction I actually found myself loving the generally that abe lincoln aquires by becoming a vampire hunter.
Expecting to be appaled by the historical innacuracies of this abomination of historical fiction I actually found myself loving the generally that abe lincoln aquires by becoming a vampire hunter.
About done with Redshirts. Before that, I read Coyote. What a great book. I gave it a second chance after listening to the audio version - didn't like that one. Can't wait to read book two of that series.
Back tracking to cover everthing I've finished in June up to this point:Star Wars X-Wing Wraith Squadron
Star Wars X-Wing Iron Fist
Star Wars X-Wing Solo Command
The Order of the Stick: Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales
Ready Player One
I had hoped that Ready Player One would have lasted until the July book was officially announced, but I ended up blitzing through in two days.
I'm working through The Third Policeman at the moment on my daily commute. I'd recommend it to anyone: it's lyrical and surreal and mind-bending and . . . bicycle-filled.
Checking out The Long Earth. Seems fun. Remember, the plans for the Stepper are on the internet. Anyone got a potato?
Tamahome wrote: "Checking out The Long Earth. Seems fun. Remember, the plans for the Stepper are on the internet. Anyone got a potato?"
i got a five pound bag, Lets go traveling!
I just grabbed these too.RT @mightymur Reminder- all of my books are free as one big download for one week more. http://bit.ly/IjuOAj
Tried to read The Talisman but gave up on it due to the slow passing and excessive pages of nothing but descriptions. I finished Debris and The Icarus Hunt both of which were enjoyable reads.
Now I am working on The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses and Historians which is interesting but I may start take a break and start another novel to tide me over until Caliban's War comes out for Kindle on Tuesday.
currently reading The Space Merchants with a view to read The Martian Chronicles, Extro and Broken Sword
Trying Deadline by Mira Grant again- i liked the first one but was in a rush when i started this last time and had to give it backto the library. I need to get through the Hugo nominees so I vote informed. :)
Finished Stranger in a Strange Land. This is an obvious satire based on the author's strong opinions. I prefer the strong opinions in fiction to be more hidden in the way of Alice in Wonderland, but I enjoyed the book. Some of his opinions I grok, some I don't.I'm in the second half of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, which is replacing House of Leaves as my number 1 favorite book. I'm going to have to pick up some more aspirins to finish this book. Maybe I can repeatedly hit my head with the thick tome whenever a headache pops up as I'm pondering on these things.
Starting Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, which looks like I will be the discussion leader for due to my lack of attention to forum rules. I always do things like that, like suddenly finding myself a moderator of a PNR group, which became a place for x-rated stuff....But I believe in free speech and women's libidos.
Though I've had very little time to read over the last 3 months (the end is in sight!), I'm only 2 books behind on my goal of reading 52 books this year. I find that to be amazing.As I posted elsewhere, this past week I decided to put down Tigana for the time being. It's just not doing it for me and I feel like I'm forcing myself to read it. I was reading the paperback and listening to the audio and made this decision while in my car driving to a doctor's appointment on Monday.
Immediately, I switched to listening to One Dog Night. I'm a sucker for quirky mystery-thrillers and the Andy Carpenter series is my favorite. It's made even better by Grover Gardner's fantastic narration. I finished that up today (my first time doing any appreciable driving since Tuesday) and enjoyed it as much as the others in that series.
I'm still working through Endymion. I'm about 3/4 through. It's not that it's a bad book (it's not) or that it's not grabbing me (it is), but the only time I've been at home recently is to sleep and I'm finding myself so tired when I get home that I can't even spend more than 5 minutes before I fall asleep. I'm actually hoping to finish it up today.
I saw that Leviathan Wakes won the poll for the July book and since I've had that on my Kindle for awhile, I'll join in the book discussion. I'll be traveling starting at the end of next week for a couple weeks with a potential for no internet connectivity, so I might not join in on the conversations until the end of July...but that should give me time to read when I'm not working. :) I've loaded up my iPhone and Kindle with audiobooks and "print" books so I'm well-stocked.
Finally, based on Luke's review and a lot of peoples' recommendations, I'm going to try to listen to The Stand (it's narrated by Grover Gardner which is a good start...). I figure I'll have PLENTY of time on planes to get some listening done. :) And if I don't like it, then at least I'll have plenty of other books on my iDevices.
I finished The Killing Moon, which had a cool system of magic, but I didn't engage with the characters as much as Jemisin's 100,000 Kingdoms series.I'm into Discount Armageddon, and the latest Powers novel Hide Me Among the Graves. Also over a third through [Leviathan Wakes] audio--I'm not crazy about the narrator's voice, but the story is heating up. I'm working on my Hugo reading too.
Aloha's making me want to go back and reread GE&B; I think I stopped around the Incompleteness Theorem last time, twenty years ago.
Kvon, that's a great memory, remembering where you left off in GEB. I'm on Chapter XI, Brains and Thoughts. The function of the brain is very interesting to me. I had wanted to be a neurosurgeon when I was a kid, but my mom thought it was silly nonsense. A person who's in the BMI field thought Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines and How It Will Change Our Lives is not for the layman. It's a good thing I didn't know that because I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Sometimes it's good reading something because you want to read it instead of having to read it. I want to read Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, and I'm enjoying it.
I'm filling my one non-fiction book per month quota with Generation Kill. It's about the First Recon Battalion with were at the fore of the invasion on Iraq. I just rewatched the HBO mini-series, I'm hoping that the book will give a little more context.
I'm re-reading an anthology of Hellraiser-based short stories. Oh yeah a Sandman-based anthology of short stories as well.
Just finished Issac Newton by Gluick. Also reading The Fur Country by Jules Verne. More adventure than SF.
Just finished Steven Eriksons Dust of Dreams. Book 9 of the Malazan series. One left to go.Review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Just finished listening to Ready Player One and started Redshirts partially because Wil Wheaton is narrating. Working on Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age is Revolutionizing Life, Business, and Society and Tau Ceti on Kindle.
Still hacking my way through A Feast for Crows, came very close to lemming recently. Still fighting through though.
Finished Elantris, which I loved and I'm now reading The President's Vampire, second book of the Nathaniel Cade series...and it's kicking ass, as expected!André
Just joined this club today, I'll try to power read Tigana as fast as humanly possible. In the meantime, I have been devouring Death Masks by Jim Butcher. Wizards, Chicago, comedy, battles; need I say more?
Finished reading "War and Peace" (an excellent book) and now working through "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" by Terry Pratchett.
Yamil wrote: "I got curious about China Mieville so I'm reading Embassytown. I'm listening to it. I didn't realize it was such heavy material. Still, it's a fascinating world.
I'm also going through Blue Remembered Earth, The Chronological Man: The Martian Emperor, and Glow (which I got in a GoodReads giveaway).
Up next it's Leviathan Wakes for the July pick.
Currently reading Venus by Ben Bova; not overly fond of it but don't dislike it either. I picked it because I hadn't read anything by him in about a decade and found it when I was unpacking one of my many book boxes I packed up several moves ago...
I'm re-reading Farmer's Riverworld series. Seems I do more re-reading with my Kindle than buying new stuff.
Just finished Caliban's War and it was excellent. I liked Leviathan Wakes but this took it up a notch. I almost wish I was a slow reader so I could have enjoyed it longer.
I just finished all the books in Glen Cook's Black Company series. All the books were epic, but especially the last book, Soldier Lives.
I'm on P. 495 of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Yay, halfway through! This book is amazing in the way he uses various ways of illustrating a point. I'm entering a chapter in which he uses biology to illustrate how the mind uses chunking to process and make sense of information. This book is definitely for people who are educated and exposed to a variety of fields to really appreciate it. I'm glad that I had enough biology to understand what he's talking about when he's using DNA sequencing to illustrate his point, along with familiarity with art, abstract math and music. This is where my lack of desire to narrowly focus my learning in one area helps.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
John Carter of Mars (other topics)Llana of Gathol (other topics)
Leviathan Wakes (other topics)
Caliban’s War (other topics)
Leviathan Wakes (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ian C. Esslemont (other topics)Elizabeth Moon (other topics)
David Weber (other topics)
William Gibson (other topics)
Michelle Sagara West (other topics)
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I'm reading Don't Sleep, There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungleas a favor to my brother. He has to read it for class...
Also reading Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 and Swamp Thing, Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing.