"What are you reading?" thread.
- Thread starter HoboNinja
- Start date
Armor by John Steakly.
I'm really digging it so far. I'd love to see the first part, with Felix, turned into a short film or something. The action was amazing and the way that portion ended blew me away. It really felt like a desperate battle.
I might re-read starship troopers after this. Otherwise I've got a book of Assimov stories I want to get through. I was disappointed that the Half Priced Books I got these from didn't have any copies of Dune. I've been meaning to read that for a while now.
I'm really digging it so far. I'd love to see the first part, with Felix, turned into a short film or something. The action was amazing and the way that portion ended blew me away. It really felt like a desperate battle.
I might re-read starship troopers after this. Otherwise I've got a book of Assimov stories I want to get through. I was disappointed that the Half Priced Books I got these from didn't have any copies of Dune. I've been meaning to read that for a while now.
Been reading "I Will Fear no Evil," the worst Heinlein novel I've ever come accross (extremely disappointing thus far), and "The Portable Atheist," an excerpt book edited by Christopher Hitchens, which is quite thick (seriously glad I have the digital edition, I'm guessing the paper one is a doorstop) but very interesting so far.
I'm currently reading Pillars of the Earth. I'm enjoying it a lot. After watching the series, I bought the book for a few pennies on Amazon. So far (around page 300) I realized they kept about 95% of the storyline about the same as to what was on TV.
After that I'll read the first Game of Thrones book.
After that I'll read the first Game of Thrones book.
I love this book for primarily the Felix content. It's great inter-galactic Ant war stuff. The Jack Crow stuff is meh but moves the plot along. Funny link to this book is that Steakly wrote another book called Vampire$, which became John Carpenter's Vampires. I haven't read that one but evidently the two main characters are Jack Crow and Felix.
Bear in mind, World Without End takes place a couple hundred years after Pillars.
I started The Devil You Know by Mike Carey. I loved the Lucifer graphic novels, so I figured I'd give his first prose novel a shot. Not too far in, but it's setting up to be interesting, and Felix Castor is likably lazy.
Just finished Blood of Elves... just to find out that the next 4 books will take forever to get translated into english... (2012 at the earliest for the next one)... and it actually finishes at what does seem to be exactly 1/5th of the story...
Oh well, i ordered The Last Wish (short story collection), because it is an interesting fantasy world... and i do have the 1st game on Steam... guess it will have to do...
Added at: 23:48
EDIT: Wow, they novelised (sp?) the 2nd game and xp:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft:_Tides_of_Darkness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft:_Beyond_the_Dark_Portal
Oh well, i ordered The Last Wish (short story collection), because it is an interesting fantasy world... and i do have the 1st game on Steam... guess it will have to do...
Added at: 23:48
After the 3nd WC book the blurbs just sounded hackneyed to me... how many of them are there now?
EDIT: Wow, they novelised (sp?) the 2nd game and xp:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft:_Tides_of_Darkness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft:_Beyond_the_Dark_Portal
What'd you think of the Ender sequels?
GasBandit
Staff member
An interesting read, not what I expected... the first book was a coming of age sci-fi wunderkind thing... the next three were philosophical treatises on what it means to be sentient. Li Qing Jao irritated me to no end, and I did not appreciate every chapter beginning with a sophomoric quote from her memoir in the 4th book.
figmentPez
Staff member
Personally I found "Job: A Comedy of Justice" to be the worst of what I've read. At least, while I was reading it. I found it boring and unfocused. In retrospect, though, I'm wigged-out even reading the Wikipedia entry for "To Sail Beyond the Sunset".
Just under half way through "A Dance With Dragons" now. I don't know how I'm going to wait for the 6th book when I'm done.
I also read the first two books in Stephen King's Dark Tower series recently. Still not sure how I feel about that one. Not what I was promised, at all, but I found I still wanted to know what happens next anyway.
I also read the first two books in Stephen King's Dark Tower series recently. Still not sure how I feel about that one. Not what I was promised, at all, but I found I still wanted to know what happens next anyway.
@ @Li3n: I honestly wasn't a fan of the pre Knaak/Golden novels. They were "ok" at best, but everything that Knaak/Golden write, gets put into the game or is used/referenced in Wow, so you can actually "see" the storyline's progression and impact on the world after you read the novels.
I'm sure they're no major pieces of work, but it's good reading for me.
I'm sure they're no major pieces of work, but it's good reading for me.
Necronic
Staff member
Read the Shadow series. From what (little) I know about you you will probably enjoy them a LOT more.
I'm glad this thread got started again. I was looking for it for the past few days. I've done a lot of reading this summer. Largely because for the first time since high school, I don't live within walking distance of work, and so I have plenty of time on the bus to read, and also because I actually have the money to buy books again. Since getting out of school in April I've read:
The Hobbit (again)- Love this book. Love it. I'm going to re-re-re-(Not sure how many more "re"s I need)-read this book before the movies come out again.
The Zombie Autopsies- Actually pretty creepy. One of the better zombie books I've read, for sure.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter-Way better than I expected. I like Grahame-Smith's take on vampires, and even though the vampire to slavery connection is almost too easy, its only because it makes a surprising amount of sense.
Day By Day Armageddon- I read some positive reviews, but the book has many flaws. Its supposed to be a daily journal, but the sentence structure, the analogies used, and the supremely infallible photographic memory all fail to make that premise believable. The only thing that lends believability to it being a journal is the large number of spelling and grammatical errors- which I could have done without, and don't think was on purpose.
The Late Shift- Incredibly engrossing. Obviously I knew how it turns out, but as much as I thought I knew why, I didn't. Its super interesting to see so clearly into the late night comedy world, and I can't wait for his follow-up to come out in paperback at the end of the month. The late night comedy world is very different from 20 years ago, with way more players. How did David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Fergusson, and Jimmy Fallon fit in to the drama between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien?
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows These books, holy crap. THESE BOOKS.
The Gunslinger- This is not what Stephen King says it is. Its close, but its not quite. I don't care for the style in which its written either. The Sentence structures are too.... rhythmic? I don't know. They don't flow nicely, they just keep going and the story stays the same pace, and it makes it more boring than it ought to be. It only picks up in 2 places. At least the book is short.
The Drawing of the Three- I liked this a great deal better than the first one, though it is even less like what King seems to think this series is. Its basically a Twilight Zone episode. I read they had wanted to turn this book series into a movie series but the project got canned. I'm glad. This kind of story would not work, I think. If the series continues in the manner of the second book though, a television series could definitely work.
And now I'm on to A Dance with Dragons-
I might have actually mentioned some of these in the old WHYBR? thread, but I don't think so.
The Hobbit (again)- Love this book. Love it. I'm going to re-re-re-(Not sure how many more "re"s I need)-read this book before the movies come out again.
The Zombie Autopsies- Actually pretty creepy. One of the better zombie books I've read, for sure.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter-Way better than I expected. I like Grahame-Smith's take on vampires, and even though the vampire to slavery connection is almost too easy, its only because it makes a surprising amount of sense.
Day By Day Armageddon- I read some positive reviews, but the book has many flaws. Its supposed to be a daily journal, but the sentence structure, the analogies used, and the supremely infallible photographic memory all fail to make that premise believable. The only thing that lends believability to it being a journal is the large number of spelling and grammatical errors- which I could have done without, and don't think was on purpose.
The Late Shift- Incredibly engrossing. Obviously I knew how it turns out, but as much as I thought I knew why, I didn't. Its super interesting to see so clearly into the late night comedy world, and I can't wait for his follow-up to come out in paperback at the end of the month. The late night comedy world is very different from 20 years ago, with way more players. How did David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Fergusson, and Jimmy Fallon fit in to the drama between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien?
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows These books, holy crap. THESE BOOKS.
The Gunslinger- This is not what Stephen King says it is. Its close, but its not quite. I don't care for the style in which its written either. The Sentence structures are too.... rhythmic? I don't know. They don't flow nicely, they just keep going and the story stays the same pace, and it makes it more boring than it ought to be. It only picks up in 2 places. At least the book is short.
The Drawing of the Three- I liked this a great deal better than the first one, though it is even less like what King seems to think this series is. Its basically a Twilight Zone episode. I read they had wanted to turn this book series into a movie series but the project got canned. I'm glad. This kind of story would not work, I think. If the series continues in the manner of the second book though, a television series could definitely work.
But there's a bit that bothers me. He's walking north. But it says the western sea is on his right and the mountains he just came from (travelling west) are on his left. If the west is right and the east his left, he's going south. I know the Tower is supposed to be messing up time and space, but I think this is just Stephen King not double checking how to read a compass. That, or the gunslinger is delirious with fever, travelling south without realizing it, and Stephen King is setting something up. but if that's the case shouldn't Eddie have corrected him? Or does Eddie just not know his directions well enough to correct him?
I might have actually mentioned some of these in the old WHYBR? thread, but I don't think so.
People who love The Dark Tower tell me if you're not with in by the end of book 2, don't bother. So it may be more of the same from there.
Thing to remember is that even by the end of book 4, King still didn't know where he was going with the series, and didn't make a serious attempt to wrap it up until he got hit by a van and realized he could die without finishing the last three books.
On my own time, Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I can't recommend anything by him enough. He is amazing, and everyone should read his work.
School has me reading a bunch of history things: some interesting work on early farming for my Ancient History class, articles on 20th century wars for my Diplomacy & Conflict in the 20th Century class... In English I'm currently tackling Beowulf (translated, we're not doing any Old English/West Anglo-Saxon, etc)
School has me reading a bunch of history things: some interesting work on early farming for my Ancient History class, articles on 20th century wars for my Diplomacy & Conflict in the 20th Century class... In English I'm currently tackling Beowulf (translated, we're not doing any Old English/West Anglo-Saxon, etc)
My copy of that fell apart before I could finish it. His writing translates amazingly well to a modern audience. I very much enjoyed The Brothers Karamazov.
It's very dark and touches on a lot of themes that Karamazov does as well. I'm nearly done, but school has delayed my progress! (Karamazov remains my favourite novel by him, however. How could it not!)
Eh... what pre Knaak/Golden novels... Day of the Dragon (1st book ever) was Knaak and Lord of the Clans was Golden... only the Last Guardian was by someone else. (and there was that e-book, but whatever)
Then they went all time travel on it...
The books about the 2nd game do sound interesting though... do you know if they retcon a lot?
Necronic
Staff member
That's a fantastic book. It has that weird sci-fi feel that Dune had.
They are totally different books though so it's hard to compare. The Ender series is far more philosophical, and while some of it is fantastic (most of the Speaker for the Dead for instance), a lot of it is a little up it's own tail-pipe (also Ender is such an emo bitch "oh I killed a species boo hoo".)
The Shadow series, on the other hand, is far more political. There's really no high minded ideals or whatnot, it's just a VERY convoluted web of politics that Peter and Bean sort through all the while dealing with some very real and very dangerous personal demons.
Added at: 16:44
I loved the first 3 books, immensely. They were dark and spoke to me at very deep and very frightening levels. Then you get to the 4th book and I started getting the "wait a second...." feeling and by the 6th book there are cyber werewolves fighting vampires with light-sabers. Read the first 3 books then don't read any more.
GasBandit
Staff member
Cool, thanks for the reassurance. Will probably read those when I'm done with Grey Seer.
