"What are you reading?" thread.
- Thread starter HoboNinja
- Start date
Googled him just now. From the picture alone it's clear who his father is.Strange Weather by Joe Hill
I am about half way through and it's good so far. Just wiki'd the author and found out who his dad is.I had no idea.
I had heard his son Owen was a writer, but missed that his other son was a writer with a pseudonym.
I liked Strange Weather, especially the first story.
I am reading the first book of The Invisible Library series. So far, it's interesting. I like the world-building and chaos stuff. Neat idea so far.
Here's what Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien is reading:
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/01/15/j-r-r-tolkien-reads-from-lotr/
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/01/15/j-r-r-tolkien-reads-from-lotr/
Reading the first book in The Expanse series. Book one has a wait list at our local library. It's a fun book.
I remember you liking it Dave. I just now got my hands on it. I forgot I was on the wait list for it.
GasBandit
Staff member
I like Scalzi, but even he has his off moments (*cough* Zoe's Tale *Cough*)
GasBandit
Staff member
That's for the best.
It's literally The Last Colony, but retold from the first person viewpoint of Zoe, the 17 year old daughter of John Perry and Jane Sagan. I couldn't even get more than a couple chapters into it.
I'll say this much, it definitely accurately captures how irritating it is to deal with teenagers.
I'm just about to finish up the newest book in that series, it's very interesting and I'm not completely sure where it's going.
I just started The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. I loved his Lightbringer series so far, so I decided to read more books by him while waiting for book #5 to come out.
Dave
Staff member
Good series!
I really liked the Takeshi Kovacs novels by Richard Morgan. So, I ran out of stuff to read on hand and decided to pick up some of his other novels. I read a bunch of reviews about his fantasy series A Land Fit for Heroes and saw a lot of middling reviews. Lots of complaining about being force fed agendas and the like. Oh, the main character is gay and Richard Morgan is no less graphic with those sex scenes than he is with the straight sex scenes in the Kovacs novels. Of course, people defend their distaste by claiming that the scenes in The Steel Remains would be no less uncomfortable if they were hetero, but you don't see a lot of bitching about the sex scenes in the Kovacs trilogy. Made me want to read the book more. Only a few chapters in, but I'm already digging the pace and the world building.
I'm about a third of the way through "Abbadon's Gate", the third of The Expanse novels. It's excellent so far.
I also recently read "War of the Wolves" by Bernard Cornwell, the latest installment of his Saxon series, which is the basis for the series "The Lost Kingdom". Both this one and The Flame Bearer are different than most of the previous works because Uhtred isn't saving the Saxon realm from the Danes or the Norse, so much as he is pursuing more personal goals. There's a bit less of the "Forrest Gump" effect (ie a fictional character somehow being at all of the major events of their time without being part of the historical record) as such. Also, Uhtred is no longer the hot-blooded, glory-seeking warlord of his youth, but an old man, a grandfather uncertain of his legacy. I heavily recommend it if you like historical fiction or medieval fantasy.
I also recently read "War of the Wolves" by Bernard Cornwell, the latest installment of his Saxon series, which is the basis for the series "The Lost Kingdom". Both this one and The Flame Bearer are different than most of the previous works because Uhtred isn't saving the Saxon realm from the Danes or the Norse, so much as he is pursuing more personal goals. There's a bit less of the "Forrest Gump" effect (ie a fictional character somehow being at all of the major events of their time without being part of the historical record) as such. Also, Uhtred is no longer the hot-blooded, glory-seeking warlord of his youth, but an old man, a grandfather uncertain of his legacy. I heavily recommend it if you like historical fiction or medieval fantasy.
I was reading a story from a magazine from a couple years ago on my Kindle, and it was really not good. The story went nowhere, the ending made no sense, and everything was over-described. There's two conversations over dinner and every line of dialogue must be accompanied by saying what was happening with the characters' plates, their food, how their chips were arranged. Stuff I would've taken a red pen to.
This morning I thought I was reading a story from The Best Horror of the Year vol 10, but must have fallen asleep because I was lost. Then I realized I was reading that story. How did my Kindle app flip back to that magazine?
It didn't.
I had to stop and groan for a minute. There's a brilliant story in that same magazine issue but this overcooked nothing is what the editor chose here? It's 35 pages I can skip.
This morning I thought I was reading a story from The Best Horror of the Year vol 10, but must have fallen asleep because I was lost. Then I realized I was reading that story. How did my Kindle app flip back to that magazine?
It didn't.
I had to stop and groan for a minute. There's a brilliant story in that same magazine issue but this overcooked nothing is what the editor chose here? It's 35 pages I can skip.
I am reading The Stranger Outsider by Stephen King. Liking it. Waiting for the weirdness to creep in. It's a bit of a standard mystery thus far; besides the brutal murder, obviously.
Loved Leviathan Wakes. Ready for the next one.
Loved Leviathan Wakes. Ready for the next one.
Sad to see Miller go, but I suspect he might come back in some other form.
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I just finished the last book in the Night Angel trilogy. There are some things in the ending that bug me, but I liked it enough to recommend it to people whose taste in books is similar to mine. It just wouldn't be the first book/series I'd suggest.
I've been reading Will Wight's Cradle series. They're not the kind of books I typically like.
It's kind of Wuxia (Chinese 'martial heroes'), it's kind of LitRPG (there's lots of 'leveling up' kind of action going on). It's kind of sci-fantasy (there's a much larger story arc happening outside of the main story).
It seems like it'd be jumbled and all over the place. And it's a hodge podge of a bunch of genres that I am just no interested in. But I read the first one for free, and I'll be damned if I'm not hooked. I've already bought and torn through all of the rest of them (so far..the series is not complete) and liked them enough to give a review on Amazon--a rarity for me.
It's kind of Wuxia (Chinese 'martial heroes'), it's kind of LitRPG (there's lots of 'leveling up' kind of action going on). It's kind of sci-fantasy (there's a much larger story arc happening outside of the main story).
It seems like it'd be jumbled and all over the place. And it's a hodge podge of a bunch of genres that I am just no interested in. But I read the first one for free, and I'll be damned if I'm not hooked. I've already bought and torn through all of the rest of them (so far..the series is not complete) and liked them enough to give a review on Amazon--a rarity for me.
The Outsider was pretty good for an X-files episode, but a little weak for a King novel. He admits that he didn't get Oklahoma right. He's spot on there. I don't know why he didn't set it in Maine.
I'm reading Caliban's War now. Pretty good. It's a little less impactful as the first book, but I'm only a 1/4 of the way through.
I'm reading Caliban's War now. Pretty good. It's a little less impactful as the first book, but I'm only a 1/4 of the way through.
Caliban's War had an amazing 2nd half. Really, really dug it. Waiting for the next book. Long wait for the library.
I am reading The Lost City of the Monkey God. This is some real-life Indiana Jones stuff. It is a little dense with history and backstory, but what a damned interesting book. I am a little of half way through it. The chapter about the diseases introduced to the New World by the Spaniards is brutal. I've heard about this mostly anecdotally, but the numbers are sickening (excuse the pun). The book is about the search and discovery of ancient cities in Honduras that were abandoned and the jungle swallowed them up.
Here's the story from Nat Geo:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com...ost-city-monkey-god-maya-ancient-archaeology/
I am reading The Lost City of the Monkey God. This is some real-life Indiana Jones stuff. It is a little dense with history and backstory, but what a damned interesting book. I am a little of half way through it. The chapter about the diseases introduced to the New World by the Spaniards is brutal. I've heard about this mostly anecdotally, but the numbers are sickening (excuse the pun). The book is about the search and discovery of ancient cities in Honduras that were abandoned and the jungle swallowed them up.
Here's the story from Nat Geo:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com...ost-city-monkey-god-maya-ancient-archaeology/
Trollhunters
God DAMN was this the most grizzly young adult book I've ever read, and it was AWESOME! I hope some day someone makes a more accurate adaptation, because the gore in this book is straight out of Gremlins!
God DAMN was this the most grizzly young adult book I've ever read, and it was AWESOME! I hope some day someone makes a more accurate adaptation, because the gore in this book is straight out of Gremlins!
Dave
Staff member
How close is it to the Norwegian movie of the same name?
Not close at all, and I'm still amazed Del Toro got a hold of the name for his book.
Reading The Searchers. Bleak and brutal.
Dave
Staff member
I tried. I really tried. But damn if The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba - yes, the author goes by "Pirateaba" for reasons I will get into in a bit - isn't a terrible "book".
It was highly recommended by someone who I now hold in a high level of suspicion for his reading choices. But this "book" is bad bad bad for so many reasons.
First, it's not edited. At all. How do I know this? Well, it's from a serial that is printed online every Tuesday & Saturday, is currently over a million words long, and is funded by over 2,000 Patreon subscribers. And it shows. Oh god does it ever show.
Second, it reads like a YA novel. A very, very bad YA novel. Some of the characters are decent and the worldbuilding is okay if not overly done in the past - a person from our world somehow transported magically to a fantasy world?!? NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE! It reads very much like fan fiction for an established universe.
Then there's the Interlude chapter where it's nothing but a MAGICAL CHAT LOG between people who were transported to the world. This chat log (which I really wish I could show you) has things like a user named "batman" who only speaks in memes like "It's over 9000 lol" or "it's a trap lol" or when they debated between Trump & "lyin Hillary". No, I'm not kidding. Because, you know, if you got transported to another world you'd still give a fuck about these things or speak in memes like a fucking child.
I swear I tried. But I just can't any more.
It was highly recommended by someone who I now hold in a high level of suspicion for his reading choices. But this "book" is bad bad bad for so many reasons.
First, it's not edited. At all. How do I know this? Well, it's from a serial that is printed online every Tuesday & Saturday, is currently over a million words long, and is funded by over 2,000 Patreon subscribers. And it shows. Oh god does it ever show.
Second, it reads like a YA novel. A very, very bad YA novel. Some of the characters are decent and the worldbuilding is okay if not overly done in the past - a person from our world somehow transported magically to a fantasy world?!? NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE! It reads very much like fan fiction for an established universe.
Then there's the Interlude chapter where it's nothing but a MAGICAL CHAT LOG between people who were transported to the world. This chat log (which I really wish I could show you) has things like a user named "batman" who only speaks in memes like "It's over 9000 lol" or "it's a trap lol" or when they debated between Trump & "lyin Hillary". No, I'm not kidding. Because, you know, if you got transported to another world you'd still give a fuck about these things or speak in memes like a fucking child.
I swear I tried. But I just can't any more.
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