What have you been reading?

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checkeredhat

checkeredhat

Right now I'm reading "The New Dead"; an anthology of short zombie stories compiled by Shristopher Golden. It's a real mixed bag, some good stories, some not so good.
I just finished "The Zombie Who Fell From the Sky" by M.B. Homler, and it was awful. Just terrible. I kept thinking "it has to get better" but it never did, it was just stupid. But the one right before that; "Family Business" by Jonathan Maberry, I thought was really great.
There've been one or two others I rather enjoyed as well, but so far I think the anthology "The Living Dead" by John Joseph Adams, which I read last summer, had better short stories in it.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
I've been reading "Otherness" by David Brin. It's a collection of short stories, and it's awesome. There are some very thought provoking stories.
 
phil

phil

I finished Starship Troopers the other day. It was pretty good, though the scenes in the History and Moral Philosophy classes kind of made me groan. I mean chapter 7 is basically saying that our civilization is doomed because we don't use corporal punishment, and that it's the only sane thing to do. His proof for why he's right is that he's just right, damnit.


I'm considering next either All the Pretty Horses or All Quiet on the Western Front. Continue the military theme, or go western?
 
S

Soliloquy

Been reading a collection of Norse Myths recently. Interesting stuff, that.

I'm surprised about how much of Norse Mythology has been lost to history. Apparently there are many Norse gods and goddesses who we only know the names of, and nothing more.
 
W

Wyrminarrd

I took a break from reading "Dust of Dreams" to read "Victorious" by Jack Campbell. "Victorious" is the sixth and final book of the "Lost fleet" series and delivers a great ending to a great military sci-fi series. I really hope that Campbell will write a follow up series to this one.
 
P

Philosopher B.

phil said:
I finished Starship Troopers the other day. It was pretty good, though the scenes in the History and Moral Philosophy classes kind of made me groan. I mean chapter 7 is basically saying that our civilization is doomed because we don't use corporal punishment, and that it's the only sane thing to do. His proof for why he's right is that he's just right, damnit.
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Yeah, I just read that one. I found it a mixed bag. Fantastic technology and stuff, though.

I also just re-read The Wizard of Oz, plus a fantastic biography entitled Wodehouse: A Life, by Robert McCrum. It was really great because not only did it manage to chronicle his life of 93 freaking amazing and productive years without getting boring*, it did so with constant notes/letters from Wodehouse himself on his life at the time. I found the stuff about A.A. Milne and George Orwell fascinating, plus his friendship with the rather sad figure of Bill Townend.

It really got me thinking, too, about how much has changed, and how weird it is to think now that most of Plum's huge-ass bibliography was published twice (once in magazine/paper form, and once in novel form). He really wrote in a different time and place, and then lived to see that decline.

Not to mention, I didn't quite realize he was all up in musicals and plays and shit, at least not to that extent.

*Though that could've been due to my adoration of the subject in question.

Edit: It also boggles my mind to think that Wodehouse was born in 1881, and yet could've seen Soylent Green in the theatre. :confused:
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
I bought a bunch of stuff with a gift card recently. I started The Sun Also Rises and a Joseph Merrick biography on the same day; I've been swapping every couple of chapters.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Wahad said:
Finished re-reading Good Omens lately. I love that book.
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Yes, that is a great one. A lot of the satire is spot-on.

A series of novels with a similar flavor are "Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming", "If at Faust You Don't Succeed" and "A Farce to Be Reckoned With" by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley. I wish I still had them in my collection, they got lost at some point.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Currently reading Ciaphas Cain: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, which is an omnibus of the first three books in the series and all the short stories that lead to his books. It's pretty damn good and very funny if you get all the in-jokes regarding the source material (Warhammer 40k lore). Also got done reading The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer: Damocles Gulf Edition, which is full of all sorts of funny, interesting things to know if your part of the Imperial Guard... as well as blatant lies, propaganda, and things that WILL get you killed (Which is part of the fun, really).

Next on the list is the new Generation Dead book. Aww... zombies and humans in love...
 
K

kaykordeath

Just finished "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore. Quite the fun read.
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

Currently reading Foundation and Empire by Asimov, I had forgotten how fun this series really is. After this I'll probably be reading "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein.

Guess if you want to count them, I'm also reading the Jack of Fables comic series. Currently on book 3, "The Bad Prince."
 
Hylian

Hylian

Just finished Ender in Exile and upon finishing it I have read through all the Ender's Saga/Shadow books that have been currently published :(



 
W

Wyrminarrd

Finished reading "Dust of Dreams" by Steven Erikson. Great book but people were right about the cliffhanger, most unusual for Erikson but it does leave me eager to get the next book in the series :)

I haven't decided on what to read next, it's either "The stars my destination" by Alfred Bester which is supposed to be a classic sci-fi book or "By heresies distressed" by David Weber which is the third book in a pretty good series so far.
 
O

Oddbot

The stars my destination is a really crazy/fun book. I'd recommend it.
 
T

TwoBit

I'm almost through this:


While I've read plenty of William Gibson's short stories, this is the first novel of his I've read other than Neuromancer.
 
W

Wyrminarrd

Finished reading "The Stars my destination" yesterday. It's a very good book though I'll admit that I didn't think it was as good as the hype surrounding it suggested it would be.

I've now started reading "By heresies distressed" by David Weber.
 
evilmike

evilmike



It's an interesting book with a amazing density of ideas. The only problem I had with it was that the story ends in a bit of an anticlimax. The resolution and dénouement don't really match the grand scope of the ideas touched on during the story.
 
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Wyrminarrd

Finished reading "By heresies distressed" by David Weber. The book was good though I´m getting a bit tired of how wonderful and great the protagonists are written, it all feels just to convenient and unrealistic. Weber really needs to start adding some character flaws to his characters or at least make them less perfect.

Next on the reading list is "Warbreakers" by Brandon Sanderson.
 
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Wyrminarrd

Finished reading "Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson. It was every bit as good a book as I've come to expect from Sanderson as he once again creates a very interesting world filled with great characters. I hope that he will chose to write more books in this world, but then again I also want more books from him set in the "Elantris" world :)

Next up on the reading list is "House of Suns" by Alastair Reynolds.
 
K

kaykordeath

just finished "My Name is Will-A story of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare" which was a fun ride.

Next up is either The Eyre Affair or The Fourth Hand....
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

Just finished reading "The Gunslinger" and "The Drawing of the Three", and now I'm reading the third book in the Dark Tower series. Pretty good stuff so far!
 
W

Wyrminarrd

Finished reading "House of Suns" by Alastair Reynolds. The book is well written but a key plot point had me scratching my head as it made absolutely no sense to me, in fact I strongly believe that the author himself realized at some point that it didn't make sense so he spend as little time explaining it as he could in hopes that people wouldn't notice that it was BS. Apart from that one issue this is a good book and it paints an interesting possible long term future.

Next on my reading list is either "The Warded Man" by Peter V. Brett or "Best served cold" by Joe Abercrombie.
 
Rob King

Rob King

I am currently reading The Horse and his Boy, finally working my way through the Narnia series for the first time since I was given the books 15 years ago.
 
Rob King

Rob King

I forgot that I was in the middle of Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling. I'm on the last chapter, and I've enjoyed it immensely. It's difficult to read the various seamen's English, because Kipling spells it phonetically to portray the accents, but it's not too difficult to get a sense of what's going on.

I'll re-pick up The Horse and His Boy tomorrow when I finish this.
 
Rob King

Rob King

Captains Courageous was excellent. I really felt happy for Harvey at the end of things, and as silly as it might be, I felt proud for the man he had become (or rather, ... began to become)

The Horse and his Boy was also quite excellent. I know Tolkien is the gold standard when it comes to world-building, but Narnia has a lot of that as well. I don't think I've ever felt like Lewis has been cheating. He has established the rules of his world and works so well within them in such a consistent and meaningful way that I'm never bothered.

Where other stories might make me moan and say "Really? The Force? That's the poor excuse for terrible writing that you're going with?", whenever something happens in Narnia that is summed up by "Aslan did it" I feel like an idiot for even considering that it might have happened any other way.
 
P

Philosopher B.

I am currently reading a YA book on someone's recommendation. It is called Leviathan and it was written recently by a chappie called Scott Westerfeld. It's, like, steampunk and alternate World War I history and sheeit. It's pretty good so far. The shitting bats are cool.
 
W

Wyrminarrd

Finished reading "Best Served Cold" by Joe Abercrombie. This book is a stand alone story set in the same universe as his "First law" trilogy but as it happens shortly after the events of the trilogy and gives away tiny spoilers about it I would recommend that people read the trilogy before reading BSC. The book was great, Abercrombie spins a great story with interesting characters and proves that his fantastic "First law" trilogy wasn't just a one of success on his part.
 
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