General / Off-Topic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! - What are you Reading?

Callum Rowley

Callum Rowley
Someone brought this up in an earlier thread so I thought I'd get it kick-started. The idea of this thread is to discuss books you're currently reading and books you've read in the past which are both good and bad (of any genre).

I'm currently reading the book brisingr which is part of The Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini. I've always been drawn to these books in the past, and thoroughly enjoyed them.

My favourite is still The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, though the Mass Effect novels are certainly getting close.
 

JohnWhitehouse

J
This is my current Reading list not complete by any means, must look at the Mass Effect noveil :cool:

The link includes some links on the Authors

http://johnwhite2000.googlepages.com/booksreading

First post to the forum in a long time, so hello to all

RAY KURWEIL

RAY KURZWEIL - Wikipedia

The age of Spiritual Machines - READING

The Singularity is near, RAY KURZWEIL - COMPLETED

IAIN M BANKS - Wikipedia

* Consider Phlebas (1987) - COMPLETED
* The Player of Games (1988) COMPLETED
* Use of Weapons (1990) - COMPLETED
* Excession (1996) - COMPLETED
* Inversions (1998) - COMPLETED
* Look to Windward (2000) - COMPLETED
* Matter (2008) - COMPLETED

* Inversions, IAN M BANKS - READING

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON - wikipedia

Mars Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson

1. Red Mars - COMPLETED
2. Green Mars - COMPLETED
3. Blue Mars - READING

ALAN DEAN FOSTER - wikipedia

* Aliens - COMPLETED
* Terminator - Salvation - READING
 

Alien

Alien
This week I 'ave mostly been reading (Fast Show joke) :

Book 1 of the Magicians Guild Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
Can't wait for the prequel & sequel trilogy.

Among my favourite books is The Belgariad by David Eddings (R.I.P.)
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss (brilliant book but the first in a trilogy that he hasn't finished writing)
The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks
Shadows Edge - Brent Weeks

One of the worst books I have read in a while was:
The Darkness that Comes Before - R. Scott Bakker - it was pretentious drivel.

Favourite books hmmm.

- Anything by Raymond E Feist - i.e. Magician - Riftwar stuff
- Anything by David Gemmell (RIP)
- Isaac Asimov - Prelude to Foundation, The Robot short stories, Caves of Steel
- Ben Bova - Sam Gunn series, Orion series, Moonbase Saga, The Asteriod Wars, Jupiter, Saturn etc...
- Phillip Mann - Masters of Paxway and Fall of the Families
- Douglas Hill - Last Legionary

Other noted authors that I like
Piers Anthony
Philip K
Robert Asprin
Orson Scott Card
John Christopher (the Tripods was an awesome series) - real name: Samuel Youd
Arthur C Clarke
Michael Crichton (for a light read)
Philip Jose Farmer - Day Breakers - I couldnt get into his other stuff
William Gibson - Kinda a given for SciFi
Harry Harrison
Robert A Heinlein
Frank Herbert
L Ron Hubbard (despite being strongly against Scientology - he's not a bad writer)
Gene Wolfe
Julian May
Larry Niven
Robert Silverberg
EE Doc Smith
HG Wells


Yeah I went through an alphabetical list of Authors :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_authors

I'll have to have a bit of a think about my absolute fav books.
 

Spacegamer

Spacegamer
Not read a lot of sci-fi in the last few years,but started again last year with Peter F Hamilton Night Dawn Trilogy.Its the first time i have read any of his books,bit of a strange story about the dead coming back to possess the living,but thoroughly enjoyable.The big suprise for me was how similar the descriptions of the technologies,groups of humans and space travel are to the Frontier games.Just by chainging a few of the details you could almost be reading a story set in the Frontier unviverse.If you have never read
the books I would definitely recommend you pick up the three books.There a fan site here with some more details about it.

http://www.lucasdigital.plus.com/nightsdawn/Introduction/introduction.html


Been long time fan of Terry Pratchett Discworld novels
 

bananascope

bananascope
you should all try something by alastair reynolds. i think i'd have to say his my favorate author. i'd recommend chasm city to start with, pure awsomeness! or hyperion by dan simmons
 

rgmarett

rgmarett
I'm reading the Foundation novels at the moment (on the last one now Foundation & Earth) I can't put them down (and it takes me ages to get through a book).

Before that I read The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwall, it's set during Alfred the Great's time and I really enjoyed it. All about Vikings - what's not to enjoy.

And last but not least, does everyone remember reading Fantastic Mr. Fox when they were kids. A film with George Clooney is being made! It looks really good from the trailer - http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/fantasticmrfox/

Oh - Survivor and Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk are good. (He's the guy who did Fight Club).
 
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Steve

Steve
bananascope said:
you should all try something by alastair reynolds
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I'm reading Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds right now (well, not right now but you know what I mean), and enjoying it too.

An earlier poster mentioned Peter F. Hamilton and I've read a lot of his books. I'm eagerly awaiting the final part in his Void Trilogy (due 2010/11 methinks). Another author I keep coming back to is Jack McDevitt - not particularly taxing stuff but certainly readable.

And finally, when I want a bit of a laugh, good old Douglas Adams :)
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
I really enjoyed the Druss books but I was always more of a fan of Waylander. I enjoyed his antihero nature. For some reason I gravitate more toward the flawed heros rather than the good clean classic Superman-esque type.

I've always struggled to get into Ian M Banks and Peter F Hamilton. I should really give them another go. I always find the scope of them a little daunting.
 

DraQ

D
I'm reading mostly SF (of the harder variety) and fantasy (of the more interesting variety). Recently I've finished fifth part of the "Temeraire" series by Naomi Novik (and enjoyed it, being as big fan of dragons as I am of hard SF).

Other than that I've enjoyed most of Lem's stuff, Clarke's "Space Odyssey" series, Niven for his aptitude at creating breathtaking settings (check his widely known "Ringworld" or less known, but more stunning "Integral Trees"), Dukaj's "Perfect Imperfection" that was the most far-reaching SF I've ever read - suffices to say that, at one point Almost all the matter of the Milky-Way gets collapsed into black holes due to collateral damage (I'll have to check whether Olaf Stapledon's books are more far reaching, having obtained "Last and First Men", as well as "Star Maker" from Project Gutenberg). I also enjoyed "Roadside Picnic" by Strugaccy, Greg Bear's "Eon" and Neal Stephenson's odd, steampunk-styled post-cyberpunk novel "Diamond Age".
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
DraQ said:
I'm reading mostly SF (of the harder variety) and fantasy (of the more interesting variety). Recently I've finished fifth part of the "Temeraire" series by Naomi Novik (and enjoyed it, being as big fan of dragons as I am of hard SF).

Other than that I've enjoyed most of Lem's stuff, Clarke's "Space Odyssey" series, Niven for his aptitude at creating breathtaking settings (check his widely known "Ringworld" or less known, but more stunning "Integral Trees"), Dukaj's "Perfect Imperfection" that was the most far-reaching SF I've ever read - suffices to say that, at one point Almost all the matter of the Milky-Way gets collapsed into black holes due to collateral damage (I'll have to check whether Olaf Stapledon's books are more far reaching, having obtained "Last and First Men", as well as "Star Maker" from Project Gutenberg). I also enjoyed "Roadside Picnic" by Strugaccy, Greg Bear's "Eon" and Neal Stephenson's odd, steampunk-styled post-cyberpunk novel "Diamond Age".
Click to expand...

Ah you are of the harder core... I could never get stuck into those books - perhaps I should give it another go - the main problem is between photography, game playing and general dumbassery I don't get a lot of time to properly get stuck into a big book these days...
 

Stefan Mars

S
T.j said:
Just ordered the new Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy book.

And Another Thing ...: Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three


Really hoping this is good and continues the fantastic books that Douglas Adams wrote.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Another-Thi...=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255426675&sr=8-6
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I just hate it when they do that kind of thing. Douglas Adams' has passed away so why can't we let his universe rest in peace as well instead of squeezing some more quick bucks out of it.

Still, to each their own so I hope you like it.
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
smars said:
I just hate it when they do that kind of thing. Douglas Adams' has passed away so why can't we let his universe rest in peace as well instead of squeezing some more quick bucks out of it.

Still, to each their own so I hope you like it.
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I do agree with you on that, but it would drive me nuts if I didn't read it.

Douglas was a one off with very big boots to fill, a task I think is impossible, but, as a huge hitchhikers fan, my curiosity bump cant resist getting it.

And it couldn't be worse than the movie.
 

Alien

Alien
Alien said:
This week I 'ave mostly been reading (Fast Show joke) :

Book 1 of the Magicians Guild Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
Can't wait for the prequel & sequel trilogy.

Among my favourite books is The Belgariad by David Eddings (R.I.P.)
Click to expand...

Since then I've read The Magicians Trilogy by Trudi Canavan

And I am now reading (v. slowly) The Redemption of Althalus by David & Leigh Eddings.

smars said:
I just hate it when they do that kind of thing. Douglas Adams' has passed away so why can't we let his universe rest in peace as well instead of squeezing some more quick bucks out of it.
Click to expand...
As a big fan of the Belgariad i'd have liked to have someone continue the story, but the only person who could do it justice is David Eddings. Unfortunately he died not long ago and even then he stopped writing when his wife, Leigh, died.
So as much as I'd like the story to continue, i'd rather leave things alone.
 
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Steve

Steve
I've just re-read my post of the 14th August, which mentions that I'm reading Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Well, I'm still reading it. I'm on page 238 now. How embarrassing! :eek:
 
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