General / Off-Topic What are you reading currently?

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
Since last I posted:
  • Joanne M Harris: The Blue Salt Road (A lovingly illustrated fairytale in the style of A Pocketful of Crows, and was the epilogue promising a more thorough exploration of the setting?)
  • Ursula K. Le Guin: A Wizard of Earthsea (From The Books of Earthsea; a very enjoyable personal story with low global stakes)
  • Stephen Baxter: Proxima (The events leading up to Ultima; what would happen if people got their hands on all kinds of technology allowing them access to the high-energy environment of interstellar travel? Of course they'd screw it up, without help or with.)
  • Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun Vol. 1 (An exceedingly weird road trip through the distant future, and a test of your vocabulary. I ordered volume 2 halfway through.)
Currently:
  • Gavin Smith: The Legion: Friendly Fire (Again, thank you forum censor. You suck.)
 

JonnyC0mbat

JonnyC0mbat
I’m currently reading Judas Unchained (the follow on from Pandora’s Star).

Very good, although the Prime aliens are somewhat terrifying. Definently recommend both of those books.
 

starman

starman
GreyAreaUK said:
As some of you may know I'm a bit of a computer history buff. Yet, despite owning the book for a number of years, I never quite got around to reading 'Where Wizards Stay Up Late' (Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon). It's essentially a history of how the Internet came to be and it turns out it's superb.

I'm also re-reading Steven Levy's "Hackers" (nothing to do with the film), which is more to do with the hacker mindset from its early days of TX-0 and PDP-1 hacking (and even more before that, with model railway enthusiasts at MIT).

And I'm also starting to read 'Fumbling The Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, The First Personal Computer', which is a part of computer history I've always been intrigued by.


I've also read and finished the new Lee Child, 'The Midnight Line' which is another of his Jack Reacher novels and a damn good one too. Slightly different to his previous ones.
Click to expand...

This post.
 

Manticore

Manticore
Manticore said:
Just finished book two of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant:
fatal-revenant.jpg


And now onto book three:
51Ddz1igYYL._SX298_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Click to expand...
Just finished book three and now onto the very final volume of this epic:

9780575083462.jpg
 

Morbad

Morbad
The AD&D 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide.

It takes most of the relevant minutiae from the 1st edition and then removes any sort of soul/flavor that Gygax's pontifical rambling had, making it the dullest literary experience I've ever encountered. Takes me about three years to read it, cover to cover, but I'll be damned if it's not the greatest sleep-aid ever.
 

hairychris

hairychris
Liu Cixin - The Three-Body Problem.

And re-reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Also working through Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze about Germany's economy and have a few books about the central powers in World War 1 lined up.
 

Rustnsawdust

R
GreyAreaUK said:
I never quite got around to reading 'Where Wizards Stay Up Late' (Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon)
Click to expand...
My order of this from Amazon arrived yesterday. Brilliant book! So thanks for the recommendation.

In similar vein, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend Tracy Kidder's 'Soul of a New Machine'.
 

ethelred

ethelred
Having finished "The Children of Time" a couple of months ago, I was pleased to see Adrian Tchaikovsky's new book "the children of ruin" and I ordered and read it fairly quickly.

It expands on the first and is a very good look at possible alien or other evolutionary track intelligence that develops. On balance I prefer the first book as it was completely different to mainstream sci-fi in that it really holds a mirror up to our society and gets you thinking, if not in a mammalian way then at least challenging your basic assumptions which is always good.

I did enjoy the second, in fact so much so I've ordered Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life.

The fight under the hovercraft and the conclusion in the railway tunnels are the best bits of Phlebas IMHO
 

Manticore

Manticore
Manticore said:
Just finished book three and now onto the very final volume of this epic:

9780575083462.jpg
Click to expand...
Just finished reading the whole Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Last Chronicles being four books long. It must have taken a year and half to read the lot and, quite frankly, I became so invested in the characters and story I didn't want it to end.... but everything ends.

In my opinion Donaldson is an out and out genius. What a ripping yarn and what an immense vocabulary. I have read the First and Second Chronicles previously... twice. Reading the whole thing again including the Last Chronicles..... worth it; every page totally worth it.

Now what to read next.....
 

Rampant

Rampant
Manticore said:
Just finished reading the whole Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Last Chronicles being four books long. It must have taken a year and half to read the lot and, quite frankly, I became so invested in the characters and story I didn't want it to end.... but everything ends.

In my opinion Donaldson is an out and out genius. What a ripping yarn and what an immense vocabulary. I have read the First and Second Chronicles previously... twice. Reading the whole thing again including the Last Chronicles..... worth it; every page totally worth it.

Now what to read next.....
Click to expand...

Yep - a lot of love for the Covenant series, if not for Covenant himself. Definitely amongst the all time great stories. I actually hated Covenant right from the beginning, but totally fell in awe of the world Donaldson created. Which he then promptly destroyed. Lot of invested emotion right there.


What to read next?

I'm really enjoying Robin Hobb's 'Liveships', after having read the Hobb's first 'Fitz' trilogy, which was very, very good; despite being very a very slow start to the story-line, but it was absolutely worth the effort. Lots of books in the series and I'm looking forward to getting through them all, in time.
 

Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
51eOVWl43bL._AC_SY400_.jpg
Been enjoying documentary and history more than fiction as of lately. Can recommend this. Also, if Rome is your thing - Mary Beard has some fantastic material. Written, and in a form of a very good TV mini series.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom