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What are you reading? (March 2016)

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W

whatevermort

Member
Maklershed said:
Also, I saw this is coming April 7th from the incomparable James Smythe ...


Long Dark Dusk by James Smythe
Click to expand...

So: that's the sequel to this:

61KkHzO9GPL.jpg


which is out in the UK now but isn't coming out in the US until October (published by Quercus/Hodder, and with a different cover which I can't share yet). It's - GASP - probably closer to YA than my other stuff. The pitch for it was: 17 year old girl becomes Batmannish on a crazy generation spaceship that's gone all Mad Max. So, I don't know. Might be your sort of thing. I like it. It's a trilogy and then it's done (all three are already written), so now it's back to the eminently more serious day job writing...

(Also! Read about the very exciting film option shenanigans here! )
 
M

Maklershed

Member
Generation ship, Batman, and Mad Max? Those are like three of my favorite things rolled into one! I am so there. But I'm confused - the book coming out in a week in the US Amazon is a sequel to a book that's not available in the US Amazon yet? Hmm :/

EDIT: NVM, I just remembered I saw it on Goodreads, not Amazon.
 
W

whatevermort

Member
Maklershed said:
Generation ship, Batman, and Mad Max? Those are like three of my favorite things rolled into one! I am so there. But I'm confused - the book coming out in a week in the US Amazon is a sequel to a book that's not available in the US Amazon yet? Hmm :/

EDIT: NVM, I just remembered I saw it on Goodreads, not Amazon.
Click to expand...

Yup. Those three. Also some Alien/s. (But not the Aliens. More Ripley.) Amazon will probably do import copies until the US ones hit. But for the US: the first is in October, then the second and third coming six months apart, in 2017.
 
M

mu cephei

Member
fakefaker said:
I read the first story last night and it made me chuckle throughout, so that's a good sign.

I gave the old girl a chance
She grabbed me and we started to dance
She stepped on my left foot
And then on my right
With that I grimaced and said "Good night!"

I do hope you like it, most people do. Do you recommend another book of hers?
Click to expand...

lol. Embarrassingly, I've remembered that several years ago I read the first few pages of Cyteen and then abandoned it temporarily put it aside. You got further than I did, anyway! As for her other books, I've only read a few of the Downbelow Station ones, which were good, but besada was hyping the Foreigner series in here a short while ago, and I'll probably be reading those before I give Cyteen another go...
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Thing Explainer is awesome. Got it some time ago.

Excellent gift for others, i figure most will find it funny or interesting.
 
B

besada

Banned
mu cephei said:
As for her other books, I've only read a few of the Downbelow Station ones, which were good, but besada was hyping the Foreigner series in here a short while ago, and I'll probably be reading those before I give Cyteen another go...
Click to expand...

The first two worked well for me, but by the time I got to the third, it was just so slow. Long, long sections of the book where very little happens other than courtly politics. I mean, I like political books, but this was just beyond the pale. I think Cyan bailed out earlier than I did.

So, if you read the first one and feel like it's too slow? Probably stop there. But different people have different tolerances for glacial paces, and the actual story is pretty interesting. It's told on a big scale, where the books cover years of changes as they ripple out into an alien society. The aliens are incredibly well rendered as a species with their own foibles and strengths.

It's just sooooo slooooooow.
 
M

mu cephei

Member
besada said:
The first two worked well for me, but by the time I got to the third, it was just so slow. Long, long sections of the book where very little happens other than courtly politics. I mean, I like political books, but this was just beyond the pale. I think Cyan bailed out earlier than I did.

So, if you read the first one and feel like it's too slow? Probably stop there. But different people have different tolerances for glacial paces, and the actual story is pretty interesting. It's told on a big scale, where the books cover years of changes as they ripple out into an alien society. The aliens are incredibly well rendered as a species with their own foibles and strengths.

It's just sooooo slooooooow.
Click to expand...

Oh, well. Thanks for the warning! It's a shame, the alien society stuff sounds great. I will give it a go, but yeah, I'm not sure I can take a glacial pace plus mostly political stuff. (oh, unless it's K.J. Parker who can be slowish and can make the most boring-sounding stuff fascinating).
 
M

Mumei

Member
mu cephei said:
I hope you love Emma, but if you don't, I *really* hope it doesn't put you off from reading Northanger Abbey, which is hilarious and wonderful.
Click to expand...

Well, I just finished Volume I earlier today, and am a handful of chapters into the second. I am really enjoying it, moreso I would say than when I read Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion before. I think that's partially me - I simply wasn't reading slowly enough or with the care that one should read Jane. She opens up enormously when you take your time and pay attention to the subtext of character interactions and how much it communicates about the characters without explicitly saying it. Granted, one could say that about most any fiction writing of literary value, but I think it is particularly true with Austen and her ability to represent interior states with limited explicit narration of those states.

When I read Pride and Prejudice, I largely missed out on this aspect because I read an annotated edition which had the unhappy effect of taking away this experience. Probably a mistake! When I read Persuasion, I think I was just being lazy - going through the motions of reading without doing the work.

At any rate, Emma is fantastic fun and I am looking forward to future excursions into Austen now that I spent two books being kind of dumb.

That's the edition I have, I love that cover.
I hope you're wrong about Cyteen, I've liked her other stuff
Click to expand...

I sought out the author on the basis of besada's effusive praise for Foreigner, which my library was a dick and didn't have and the local bookstores were also dicks and didn't have and I didn't feel like ordering. But one of the bookstores did have Cyteen, so I picked that up for future perusal.

I also hope he is wrong. :(
 
L

lawnchair

Banned
just started reading

51W27A5H7NL._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


anybody read anything else by this fella? i've been looking (in local bookstores) for his book Dark Back of Time and have had no luck finding it, so I settled for this instead.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
besada said:
The first two worked well for me, but by the time I got to the third, it was just so slow. Long, long sections of the book where very little happens other than courtly politics. I mean, I like political books, but this was just beyond the pale. I think Cyan bailed out earlier than I did.
Click to expand...

I ended up finishing the third, but it was a bit of a slog. Don't really have the urge to go back to the series. Maybe later.
 
F

fakefaker

Member
mu cephei said:
lol. Embarrassingly, I've remembered that several years ago I read the first few pages of Cyteen and then abandoned it temporarily put it aside. You got further than I did, anyway! As for her other books, I've only read a few of the Downbelow Station ones, which were good, but besada was hyping the Foreigner series in here a short while ago, and I'll probably be reading those before I give Cyteen another go...
Click to expand...

Have you ever read Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa? I would rather read Taiko again than Cyteen once. It's epic, it's deep, it's political, it's intriguing, and it makes a great pillow/weapon if you take the bus or subway or tram or metro or tube or double decker or....
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
whatevermort said:
Yup. Those three. Also some Alien/s. (But not the Aliens. More Ripley.) Amazon will probably do import copies until the US ones hit. But for the US: the first is in October, then the second and third coming six months apart, in 2017.
Click to expand...
Wasn't another book supposed to be coming in March? Or am I thinking of March 2017? I need to know more about our intrepid Explorer!

And it sucks some just went ahead and gave you a 3* rating on goodreads for a book that's barely out. Sheesh.
 
W

whatevermort

Member
Christoff Yurievich said:
Wasn't another book supposed to be coming in March? Or am I thinking of March 2017? I need to know more about our intrepid Explorer!

And it sucks some just went ahead and gave you a 3* rating on goodreads for a book that's barely out. Sheesh.
Click to expand...
Hes a blogger. He messaged me to say that t would have been more if I hadn't done a story thing I did that he didn't like. Nothing to do with the quality; just, he didn't like a thematic thing. What can you do? Reviews are going to review.

As for The Explorer... It's going to be a couple of years, I'm afraid. I wish it was sooner - book 3 is written! - but publishers etc.
 
M

mu cephei

Member
Mumei said:
Well, I just finished Volume I earlier today, and am a handful of chapters into the second. I am really enjoying it, moreso I would say than when I read Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion before. I think that's partially me - I simply wasn't reading slowly enough or with the care that one should read Jane. She opens up enormously when you take your time and pay attention to the subtext of character interactions and how much it communicates about the characters without explicitly saying it. Granted, one could say that about most any fiction writing of literary value, but I think it is particularly true with Austen and her ability to represent interior states with limited explicit narration of those states.

When I read Pride and Prejudice, I largely missed out on this aspect because I read an annotated edition which had the unhappy effect of taking away this experience. Probably a mistake! When I read Persuasion, I think I was just being lazy - going through the motions of reading without doing the work.

At any rate, Emma is fantastic fun and I am looking forward to future excursions into Austen now that I spent two books being kind of dumb.
Click to expand...

I'm happy you're enjoying it :) and it means you have Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility to look forward to, I'm kind of jealous. You've nailed one of the main reasons why I love Austen so much - the subtlety. I think she's taught me a lot as a reader. I know what you mean about being a lazy reader though, I didn't give The Mill on the Floss by Eliot a fair chance (or Wuthering Heights, come to that, and others too...) in any case, it certainly wouldn't be fair for anyone to suggest you could be a lazy reader now!

I find annotations a bit of a mixed blessing. I agree they can lead to putting less effort in, and also they irritate me when they explain things I already understand and ignore things I don't./moan.

fakefaker said:
Have you ever read Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa? I would rather read Taiko again than Cyteen once. It's epic, it's deep, it's political, it's intriguing, and it makes a great pillow/weapon if you take the bus or subway or tram or metro or tube or double decker or....
Click to expand...

I haven't, but I just looked it up and it sounds excellent, so thanks :) I see what you mean about doubling as a weapon; at least, it's only available as a 1000 page hardback on Amazon UK!
 
O

Ovid

Member
Finished And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades In The Middle East this evening.

Excellent book. Another book that I'm going to place on my to-buy list.

Part memoir, part history lesson, NBC News foreign correspondent Richard Engel, does a fantastic job of retelling the events that led to the current crisis in the Middle East. Richard takes us back to the days of Mohammed and the eventually split within Islam (Sunni-Shia) which is still playing out to this day. When then venture to the mid-60's and the rise of the Middle East strongman consisting of Hussein, Gadhafi, Nasser (and later Mubarak), Ben Ali, and the Assad family. He then ends in the present with the jihadist movement of Al-Qaeda and its subsequent evolution, ISIS.

A fantastic reporter and a highly recommended read.
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
whatevermort said:
Hes a blogger. He messaged me to say that t would have been more if I hadn't done a story thing I did that he didn't like. Nothing to do with the quality; just, he didn't like a thematic thing. What can you do? Reviews are going to review.

As for The Explorer... It's going to be a couple of years, I'm afraid. I wish it was sooner - book 3 is written! - but publishers etc.
Click to expand...
I'd be happy to write an early review for you, maybe get a book blurb on the back! :lol
 
G

Gaz_RB

Member
Just about to finish the Powder Mage Trilogy. Damn good stuff from Brian McClellan.

Moving on to The Goblin Emperor next, then diving into a personal lit review of Lovecraft's stuff.
 
M

Matsukaze

Member
Finished House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I had heard positive things about it so I decided to borrow it from the library. I must say that knowing next to nothing about it beforehand really made the experience all the more satisfying. The book's presentation is just fantastic and I loved the way it moved between recorded account, literary critical text (I especially appreciated how well the book took the piss out of scholarly criticism without appearing anti-intellectual), and Johnny's personal stories. It did a good job creating a spooky atmosphere even though I have a difficult time thinking of it primarily as a horror novel. A very enjoyable read, to say the least.
 
K

kswiston

Member
Finished the Widow's House and started The Spider's War (both in the Dagger and Coin series) today. Looking forward to reading the series conclusion.

March was another 6 book month for me. So far my 2016 total is up to 15 books. I was only at 7 books finished by this point last year.
 
P

PrawnyNZ

Member
Pandora's Star (The Commonwealth Saga Book 1) by Peter F Hamilton is on the Kindle daily deal. Haven't heard of this but the blurb sounds promising. Anyone read this and can recommend/warn me off it?
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
PrawnyNZ said:
Pandora's Star (The Commonwealth Saga Book 1) by Peter F Hamilton is on the Kindle daily deal. Haven't heard of this but the blurb sounds promising. Anyone read this and can recommend/warn me off it?
Click to expand...

I read it. I know there are mixed opinions on this one, but to me this was one of Hamilton's weaker books. It is overlong. There are parts that positively drag on, especially when he's off on what feels like a tangent with a character I wasn't interested in. I still have the 2nd book around here somewhere, but it's not even on my list of things to read.
 
A

aravuus

Member
AngmarsKing701 said:
I read it. I know there are mixed opinions on this one, but to me this was one of Hamilton's weaker books. It is overlong. There are parts that positively drag on, especially when he's off on what feels like a tangent with a character I wasn't interested in. I still have the 2nd book around here somewhere, but it's not even on my list of things to read.
Click to expand...

More or less agree with this. I really like a lot of things about it, but it's just way too long and slow and whatever. Dropped it around two thirds in.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Getting rid of my books and...

I have more Magic The Gathering novels than I care to admit.
 
E

effzee

Member
Reading the Red Rising series as I wait for the 3rd part of the Passage trilogy,

Didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I have. I am in the middle of book 2 and its pretty captivating.
 
S

Stasis

Member
I hate to be that guy but... there's an April thread. These change every month =)

Not that what's being posted isn't relevant or of interest. I loved Red Rising, let's discuss in the new thread!
 
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