Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Graknorke]

Finished Neuromancer. I have to say, I really like some of Gibson's descriptive writing. The description of the matrix the first time Case jacks in is a good example. I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it, sort of stream-of-consciousness descriptions I suppose.

[Strife26]

I just finished Owlsight by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon. As is my occasional habit, it's the second work in a trilogy that I haven't read the first book of, although I'm somewhat familiar with the overall setting. Certainly an interesting book, although from a plot construction sense, it's a bit odd. Book-changing spoiler below, so be aware if you want to read it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It really lacked any real large scale man-vs.-man conflict of the normal fantasy sorts. It's a high fantasy work without a single character dying anywhere. I gotta say that it made it much better because the real climax was very understated and only popped up in the last few chapters, letting the rest of the work be interesting people interacting with each other and interesting settings. I doubt that anyone other than a super-established author of Lackey's caliber could get something published (I can think of at least a few other genre books with this kind of willful ignorance of plot structure, and they've all been by big name authors as well), which is either a blessing or a shame, because it'd be very easy to make this kind of work completely unsatisfying too.

Edited because I wasn't proper using mvm conflict.

[Helgoland]

Borges: La bibliotheca de Babel. Weeeeeird, sort of Kafkaesque, but very interesting.

[H4zardZ1]

From Cracked(the website) to (long-de\d) forums like this.

[Akura]

Just finished a book of the entire history of US foreign policy from pre-Revolution all the way up to and just after the clusterfuck of Iraqi Freedom. Quite interesting.

[Emma]

I finished Memories of Ice yesterday. I may have cried because I had grown attached.

Spoiler: Real Actual Spoilers (click to show/hide)

Mainly to Hedge. I mean Whiskeyjack was fucking great but Hedge was amazing. And I think Fiddler is going to get really pissed off because Hedge is dead.

I'm now reading Feet of Clay and finding it excellent so far.

[Bohandas]

Recently finished reading a book called "The Golem and the Jinni"

[Yoink]

I finished reading The Savage Detectives, it was pretty great.
Kind of confusing, but great.

Now I'm reading Colonel Greene and the Copper Skyrocket, by C.L. Sonnichsen.
It's nonfiction (I think?) about the region I'm in at the moment. Somewhat interesting so far.

[nenjin]

Finished the entire Dune Chronicles while I was in Europe. And damn, those last three books were a real slog. About 2/3rds through The Once And Future King, and the latter half is turning out to be one of the more depressing things I've read in a while. (Earnestly depressing, not like, 40K depressing.)

[Generally me]

I've read two books recently the first being

"Wild Swans the three daughters of China"
It's about real family history of 3 generations of women. Recounting their history over the last century. The cultural revolution bit was very interesting and informative.

"Stoner"
It's a completely fictional book of a farmer's son Born in 1910. It's a book about the struggles and victories of a normal life.

Both of these books are perfect for me as I like reading about someone's story right from when they are born to when they die.

[nenjin]

Borges: La bibliotheca de Babel. Weeeeeird, sort of Kafkaesque, but very interesting.

Just saw this. I really enjoy Borges stuff. It's out there but still readable. The Library of Babel is one of my favs.

[RedKing]

Recently read a translation of "The three body problem" (三体) by Liu Cyxin(刘慈欣), a science fiction novel which is basically Contact in the Chinese Cultural Revolution era. Interesting characters and it's the first time I read a novelized account of life in 70's china. Very interesting stuff, I think the following novel will be translated fairly soon. Fair warning, it's not a novel where a lot happens, it's more of a slow burner, but it's the kind of novel that you keep thinking about a long time after you read it.

That one's on my to read list! I believe the second book has already been translated, but I could be mistaken. If it isn't it will be very soon.

I just grabbed a copy of this one myself! And yes, the second book has been translated into English.

Also reading Old Man's War and Redshirts, both by John Scalzi. The latter promises to be a fun read -- basically a Star Trek expy that deconstructs it by viewing it through the eyes of the expendable security teams, who are seemingly the only ones with any common sense.

[Kolnukbyne]

I recently finished Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy, which was excellent. I don't think I've ever seen such an interesting and well developed first person perspective in any form of media.

I'm in the process of preparing myself to re-read the A Song of Ice and Fire series. It's a hefty task, but after finishing the series early in the year I've only become more interested in it.

I've also been getting into the Warcraft novels, which I was at first hesitant about and still not entirely sure where I stand on them. Arthas: Rise of the Lich King was good, overall, but man am I peeved about some of the things she chose to add or omit from the novel. I've been reading through the Warcraft Archive (Day of the Dragon, Lord of the Clans and The Last Guardian) on the side. So far I'm half way through LotC. Day of the Dragon was much better than I expected. Not great but agreeable, would have been better if the two main protagonists were anywhere near as interesting as all the other characters. Krasus' meeting with Malygos was amazing. One thing that peeved me is that, as it was written (relatively) early in the franchise's history, there are a bunch of things that don't fit with the lore. Thing is, it was written while Warcraft III was being made and the writer was collaborating with the game's writers to an extent and there appear things that just flat out don't even line up with what we see in the game, things that I suppose I'd put to the writer's past with Dungeons & Dragons novels and sticking to his own precedent regarding these things. Lord of the Clans is quite enjoyable so far. I haven't read much of it for a while though, I should get back.

[miauw62]

Finished Neuromancer. I have to say, I really like some of Gibson's descriptive writing. The description of the matrix the first time Case jacks in is a good example. I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it, sort of stream-of-consciousness descriptions I suppose.

I absolutely adore Gibson's style of writing. I dunno, I just had a great time reading Neuromancer.

Thinking of starting Ian M Bank's "The Culture" series.
Anybody read it?

Protip: start with the second book. The first one isn't very good, imo.


I don't have anything to read myself right now. I should order some more books from this list: a thread in life advice with B12s science fiction recommendations, or continue reading Pratchett's young adult novels (which i dont have anything against, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing)

[Arx]

or continue reading Pratchett's young adult novels (which i dont have anything against, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing)

Pfft. I read Discworld for like two months straight of intensive reading (I think I was going at a book per two days) and I'm showing no ill-effects. Doo eet.