What are you reading at the moment?

[LeMarchand]

Does anyone know any good works of fiction, by someone with a creative flare and that knows what it's like to work in IT?

Oh come on, someone had to plug @sonofsanta at some point.

 

Charles Stross' "Laundry Files" series? Oh...

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Does anyone know any good works of fiction, by someone with a creative flare and that knows what it's like to work in IT?

Oh come on, someone had to plug @sonofsanta at some point.

 

You're just gunning for a signed 1st Edition aren't you

[sonofsanta]

Does anyone know any good works of fiction, by someone with a creative flare and that knows what it's like to work in IT?

 

As it happens, I do--Krystal Claxton is an IT technician for a school district in the US, and her story from WotF31, Planar Ghosts, was just podcasted in two parts if you want to listen along for free Part One, Part Two

[Duranis]

Is it true that in one of the Goodkind books the hero puts up a statue of himself that is so awesome that it averts a war? I must say that the TV show based on the series (Legend of the Seeker) was a bit of a guilty pleasure.

 

lol, umm yes, that is actually a fairly accurate description of the plot . To be fair it is a little deeper than that, but yeah.........

 

Not really a book person (everybody keeps saying I should read more) but I just don't get a thrill out of it like most people do. (my last manager read 11 books over the 6 weeks holiday)

 

Here's me reading Guy Martin and I'm only 40 pages in after 2 weeks haha

 

According to my kindle the average book takes by about 10-12 hours to read. I have major issues with going to sleep and found over the years that the best way for me to sleep is to read for a few hours before bed. Generally I finish a book a week but if its something I really enjoy I can finish it in a day or 2. The only book that really took me forever to read was LOTR but that is because Tolkien takes about 300 pages to describe a tree. I still regret leading out my special edition LOTR book which I never got back, it had all the paintings, back story, family tree's details on language and everything in it (as well as the story).

 

If you don't get the thrill out of reading my first suggestion would be you just haven't found the right books for you yet

 

Just read the first trilogy of the Shannara stories and have just started on the second trilogy. All this whilst I wait for the next Game of Thrones book.

 

I think I have all of the books from the Shannara Chronicles but haven't got round to reading them yet. Me and the Mrs watched the first season of the TV series based on them and it was actually pretty enjoyable for a typical "Americanized" show.

[LeMarchand]

Me and the Mrs watched the first season of the TV series based on them and it was actually pretty enjoyable for a typical "Americanized" show.

 

I was surprised when I realised that the "Bad Girl" (whose name I forget) was the little girl from "Pan's Labyrinth".

[LeMarchand]

@ben_mayo - following on @Duranis 's idea: Have you tried "easing yourself in" with something aimed at "older readers"? There is a lot of great fiction out there. In fact my favourite author (he overtook GRRM by actually releasing books), Philip Reeve, has yet to write a novel for adults. I'd particularly recommend the Goblins series and the "Mortal Engines" series but pretty much anything by him has yet to disappoint.

 

Really hoping this isn't coming over as condescending - it's not meant to be!

[Duranis]

@ben_mayo - following on @Duranis 's idea: Have you tried "easing yourself in" with something aimed at "older readers"? There is a lot of great fiction out there. In fact my favourite author (he overtook GRRM by actually releasing books), Philip Reeve, has yet to write a novel for adults. I'd particularly recommend the Goblins series and the "Mortal Engines" series but pretty much anything by him has yet to disappoint.

 

Really hoping this isn't coming over as condescending - it's not meant to be!

 

Actually I would second this. There are a bunch of really good authors of "young adult" books and as the books tend to be shorter a lot of people find them much more fun to read. One of the first books I really loved was called Z for Zachariah that I read in school. I read it again a few years back and despite it only take a few hours I still really enjoyed it.

[sonofsanta]

On a YA front (and YA is really good, don't ever believe anyone who tells you its inferior--it has different aims in its plotlines, but if anything its a more competitive market than adult fiction, and even higher quality) I really enjoyed Naomi Novak's Temeraire series. It's a retelling of the Napoleonic wars... with dragons. A British ship captain accidentally comes into possession of a rare egg being sent from the Chinese to Napoleon, and inadvertantly becomes a dragon rider. Marvellous stuff.

 

Other good fantasy: Joe Abercrombie for yer new fangled grimdark fantasy; Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora is exquisitely constructed; Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear are gorgeously written. Although it's now been a five year wait for book three, and still no sign, so, er, maybe not one for those of you fed up with GRRM's workrate. (Fun fact: Pat Rothfuss was a WotF winner about ten years back, and I discovered, during an anecdote related by Kevin J Anderson, that Rothfuss already had the trilogy finished then; he's just been revising it since... )

[Norphy]

I've been reading the Ark Royal series by Christopher Nuttall, a self published author on Amazon. The series is set about 400 years in the future. There are still nation states and each nation has been building space navies. Britain is one of five of the "Major Powers" who has been expanding into space. An alien race is unexpectedly discovered and attacks mercilessly. There are three trilogies, one of which is in progress. The first follows a Royal Navy carrier throughout the war, the second follows a cruiser, the third a battleship. The third is still in progress.

 

It's not high literature but it's an entertaining enough read.

[LeMarchand]

Britain is one of five of the "Major Powers" who has been expanding into space.

 

Did we Bremain or Brexit?

[Norphy]

Did we Bremain or Brexit?

 

I can't tell you that, that'd spoil the story!

 

In all seriousness, the European Union doesn't even begin to feature. I think the author assumes that it's going to dissolve as France is one of the major powers too but Germany is a minor one.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Norphy
Are spoiler tags disabled on this board?

[Andrew_C]

as France is one of the major powers too but Germany is a minor one.

That'd work well...

[Norphy]

I'm not trolling, that's just how it is in the book!

 

I've now just finished reading the first in the series of William Shatner's Tekwar. I got it as part of a humble bundle.

 

Not good but nowhere near as bad as I was expecting.

[LiamH]

Re-reading the discworld city watch books, on the fifth elephant at the moment. After that i might move onto the witches/death.

 

I always preferred the watch/death/witch books to the rincewind stories.

[BKGarry]

Just finished reading the Telepath Trilogy of books from Babylon 5.

 

If you are a B5 fan and get the universe, I would highly recommend them, next step will be to see if I can get hold of the Technomage Trilogy of books.

[LeMarchand]

Just finished reading the Telepath Trilogy of books from Babylon 5.

 

If you are a B5 fan and get the universe, I would highly recommend them, next step will be to see if I can get hold of the Technomage Trilogy of books.

 

I've got 'em in the loft... somewhere.

 

OT (shhh!) - Mme LeMarchand accidentally broke my B5 mug the other week (I'd just been marvelling at how many years it had survived). Can't find another to match .

 

[BKGarry]

I'll PayPal you postage costs to borrow the technomage

[DJ-1701]

I'll PayPal you postage costs to borrow the technomage

 

Great maker... His name is Galen and I don't think he would be impressed with being shoved in the mail.

[BKGarry]

Great maker... His name is Galen and I don't think he would be impressed with being shoved in the mail.

 

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

[simonw]

Recently was delivered two lots of books in error, the supplier didn't want them back so I've read/reading them...

First was a selection of 3 books by Kevin Brookes; Candy, The Road of the Dead and Kissing the Rain. As a writer for YA he deals with some pretty adult themes, well worth a read IMO.

 

Second - a series of books by Anne Holt; The Blind Goddess (current read), Blessed Are Those Who Thirst and Death of the Demon. A Norwegian crime writer, these are the first of her books featuring lead character police detective Hanne Wilhelmsen.

[LeMarchand]

I'll PayPal you postage costs to borrow the technomage

 

I'll bear that in mind next time i am forced up there. It's just that, you know that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Imagine that warehouse crammed into the space of an end-terrace house. That's our loft. Could also be in the garage, which is much the same.

 

Though having seen the prices they're going for I can understand why you'd rather borrow them!

[BKGarry]

Its crazy although I did get the Telepath ones for £5 each on amazon. Yes I actually brought some books on amazon

[Andrew_C]

I'm not trolling,

I am though.

[korifugi]

I'll PayPal you postage costs to borrow the technomage

 

Great maker... His name is Galen and I don't think he would be impressed with being shoved in the mail.

 

Surely he could just be emailed.

[BKGarry]

All three books of Passing of the Technomages have been dispatched on Amazon. I am going to be a happy bunny as these really were not utilised fully in B5 (although there was a lot of promise in Crusade)

 

I just need the time to read them.