What are you reading at the moment?

[laserblazer]

This post you've made ?

 

No you're not, you're reading my reply.

[E_G_R2]

The Women who went to bed for a year by Sue Townsend (of Adrian Mole Fame).

[Andrew_C]

"First Men In The Moon" - HG Wells. Which I'll follow with "The World Set Free", the second story in the anthology, and the one I bought it for.

[X-13]

Assassin's Creed - Revelations.

 

And a metric [censored]-tonne of comics.

[witch]

I've just finished the trilogy by Mira Grant

Feed, Deadline and Blackout

very good - a different take on the Zombie apocalypse

 

Or for those who are students of human nature, and like a laugh..

Watching the English by Kate Fox

[ICTDirect_Dave]

going through discworld atm currently on men at arms

 

One of my all time favourites, it's up there with the truth, going postal and night watch

[SpuffMonkey]

Just finished The Great Gatsby, very nicely written. Also really enjoyed Danny Baker's autobiography - I'm not so keen on him in the media, but the book was a cracking read - what a spawny git he was!

 

Currently on Biggles In The South Seas!

[Meldrew]

Recently finished the hunger games trilogy, will be moving onto The chessman, concluding the Lewis trilogy by Peter May.

 

Meldrew

[sted]

Just finished Neal Stephenson - Snowcrash

 

Now reading The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

the sequel is out next month the long war

One of my all time favourites, it's up there with the truth, going postal and night watch

 

i think if i had to pick one as a favorite it would be mort or 5th elephant

[ICTDirect_Dave]

the sequel is out next month the long war

 

 

i think if i had to pick one as a favorite it would be mort or 5th elephant

 

 

I do love the 5th elephant, and also Thud, which is essentially the sequel. Actually the Vimes' books in generall I guess.

[SHimmer45]

waiting for the next game of thrones book.

keep meaning to start reading WoT again.

not long finished the 1st book in the mist born series by brandon sanderson which i enjoyed as it came across as an simplier but still interesting plot from a different angle to the usual.

 

Rob Hobb worth reading?

a friend keeps going on about me reading Dune but i haven't yet....

[Greenbeast]

I've just finished Wool and now reading Shift by Hugh Howey, great bit of post-apocalyptic stuff

[ICTDirect_Dave]

waiting for the next game of thrones book.

keep meaning to start reading WoT again.

not long finished the 1st book in the mist born series by brandon sanderson which i enjoyed as it came across as an simplier but still interesting plot from a different angle to the usual.

 

Rob Hobb worth reading?

a friend keeps going on about me reading Dune but i haven't yet....

 

 

I am Determined to finish WOT this time around. Life always gets in the way!

 

Rob Hobb is supposed to be brilliant. Very sad apparently, they always reduce my sis to tears at the end of each book.

[36Degrees]

I recently finished Double Cross by Ben Macintyre, it tells the story of some of the spies turned by British secret service during WW2. Their stories veer from audacious to farcical in equal measure. It's a very good read.

 

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre

 

That sounds right up my Strasse! If you haven't already, this is definitely worth a read Operation Mincemeat

 

My favourite two books ever (so far) are The Count of Monte Cristo and Shogun by James Clavell - I've read both of them many times. I'm trying to read Moby Dick on my Kindle at the moment but I'm finding it very heavy going in places.

Edited May 22, 2013 by 36Degrees

[ICTDirect_Dave]

My favourite two books ever (so far) are The Count of Monte Cristo and Shogun by James Clavell - I've read both of them many times. I'm trying to read Moby Dick on my Kindle at the moment but I'm finding it very heavy going in places.

 

Shogun is fantastic! I just wish it didn't end so abruptly.

[Andrew_C]

If you like spy stuff, there is little to better John Le Carre's cold war stories (Tinker Tailor, Spy Who Came In, Small Town in Germany etc). The later (post cold war) I'd say is less convincing but mostly still readable.

[sonofsanta]

Discworld is utterly brilliant. I'm feeling the Vimes love as well - I think Night Watch is my favourite. I do love the Unseen University though.

 

Snow Crash is fantastic well, I still love that he was ballsy enough to just call his main character Hiro Protagonist. If you're an IT geek you owe it to yourself to read it - along with Neuromancer it's probably the defining book of cyberpunk.

 

Robin Hobb is ok so far, not as special as I was hoping it would be as it's still following the same old fantasy pattern of "here's a young boy being taught secret powers." I'm only halfway through book one though so I'll see how it pans out.

 

Absolutely could not get into Wheel of Time though. Went through book one earlier this year and found it dull as dishwater. Derivative and adolescent with arbitrary rules to its magic and no sense of world. Maybe if I'd read it at 13 I'd love it, as it seems very much aimed at the young-boy section of Fantasy, but I read David Eddings instead at the time. Equally as trashy, but the nostalgia carries me through now.

 

I think A Song of Ice and Fire has ruined almost all traditional fantasy for me now.

[carvjo]

My Favourite books are the two Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams:

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

 

I quite like Scandinavian crime fiction - the Jo Nesbo 'Harry Hole' Books were very good - Steig Larsson and Henning Mankell are also worth reading.

 

For a trashy easy read, the Jack Reacher Novels by Lee Child are great escapism.

 

I am currently reading books by Vince Flynn in the Mitch Rapp series - utter rubbish, but better than watching TV..!

[Greenbeast]

For a trashy easy read, the Jack Reacher Novels by Lee Child are great escapism.

 

definitely!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

David Eddings is good simple fantasy, but he's got such an addictive writing style I think. I cruised through the Belgariad in a little over two weeks the first time.

 

The Wheel of Time develops incredibly well after the first book. It took some doing but once I was in, I was hooked.

[SHimmer45]

 

I think A Song of Ice and Fire has ruined almost all traditional fantasy for me now.

 

how so, i have quite a few friends who have started reading the genre after seeing a bit of the TV show (which is fine but imo you need to read the books 1st)

 

i feel one i have done WoT and fire and ice i will need to find something else to get my teeth into something which spans several books

[sonofsanta]

how so, i have quite a few friends who have started reading the genre after seeing a bit of the TV show (which is fine but imo you need to read the books 1st)

 

Game of Thrones feels like the only fantasy series aimed at adults, not at teenagers. So many paint the world in very broad strokes ("and this is the King and he rules the land") instead of fleshing it out with details on the structure and repercussions of society. So very many assume good/evil is a black & white dichotomy and evil's motivation is evil for its own sake. More than anything, so many take LotR as a template, not an example. Your fantasy novel does not need to be about following a farm boy coming into his destiny! We do not need a quiet, bucolic origin story until evil suddenly crashes in on this idyllic existence! (This was one of my main problems with WoT book one, incidentally). ASOIAF is possibly the only traditional fantasy novel that dealt with shades of grey when it came to morality and motivation, and felt like the setting was complete and inherent to the story rather than a mere backdrop to proceedings.

 

I'm sure that it's a fantastic gateway drug for newcomers to the genre, but it's been my preferred field of reading for two decades. It's demonstrated to me just how similar many other fantasy works are and that fantasy hasn't yet fulfilled even 5% of its potential, IMHO.

 

Mind you, I'd argue that China Mieville is a fantasy author, and Perdido Street Station is a fantasy epic. It just happens to have an original secondary world instead of a pseudo-medieval setting.

 

Joe Abercrombie is meant to be good grown-up fantasy, he's on my to-read list.

[simpsonj]

@sonofsanta the impression I got with the first WoT book was that it was almost written as a stand alone book, and it wasn't necessarily conceived as a series. Once Robert Jordan got the go ahead to make an epic sage, he then does everything you mention, people have different motivations, making them appear evil to some, good to others. It does still have the issue that there is a 'dark lord' who is evil, but there are definitely grey areas when it comes to motivation, trust and not everyone likes how the lead characters go about their business...

 

Still, my recommendation would be Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen, fantastic read.

[HarryMonkey]

The Gears of War series by Karen Travis

The Sigma series by James Rollins

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

 

Can't recommend those enough. Great time sinks.

 

A big +1 from me for the Sigma series.

[sonofsanta]

If a series hasn't grabbed me at any point with its entire first book, I fear it's lost me - there's too much else on my to-read list. I was going to go through the WoT audiobooks in my car and worked out it would take around 8 months of work journeys, and I couldn't face it. I will just have to trust others that WoT is deserving of its reputation!

 

Neil Gaimain is a fantastic author though, agreed. I will always think of the M25's layout as a gateway to hell. Gaiman's American Gods is utterly fantastic as well, and I love Stardust & Neverwhere.

 

While I'm on the topic of fantasy: Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora is superb, and Patrick Rothfuss's two books (Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear) are both very enjoyable reads. Likewise Naomi Novik's Temeraire series - not challenging in any way, but I think it's impossible to read about dragons in the Napoleonic wars and not smile.

Edited May 22, 2013 by sonofsanta