[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Just started rereading ASoIaF. I'd already forgotten ho well it is written. I think it's going to be even better the second time around.

[pat5150]

Just finished David Louis Edelman's Infoquake, and it has to be one of the very best scifi debuts I have ever read.

Had I read it in 2006 when it came out, it would have trumped Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora, Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon, Brian Ruckley's Winterbirth, and Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself.

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Finished Reaper's Gale 4-5 days ago

[Elan Morin Tedronai]

Just ordered Infoquake because of that review Pat, if it sucks I'll demand my money back

Reading Last Argument Of Kings atm, love it sofar

[cerveza_fiesta]

hyperion.

it is awesome.

[Gimli's love child]

Just finished 'Incompetence' by Rob Grant and went straight online and bought his other books, utterly outstanding and very funny, if you like your Red Dwarf I seriously recommend this guy. No Sci-fi but the same humour. In short awesome.

[Mentalist]

I held off from posting for a while, waiting till I finished the second book

I have just finished a double dose of Jim Butcher--"Proven Guilty" of Dresden Files and "the furies of Calderon"--book one of the Codex Alera series

"Proven guilty" was awesome--everything I expect from Dresden files, "White night" willl be bought... soon
"Furies of Calderon" was pretty averag-y... it had a pretty epic battle towards the end, the story was mildly convoluted, and the idea of Furies was interesting, even if I did get several flashbacks to Weis and Hickman's "Darksword" universe... I'm mildly interested to see where the story may go and I'll pick up book 2, but I wasn't overly impressed.

next up, I shall attempt K. J. Parker's "Devices and Desires"--vol. 1 of the engineer trilogy.

[Astra]

I finished Prince of Dogs by Kate Elliott.
I think the second book was better than the first. Less talk, more action. Although some things were annoying. As Da used to say every time the story returns to Liath...a boring storyline of a brother and sister who escaped from Gent....
Otherwise a good sequel to King's Dragon. 4 out of 5.

I am going to take a brief respite and read Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

[Slum]

Merciless by Richard Montanari. A serial killer is on the loose in Philly, and he's one effed up SOB. Great book, so far. But I like these types of books almost as much as fantasy...

Montanari writes well, his stories are fast paced, his detectives are great, and his killers are mega twisted. The mysteries/clues/revelations are pretty great too.

[Spindrift]

currently reading cory doctorow's Little Brother. It's really captivating. It's not without it's flaws, but i still can't put it down.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Devices and Desires"--volume 1 of the Engineer Trilogy by K.J. Parker.

it was.. interesting. The characters were all drawn up, to the point of exxaggeration, but the story was fairly entertaining. Once again, I must confess to a professonal bias--I love reading about what's going on in people's heads, and this book was almost entirely about that. I'm sure this one's not for everyone, but I'd give it a try.
If you liked that movie "Amelie", you may also like this--Parker's narrative style reminded me a lot of the narration in that movie.

Next up--"The LAst Light of the Sun" by Kay...

[pat5150]

Just finished Naomi Novik's Victory of Eagles.

Although Novik's latest is as fun and entertaining as the previous four Temeraire novels, there seems to be a few hints that the series might be losing a little steam. To say that Victory of Eagles is disappointing would be a lie. And yet, with Novik "graduating" to hardcover in North America, I must conceded that I was expecting more. After five volumes, the originality which so took the genre by storm a while back is starting to wear off a bit. Hence, I feel that the author must really kick it into gear and bring the series to a new level. Otherwise, for all its originality, I'm afraid that these books could become more or less formulaic and episodic in style and tone, which is a concern I've had from the start. In addition, the short length of each novel might become an issue now that they will henceforth be published in hardback.

Now, Naomi Novik has demonstrated time and again that she has quite a few surprises up her sleeve. So I'm convinced that she can up her game in the next volume. In all honesty, though, I feel that the sixth installment could make or break the series. Oh, most of us are hooked, and we'll keep on reading regardless. But the next one should tell us if we're looking forward to a proliferation of sequels whose pertinence could be put into question, or if Laurence and Temeraire will remain the most interesting, if unlikely, duo in fantasy.

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[Seed]

*jealous* omg how did you get a copy of Victory of Eagles so soon? I will agree with you and say that the series does appear to be losing a little steam (it just seems they're reading alot quicker, not fleshing out enough detail and stuff like that), however I'm still quite impressed with the concepts she comes up with. The African dragon enclaves were awesome in the last book.

[Slum]

I got David Anthony Durham's Acacia from the library. Read the first 20 pages or so...seems like I'll enjoy it based on the writing style.

[caladanbrood]

Gimli said:

Just finished 'Incompetence' by Rob Grant and went straight online and bought his other books, utterly outstanding and very funny, if you like your Red Dwarf I seriously recommend this guy. No Sci-fi but the same humour. In short awesome.

Incompetence is a very funny book, Rob Grant is somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me. Try Fat next, it's... enlightning, although some of the "science" is dodgy, if you care about that.

@Seed - he gets ARCs from the publishers. Not fair, eh

[stone monkey]

Today I will be mostly reading Imaginary Magnitude by Stanislaw Lem, with a little of Scar Night thrown in when my brain begins to hurt

[Mentalist]

Finished "Last Light of the Sun" by Kay--his take on the Viking/Celtic/Anglo-saxon relations in the early Medieval times.

The book was enjoyable, not as good as "Sarantine Mosaic", but still fairly awesome. Kay threw in some magic in there, in regards to the Celts--same way as he did in "The Song for Arbonne", but it wasn't over-done and it didn't dominate the book.

This book was all about change--the way societies must change and adapt and how it reflects on the people. Kay's tactic of writing out the lives of even casual characters, that I encountered in "Sarantine Mosaic" is used to an even greater extent here.

Overall, a very enjoyable, if a bit more on the lyrical side, book.

Next up--"Legend" by Gemmel. It's about tme I read the first of the Drenai novels....
EDIT--finished "Legend".
It was quite short (400 somehting pages). But it was pure WIN all the way through. It's nowhere near as complex as epic fantasy, it's a story of a battle and the people involved in it. It was a VERY easy and enjoyable read, and I lament that my Chapters doesn't get much of old Gemmel stuff. I felt that towards the VERY end Gemmel got slightly sappy, but other than that, this book was a definite WIN.

Next up--volume 2 of the Taladas trilogy of Dragonlance, then I need to do a War of the Souls re-read (also DL), as i've never read the third book of it, then I'm going on a long Perumov binge--been putting that off for quite a while now.

[Astra]

Finished Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

I have an ambiguous feelings about it.
I didn't like it. Too many names and too much philosophy.
At the same time some ideas are very interesting.

Back to Crown of Stars by Kate Elliott.
Book 3 - The Burning Stone.

[Zanth13]

I am in the middle of The Giver...

I havent read it since middle school and I saw a copy lying around the office... figure I would eat it... awesome book... simple and easy to read but the story isnt just for kids...

[Crop]

"Last arguement of kings"

-me likes!