[Salt-Man Z]

Got sick of waiting for my review copy of The Left Hand of God (the book's been out in the US for almost 2 months now!) and started in on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

[Astra]

Finished The Host by Stephenie Meyer. Nothing special, although an improvement on Twilight series.
After 5 extremely light books, I have decided to read some classics.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

[goldmill]

Just finished Elantris last week which I liked much better than Warbreaker. The ending made a lot more sense to me. I'd recommend it. I have the Mistborn trilogy in my to-read pile for later.

However, I got ahold of all the Vlad Taltos books so I started on that series and will probably rotate them through other stuff in my to read pile. Read the first one in the books of Jhereg and have two more in the still to go. I liked it. Very fun read though I though the last half a page of the book was a pretty "oh brother" way to end.

[Abyss]

Banks - USE OF WEAPONS.

First of his Culture books i've read. 200pgs in, so far, so good.

[Dolorous Menhir]

That's a good one Abyss, look forward to hearing what you think.

Currently reading Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Good stuff, plus it's a classy-looking edition with black-edged pages. Feels and reads like quality material.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Lots of reading while in Ireland

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Once again Abercrombie manages to make funny something that really shouldn't be. I liked this book, although I think it picks up in the fourth city

Spoiler

after Shivers gets tortured

. I think the trilogy is better but it's a close one.

The Scar by China Mieville. If imagination was money Mieville would be the richest man in the world. The world he has build, with its races and its magic but also simply concepts like the Armada, or the Possible Sword or his take on vampirism, they're all great. I look forward to his other works.

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks. For me it was an okay book not bad but not exactly what I have heard about the Culture books. But then, maybe I'm simply not in science fiction.

[Morgoth]

Just finished Twelve, which did not impress me as much as I was expecting, though it was by no means sub-par.

I'm now reading Filth by Irvine Welsh, and it's awesome so far.

[Tapper]

Finshed the City & the City, liked it quite a bit apart from the last 80 pages, which was filled with, I think, building up to the expected ending where I had hoped Mieville would pull a stunt and do something completely unexpected instead.

Re-reading Best served cold now, wonder if knowing the whole twist

Spoiler

surrounding Benna's death

makes the book a lesser read.

I'm out of new reads now... will actively look for The Scar and Vandermeer's City and Shriek, but some nice light readage is also in order. Might pick up a few Anita Blake novels, if the latest Dresden novels haven't hit my book store... or I might start on the Codex.

[HoosierDaddy]

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay. ~90 pages in and digging it so far.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Bauchelain the Evil, on 12 August 2010 - 01:05 PM, said:

The Scar by China Mieville. If imagination was money Mieville would be the richest man in the world. The world he has build, with its races and its magic but also simply concepts like the Armada, or the Possible Sword or his take on vampirism, they're all great. I look forward to his other works.

Is it that sword that has the "probability generator" attached to it, letting the wielder make every strike they could have? I heard about it and it sounds awesome.

Reading White Knight. I abit slow, to be honest.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Ain, on 13 August 2010 - 09:48 AM, said:

Bauchelain the Evil, on 12 August 2010 - 01:05 PM, said:

The Scar by China Mieville. If imagination was money Mieville would be the richest man in the world. The world he has build, with its races and its magic but also simply concepts like the Armada, or the Possible Sword or his take on vampirism, they're all great. I look forward to his other works.

Is it that sword that has the "probability generator" attached to it, letting the wielder make every strike they could have? I heard about it and it sounds awesome.

Indeed, it's that one. When you see what it can do, awesome doesn't even cover it

[Harvester]

R. Scott. Bakker - The Warrior Prophet (What happened to the battle scenes? I liked the Scylvendi vs. Nansur scene in the first book, but now it's just a battle of names, no really, IT'S A BATTLE OF NAMES AND NAMES AND NAMES. It's still a very, very good book, though.)

Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora (Not that far into this one, yet... and not hooked, either, but I am not one to ditch books that easily.)

[teholbeddict]

Finished Follet's Pillars of the Earth, and while it wasn't a bad book I don't think it's a must read by any means. I'm not quite sure why it gets such rave reviews, it really fell off in the back half for me, and there were quite a few things that bothered me about the story line. That being said his character development in most cases is quite good.

Went on to read Michel Faber's The Courage Consort, which consists of three short stories. I tried it because I loved his novel The Crimson Petal and the White and thought this might be along the same lines. Unfortunately I'm not normally a short story fan. Two of the three stories seemed to go nowhere and were very odd, the third was odd and somewhat interesting, but overall I wouldn't recommend the book.

Now despite not liking short stories and not liking the last Faber book I read, I'm reading The Apple, also by Faber. It's a series of short stories following the characters of The Crimson Petal and the White though, so I'm hoping I will really like this one. It's supposed to be a bit of a conclusion of each of the prositute's lives from the original novel, so I think I'll like it. Fingers crossed!

This post has been edited by teholbeddict: 13 August 2010 - 02:48 PM

[ansible]

I'm a pretty big fan of Pillars of the Earth, reading it is sort of like a tradition in my family. Also, I quite enjoyed Cryptonomicon.

I've just read The Name of the Wind and GotM - MoI. Halfway through HoC.

This post has been edited by ansible: 13 August 2010 - 03:08 PM

[teholbeddict]

ansible, on 13 August 2010 - 03:07 PM, said:

I'm a pretty big fan of Pillars of the Earth, reading it is sort of like a tradition in my family. Also, I quite enjoyed Cryptonomicon.

I've just read The Name of the Wind and GotM - MoI. Halfway through HoC.

I loved Cryptonomicon, but then I love anyting Neal Stephenson. The Name of the Wind is fantastic as well, beautifully written, I can't wait for Wise Man's Fear to come out.

[Slow Ben]

Started a re-read of Dresden as my bathroom book.

Its amazing how far Butchers come with this series. Storm Front wasnt bad, but compared to Dead Beat and Changes? No comparison.

[Abyss]

Harvester, on 13 August 2010 - 01:34 PM, said:

R. Scott. Bakker - The Warrior Prophet (What happened to the battle scenes? I liked the Scylvendi vs. Nansur scene in the first book, but now it's just a battle of names, no really, IT'S A BATTLE OF NAMES AND NAMES AND NAMES. It's still a very, very good book, though.)

So true but if you just not care beyond the basics of whose on what side it doesn't matter.

Quote

Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora (Not that far into this one, yet... and not hooked, either, but I am not one to ditch books that easily.)

It's not brilliance but it is fun.

teholbeddict, on 13 August 2010 - 03:58 PM, said:

ansible, on 13 August 2010 - 03:07 PM, said:

...Also, I quite enjoyed Cryptonomicon. ...

I loved Cryptonomicon, but then I love anyting Neal Stephenson....

But re CRYPTO

Spoiler

did you actually like the ending(s)?

Slow Ben, on 13 August 2010 - 05:31 PM, said:

Started a re-read of Dresden as my bathroom book.

Its amazing how far Butchers come with this series. Storm Front wasnt bad, but compared to Dead Beat and Changes? No comparison.

So true. the WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE GN is fun in that it's early Dresden time period but it's written by Butcher circa WHITE NIGHT or so.

[KalamMekhar]

@SB that sounds like a good plan to re-read dresden, ill get around to it after a while as i just finished the series myself a month ago or so and loved it. but it wont be for a while! i still have half a bookcase full of books to read!

[Slow Ben]

Thats why i have my bathroom books!


I'm reading Best Served Cold as my regular book. But then you have your bathroom book for books your not sure about or rereads you dont have time for because there is always so much too read! Its only a few minutes a day, depending on your diet. Its briliant!

[KalamMekhar]

hmmm not sure i would want my books to smell like that after leaving them in the bathroom the whole time..... especially books i liked! but it does seem like a good plan, i might have to try it.