[Astra]

Finished all 5 books in Earthsea series. The last one was The Other Wind. Quite mediocre fantasy.
Started The Terror by Dan Simmons.

[Flawed]

Started Janny Wurts - The Curse of the Mistwraith. Seems ok so far

[rlfcl]

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

i love reading anything on the spanish civil war, and his recounting of the party politics that divided the anti-fascist side is both disturbing and really interesting.

[Hume]

Reapers Gale

Also was reading before I managed to get my hand on that -

Ghost Wars by Steve Coll

[Mulch]

Peter Kay's the sound of laughter - so funny I can no longer read it on the train else people think I'm mad

[Locke Reaper]

reag iain m. banks, consider phlebas, and frankly was rather dissapointed by the way he just forgot to continue the plot for more than half the book. The just descided to kill off everyone.

Don't get me wrong i don't mind seeing characters offed but not because you can't see a way to bring everything together.

Also read the last harry potter...anyway
now busy with shadowplay by tad williams...

[Puck]

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
I'm reading it in German, though, and am constantly asking myself, whether I would understand it in English or not..

[McLovin]

Speaking of Shadowplay, still reading Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Really did not like it at first, then it got much better....

[Fist Gamet]

Now Black Swan Green by David Mitchell...very funny, smart. Anyone who remembers well 1982 will love this.

[Falco]

Fist Gamet;202371 said:

Now Black Swan Green by David Mitchell...very funny, smart. Anyone who remembers well 1982 will love this.

Mitchell is currently my fave writer. I've read all 4 of his books and loved them all.

[rlfcl]

"origin of the family, private property and the state" by engels just came into the library today, so i will be starting that as soon as i'm done my orwell.

[ch'arlz]

rlfcl;202529 said:

"origin of the family, private property and the state" by engels just came into the library today, so i will be starting that as soon as i'm done my orwell.

Oh my. I read that some 30+ years ago. Can't imagine it has improved with age.

[pat5150]

Just finished Jeff Somers' The Electric Church.

For some reason, I can't say that it piqued my curiosity when I received the ARC. A few weeks later, as I was looking for something not too bulky to bring along for my trip to NYC and DC, I decided to give this Orbit USA launch title a shot. The story was occurring in New York City, which sort of made it apropos.

I started reading this action-packed novel on the eve of my departure, and I would have read The Electric Church till the wee hours of the night had I not had an early plane to catch. I was immediately sucked into this cyberpunk/noir science fiction tale.

An explosive near-future thriller in which Kill Bill meets Blade Runner -- that's how they sum up this book on the back cover of the ARC. I figure that's as good a description as any!

Avery Cates is a Gunner -- a hitman. As if his life isn't complicated enough, he finds a way to screw up in spectacular fashion when he kills a cop. From that point on, Cates is basically a dead man walking with the entire System Security Force on his trail. Somehow, Cates will dig himself an even deeper hole by killing more cops as he desperately attempts to save his own skin. Realizing that his miserable life has reached its expiration date, Cates will do the only thing that might see him survive. With no other alternatives this side of death, he will accept to kill someone for Director Richard Marin, of the SFF Department of Internal Affairs. His target: Dennis Squalor, founder and chief prophet of the Electric Church. The only problem is that, since Marin cannot be seen getting involved, Cates must face the SFF and the Monks of the Electric Church in order to succeed and possibly save his own life.

Jaded readers tired of the "same old" should definitely give Jeff Somers' The Electric Church a shot! As for me, it is with curiosity and eagerness that I will wait for the sequel, The King Worm.

Apart from Brian Ruckley's Winterbirth, this could well be Orbit USA's most interesting launch title. It will be released in a few weeks from now. . .

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[Giles]

ive just finished reading Twilight watch by sergei lukyanenko. its the third in a trilogy after day watch and night watch.
A very good book even if i didnt understand half the russian references to vodka, towns and names.

[Puck]

@baudin: That's a really nice series. Though it's not a trilogy. There are all in all four books. And although it's quite predictable, it's a really nice read, I really enjoyed Lukianenko's novels. But yes, maybe just people from europe's east [and further east] understand all the references, which is sometimes a pity since they're quite funny
[I lived half of my life in the Ukraine and still go there every year in summer, so I'm used to all this vodka-stuff^^]

[Giles]

the books all say its a trilogy although i did here that there were four books in the series so i wasnt sure

[Puck]

As far as I know, this should become a trilogy but ended up resulting in four books. There certainly is a fourth one, 'cause if there isn't, I read the phantom of a book
Should be called The last watch or something similar. And has a proper end, which is recognisible as the end of a series. Don't know whether it already has been translated to English, though.

[stone monkey]

Hmm...I read them a couple of weeks ago (or three of them anyway), and I wasn't all that impressed. I suspect that the translation to English is a bit ropey because although some of the ideas were quite interesting, the books didn't read at all well.

[Puck]

stone monkey;202747 said:

I suspect that the translation to English is a bit ropey because although some of the ideas were quite interesting, the books didn't read at all well.

That may be the case
While I was reading the books I thought there were nice ideas but the storyline often too predictable, which nearly made me put the second book down. But all things considered this was an enjoyable read, at least in Russian, and nice written. Eventually, I don't regret having read all four. Not the masterpiece it's being sold as, imo, but not bad either. I like this series.

Have got another novel by Lukianenko, but haven't read it yet. Looks quite SF-like. I'm not a SF fan, but decided to give it a try ..somewhere down the road.

As to reading at the moment:
Put Perdido Street Station aside and am currently reading NoK.

[pat5150]

When John Twelve Hawks' The Traveler was released in 2005, it immediately created waves that rippled across genre fiction and beyond. As a matter of course, I wished to read this novel, yet I wanted to wait for the buzz to die down before giving it a shot. And somehow, I forgot all about it. When I was sent an ARC of the sequel, The Dark River, I realized once again how much of a dumbass I could be when I put my mind to it.

To remedy this unfortunate and unacceptable state of affairs, I brought The Traveler with me to NYC and DC. And I'm sure glad I did!

This thought-provoking techno-thriller will keep you begging for more! Complex and engrossing, The Traveler is a post September 11th cyber-version of the classic 1984.

Though the novel is a well-executed thriller, it's the "fantasy" elements found within that truly make this one such an awesome read. The Harlequins, the Travelers, the Brethren, the Realms, and how they are all connected to our collective history, past and present, those are the characteristics which will mesmerize you at every turn.

Disturbing and paranoid, The Traveler should satisfy anyone looking for a quality read this summer.

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick