[Deornoth]

I finished reading Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's 'Escape from Hell', the sequel to 'Inferno'. Allen Carpenter escaped from Hell but now he's going back to rescue the souls that he had to leave behind...
'Escape from Hell' is a slow old read (almost too slow sometimes) but left me with loads to think about after I had finished it. I'm not sure I'd read it again but it was worth picking up. My full review is over Here. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever get round to picking up 'Dragonfly Falling' again, it's not a bad book (quite the opposite) but it's just not doing it for me at the moment. In the meantime, it's onto Joe Abercrombie's 'Best Served Cold'...

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Have started reading Devil May Care. It's a Bond novel but not written by Ian Fleming. I've nevere read a 007 book before but a friend gave it to me so I'll give it a try.

[kcf]

I finished up A Magic of Nightfall by S.L. Farrell (full review). I enjoyed this book (as I did A Magic of Twilight). It has a few issues, but overall, it's good epic fantasy that I think gets overlooked a bit too often.

I'm reading Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi now.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Twilight Herald" yesterday.

it was..okay

I can't find an actual fault with the book. it was just very... bland.

it's a decent story, but I couldn't help shake th feeling that I've already read all this.

I expect that Lloyd will do well, since, objectively its a fairly decent series. it's just that i didn't find anyhting really unique in it. there was a fair share of cliches and too much of what needed to be said to keep me interested was unsaid, and instead classical tropes were used--and they work, but I just wasn't impressed..

don't think i'll be picking up the third book any time soon.

[stone monkey]

Currently reading My Work is Not Yet Done By Thomas Ligotti, The Skylark of Space by EE 'Doc' Smith and How To Kill Your Friends by John Niven

Should be done with all three by the end of the weekend. The first one is shaping up very well, the second is turning out as expected and the third is surprisingly fun and black hearted so far.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 14 March 2009 - 01:43 AM

[QuickTidal]

The Lost City of Z by David Grann. A very interesting non-fiction book about the 1925 disappearance of British Victorian-era explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett into the jungles of the Amazon searching for a city he called "Z". It really enthralling so far. Apparently somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 people since then have gone looking for him or what happened to him and either died, or disappeared themselves. A Great read!

[Werthead]

Hothouse by Brian Aldiss.

[Riot]

Just finished Drood by Dan Simmons. Mightly weird, nae sure if i liked it or not

[stone monkey]

@ Wert - The first part of Hothouse is an absolute gem... It peters out a bit after those first chapters imo, but as it was written as a series of shorts and then edited together it's possible that Aldiss got bored with the whole conceit. I read it first as a teenager - there's an English teacher that I had in High School whom I have a lot to thank about for my education in classic sf; he made a point of getting a bunch of obstreperous teenagers to read the good stuff; I think that if you learn (or are taught, as in my case) discernment at an early age it stays with you forever.

I haven't read the thing for a good few years (there is a copy, with the gorgeous Tim White cover, knocking around my house somewhere) but I would say that it is worth persevering with. The imagery is incredible - the world covered by jungle, the hyperactive and hyper-dangerous ecosystem, the earth and moon hung about with cobwebs -and there is a sense of overwhelming menace to parts of it that is almost unbearable... Fantastic stuff, in both senses of the word. The science doesn't stand up, of course, and I doubt it did even back then in the early 60s, but the amount of sheer imagination that is deployed more than makes up for that. I would argue that it's probably the best work of Aldiss' early period and maybe even his best work overall (The Acid-Head War stuff comes close)

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 16 March 2009 - 02:47 AM

[Use Of Weapons]

Finished _Just Another Judgement Day_ by Simon Green last night -- new Nightside novel. As always, a great ride, great imagination, and larger-than-life characters make it a worthwhile addition, though the resolution was easy to see coming.

The Walking Man -- the personification of the wrath of God, visiting justice on sinners and evildoers everywhere, unstoppable and remoreseless -- has come to visit the Nightside, home of everything that is seedy and unpleasant. And it's John Taylor, son of Lilith, who has to stop him.


Got _Mean Streets_ up next -- that'll be my Dresden fix until Turn Coat in a few weeks :-)

[Deornoth]

I've finished reading my ARC of Joe Abercrombie's 'Best Served Cold'; a tale of revenge and civil war (I don't want to spoil it by saying too much more). It's good though, bloody good in fact! My full review is over Here.
I'm now reading Conrad Williams' 'One'...

[Valgard]

Am currently reading Generation Kill the book the TV show of the same name is based on. The book follows the first recon marines battalion as they head into Iraq at the fore-front of the american advance. Am about a 1/4 in so far and it is brilliant, a fascinating read of the different points of view found in the american military with the soldiers coming across as human beings with faults and good sides it damns no one and exalts none either. Would highly recommend.

[Grimjust Bearegular]

re-reading GotM and reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter on and off.

I tried reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, but didn't like it very much. Dunno what all the fuzz is about.


I need some new books to read, but I don't have room for them. Why the hell won't they sell Kindle in Europe?

[Astra]

Grimhilde, on Mar 19 2009, 09:01 AM, said:

I tried reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, but didn't like it very much. Dunno what all the fuzz is about.

The same fuss as about most of the classics

Quote

I need some new books to read, but I don't have room for them. Why the hell won't they sell Kindle in Europe?

Forget about this piece of s"£t.
You probably unaware about their latest moves against their customers. Even most rabid Kindle lovers are disgusted with them.

Get yourself Sony Reader, CyBook Gen3, BeBook.....orvery expensive iRex iLiad or iRex 1000.
You will not regret it.

This post has been edited by Astra: 19 March 2009 - 12:39 PM

[Grimjust Bearegular]

Astra, on Mar 19 2009, 10:20 AM, said:

Grimhilde, on Mar 19 2009, 09:01 AM, said:

I tried reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, but didn't like it very much. Dunno what all the fuzz is about.

The same fuss as about most of the classics

Quote

I need some new books to read, but I don't have room for them. Why the hell won't they sell Kindle in Europe?

Forget about this piece of s"£t.
You probably unaware about their latest moves against their customers. Even most rubbit Kindle lovers are disgusted with them.

Get yourself Sony Reader, CyBook Gen3, BeBook.....orvery expensive iRex iLiad or iRex 1000.
You will not regret it.

thanks for the heads up, I'll check those out:)

[Astra]

Grimhilde, on Mar 19 2009, 11:33 AM, said:

thanks for the heads up, I'll check those out:)

Have a look here:
Kindle anyone?
The end of the bookshop?
e-Book readers

and the best source of info is Mobileread

This post has been edited by Astra: 19 March 2009 - 12:34 PM

[Grimjust Bearegular]

Astra, on Mar 19 2009, 01:33 PM, said:

Grimhilde, on Mar 19 2009, 11:33 AM, said:

thanks for the heads up, I'll check those out:)

Have a look here:
Kindle anyone?
The end of the bookshop?
e-Book readers

and the best source of info is Mobileread

Thanks a lot, astra:)

[Traveller]

I like the look of the e-book, but didn't like the way the pages change - I found it too distracting. Nice look and layout though, I'm sure I'll get one at some point in the future, if they change it a bit.

I'm reading '1812 - Napoleons Fatal March on Moscow' by Adam Zamoyski. Grim for the most part, especially as it's written from first hand accounts and letters. The army getting cornered against a river by the Russians, and escaping over hastily built wooden bridges in a panicky flight reminded me of DG's.

Well written though, with some incredible survival stories.

[Zanth13]

Ive just started reading the nightside books... decent, not as good as Dresden IMO, but entertaining none the less

[Deornoth]

Just finished Conrad Williams' 'One', a story of one mans journey to find his son after a cosmic event has scorched the whole of the UK. 'One' can be slowgoing in places, and a little clunky too, but once I got into it the story was so gripping that I didn't really care. Worth a look if you're a horror fan, my full review is over Here.
I'm now reading Bruce Sterling's 'The Caryatids'...