Reading at t'moment?
#4061
Posted 02 July 2009 - 04:08 PM
I'm currently reading the second of Butcher's Codex Alera series, Academ's Fury. I'm about half way through and I must say I am really enjoying it. It grabbed my attention right from the beginning of the book and has kept up a good pace. This is a relief actually, as I found the first book to be a bit slow, and quite boring. Thankfully several people told me to stick with the series, as the books got much better after Furries of Calderon. This has definitely held true, and if the rest of the series continues on in the vein of this second book, I think I will be in for a real treat. I imagine I am going to tear through this series much the same way I tore through the Dresden Files. Butcher is quickly working his way up my favourite author's list. It's just a shame I put off reading his work for so long.
Procrastination is like masturbation, you're only F ing yourself...
-Bubbalicious -
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
- Martin Luther King, Jr-
The only thing one can learn from one's past mistakes is how to repeat them exactly.
-Stone Monkey-
Muffins are just ugly cupcakes!
-Zanth13-
-Bubbalicious -
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
- Martin Luther King, Jr-
The only thing one can learn from one's past mistakes is how to repeat them exactly.
-Stone Monkey-
Muffins are just ugly cupcakes!
-Zanth13-
#4062
Posted 02 July 2009 - 04:40 PM
I finished Academ's Fury a couple of weeks ago. I've got book 4 and on, but the I'm waiting on the libarary to get book 3. I'm having withdrawls from my Butcher addiction and its making me grumpy.
Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit
#4063
Posted 02 July 2009 - 04:52 PM
Eddie Dean, on Jul 2 2009, 11:40 AM, said:
I finished Academ's Fury a couple of weeks ago. I've got book 4 and on, but the I'm waiting on the libarary to get book 3. I'm having withdrawls from my Butcher addiction and its making me grumpy.
It's situations like yours that make me loathe taking anything out of the library. I just buy all of my books. It's bad enough waiting for the book store to get something in if it's out of stock. The last thing I want to be doing is waiting for someone else to be done reading something so that I can then borrow it. Plus I collect books, so owning something is always a preference for me.
My Butcher addiction is likely as bad as yours, so I definitely feel for you Eddie dear! I tore all the way through Dresden and went straight to Codex, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself when I'm done reading the series. Butcher's books are more addictive than crack!
Procrastination is like masturbation, you're only F ing yourself...
-Bubbalicious -
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
- Martin Luther King, Jr-
The only thing one can learn from one's past mistakes is how to repeat them exactly.
-Stone Monkey-
Muffins are just ugly cupcakes!
-Zanth13-
-Bubbalicious -
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
- Martin Luther King, Jr-
The only thing one can learn from one's past mistakes is how to repeat them exactly.
-Stone Monkey-
Muffins are just ugly cupcakes!
-Zanth13-
#4064
Posted 02 July 2009 - 05:59 PM
I've just finished Gulliver's Travels. Had seen the TV adaptations and all that, but it struck me I'd never actually read the book, so I borrowed it and I wasnt disappointed, I thought it was bloody brilliant, really enjoyed it.
Tonight, I start RotCG, at long long looooooooong last.
Tonight, I start RotCG, at long long looooooooong last.
#4065
Posted 02 July 2009 - 06:24 PM
Thank god, I have finally gritted my teeth and battled through Steel Remains read the final 6 chapters today. Bleugh, I am totally unimpressed. It got better towards the end, but really, he should stick to sci-fi I reckon. I managed to persuade a friend to buy Black Man today, even though I'm disillusioned...
Gonna re-read RotCG as a pick-me-up off the back fo that.
Gonna re-read RotCG as a pick-me-up off the back fo that.
O xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti têde; keimetha tois keinon rhémasi peithomenoi.
#4066
Posted 02 July 2009 - 08:38 PM
I'm about halfway through Karen Traviss' Matriarch, the fourth book in her excellent Wess'har Wars series. This book is still very good, but the pace seems to have slowed considerably since the first book. Two and a half books to go.
(I feel torn: on the one hand, I think Lucasfilm should just hand all of the Star Wars novel duties to Traviss and Matt Stover, but at the same time I'd prefer to see more "original" fiction from both of them. Is that selfish? )
Next up? Either Return of the Crimson Guard or giving Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy a try. I haven't decided yet.
(I feel torn: on the one hand, I think Lucasfilm should just hand all of the Star Wars novel duties to Traviss and Matt Stover, but at the same time I'd prefer to see more "original" fiction from both of them. Is that selfish? )
Next up? Either Return of the Crimson Guard or giving Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy a try. I haven't decided yet.
"Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires?"
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
#4067
Posted 03 July 2009 - 03:05 AM
Reading Wild Cards volume 3, aces high. decided to order these off e-bay and give them a shot, so far very very good. Hopefully the whole series stays this way.
"I try to feel the sunshine while standing in the rain, You try to hold me down with all your restraints"
-Blaze Ya Dead Homie
-Blaze Ya Dead Homie
#4068
Posted 03 July 2009 - 03:33 AM
At the moment I'm going through as much Cthulu Mythos as I can. When I get tired I will continue reading Neil Gaimen's Don't Panic. I have mild obsessions with Neil Gaimen and Douglas Adams.
#4069
Posted 03 July 2009 - 03:43 PM
Finished reading Jasper Bark's 'Way of the Barefoot Zombie' where a course to 'unleash your inner zombie' becomes a lot more to the Voodoo priestess and Zombie Liberation Front agents caught up in it. I loved the concept, and characterisation, but Bark's insistence on having to explain everything to the readers really took the edge off what he was trying to say as well as slowing things down when they should have been speeding up... My full review is over Here. I'm now reading 'Through Violet Eyes' by Stephen Woodworth...
#4070
Posted 04 July 2009 - 06:25 PM
At the moment I'm reading Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It has some wonderful moments of dark humor in it like the story of the American tourist visiting his native village in Russia. He drops dead and the villagers put his body in the communal refrigerator and send word to Moscow. They say to leave the body there until they get the proper forms to fill out. The forms never show up and the villagers get tired of trying to fit things on the man's lap so they get in a truck, load up the body, take it to Moscow and dump it on the steps of the police department. Smith says it better.
#4071
Posted 04 July 2009 - 09:31 PM
Three I bought the other day and will be reading shortly: Richard Morgan's Black Man, Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora (finally) and one book I saw on the shelf and had to buy, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Should be fun.
Hello, soldiers, look at your mage, now back to me, now back at your mage, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped being an unascended mortal and switched to Sole Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re in a warren with the High Mage your cadre mage could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an acorn with two gates to that realm you love. Look again, the acorn is now otataral. Anything is possible when your mage smells like Sole Spice and not a Bole brother. I’m on a quorl.
#4072
Posted 04 July 2009 - 10:34 PM
I got about twenty pages into Pride & Zombies. Really couldn't be arsed with it. It wasn't funny and it wasn't particularly witty. Zombies just tended to turn up and eat people and that was about it.
Of course, I've never read Pride and Prejudice, so I don't know whether the lack of funny came from Grahame-Smith or because it stuck so close to the original. The blurb on the back was very good though
Of course, I've never read Pride and Prejudice, so I don't know whether the lack of funny came from Grahame-Smith or because it stuck so close to the original. The blurb on the back was very good though
Don't fuck with the Culture.
#4073
Posted 04 July 2009 - 10:37 PM
There's an illustration with ninjas in there, so it might be terrible. But I had no choice, the title compelled me to buy it.
Hello, soldiers, look at your mage, now back to me, now back at your mage, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped being an unascended mortal and switched to Sole Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re in a warren with the High Mage your cadre mage could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an acorn with two gates to that realm you love. Look again, the acorn is now otataral. Anything is possible when your mage smells like Sole Spice and not a Bole brother. I’m on a quorl.
#4074
Posted 04 July 2009 - 10:38 PM
The front cover is cool as well I think I'm going to give it to a friend of mine who loves Jane Austen. Whether or not she loves it/throws it in the bin, is up to her.
Don't fuck with the Culture.
#4075
Posted 05 July 2009 - 12:53 AM
I've just finished reading Jim Butcher's Academ's Fury. It was far, far, better than Furies of Calderon. I must say I could have done without the whole Vord story line though. It didn't seem to fit in very well with the rest of what was going on. It was very out of place, and almost had a bit of a sci-fi element to it, which I am not really a fan of. I couldn't get enough of the multiple story lines happening within the capital though. Butcher is doing a really good job of merging the various races and weaving the story lines together. The other thing I could have done without was the whole conflicted love and duty bit, it didn't add anything to the book. I struggled not to skip over those portions as they were going nowhere and just seemed to be a major interruption of the best parts of the book. Overall a fantastic book. Take away the vord and the conflicted love bit and it would be absolutely perfect. I've jumped right into book three and already it looks to be like a great read.
Procrastination is like masturbation, you're only F ing yourself...
-Bubbalicious -
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
- Martin Luther King, Jr-
The only thing one can learn from one's past mistakes is how to repeat them exactly.
-Stone Monkey-
Muffins are just ugly cupcakes!
-Zanth13-
-Bubbalicious -
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
- Martin Luther King, Jr-
The only thing one can learn from one's past mistakes is how to repeat them exactly.
-Stone Monkey-
Muffins are just ugly cupcakes!
-Zanth13-
#4076
Posted 05 July 2009 - 01:03 AM
Reading Night of Knives...and it is fairly slow. But the Y'Ghatan nightmare was sweet.
I also went and bought Robert Jordan's Eye of the World, Whitechapel Gods and something else. Gonna read them next.
I also went and bought Robert Jordan's Eye of the World, Whitechapel Gods and something else. Gonna read them next.
Suck it Errant!
"It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum...and I'm all out of gum."
QUOTE (KeithF @ Jun 30 2009, 09:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
It has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt that the most powerful force on Wu is a bunch of messed-up Malazans with Moranth munitions.
#4077
Posted 05 July 2009 - 07:54 AM
Reading Foucault's Pendulum right now.
Mr. Brown should be giving a portion of his fortune to Mr. Eco.
Mr. Brown should be giving a portion of his fortune to Mr. Eco.
You’ve never heard of the Silanda? … It’s the ship that made the Warren of Telas run in less than 12 parsecs.
#4078
Posted 05 July 2009 - 05:08 PM
All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. … So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants. Bertrand Russell
#4079
Posted 06 July 2009 - 02:39 PM
Reading Simon Kernick's "A Good Day to Die"...love his writing style.
#4080
Posted 06 July 2009 - 04:49 PM
I read Maria Snyder's _Magic Study_ at the weekend. Gak, I'd forgotten how terrible _Poison Study_ was. Won't be reading her again.
Fortunately, _Cursor's Fury_ made it all better
Fortunately, _Cursor's Fury_ made it all better
It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one, behind one's back, that are absolutely and entirely true.
-- Oscar Wilde
-- Oscar Wilde