[QuickTidal]

I'm alternating between BROKEN ANGELS by Morgan and THE FOUNDING by Dan Abnett...and it is a clusterfuck of awesome military SF to do so. I am teh happy.

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 29 November 2011 - 08:42 PM, said:

I'm alternating between BROKEN ANGELS by Morgan and THE FOUNDING by Dan Abnett...and it is a clusterfuck of awesome military SF to do so. I am teh happy.

Oh, those Abnett books are good. Read the Ciaphas Cain ones too. I went through a ton of Warhammer 40k this summer and sort of discovered the good ones and the quickly jettisoned the bad ones. Overalll, the WH40K universe books are trending greatly upwards in terms of quality.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished up The Whitefire Crossing today. It's been too long since I was able to whip through a book in less than a week, but this one earned it. Great stuff.

[ansible]

T77, on 23 November 2011 - 03:07 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 November 2011 - 03:07 PM, said:

T77, on 22 November 2011 - 02:50 PM, said:

I'm about 20% into Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami and so far I'm really enjoying it. This is the first novel of his I read. I don't know too much about him - any opinions on him or recommendations of his other stuff?

Wow, starting with that book is bold...but the good news is that if you like that one, then the rest of his books will be a breeze for you.

Murakami does either bittersweet love stories, or love stories intermingled with the utterly, interestingly bizarre.

Other good ones (from what I've read):

AFTER DARK (interconnected stories told through the POV-narrative of what can only be assumed is a film camera)

NORWEGIAN WOOD (one of the aforementioned bittersweet love stories, very very good)

KAFKA ON THE SHORE (probably his most well known/received work, metaphysical mind-bender.)

UNDERGROUND (Non-fic. collects a series of separate interviews Murakami conducted with 60 victims of the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995 and 8 members of Aum (the terrorist/cult group who caused it), descriptions of how the attacks were carried out, and his essay "Blind Nightmare: Where are we Japanese going?") < ---If you like non-fiction this one is fascinating and is a REALLY clever way to approach a NonFic. type book.

1Q84 (His most recent work. Originally released as 3 separate novels in Japan, and considered a masterpiece, it is basically the love child of NORWEGIAN WOOD and HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND...It's excellent!)

Works I've not read but have good buzz:

THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE

Thanks so much! Since they are related, I will read NW or 1Q84 next. I'm assuming NW should be read first.

Read a bit more of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and it is just getting better and better. It's really sucking me in. I hope it doesn't fizzle out.

I'm a huge Murakami fan and was also introduced to him through Hard-Boiled Wonderland. It's still my favorite of his. I almost can't believe how good it is. I haven't had time to get to 1Q84 yet...but I will. I also love his short stories - I highly recommend After the Quake and The Elephant Vanishes.

I finished Devices and Desires, and I liked it once I got into it. I've got formal education as an engineer so I really enjoy her writing style and the level of technical detail she uses, but I can see how it would be dry to some people. Going to come back to Evil for Evil, though.

I read up through the fifth hardback of The Walking Dead (maybe issue # 60?). I like it a lot. It does a lot of things well and is fun to read.

Now I've started Don Quixote, the new translation by Edith Grossman. My brother has been pestering me to read it and I'm pretty excited about it.

SMZ, I just read Book of the Short Sun for the first time a few months ago and it's amazing. I envy the reread you have planned.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 29 November 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

Started John Farrow's CITY OF ICE.

It's a mystery thriller... not my usual genre of choice, but it's set in Montreal, a city i know well (and the author lives in) and i'm curious to see what he does with it.

It's astounding to me how much of a struggle it is for me to get into a book of this genre. It's well written, moves along, the characters are interesting.... but the lack of the fantastical or at least 'high-action' elements from pretty much everything else i've read in the last year or so (fantasy, sf, action/thriller) is jarring and i'm finding myself less interested.

I'll stick with it for now but i may need to have another book going on the side for when i get bored... i feel so dirty.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 30 November 2011 - 02:39 PM, said:

Abyss, on 29 November 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

Started John Farrow's CITY OF ICE.

It's a mystery thriller... not my usual genre of choice, but it's set in Montreal, a city i know well (and the author lives in) and i'm curious to see what he does with it.

It's astounding to me how much of a struggle it is for me to get into a book of this genre. It's well written, moves along, the characters are interesting.... but the lack of the fantastical or at least 'high-action' elements from pretty much everything else i've read in the last year or so (fantasy, sf, action/thriller) is jarring and i'm finding myself less interested.

I'll stick with it for now but i may need to have another book going on the side for when i get bored... i feel so dirty.

I have this problem with those sorts of books too...and is probably why James Rollins is my go-to thriller writer...because he always has the fantastical/historical mysteries..and the splodey, splodey is always good as well.

My gf's mom always wants me to read straight up crime thrillers, but I am convinced I'd be ridiculously bored by them, so I never do.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 30 November 2011 - 02:46 PM, said:

Abyss, on 30 November 2011 - 02:39 PM, said:

Abyss, on 29 November 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

Started John Farrow's CITY OF ICE.

It's a mystery thriller... not my usual genre of choice, but it's set in Montreal, a city i know well (and the author lives in) and i'm curious to see what he does with it.

It's astounding to me how much of a struggle it is for me to get into a book of this genre. It's well written, moves along, the characters are interesting.... but the lack of the fantastical or at least 'high-action' elements from pretty much everything else i've read in the last year or so (fantasy, sf, action/thriller) is jarring and i'm finding myself less interested.

I'll stick with it for now but i may need to have another book going on the side for when i get bored... i feel so dirty.

I have this problem with those sorts of books too...and is probably why James Rollins is my go-to thriller writer...because he always has the fantastical/historical mysteries..and the splodey, splodey is always good as well.

My gf's mom always wants me to read straight up crime thrillers, but I am convinced I'd be ridiculously bored by them, so I never do.

Yep. Rollins comes to mind but even he works in sf elements and large ker-sploody component. Silva, by other example, is straightforward spy/espionage and still holds my attention.

This books opens, as one might expect, with a murder, and while it's well set up, i'm still finding myself less than engaged and with the b-plotline involving a female college student (more or less 'my life is directionless, my family sucks, hey i'll become a cop!') even less so.

[QuickTidal]

So about 75 pages into THE FOUNDING by Abnett so far...and a Chaos Space Marine just showed up and pulped/liquified a soldier with his fucking fist!

Damn, I think I am going to really like these Warhammer 40K books!

[Morgoth]

Just started Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. Been ages since I read anything classified as horror, so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

[Tapper]

Finished Crack'd Pot Trail, which Crack'd me up on numerous occassions. Definately the best non-MBOTF work he's written so far, and an avid description of what happens in this boards mafia forum on a daily basis.

Spoiler

An tinsy tiny comment on the protagonists' name (Flicker): SE has a penchant for picking names that incidentally also have a meaning in dutch (Duiker the most important of them). In this case, flikker is a derogatory term for gay.

I'm not sure what my next read will be. I still have several of the Family books by Stross waiting to be finished, and am in various stages of reading several Banks novels, but I think I'll go book shopping tonight for something completely different.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 01 December 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

Seriously 80 pgs into Altered Carbon and it is the fucking shit!

I'm on the second book in that series (BROKEN ANGELS) right now and it rules just as much.

[T77]

Finished Soldiers Live by Glen Cook the last book in the Black Company series. It was incredible! Loved the entire series. Cook is second to none.

[Abyss]

Briar King, on 01 December 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

Seriously 80 pgs into Altered Carbon and it is the fucking shit!

that book had me at the Jimmy Hendrix AI.

QuickTidal, on 01 December 2011 - 11:54 AM, said:

Briar King, on 01 December 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

Seriously 80 pgs into Altered Carbon and it is the fucking shit!

I'm on the second book in that series (BROKEN ANGELS) right now and it rules just as much.

Loved the whole series but arguably ANGELS is my favourite. CARBON is at heart a mystery and FURIES has some political elements, but ANGELS is sheer awesome military sf over the top all kinds of awesome.

[Blues]

Hi all,

I'm just finishing up Prince of Thorns (by Mark Lawrence), so I thought I'd name drop in here.

If you like following protagonists that are brutal, dark, and utterly without compunction, then I'd recommend the book. I haven't been able to put it down (well except to write this).

This post has been edited by Blues: 03 December 2011 - 09:00 AM

[QuickTidal]

Just finished the first "book" (FIRST & ONLY) in Dan Abnett's W40K THE FOUNDING omnibus, and sweet holy crap was that one hell of a ride! What a fantastically addicting book (and series), it had a great battle at the end, and even a nice revelatory chapter from Gaunt's past that I loved. What a way to end that book!

Anyways, I'm moving right along to the next book in the omnibus, GHOSTMAKER, can't WAIT to get started!

Absolutely loving W40K so far!!

[Captain Beardface]

Finished Eye of the World after having to put it on hold while buried in course work, ripped through Crack'd Pot Trail in a day. Now 200 pages into The Great Hunt.

[Use Of Weapons]

Grabbed a few books from the library. Ripped through Tom Holt's _Barking_, always enjoy his books. Second-best comic fantasy writer after Pratchett, IMO, though perhaps his best works are behind him rather than ahead. But there's a lot to like about _Barking_, including the horrendous punning title

Next, I tried to read _Son Of A Witch_ by Gregory Maguire, having never read either Oz or Wicked. Couldn't get into it at all, had to give up.

Next up, Morgan's _Black Man_, which I missed when it first came out for some reason which seems entirely unimportant now. Looking forward to seeing if I can spot any elements which figure in TSR or TCC.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Briar King, on 01 December 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

Seriously 80 pgs into Altered Carbon and it is the fucking shit!

Begging for a film version. Can you imagine it, if done well?

[Binder of Demons]

Considering the need to keep things straight between one character shifting between different bodies at times, and (potentially) multiple people using the same body over time, you'd need a director who can do cerebral, while also doing action.

About the only person i would trust with this would be Chris Nolan.

to be honest though, as soon as i wrote that though i got to wishing Chris Nolan would do a film version of one of Stover's "ACTS OF CAINE" books. How awesome would that be!

[MWKarsa]

Finished A Feast for Crows the other day I really enjoyed it. After hearing about the mostly negative comments about this book I lower my expectations but really didn't need to do that to like this book. Of course it wasn't as good as the first three but outside of the Cersei story arc I really liked the other characters' stories. The Cersei storyline seems a little ham-handed and not very well done but I did like more at the beginning. Really want to jump right into A Dance with Dragons but part of me doesn't want to read it and then wait indefinitely for the next installment. I did see that there are to be 2 more books in series before concluding- does anyone know if that is accurate?

Went safe and went back to Dresden so I'm reading Proven Quilty right now.