What are you reading?

Finished Revival by Stephen King. Definitely a nod to H.P. Lovecraft. While it was enjoyable, there was very little resolution following the story's climax. Not bad, but I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes more as far as his recent titles are concerned.

The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore. Continues the characters from Fool. If you liked the style of the first, you'll like more of the same. I enjoyed it a great deal.

EvilManagedCare said:

Finished Revival by Stephen King. Definitely a nod to H.P. Lovecraft. While it was enjoyable, there was very little resolution following the story's climax. Not bad, but I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes more as far as his recent titles are concerned.

Click to expand...

Reading Mr Mercedes right now, and its a page turner for sure. I tend to agree with you on Revival, but still worth a read if your a SK fan.

txa1265 said:

Anyone read The Man in the High Castle? I see Amazon is doing a series this fall, thinking about reading the book first

Click to expand...

Good book. Not the most readable of authors, IMO, but more enjoyable than many books labelled classics.

I thought Mercedes was much better than Revival as well. The follow-up to Mercedes was decent also, though I much prefer the first. I want the original protagonist to return and wreak some serious vengeance, lol. And then, of course, he'll get stomped again at some point. =p

Ripper said:

Good book. Not the most readable of authors, IMO, but more enjoyable than many books labelled classics.

Click to expand...

Thanks ... it is sad that I am hesitent to pay $9.99 for a book ...

Need to pick up some new reads for my vacation. Still working my way through the Witcher novels / short stories. Reading Blood of Elves right now.

Hah, I thought this thread died out. Guess it came back from the Beyond. And speaking of which, I'm halfway through the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. It's looooong (like 3x "The Stand"), but also pretty fun. Haven't gotten sidetracked yet, which makes it a good read in my book (see what I did there?)

@ Thrasher, what style/genre/atmosphere do you like? (I read 3-4 books a week and might have some overlap to suggest)

Well you can see all my posts in this thread. I usually go through the nebula award nominees for ideas. I may pick up the last few of Jack McDevitt, but haven't put much thought into it yet. Thanks for the offer!

I been mostly reading series that I started.

I finished first Amber chronicles series and really loved it.I will probably make pause before starting second series.

Deadhouse gate, second book of Malazan book of fallen series.I had mixed feelings about first book but I enjoyed this book lot more.I am not sure if this book is better(it's definitively not as confusing) or I am getting used to Erickson's writing.

Dragon reborn, third Wheel of time book.I am liking this series less as it progresses.There are parts that drag on and there isn't a character that didn't annoy me at some point.

Crimson campaign, second book of Powder mage series.As great as first one, it's turning into one of my favorite series.

Wizard's first rule, first book of Goodkind's sword od truth series.Bit disappointed, it's heroic fantasy but it tries to be dark and mature at times but those parts felt out of place.I think that should pick one direction and stick with, it can't be heroic and dark fantasy at same time.

G'day Thrasher,
hmm, what I've read this I have though good with comments is:

- Galaxy Game - Karen Lord (11/1/15) A decent, solid writing and not treated by huge info dumps rather work it out yourself, far off science fiction
- Flashpoint - Nancy Kress (13/1/15) A solid and interesting extension on reality TV, near science fiction
- Fantasy & Science Fiction Nov/Dec 2015 - (14/1/15) B+ lots of filler in some stories
- Half World - Hiromi Goto (16/1/15) A+ brilliant manga - post apocolypse
- Last to Rise - Francis Knight (26/1/15) A excellent conclusion, this is the last book is a gritty dark (non-herioc) fantasy series
- Dark Intelligence: Transformation 1 - Neal Asher (5/2/15) A, solid dark science fiction
- The Voyage to the Unquiet Ice - Andrew McGahan (23/2/15) A-, YA dark fantasy second book is a series
- Gunpowder Alchemy- Jeannie Lin (26/2/15) A- decent Chinese steampunk, slow paced
- The Paper Magician - Charlie N. Holmberg (1/3/15) A- nice and whimsical fantasy
- The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu (4/3/15) A+ seriously good, very well translated (by Ken Liu) harder scicne fction
- The Rings of Anubis: A Folley and Mallory Adventure - E. Catherine Tobler (9/3/15) A+, decent egypt mythology driven semi-fantasy steampunk
- Persona - Genevieve Valentine (14/3/15) A- decent writing and story but stretched out, would have made an excellent novella, near future science fiction
- Ultimate - Stephen Baxter (26/3/15) A- decent enough finish to series, too wordy in some parts, need to like Baxter's style
- The War of the Four Isles - Andrew McGahan (11/4/15) A solid, has closure but also sets up next book in series
- Lagoon - Nnedi Okarafor (13/4/15) A excellent overall although some parts unclear why included, African fantasy
- The Doomsday Vault - Steven Harper (13/4/15) A- decent steam punk
- Stars Reach: A Novel of a Deindustrial Future - John Michael Greer (18/4/15) A+ brilliant post apocolyptic scince fiction
- Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (21/4/15) A+ seriously brilliant post-apocolyptic (pandemic)
- A Crown for Cold Silver - Alex Marshall (26/4/15) A- reasonable dar, epic semi-fantasy fiction
- Spin - Nina Allan (26/4/15) A+, very clever take on an old fantasy tale
- Girl in the Road - Monica Byrne (28/4/15) A+ wow! seriously seriously brilliant near future scince fiction
- Something Coming Through - Paul McAuley (12/5/15) A excellent science fiction
- The Mechanical - Ian Tregillis (16/5/15) A- excellent robot oriented steampunk except some parts dragged a little
- Archivist Wasp - Nicole Kornher-Stace (17/5/15) A excellent post apocolyptic science fiction/fantasy
- The Buried Life - Carrie Patel (24/5/15) A- while set post apocalyptic wasn't necessary for story
- the dazzle of the day - Molly Gloss (25/5/15) A+ seriously brilliant generation ship story
- Smilers Fair: Book 1 of the Hollow Gods - Rebecca Levene (26/5/15) A- decent epic fantasy, yes to next book
- Karen Memory - Elizabeth Bear (11/6/15) A seriously enjoyable steampunk
- Vaetra Unveiled - Daniel R. Marvellous (19/6/15) A- decent fantasy, people centred
- The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi (23/6/15) A near future excellent scince fiction, set around water shortages in wester US
- Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie (26/6/15) A second in excellent far future scince fiction
- Crashing Heaven - Al Robertson (6/7/15) A excellent far future scince fiction although touch too too happy ending
- Snow Like Ashes - Sara Raasch (8/7/15) A- decent YA fantasy, touch cliched but worth reading next
- The Relic Guild - Edward Cox (14/7/15) A- good dark fantasy up until last page abrupt ending
- Wireless - Charles Stross (15/7/15) A good collection, had read about half
- Reach for Infinity - (19/7/15) A very solid collection

Enjoy, Hurls

Wow! That's a rather massive list. Hats off to you!

Thanks - lots of trash I also read that I edited out of the list!

Nameless one said:

Wizard's first rule, first book of Goodkind's sword od truth series.Bit disappointed, it's heroic fantasy but it tries to be dark and mature at times but those parts felt out of place.I think that should pick one direction and stick with, it can't be heroic and dark fantasy at same time.

Click to expand...

Stay away. I struggled through the entire SoT series (I'm OCD that way), and there's one or two semi-decent books in there, but in general they're not worth it. It's like… childish fantasy, and I hated the writing style. The only single, slightly redeeming factor are the Mord Sith. Up until their appearance the first book is very meh.

Myself, I just blazed through the Shining and its follow-up Dr Sleep, and working through Skeleton Crew (which is a collection of short stories) now. All by Stephen King.

Can anyone recommend me another good SK book? I like those with horror/supernatural stuff. I've read Salem's Lot, The Stand, Green Mile, Carrie and, well, a bunch of others.
Is Pet Sematary any good?

Anything by Dave Duncan is good, especially the Blades series. Anything by Gene Wolfe is good as well, my favorites being The Knight and The Wizard.

Wiretapped, I'd suggest IT if you havent read that yet from Stephen King, its a masterpiece. Talisman is right up there in his classics. Pet Sematary is good also, Firestarter is a page turner too. His short stories collections are amazing for the most part, The Mist is a short novel in the Skeleton Crew collection, very good, also I loved 1408, which is found in the Everything Eventual short stories. Stephen King is a modern day genius of writing fiction.

Pet Cemetery is a major creep session. Read it if you liked to get freaked out. The movie didn't do it justice.

Cronis said:

Wiretapped, I'd suggest IT if you havent read that yet from Stephen King, its a masterpiece. Talisman is right up there in his classics. Pet Sematary is good also, Firestarter is a page turner too. His short stories collections are amazing for the most part, The Mist is a short novel in the Skeleton Crew collection, very good, also I loved 1408, which is found in the Everything Eventual short stories. Stephen King is a modern day genius of writing fiction.

Click to expand...

Thrasher said:

Pet Cemetery is a major creep session. Read it if you liked to get freaked out. The movie didn't do it justice.

Click to expand...

Actually, I haven't read IT yet. It's on my Kindle, but haven't started yet. I read both Talisman and its follow-up, Black House, and enjoyed both. The Mist is great; like I said, I'm reading through Skeleton Crew atm. I'll add Firestarter (haven't actually heard about that one yet) and Pet Sematary to my backlog.

Thanks for the tips!

Wiretapped you didnt mention whether you had read his Dark Tower stuff, 1st book is a little slow, it really starts to take off 2nd thru 4th book, I wasn't really impressed with books 5-7 but Wind Thru the Keyhole was pretty good the 8th book. Of his other classics, Christine is up there also as is Misery (not supernatural tho). Of his more recent books, 11/22/63 is pretty great as is Joyland and Mr Mercedes, but those are not supernatural horror.