What are you reading?

Finished Dead Space: Martyr - and it ended up being underwhelming. Not really what I was looking for and the ending was silly and over-the-top. But I guess it was better than nothing.
 
I don't know. But somehow I feel like (alien) horror just doesn't fit well on the book medium. It relies on sound and visual cues I guess (a shape - tail :) - moving behind the protagonist wouldn't scare me if it is just described in a book)

A book like the mist gets the tension more from the unknown doesn't it ?
 
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@DArtagnan - Read anything by Peter Watts? might be closer to what you are after, maybe Blindsight or Starfish?

Nope, I'm not what you would call well read :)

But I took a look at Starfish and it sounds interesting. I'll check it out! Thanks.
 
Your welcome! I have read both and found them disturbing (possible I am easily disturbed though :))

Hehe, well - I can be disturbed by certain things as well.

But, to me, the kind of sci-fi horror I'm looking for is hard to describe. I'm not looking to be disturbed - but immersed in a particular kind of setting.

I'm VERY much about atmosphere - and I prefer far-future space stuff. I don't know if I've ever read a book that quite manages to give me the feeling I'm talking about.

Not too many movies either.

But, movies like Alien, Aliens, The Thing (1982), Event Horizon, and a few others are good examples.

That kind of slow-burn and powerful unsettling atmosphere. Event Horizon is a silly movie - but it does a good job of building atmosphere in the beginning.

I don't really need a lot of action - but I also don't need a ton of pretentious descriptions. I just need atmosphere and interesting human interaction.

Some of the Lovecraft stuff is close, but obviously not very space related. I'm a huge fan of Shadow Over Innsmouth and Herbert West Re-animator, for instance.

Especially the first one is perfect for building atmosphere without going into the typical Lovecraftian overly wordy style.
 
Wow.

After finishing Stephen Baxter's Exultant (a fun space opera in the mold of Starship Troopers + time travel + crazy weapon design), I read Transcendent.

While Exultant wasn't particularly mindblowing, I think Transcendent has some really cool moments. It's the best of the three in the Destiny's Child series (with some caveats, see below).

We get the detailed story of Michael Poole, an important historical figure regularly referenced in the other Xeelee Sequence novels. It takes place in the near future; Earth is coping with climate change. A very human story about Poole's dysfunctional, yet gifted, family. At times touching. But mostly not very happy (until the end). But the characters are very well developed, though annoyingly childish sometimes.

Another half of the story is about an evolved human Alia, 500,000 years in the future. Humanity is about to further evolve into a god-like greater conscientiousness, capable of manipulating space and time (and life seemingly). Alia is asked to join this "Transcedence".

The 2 storys are linked throughout and merge at the end very satisfactorily. The ending is very uplifting.

Highly recommended.

But a word of warning. There are some heavy passages involving sketchy meta-physical / theological philosophy, climate change pedantic guilt, and project engineering tedium. But they are worth getting through. Easy stuff to skim without loss.

Note the 3 books of Destiny's Child are only loosely connected. They can be read in any order, as the earlier books are just backstory that is barely referenced or needed ot understand the last. I'd read Transcendent first in the series, and then dig into the backstory if you are so inclined.
 
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I started reading all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, in publication order, and got all the way through The Hound of the Baskervilles before deciding to take a break. Nothing was really wrong with it (in fact Baskervilles was among my favorites), but after mainlining so much Holmes in such a short time, I really needed a break.

I also read Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, which was pretty good, and had plenty of creativity to it, as well as two distinctive and engaging protagonists, alternating chapters. There's two more books in the series, which I'm keen on getting to.
 
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Thought the first entry from Brett was very good. Second one, not so much. Didn't buy the third one, but might eventually give it a chance. I believe I saw somewhere that the series was intended to have 5 books.

Finally finished up Sir Apropos of Nothing (as mentioned before, very enjoyable but suffered from too much personal hype) and moved into the penultimate Wheel of Time entry.

You are right. 5 books are the right number. Finished the second, liked it but i also believe the first was better. Soon i'll begin the third.

Also finished, Half a king from Abercrombie. It was good, though more generic than his older work(He said that he was aiming to younger ages).

Last, i finished the emperor's blades from Staveley. Now, that book impressed me. Well written though the story not so original. The second book is expected January '15
 
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I also read Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, which was pretty good, and had plenty of creativity to it, as well as two distinctive and engaging protagonists, alternating chapters. There's two more books in the series, which I'm keen on getting to.

I thought the next two books were even better than the first. I really had no idea what was really going on and he brought it together well in the second.
 
I thought the next two books were even better than the first. I really had no idea what was really going on and he brought it together well in the second.

That's encouraging. I really liked a lot of the conceits in the first book, and how the author(s) (apparently it's two people) were willing to make drastic changes as things went on.
 
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I finished Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.I liked first book a lot, I found all 6 sub-stories interesting with Consul's being my favorite.Second book was good too but I liked lot less, also I found parts with Keats/Severn rather uninteresting.

Next I will probably continue one of few series I started.Recent posts reminded me about S.A. Corey's Expanse series so I will most like continue that or Malazan book of fallen(I have mixed feeling about first book but after some thinking I decided it's good read).
 
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I reread The Passage last week, because it's such a damn fine book. Then I went onto The Twelve, remembering that at some point I flung the damn thing on the ground in exasperation, but couldn't recall exactly why. Roughly 60% in, and I just ran into it again!!! I might read the third book when it is released, but it will purely be to see what happens.
 
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Started reading Watership Down by Richard Adams, an adventure story with and about a bunch of rabbits. Pretty charming, although I felt that I was not really in the mood for the story at the time, so I put it on hold for now and instead picked up …

The Gunslinger (Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, book #1). I liked it and it was short enough to make me immediately continue with book 2, which so far seems nicer or, well, "nicer". Mr. King really has a knack for different accents. After book 2 I'll probably go ahead and read the massive volume that is The Stand. Timely morbid, granted, with all the Ebola news going on these days … I'm following the "full package" reading order of The Dark Tower, which sprinkles in other works of Stephen King's that feature characters who play a role in subsequent books.
 
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The Gunslinger (Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, book #1). I liked it and it was short enough to make me immediately continue with book 2, which so far seems nicer or, well, "nicer". Mr. King really has a knack for different accents. After book 2 I'll probably go ahead and read the massive volume that is The Stand. Timely morbid, granted, with all the Ebola news going on these days … I'm following the "full package" reading order of The Dark Tower, which sprinkles in other works of Stephen King's that feature characters who play a role in subsequent books.

I am a great fan of Stephen King, but have never been able to get into the Dark Tower series. I read the first two and enjoyed them well enough, but can never seem to get past the first few chapters of The Wastelands despite numerous attempts. You will not be disappointed in The Stand, imo the best post-apoc novel written (at least post-apoc with horror elements. There are other great ones that take a more realistic portrayal e.g. Alas, Babylon, Earth Abides but it's really a different type of post-apoc). You may also consider reading The Talisman, which King wrote with Peter Straub if you haven't already. IIRC Randall Flagg is the villain in that one as well.
 
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Thanks. Yes, The Talisman comes after The Eyes of the Dragon which comes after The Stand (cf. Reading Order). As for getting into the Dark Tower — when I was a teenager I read IT which was utterly horrifying (in a disturbingly good way, of course). Some time later I got The Gunslinger as a gift and it was sooo boring and not at all what I had expected, which was horror. It's different, now. I'm not sure how much I'll progress with this until I get sidetracked again, considering that I have quite a lot of diverse series on my currently-reading list, but so far it's fun.
 
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