What are you reading?

[Myrthos]

I finally finished The Last Dark. The last book in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I enjoyed the earlier two chronicles series and I read them when I was a lot younger, but I don’t remember Stephen Donaldson being as long winded in them as he is in this last series.

 

[Carnifex]

Yeah, I love Donaldson to pieces, but that final series takes exposition to a whole new level in some places. I still love them all, even the newer novels, but I find the prior six books far more enjoyable.

 

[Redglyph]

Finishing The Dead of Winter, by Stephanie Merritt. They're 3 short novels on her character, Giordano Bruno. I find this serie captivating, she's using someone who actually existed as main hero, giving him a fictional story of course, but staging the story in Tudor's era and the historical plots to restore Mary as Queen in England.

I only found S.J. Sansom to be as good to build a story in a historical context that is so accurately rendered, and so enthralling.

Those two are really my favourites so far, in that style.

Completely different, but that caught my attention. Have you seen this? That's how I'd describe temptation
https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/products/the-crpg-book-a-guide-to-computer-role-playing-games
EDIT: now I'm feeling silly.. https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43511

 

[Ripper]

Not exactly what I've been reading, but I saw another conversation about what makes great stories different, and someone posted this short animated summary of Crime and Punishment, which I thought was very effective.

 

[Hurls]

Just finished Christopher Paolini’s latest, “To sleep in a sea of stars”. Great read! Huge ideas, real characters, and lots more!

 

[Thrasher]

Recently finished Ancillary Sword by Anne Lecki.

The first award-winning book, Ancillary Justice, was definitely an odd one, and all the strange references were easier to understand the second time. By the end of the book, everyone using female pronouns no longer threw me off. Also the real-time connectedness of a ship's AI to it's crew through implants was no longer so disorienting.

Definitely a mind bender and some good intrigue. Could do without a lot of the gossiping, and talk of tea and dinnerware and other strange cultural obsessions.

FWIW, the second book was very engaging, enough so that I bought the third in the trilogy Ancillary Mercy.

 

[Carnifex]

Lovecraft is good stuff, and can really make you think/question stuff. Then again, maybe he was wacked out on substances when he wrote his stories, who really knows? I find them all entertaining.

 

[Shagnak]

Just started The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie. Excellent so far.

 

[wiretripped]

Just finished Fire and Blood by GRRM, first book detailing the history of the Targaryens. I would only recommend this for people who are really interested in the lore and history of the world, it's rather dry and really does read like a history book. Which is the intent, I suppose, it just doesn't make for a very thrilling read.
Nevertheless, I was interested to learn more about the Dance of Dragons.

Started on the House of Suns now, by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Carnifex]

I found Fire and Blood to be like a watered down version of the Silmarillion, and not nearly as good. It doesn't measure up to the great stories like the Wild Card series or Game of Thrones, but yeah, it does have some value on backround information. Just don't expect a real plot or story to evolve.

 

[Redglyph]

Just finished Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier. Or at least the chapters that interested me, I'm not sure I'll read them all right now.

It's clear, correctly written, and the author takes the time to introduce each chapter by giving enough relevant context. I have no problem recommending it to anyone interested in game development in general, or in the companies involved.

Games that are covered: Pillars of Eternity, Uncharted 4, Stardew Valley, Diablo 3, Halo Wars, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Shovel Knight, Destiny, The Witcher 3, Star Wars 1313. It's a 304-page book apparently but I've read that on a Kindle.

 

[JDR13]

Just finished Fire and Blood by GRRM, first book detailing the history of the Targaryens. I would only recommend this for people who are really interested in the lore and history of the world, it's rather dry and really does read like a history book. Which is the intent, I suppose, it just doesn't make for a very thrilling read.
Nevertheless, I was interested to learn more about the Dance of Dragons.

Have you read The World of Ice & Fire? I just started reading it and I'm really liking it so far. I was always interested in finding out more about the background history of that world. Not sure why I didn't get it sooner.

Not sure if I'd enjoy a book that was just about the Targaryens though.

 

[Carnifex]

I finished Rhythm of War this morning, book four of the Stormlight Archives. What a great read, lots of information alluded to in earlier volumes is fully confirmed in this book, which will make the wait for book five all the more enjoyable! If you enjoyed the previous three books in this series, this newest offering does not disappoint!

 

[wiretripped]

Have you read The World of Ice & Fire? I just started reading it and I'm really liking it so far. I was always interested in finding out more about the background history of that world. Not sure why I didn't get it sooner.

Not sure if I'd enjoy a book that was just about the Targaryens though.

Well, it's technically a history of the Seven Kingdoms starting with Aegon's Conquest, not just about the Targaryens though that kinda boils down to the same thing.

I do own World of Ice and Fire, haven't started on it yet.

 

[Carnifex]

After spending so much time in the Stormlight Archives recently, I decided to re-read the Mistborn series. I'm about fifty pages into book one and enjoying re-learning this world all over again.

 

[Redglyph]

I'm still tackling the stack of non-novel books, now reading Commodore: A Company on the Edge by Brian Bagnall. The author takes the time to set the economical background of the 70's, showing how the 6502 CPU came to be so popular. He even explains the early process of manufacturing IC, or how digital circuits replaced the analogue electronics in these early years.

Fortunately the author made his homework, and the technology facts are correctly presented (microelectronics is my field so I'm glad about that). He had to rely on accounts from some key people, and a character like Chuck Peddle has quite an ego so it may sound like he invented a lot of things, perhaps it's exaggerated a bit, perhaps not, hard to tell. But we saw the same with "biographies" of Steve Jobs or Paul Allan, it's almost unavoidable and not too distracting anyway.

It's always interesting to see how those legendary companies came to be, even more when the historical context is laid out properly. Enjoying it so far!

 

[Carnifex]

I polished off book one of the Mistborn trilogy this morning, a re-read for me and a very good one. This is the first time I've re-read this series, since I originally read them some years ago. It's interesting to parse these older volumes against Sanderson's newer novels, you can really see how he's grown as a writer over the years, he has really polished his style. It was a great read again, and now I'm on to book two in the series, the Well of Ascension.

 

[wiretripped]

I started on the Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, after I heard there was a Netflix show coming based on it. So reading it first so the show can't spoil me for the books.

 

[Thrasher]

wiretripped, Three Body Problem is in my queue. Let us know how it is.

I am re-reading Ancillary Justice, after appreciating the more character-oriented second book Ancillary Sword.

Why? Because when I read the first book, a few years ago, I was sort of underwhelmed, even though it's the only book to simultaneously win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke awards.

The book was ponderous, disorienting, and made oblique references to concepts that weren't explained until much later in the book (and even then not very clearly). It plodded at times. At other times, sped so fast I couldn't quite figure out exactly what was going on, even after multiple reads. The author's use of run-on sentences at times to connote a racing mind certainly didn't help with understanding. Calling everybody a she was also confusing. It was not an easy read.

I finally picked up the second book, and found the protagonist very likable and well-written. The world and character concepts gelled in my brain. I really wanted to better understand the history of the protagonist. So, despite my lukewarm feelings towards the first book a few years ago, I've been reading it again.

Let me tell you, my re-read of the first book has been absolutely fantastic. I never would have thought a second read of a book would be so much more interesting. The pieces make a lot more sense now, and the hints of hidden depths are are now revelatory rather than disorienting. I guess most of my other reading is simple in comparison.

 

[SteveO]

In my opinion, the book is a mastery of the rest like the rest of King's books. I love his writing style, how he introduces him to the story, how he guides the reader through his thoughts and finally surprises. He is one of my favorite writers precisely because you don't know what's going to happen