What are you reading?

Finished Cosmos. 5/5.


And after all the heavy stuff I've been reading recently, I needed a break and picked up a YA novel -- Cassidy Jones by Elise Stokes. It's about an average teenage girl who gets superpowers, but who's still very much down-to-earth. It was a pretty fun read actually, and had me smile a lot and remember high school life. Just the sort of diversion I was looking for.

Bored of the Rings. Second time reading this lampoon version of LotR. Needless to say it's amusing.

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. Interesting take on colonial intrigue and magic. Better than I expected.

kaos_war_monk said:

Bored of the Rings. Second time reading this lampoon version of LotR. Needless to say it's amusing.

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I only read it once, perhaps 37 years ago? But I still remember one of the funniest descriptions, that of a hobbit town. Something to do with a series of dragon droppings…

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher...better late than never.

Thrasher said:

I only read it once, perhaps 37 years ago? But I still remember one of the funniest descriptions, that of a hobbit town. Something to do with a a series of dragon droppings…

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Thrasher, your PM box is full.

Ah, thanks. I should have gotten a notice, no?

EDIT: Just got the notice. A bit delayed.

Massive delete session has made lots of room available.

Uprooted. This is the fantasy fiction Ellen Degeneres picked up a movie deal for. The first half of the book was great, then everything fell apart. It's like the author stopped caring and plot holes appeared everywhere, the writing got worse, and even though the action picked up it got less interesting. Oh well, gotta finish it now. Hope the movie fixes the book.

It was weird, like a different author took over half way through

Caddy said:

It was weird, like a different author took over half way through

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Hehe, I had the same feeling when I read my very first book of a certain author all those years back ... the name of the book - labeled as 'Science Fiction' which was why I read it - was 'Hell's Gate'. I had discovered it in a moldy old chest with books in the basement.
The first half was no SF at all, but there was a lot of suspense, and it finally gave me the nastiest jump-scare outside of a movie ever. I was so impressed and slept with my head under the blanket for a while .... and then, unfortunately, the SF part started, and the book turned into a totally uninspired, boring and unconvincing yawn-fest.
I shook my head and muttered: "Boy, you totally bombed that. SF is the wrong genre for you ... you should write horror."

Shortly after that, I discovered that the author had actually turned to writing Horror and Suspense stuff, and quite successfully at that. His name was (and still is) Dean R. Koontz .

Oddly enough, I have never, ever read any of Brooks "Shannara" books. So I'm reading them now as fun fantasy fluff, not in chronological order but in the supposed "proper timeline" starting out with the Word and the Void... I'm midway through the second trilogy now, book is called "The Elves of Cintra" ... basically it's relaxing fantasy fluff right because that's the mood I've been in.

The books are quick, easy, amusing reads. Last "good" series of books I read was either the Silo/Dust series or perhaps Lev Grossman's "The Magicians" trilogy. That's actually been a decent SyFy show adaptation, too!

I've owned the first(?) trilogy for 20+ years, the paperbacks are in the shed. Was surprised to learn recently that the one I recall being my favourite (Elfstones) is the basis for the TV show that's been airing recently.... Not that I've seen it or read any Shannara novels for a very long time. Sounds like reason enough to read them again.

Just finished the Powder Mage Trilogy by Brian McClellan and it was tremendous. Gritty fantasy with a lot of magic, no elves, lots of action and always a page turner through out the whole trilogy. Two thumbs up if you want fantasy without the elves, dragons and stuff like that.

I've been reading a couple of Star Trek novels (chronological run through). To my delight the story-lines of all major series have been continued in the so-called "lit-verse": Current ST novels from different authors all share a common continuity and make references to each other, which was not the case in the 80s. What this means is that what's happening in these books is plausibly important in the ST universe as a whole and matters.

The series related "reboot" books pick up where the series left off (although there can still be tie-in novels). Effectively the series all got another season. And then of course there are spinoff-series, too.

I really like the chronological reading order, which I intersperse with TV episodes and the movies. For example, I read the first chapter of a book that briefly describes what happened in the aftermath of WWIII with mentions of Zephram Cochrane, then watch "First Contact" in which we see him in action, which is later referenced in Enterprise, and so on.


I also finished reading Erikson's Malazan book #8, Toll the Hounds. It was dragging a bit compared to previous books, but the incredible ending made up for it. Epic, as usual. And I'll always think of Malazan when I read the word "convergence." I have only two books left in the series, but since this is another one that I'm reading in chronological order, I have two of Esslemont's books ahead of me, before I get to Erikson's finale.

Was about to read Ready Player One, but then I learned Steven Spielberg will make a movie of it, so I'll wait. I'm one of the weird people who prefers watching an adaptation of a book before reading the book.

wolfing said:

I'm one of the weird people who prefers watching an adaptation of a book before reading the book.

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That is weird. I'm the opposite: now I want to read the book before the movie is out.


Also, I have decided on reading some classics. Back in school I disliked so-called literature as I read for pleasure, not for over-analyzing. Anyway, there's a top 100 list of world literature from 2002 in no particular order, which was reposted on Goodreads to be voted on by the general public. So the higher on the list the more well-known and popular a title is. Having no idea where to start, I picked the top. Which was …

Pride & Prejudice.
I'm fairly sure at least 90% of those who voted were women. And I'll be honest: the plot itself didn't interest me at all, at first. While I had previously often seen the title mentioned, I'm positive that I never read or watched anything that told me what it was about. Well, on the surface it seemed like one giant matchmaking book.. who marries whom, who earns more, who behaves virtuously, how do people look on this person and that person.
However, I found myself turning page after page. The characters were pretty funny, the language lofty but easy to understand. And the story even lingered in my mind when I put the book down. So, all in all I daresay I liked it.


Next on the list is 1984, but I'm tempted to read Ready Player One first, which I've seen mentioned in various places recently.

1984 is a dark book. Imho. We had that at school when we were Teenagers.

Currently I'm reading this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid

It is very well written, but so full of imperial roman propaganda it makes me hard to read it.

1984 is an excellent book. One of the most shocking and thought provoking books i've read. It is for a reason a timeless classic. And I second what Alrik said, the subject matter is quite dark.

I just finished The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker. It was suggested by Hurls on the post. It is very good. It reminded me of A Winters Tale by Mark Helprin. It is a slow burn, but the characters and the city of New York, the melting pot of the time is beuatifully rendered. The ending is such a surprise. Well worth it!

@frewtnewton - glad you enjoyed it!! Books I have read and thought good so far this year include:
- Gene Mapper - Taiyo Fujii
- The Chimes - Anna Smaill
- Windswept - Adam Rakunas
- Planetfall - Emma Newman (ending is week but still very much worth reading)
- Meeting Infinity excellent collection edited by Jonathan Strahan

Any suggestions from what you've been reading??

I'm still doing my roundup of old TSR novels. Right now I'm alternating between The Prism Pentad and Ravenloft books.

I'm very fond of Heart of Midnight by J. Robert King, of the ones I've read so far it's the one that best captures the bleakness of Ravenloft, and the seeming futility of fighting against it. I'm looking forward to reading Carnival of Fear.

Dance of the Dead by Christie Golden is a horribly generic and boring book, which surprised me because I saw I, Strahd lauded so much. I haven't read the latter yet (apparently there's a reprint but Amazon has delayed this delivery since January), but I'm curious about this discrepancy.