I read Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey. Her first novel and part of a trilogy. It's an epic fantasy novel about Phèdre, a prostitute "fit for kings" who also happens to be a spy, taking place in an alternate medieval Europe. It's reminiscent of Game of Thrones, though very different and told from a first person perspective. Good world building and interesting story. While the first two chapters almost had me fall asleep and the next few were mildly intriguing at best, things picked up soon and had me breezing through until the end. There's also lots of kinky sex (Phèdre enjoys pain), which is, however, not distracting but an intrinsic part of the plot.
Currently I'm busy reading Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem, which was recommended in this thread. Not what I expected, but I'm enjoying it all the same. It's one of those novels that makes you think and it reads like a mix between Ready Player One and Sophie's World, with a dash of Celestine Prophecy stirred in -- but with physics instead of 80's nerd culture, philosophy or spirituality as its theme. Lots of fun so far (about halfway through).
Luckily, the third part of the trilogy (Remembrance of Earth’s Past) has been out for a month in the English speaking world, so I can read all of it in succession.
