[Feb 2015] What Are You Reading

[The_Silversword]

Just finished Orson Scott Card's "Children of the Mind", book 4 of Ender's Game. After seeing the movie I decided to read the books. Gah! Ender's Game was good, but the rest seem to get weirder and weirder. And the ending leaves much to be desired, in fact it doesnt really even seem like an ending, its like he just ran out of pages or something.

 

[Kramodlog]

Everyone loved it, except me, apparently. I'll probably give it another go, but I found Leckie's prose style just... dull.

I'm currently halfway through Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse, which is considered one of the best Japanese SF novels. So far it's pretty amazing, and the translation is exceptional.

The book is SF on the grandest --and goony-est-- scale; it begins with the formation of the Solar System, jumps to a brief interlude starring one of the first amphibians (who's being uplifted by technologically advanced aliens) and then, in order, introduces Plato (looking for the secrets of Atlantis, which, of course, had nuclear power), Siddhartha-on-the-cusp-of-becoming-the-Buddha (who travels 160,000,000,000 light-years through space), and Jesus Christ (and Pilate) as characters.

It reminds of a blend of Olaf Stapleton, Doris Lessing's "Canopus in Argos" cycle, with, god help me, a dash of E.E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensmen" (actually, what I've read so far could be summed up as -- "What if Triplanetary were written by a talented author?").

The Jesus and Pilate part made me think of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt's The Gospel According to Pilate. The first part is written from Jesus' perspective, the second from Pilate's who is trying to discover if Jesus was indeed executed. The first part was a good read.

 

[Umbran]

Just starting Tad Williams' Happy Hour In Hell, the second book in the Bobby Dollar series.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I'm still reading Moonbridge - Mage's Blood by David Hair; the second part of it that is because the German version has been split into two volumes.

Still not really sure how much I like it. The concept of the world is quite cool as well as the mixture of (in-world) fact and fiction Hair uses to describe Urte's magic. The nations are far too much of the like-this-movie-cliché for my taste, though it really helps get a grip on it. I shudder to think how long this would have been if the author would have given detailled descriptions of the countries.

What I really like is the convincing description of the main characters as three dimensional people who undergo personal development. I wouldn't go so far as to compare Moonbridge to Song of Ice and Fire, but there are some similar qualities.

 

[Richards]

It's been a busy week - but then a four-day business trip will do that. I not only finished up my Stephen King novel, but also read my way through Deeply Odd and Saint Odd, the last two novels in Dean Koontz's "Odd Thomas" series, and am now about halfway through another book of his, Innocence.

Johnathan

 

[Nellisir]

It's been a busy week - but then a four-day business trip will do that. I not only finished up my Stephen King novel, but also read my way through Deeply Odd and Saint Odd, the last two novels in Dean Koontz's "Odd Thomas" series, and am now about halfway through another book of his, Innocence.

I just recently saw a movie, Odd Thomas, that was actually really good. And...yep. Wikipedia confirms that the movie is an adaptation of the book. I'll have to check them out.

 

[Nellisir]

Finished Rose; good book. 4 out of 5. Reading Petrodor, by Joel Shepherd.

 

[isidorus]

Reading Darkwalker of Moonshae and Pathfinder Core Rules

 

[Kramodlog]

I finished Ancillary Justice. It was very good. Well written in spite or thanks to all the narrative constraints the author chose. Not sure lend itself to a trilogy format though. Critics haven't been that good for the sequel, but I'll see for my self.

For now I jump into The Tyranny of Science by Paul Feyerabend. Critics of the scientific method and scientists by an anarchist philosopher. Should be interesting.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Started reading Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes, which I picked up from a remainder rack. After some 100 pages I wish I hadn't!

The cast of characters reads like a transcription of an RPG adventurers' group. Not too bad in and of itself, but they are just a typical stereotypical murdering hobe combo, characterised by personality quirks and flaws only.