[Feb] What are you reading?

[RaceBannon42]

I finished up The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursuala K LeGuin. I was disapointed. It completely left me underwhelmed. I thought it was ok, but I went in expecting a lot more than what I got. Plot was mediocre. Most of the characters were bland. The worldbuild was pretty good. I dont think it deserves its reputation as one of the greats of sci -fi

Full review in my blog


Started in on David Louis Edelman's Infoquake.
Only about 4 chapters in but its shaping up nicely. Very cyberpunkish so far.

 

[Storm Raven]

Currently reading The Void Captain's Tale by Spinrad. I've got Sagan's Dragons in Eden and Broca's Brain on tap.

I liked Left Hand of Darkness, but I don't think it is one of LeGuin's best science fiction works - in my opinion The Lathe of Heaven and The Dispossessed are much better. I think it mostly gets accolades for its unusual take on gender, which at the time it was published was fairly revolutionary.

 

[Wombat]

I liked Left Hand of Darkness, though it wasn't my favourite. Lathe of Heaven, for her sci fi work, is probably my favourite; oddly, I was incredibly underwhelmed with The Dispossesed.

But as to current reading...

Recently finished Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Terry Pratchett's Thud!. I am now moving on to Phil Rickman's The Lamp of the Wicked and then probably on to 1776.

 

[sckeener]

I'm currently reading The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) by R. Scott Bakker.

I'm having a bit of a hard time getting into it, but I'm hanging on since I've heard good things about it. I think it is all the odd unpronounceable names and all the philosophy.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Currently still working on "The Woman in White" by Wilkie COllins.
The "Dresden Files" and the "Godslayer Chronicles" are both in the pipeline after that.

 

[delericho]

I'm currently about 100 pages from the end of "Knife of Dreams", book 11 of the Wheel of Time. It's not as bad as book 10, but at this stage I cannot but recommend that if you haven't started the series... don't! After a slow start, book 1 is really good, and the series remains excellent all through books 2 - 6. Unfortunately, after that the plot. stops. dead.

Unfortunately, after the first six books I was so invested in the series that I now have to know how it ends, no matter how long it goes. That less has happened in the last 4,000 pages than in any of the previous 6 volumes is a pretty stern test of my resolve, however.

Next up is some Neil Gaiman, so at least I have an incentive to finish

 

[RaceBannon42]

I'm currently reading The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) by R. Scott Bakker.

I'm having a bit of a hard time getting into it, but I'm hanging on since I've heard good things about it. I think it is all the odd unpronounceable names and all the philosophy.

I had a hard time getting into TDTCB too. About half way in it really picked up for me. A lot of it was I found the prologue very hard to follow. The naming conventions Bakker uses also really bothered me at first. In retrospect after reading the Warrior Prophet, and The Thousand Fold Thought, Darkness is much better than my original impression.

 

[Mycanid]

Finally picked up a book last night called "St. Patrick's World: the Christian culture of Ireland's Apostolic Age" - a document based study of what it was like in 5th century Ireland by Liam De Paor.

I am enjoying it, although I am only 12 pages or so into it.

 

[Karl Green]

I am just about done with The Secret Atlas by Michael Stackpole. Its pretty good and I picked up the second book yesterday. I am also sort of reading Witch Killer by C. L. Werner at the same time (mostly before I go to bed). Its a Warhammer novel and the 3rd one in the series. Its good but I am a fan of Warhammer novels in general. I want to get Death's Legacy also but I have not seen it at Borders yet (and I have a 25% off coupe I want to use for it )

 

[S. Baldrick]

Last night I finished up "Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune" which was part of the Thieves' World relaunch that came out around 2002. I really enjoyed it and I was disappointed that it is unlikely that the series will continue.

I just ordered China Mieville's "Perdido Street Station" from Amazon. I read the China Mieville's articles in Dragon 352 and I decided to give it a shot. I had it reserved at my local library but the last person that checked it out (the jerk) did not return it.