What are you reading? [Jan 2016]

[Cristian Andreu]

A 130 year old copy of "The Life and Facts of Estebanillo Gonzalez, Man of Good Humour", which I found among my great-great grandfather's books which I've recently inherited from my grandmother. The reading goes slowly, as the pages are very delicate.

A really fun read. Apparently, historians are unsure whether it is fiction or the actual life of a very clever rogue.

 

[Zaukrie]

The color of magic.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ah, where it all began. It's been said, and I agree, that the series really takes flight later on. My favorite tales tend to be the Night Watch ones, but really, it's hard to go wrong with a Discworld novel.

The color of magic.

 

[Zaukrie]

We'll see if I go on after I finish. But, I like the start.

 

[Richards]

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" on Wednesday - I read it all in one day, while flying in a plane around the country. It was fantastic. It's basically the story of a man and his son (they're never named) struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, desperately trying to make it to warmer climes because the man knows they won't survive another winter where they are. And this is a brutal world they're trying to survive in.

I still find myself thinking about it.

Johnathan

 

[Nellisir]

Read Searching for the Mahdi, by N. Lee Wood. The blurb on the cover had a comparison to Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, which after reading I can only assume was based on the fact that both are set in the near future and have computer networks. Also both are books. It's not a bad book, but it's got a strange split personality: part lecture/diatribe about Middle Eastern culture via a fictitious Mideast country that sounds like it ought to be near Pakistan & India but is apparently near (but not next to) Israel (I still can't tell if the author is pro- or con-Islam); part first-person griping about how she (the narrator) is short and ugly (she gets the uber-sexy android in the end, and plastic surgery, so it's OK I guess?) I don't mind the description, but it really starts to come across as a serious psychological issue. Then again, if you made your fame disguised as a man, maybe having a hangup about your appearance is legit? I don't know.

There is an AI, but it's not really a character.

Have moved on to Maze of Stars, by John Brunner. Enjoying it more. Just realized that's an AI also. Maybe I should just read books with AIs in them.

Update: Read China Mountain Zhang and quite enjoyed it. SF, but minimal AI's. Also Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days. No AI's per se, but maximally enhanced humanity. Was going to read Half A King, but got two pages in and realized I'd already read it. Have gotten Half The World and Half A War to read instead.

Update 1/26: Half The World and Half A War were really good. I just started The 4th Annual Years Best Science Fiction, but the first two stories are really familiar. Not sure if they've been collected elsewhere, or I've read this before. :/