[March] What are you reading?

[GladiusNP]

Has anyone ever heard of a book called "Evil By Necessity"? A friend recommended the book to me years ago and I haven't been able to find it. If anyone knew the author's name, that might make my search easier

I think you are referring to "Villains by Necessity" by Eve Forward.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/102-6445257-5613758?v=glance&s=books. Apparently it's out of print, but it's about a world where good has triumphed, and the last few evil characters. It's pretty funny, and is also kind of entertaining. I'd second your friends recommendation - though with the caution that it is really more of a comedy than a serious novel.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

Now I'm on A Scattering of Jades.

 

[Pierce]

I'm in the middle of volume 8 of the Aubrey/Maturin (Master and Commander)series by Patrick O'Brian ...what a series! They're not exactly what I expected. I thought they'd be 'boy's books', but they're more like Jane Austin on steroids. They are *so* good.

Amen to that. I just finished the first (Master and Commander) and loved it. I kept having to check and make sure that yes, these books were written in the 70s and 80s. I will most definitely be picking up the rest of the series.

Aside from that, I'm on the second book of the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card (Call of Earth). The first was a bit slow at points and I had some minor quibbles with a few plot elements, but it was good enough to pick up the second book (plus, you've got to trust Mr. Card to tell a good story). Now it's really getting interesting.

Also picked up The Watermelon King by Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish. Just started it so no opinions yet. I flew through Big Fish and really liked it - any one looking for a quick (and I mean *quick*) read should pick it up.

Finally, I'm at various stages of Citizen Soldiers by Ambrose, Thermopylae by Bradford, South by Shackleton plus three work related books.

 

[Sidereal Knight]

I just finished re-reading Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells. It's a very interesting setting, and I really enjoyed the main characters, but I think I prefer one of her other books: Death of the Necromancer.

I'm about to start Guy Gavriel Kay's new book The Last Light of the Sun. It looks like it's set in the same world as The Lions of al-Rassan and the two Sarantium books.

 

[CCamfield]

Sidereal, on the one hand I applaud your good taste, and on the other seethe with envy for the fact that you have the new Kay. My favourite Martha Wells is still City of Bones, but The Death of the Necromancer comes close. Have you read her most recent one (The Wizard Hunters)?

 

[Sidereal Knight]

Sidereal, on the one hand I applaud your good taste, and on the other seethe with envy for the fact that you have the new Kay.

I give credit to good timing, and the remains of a Border's gift card

My favourite Martha Wells is still City of Bones, but The Death of the Necromancer comes close. Have you read her most recent one (The Wizard Hunters)?

It's been a while since I read it, but I agree that City of Bones is good, too. Have you read The Element of Fire (her first book, I think)? I can't find a copy, and the last time I checked Amazon, it was out of stock.

I read The Wizard Hunters not long after it came out. I had a bit of trouble getting into it, but once I got past a certain point I enjoyed it well enough. I think it's the start of a series... a duology for certain, maybe a trilogy.

There's more info on her web site: http://www.marthawells.com/

 

[PoppaGunch]

Fortune of Fear, Book 5 of the Mission Earth series, by L. Ron Hubbard. My loving wife found the entire series in PB for out anniversary, and bought it for me.
I have never been past book 4 because they had been so hard to find. If you haven't read it, do so. Is funny as hell.

 

[Desdichado]

Will move on to DaVinci Code or an Elmore Leonard crime novel.

Haven't read The DaVinci Code but (just today, in fact) I finished Angels & Demons which features the same character, Robert Langdon. I quite enjoyed that book.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The Ambassador - WFRPG book

 

[Pielorinho]

I just finished reading The Fall of Kings by Ellen Kushner and somebody else. It's set in the same world as Swordspoint, which is to say, a fourteenth-century Venice occupied by ten thousand Oscar Wildes wielding rapiers . Very political, very sensual, great dialogue. And if you dig scholarly debates, there's a doozy of a debate at the center of the book. Definitely worth reading if you like your fantasy low-magic and high-politic.

Not sure what I'll read next.

Daniel