What books are you reading or have recently read?

[WestRider]

As recommended by jollyork, I got Dracula from Project Gutenberg as well. Very interesting to contrast with most of the movie adaptations. Actually, it feels like most of the Dracula movies are remakes or spinoffs of the first couple, rather than being adaptions directly from the source material in their own right. There's a lot in the book that doesn't make it on to the screen, including a surprising amount of humour.

I also just finished The Beast Arises series. The last couple of books took me quite a while. Not because they're bad, but the grimdark gets turned way up, and I kept needing to take breaks from it. It is a really cool series, with a lot of well-handled Category 1 Retcons. Not changing anything, just making connections between things and filling in gaps, a number of which really did feel like they added some extra depth to things like Ghazkull's repeated attacks on Armageddon. The founding of the DeathWatch is in there, and some details that were new to me about the foundings of the Grey Knights and the Inquisitorial Ordos, and what the Imperial Fists successor Chapters felt about the Second Founding.

[CaptainA]

The Girl with All the Gifts

Saw the movie and didn't like the ending. Read the book and finally understood the ending. Book was pretty good - 4 out of 5 zombie bites.

[Guest]

Let's see, forgot about this page.

Re-read Raymond E Feist's Magician: Apprentice, Magician: Master, Silverthrorn, and A Darkness at Sethanon. I had read them before, but it was the kind of books I wanted to read. It's one series, I think called the "riftwar saga." I enjoyed them.

For complaints, I think these books feature characters that get too "epic" too quickly, and then the author becomes unable to write about just those characters, so they expand their cast of characters so they have more "writable" subjects, but this leaves me the reader disappointed that the protagonist I liked in book 1 doesn't really have enough spotlight in the other books which are supposed to be sequels. And in fairness, this is one of the author's earlier book series.

Good books, with a target audience of anyone that enjoys fantasy RPGs.

 

Beyond that, Picked up Season of the Spring (three books in one, Spellsinger, The Hour of the Gate, and The Day of Dissonance) by Alan Dean Foster, which I haven't read and know nothing about. I believe it to be a fantasy set series about a magic user of some such. I paid 39 cents for it at goodwill...

[Guest]

On 5/8/2018 at 7:12 PM, WestRider said:

As recommended by jollyork, I got Dracula from Project Gutenberg as well. Very interesting to contrast with most of the movie adaptations. Actually, it feels like most of the Dracula movies are remakes or spinoffs of the first couple, rather than being adaptions directly from the source material in their own right. There's a lot in the book that doesn't make it on to the screen, including a surprising amount of humour.

Frankenstein is like that too, if you haven't read it. TV usually references the films, not the book. I didn't really think the book was a horror story, it's more a tragedy (for the doctor, yes, but mainly for the creation). Definitely worth reading.

Plus the book is really short.

[WestRider]

2 hours ago, paxmiles said:

Frankenstein is like that too, if you haven't read it. TV usually references the films, not the book. I didn't really think the book was a horror story, it's more a tragedy (for the doctor, yes, but mainly for the creation). Definitely worth reading.

Plus the book is really short.

Jollyork recommended Dracula to me as a response to my post in here about reading Frankenstein. We've come full circle! I definitely agree that it's more of a tragedy than a horror story.

[pretre]

28 minutes ago, WestRider said:

I definitely agree that it's more of a tragedy than a horror story.

If you like Frankenstein, you should totally try reading Dracula.

[dalmer]

Master of Mankind (Horus Heresy), ADB.  Really enjoyed the peek behind the curtain so to speak (no spoilers from me). Tragically sad.

The Longmire series by Craig Johnson.  Immensely enjoyable.

Pathfinder novels in between.  I like them, some better than others.

[jollyork]

On 5/11/2018 at 5:23 PM, pretre said:

If you like Frankenstein, you should totally try reading Dracula.

After Dracula, you should read Frankenstein. But this time... backwards. 

[Guest]

Let's see, haven't posted for a bit. Got into David Eddings and read the Belgariad series (5 books). Tried really hard to get into another of his series, the Elenium (3 books), but I can't seem to get into it. Switched to Raymond E feist, and read the Darkwar Saga (3 books).

As for book ratings without spoilers, Belgariad is amazing. It's interesting how similar sections of it are to the Wheel of Time series. I feel like wheel of time is almost a remake of this series, just much longer. A fan of one would like the other. And I do wish the Belgariad was longer.

I'll hold off on the Elenium until I finish.

Darkwar Saga was good as a series. As books, though, the first 2 are lacking individually. If you treat the 3 as one book, I very much like them, but each book is rather incomplete without the set.

[Guest]

On 5/11/2018 at 2:42 PM, paxmiles said:

Beyond that, Picked up Season of the Spring (three books in one, Spellsinger, The Hour of the Gate, and The Day of Dissonance) by Alan Dean Foster, which I haven't read and know nothing about. I believe it to be a fantasy set series about a magic user of some such. I paid 39 cents for it at goodwill...

Oh, this one is terrible. I tried to read it, but it is really bad.

Basically the book was written in the 60s/70s and it's about the drug trip of some guy into a fantasy land. Maybe it get's better later, but I found it unimaginative.

[WestRider]

2 hours ago, paxmiles said:

Let's see, haven't posted for a bit. Got into David Eddings and read the Belgariad series (5 books). Tried really hard to get into another of his series, the Elenium (3 books), but I can't seem to get into it. Switched to Raymond E feist, and read the Darkwar Saga (3 books).

Darkwar Saga was good as a series. As books, though, the first 2 are lacking individually. If you treat the 3 as one book, I very much like them, but each book is rather incomplete without the set.

Feist's stuff is pretty much all like that. He basically writes books that are so long that they're logistically impossible to print in a single volume, and then they get split into trilogies.

[Guest]

Been reading Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars series.

Book 1: King's Dragon

4/5

I really loved it despite several scenes that were very dark and the sheer absence of actual dragons in the series. Without too many spoilers, book features two protagonists, a boy and girl, which peruse related, but separate adventures in the book. The girl in particular gets raped multiple times in the same book by one of the antagonists, which I really didn't like reading about and wish they'd left more implied than they choose to. The boy has a pretty terrible life too, though certainly not as bad. Book reminds of a kinder Game of Thrones, as they do stick with the happy endings and good winning over evil, but it's still a very harsh reality where certain despicable characters are not killed off when they really should be.

Version I got (first printing, 1998) seems like it needs editing, as the author seems to not clearly identify who they are talking about, or introduces entirely new creatures without taking the time for a proper description. More than most books, I found myself having to go back and re-read sections to figure who a certain character is, or to make an educated guess as to who is certainly speaking.

That said, I really enjoyed it and am already half way through the sequel to this book (5, or so, in the series).

It's a classic magic/fantasy set book. Protagonists start with nothing except good parents and become notable by the end of the first book.

PS: Dragons in the book reference the name given the Cavalry of the setting. This is not a spoiler or surprise, though if looking for a book with dragons in it, this one lacks them. Maybe in one of the sequels, as they do reference them as being part of the setting.

[Ish]

Just finished re-re-re-reading Dune. Every time I read it, I feel like I pick up some nuance, some theme, or some connection that I didn’t notice the previous time. 

 

[andy]

I'm reading The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt. It's fantastic. I recommend it followed by a Red Dead Redemption 2 play-through.

[Guest]

The Prince of Dogs by Kate Elliot.

4/5.

I enjoyed it. As good as the first, but no more rape, thank goodness.

I'm about half way through the 3rd book...

[dalmer]

(WestRider thanks for your take on The Beast Arises series... gonna give it a go)

[Ish]

I'm not WestRider, but I did recently snag the audio book of the first novel, The Beast Arises: I am Slaughter on Audible.com... I've been hearing great things about it and thought it might be interesting to have while putting together my new Imperial Fists army. Listened to the first four or five chapters so far. 

My review, so far: Sigh. I've read maybe four or five 40K novels over the years, including ones that everybody swears are some of the best ever... I've found most of them to be boring slogs, with stiff and wooden characters, very repetitive plots, and just generally nothing that grabs my interest. Which is weird, since I've been a huge fan of WH40k since 1991. I enjoy reading the codices, setting materials, and roleplaying supplements for leisure; I've played and enjoyed a lot of the video games; I enjoyed the Damnatus fan-film, enjoyed the Ultramarines movie, and other fan films... But, for some reason, the novels just don't do anything for me. I suspect the fact that I've devoured much of literature that served as the inspiration for Priestly, Johnson, Blanche, et. al., when they were developing the setting. I'd much rather re-read Dune or Starship Troopers for the umpteenth time than most WH40k novels. 

I plan to keep working my way through I am Slaughter, maybe my opinion will change as it goes on. But, for now: Sigh.
 

[dalmer]

(and I can't find cheap copies of the books so I'm out)

[Dreg]

Thin Air- Richard K Morgan.  If you liked Altered Carbon then I would say you will like this one as well.  The underlying structure is pretty similar to Altered Carbon but not too much.

The Sky Blue Wolves - SM Stirling  The last of "The Change" series, maybe.  I made it this far so I read this one.  He seems to have been running out of places to take the series so it kinda just wraps up quickly. 

Lies Sleeping - Ben Aaronovitch.  Latest in the Rivers of London series which is british police procedural with wizards.  Good stuff.

Space Carrier Avalon - Glynn Stewart - Saw this recommended as 'Honor Harrington without 100 pages on how space missiles work" and gave it a shot.  Its decent miltary sci-fi and I need to try the next book.

[Guest]

On 12/9/2018 at 9:06 PM, Ish said:

My review, so far: Sigh. I've read maybe four or five 40K novels over the years, including ones that everybody swears are some of the best ever... I've found most of them to be boring slogs, with stiff and wooden characters, very repetitive plots, and just generally nothing that grabs my interest.

That's been my experience too. That said, talking with people that have read the books, letting them paraphrase what is happening in the 40k universe, that has proven quite interesting. 

[InfestedKerrigan]

The Art and Etiquette of Polyamory 

by Francoise Simpere

 

Written in a semi- Q and A format with a lot of time spent on addressing communication and ego. Not sure I feel it does a great service for polyamory, but some of that could come as a result of it being a French book translated to English, and dealing with all the baggage that carries with it.

If you are curious, it looks to have solid advice on broaching it in your relationships.

[WestRider]

The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy.

Murderbot is a Security Unit that hacked its control module several years ago to hopefully prevent a repeat of the incident where a malfunction forced it to kill 57 people it was supposed to be protecting. It generally just uses the freedom granted by this to ignore stupid orders and do what works instead of what it's told, because it doesn't want to be found out by the company that owns it, but what it really wants is mostly just to be left alone and watch TV. Unfortunately, like most of us, it rarely gets what it wants.

As the name implies, it's all first person perspective, with Murderbot narrating all the stuff it has to put up with, seasoned with heavy layers of sarcasm and dark humour, along with repeated mentions that it would really rather just be watching Sanctuary Moon. The tone really reminds me of Barnes in the Winter Soldier fanfic The Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail, which is one of my faves. If you like either, I suspect you'll like the other.

[Yarbicus]

17 hours ago, WestRider said:

The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy.

 

Fun to read but they also operate on a deeper.  "Everyone around is incomprehensible but you have to act like them or bad things happen" is a great insight into the world of autism.

[WestRider]

10 hours ago, Yarbicus said:

Fun to read but they also operate on a deeper.  "Everyone around is incomprehensible but you have to act like them or bad things happen" is a great insight into the world of autism.

Yeah, that's very much one of the aspects I liked. I can def identify with that to a considerable degree. Both The Murderbot Diaries and The Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail also have a bunch of exploration of identity and self-determination, with a PoV character who has been entirely under the control of others down to the inside of their heads, and are trying to figure out what it means to be their own being.

[Guest]

@WestRider You recommended those Dragonlance books, I think. Been reading the first one (chronicles 1). I don't hate it, but I'm pretty sure I've read it before and that's taking the thrill out of it's plot. Or maybe I read a sequel that sumarizes it, or something. Anyway, I'll try to get to the end and start the sequel, and if that one I haven't read, I'll probably like it. Weird that I really don't remember the book, but the reading is really, really familiar.