pretre Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 Because it is quick and readable.That certainly makes it accessible but not necessarily better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayne_Cobbb Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 TOM BOMBADALE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pretre Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 TOM BOMBADALE!Someone can't hold his ent draughts... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generalripphook Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 TOM BOMBADALE! He isn't in the Hobbit tho... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pretre Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 He isn't in the Hobbit tho...That's the joke... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted May 6, 2015 Report Share Posted May 6, 2015 Fortune's Pawn, by Rachel Bach. Very engaging MilSF/Space Opera. A talented merc signs on as a security officer with a trader whose ship is rumoured to be cursed due to how often they get in trouble, because she's been told this will provide a big boost to her ambitions of joining the Devastators, the God-King's personal bodyguard and most elite power-armoured Unit in known space. Small-scale, light on the science, but good characters. She actually mentions in an afterward that she likes 40K, and there are a couple of noticeable influences from there (the aforementioned God-King, and also potential random time distortion from FTL travel).It's the first in a trilogy, and I'm waiting for the other two to arrive. Currently reading The Science of Discworld, and it's good, but every time I pick it up, I'm disappointed that it's not the next one in the trilogy ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 The rest of the Fortune's Pawn trilogy was also really enjoyable. I felt like the romance arc fell pretty flat, but I tend to be really picky about romance arcs, especially in prose, so someone with less ridiculous standards in that area would probably enjoy them even more. I also read the first half or so of Hieroglyph. It's a short story collection that grew out of a project Neal Stephenson started. I didn't really care for it, but I think that was mostly because of the gap between my expectations and the actual stories. It was presented as hopeful hard sci-fi, a counter-point to dystopian and apocalyptic fiction. The fact that those were the most optimistic stories they could come up with was really depressing to me. Most of them were good stories, but they weren't what I'd call hopeful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted August 22, 2015 Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. A very dense read, kind of hard to get into, but very interesting. The viewpoint character is an AI who controls thousands of drone bodies or Ancillaries. The action also takes place over two tracks, one twenty or so years before the other that provides background for what's happening in the "main" narrative. Finally, the viewpoint character's culture/language disregards gender, and only uses a single pronoun regardless, which gets a bit odd at times, but highlights things in a very interesting way. Highly recommended to anyone who liked The Left Hand of Darkness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROGRE Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester Andozane had commented how much he liked this book in a thread here a while back and I was intrigued so I picked it up. The original title, Tiger! Tiger!, is much more fitting of the book's savage protagonist, Gully Foyle. He seethes with raw power on every page and is so different from the typical lead character that he really sets the book apart from anything else I've read. It has aged incredibly well, you would never guess it was written in 1956! It is, for it's size (250 some-odd pages) one of the best science fiction novels out there and if you are a fan of the genre I cannot recommend it enough. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Glacius Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 Finally finished the Eye of the World series. I have owned the last book since it was released, but just couldn't find the heart to read it. Went on vacation to the parent's house and decided to read the last three books while I was there. Mr. Sanderson had a monumental task in trying to finish the work started by Jordan. I don't envy him. I think he succeeded more than he failed, though there were some painful parts to read through. But there were also some excellent parts as well. I couldn't help but wonder most of the time as I was reading, how Jordan would have done it. Which details did Sanderson add in, and which ones were left by Jordan? I think my biggest complaint though is that the epilogue was not long enough. There were so many unanswered questions. Here you had this long list of characters that you'd spent years getting to know, and now the story was done, and other than if they were alive or not, you knew nothing else. It was unsatisfying. I'm glad I finally finished it though. It has been my favorite series since college. Whenever I do find time to read, I have picked up the Eye of the World more times than not and started the adventure all over again. I will always highly recommend the Jordan novels. The Sanderson ones are okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torg Posted September 2, 2015 Report Share Posted September 2, 2015 I just finished Ghost Fleet (by PW Singer and August Cole)… it sounded like a good techie war (near future) book. Things started off good for my tastes - but by half way the logic for reasoning and tactics by the major powers in the war - really started to be irritatingly dumb. Billed as a pentagon insider writes about a future possible war. Supposedly with some sorta of factual background about things… but really it started to get kinda BLAH. The book jumps around quite a bit between players in the story. Sometimes spending a couple pages on someone whom just ends up dead lol. It's wasn't unfun throughout. But in the end I just powered through the last 20% or so just to be done with it. Looking back I kinda felt like it was just not that smart … it used a lot of tech stuff - and descriptions and all that. It had good background information and connections to real stuff. But the actual story and driving forces got kinda silly to me. Or very simplistic. 6.5-7/10 -d 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purplepeopleeater Posted September 2, 2015 Report Share Posted September 2, 2015 Divergent series. Read the 1st two. Divergent I really liked, till close to the end, then it slowly started losing speed. Insurgent started off no better, but ended with a WTF?!? So, excited to move onto Allegiant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Ancillary Sword. As a sequel, it was able to work from the worldbuilding laid down in Ancillary Justice, and spend more time on characterization and plot. If you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one. Myself, I'm really looking forward to the third book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torg Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Ancillary Sword. As a sequel, it was able to work from the worldbuilding laid down in Ancillary Justice, and spend more time on characterization and plot. If you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one. Myself, I'm really looking forward to the third book. I have this in my cue… I think by both the first and second. I am debating on what to read next. Currently reading BioMega (manga) … but maybe I will try the first one next. -d 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raindog Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman. It is a mystery set in the Zuni Reservation. The protagonist is a Navajo police officer. It is filled with mysticism and logic. I highly recommend it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Man, I need to re-read Hillerman. His stuff is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romans832 Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman. It is a mystery set in the Zuni Reservation. The protagonist is a Navajo police officer. It is filled with mysticism and logic. I highly recommend it. LOVE Hillerman! Been following him for years! I actually have his daughter's book as she took over with his passing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raindog Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 I had no idea. I will check it out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generalripphook Posted September 11, 2015 Report Share Posted September 11, 2015 I am two books into the horus heresy and am loving it. It's just amazing how quickly all of the primarchs started to fall and really for me it's quite a sad story. I feel bad for both Horus and the Imperium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted September 27, 2015 Report Share Posted September 27, 2015 The Deep, by Nick Cutter. Came highly recommended (tho I can't figure out from who), but very much failed to live up to it. It's trying to be Lovecraftian Horror, but his natural prose voice is closer to Hemingway, and that straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is style absolutely fails at conveying existential horror Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 The Shepard's Crown. I took my time with it, because it was the last time I was going to get to read a new Pratchett for the first time. Mostly really good, the only downside was this kid, Geoffrey, who would have been fine if he'd had his own book, but here, he felt like he was derailing Tiffany's story. Despite those issues, together with Raising Steam, it does an excellent job of...not wrapping up, but leaving the Discworld at a decent stopping place. You know life is going to go on, but after those two, there's nothing specific and big hanging around unresolved. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torg Posted November 12, 2015 Report Share Posted November 12, 2015 Just finished "Spring chicken - how to live forever or die trying". Good read - lots of ideas and science research. Along with debunking and lots of insight. Lots of interesting thoughts and ideas for us 40-somethings. ???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted November 15, 2015 Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 Pym, by Mat Johnson. It's a weird book, a heck of a trip. A sequel to, and satire on, Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, as filtered through the experiences of a Black American, and riffing heavily on Poe's use of Whiteness and Blackness in the environment of his tale. Also manages to touch on water shortages, colonialism, terrorism, Thomas Kinkade, and Little Debbie snack cakes. Somehow, it all works, and ends up being considerably more coherent and enjoyable than Poe's original. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torg Posted November 15, 2015 Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 Just finished Ready Player One. Was great fun - hard to put down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbr Posted November 15, 2015 Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 Read The Towers of the Sunset, the sequel to the one I posted before. This one solved the issues with sloppy editing, but the main character changed from that book to this one, and the new character isn't as good as the first one. 4/5 again. Anyway, picked up the next two books, I'm looking forward to a perfect read, one of these days. The guy has potential. I really like the Saga of Recluse books, but haven't seen anyone else who has read them. I started reading them ~8 years ago when I read the first 4-5 in a row over a couple of months and got burned out on them. Since then I paced myself more and am currently about half way through the ninth book. I'm not a huge fan of how the books jump around chronologically and between characters but I really like the world that they take place in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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