Print Page - What you want to read this year

Miscellaneous Chatter => Literature => Topic started by: SilentRoamer on January 13, 2015, 03:49:39 pm

Title: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on January 13, 2015, 03:49:39 pm

Ok so with it being a New Year I wanted to start a year long topic (besides my collated purchases thread)

So would like you to post your personal reading targets:

How many books do you want to read?
Any specific books you want to read?
Any re-reads?

Personally I am going for 20 books in total this year which is quite low considering in my younger days I could read 1-2 decent sized novels a week... alas family and work commitments do not allow this as a sustainable reading level so I have lowered it to 20.

I will post individual reading targets on the next post and keep this updated if anyone is interested.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on January 13, 2015, 03:50:39 pm

-----Board targets: Totals and Specifics-----

SilentRoamer
Totals: 20/20 + 1 short
Specifics:
H. G. Wells - War of the Worlds - Read 20/01/2014.
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Heirs of the Blade - Read 27/05/2015.
Susannah Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - In progress
Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon - Read 14/01/2015.
Frank Herbert: Dune - Read 13/02/2015. Dune Messiah - Read 21/02/2015 Children of Dune - Read 20/03/2015
Dan Simmons: Endymion Duology
Hugh Howey: Wool
Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian or The Road - Read 05/08/2015
R. Scott Bakker: TUC
Joe Abercrombie: First Law and/or Shattered Sea Trilogy. The Blade Itself - Read 27/03/2015 Before They Are Hanged - Read 06/04/2015 Half A King - Read 16/04/2015 The Last Argument of Kings - Read 23/06/2015
Books not on my list:
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination - Read 11/04/2015.
Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker - Read 01/05/2015.
E. M. Forster: The Machine Stops - Read 01/05/2015.
Isaac Asimov: The Stars Like Dust - Read 22/07/2015.
James. S. A. Corey: Leaviathan Wakes - Read 24/08/2015.
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War - Read 29/08/2015.
Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire - Read 22/09/2015. Dark Force Rising Read 23/10/2015. The Last Command Read 21/11/2015.
Jo Zebedee: Inish Carraig - Read 27/11/2015.

-Francis Buck-
Totals: Not specified.
Specifics:
J.R.R. Tolkien - LotR trilogy straight through.
William Gibson: Neuromancer.
More Peter Watts.
At least one of the last few Cormac McCarthy books not read yet.
Books not on list:
William Shakespeare: Macbeth - Read 23/07/2015

-Wilshire-
Totals: 12/10
Specifics:
Steven Erikson: Complete Malazan. House of Chains - Read 20/04/2015 Midnight Tides - Read 26/08/2015 Bonehunters - Read 14/09/2015 Reaper's Gale - Read 23/09/2015 Toll the Hounds - Read 14/10/2015
R. Scott Bakker: TUC
Books not on list:
Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell - Read 02/03/2015
Arthur C. Clarke: Space Odyssey: 2001 - Read 26/05/2015
Isaac Asimov: The Gods Themselves - Read 26/05/2015
Philip K. Dick: Divine Invasion - Read
Andy Weir: The Martian Read 27/10/2015
R. Scott Bakker: The Darkness that Comes Before Read 16/12/2015
Patrick Rothfuss: The Name of the Wind Read 28/12/2015

-Garet Jax-
Totals: 8/10 - Revised target from 5! - New BHAG of 10!
Specifics: Would like to read:
Isaac Asimov: Second Foundation - Read
Steven Erikson: Deadhouse Gates - Read
Would like to start and finish:
Steven Erikson: Memories of Ice - Read
Steven Erikson : House of Chains - Read 28/02/2015
Marc Seifer: Wizard, The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla : Biography of a Genius
Joe Abercrombie: The Blade Itself - Read 04/03/2015
Frank Herbert: Dune: Messiah, Dune: Children of Dune, Dune: God Emperor of Dune, Dune: Heretics of Dune, Dune: Chapterhouse.
Would like to start:
Dan Simmons: Hyperion
More stories from Swords from the West: Harold Lamb,
R. Scott Bakker: TUC
James Corey: Leviathan Wakes - Re-Read 25/09/2015 Calibans War - Read 01/10/2015
Peter V. Brett: Skull Throne - Re-Read 03/11/2015

-Royce-
Totals: Not specified.
Specifics:
Well, I will also stick to Malazan this year. Those 7.5 books will cover my fiction reading, as I always read non fiction on alongside fiction. On the non fiction side I have two big tomes by Carl Jung and an even bigger tome by Oswald Spengler. When I get through those I will hopefully get around to read "The basic Bakunin" which is a work that covers many of his theories and speeches(Anarchism).
Paul Kearney: Monarchies of God - Read 22/09/2015

-Camlost-
Totals: 6/10
Specifics:
J.R.R. Tolkien: Unfinished Tales
Joe Abercrombie: Best Served Cold
George R. Martin: A Dance with Dragons
Mark Lawrence: Prince of Thorns - Read King of Thorns - Read Emperor of Thorns - Read
Richard Morgan: The Dark Defiles
Steven Erikson and maybe so Esslemont novels: The Crippled God
Olaf Stapledon: Last and First Men
Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time
Simon Price and Peter Thonemann: The Birth of Classical Europe
Also has two enormous tomes of Lovecraft and Poe short stories I'll be digging through
Possible Dune
Books not on list:
Edited by Jeff Van Dermeer: Fast Ships, Black Sails - Read
Patrick Rothfuss: The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Read
Dan Simmons: Hyperion - Read 05/06/2015

-Alia-
Totals:
Specifics:
Scott Lynch: Republic of Theives
Roger Zelazny: The Corwin Cycle - Read
Scott Lynch: Republic of Thieves - Read 27/12/2015
Other untranslated works

-H-
Totals: 9/7
John M. Hamilton: Light - Read.
Ian Tregillis: The Mechanical - Read.
Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince - Currently reading
Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities - Read 03/09/2015
N. K. Jemison: The Fifth Season - Read 11/09/2015
Peter Watts: Blindsight - Read 16/09/2015
Peter Watts: Echopraxia - Read 21/09/2015
James Corey: Leviathan Wakes - Re-Read 02/10/2015 Caliban's War Read 14/10/2015

-Mr. Ganandorf-
Totals: None given
Andreas Eschbach: Lord of All Things: one of those scifi books that gets filed in the 'Lit' section. perhaps a bit slow, chronicle of a complicated relationship between a French woman and a Japanese/American man. includes magic, nanobots, aliens, ancient mysteries, the Devil's Island, and an ending that would make an Inchoroi smile. was a really good, tragic book. - Read
Laline Paull:The Bees: 1984 for bees, but that's how they like it. some interesting chivalry stuff imported into the story BUT the author really tries really hard not to over-humanizing the bees. lots of descriptions involve scent. - Read
Andy Weir: The Martian: MacGuyver on the Red Rock. Very fun. - Read
Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: pov of an autistic boy trying to solve the mystery of a dog's death. author seems to have done a ton of research for what it's like to see the world this way. - Read
Herman Koch: The Dinner: fancy eating parallels increasing distressing acts of violence, can recommend. - Read
Scott Hawkins: Library at Mount Char: a really different kind of fantasy set in the present and really disconnected from other trends, i think. the most powerful person in the world is missing and his proteges are dealing with it, falls a bit slack at the end, but was well worth it. - Read
Luke Smitherd: The Stone Man Read
Rob Dircks: Where the Hell is Tesla Read
Wicked Read
A Confederacy of Dunces Read
Pippi Longstocking Read
Walter Miller: A Canticle for Leibowitz Read
Red Rising and Golden Son Read

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on January 13, 2015, 05:17:04 pm

Quote from: SilentRoamer on January 13, 2015, 03:49:39 pm

Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon

I recommend FfA very highly.

I like this idea, I will try to participate.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Francis Buck on January 13, 2015, 06:45:08 pm

LotR trilogy straight through.

Neuromancer.

More Peter Watts stuff.

At least one of the last few Cormac McCarthy books I haven't read yet.

A shitload of other stuff I probably won't get to, and random things I had no idea I'd end up reading.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on January 13, 2015, 08:11:15 pm

Ah FB you reminded me.

I must read some Cormac McCarthy this year after reading so much discussion about his writing style. Would you fine folks reccomend Blood Meridian, NCFOM, The Road or another novel I am not familiar with? FB you seem to have read him well.
:)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Francis Buck on January 13, 2015, 08:51:04 pm

No Country For Old Men is my favorite of his, and by far his most accessible. That being said, Blood Meridian is, in my opinion, required reading for fans of TSA. You'll see many, many parallels and more than a few direct inspirations from that series. It's also considered an American classic, so there's that :P.

I'd go with Blood Meridian first, then NCFOM. They're quite different stylistically. Blood Meridian has a very archaic, Biblical feel to it. It's not an easy read. NCFOM is more like a semi-modern thriller, but executed with a level of mastery and craft rarely seen in that genre.

The Road is my third-in-line suggestion. If you liked either BM or NCFOM, you will probably like The Road.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on January 14, 2015, 04:07:39 am

What remains to me of malazn, so 7. And TUC as it come, so 1 or 2.

Mark me down for a 10. I might make 1 book per 5 weeks.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Francis Buck on January 15, 2015, 10:59:16 pm

I suppose I should add that I'd also like to read a lot more non-fiction, particularly science stuff. Mostly things related to space, cosmology, particle physics, and philosophy of the mind.

Oh, and biology. That one in particular, perhaps.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on January 16, 2015, 09:25:39 am

I have read quite a few Cosmology and Physics papers/books - specifically around Black Hole mechanics (non rotating Kerr metrics) and early Big Bang "theories".

I really like some of the Ashtekar papers on LQG and "bounce" theories and Steven Weinbergs First Three Minutes is a nice accessible paper.

Not really read anything in the Biology field.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on January 16, 2015, 01:43:36 pm

Well, I will also stick to Malazan this year. Those 7.5 books will cover my fiction reading, as I always read non fiction on alongside fiction. On the non fiction side I have two big tomes by Carl Jung and an even bigger tome by Oswald Spengler. When I get through those I will hopefully get around to read "The basic Bakunin" which is a work that covers many of his theories and speeches(Anarchism).

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on January 16, 2015, 01:45:27 pm

Quote from: Francis Buck on January 15, 2015, 10:59:16 pm

and philosophy of the mind.

I would recommend "The Physics Of Consciousness: The Quantum Mind And The Meaning Of Life" by Evan Harris Walker

Good stuff in there.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on January 16, 2015, 01:54:31 pm

I will probably only get around to reading 4 or 5 books this year.

I would like to finish:
Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson

Hopefully by the end of the year I can start and finish:
Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson
House of Chains - Steven Erikson
Wizard, The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla : Biography of a Genius - Marc Seifer

Couple others I would like to get to:
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie
More stories from "Swords from the West" - Harold Lamb
TUC?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on February 12, 2015, 04:22:55 am

So I have finished:

Second Fondation; Decent ending to a good "trilogy". I must say that the first book was the best of the three in my opinion.

Deadhouse Gates: Great book. Erikson really ironed out the couple issues that I had with his writing while I was reading GotM.

Memories of Ice: Yet another good showing for Erikson. Although, I preferred DG over this one. There were too many characters running around with the "poor me" mentality for me to really dig it as much.

I think I will move on to Houe of Chains and then break for a while from Erikson and read some biographies and possibly some more Harold Lamb.

Cheers for starting this thread, SR!

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on February 12, 2015, 03:06:29 pm

You are welcome GJ! Updated the thread.

Thought this would be a good way of keeping my own reading back on track - they have a similar thing going over at Westerosi so rather than be involved there I thought I may as well start one here.

Also a really good way of incentivising myself amongst my peers and making some headway into my essential TBR pile.

Anyway GJ your target of 4-5 looks pretty weaksauce now you have already read 3!

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on February 12, 2015, 06:11:38 pm

Quote from: Garet Jax on February 12, 2015, 04:22:55 am

So I have finished:

Second Fondation; Decent ending to a good "trilogy". I must say that the first book was the best of the three in my opinion.

Deadhouse Gates: Great book. Erikson really ironed out the couple issues that I had with his writing while I was reading GotM.

Memories of Ice: Yet another good showing for Erikson. Although, I preferred DG over this one. There were too many characters running around with the "poor me" mentality for me to really dig it as much.

I think I will move on to Houe of Chains and then break for a while from Erikson and read some biographies and possibly some more Harold Lamb.

Cheers for starting this thread, SR!

I agree with you on DG, but I ended up enjoying MoI far more. Worth mentioning that my least favorite character is in MoI though, so I can see where you are coming from. Lots of moping around :P. I think the epicness of it overshadowed that though.

I imagine you'll beat me to the end of HoC but I have a feeling that it will be a good place for a break. I think I'll finish Second Foundation after I finish HoC, then go on a sci-fi kick and read some shorter stuff.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on February 12, 2015, 07:02:43 pm

Your least favorite character was the Mhybe, right?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on February 13, 2015, 12:01:04 pm

Well I finished Dune this morning. Two words: Absolutely EPIC.

It was strange having seen the movies and talked/heard a lot about Dune overall as a series - I went in with expectations - which were exceeded. Can definitely see the structural influences Dune had on Bakker - the epilogues (often written retrospectively), small focused cast, thematic subtlety and underlying motives.

Definitely one of my favourite sci fi books of all time - so much depth. The Guild just showing up and their links with the spice and prescience is so well done. Alia and Chani are also two of my favourite characters and I loved the imagery with Alia.

Anyhow think this warrants me moving straight onto Dune Messiah tonight (which is quite a bit shorter than the 550 pages of Dune). Once again a great rec from this board!

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on February 13, 2015, 01:53:48 pm

Quote from: Garet Jax on February 12, 2015, 07:02:43 pm

Your least favorite character was the Mhybe, right?

No. Just no. Wanted her to die from her very first POV.

Quote from: SilentRoamer on February 13, 2015, 12:01:04 pm

Anyhow think this warrants me moving straight onto Dune Messiah tonight (which is quite a bit shorter than the 550 pages of Dune). Once again a great rec from this board!

It most certainly does. Dune ends on such a high note, it would be hard to stop there.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on February 13, 2015, 05:09:25 pm

Quote from: Wilshire on February 13, 2015, 01:53:48 pm

Quote from: Garet Jax on February 12, 2015, 07:02:43 pm
Your least favorite character was the Mhybe, right?
No. Just no. Wanted her to die from her very first POV.

Maybe her and Kallor could go on a date and get in a fatal car wreck on the way.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Madness on February 22, 2015, 02:44:07 pm

Lol - SR, I love your scoreboard. I hope that you're straight on to Children of Dune at this point before you switch it up?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on February 23, 2015, 02:50:49 pm

Well I finished Dune Messiah last night.

(click to show/hide)

Okay - I was going to take a break and move onto some fantasy (Rothfuss, Abraham, Abercrombie being top of the list) however I think I will finish Children of Dune before I do and then I can stop at the halfway mark leaving myself 3 books to finish when I pick this series back up.

Making good progress on my yearly target - crazy we already almost 1/6th through the year!

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: locke on February 26, 2015, 04:35:13 pm

I finished my first book goal of 2015, I finished the first volume of the complete Calvin and hobbes which I've had for years (!) And never got myself around to the pure pleasure of enjoying it. Next up working my way through the pile of magazines in my nightstand.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Somnambulist on February 26, 2015, 05:57:28 pm

Quote from: locke on February 26, 2015, 04:35:13 pm

I finished my first book goal of 2015, I finished the first volume of the complete Calvin and hobbes which I've had for years (!) And never got myself around to the pure pleasure of enjoying it. Next up working my way through the pile of magazines in my nightstand.

Respect.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on March 01, 2015, 05:19:22 pm

Finished House of Chains last night.

I must say, it was another quality book from Erikson, although Deadhouse Gates remains my favorite so far.

I feel that Erikson took a step away from the style that he used for the first three books. He started off the first quarter or so in a fashion that we have not seen from him yet, and I (pending a short reread of the ending) feel that he ended the book a little different with regards to where he packed in all of the action and resolution.

I think I can officially say that I have picked my favorite character in the series so far. Kalam Mekhar.

Like I said before, I will take a break from Erikson for a bit, and then return once I have had time to stretch my brain on some other authors.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Somnambulist on March 01, 2015, 06:59:23 pm

Quote from: Garet Jax on March 01, 2015, 05:19:22 pm

I think I can officially say that I have picked my favorite character in the series so far. Kalam Mekhar.

Kalam and Quick Ben were my favs. They spawned many a D&D character homage over the years, along with Sorry.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on March 02, 2015, 03:18:59 pm

Well, its March and I've read 1 book. Just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell.

Pretty good book, a bit slow at times, but a brilliant ending and amazing magic system.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on March 02, 2015, 06:55:26 pm

Just started The Blade Itself... This one might be a slog for me, not quite sure if I like Abercrombie's style or not.

Let's hope I get into the characters more so I can ignore or look past that.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on March 04, 2015, 04:32:34 pm

Quote from: Garet Jax on March 02, 2015, 06:55:26 pm

Just started The Blade Itself... This one might be a slog for me, not quite sure if I like Abercrombie's style or not.

Let's hope I get into the characters more so I can ignore or look past that.

Finished The Blade Itself this morning.

It ended up being a slog. The characters ended up not being able to overpower my distaste for Abercrombie's writing style...

Looks like it is off to the spoiler boards for me to see where our beloved characters end up.

Maybe you were right, SR. 5 could have been a pretty weaksauce target, with all things considered.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on March 05, 2015, 11:38:18 am

Awww I am kind of disappointed you didn't enjoy it - seen as our tastes seem quite similar. Oh well I am starting it soon so will let you know my feelings.

Yes definitely weaksauce GJ. How about upping your target to ten? I think I will up mine to 25 to challenge myself as well. 5 more each! :)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on March 17, 2015, 01:58:26 am

So I didn't check if there was already a thread for what I posted, but SilentRoamer was kind enough to direct me this way. If I can pull off ten books I'd be pleased with that. This is what I'm hoping to get through:

Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
A Dance with Dragons by George R. Martin
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
The Dark Defiles by Richard Morgan
The Crippled God by Steven Erikson and maybe so Esslemont novels (It's about time I finished that series)
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
The Birth of Classical Europe by Simon Price and Peter Thonemann

I also have two enormous tomes of Lovecraft and Poe short stories I'll be digging through

All the Dune talk is convincing me I should finally pull that one off my shelf and open it up

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on March 17, 2015, 03:14:13 am

i liked Best Served Cold (revenge revenge revenge) although it did seem a bit longer than it needed to be. it's got this one character, the poinsoner, i really liked him, seemed very unique

prince of thorns is good! don't read about it tho--you don't want to catch a spoiler! i had no idea of the 'twist' until i was halfway through the book. the next book was pretty good, and i'm reading #3 now, liking it

i really wish i could dissuade you from reading A Dance With Dragons. i have never been so disappointed in a book. never. i cannot recommend anything about it. it begins as slow as molasses and by the end it has sped up to the velocity of a crippled snail. it was utterly unnecessary. everything you love about books 1-3 and maybe some of 4 -- none of it is in 5. thinking about it makes me angry--that i wasted part of my limited time on Earth on that book wrankles me every time i think of it. blah!

EDIT: dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune dune

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on March 17, 2015, 11:35:52 am

Quote from: Camlost on March 17, 2015, 01:58:26 am

So I didn't check if there was already a thread for what I posted, but SilentRoamer was kind enough to direct me this way. If I can pull off ten books I'd be pleased with that. This is what I'm hoping to get through:

Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
A Dance with Dragons by George R. Martin
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
The Dark Defiles by Richard Morgan
The Crippled God by Steven Erikson and maybe so Esslemont novels (It's about time I finished that series)
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
The Birth of Classical Europe by Simon Price and Peter Thonemann

I also have two enormous tomes of Lovecraft and Poe short stories I'll be digging through

All the Dune talk is convincing me I should finally pull that one off my shelf and open it up

Welcome to the thread Camlost. I have updated and included your targets and goals so just keep the thread updated and I will do the rest :) They do a similar thing over at Westeros but it moves too fast for my liking with little content discussion so I wanted to start a smaller and more focused one here. I have received some great recs from this board and interact on a more personal level with other posters so they have a better idea on what sort of stuff I am likely to favour.

I would definitely recommend Dune - it is one of my favourite sci fi novels and am making good work through the series - thanks Madness for that rec. Also I recently read Hyperion and again this was a book that really stood out for me - thanks WIlshire for that rec.

A Brief History of Time is not too bad for sci-pop. I can recommend Steven Weinbergs first three minutes if you are interested in BBT and early universe theories. There are also some great threads over at Physicsforums discussing this sort of stuff.

I must admit I am really tempted to put Last and First Men on this years reading list! :)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on March 17, 2015, 03:03:03 pm

Quote

prince of thorns is good!

I've heard Lawrence was on point, and he must have been to have two more following PoT

Quote

i really wish i could dissuade you from reading A Dance With Dragons

I started reading ASOIAF many years ago, long before the HBO series came out, at this point it's kind of about not wasting the time that has already been invested in it. I do want to know what happens with Tyrion, Jon Snow, and Arya's storylines though

Quote

I would definitely recommend Dune - it is one of my favourite sci fi novels and am making good work through the series - thanks Madness for that rec

Lol, Madness recommended it to me a few years ago and I purchased a few with every intent to read them, they just never made it to the top of the list.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Madness on March 17, 2015, 03:29:35 pm

Lol, SR. Thanks 8).

Yeah, Camlost, I burned through FH's Dune titles that summer. I'm surprised you still haven't gotten to it :P.

Also, Wilshire, didn't I recommend Hyperion to you?

Now if you could all just read the Jackal of Nar and The Grand Design.

EDIT: Lawrence also has two books in the The Red Queen's War trilogy. He seems to be doing something to similar as to what Abercrombie did initially. I really wish I could tolerate reading first-person with any kind of patience. Someday I'll try.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on March 17, 2015, 04:33:04 pm

Yup, Hyperion came to me by recommendation through Madness, and so the chain continues.

Speaking of succession of readers, one of the people I convinced to read bakker went on to recommend him to another, who has most recently convinced a friend of his to do the same. Building a mob one reader at a time.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Madness on March 17, 2015, 05:16:36 pm

Lol - what an unfortunate algorithm that would be. We hope that each new possible Bakker reader has at least one person in all the people they recommend to that will read it and then themselves recommend it to at least one more person.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on March 17, 2015, 05:49:37 pm

It starts somewhere :P. Besides, I'm at like 2 of 7, which is better than just 1 of x (assuming x > 7 i guess).

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on March 18, 2015, 02:34:06 pm

I'm 4/3 in TSA introductions. I've been very selective in choosing who I think will actually take to it though. TDTCB can be difficult for new readers I've found

One of those was a girlfriend though who I suspect didn't really love it but read the whole of the Prince of Nothing for my/discussions' sake.

Another of those (the +1) was an intro psych prof I had years ago that I introduced Neuropath to via a first day "get to know each other" exercise. About two months later he pulls me aside during a break to ask if I'd ever heard of/read the Prince of Nothing, "it's majestic" he claims. I replied it was my favourite and I was half way through JE at the time and we had a long conversation that extended our class break twice as long. That night he went out and picked up the rest of the series

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on March 18, 2015, 03:09:43 pm

I'm not selective as I think that anyone who enjoys fantasy, generally something like Malazan/GoT or other large fantasy works, has a fair shot at liking Bakker. Feels too much like elitism to suggest otherwise, though that doesn't make me correct :P (see: poor suggestions to readers ratio).

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on March 19, 2015, 01:52:04 am

Quote

I'm not selective as I think that anyone who enjoys fantasy, generally something like Malazan/GoT or other large fantasy works, has a fair shot at liking Bakker. Feels too much like elitism to suggest otherwise

Perhaps selective wasn't the most accurate term. If I'm ever asked, I'm quick to mention TSA and keen to discuss it, but I'm a little more careful to whom I suggest it. I try to gear my recommendations to the person and that which I know they've read.

As an example, my younger brother reads a fair amount of fantasy himself, but it is predominately in the YA category. While I would love for him to pick up TSA, and everyone for that matter, I had my suspicion that it likely wasn't his "taste" confirmed when he picked TDTCB off my shelf to give it a go and couldn't overcome the density of the narrative.

Besides, if you take out the prof and placating girlfriend, my successful recs is halved lol

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on March 19, 2015, 06:16:05 pm

You are both ahead of me. I am 0/4 - 2 didn't bother starting it and the other 2 were the same as Camlost lenders - "overcome by the density of the narrative". Quite annoying as I know one of the lads well enough to know he could really get a handle on a lot of the series more subtle nuances and discuss the series at a deep level.

I generally wouldn't reccomend TSA to someone unless I knew their reading preferences and had some knowledge of their previous reads - its not exactly a genre intro novel. :P Although if anyone asks me my favourite novels TSA usually comes into the conversation.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on March 21, 2015, 06:59:56 pm

Finished Children of Dune last night. Absolutely epic. My assumption is:

(click to show/hide)

Alia is such a great character.

Anyway having a little break from Dune so started reading First Law, enjoying it so far. Comparisons in mind - although there have been a few unpleasant scenes they don't seem to have the same gut impact that Bakkers brutal scenes do. However Abercrombis is a really nice pacing change from Herbert and I am finding it a much easier read - the narrative seems straight forward without being prosaic and boring. About 80 pages in so see how this one goes.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on March 28, 2015, 07:13:12 pm

So I finished The Blade Itself.

I actually really enjoyed the book from the 70% mark onwards:

(click to show/hide)

For me what stood out was the humorous tone which I think Abercrombie pulled off exceptionally well. I mentioned on Skype the other day the scene where Jezal was admiring his own jaw for a page or so was great. Ferro is also hilarious, swinging her arms round and hissing at people.

Anyway think I am going to move straight onto Before They are Hanged. Think I will finish this series then finish Dune.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on April 09, 2015, 01:33:40 pm

Ok so I finished Before They Are Hanged on Monday. I really enjoyed this book, the pacing was great, the character development was believable, Abercrombies ever present dark British humour jumped from the page at me. Really, really enjoyable.

Now in the unenviable position of not owning the third book of a series (I was expecting it to take me a bit longer), so I will have to go and buy this - and soon.

So now not having the third book to read in the series I decided to take a different tact and rather than hit the last 3 books in Dune I decided to read Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination, then onto Last Argument of Kings and then back onto the last 3 Dune books.

Making good progress through my list and hitting/finding a lot of the classics which I have been after.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on April 09, 2015, 04:14:43 pm

I just started Paul Kearneys "Monarchies of God" series which I know very little about, so that might be a good or a bad ride.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Madness on April 09, 2015, 04:25:59 pm

I liked it, Royce :). It's a fairly interesting series. Actually, reminded me of Gemmell a little but more emphasis on the actualities of war. And Kearney knows a fair bit about sailing, which makes for an awesome lens too.

I was just recommending this to geoffrobro yesterday after our Cast.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on April 10, 2015, 11:24:38 pm

Finished Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956).

Yeah I really like this novel even if it was totally not what I was expecting. You have to sort of re-explain it to yourself because it is really trippy. I can definetely see influences on more recent authors.

Not sure what to read now. Im going to look at my shelves tomorrow and pick something short so I can read it before next weekend when ill hopefully pick up FL#3.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on April 11, 2015, 08:19:33 pm

Quote

I liked it, Royce :). It's a fairly interesting series. Actually, reminded me of Gemmell a little but more emphasis on the actualities of war. And Kearney knows a fair bit about sailing, which makes for an awesome lens too.

I really enjoy it so far. I love journeys to unknown territory, and the naval setting suits me fine. Born and raised by the coast:)

Have you read his Macht series?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on April 16, 2015, 06:42:26 pm

I haven't read and don't own any Kearney - he's not stocked in the UK (at least not on the shelves).

Finished Abercrombies Half a King. I liked this, it had a nice flow to it and didn't turn out exactly as I would have expected but sets the next book up nicely. I do like Abercrombies style, this was the same style but a totally different tone.

Now reading Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon - sufficiently odd reading so far. Alien aliens and weirdness seem to be the theme and I hope that continues.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on April 20, 2015, 12:42:28 pm

Finished HoC. That makes 2 books this year :P. Will move onto some sci-fi for a bit.

Thoughts on HoC: http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=1458.msg21506#msg21506

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on April 27, 2015, 02:26:20 am

Finished the last of my exams on the 20th, so now I can finally really get into some fiction. The past week has been a bit ravenous, but that might just be months of restricted time being loosened.

Read Heinlein's Star Beast. I'm hesitant to use this term with anyone, but I think he certainly deserves it: Heinlein is a master of his craft. Not sure what more I can say about the book that isn't summed up by that. Whilst reading, I found myself marveling at how every introduction of a new significant character arose as a demand of circumstance within the narrative, nothing came about arbitrarily if you will. He has an amazing ability to keep his aliens alien, yet at the same time make them endearing and accessible. As always, he manages to showcase the tenacity and ingenuity he loves to attribute to Man.

I've been a sucker for Blizzard games since I was a kid (I used to hold a fairly respectable NA ranking in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne back in the day, but that's beside the point). A local book shop closed a few months back and since then the proprietor has been forced to sell off his stock online and outrageously and unfortunately low prices, so I picked up a few dozen novels from him. Among those was a collection of Blizzard novels. I finished The Day of the Dragon by Richard Knaak. I won't bore anyone with the details unless their interested other than to say it's a decent showing of Knaak's early talent and somewhat difficult to reconcile its place in the history if you're up to date with the Warcraft universe.

Yesterday I burned through Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. I really liked it. Went out today and bought the follow up. Only things I had any real trouble with was some of the in world references until about midway through the book when events conspired to make more sense of that. The only other thing I had trouble reconciling, and it didn't detract any from my enjoyment of the story in the grand scheme of things, is Jorg's age. Even for an exceptional character in extreme circumstances, I never really considered him as young as he claims.

Moving forward, I have another Knaak Warcraft novel that I've started and should be done shortly. I started The Last and First Men just before exams, so I'll be back to restart that. I've been leafing through some history texts and I have a Glen Cook omnibus to finish as well.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: EkyannusIII on April 27, 2015, 05:22:29 pm

Quote from: Camlost on April 27, 2015, 02:26:20 am

Yesterday I burned through Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. I really liked it. Went out today and bought the follow up. Only things I had any real trouble with was some of the in world references until about midway through the book when events conspired to make more sense of that. The only other thing I had trouble reconciling, and it didn't detract any from my enjoyment of the story in the grand scheme of things, is Jorg's age. Even for an exceptional character in extreme circumstances, I never really considered him as young as he claims.

I will pick up Star Beast on the strength of your recommendation.

Prince of Thorns questions:

1.) I've heard it is postapoc rather than straight fantasy? Is this so? If so, how obtrusive is the sprinkling of "real world in the savage future" elements?

2.) I don't expect to like Jorg, but I would at minimum expect him to have agency pouring out of his ears. Will I be satisfied, or is he all angsty and emo?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on April 27, 2015, 06:29:09 pm

Quote

1.) I've heard it is postapoc rather than straight fantasy? Is this so? If so, how obtrusive is the sprinkling of "real world in the savage future" elements?

My impression/understanding of the text is that it is a medieval fantasy setting an undetermined period of time following some cataclysmic event that wiped out "our" civilization.

As for sprinklings, the first one you encounter is an ancient text by Plutarch. Other historical authors names eventually pop up too, but I'm trying to say little out of fear of saying too much. Some form of Christianity remains as well.

Quote

I will pick up Star Beast on the strength of your recommendation.

If you like Heinlein, I don't think you'll have any problem with it. I don't know if it fits into his expanded history or not, I wasn't really looking for those details when I read it.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: The Great Scald on April 27, 2015, 07:35:28 pm

Quote from: Garet Jax on March 04, 2015, 04:32:34 pm

Finished The Blade Itself this morning.

It ended up being a slog. The characters ended up not being able to overpower my distaste for Abercrombie's writing style...

I've read some parts of The Blade Itself, years ago, but I was also put off by Abercrombie's juvenile writing style and attempts to imitate Tarantino in prose. I guess it's all a matter of taste - if you enjoy Tarantino's movies, you'll like Abercrombie's books.

I don't really read any fantasy lit anymore, Bakker excepted, and I honestly don't feel I'm missing out much.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on April 27, 2015, 07:46:20 pm

Not really sure what you mean by Tarantino prose, but I'm not generally a fan of his stuff and I really enjoyed Abercrombie. I know a certain blogger who read a few parts of TDTCB and quite a mess of things by hating it (just came up on TPB so had it in mind). I'm all for not reading stuff you dont enjoy, (what would be the point?), but, to paraphrase, "a juvenile tarantino ripoff" seems a bit hasty. My two cents.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: MSJ on April 27, 2015, 08:42:58 pm

Right now I'm in the middle of two series going back and forth between Gentleman's Bastards and The Book of the New Sun. Then will probably give Rothfuss a go and towards end of the year do another reread of TSA.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on April 27, 2015, 08:56:11 pm

I hope maybe I can read a book this year, but it doesn't seem likely, :'(

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 01, 2015, 12:39:01 pm

I have finished Olaf Stapledons StarMaker (1937) which I enjoyed thoroughly but found an increasing dissonance towards the end of the novel - I just felt like I was missing something but then again that is the whole point of the continuously strengthened viewpoint of the anthropomorphic failings of the narrator.

Also read E. M. Forsters The Machine Stops (1909) which is available for free download. This is an incredibly predictive piece of work. It is so hard to appreciate this was written over 100 years ago. It stands the test of time very well and at approx. 40 pages is well worth the time for anyone interested in early and speculative science fiction.

Not sure what to read now - any suggestions? Felling like some fantasy. I still need to pick up First Law #3 so I might grab this over the weekend. Ill check through my shelves tonight and pull out some fantasy think I have a few things I have wanted to start.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on May 01, 2015, 12:49:40 pm

I would definitely recommend reading almost anything by Stanislaw Lem, but most definitely Solaris and The Futurological Congress.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Alia on May 10, 2015, 08:51:45 am

Quote from: Camlost on April 27, 2015, 02:26:20 am

Among those was a collection of Blizzard novels. I finished The Day of the Dragon by Richard Knaak. I won't bore anyone with the details unless their interested other than to say it's a decent showing of Knaak's early talent and somewhat difficult to reconcile its place in the history if you're up to date with the Warcraft universe.

I read some Knaak's Warcraft novels years ago and I quite liked them. Certainly, they stand out in the category of game-based books. I was also unfortunate enough to pick up some Baldur's Gate novels and these were really awful.

At the moment I am reading Gibson's "The Peripheral", I am about halfway through it. It is not an easy read, I have to stop and think about it, sometimes re-read some passages, but on the whole it seems very satisfying so far. But you do not judge a book like this before its end.

And then there is a very long backlog of books that I bought and had no time to read - third Lynch book, an omnibus of Amber (well, actually, only Corwin's chronicles, so first five books of the series) - and some books by our authors that haven't been translated into English.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on May 12, 2015, 12:54:15 pm

Finished The Divine Invasion by Phillip K Dick. Am not compelled to read the rest of the VALIS trilogy. Kind of fun, but maybe too bizarre. What a change in pace reading a book thats <200 pages :P.

Up next will probably be 2001.

EDIT
It turned into a dissertation and/or history lesson on religion, which is not what I was looking for via sci-fi reading. That being the case, should I stay away from PKD?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Alia on May 14, 2015, 03:02:05 pm

Not all of PKD, but yes, quite a lot. Try Ubik (this one gave me quite a lot of nightmares - I read it much too young), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and if I was to choose one PKD's book that one should really, really read, this would be The Man in the High Castle.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on May 14, 2015, 06:44:37 pm

Thats good. I plan on reading Androids, and probably Castle if I like that one.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 15, 2015, 02:55:14 pm

Ok well I really couldn't decide what to read. My choices were:

Patrick Rothfoss: Name of the Wind
Brandon Sanderson: Alloy of Law
James Corey: Leviathan Wakes
Daniel Abraham: The Dragons Path

So I decided to ignore all of the above and continue my read of Adrian Tchaikovskys Shadows of the Apt series (10 book series currently on book 7) after taking a break from it last year. Anyway the break seemed to do me good as I seem to have a renewed interest in the characters and am plodding through it at a nice and steady rate.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 15, 2015, 03:03:04 pm

What would you count towards a total?

So obviously some books are a lot longer than others. The Machine Stops at 40 pages would only qualify as a short. I think I am going to detail both my story and short story reads. Putting a 40 page book towards my yearly word count seems a bit of a cheat, but then again if reading huge tomes only count as a single book then why should short stories not?

Interested on thoughts on where people think shorts, novellas and novels have their arbitrary size splits?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on May 15, 2015, 03:07:39 pm

Well, a lot of the older sci-fi stuff sits around 100-200 pages. I'd still consider that a book. Any shorter than that and you're right, seems like it may not count, but its still arbitrary. The "fairest" way to count would be total words read, but thats a huge pain and the year is almost half over anyway.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 15, 2015, 03:43:40 pm

Yeah I think I am going to just draw a limit at 100 pages. 100+ is a full story and <100 is a short.

I am not including graphic novels at the moment but if anyone wanted to I would be happy to add.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on May 15, 2015, 07:43:17 pm

@Wilshire Most of his books are borderline madness manifested, so if that is not your cup of tea then you might just leave him alone:) UBIK is a must read though, so read that one. Androids is of course also a winner. You probably know this but the movie Blade Runner is based on Androids.

Do not listen to me though, because I love every word that guy put on paper:). Kind of a Dick bias.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on May 15, 2015, 07:45:04 pm

Its appreciated Royce. I'm not sworn off him at all, just thought Divine Invasion was rather a bit odd.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on May 18, 2015, 02:57:52 pm

On my way through 2001, enjoying it so far.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on May 20, 2015, 11:08:18 am

Yeah 2001 is one of my all time favorite sci fi novels.

I finished The black prism by Brent Weeks and although it is better than Night Angel I still struggle a bit with this dude. He has toned down the ninja blockbuster shit that defined his first series, and he is pretty good at twisting the plot around. Fairly entertaining but not overly impressed so far. The second book in this series is supposedly way better than the first so I might give it a go.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on May 26, 2015, 03:58:00 am

Finished 2001 and it was pretty incredible, definitely recommend to anyone who wants to read sci-fi.

On my way through The Gods Themselves, about 1/2 way and its also very good.

How many way that now? I lost track :P. JS&MN, MoI(?), HoC, 2001, Divine Invasion... I think that was it. These short sci-fi's are making my 10 goal more approachable, but I doubt I'll finish Malzan by the end of the year. There is yet time though.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 27, 2015, 03:56:33 pm

Hey Wilshire,

I am going to go back through this thread and make sure everyone's totals are updated on the first page. I am sure you can hit your 10 mark if you push for it. I really like The Gods Themselves, it is one of my favourite Asimov books so let me know what you think of the ending.

Well I finished Adrian Tchaikovsky The Heirs of the Blade which is book 7 in a 10 book series. It is really surprising that Tchaikovsky can keep things fresh at this point and still slowly reveal more history of his world. This is a series I will definitely be finishing. I will buy the remaining books in paperback as well to match my set. I find Tchaikovsky frustrating in that the story is better than the telling - not to say the telling is bad but the prose could be better. The story, however, is very interesting and he does a great job of weaving a believably large and epic world.

Anyway now I have Abercrombie's The Last Argument of Kings which I am going to move onto almost immediately.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on May 31, 2015, 12:55:13 am

Finished The Gods Themselves.

This was a fantastic book.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on June 22, 2015, 08:01:01 pm

If it wasn't for my two month hiatus from work earlier this year, my total would be 0... Hopefully I can squeeze one or two in by the end of the year.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on June 23, 2015, 03:03:20 pm

Well I finished Abercrombie's The Last Argument of Kings which concludes the First Law Trilogy.

I really dig Abercrombies style, it has a definite flavour of grim British humour and I find him so easy to read. I think i liked the second book the most of the trilogy for me with the last book coming in a close second and the first book least. Although, least in this instance still being quite a lot.

Anyway looking for my next read at the moment and really not sure what to go with. Any suggestions are welcome!

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on July 03, 2015, 01:47:14 am

I've been away for a while, so for an update:

I finished the Prince, King, and Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. I had a few qualms with each of the books separately, and a few small ones with the overall story, but would still recommend for anyone looking for first person grimdark. I might start a separate thread to discuss the trilogy and get other people's thoughts. It might be that I'm overlooking something or being too critical.

I usually keep a short story anthology at work to read on my lunch breaks. Since my last post I finished a great one on pirates called Fast Ships, Black Sails (can't remember the title editor at the moment, will edit later). Like most anthologies there are some weak shorts and some good ones. I think I lucked out with this one as there were only a few I didn't care for and more by comparison than by any fault of their own. I've moved on to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling for my lunches and am quite satisfied. Disney is a poor facsimile. So far it has been a great example of someone who understands the folk tale and has quite expertly reproduced it.

I also burned through The Slow Regard of Silent Things, a non-story novella by Patrick Rothfuss. You have to be familiar with the character to contextualize the peculiarity of it, but it felt just right. I've even found the perfect t place for it on my shelf :D

Right now I'm wrapping up Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I'm nearly done the fifth chapter and so far it has been an excellent collection of tragedies. The Wandering Jew's tale genuinely made me breath a sigh of despair and put the book down for a day; it was some heavy shit. Fucking love it though. I'll certainly be looking into the follow up.

Not sure what's next on the list, I have a bad habit of buying books faster than I read them, which I'm OK with. Always happy for suggestions too, and maybe they'll coincide with my pile of to-reads.

Read on my page brothers

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Madness on July 04, 2015, 06:01:32 pm

You're going to have to read Fall of Hyperion immediately after :P.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on July 05, 2015, 02:39:59 am

Quote

You're going to have to read Fall of Hyperion immediately after :P

I haven't made it to the Consul's tale yet, only the story he tells beforehand, but everything so far has made it seem as if his will be by far the worst. I'm excited and distressed for the ending; I want to know what happens and I don't want it to end lol

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on July 05, 2015, 04:25:15 am

Just finished. I found the Consul's tale to be not as tragic, but just as heavy. The story he tells for context moved me a bit. I get it now though Madness, I'll be picking up the second installment on my way home from work tomorrow. Are the following novels worth looking into, or am I going to find myself dragging through another latter-half-Ender-quartet?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on July 06, 2015, 03:55:52 pm

latter-half-Ender-quartet syndrom :P

Honestly, both with Ender and with Hyperion, I liked the last two. Not superior quality as the first two, but imo worth the read. Maybe its because I'm able to compartmentalize books or something... I dunno.

Even The Fall of Hyperion fails to meet the majesty of Hyperion, which remains my favorite SF book to date, but it is still extraordinary. Endymion and Rise of Endymion go off on a different tangent, following different threads and stories not really considered in the first 2 (not to mention 400 some years in the future), and do fall a bit flat when considering the series as a whole. I'd not say you lose out by skipping them, but I needed more from the Hyperion universe so I read on and am not (or refuse to be?) disappointed.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Phallus Pendulus on July 09, 2015, 03:02:55 pm

Lawrence and Abercrombie are fucking awful, and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for recommending them.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on July 09, 2015, 05:25:19 pm

Quote from: Phallus Pendulus on July 09, 2015, 03:02:55 pm

Lawrence and Abercrombie are fucking awful, and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for recommending them.

+1... Which I am sure will earn me some damnation points.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on July 09, 2015, 05:37:35 pm

Quote

Lawrence and Abercrombie are fucking awful, and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for recommending them.

Lol. They have their place. Like I said, if you're looking for first-person grimdark then the Thorns trilogy isn't terrible, a bit straight forward, but it fits a niche. Truth be told, of all the Abercrombie I've read, The Heroes was my favourite because it wasn't quest trope like the trilogy. As much as we're all TSA fans here, and I've said this in another thread, I often have a hard time recommending it to people who will genuinely get into it, so I try to tailor my recommendations to the reader more than the book.

Anyone read Lawrence or Abercrombie's second series? More of the same or something different?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: The Great Scald on July 09, 2015, 09:16:41 pm

I have to agree with Jax and Phallus about those two authors.

Joe Abercrombie is decent for his genre - not great, but not awful either. I read the first of his "First Law" books, since they'd been recommended to me, and I found it entertaining to read but not especially interesting or thought-provoking. Nothing original about it, though - much of it was the same GRIMDARK DUUUDE and morally-conflicted protagonists and unfunny witty snark that we've seen a hundred times before in the fantasy genre. For a fun airplane book, it was fairly good, but not interesting enough for me to spend my time on the rest of Abercrombie's series.

Mark Lawrence is, however, fucking awful.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Somnambulist on July 09, 2015, 10:12:49 pm

Apologies for bogarting this thread even further, but thought it applicable considering the above comments on Mark Lawrence. He reviewed TDTCB on Goodreads. My favorite quote: "I perhaps wanted more focus and more character-time." WTF? Seriously, the whole book is 'character time.' :| Here's the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/393099027 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/393099027)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on July 10, 2015, 12:30:32 pm

Aren't his books first person with few characters? Compare that to TDTCB that has 5+ main characters, and I could see where he's coming from. Would be interesting to see his review on something like Gardens of the Moon which has even more.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on July 22, 2015, 12:07:07 pm

Well my reading has been slow over the last 4-6 weeks mainly because of the amount of consultancy work I have taken on has effectively quadrupled. Hopefully over the school half term I can catch up a little bit.

I finished Isaac Asimov: The Stars Like Dust.

This has been my least favourite Asimov novel, which is not to say it was bad, it just wasn't up to usual Asimov standards. This is his first novel and even Asimov stated it was his "least favourite novel", so at least I agree with him there.

It is supposed to be the beginning of the Empire series but is before Trantor was even founded so has no real connection to the rest of the series. Even the premise of the ending defies what we know happens in the Empire and makes the whole thing moot.

2.5/5

Next I think I am going to continue Walter Jon Williams Dread Empires fall trilogy with The Sundering, the second in the series.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on July 22, 2015, 01:19:58 pm

As per requested, I'll post what I'm looking to get done reading this year.

So far, I really only have 1 book read, being Light, by John M. Hamilton, which I didn't particularly care for.

I'd like to read at least a book a month though, so this month is The Mechanical, by Ian Tregillis.

That will be book 2/7.

After that, I'll either attempt The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, or see if something else tickles my fancy.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Francis Buck on July 23, 2015, 02:58:09 am

I read Macbeth (third time around, the first being in high school, which barely counts). Still awesome. I need to check out some other Shakespeare stuff, as I am woefully under-exposed to his work, outside of a handful of movie adaptations and a few plays...I know people say they're not really "supposed to be read" per se, but I still like to because it's challenging and the experience is totally different.

I think my next Shakespeare might be Hamlet. I've never even seen any true adaptation of it (film or otherwise), and apparently the Lion King is based on Hamlet, and the Lion King is boss as fuck.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on July 23, 2015, 10:30:33 pm

Quote from: Francis Buck on July 23, 2015, 02:58:09 am

I read Macbeth (third time around, the first being in high school, which barely counts). Still awesome. I need to check out some other Shakespeare stuff, as I am woefully under-exposed to his work, outside of a handful of movie adaptations and a few plays...I know people say they're not really "supposed to be read" per se, but I still like to because it's challenging and the experience is totally different.

I think my next Shakespeare might be Hamlet. I've never even seen any true adaptation of it (film or otherwise), and apparently the Lion King is based on Hamlet, and the Lion King is boss as fuck.

Good idea, FB. Macbeth was always my favorite. King Lear and Timon of Athens were both up there as well. I am partial to his tragedies... I really enjoyed "reading" his works as an old book from my grandfather was handed down to me.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on July 26, 2015, 04:16:38 pm

Quote

So far, I really only have 1 book read, being Light, by John M. Hamilton, which I didn't particularly care for.

I did not enjoy Light as much as the second one,(It is supposedly a trilogy, but all the books are stand alones) Nova Swing. It has a very "David Lynchish" feel to it, where it is almost impossible to grasp the intentions of the various characters. The plot here is more detective noir style with loads of mysterious shit going on. Highly recommended.

I would also try out his various "Viriconioum" novels(also supposedly a trilogy) which are more fantasy with sci fi elements.

His name is M John Harrison by the way :)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on July 30, 2015, 12:36:24 pm

Quote from: Royce on July 26, 2015, 04:16:38 pm

@H

Quote
So far, I really only have 1 book read, being Light, by John M. Hamilton, which I didn't particularly care for.

I did not enjoy Light as much as the second one,(It is supposedly a trilogy, but all the books are stand alones) Nova Swing. It has a very "David Lynchish" feel to it, where it is almost impossible to grasp the intentions of the various characters. The plot here is more detective noir style with loads of mysterious shit going on. Highly recommended.

I would also try out his various "Viriconioum" novels(also supposedly a trilogy) which are more fantasy with sci fi elements.

His name is M John Harrison by the way :)

That's what I get for going off memory, haha, I was close as it were though...

I might try another book in the series eventually, but as for right now, I am moving on to other things.

I finished The Mechanical, by Ian Tregillis. It was good, but definitely not great or amazing. Interesting ideas, but most of it doesn't really pan out to much, at least through this, which in it's defense is just the first book in a series (of I don't know how many books). If I had to equate it to something else I've read, it would be Lies of Locke Lamora, so if you like Lynch's style, you'll probably like this too.

Now, I am reading The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli. I don't think it's particularly long, so maybe I can get in another book for August.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on August 13, 2015, 12:17:09 pm

Hey H - glad you have gotten involved, I will update the first page :)

Well I finished Cormac McCarthys The Road about a week ago. Found this a very difficult read, scary as hell and deeply profound. I know people often criticise McCarthys style, whilst I found it difficult in places (in particular the speech was difficult to determine a source for in places) overall I found it extremely effective.

I have read a few articles about how McCarthy supposedly bowed to commercial pressure and make the ending of "The Road" happy but personally I thought it was anything but. I fully expect the "family" at the end were nothing more than smart cannibals. Sure they could have been "carrying the fire" and be some sort of religious zealots but I found it more likely they were just cannibals with good survival skills.

So now I'm looking for something to read next - as usual ruminating normally takes me a little while (I swear if I spent less time deciding what to read and more actually reading my target would be a lot easier!)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on August 24, 2015, 07:28:30 am

Hey Guys,

So I went back through the thread and updated everyones totals based on all of the posts they have made on here. Admittedly there are some people who have posted to the "What are you reading now" thread so I will go through that today and include any updates on there.

Finished Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey - nice easy read. The characters were ok (sometimes the scope felt a little limited and it would have been nice to get a non Miller/Holden PoV. Such as Naomi, Amos or Alex). The world building was great though - I like that the book was set only somewhat into the future rather than far future. I would give this a solid 3.5/5.

Starting The Forever War by Joe Haldeman later today.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on August 24, 2015, 03:30:51 pm

JS&MN, HoC, 2001, Divine Invasion, The Gods Themselves
That makes 5/10, sir.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on August 24, 2015, 03:42:33 pm

Corrected for you.

A lot of reads are posted in the "What are you reading now" thread which I haven't gone through yet - will update this evening to make sure it is accurate to date.

:)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on August 25, 2015, 01:52:42 pm

Quote from: SilentRoamer on February 13, 2015, 12:01:04 pm

Well I finished Dune this morning. Two words: Absolutely EPIC.

I second that. In hindsight, I am glad I stayed out of the Dune conversations around here. Most everyone here had recommended that I read the book, so I started the book with inflated expectations that were not only met, but were exceeded.

Ending on a high note is a little bit of an understatement, Wilshire... ;) I must now read the rest of the Dune books before jumping back to Corey or Starting Reynolds.

Camlost... you should "...pull that one off your shelf and open it up." :D

Thanks again for the recommendation everyone, Dune is definitely a top sci-fi book in my world now.

EDIT: I noticed that on the grand scoreboard SR wrote that I need to update my goal... So, Lets add all 5 remaining original Herbert books to my list for a BHAG.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on August 26, 2015, 12:47:11 am

Dune is so good!

SR, i really like the Forever War, it's almost got a kind of MacGuyver feel for the specifics of some of the human/alien confrontations

no spoilers but, Hadleman's idea of Earth's future is *fabulous*

finished The Martian--a really really macguyver book, fun in the Apollo 13 manner

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on August 26, 2015, 01:23:39 pm

Finished Midnight Tides. Half way through the main series now, and that makes 6/10 books this year.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on August 27, 2015, 12:38:57 pm

So I went through the "What are you reading now" thread and I think all up to date here now. GJ I have updated your target as well.

Forever War is good so far although I am enjoying much less the return to Earth midsection, I'm not sure that the social changes make much sense - although when dealing with large scale consciousness we rarely do. Anyway making good progress through this.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on August 28, 2015, 12:14:49 am

Quote from: SilentRoamer on August 27, 2015, 12:38:57 pm

So I went through the "What are you reading now" thread and I think all up to date here now. GJ I have updated your target as well.

Forever War is good so far although I am enjoying much less the return to Earth midsection, I'm not sure that the social changes make much sense - although when dealing with large scale consciousness we rarely do. Anyway making good progress through this.

can i do recently read here?

- Lord of All Things: one of those scifi books that gets filed in the 'Lit' section. perhaps a bit slow, chronicle of a complicated relationship between a French woman and a Japanese/American man. includes magic, nanobots, aliens, ancient mysteries, the Devil's Island, and an ending that would make an Inchoroi smile. was a really good, tragic book
- The Bees: 1984 for bees, but that's how they like it. some interesting chivalry stuff imported into the story BUT the author really tries really hard not to over-humanizing the bees. lots of descriptions involve scent
- The Martian: MacGuyver on the Red Rock. very fun
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: pov of an autistic boy trying to solve the mystery of a dog's death. author seems to have done a ton of research for what it's like to see the world this way.
- The Dinner: fancy eating parallels increasing distressing acts of violence, can recommend
- Library at Mount Char: a really different kind of fantasy set in the present and really disconnected from other trends, i think. the most powerful person in the world is missing and his proteges are dealing with it, falls a bit slack at the end, but was well worth it

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on August 28, 2015, 11:27:45 am

Yeah maybe at the start of next year we can kill the What Are You Reading Thread and make my next years reading list the sticky? I will keep it up to date with everyone's reads. MG I will add yours onto the front page - do you have any targets for the rest of the year? TELL ME! WHAT DO YOU SEE!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has just been added to my list - looks really interesting. I saw Bees recently in Waterstones and was tempted to buy so I think I will add this as well.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on August 28, 2015, 09:44:14 pm

Quote from: SilentRoamer on August 28, 2015, 11:27:45 am

Yeah maybe at the start of next year we can kill the What Are You Reading Thread and make my next years reading list the sticky? I will keep it up to date with everyone's reads. MG I will add yours onto the front page - do you have any targets for the rest of the year? TELL ME! WHAT DO YOU SEE!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has just been added to my list - looks really interesting. I saw Bees recently in Waterstones and was tempted to buy so I think I will add this as well.

there's a part in the Curious Incident where the boy travels from his hometown to London by himself and it's really pretty epic since he has so much to overcome

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on August 29, 2015, 07:27:04 pm

Quote from: mrganondorf on August 28, 2015, 09:44:14 pm

Quote from: SilentRoamer on August 28, 2015, 11:27:45 am
Yeah maybe at the start of next year we can kill the What Are You Reading Thread and make my next years reading list the sticky? I will keep it up to date with everyone's reads. MG I will add yours onto the front page - do you have any targets for the rest of the year? TELL ME! WHAT DO YOU SEE!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has just been added to my list - looks really interesting. I saw Bees recently in Waterstones and was tempted to buy so I think I will add this as well.

there's a part in the Curious Incident where the boy travels from his hometown to London by himself and it's really pretty epic since he has so much to overcome

That actually sounds really awesome in a tragic kind of way.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on August 29, 2015, 09:03:59 pm

It was a really good story. The writer did a marvelous job with the narration

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on September 01, 2015, 12:41:59 pm

Finished Forever War on Saturday evening. This was an odd one.

Part Militaristic Sci Fi and part social commentary. I liked the militaristic element - specifically that Haldeman took into account time dilation as a factor of the war. The funny thing being even at the "end" of the war there are probably still pockets of time dislocated war in action. So I like the militaristic part.

I did not care for the social commentary which seemed to take the tack of: things only get worse as time progresses and the Golden Age of the past is something to strive for. Specifically Haldeman seemed to focus on the homo/hetero social developments of the future - which if I am being honest didn't seem to make any logical sense as a reactionary policy to external pressures.

The ending left me with questions which in this case was a good thing - I will definitely read the sequels (the version I have has all 3 books combined and is the complete version).

Anyway so I am making good progress with my target.

Next up: Daniel Abraham: The Dagger and the Coin #1: The Dragons Path.

PS: Watch this space for my upcoming BlogSpot.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on September 01, 2015, 07:00:25 pm

Quote from: SilentRoamer on September 01, 2015, 12:41:59 pm

Finished Forever War on Saturday evening. This was an odd one.

Part Militaristic Sci Fi and part social commentary. I liked the militaristic element - specifically that Haldeman took into account time dilation as a factor of the war. The funny thing being even at the "end" of the war there are probably still pockets of time dislocated war in action. So I like the militaristic part.

I did not care for the social commentary which seemed to take the tack of: things only get worse as time progresses and the Golden Age of the past is something to strive for. Specifically Haldeman seemed to focus on the homo/hetero social developments of the future - which if I am being honest didn't seem to make any logical sense as a reactionary policy to external pressures.

The ending left me with questions which in this case was a good thing - I will definitely read the sequels (the version I have has all 3 books combined and is the complete version).

Anyway so I am making good progress with my target.

Next up: Daniel Abraham: The Dagger and the Coin #1: The Dragons Path.

PS: Watch this space for my upcoming BlogSpot.

BlogSpot!

as crazy as the homo/hetero thing was, i found it entertaining :P

really liked Dagger and Coin but got derailed after book2 -- need to finish! putting banking in an epic fantasy story seems weird, but Abraham seems to make it work

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on September 03, 2015, 08:38:44 pm

Just finished Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. It's pretty short, but it was a good read, it has lots of ideas jammed into it. It reminds me of Lem's Imaginary Magnitude (which is a collection of "introductions" to books that are not yet written).

I'll probably read another of Calvino's books, but not sure which one yet.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: locke on September 04, 2015, 06:22:58 pm

If on a winters night a traveler

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on September 04, 2015, 10:36:03 pm

H did you finish Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince?

I havent started another boook yet.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on September 05, 2015, 02:34:47 pm

Quote

Finished Forever War on Saturday evening. This was an odd one.

Part Militaristic Sci Fi and part social commentary. I liked the militaristic element - specifically that Haldeman took into account time dilation as a factor of the war. The funny thing being even at the "end" of the war there are probably still pockets of time dislocated war in action. So I like the militaristic part.

I did not care for the social commentary which seemed to take the tack of: things only get worse as time progresses and the Golden Age of the past is something to strive for. Specifically Haldeman seemed to focus on the homo/hetero social developments of the future - which if I am being honest didn't seem to make any logical sense as a reactionary policy to external pressures.

The ending left me with questions which in this case was a good thing - I will definitely read the sequels (the version I have has all 3 books combined and is the complete version).

The thing that really stuck with me from my reading of Forever War was the time dilation. It's one of the few books I've read that I felt like it was handled appropriately, especially the fact that the war is finished but still going on as you mentioned.

As far as the homo/heterosexual relationships, I had just chalked it up to confined living spaces lol. I didn't really give it much more thought than that when I was reading it. Admittedly though, I was caught up in the time effects.

Also, I hadn't even realized there were sequels. I had thought it was a stand-alone.

At some point I'll throw in an update on what I've managed to read since my last post, but as I'm thinking about it, I've quickly realized that I strayed aimlessly from my initial to-read list. If I finished half of those I'd be surprised

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Alia on September 06, 2015, 01:10:34 pm

There is also a graphic novel based on the "Forever War", illustrated by Marvano: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War_%28comics%29 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War_%28comics%29). Actually, I think that was how my husband got introduced to the novel (he's still a great fan of the comic).

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on September 11, 2015, 01:43:21 pm

Quote from: SilentRoamer on September 04, 2015, 10:36:03 pm

H did you finish Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince?

I havent started another boook yet.

Nah, I kind of gave up on it, I just was not finding myself all that interested in reading it.

I did, however, just finish The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin. Pretty good, I wasn't in love with the writing style, per se, but the story is interesting. Sort of Bakker-esque, in the sense that there is a lot of backstory hinted at of which we are only presented facets of and all that.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Camlost on September 14, 2015, 12:28:59 am

Quote

I did, however, just finish The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

I got that as a gift and it is in my to read pile. I wasn't sure how far down I was going to put it, but if you give it the good word it might get bumped up a few

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on September 14, 2015, 10:07:24 am

Quote from: Camlost on September 14, 2015, 12:28:59 am

Quote
I did, however, just finish The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
I got that as a gift and it is in my to read pile. I wasn't sure how far down I was going to put it, but if you give it the good word it might get bumped up a few

Well, it was 512 pages and I read it in a day and a half, so it certainly kept me interested. I'm pretty tough on books, so I'd give it a sold very good, but possibly just shy of great. It's probably the best new book I've read in quite a while.

It's been three days since I finished it and I'm still puzzling together some aspects, so to me that is a mark of something good. I bought a paper copy too and I'll be buying the whole series as they come out.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on September 14, 2015, 04:24:31 pm

Finished Bonehunters. That makes 7 books read this year.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on September 16, 2015, 03:03:16 pm

Just finished Blindsight by Peter Watts. Pretty good, interesting, all that. I'm going to try to sequel next, but my reading flurry may be spent...

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on September 21, 2015, 09:25:36 am

I am almost through Paul Kearneys Monarchies of God series, and I have to say it is quite brilliant. I never thought I would enjoy military fantasy, so that was a pleasant surprise.

I thought of the movie Braveheart a lot during this series, especially one of the characters(Corfe) is almost a mirror image of William Wallace in Braveheart.

I highly recommend this series to any fans of military fantasy. I can also mention that the fantasy aspect is very toned down.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on September 21, 2015, 02:17:19 pm

Quote from: Royce on September 21, 2015, 09:25:36 am

I am almost through Paul Kearneys Monarchies of God series, and I have to say it is quite brilliant. I never thought I would enjoy military fantasy, so that was a pleasant surprise.

I thought of the movie Braveheart a lot during this series, especially one of the characters(Corfe) is almost a mirror image of William Wallace in Braveheart.

I highly recommend this series to any fans of military fantasy. I can also mention that the fantasy aspect is very toned down.

I wasn't sure what to read next, but now I think I might have found it, thanks!

I finished Echopraxia by Peter Watts, a 'sequal' to Blindsight. It was pretty good, mostly more of the same though.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on September 22, 2015, 08:32:02 am

Quote from: H on September 21, 2015, 02:17:19 pm

Quote from: Royce on September 21, 2015, 09:25:36 am
I am almost through Paul Kearneys Monarchies of God series, and I have to say it is quite brilliant. I never thought I would enjoy military fantasy, so that was a pleasant surprise.

I thought of the movie Braveheart a lot during this series, especially one of the characters(Corfe) is almost a mirror image of William Wallace in Braveheart.

I highly recommend this series to any fans of military fantasy. I can also mention that the fantasy aspect is very toned down.

I wasn't sure what to read next, but now I think I might have found it, thanks!

I finished Echopraxia by Peter Watts, a 'sequal' to Blindsight. It was pretty good, mostly more of the same though.

I just finished the series and my above comment still stands, although the last book was rather disappointing. Finishing a series in a satisfactory way seems like a very difficult task:). The ending was poor, but not unexpected.

That being said, the first four books are very captivating and as a whole the series is a must read.

I am going to start on his Macht series now.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on September 23, 2015, 08:50:44 pm

Finished Reaper's Gale. I think that makes 8 books read this year.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on September 25, 2015, 12:29:57 pm

Ok guys - I'll update everyone's postings tonight.

I finished Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire a few days ago. I enjoyed this book, it almost feels a cheat in that Zahn can draw on existing characters and ideas and has little back story to establish. Overall though the writing was solid, the pacing was just about right and Zahn avoided the "omg Jedis can do everything" sort of clichés I was expecting. Solid book.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on September 25, 2015, 12:58:29 pm

Zahn's Star Wars books are easily, and far and away, the best written ones. I've read Zahn's Conquerors‍ ' trilogy, but that was a long, long, long time ago, however I recall them being decent.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Alia on September 25, 2015, 03:57:44 pm

Quote from: SilentRoamer on September 25, 2015, 12:29:57 pm

Ok guys - I'll update everyone's postings tonight.

You can mark my Corwin cycle as read, somehow never got to mentioning it here.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on September 25, 2015, 04:56:34 pm

Finished my "re-read" of Leviathan Wakes this last Tuesday. I can't put my finger on it, but I really like the writing style in this book. Also, it was one of the first times, in my experience, that an author went into detail about how people would deal with "high-g" maneuvers and the "science" behind things like that...

Solid 4/5 for me.

Now I am moving on to Caliban's War.

Cheers.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on October 01, 2015, 02:32:27 pm

Finished Caliban's War this morning. Another good book by the Corey duo. I like Leviathan Wakes more than this book by a very slim margin. This book was as a refreshingly easy read as the first one in the series... Pretty sure that this was "what I couldn't put my finger on" in regards to their writing style.

Mostly good stuff all around. Other than a couple white elephants, there weren't too many times that it was blatantly obvious what was going on, so I think the duo made progress on that front from book 1 to book 2.

Time to order books 3 and 4 and get after those.

Peace from the Desert.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on October 02, 2015, 02:15:31 pm

Quote from: Garet Jax on September 25, 2015, 04:56:34 pm

Finished my "re-read" of Leviathan Wakes this last Tuesday. I can't put my finger on it, but I really like the writing style in this book. Also, it was one of the first times, in my experience, that an author went into detail about how people would deal with "high-g" maneuvers and the "science" behind things like that...

Solid 4/5 for me.

Now I am moving on to Caliban's War.

Cheers.

I just finished Leviathan Wakes myself. It was good. I find I can't read fantasy now, it all just makes me sad and angry that I can't be reading TUC, so more sci/fi it will be.

I'll start on Caliban's War next week.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on October 04, 2015, 07:35:28 pm

nearly finished listening to The Things That They Carried. it's a Vietnam novel read by Bryan Cranston (Cranston) (Cranston) ([(CRANSTON)])

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on October 05, 2015, 01:17:55 pm

Ok guys - all updated.

I'm now reading Ancillary Sword which is a sequel to Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Was slow going last night but I was tired.

I remember finding the first awkward to read - mainly because of using feminine form for all neutral gendered pronouns which I found less more of an irritant than a ground breaking change. First one left me disappointed but was quite enjoyable in certain elements.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Alia on October 05, 2015, 07:15:26 pm

Finally got to reading "The Republic of Thieves". But considering how little time I seem to have right now (between my two jobs) it might take me until Christmas :-(
That is, unless we get more of utterly boring and lenghty staff meetings. That is the time that I secretly devote to reading.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on October 12, 2015, 01:39:37 pm

Webinars are the best but I'm impressed you do it during staff meeting :)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on October 14, 2015, 01:08:21 pm

Finished Toll the Hounds. That was a lovely read, one of the best endings so far as it felt like there was actually some resolution.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on October 14, 2015, 03:47:36 pm

Just finished Caliban's War. It was good, but I think I prefer Leviathan Wakes a little more.

I think I need a break from sci/fi for a book though. Not sure what I'll read next though.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: MSJ on October 14, 2015, 08:27:24 pm

H, have you read A Land Fit for Heroes, by Richard Morgan? Its a great series with a lot of great characters. Its really, really Grimdark and has maybe the next most horrific scene behind Inchoroi raping that guy in front of family. Morgan is right behind Bakker on my list of best fantasy authors.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: H on October 14, 2015, 09:00:39 pm

Quote from: MSJ on October 14, 2015, 08:27:24 pm

H, have you read A Land Fit for Heroes, by Richard Morgan? Its a great series with a lot of great characters. Its really, really Grimdark and has maybe the next most horrific scene behind Inchoroi raping that guy in front of family. Morgan is right behind Bakker on my list of best fantasy authors.

No, I haven't read anything by him. I'll try giving it a whirl. Reading fantasy has really been bumming me out, since all I really want to read is TUC. I'll take a look and see if I can get into it.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Alia on October 17, 2015, 01:35:04 pm

Quote from: Wilshire on October 12, 2015, 01:39:37 pm

Webinars are the best but I'm impressed you do it during staff meeting :)

Well, there are almost 70 of us, so I just find a nice quiet corner and get my kindle out. It would be more difficult with a paper book, though.

And another huge Morgan fan here, I certainly recommend Land Fit for Heroes - although I guess it would be even better to read the Takeshi Kovacs series first, which is hard s-f.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Royce on October 18, 2015, 05:37:02 pm

Quote from: MSJ on October 14, 2015, 08:27:24 pm

H, have you read A Land Fit for Heroes, by Richard Morgan? Its a great series with a lot of great characters. Its really, really Grimdark and has maybe the next most horrific scene behind Inchoroi raping that guy in front of family. Morgan is right behind Bakker on my list of best fantasy authors.

You should check out Paul Kearney. He likes to rape innocent people with swords.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on October 26, 2015, 04:39:08 pm

I finished Timothy Zahn - Heirs to the Empire #2: Dark Force Rising on 23/10/2015

I have really enjoyed the first two books in this series - good pacing, good plot and passable prose. Ill get a real review up after I've finished the 3rd.

Starting on the 3rd next.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on October 27, 2015, 04:23:24 pm

Read The Martian. Really a great book, even better than the movie, though the film did a great job.

I think that's 10 for the year.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Fiddler Farstrider on November 02, 2015, 10:40:57 pm

Quote from: Wilshire on October 27, 2015, 04:23:24 pm

Read The Martian. Really a great book, even better than the movie, though the film did a great job.

I think that's 10 for the year.

I see you are reading some Asimov books. they are what really started my love for fantasy/Sci-Fi. I'm sure I don't need to tell you but the the 14 books that encompass the Foundation, Empire, Robot series must all be read to get the total picture.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Fiddler Farstrider on November 02, 2015, 10:47:40 pm

So far this year:

Assail
Forge of Darkness
Kingkiller 1-2
The First Law 1-3
Prince of Nothing 1-3
Aspect-Emperor 1-2
Picture of Dorian Gray
Waiting for the Barbarians

Currently reding the Broken Empire 1 & Perdido Street Station(my first Mieville)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Garet Jax on November 03, 2015, 01:58:39 pm

Finished "The Skull Throne" by Peter Brett last night. I rate this book a generous 3/10.

I think that puts me at 8 for the year and I am about halfway through Dune: Messiah. I might make it after all.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on November 03, 2015, 05:50:08 pm

Oh Perdido Street Station is great. Dark, but the writing is brilliant.

Getting back around to the original Foundation Trilogy might be a goal next year for me.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on November 29, 2015, 10:20:37 pm

recently read/listened to

The Stone Man - Really cool/scary/eerie scifi story. A man of stone appears in the UK and begins to walk in a straight line across the land. Guns, bombs, whatever are useless at stopping or even slowing it's progress. Buildings fall, people flee and panic, and no one can stop it from reaching it's destination: one unlucky victim. When it comes back, no one has any idea of what to do except to give it what it wants. Society is forced into sacrificing to these things. Told from the POV of someone with mild Asperger syndrome, it's a nice take on the terror of inevitable doom.

Where the Hell is Tesla - Adventure story throughout the multiverse in hopes of finding Tesla and saving the world. Fun story, felt kind of like John Dies at the End but much lighter. Perhaps file under "dude lit"?

Wicked - Finally got around to reading this retelling of the Oz story and by god it was good. Wicked fills in the gaps of why the Wicked Witch ended up being wicked. I got The Magicians vibe from this book. The writer fills in the political/religious/social stuff in the Oz world. This is a sad book.

A Confederacy of Dunces - Amazing funny but more than funny story about a big guy in New Orleans. The hero is lazy, endearing, intelligent, opinionated, irresponsible, in love, whiny, and a whole lot of other things. It's amazing how bad the main character is and yet so lovable too (for the reader if no one else). Think Thomas Aquinas, extremely overweight, living in the 60s, constantly at war with the modern world.

Pippi Longstocking - Always wanted to read, finally got to. Pippi is an expert liar. Her lines made the story worth it. She must have been part of the inspiration for Lyra in The Golden Compass.

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Post nuclear war, a monastery in west Texas keeps alive fragments of the learning of the 'ancients.' The story is episodic like Foundation and follows the course of the world getting back onto it's feet, returning from savagery to computers with a new renaissance along the way. The Roman Catholic church is one of the few things to survive the apocalypse, so future, albeit increasing distant from our own world, has this cool antiquated quality. There's a whole recurrence of issues of faith vs reason, pope as political or spiritual leader, conflict between church and state. Fun.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on December 16, 2015, 01:00:18 am

Finished TDTCB for the forum re-read.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: locke on December 16, 2015, 07:39:49 am

A bad year for reading, but I slogged through my unwatched movies pile and watched about 150, and kept up with new acquisitions, the unwatched pile is finally below fifty, so overall a success for purposeful media consumption even if my unread pile has grown as I focused on reducing one pile at a time.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: mrganondorf on December 18, 2015, 07:28:12 pm

hey hey! just finished Red Rising and Golden Son and can recommend both! the setting is the future, the solar system, and humanity is divided into class/labor groups by color. the Golds rule all, the Reds are slaves to all. revolution, uprising, topple the top dogs

- Red Rising: Plato + Ender's Game + brutality ... starts a little slow for me but is well worth it
- Golden Son: Dune + Leviathan + GRRM hijinks ... war, betrayal, cool dueling

my complaints--the series does start a bits slow in book 1, but i really really enjoyed both books overall. the main character is a bit maudlin from time to time, but it's not too bad.

the final book in the trilogy comes out in Feb!!!

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Alia on December 27, 2015, 07:57:46 pm

Managed to finish Lynch's The Republic of Thieves before the end of the year - those last two days off really helped, as I read last third of the book then.
It's a good read but I had two problems with it. Firstly, I've forgotten quite a lot from books 1 and 2 before I got to reading this one, which caused some problems. Secondly, with a good book, I often feel too much for the characters and the things Locke did in this one, well, were quite embarassing sometimes. But still a good read.
And then I read on his website that the next book in the series has been postponed to sometime in 2016. Not again, sigh.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: MSJ on December 27, 2015, 09:46:28 pm

Quote from: Alia on December 27, 2015, 07:57:46 pm

Managed to finish Lynch's The Republic of Thieves before the end of the year - those last two days off really helped, as I read last third of the book then.
It's a good read but I had two problems with it. Firstly, I've forgotten quite a lot from books 1 and 2 before I got to reading this one, which caused some problems. Secondly, with a good book, I often feel too much for the characters and the things Locke did in this one, well, were quite embarassing sometimes. But still a good read.
And then I read on his website that the next book in the series has been postponed to sometime in 2016. Not again, sigh.

I've read Lies of Locke Lamora, and it was so so IMHO. I started Red Seas Under Red Skies and something else took me away from it and I've never got back to it. I need to start something new after this reread, I might have to give this a go again.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on December 28, 2015, 09:55:01 pm

Finished Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind.

Very good book, highly recomended. Middle third of the book was better than the other two, but still worth the read. Hopefully he finishes writing the last book at some point...

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: MSJ on December 28, 2015, 10:03:32 pm

I finished both of Rothfuss's books a month or so ago. Name of the Wind is definitely the better of the two, but I enjoyed both. Would recommend also. It seems the series that I really get into are the ones that are not finished.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on December 29, 2015, 02:35:57 pm

I was really drawn into the magic system. Quite unique. Would like to see Kellhus do some Sympathy.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: SilentRoamer on January 06, 2016, 03:25:37 pm

Thanks for participating everyone.

Some great comments and really great to see people read things they have been after for a while.

Well done to everybody who has hit their targets. New targets for this year to be posted later :)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Madness on January 07, 2016, 07:49:55 pm

So - do we make a new thread now?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on January 07, 2016, 08:34:39 pm

Duh

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: MSJ on January 07, 2016, 10:45:59 pm

Guys, if you could name a series that reminds you most of TSA, what would that be? I mean has the same intrigue, tone and worldbuilding that can hook you the same way?

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on January 08, 2016, 02:14:41 pm

Nothing really makes a good analogy that I have read.

Malazan's hundreds of thousands of years (+) of history makes TSA few thousand seem paltry. The sheer volume of characters and plots in Malazan is also way over what you get in TSA. That said, for some reason they give me similar vibes. Maybe because there is an enormous amount of unspoken information happening in the background that you only get to guess at until it comes to fruition. Its probably a close #2 to TSA for me, but they really aren't terribly similar .

I haven't done much reading of TSOIAF but GoT's politicking reminded me a bit of TDTCB in many ways. Sranc on the horizon and Sakarpus holding the wall against them, etc. There are some analogies to be found there.

Recently I read The Name of the Wind, and the main character is all super-genius like Kellhus, and the magic system is fairly unique and some oblique analogies to the Gnosis, but the comparison really stops there and isn't particularly strong.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just not well read enough to answer this question, but TSA is something you must experience on its own to really describe it. If you're looking for something to read with the same flavor, you might try some of the above, but they are poor substitutes.

Others constantly mention Blood Meridian as analogous to TJE, though I haven't read it so can't say why or if I disagree.
Madness often mentions The Tyrants and Kings trilogy by John Marco as feeling similar (maybe), but I again haven't read so can't disagree or otherwise.

Not sure if this topic ever came up with anything but have a look through:
Sci Fi series as good as The Second Apocalypse? (http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=760.0)

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: MSJ on January 08, 2016, 02:40:15 pm

I've read all of those besides Blood Meridian. I plan on giving it a try here soon. Yea, Malazan you get that dark backdrop with a lot of unknown's that make it similar. I see your comparison to ASOIAF, but, I've never felt the two anything alike. Kvothe is a Kellhus genius type, what I like more about that series is that he narrates it, and how much of what he says is entirely accurate.

With TSA it's just this great combination of intrigue, the tone, and characters I really, really care about. The world-building is fascinating, and I've never come across anything that does it all so well together like Bakker. And while I can get into other series out there, nothing has grabbed my imagination like TSA. Another thing that probably effects this is that the series isn't finished and it leaves us to this endless speculation. Huh, one day I guess I'll just stumble across something else that has the same effect.

Kind of a hard question to answer, appreciate your feedback Wlshire.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Madness on January 11, 2016, 04:40:08 am

In regards to Wilshire's "Duh," I'd really prefer if SR started the new thread.

But so far I've motored through Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer and Gates of Ivrel. I'll probably pick up JC: The Detective but won't likely continue the series after that. I will definitely be finishing The Morgaine Saga of which Gates of Ivrel is the first of four.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on January 15, 2016, 02:28:25 pm

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful MSJ. If you find anything yourself, let me know :).

If you're looking for something that might have flavored TSA, Dune (especially the first couple books) is a good one to read through, and of course LOTR, if you have somehow managed to avoid reading it so far. Dark with brilliant writing, Perdido Street Station is a unique urban fantasy, but the similarities between the titles stop at the dark backdrop.

Make a new topic and maybe some more people will respond. This isn't really the correct topic to draw in those that might have a better answer.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: MSJ on January 15, 2016, 03:24:45 pm

No worries, Wilshire. I'll have to get caught up on these threads. I read about 20-30 books a year. And, I should make a rec thread, unless there is one. Which I'm sure there is.

Title: Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
Post by: Wilshire on January 15, 2016, 04:58:08 pm

Just make a new one. I'm sure its old and dusty.