SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?

[hobgoblin]

I finished Mort and just started Guards! Guards! I have to admit that I'm liking the City Watch a lot better than the Death series, although both are pretty funny.

The Death series gets better--Hogfather is one of my absolute favourite Pratchett books [though I could never pick a favourite, not really]. Night Watch, which I think is the newest in the Watch series, is brilliant!

Am currently reading Jingo, by Terry Pratchett, and The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester--two authors whose books I can read again and again.

 

[Mistral]

I finished Mort and just started Guards! Guards! I have to admit that I'm liking the City Watch a lot better than the Death series, although both are pretty funny.

I think the two threads are some of the best in Discworld. Have you read book 4? The Hollywood spoof?

I haven't read them yet, I also picked up the first Rincewind book The Color of Magic and Reaper Man. When I get done with those, I'm going to read more of the City Watch.

Don't read Color without having the sequel at hand-they literally form one story.

 

[Deckard]

I'm about halfway through Neil Gaiman's American Gods and think it is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time. The writing is wonderfully descriptive and the narrative just flows. Hard to describe really but I think Gaiman just has a natural knack for telling a good story with some interesting characters.

I've also just finished Crux, which is the ninth Trade Paperback of the Lucifer comic, and I am desperately waiting for payday so that I can buy the last two volumes and see how it all ends.

Before American Gods I'd read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and was disappointed. I know a lot of folks hold it in very high regard but I just found it dull and the dialogue exchanges between The Man and The Boy were extremely tedious. I think I may have gone into it with unfairly high expectations after reading all the universal praise it was receiving and found that it simply couldn't live up to the hype.

However I have to say that I think the story would translate much better into a 90-120 minute movie so it will be interesting to see how the film version turns out.

 

[Maestro]

Still working on Patrick. 100 pages left to go. A great epic. I wish someone would turn this and Byzantium into movies.

 

[RandyS]

Currently reading Terminator: From the Ashes, the lead-in to Salvation, which I plan to read next.

 

[S. Gomez]

Finished the second read of Reap The Whirlwind. Before I can continue on to Open Secrets, I have to read a book for school.

 

[Ward Fowler]

I'm reading a Heinlein novel. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I'm 3/4 of the way through and it's been pretty great so far.

 

[Klaus]

I'm reading a Heinlein novel. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I'm 3/4 of the way through and it's been pretty great so far.

...that's one of my all-time favs. Mike is the best computer in sf history, hands down.

 

[Ward Fowler]

^Mike is truly great and Mannie is one of my favorite Heinlein protagonists.

 

[Mistral]

^Mike is truly great and Mannie is one of my favorite Heinlein protagonists.

All time favorite of all of his novels, great characters, believable culture/setting and a crisp story. If it's your first time you are very lucky.

I suggest Citizen of the Galaxy next if you want to continue with Heinlein.

 

[Ward Fowler]

^It is my first time reading it. I'll be finishing it today. Thanks for suggesting Citizen of the Galaxy, I'll put it on my summer reading list.

 

[Mistral]

^It is my first time reading it. I'll be finishing it today. Thanks for suggesting Citizen of the Galaxy, I'll put it on my summer reading list.

You are welcome. Might I suggest Allen Steele's early work-it feels like Heinlein but updated to the 21st century sensibilities. Start with Clarke County, Usa. Not his Coyote saga, though. Get his earlier works first.

 

[Ward Fowler]

I've heard of Steele and have heard him compared to Heinlein and Clarke. I'll definitely check it out.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I've heard of Steele and have heard him compared to Heinlein and Clarke. I'll definitely check it out.

I read Coyote, maybe, from what's been said here, I should have started with earlier work. I found it a fascinating read, but it didn't draw me in at all. In fact I think I was 650 pages in before I really got engaged with the story.

 

[Mistral]

I've heard of Steele and have heard him compared to Heinlein and Clarke. I'll definitely check it out.

I read Coyote, maybe, from what's been said here, I should have started with earlier work. I found it a fascinating read, but it didn't draw me in at all. In fact I think I was 650 pages in before I really got engaged with the story.

And I found the first 600 pages the most interesting-after that it seemed like a rehash of Beowulf's Children. But his early stuff is amazing.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I've heard of Steele and have heard him compared to Heinlein and Clarke. I'll definitely check it out.

I read Coyote, maybe, from what's been said here, I should have started with earlier work. I found it a fascinating read, but it didn't draw me in at all. In fact I think I was 650 pages in before I really got engaged with the story.

And I found the first 600 pages the most interesting-after that it seemed like a rehash of Beowulf's Children. But his early stuff is amazing.

I didn't say it wasn't interesting, it just wasn't engaging me. I have no idea why. I liked the ideas there, and the fact there was a lot of thought put in to the background to build the story. I just didn't seem to be able to read it for long before it turned my brain off.

 

[Steve Roby]

I'm reading a Heinlein novel. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I'm 3/4 of the way through and it's been pretty great so far.

Last good book Heinlein ever wrote, and a few of the ones before it aren't worth bothering with (Farnham's Freehold, for example, and though I haven't read it since I was a teenager, I thought Stranger in a Strange Land was really overrated.)

Some of his best stuff was in the Scribner juveniles (what we'd call YA today) series. There's still some weird politics and sexually odd ideas, but to a much lesser extent than in later Heinlein. The juveniles are also shorter and generally a lot less self-indulgent.

 

[S. Gomez]

Speaking of Heinlein, I'm going to be wanting to pick up some of his juveniles pretty soon. I've already read Have Space Suit--Will Travel; does anyone want to recommend the best three or four of the others?

 

[Steve Roby]

If I had time to reread a few of those books, I might go for Have Space Suit, which you already have; Starman Jones, the first Heinlein I ever read; Space Cadet, the inspiration for the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet TV/radio/novel/comic book/comic strip series and, according to Yvonne Fern's Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation, one of Roddenberry's key influences in creating Star Trek; and The Star Beast, which is probably one of the more just plain fun books of the bunch.

 

[Maestro]

Daemon by Daniel Suarez. A computer gaming guru dies and unleashes terror from beyond the grave with a sequence of daemons activated by the posting of his obit.