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

[Maestro]

Although I am lazy and haven't updated by av, I just completed Joe Haldeman's Marsbound. A good yarn about colonizing Mars, but it just sort of fizzled in the third act. I don't know that there is such a thing as a good Mars book. You either have action and deception or high science fiction with little conflict. This was good until it became high skiffy with little conflict in the third act.

I'm on to the novelization of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Blah.... As I told my students who found it in my briefcase, it's a bit of fluff to cleanse the palate from Haldeman before I get on to something serious. I think I need to read another history book.

 

[Mistral]

Just saw a write-up of The Hunger Games. Sounds like fun. Write-up is in Entertainment Weekly, the Fall Preview issue.

 

[Brian]

I just won't shut up about Neil Gaiman, will I?

It's nice to see someone with such a passion for someone else's work. It's kind of infectious, actually.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I'm half way through Star Wars: Alliegiance. Someone please tel me it gets better. So far I'm totally bored with it and not much is happening. Zahn is really letting me down with this one.

 

[S. Gomez]

I'm onto The Lord of The Rings, having finished with The Hobbit.

"One stage of your journey is over. Another begins."

 

[Stevil2001]

I'm half way through Star Wars: Alliegiance. Someone please tel me it gets better. So far I'm totally bored with it and not much is happening. Zahn is really letting me down with this one.

It doesn't, not really. Zahn's most pedestrian effort yet. He should have just quit after the Hand of Thrawn.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I was afraid of that. ^^^ I think I'll go into scan mode on it so I can get through it.

 

[JAG]

Just started Koybayashi Maru by Martin and Mangels.

 

[Skywalker]

^ Kobayashi Maru is out?!

Currently in the middle of Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher. Haven't decided if I want to move on to the next Dresden book after this or give Butcher a break for a bit.

 

[The Sneeze Police]

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, the new Patricia McKillip The Bell at Sealey Head, and Koybayashi Maru.

 

[Ruaidhri]

Reading Years in the Making, a collection of L Sprague de Camp's time travel and alt history stories. I bought it simply for Lest Darkness Fall, but some of the other stuff is really fun.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

I'm about halfway through the last book of the so-called "Second Foundation Trilogy", Foundation's Triumph. *oy*

Not sure what the general consensus is on these 3 books (each written by one of the "Killer B's"), but I've been... less than impressed.

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Stevil2001]

I thought the last two (Foundation and Chaos and Foundation's Triumph) were pretty good Asimov pastiches, with some interesting ideas.

 

[JAG]

^ Kobayashi Maru is out?!

Currently in the middle of Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher. Haven't decided if I want to move on to the next Dresden book after this or give Butcher a break for a bit.

It has been out a few weeks already.

 

[Skywalker]

Nice. I'd totally lost track of it, forgot when it was supposed to come out.

::adds it to his birthday list ::

 

[Klagg]

Vicious Circle, the second Felix Castor novel by Mike Carey. If you love the Dresden Files but not Chick Vampire Lit, you will enjoy the Felix Castor books. It is definately darker than Dresden. Mike Carey wrote Hellblazer for many years. While the lead is a relunctant hero, he does not have to be blackmailed to help someone like Constantine does.

I bought book 2 and 3 from Amazon CA since they just published book 2 in hardback in the US and book 4 comes out in paperback this fall in the UK / Canada.

 

[S. Gomez]

I just won't shut up about Neil Gaiman, will I?

It's nice to see someone with such a passion for someone else's work. It's kind of infectious, actually.

Good, because it's about to get worse.

The last few nights I've been listening to the audiobook of Fragile Things. Here's the kicker: it's read by Neil Gaiman himself. And let me tell you, he's fantastic. He does different accents for characters (though his American isn't all that great, unfortunately) and really brings them to life, even the ones I thought wouldn't be all that nice when read aloud. He also reads Stardust apparently; you can bet I'll be checking that out as soon as I can!

 

[MyCylon]

I just finished reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". Boy, is that different from "Blade Runner" . Not that it's a surprise, but there you are.
It's certainly a fascinating read, highly recommended. It can be a bit odd in places (the Deckard's obsession with the animals and Mercerism, for example) but maybe that even adds to the attraction.

I picked up "Valis" but haven't started yet. I'm really curious, though.

As you can see, I've moved from Arthur C. Clarke (2001,2010, 2061, 3001) to Philip K. Dick. I'm catching up on some of the classic I never got around to reading.

 

[John Clark]

I'm going to start on one of the Supernatural books, Bone Key by Mr Decandido later today

 

[Shurik]

Ilium by Dan Simmons.