What are you reading?

[Miss Chicken]

Tried another random fantasy book from the library called Twelve Kings of Sharakhai. I had looked up reviews before hand, so I thought it was at least going to be ok. The first chapter was solid, involving the heroine in a well described gladatorial style fight. The second chapter then had a way too detailed sex scene then wasted a few pages going over the post sex clean up. Not even any plot or character development, just the main character describing the clean up of...various bodily fluids and going over the herbal birth control she uses. I closed the book and only didn't chuck it in the garbage because its a library book. I wish some of the damn reviews had mentioned that the book was not only super explicit, but bizarrely so. This Game of Thrones style BS has really just ruined fantasy as a genre.

At this point, I feel like I could grab 10 different random fantasy books from the library and they'd not only be terrible, but be terrible in different ways. It doesn't help that most fantasy I can find is either too much like Game of Thrones or are romance books that technically have urban fantasy elements so they're labeled fantasy (SO MANY SHIRTLESS VAMPIRES/WEREWOLVES AND LONELY VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF HUNTING WOMEN WHO HAVE FORBIDDEN AFFAIRS WITH THEM). I just want something with magic, and maybe elves/dwarves (although thats optional). I can only reread stuff like LOTR, the Iron Druid Chronicles and Dresden Files books so many times.

Sci Fi is no better off. Way too much dry military sci fi (I like some military sci fi, but so much of it is dry to the point of boring) or blade runner-esque stuff. Space opera type sci fi is about as rare as you can get, the few times I've found a good one that wasn't a Trek or Star Wars book I've felt like Indiana Jones finding some mythological item that no one really believed existed.

Well, that was me venting I'm off to go aimlessly wander and hope to find the book version of a diamond in a pile of junk.

Maybe you could give the Bobiverse a go. I think as far as sci-fi go they were quite good.

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-B...D=513erhF-l2L&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

I also like 14 and The Fold by Peter Clines. I have just start Paradox Bound by the same author - it is a time travelling story.

 

[UncleRogi]

I went through the Camulod Chronicles like water. It is a tough slog, but well worth it,if
you enjoy the Arthurian legends. An excellent long tale of post-Roman Brittannia.

Someone here recommended the Warlord Chronicles, and that was a good read too, if
quite a bit darker and bloodier. I highly recommend.

 

[Australis]

John Cleese's autobiog, So, Anyway... Quite interesting if you like British comedy.

 

[May 20]

I'm currently reading The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. I'm a little late to the party, but I am enjoying reading about Allan's interactions with historical figures from across the globe.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Paul Auster's 4,3,2,1

A magnificent, massive, Great-American-Novel. The life of one man played out along four differing paths. Might be his masterpiece.

Hugo - wants to see if he sticks the landings

 

[trekkiedane]

John Cleese's autobiog, So, Anyway... Quite interesting if you like British comedy.

Loved it! - Now go read Stephen Frys Fry: A Memoir -Also a great British comedy/comedic read.
Now reading Murder at the laundromat by Dan Turéll (I think it's the seventh of the twelwe in the canon.)

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'm currently reading The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. I'm a little late to the party, but I am enjoying reading about Allan's interactions with historical figures from across the globe.

I've actually seen the movie sequel recently on Netflix, and it was hilarious. Went back to try and find the original and it wasn't available anymore. Didn't know they were based on novels.

Now Reading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

 

[Nyotarules]

The Final Reflection (ST TOS novel)

 

[May 20]

I've actually seen the movie sequel recently on Netflix, and it was hilarious. Went back to try and find the original and it wasn't available anymore. Didn't know they were based on novels.

Now Reading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

I didn't know there was a sequel. I saw the first movie for sale on Amazon when I was looking for the audio book for my father. I'll have to look for the second one, too.

On the recommendation of my 14-year-old son, I am now reading Throne of Glass.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I didn't know there was a sequel. I saw the first movie for sale on Amazon when I was looking for the audio book for my father. I'll have to look for the second one, too.

Yep, and it's quite good. It was quite a gem

Well, decided I'm not reading Faulkner, as the edition I had of that book was sloppily put together as one long text-dump with no page breaks.

Reading instead, Bloodline by James Rollins.

 

[trekkiedane]

The last 6% of Dennis E. Taylors 'Bobiverse' book #2; We Are Many with my morning coffee ... should be a few pages onto the third book by lunchtime.

ETA: Supper time, and I've finished the trilogy.

I'm not really sure how to explain this; I've loved, I've laughed, I've cried and I've been in total geek-out for the duration!

Most fan-bloody-tastic modern-day SciFi I've ever read!

Almost can't wait for my second read-through, when I'm going to look up all the scores and scores of references I didn't get this time around -despite looking up A LOT of stuff while reading- especially Bob-names and star-charts.

Any good trekkie owes themself to read these, I was in tears by the time the words were uttered: Live long and prosper.

 

[Miss Chicken]

^^^ I am so glad someone else has found these books. I listened them as Audible books to start with but had to end up buying the Kindle versions so that I could keep track of the Bobs and stars/planets. I have also bought the first two books in paperback and I will buy the third soon.

I agree with you that this is some of the best sci-fi ever written. Very original. I only hope he will write more in the series as the Bobs stories could easily carry on.

I think it is also good that this book would be hard to make into a movie or TV series as there are so many Bobs that they would be hard to follow on the screen.

 

[Miss Chicken]

You have probably already found it, trekkiedane, but in case you haven't - there is a Bobiverse Wiki which is still in its early days.

http://bobiverse.wikia.com/wiki/We_Are_Legion_(We_Are_Bob)_Wiki

 

[trekkiedane]

^No, I hadn't. Hadn't even been looking in that direction. Thanks!

I only hope he will write more in the series as the Bobs stories could easily carry on.

I'd hate that; as it is we have a perfect trilogy with well-paced beginning, middle, and end ( I hate those never ending series!).
But as I understand (it was the answer to a reader-question on goodreads) he enjoys writing them and will write more ... So help us Bob!

Nah, on screen they'd differ the Bobs a bit; haircuts, facial hair, and dress-sense would help a lot there -But I'm thinking; poor actor that has to play all the different Bobs one-by-one in a big empty room ...

ETA: I didn't "find" these ... I merely read a post or two of yours, then looked them up on Amazon.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I agree that the three books are a perfect trilogy but I think it is such a fun way to explore the universe that maybe some spinoffs might work. Maybe a Howard/Bridget book or even a Henry Roberts. Those stories would be different enough from the original Bob stories.

Mayve 200 or 500 years into the future to find out how the Pav and Deltans have progressed?

I am glad my post encouraged you to read them. Hopefully others will as well.

 

[trekkiedane]

I agree that the three books are a perfect trilogy but I think it is such a fun way to explore the universe that maybe some spinoffs might work. Maybe a Howard/Bridget book or even a Henry Roberts. Those stories would be different enough from the original Bob stories.

Mayve 200 or 500 years into the future to find out how the Pav and Deltans have progressed?

Yeah, I too want more, but then; I want more after every novel I read ... I think it's just human nature to want more of the familiar. - But I fear hating the sequels even more because they are bound to become either 'more of the same' or 'something completely different' ... (Does that even make sense?)

I am glad my post encouraged you to read them. Hopefully others will as well.

Yes, indeed; lets form a coalition to further the spread of Bob throughout the trekkieverse.

 

[trekkiedane]

Paradox - On the Brink of Eternity by Phillip P. Peterson.

The first ~80% is about a guy (sixtysomething), who dosen't understand why his wife doesn't accept that he's never home, and a guy (twentysomething) whos dissertation about the interstellar medium (the space between the stars) ran into problems because NASA lost contact to probes as they left solar space.
The last bit is about what happens when a manned expedition reaches the same distance to Sol.

Thrown into this personal drama, is a bit of political drama about who (in the opinion of the characters in the book) should do space exploration; NASA, Air Force, and/or private corporations.

Apart from a couple of pages on a daring escape from a failing ISS and a new(ish) take on the Fermi paradox it's a rather uneventful read with one-dimensional characters, written in a language suited for young readers.

Wouldn't recommend.

 

[Random_Spock]

In the middle of reading It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. It's a pretty chilling read.

 

[trekkiedane]

The Complete Intrepid Saga - A Hard Science Fiction Space Opera Epic by M. D. Cooper.

I should've known, especially after reading the free sample should I have known!

This 'saga' is only hardish and can only in the widest of definitions be called a 'space opera'; it's actually merely old fashioned 'military SciFi' (and way more military than SciFi).

If you're into reading a series of military-style shootouts, between characters you haven't been introduced to, or only perfunctory have been introduced to, littered with military acronyms (that are rarely explained). And if you don't mind that the winning side only wins because of some waving of a magic stick, you had not been introduced to beforehand (usually called 'intuition'), with a few almost SciFi terms (centripetal force, maglev-train, Bussard-collector...) thrown in as window-dressing, you'll probably like this.

But if you like 'hard SciFi' and characters with backgrounds; characters with more than one dimension to their personalities you should stay far away from it.

Would not recommend.
Well, if I knew anyone that liked that sort, I would probably recommend it to them...

 

[Stephen!]

"Hollow Men" (DS9)