What Are You Reading?

[Mental_Mouse]

I am currently reading (as is usual for me 6 or 8 books right now). A few of them:

John C Wright

Larry Correia

Charles Stross

Are the books, um, shoving each other off the shelf or anything? (Stross, and the other two, were on opposite sides in the ugly Puppygate fight at the Hugos a few years back)

Stross is a regular "grab it" for me, especially his Laundry series. I also occasionally drop by his blog for a sip from the firehose. I read Wright's Orphans of Chaos trilogy and liked it at the time (I've still got an early PB of Book 3, with the misprinted spine), but... well, I don't want to get near the Fratching line, but some of his comments during Puppygate were actually relevant to its conceit, in a way that does not belong in the real world. Correia I never got into -- his Monster Hunter series was clearly not my thing at first glance, and then there was that mess....

[Eireann]

Jo Nesbo. I don't care for The Snowman (the murderer's motive was ridiculous, and I hated one female character's explanation for her recent behavior), but the other books are addictive. I've just ordered three of them off a cheap book website.

[greek_jester]

Just finished Mythos: the Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry. Just as with the late great PTerry, the best bits are the footnotes.

[AnaKhouri]

YOU GUYS.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro is SO GOOD.

That is all.

[Ghel]

I finally finished American Gods. It was... ok, I guess. It wasn't as epic as I expected, especially with the hype around the tv series. The only character I found interesting was Sam, and she was a very minor character (in that she didn't influence the plot AT ALL). I agree with greek_jester's assessment that the female characters in the book lack motivation, Sam included.

Now I'm reading Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, a Star Wars AU book suggested by my partner. I'm only 3 chapters in, but I'm hooked. I can't wait to see how this story develops.

[Kit-Ginevra]

I'm reading a book on Teach Yourself Telekinesis. According to the bookstore it's been incredibly popular. It's been flying off the shelves....

[Jay 2K Winger]

With the recent news that it's being developed for a TV series with the end of GoT, and after hearing about the books for years, I started reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. About one third to halfway through the book so far, and I'm liking it so far.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I'm reading a book on Teach Yourself Telekinesis. According to the bookstore it's been incredibly popular. It's been flying off the shelves....

It was a very moving book.

On the other hand, I finished Prelude To Foundation and have started Forward The Foundation by Issac Asimov.

[greek_jester]

About one third to halfway through the book so far, and I'm liking it so far.

It was nice knowing you. That series (while excellent) is rather like War and Peace for fantasy; it goes on forever! I was reading it as it was still being written by the original author, and waiting for each book to come out was sheer torture.

Be warned that the author passed away before finishing the final book; he left extensive notes, so another author (and massive fan) Brandon Sanderson was brought in to finish it. It was eventually decided that the final book was too large to be released as one book, so it was released as three.

I have never read past around book 6 or 7 (it was quite a while ago) as my brain issues were really kicking off by that point, so I can't vouch for how well Sanderson was able to match the tone of Jordan. You'll have to let me know if it was done well.

[YamiNoHime]

Elegantly Frugal Costumes

[Pixelated]

Still re-reading my way through my collection. I just finished The Fire Kimono by Laura Joh Rowland, and am now on The Snow Empress, by the same author. They are two books in a mystery series set in 17th-century Japan.

The main character, Sano Ichiro, is (to nobody's surprise, I'm sure) a samurai, and the shogun to whom he owes allegiance is, unfortunately, a weak, indecisive and very inept ruler, easily swayed by other people's opinions, and one who can't cope with any kind of stress or intrigue -- of which there is more than enough in the court. Not least among these intrigues is the unspoken battle between Sano and another high-ranking courtier (Lord Matsudaira, who just happens to be related to the shogun) for control of the country.

In The Fire Kimono, the skeletal remains of the shogun's cousin are found, and Sano is ordered to find the killer -- never mind that the death occurred 40 years ago, during a massive fire that virtually levelled the city. As the investigation goes on, Sano learns to his horror that his own mother appears to be implicated in it ... and also that she does not appear to be the person he believed her to be.

In The Snow Empress, Sano is sent north to the northern land of Ezogashima to find out why the Japanese overlord of that domain (the indigenous peoples are called the Ezo and are regarded as uncivilized barbarians) has not make the required yearly visit to the shogun's court. But he has a second reason to go there: Lord Matsudaira has kidnapped his son, Sano Masahiro, at a local festival, and has sent the boy to Ezogashima, presumably to the court of that same Japanese overlord.

[Jay 2K Winger]

It was nice knowing you. That series (while excellent) is rather like War and Peace for fantasy; it goes on forever! I was reading it as it was still being written by the original author, and waiting for each book to come out was sheer torture.

I'm well aware it's a massive series. That's one reason I got into it. It'll keep my reading time filled for a while.

[Pixelated]

Besides The Snow Empress, I'm also reading Double or Die, by Charlie Higson.

"You're all right, you know. What do they call you, kid?"

"Bond. James Bond," he said without thinking.



Yep, it's the James Bond, while he was still at Eton. Never been much of a Bond fan, but this book is actually pretty good. (Admittedly, I never read any of Fleming's novels; all I knew of the character was what I saw in movie trailers, and I was pretty unimpressed by them.)

-------------------
From the blurb on the inside of the back cover: "Several authors were approached by Ian Fleming Publications to write the Young Bond series. They gathered in a secret mountain hideaway inside a giant cave and sat around a huge marble-topped table. Charlie Higson pulled lever and the other authors disappeared into a shark-infested tank. So Charlie got the job ...."

[greek_jester]

Yep, it's the James Bond, while he was still at Eton. Never been much of a Bond fan, but this book is actually pretty good. (Admittedly, I never read any of Fleming's novels; all I knew of the character was what I saw in movie trailers, and I was pretty unimpressed by them.)

James Bond in the novels was more obviously a ruthless sociopath, but he was also more human; given that the readers when the books were first published had all fought in WW2 (or at least knew people who did) there was no way to shrug off bullet wounds or beatings as "just a flesh wound" the way writers/film makers do today without making the readers nope out.

That's actually one of the reasons Daniel Craig's Bond was so popular; if you've read the books, he's the most accurate version we've had yet; ruthless, lacking empathy, and actually looks hurt when he's shot/beaten/tortured.

[Pixelated]

Interestingly, the young Bond here also gets his ass handed to him on more than one occasion and it obviously HURTS.

The only thing that might have been a little -- uh -- superhuman? -- is when one of the bad guys pours several quarts of gin down his throat and yet he recovers. Now, I know nothing about gin or how bad it is on the body, but could a large quantity of the stuff, all at once (especially to a non-drinker) really shut everything down in short order?

I should add that he does not simply doze off for half an hour and wake up full of vim and vigour. He is sick as hell for a while, and in fact wonders at one point if he might be dying.