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Finished,'Bloodchild' and Other Stories by Octavia Butler. Fantastic. Plan to start the Parable of the Sower after I finish what I'm reading right now: One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Only 120 pages in. Tightly written with little/no compassion for the 'reader'. Still, it is compelling. Also, the man didn't believe in paragraphs.

Picked up the Spider-Man comics again in the last two weeks.
I'm in the 90s now, up until the transition from Peter Parker to Ben Reilly it was enjoyable.
I'm in between series now, where Reilly figures out how to proceed in his life and is not yet Spider-Man. The whole "Cyber" stuff is getting annoying. Hope it get's better when he switches to Spider-Man.

 whembly wrote:
Recently finished "Ready Player One".

...

I read that last month and wrote a review that for some reason I didn't post at the time but here it is:

In the near future the world is in the grip of a long term depression caused by the end of the era of cheap energy, made worse by long term environmental degradation caused by the era of cheap energy, everything leading to famine, crime and war.

Most people live in miserable “stacks”, vertical trailer parks built upwards to save space, get by on welfare and miserable jobs, and spend as much time as they can afford in the OASIS cyberspace virtual reality system that has in effect replaced the Internet and WWW. A few lucky people have jobs as corporate drones with companies like the IOI media giant.

OASIS was created by a genius games programmer called James Halliday, who became hyper rich as a result. When he dies in 2040, his will leaves his entire fortune and control of the OASIS company to whoever manages to solve a series of elaborate riddles and tests based on his love of 1980s nerd culture -- films, videogames and comics, and so on. The whole contest is based in OASIS and the prize is the ultimate “easter egg”. The people who take up this challenge become known as egg hunters, or “gunters” for short.

Five years later no-one has even cracked the first riddle. A 17-year-old called Wade Watts, or Parzival inside OASIS, has been preparing to enter the contest. WIth a sudden brainwave he solves the first clue, and finds himself pitched against other solo gunters, clans, and the IOI corporation, which has violated the spirit though not the letter of the contest rules by creating a massive “Oology” organisation to gain control of OASIS.

The rest of the book is Parzival’s quest for the egg, and his relationships with some of the other solo gunters. It reads like a boy’s teen/crossover fiction based on video games and nerd movies and TV of the 1980s, which is great fun for people like me who grew up in that era. For instance I played most of the games that Parzival has to master for his quest.

It’s far from great literature, but it’s a good fun, fast read that rolls along at a cracking pace, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in ancient or modern video games.

Unsurprisingly, it has already been optioned for a film script.

The 5th Wave

So far a most enjoyable Alien Invasion story with some good well drawn characters.....must check out the film .

Dragonlance Chronicles: Dragons of Winter Night. Enjoyed the first volume immensely and picked up 2 and 3 for cheap

I'm now reading Star Wars: Heir to the Jedi. I'm liking it so far!

Reading the 40k Novel 'Silver Skulls: Portents' when I get the chance. Downloaded the digital version to my phone.

I recently signed up for Marvel Unlimited. - It's probably Knight Models fault with them finally releasing the Marvel Universe game.

But seriously, it's awesome. 7 pounds a month, 17000 comics to read.

I've never been much of a comic person (outside of Oor Wullie, The Broons and Sonic the Comic when I was young). As an adult, with the superhero boom, I've always struggled with basically the return on comics. I'd go off and buy like a £15 collection of, say, The Long Halloween or something. Then I'd read through it in about an hour and be like, "ok, so, good story, but was that it?"

Basically, I'm rubbish at comics, I have the aesthetic sense of a blind monkey so I'm absolutely no use at sitting appreciating art, or the styles or panel referencing or whatever, even if I notice the art at all.

So, Marvel Unlimited on my tablet is pretty much perfect for me. I've had it about a month and a half now and I've read:

The Phoenix Saga
Days of Future Past
Age of Apocalypse
The Night Gwen Stacy Died (<Snap&gt
Secret Wars (Original)

Avengers Dissassembled

House of M
Blood of Apocalypse

I'm planning on reading Civil War after the film comes out. Aside from that, I'm planning on just reading this current X-Men run that Blood of Apocalypse is in until, well, probably I get distracted by a shiny thing.

Eisenhorn series.

brothers in Blood by Simon Scarrow.

series set during the roman empire about 2k or so years ago.

Cracking series.

 reds8n wrote:
brothers in Blood by Simon Scarrow.

series set during the roman empire about 2k or so years ago.

Cracking series.

I started reading this series too - based on your recommendation...

I'm only on the first book, UNDER THE EAGLE, about a third of the way through...and I've already bought the next 10 books!

[quote=BobtheInquisitor 661330 8509823

 Hulksmash wrote:

 kronk wrote:
I read The Dwarves by (Markus Heitz), having found it in a half-priced book store and enjoyed it very much. So I picked up the sequel The War of the Dwarves, and found it to be dreadful. I put it in the "Take to half-priced books to sell" pile after I was only halfway done. Oh, well. There were 4 books in that series and I was hopeful.

Yeah, first one was great. Second one was horrible but I happened to read it when I had a fair bit of spare time so finished it and tried the third. 10 pages in I was sad I'd wasted money

That was almost exactly my experience. I'm not sure how much to blame on the translator and how much on the original author, but that series was an awkward read even when it was good.

This made me sad because I was just about to start book 2. I also found the first a little awkward but had hope he would improve not degenerate.

I am reading the Thrawn Trilogy, just finished Heir to the Empire.
Also Betrayal, inspired by the comparisons between Jacen and Kylo.
Nearly finished Malice by John Gwynne. Its good, without being great; lots of GOT borrowing

 Alpharius wrote:

 reds8n wrote:
brothers in Blood by Simon Scarrow.

series set during the roman empire about 2k or so years ago.

Cracking series.

I started reading this series too - based on your recommendation...

I'm only on the first book, UNDER THE EAGLE, about a third of the way through...and I've already bought the next 10 books!

I really must start looking into commission %s

Glad you're enjoying them !

I've just finished Tom Holt's The Portable Door;

"Starting a new job is always stressful (especially when you don't particularly want one), but when Paul Carpenter arrives at the office of J. W. Wells he has no idea what trouble lies in store. Because he is about to discover that the apparently respectable establishment now paying his salary is in fact a front for a deeply sinister organisation that has a mighty peculiar agenda. It seems that half the time his bosses are away with the fairies. But they're not, of course.

They're away with the goblins."

and I'm just starting the sequel, In Your Dreams.

There's definitely a formula to a lot of Tom Holt's novels - a slightly pathetic, rather put-upon protagonist, a female lead who's much more competent and more than he deserves, a plot that meanders around and probably isn't that important anyway - but that's OK; I like the formula

Taking a break from WoT and found out that there were 2 more novels in a series I loved the first two of so I'm rereading "Heroes Die" by Matthew Stover since it's the first book in the series.

Deals with a megacorporation/caste system earth sending people to an alternative earth in which elves, dwarves, dragons and such exist to have "adventures" that they then show like movies or tv to the masses.

I reread some portions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Really critical of the last 3 books now that I've had years to process them. They have many shortcomings and quite a few ass pulls. Also reread some Lovecraft and am still enamored with his writings. Charles Ward is such a riveting story.

The expanse series.

Currently on Abaddon's gate (book 3) - already finished Leviathan wakes and Caliban's War (and Gods of Risk between 2&3).

Might have finished them all before S2 of the series comes to air.

 chromedog wrote:
The expanse series.

Currently on Abaddon's gate (book 3) - already finished Leviathan wakes and Caliban's War (and Gods of Risk between 2&3).

Might have finished them all before S2 of the series comes to air.

I really enjoyed them, not caught much of the TV show yet
Just waiting for August when book 6 comes out

Personally I just finished re-reading the Mortal Engines Quartet

Just finished Little Machines by Paul McAuley



Paul McAuley is a Scottish born, English bred SF writer who has been around long enough to start a career as a research biologist, then divert off into writing SF and produce about 20 books including some non-fiction stuff. However it’s his SF that I enjoy. McAuley’s first book, Fairyland (1996) was an award winner and is already reckoned an SF Masterwork by Gollanz, and he’s won a number of prizes.

Little Machines is a collection of short stories that move around various themes. It includes parallel worlds, horror, time travel, and some classic hard SF.

Here are 17 stories, one or two of them only a few pages, and a few longer ones including two connected stories about Alien TV that could form the seed of a novel. This means there are plenty of ideas to be explored.

The great thing about a short story is that it can explore an idea and deal with it succinctly, or leave a open ending that makes you wonder, “What happens next?” There are examples of both resolutions in this collection. EIther way, if the story isn’t good then at least it’s over fairly quickly. Luckily, most of the stories in this collection are great.

The opening piece, set inside the head of Philip K Dick in an alternate world where he abandoned SF early in his career, is an absolute humdinger, written in the style of Dick’s own books. This is practically worth the price of the Kindle version (currently £1.99) on its own, if you’re a Dick fan.

Is this a good introduction to McAuley’s other work? I’ve read only two of his full length novels, so I don’t know if any of the themes here are developed in complete novels. It will give you a good idea of his range and ability to tackle different styles, and is recommended from that angle as well as on its own merit.

Been reading a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars lately. Recently finished Star Wars: Razor's Edge. Good read, makes me sorry they canned the "Legends" version of the Expanded Universe.

I've been reading the old Warhammer novels since they canned the Bretonnians. Read The Red Duke, two of the Brunner books, Dead Winter, some stories, and now I'm on Skarsnik.

Put 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' down (again; read three and soon to be four other books since starting it) for Junot Diaz's 'This is How You Lose Her'. So far it's done little more than make me re-live every crappy break-up and pathetic relationship I've ever had. If it keeps going like this, I may start questioning the entire concept (love/relationships).... Good times!

I just finished 'Valley of Horses' last night, really wanted to pick up it's follow on 'The Mammoth Hunters', but college wants me to read 4 different books at the same time... so time to drop the fiction for a bit.

Was reading Les Miserables earlier, but needed something else for an interlude. Tried to use The Shining, and now I need an interlude for that one too.

As of late I have read a lot of Neil Asher books, not in any particular order but here what I am reading/rereading as of now.
The Technician, Prador Moon, Zero point and Shadow of the scorpion, all solid reads and enjoyebal if a bit grim at times

 Trondheim wrote:
As of late I have read a lot of Neil Asher books, not in any particular order but here what I am reading/rereading as of now.
The Technician, Prador Moon, Zero point and Shadow of the scorpion, all solid reads and enjoyebal if a bit grim at times

Love Neal Asher!

I've got "WAR FACTORY" coming on its way to me as we speak!

As for timelines:



The 'new' stuff would come in at the end of that chronology - I think!

Personally, I'd read the CORMAC stuff start to finish, then the SPATTERJAY stuff, then everything else on there, then DARK INTELLIGENCE and WAR FACTORY.

I'd also really recommend his OWNER trilogy too - good stuff there!

I have recently finished The Desert War, by Alan Moorehead. This is a narrative history about the WW2 campaign in north Africa that lasted from June 1940 to May 1943, split into three stages each taking about a year.

Moorehead was an elite war correspondent for the Daily Express, at the time a respectable newspaper of record. He had regular contact with the top level staff as well as the front line soldiers, and came under fire several times while bucketing around the desert. The material is drawn from his own diaries and notes, and his despatches for the Express, and it is first rate.

As well as the North Africa campaigns, Moorehead writes about his assigments to the Sudan/Ethiopia campaign, the Syria/Iraq campaign, and his more civilian oriented assignments in India, the USA and UK.

There are many details of life in the desert war and also of travelling by plane, and several ships including a liner carrying German prisoners and a corvette on convoy escort. You get a vivid impression of life during wartime, a good overall view of the strategic war and some good descriptions of tactical fighting.

My only criticism is that the casualty figures given are wartime estimates and in some cases have been revised by historical research over the past 50 years. So you should not take this as a definitive piece of historical research.

This apart, the book is an excellent read and gives a good general overview of the Desert War.

Summer of the Apocalypse, by James van Pelt (2006)

This apocalypse story is about a man called Eric, whose second name we never discover.

In the 1980s when Eric is a teenager, the world is engulfed by a flu-like disease that kills about 99% of the population in a couple of months. Many of the survivors go mad or feral. Eric manages to stay sane, and together with a 25-year-old woman called Lena, also a lucky immune, he escapes the immediate apocalypse and sets up a community of survivors in his home town of Littleton in Colorado.

60 years later Eric, now an old man and the last surviving “Gone Timer” in his community, sets off to walk to Boulder, Colorado where he hopes to find a major university library that will contain the knowledge needed to solve the problem of increasing infant mortality in his community. Eric believes in learning and rebuilding the old world while his son, Troy believes in a slightly schizophrenic method of simultaneously relying on scavenging old technology while also trying to build a primitive agricultural culture.

The story unfolds in two strands, alternating between Eric the teenager and Eric the old man as they travel on their parallel journeys. The young Eric has a series of encounters with other survivors, while the old Eric meets various tribes of people who are building new civilisations in their own way. The relationships between Eric and his father, and between Eric and his son and grandson, are an important part of the novel.

It’s competently written and reasonably exciting, but not very original or surprising. The first chapter is so similar to another disease apocalypse book I’ve read that I skipped it entirely, thinking I was accidentally rereading the story. But I’ve read an awful lot of apocalypse novels.

My verdict is that it’s worth the price on Kindle but if you’re only going to read a small amount of apocalypse fiction, there are better books out there.

"Deadhouse gates", to be followed by one of NIven's Ringworld prequels.

Malus Darkblade again.