What are you reading?

Aereidhna

Girl in Glass: Dispatches from the Edge of Life by Deanna Fei. It's a memoir, it's pretty good. Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction. I need a new fantasy book, it's been like a month. I'm starting to twitch. Probably N.K. Jemisin next.

Kyre

@Aereidhna I was pleasantly surprised by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Yet to read anything else from her though. 

Nazihk

Ugh. I didn't like100k Kingdoms at all.

It sold itself as a story about intrigue and political struggles in a world where gods are slaves, but a good 90% of the story was just the princess and an enslaved god making fuck-me-eyes at each other.

Aegoth

Nazihk said:

Ugh. I didn't like100k Kingdoms at all.

It sold itself as a story about intrigue and political struggles in a world where gods are slaves, but a good 90% of the story was just the princess and an enslaved god making fuck-me-eyes at each other.

I felt the same way about the latest Throne of Glass book

Blujixapug

The Library of Gold by Gayle Lynds. It might be the worst book I've ever read. Halfway through, I'm only still reading it out of spite. I'm hate-reading.

It's one of those spy thrillers, which are usually fun in a low-expectations kind of way. Like, The Da Vinci Code was fun, even if it was a little bit shit.

But damn. Characters keep quoting historical figures at each other. Characters keep telling each other, "In case you didn't know, [this picturesque location at which we currently find ourselves] was famously patronised by [overly long list of historical figures with no elaboration or relevance to plot]." No character has a personality, they just have a haircut, eye colour, and list of attributes like '4 tours in Iraq, murdered father, rugged determination' or 'book restorationist, karate black belt, beautiful'. No character expresses opinions, beyond "I love history", "9/11 changed the covert operations business", and "oh that's horrible" when someone talks about someone else getting murdered in front of them. You know every British character is British because they all say either "bloody hell", "bollocks", or "guv'nor" in every sentence. Every setting is a hotel room, mansion, car, private plane, Roman villa, crowded street, or dark alley.

One minor character is an undercover agent for one of the not-government government-contractor private secret agencies that this type of book always has. He's young, vaguely Asian, and he rides a skateboard. He survives a gunfight by doing an ollie, kickflipping his skateboard into someone (which knocks them off their feet), and simultaneously pulling out his gun and shooting them. Then everyone escapes through a secret tunnel in some Roman ruins.

Fuck this book.

Tydas

I recently finished Leviathan Wakes, by James S. A. Corey. So, so good. I love the mix of hard and soft sciences, the way life without artificial gravity would be like, the differences between the Belters, Martians, and Earthers, the way combat basically takes eight minutes for the incoming missiles to hit and trying to figure out what you can do before they arrive... Man, it's kicked my need for sci-fi media into high gear. Series is supposed to go downhill after the first three books, but we'll see. I need more books like this one.

The TV series, the Expanse, kinda (more than kinda) screwed up - nowhere near as good, they fundamentally changed certain characters' personalities, major plot deviations... Disappointed by that. Ah well, I've yet to see a movie or TV series that really did the books justice, except maybe GoT.

Nazihk

Tydas said:
Ah well, I've yet to see a movie or TV series that really did the books justice, except maybe GoT.

Lord of the Rings.

Yeah, I said it. While Legolas was dumb, pretty much everything else about them was solid and the major cuts they made(Tom Bombadil, Sharkey's End) were improvements.

Tahquil

The Assassins Blade. I'm two or three chapters in and already I want to stab the main character. Not sure if it was intentional on the authors part or not.

Shirszae

Kyre said:

@Aereidhna I was pleasantly surprised by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Yet to read anything else from her though. 

You definitely need to read The Broken Earth series, from the same author. It starts with The Fifth Season.

Aereidhna

Shirszae said:

Kyre said:

@Aereidhna I was pleasantly surprised by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Yet to read anything else from her though. 

You definitely need to read The Broken Earth series, from the same author. It starts with The Fifth Season.

I will be getting around to both eventually! I think I'm going to start with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms since I already have it. I've followed her for awhile and seen a little of her work elsewhere, just kept getting sidetracked and never got around to reading one of her novels. It's definitely past time.

Melaina

For Christmas I got The Phantom Atlas. It's an atlas with pretty maps and the history of all kinds of places that appeared on genuine maps from history but never actually existed. Some of them were made up by people who needed funding for their expeditions, so they named islands after rich people, but some have fascinating histories of being sighted by several people on different occasions but still turning out not to be there. Some of the islands were 'undiscovered' centuries ago, but there's one called Sandy Island that was on Google maps until 2012. It's a great read!

Liyane

Nazihk said:

Ugh. I didn't like100k Kingdoms at all.

It sold itself as a story about intrigue and political struggles in a world where gods are slaves, but a good 90% of the story was just the princess and an enslaved god making fuck-me-eyes at each other.

I gotta say, a story of intrigue and political struggles in a world where gods are slaves WOULD make a good book.

Nicola

Going to resurrect this thread for a moment to recommend Constance Hale's "Sin and Syntax, How to Craft Wicked Good Prose" for anyone who enjoys the written word. 

As a grammar book goes it's gorgeously readable, indulgently written in places. It is somewhat targetted at prose writers, but the information is readily applicable throughout almost all writing styles.

Minifie

Trying to get my hands on gallaghan's greyhounds, is about the 2/30th battallion that were PoW's during ww2, my grandfather served in that batallion and it goes through what they endured and suffered through those years.

Calypzo

big teen fiction fan here, everything from molly moon - dresden files heh. 
currently im re-reading the skulduggery pleasant series. its #1 in my opinion.

Nicola

Minifie said:

Trying to get my hands on gallaghan's greyhounds, is about the 2/30th battallion that were PoW's during ww2, my grandfather served in that batallion and it goes through what they endured and suffered through those years.

http://www.230battalion.org.au/ head to the Sales link in the left menu, and then select the Books tab. There's a few related in there.

Minifie

Nicola said:

Minifie said:

Trying to get my hands on gallaghan's greyhounds, is about the 2/30th battallion that were PoW's during ww2, my grandfather served in that batallion and it goes through what they endured and suffered through those years.

http://www.230battalion.org.au/ head to the Sales link in the left menu, and then select the Books tab. There's a few related in there.

Thank you so much Nicola! Mum had a 1st edition hardback that was given to all the troops who returned home from the 2/30 but I think it's been lost in our numerous moves. This will make a wonderful mother's day present for her!

Caelan

Currently reading a book on forensic software.  

In Queue:
A book on wireless penetration techniques.  
A book on long range shooting
Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies, and Wimps (by recommendation)
A couple of books by/about Nikolai Tesla
A book on the history of battle strategies
The Middle East and the United States: History, Politics, and Idealogies
Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad

Shirszae

So, anyone read anything nice as of late?

Kythra

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom
Gentlemen Bastards
The last mortal bond

And reading Prince of Thorns right now.

Honorable mentions everyone knows: Kingkiller and Night Angel series are freaking fantastic.

I just love medieval fantasy mostly. All of those are thar genre for the more sci fi based nerds.

Trey

@Kythra have you read the Lightbringer series? The level of sarcasm transferred over from Night Angel trilogy wholly, and it is glorious.

Ehene

I'm reading "The Art of Fiction" by John Gardner. I don't typically read nonfiction, but I'm thoroughly enjoying this. I'm hoping to broaden my skills as a writer because I'd like to, one day, write a novel.

Aegoth

wtb thorn of emberlain

Sylphie

Love Letters to the Dead
hits close to home. I rage quit reading it around a year ago because it was pretty depressing and didn't click with the main character at first, but just finished it. You have to relate somewhat to the protagonist or she comes off as pretty pretentious and childish.

Chubbs

I am currently keeping pace with or making my way through a slew of Chinese, Korean, and sometimes Japanese web novels that are being translated to English.

They include

The Desolate Era
Coiling Dragon
Stellar Transformations
Child of Light
I Shall Seal the Heavens
I'm Really a Superstar
A Will Eternal
Gate of Revelation
Heavenly Jewel Change
I'm Sorry For Being Born
Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society
Invincible
Praise the Orc!
Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World
A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality
Martial World
Seoul Station's Necromancer
The Book Eating Magician
Divine Throne of Primordial Blood
Star Rank Hunter
Red Packet Server
The Nine Cauldrons
Falling Dreams of Fang Hua
Seven Unfortunate Lifetimes
Your Highness, I Know My Wrongs
Battle Frenzy
Pivot of the Sky
Zither Emperor
Tempest of the Stellar War
Marriage Concerto (Small Thing Called Love)
A Slight Smile is Very Charming
Main Character Hides his Strength
Master Hunter K
Douluo Dalu

All of the above translations may be found on:
http://www.wuxiaworld.com/
http://volarenovels.com/
http://www.radianttranslations.com/
https://bluesilvertranslations.wordpress.com/
and https://www.oppatranslations.com/

Aside from those I'm making my way through How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger and rereading Saving Fish from Drowning and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and John Maynard Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.

Aralaya

Reading Oedipus Ex and Wuthering Heights for school

Makarios

Aegoth said:

wtb thorn of emberlain

I would donate to this noble cause.

Jurixe

I was gutted when I heard he was suspending it indefinitely

Shirszae

I just remembered the last book in the Broken Earth cycle came out this month. So far its as awesome as the first two

Lisichka

The Ender Saga! Finished the four Ender books, and the four Ender's Shadow books, now reading Ender in Exile.