What book are you reading?

[Shane]

'tis a good book. One Christmas many years a go a friend of mine bought a copy for everyone he was giving gifts to.

I have found Paulo Coelho to be a hit and miss kind of writer, The Winner Stands Alone was quite good while The Fifth Mountain was shit that felt as if it had been written by some third rate televangelist.

The Blade itself, Joe Abercrombie. The entirely male cast is a bit offputting but oh well.

I usually prefer having an all male cast in fantasy fiction because I've found that most writers suck at portraying women. There are only a handful of mainstream authors that are good at depicting women as people rather than the sexist, patronizing stuff video games and comics are full of, China Mieville, GRR Martin(Cersei is probably my favorite character in fiction), Sapkowski, Neal Stephenson and Terry Pratchett being the ones I can recall.

[westyfield]

Ok, got a list of books to possibly get in preparation for the week I'll be spending away from computers, wi-fi or mobile signal (deepest, darkest Cornwall does wonderful things to the soul). It's mostly books that I've been meaning to read for a while, or had recommended to me here. Would appreciate thoughts on which to get - I'll probably buy three to five of them - or any additional recommendations. The list:

Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve.
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins.
The Solitude of Thomas Cave - Georgina Harding.
Roadside Picnic - Boris & Arkady Strugatsky.
Black Man - Richard Morgan.
Starfish - Peter Watts.
Halting State - Charles Stross.
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman.
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester.
Something by China Mieville, never read any of his books before so I'd appreciate advice on this especially.

Thanks in advance!

[Althea]

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins.

Book 1; Yes. Book 2; Sort of. Book 3; No.

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman.

If you like orgies in your books, yes. Otherwise, no.

[Feldspar]

Black Man - Richard Morgan.

Halting State - Charles Stross.

I'd recommend these 2, not read any of the rest. Well, I might have read The Demolished Man some time in the murky past, but I don't remember it.

[Shane]

Roadside Picnic - Boris & Arkady Strugatsky.

Get it especially you like the STALKER games or just the post-apoc genre in general. Torrent it if you must but do read it.

If you are interested in Mieville, check out The City and the City and The Kraken. The world building in all of his works is fantastic. I've felt that in almost all the works, the main focus is on the world the stories are based in and the characters and plots are tools used to explore and analyze it. The plot by itself doesn't have much depth, especially in the Bas Lag trilogy, the characters, though, are well written.
Mieville has the potential to be a fantastic writer but the baldy shits on that by deliberately trying to make his fiction seem edgy, intense and different which mostly tends to backfire. None of his novels are what I'd call excellent but I still recommend him for his imaginative, intricate detailing of the worlds and somewhat unique approach to storytelling.

[Unaco]

The Blade itself, Joe Abercrombie. The entirely male cast is a bit offputting but oh well.

Entirely male, apart from Ardee West, Vitari and Ferro? Don't worry... if you read Abercrombie's stuff, you'll come to the realisation he doesn't put the men on pedestals, and throw in a couple fawning women as support. He is very much about subverting the traditional roles and characters in fantasy, and the usual approach to gender is included in that. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling for you, but read the First Law trilogy, Best Served Cold and The Heroes, and then look at the role of gender in his works.

[Serenegoose]

Entirely male, apart from Ardee West, Vitari and Ferro? Don't worry... if you read Abercrombie's stuff, you'll come to the realisation he doesn't put the men on pedestals, and throw in a couple fawning women as support. He is very much about subverting the traditional roles and characters in fantasy, and the usual approach to gender is included in that. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling for you, but read the First Law trilogy, Best Served Cold and The Heroes, and then look at the role of gender in his works.

Not read it all yet, but I was talking about the 3 leads - Ardee is a character that's turned up once as a minor character for that asshole officer, so I wasn't going to count her until she had a little more prominence, and is literally the only woman with some dialogue (that isn't the kid that makes the daisy chain for the magus) in the first 100 pages. And I'm not saying -Abercrombie- can't write women - I've read best served cold, and Monza is awesome - just expressing a note of concern. :)

[Lambchops]

The japanese Devil Fish and Other unnatural Attractions by Robert Rankin.

Going to follow that up by reading The Man Who Thought His Wife Was a Hat.

[Unaco]

Not read it all yet, but I was talking about the 3 leads - Ardee is a character that's turned up once as a minor character for that asshole officer, so I wasn't going to count her until she had a little more prominence, and is literally the only woman with some dialogue (that isn't the kid that makes the daisy chain for the magus) in the first 100 pages. And I'm not saying -Abercrombie- can't write women - I've read best served cold, and Monza is awesome - just expressing a note of concern. :)

That's cool... Keep reading, the whole trilogy, and you'll see it doesn't lack for prominent women. And The Heroes as well (though that's another one that is marketed as having 3 leads, all men).

[crazy horse]

Latros In The Mist by Gene Wolfe

[Krikey!]

I just finished reading my first ever Pax Britannia book - Evolution Expects, by Jonathan Green. It's set in an alternate steampunk reality, and overall is a blast to read.

Gonna try and get my hands on the next PB book, and hopefully get a copy of Simon R Green's latest Nightside novel from the library.

[Rii]

Have you heard of book depository? You probably have but that's how i get most of my books here in NZ, free shipping and they're pretty cheap too. Prices seem to have gone up since they started showing NZ currency but maybe I was just being confused by exchange rates in the past.

Yeah, I used Book Depository prior to Amazon's free shipping offer and have gone back to it now. I just like Amazon's setup better is all. And Book Depository doesn't do Blu-Rays.

Amazon owns BD now anyway. =/

If you like orgies in your books, yes. Otherwise, no.

Who doesn't like orgies in their books?

Actually I don't recall any orgies in The Forever War. Lots of sex...

In any case, its a worthy novel on any number of levels. Read it. The (only thematically related) third book in the 'trilogy' is excellent also. The second is eminently skippable, but certainly enjoyable enough a read if Haldeman's prose style clicks for you.

Oh my oh my. My favourite Asimov book.
I remember starting reading it before going to sleep. Next thing I know it's 8 in the morning and I finished reading it..

I haven't read much Asimov before this: Nightfall and The Last Question is about it. Like Ender's Game before it, it's a recommendation/lend from a friend and so has assumed a somewhat higher position on the increasingly lengthy priority list than it otherwise might've. I do want to get back into Real SF tho. The Windup Girl is something recent that caught my eye.

[Serenegoose]

Black Man - Richard Morgan.
Halting State - Charles Stross.

Thanks in advance!

Black Man is my favourite Richard Morgan book, but Halting State...? Really if you're going to read Charles Stross, get a hold of The Atrocity Archives or Singularity Sky - Halting state is a really good book, but it's not what I'd point to if someone asked me to recommend him. The second person style isn't for everyone, and for a book about the near future, it has the problem that half that stuff in it has already happened by now. Also some of it read really confusingly, to me.

[Althea]

Yeah, I used Book Depository prior to Amazon's free shipping offer and have gone back to it now. I just like Amazon's setup better is all. And Book Depository doesn't do Blu-Rays.

Amazon owns BD now anyway. =/

Whilst Amazon own them, I've not noticed a reduction in service. TBD still stocks things that Amazon doesn't, ships them at different times and has different prices. Both it and Amazon are where I get most of my books and graphic novels.

Who doesn't like orgies in their books?

Actually I don't recall any orgies in The Forever War. Lots of sex...

I don't like orgies in my books, but there was a lot of sex in TFW. It might have just been me reading them as orgies, though, when in fact it may have been just lots of people shagging everything in sight.

In any case, its a worthy novel on any number of levels. Read it. The (only thematically related) third book in the 'trilogy' is excellent also. The second is eminently skippable, but certainly enjoyable enough a read if Haldeman's prose style clicks for you.

The Windup Girl is something recent that caught my eye.

It has a rape scene. I stopped reading it after that. It was rather shocking. Mind you, I was fed up of it before that scene - his writing style is blergh.

[westyfield]

(The Windup Girl) has a rape scene. I stopped reading it after that. It was rather shocking. Mind you, I was fed up of it before that scene - his writing style is blergh.

Yeah, that scene was a bit ew. It took me a while to get used to his style, but by the time that scene came around I'd got used to the present-tense writing and was sufficiently hooked on the story to keep going. I'd still recommend it, but with the caveat that it's certainly not to everyone's taste.

[Theblazeuk]

There is a lot of sex in TFW but it all seemed fairly fitting given the bleak loneliness of the setting.

[GTanya]

I'm reading Nietzsche's "Thus SPoke Zarathustra"
Lots of interesting thoughts that you might agree or disagree with
But generally it's pretty hard to read

[Kodeen]

I just picked up a collection of Lovecraft's work, edited in chronological order. I've only read 3 short stories so far, but they all seemed to have a theme of "I had a vivid imagination once, and now I'm crazy forever." I'm assuming his plots branch out as he matured as a writer.

I'm reading Nietzsche's "Thus SPoke Zarathustra"
Lots of interesting thoughts that you might agree or disagree with
But generally it's pretty hard to read

Nietzche is indeed hard to read, but after you give each paragraph a couple of goings over, it starts to be a bit more tolerable. Heidegger, on the other hand, is a nightmare.

[Althea]

Nietzche is indeed hard to read, but after you give each paragraph a couple of goings over, it starts to be a bit more tolerable. Heidegger, on the other hand, is a nightmare.

That's a spammer. I don't think it's really reading Nietzsche.

[Kodeen]

That's a spammer. I don't think it's really reading Nietzsche.

How do you mean?