This is my 400th. post and I wanted to mark the occasion by making it a thread. :)

We should make this thread a regular one. I believe that it would enrich our small community of passionate readers, by suggesting to others, books they might not have thought about or shedding light over a prejudice one could have had over the content of the works. This is not to impose anything. We are a diverse people from different countries, cultures and faiths, some of which reach deeply in our hearts. I welcome what touches others because, human, we are alike in basic need.

The concept is simple; just say what you are now reading, if you like it, if it's e or p and maybe where you found it, or what language you read it in. If I can find a translation I might try it…so could others.


I'll start with mine.

Last two weeks I read the four books, in paper, of the "Hyperion" series by Dan Simmons.
This Scifi saga starts in a fire of information totally alien to what we are accustomed to. Someone pointed out that it felt disagreeably "acid" written. I agree for the first hundred pages. It also had way too much blood for my taste. Then it falls in a quieter mode, more human for the next three books. The story is well crafted towards keeping the reader's curiosity trapped until he reads all of it. I liked it as being very entertaining. BTW I read it in french but I'm not sure I should have done so because there are numerous poetry excerpts by Keats, that can not be adequately translated .

This week and the next:

I've started the paper "Cyteen" saga in english by C. J. Cherryh. This is also Scifi. I'm halfway in the first book and I'm a little disappointed. By the past I read the complete eight book "Foreigner" saga by her and I was thrilled by it. This time I'm not hooked yet. The story is slow to start and has a way too complicated setup that demands extreme amounts of concentration. I just hate to go back and reread a chapter for a name I failed to memorize correctly. Then in some situations like the invention of the characters, it feels like "déjà vu". I keep pushing myself to remember that Cyteen was written before Foreigner. And then the worst for me is that the "futurology" is totally off. Why do humans in three hundred years need coffee? I'm not giving up on it yet. I'm sure she'll surprise and keep me reading…

Next in queue:

"Absolution Gap" by Alastair Reynolds, in paper and english. Looking forward to it.

Have a nice read! :scholar:

Now reading The Perfect Thing (http://ebooks.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/047/900/400000000000000047900.html) by Steven Levy. Very interesting, despite the silly errors in the text.

Revisiting the HHG trilogy in 5 parts for me, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe at the moment. It's e, and from Connect. It seems to be a slightly different version than the one I grew up with, but that's apparently common for Adams to have done. :)

I think the Star Wars Swarm War triliogy is probably next, but I have some Elizabeth Moon lined up too. All e, all from Connect. :smile:

I've never read through the entire HHGTG series. I have started the first one a few times, but never finished it. I guess it doesn't appeal to me somehow.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I am reading the Rifters first book. WoW! WOO-HOW! All I can say is WOW!

e:
Four-Day Planet by H. Beam Piper. So far, good sci-fi/adventure. Danger and intrigue on an alien planet.
Free For All by Peter Wayner. About Linux and the open source movement. So far, pretty good.
The Return by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire. Post-apocalyptic earth. Just started this one. So far it's interesting.
Uller Uprising by H. Beam Piper, John D. Clark and John F. Carr. Alien revolts on an alien planet. Just started it. Hasn't caught my fancy yet.

p:
Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon R. Green. Not as fun as some of his other works, but still enjoyable.

I just read:
Inherit the Stars - James P. Hogan: A really nice story and quite entertaining.
Moving Mars - Greg Bear: A more political SF story. Interesting characters and very different from what i expected.
Eon - Greg Bear: This is a story of a vivid imagination. It really caught me. I really like the way Mr. Bear thinks.

I also read Darwins Children and Darwins Radio. I guess i do like the works of Mr. Bear. Abd a really weird story is Bloodmusic.

Reading Michael Connoly's The Lincoln Lawyer

http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/connellymichael/lincolnlawyer
-mark

I have just finished Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen which is so funny.

Other books recently read are:

Carl Hiaasen - Skinny Dip
Rob Grant - Incompetence
Tim Green - Exact Revenge

I have a reading list as long as my arm but the next one to read is Patricia Highsmith - The Talented Mr Ripley.

I just finished Cameron Dean's Passionate Thirst which I believe is a Buffy derivative (not sure since I never watched Buffy). Have all you fantasy lovers read Patricia Brigg's Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood Duology. This is a great fantasy series and available in ebook format. (note, while I love romances, this is not a romance).

I just finished Cameron Dean's Passionate Thirst which I believe is a Buffy derivative (not sure since I never watched Buffy). Have all you fantasy lovers read Patricia Brigg's Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood Duology. This is a great fantasy series and available in ebook format. (note, while I love romances, this is not a romance).
This is surprising to me Da_jane. Blood romance novels? Truly?

Blood romance novel? I am not sure what you are asking? Are there romance novels featuring blood and gore? Yes, paranormal is HOT in the romance market these days. So hot that perennial best seller Nora Roberts (who has sold more books than only one author) recently wrote a trilogy focusing around paranormal aspects. There are some fairly dark romances or at least ones marketed as romances: Jennifer Armintrout's The Turning published by Harlequin was a scary, gory book featuring vampires that are very very bad. (and not in good way but the "I'll rip your heart out and eat it" way).

JR Ward's popular BlackDagger Brotherhood has some pretty violent scenes but I would think that its way too campy in some parts for a true sci fi/fantasy reader.

. . . I am trying to think of other vampiric novels that haven't been completely emasculated by the romance authors . . . Will post more later.

If you were asking me about Patricia Briggs' Hurog duology (dragon bones, dragon blood), this is a story showcasing Wardwick, the eldest son of Hurogmeten. The Hurog is an effective leader but a terrible father. He views Ward as his greatest danger and his greatest failure. Ward senses early on that if he showed even the slightest threat to his father's control that his father wouldn't hesitate to smite him. Ward pretends, for most of his life, to be simple. The problem is that when his father dies, no one in Hurog believes that Ward is a competent ruler. Ward must find a way to prove to his people that he can lead. He must fend off other potential candidates vying for power and to save his land and those around him from a dark magic that is threatening to overtake them all. Have I interested anyone? There is a romantic thread that underpins the end of the first novel and the second part and that is what makes it even more of an attractive story for me.

Would Charlaine Harris's "Southern Vampire Mysteries (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_/102-4823042-6658528?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dead+until+dark&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go)" series qualify, da_jane? I've only read the first one Dead Until Dark, so I don't know the whole set. It's not really my thing but it's an intriguing premise, and quite well done, I thought. They have a romance angle in that the main character is being courted by a number of, um, characters, though she's only interested in the one. I'd recommend them without reservation to folks that like that sort of thing.

It's not marketed directly to romance readers although I know a number of romance readers read Harris. I also don't find them terribly gory. They are a bit of a cozy mystery. Have you tried her new "Grave" series? Those are pretty interesting. The female protagonist can communicate with dead people and is called in to elicit information from them for monetary purposes and the like. There is an interesting family dynamic between herself and her stepbrother. Some reviewers have suggested its romantic but I find it more to be a connection between two indiviudals who suffered a connected trauma.

No, I hadn't noticed them yet, thanks for the pointer. That sounds like it might be more in my sphere of interest. Enough to give them a look once I'm finished with all this stuff I've loaded on my Reader. :grin:

No, I didn't find the one I read terribly gory either, and I suppose the bookstore folks put them in the SciFi section because they couldn't really figure out where they'd fit better. That's fine though, I'd have likely not found them if they were somewhere else.

I dont' read mysteries much anymore (though I used to read them a lot), I think it's 'cause they don't re-read all that well for me when I already know whodunnit, too much of the story is wrapped up in figuring that out, maybe. I like to be able to re-read the things I enjoy. :shrug:

No quite my cup of tea! Thanks for the info. To me its sounds more like horror with romance included.

That's not far off, except it doesn't seem to be trying to scare ... it just treats the vampires, werewolves, etc. as regular characters. Rather more odd than scary. :shrug:

Yesterday I converted Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" [1953, first James Bond novel, in near future as motion picture in the cinemas world wide] via LaTeX to iLiad compatible pdf.
Novel isn't bad, I will see when I finish today.

Today is Circles of Displacement by Darrel Bain.
Alien created "bubbles" of time accidently send chunks of modern-day Earth back in time (along with the poor souls who were on those chunks of earth).

Today is Circles of Displacement by Darrel Bain.
Alien created "bubbles" of time accidently send chunks of modern-day Earth back in time (along with the poor souls who were on those chunks of earth).

rlauzon, Where did you find your Circles of Displacement?

rlauzon, Where did you find your Circles of Displacement?

Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook38900.htm) . They have many eBooks by Darrel Bain.

Just finished the first of the Cyteen series. Much better than it promised in the first 100pages. I guess I'll continue with the two others...

Just finished the first of the Cyteen series. Much better than it promised in the first 100pages. I guess I'll continue with the two others...

Two others? The only copy of Cyteen that I have is a (very fat) 1-volume hardcover. Purchased in a bookstore on first publication, at ruinous expence. :)

Xenophon

Two others? The only copy of Cyteen that I have is a (very fat) 1-volume hardcover. Purchased in a bookstore on first publication, at ruinous expence. :)

Xenophon
I'm reading the paperbacks, around 350 pages each. The titles are: The betrayal, The rebirth, The vindication. That could be chapter titles in your book.
Maybe I should have called it Cyteen saga instead of series... :rolleyes5

Now reading The Perfect Thing (http://ebooks.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/047/900/400000000000000047900.html) by Steven Levy. Very interesting, despite the silly errors in the text.

Yes, I have now read a "book!" I've noticed that there are some odd ... spacing errors. I think I found an extra 'the' and what not.

I knew most of this because I spend too much time online. I do like reading about apple tho. :)

Tonight I finished my first complete ebook, Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. It's early 90's cyberpunk and lots of fun. I got it at Connect.

I, too, recently read from the Hyperion series - the first two books, in paper, which I really enjoyed. I've put off reading the last two, since I have so many other books on my shelves waiting to be read (literally more than a thousand - if I can just live that long).

Next, I'll be reading a new author, Cherie Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds, an atmospheric southern gothic ghost story. There have been many good reviews of this as well as the sequel. Paper.

I've been buying up some of the supernatural/mystery/detective/fantasy/romance/comic hybrids too, although I come from the urban fantasy side, not so much the romance side. There are so many of these series out now, I've only dipped into a few so far: Anita Blake (2), Merry Gentry (1), Women of the Otherworld (Kelly Armstrong) (3), Southern Vampires (1), Dresden Files (2), Tanya Huff's Summoners (2). I still look forward to trying Kim Harrison, L.A. Banks, Rachel Caine, and several others.

Btw, the Kim Harrison series is for sale in ebook on Connect as a bundle.

One series of this type that really stands out as a success is Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, which will incidentally be adapted as a tv series on the SCIFI channel in a couple of months. It features a male lead and is not focused on romance as much as supernatural/wizard/detective. It's been a book series for years, and is one of the forerunners of the recent bligh...glut of new offerings by other authors.

I'm also reading bits of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at bedtime (on my Reader).

I am reading two books:

1. Part 2 of the Rifters books: Maelstrom
2. "The Two Swords" by R.A. Salvatore

Yes, I have now read a "book!" I've noticed that there are some odd ... spacing errors. I think I found an extra 'the' and what not.

I knew most of this because I spend too much time online. I do like reading about apple tho. :)

Yeah, the e-book editions (not just BBeB) are riddled with such silly errors, as others here have pointed out as well. Maybe we should e-mail Steven Levy to have them fixed. This is a bit of an embarrassment for him as well. Still very good, though. Per the author's recommendation I shuffled through the chapters.

Now reading Bob Woodward - State of Denial Bit dry and long-winded.

Yeah, the e-book editions (not just BBeB) are riddled with such silly errors, as others here have pointed out as well. Maybe we should e-mail Steven Levy to have them fixed. This is a bit of an embarrassment for him as well. Still very good, though. Per the author's recommendation I shuffled through the chapters.

This is one of the issues I have with Fictionwise.

Even pBooks have some errors, but the number of errors that I find in Fictionwise eBooks is pretty high. Usually far higher than free sites like Blackmask.

This wouldn't be so bad, but Fictionwise has no way to accept corrections. So the errors stay there for everyone.

This wouldn't be so bad, but Fictionwise has no way to accept corrections. So the errors stay there for everyone.

Does Fictionwise _create_ the e-version? If so, it seems to me they could indeed make corrections. That would be one of the nice things about ebooks for publishers (re-publishers).

Rosetta (http://rosettabooks.com/) seems to control a lot of the available 'new' content out there. They'd be the ones who'd have to fix their stuff ....

Does Fictionwise _create_ the e-version? If so, it seems to me they could indeed make corrections. That would be one of the nice things about ebooks for publishers (re-publishers).

I don't know where they get their electronic versions.

For books that no longer have authors (like the Robert E. Howard stuff I am reading now), I would assume that they had someone scan it in. Many of the errors that I see can best be described as OCR errors (i.e. "U" instead of an "LI").

Submission info on Fictionwise's site suggests that they want books sent to them in "ready-to-convert" RTF files, which they do not edit or check... they expect that to be taken care of by the author before submittal.

(I was looking into submitting my work to them, but they do not seem to want books that have not already been printed. I'm considering arguing the point with them...)

Submission info on Fictionwise's site suggests that they want books sent to them in "ready-to-convert" RTF files, which they do not edit or check... they expect that to be taken care of by the author before submittal.

(I was looking into submitting my work to them, but they do not seem to want books that have not already been printed. I'm considering arguing the point with them...)
Steve! Forgive my curiosity but I'd like to know what you read or how much you can read in a week, and if it can affect your writing in a way or an other? I find the dance of words fascinating and I'd love to write but my grammar is not very good. Do you find yourself sometimes going back to basics? I promise that when I get the Sony reader, if it legally gets to Canada that is, I'll read your books...

On an other note...I've finished the second in the Cyteen saga and I'm halfway in the third, it's getting harder to put it down and go to sleep. C J Cherryh is a fantastic and very intelligent writer. Her mastery of social relations and human psyche is uncanny and she gets everything well connected to her stories. It is funny how her story style is called scifi when everything she tells could pretty well be in this world. I srongly recommend her.

Just started reading Shaman's Crossing (http://ebooks.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/037/442/400000000000000037442.html) by Robin Hobb, first book of the Soldier Son Trilogy. It's my first purchase from Sony Connect. Reviews on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Shamans-Crossing-Soldier-Trilogy-Book/dp/B000FIHZCI/sr=8-1/qid=1164137808/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-9835779-4178555?ie=UTF8&s=books) don't look too bright, but I am giving Hobb a chance, because she is a master for deft description and characterizations.