Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

IMO the movie sucked. I watched it last night. By the previews I had seen I was expecting a darker version of the tale. I was very, very wrong. The dialogue reminded me a little of Twilight. I think it was a great concept, but poorly executed.

yeah, poorly-executed great concept. *sigh*. DiCaprio has been doing well lately, the movie Inception was successful but this disappointed me.

Originally Posted by orlok

Thanks for the review. I will be giving this one a miss.

Orlok, I think we will give the movie a miss, too.

[Ea]

Recently finished The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov for the Mobileread Literary book club. It was a really interesting book. A fantastical story and a satire of life in Soviet Russia in the thirties. Easy to read, too, but still good exercise for the mind.

Now I'm reading The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. It started off hilariously, but is getting deeper now in the fourth chapter.

[pdurrant]

Fictionwise have now got back to me about Next of Kin — they're contacting the publisher for an updated version. (Although I suspect that B&N/Fictionwise do their own conversion to eReader format, and that it's this stage that's get messed up, so a new version from the publisher might not help. We'll see.)

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Great Chain of Being and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution by Brian Stableford. Another of my recent fictionwise purchases.

A splendid set of stories about the future of biological technologies. I had read one of the stories when it appeared in Analog or Asimovs, but the others were new to me. I think I shall enjoy his other books I've bought from Fictionwise. I certainly liked "The Dragon Man", which is the other one I've read recently.

It turns out that I've read Agatha Christie's 18th book, "Lord Edgware Dies" before (and it's a very good mystery with Hercule Poirot). So now I'm going on to her 19th book, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?. This is one of the few Agatha Christie ebooks I didn't get from Fictionwise. I bought it from Amazon last December to fill in the gap in my collection for £2.99. I see it's now gone up to £3.99 in the UK Kindle store.

[naql]

I'm reading The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick on my Kindle.

After I finish this I'm going to move on to The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick.

[Nyssa]

I'm still reading The Maltese Falcon.I should have been done by now, but I had two days where I just didn't feel like reading anything. I really like it, so far.

Oh, and as I commented on GoodReads, I found the answer to my random question: Included in the Kindle version are two other stories: The Thin Man and Red Harvest.

[DiapDealer]

Blue (Lou Aronica) is very intriguing so far. A child and her father invent a fantasy world (and stories to fill it) together after fear and uncertainty threaten to overwhelm her when she begins chemotherapy for her leukemia. Even after she goes into remission, the stories and the fleshing out of Tamarisk continue. But when her parents divorce, she breaks her father's heart by giving up on their creation. The problem is that Tamarisk seems to have taken on a life of its own and doesn't exactly need their input. That's where I'm at after a couple of chapters, anyway. I'm engaged and turning pages... it's all I can ask for (but more than I usually get) at this stage.

Also a few shorts I've read lately that have impressed me:

"The Night Train" by Lavie Tidhar * (from Strange Horizons) - Cyberpunk gets an upgrade.
"Eight Miles" by Sean McMullen † (loved this one) (from Analog) - Historical Fantasy/Steampunkish?
"The Spices of Sanandira" by Bradley Beaulieu (from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue 70 and Issue 71) - Alternate desert world with an Arabic-like flavor/mythology.
"The Godslayer's Wife" by Therese Arkenberg (from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue 71) - I don't know I just liked it
"Under the Moons of Venus" by Damien Broderick * (from Subterranean Press) - Post-Apoc, Hard-scifi with psychological elements

Lots more shorts to catch up on.

* Denotes Sturgeon Award finalist
† Denotes Hugo Nominee

[thyradiantbrow]

I just finished The Survivors by Amanda Havard. It was really good... I discovered it last week on Wattpad and didn't want to wait for more, haha. It's got some super cool mythology and history to back up the story... plus, I find the Salem Witch Trials to be really interesting, so anything starting there usually gets my attention. It's technically YA, but reads up pretty easily. I told my 32 year old cousin about it and she read it in a day, lol.

I got it for just 99 cents on Kindle, so it's a great deal for an addictive and fast read!

http://amzn.to/kcI4ad

[covingtoncat73]

I have to say that GRR Martin turned me off series for awhile and I have grown tired of mystery series that go on forever (20+ books) but I am really enjoying my current audiobook, Naomi Novik's The Jade Throne, and my current book, Hexed. Both are second in their respective series and both have me wanting more. I want a dragon and an Irish Wolfhound.

[MeiLin]

I just finished "The Dervish House" by Ian McDonald and what a delight. I want to go to Istanbul now, except I feel like I've already been. I am now digging through the Kindle to see what else I've got squirreled away!

[holterzoff]

I read dervish house earlier this year and absolutely loved it. Although it wasn't an easy read for me (i'm native german), this book fascinated me. Have you read another book by McDonald?
I'm currently reading "bitter seeds" by Ian Tregillis, which is also a very good read.
cheers!

[Iridal]

I finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman a couple of days ago. It was really good! Apparently the book is based on a BBC-series. I think I'm going to see if I can find this serie and watch it

Right now I'm about one third through Extremely loud and incredibly close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I like it!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I'm still reading The Maltese Falcon.I should have been done by now, but I had two days where I just didn't feel like reading anything. I really like it, so far.

I've started it, but have somehow veered off into reading Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne. I think after reading The Hunger Games and MHI I'm just in the mood for action and monsters...

Originally Posted by Iridal

Right now I'm about one third through Extremely loud and incredibly close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I like it!

Good book . I've read three of his now, and enjoyed them all.

[bbusybookworm]

Hmm, its been a while since I posted here, probably because I'd been jumping from one book to the other without actually getting deep into them or finishing that.

Having said that I've been on a nice reading Jag over the last few days, having gone through 4-5 books and am steaming through the rest.

I've finished reading and reading TenHawk AKA Even Currie's Two books, Namely

Thermals (Anselm Gunnar) by Even Currie
Which is a nice, action packed semi futuristic Thriller. I'll definitely recommend it if you enjoy Cusslar style thrillers.

Odyssey One by Even Currie
Is a more traditional SF, with Human kinds first foray into the starts. From reading the book and what the author has said, its the first of a series, and I have to say that I'm really waiting for the next part.

While The links I've given are for amazon. they are also available from Smashwords.

I've also been on a Palin kick, having just rewatched the BBC Series "Around the world in 80 Days" and "Pole to Pole" I've gone and picked up the Books for those and the other Series he hosted and have been working my way through them, Namely

Around The World In Eighty Days by Michael Palin

Pole To Pole by Michael Palin

Full Circle By Michael Palin

Himalaya By Michael Palin

Sahara by Michael Palin

New Europe by Michael Palin


I've finished the first three and am working my way through the rest at the rate of one every couple of days.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A splendid set of stories about the future of biological technologies. I had read one of the stories when it appeared in Analog or Asimovs, but the others were new to me. I think I shall enjoy his other books I've bought from Fictionwise.

I think it'll kind of depend on what else you got from Brian Stableford. I find he's truly excellent when it comes to social consequences of genetic engineering stuff at novella or shorter length in a way that can only be matched by multiple Hugo/Nebula-awarded Nancy Kress who also writes along similar themes, but not nearly so great (though still reasonably good, if a little stretched out and contrived) when it comes to expressing the same ideas at novel-length or doing his "gothic decadence" stories.

But aside from that, yes, he's a rather enjoyable mostly-quality writer and I'm glad his work is becoming available in affordable e-book editions (still trying to track down a copy of his Sexual Chemistry: Sardonic Tales of the Genetic Revolution since the library turfed their last shelf copy ).

As for myself, finished also-well-reputed 70s Tribble™-creator David Gerrold's classic time-travel paradox novel The Man Who Folded Himself, which was on sale during the Amazon summer sale.

Well worth every penny, despite some very minor typos (wordsquish and misplaced punctuation), and it comes with a new introduction by Robert J. Sawyer (one of my favourite Canadian SF authors) and a retrospective afterword by Gerrold himself, as well as some sort of pseudo-philosophical musing by some other guy whose name I didn't recognize.

Marvelously thoughtful and imaginative stuff, highly recommended. And for the Holmesian fanfic spinoff of it, you can read Gerrold's short story "The Fan Who Molded Himself" in his collection Alternate Gerrolds: An Assortment of Fictitious Lives, currently inexplicably marked down to a mere 99 cents over at Amazon, and comes with a number of his other excellent and imaginative AU works, including a very funny JFK as Captain Kirk.

Now currently reading my way through John DeChancie's Castle Perilous series again, which I'm going to see how many volumes I can manage before I get sick of reading them all in a row. That might not actually happen, since as it turns out I kind of like seeing all the different ways the multi-dimensional castle can be invaded by a mysterious party from book to book, like variations on a theme.

Thus far, I'm midway through book 4, which it turns out is one I've read a long time ago and happen to own in paper and vaguely-remembered enjoying enough that I went and splurged on the e-books when Fictionwise had their 60% off coupon. I've completely forgotten how it actually goes, so let's see if the ending/whodunnit can surprise me this time.

[caleb72]

I just finished Dweller by Jeff Strand. Very interesting book. What would it be like to have a monster as a best friend? Read and find out.

I've still got The Master and Margarita on the boil and I'm going to start The Turn of the Screw as well.