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

[MeiLin]

I'm in the middle of "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens. No one was more incisive than Dickens, and no one could do a more righteous rant about poverty and those who blame the poor for their state. It's a funny, almost savage book in spots, and more than 100 years later still has much to say about our society.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Lure of the Basilisk by Lawrence Watt-Evans. I really like his Ethshar series, and I've been meaning to read these for ages.

An original fantasy. No dwarves, elves, vampires or werewolves in sight although it does have a hero and a quest. I enjoyed it. This is one of his earliest novels, and there are some interesting notes at the back of the book about his career and the book's history.

I did find just a couple of typos. Since Lawrence Watt-Evans has an on-line presence, I emailed him about them, and got a nice note back.

There are just four books in this series, so I think I'll just read through them all. So next The Seven Altars of Dusarra

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by malweth

... So far I'm describing it as a book that uses hearsay to discuss heresy.

Astute description; very punny.

[captobvs]

Finished Michael E. Marks' Dominant Species. For anyone who likes hardcore military Sci-Fi than this is a good read. Took about 2-3 days depending on your reading speed. Lots of action and a twisting plot line that keeps the story moving along. The only thing I had against this book was lots of foul language, but I guess you can expect that some when the story involves marines.

Haven't really decided what to read next. Been working my way through the Conan stories and the Starfleet Corps of Engineers ebooks.

Any advice on some other military Sc-Fi? It would be great if they would put out The Sand Wars by Charles Ingrid in ebook form!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by captobvs

Any advice on some other military Sc-Fi?

Steve White has some stuff I liked. You can even try one for free.

http://www.webscription.net/p-93-crusade.aspx

[januaryman]

I starting reading John Cheever's Stories aloud to the family at night, my old hardback copy from long back, then decided to pick up his recent bio CHEEVER by Blake Bailey.

I'm not sure I like Bailey's writing style, but the research was done and the facts are very interesting. For instance, I learned that his mother revealed (and kept repeating) that he was there just because she'd had too much to drink at a party one night and slept with his father (her husband) although they were deeply unhappy and barely spoke. I found this same explanation for a character in The Housebreaker of Shady Hill. No wonder Cheever was such a complex person.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Finished reading "I Am Number Four". I got it for about $2 on a fire sale over the Christmas season and it only got delivered yesterday. It was on my reading groups list of books so decided to give it a try.

It might be that this book is just aimed at a much younger audience, but I found it very predictable and filled with cliché after cliché. It doesn't really offer anything new and at times feels like a slightly different rewrite of the "Roswell" TV series.

Somebody likes it. It's in production as a motion picture, with a February 18th US release date. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Number_Four
______
Dennis

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

There are just four books in this series, so I think I'll just read through them all. So next The Seven Altars of Dusarra

Well, I whooshed through that one. Another quest. Our hero is a little bit stupid, or at least lacks planning skills. But I'm still interested in finding out what happens next.

Next up: F&SF Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011 by Spilogate Authors. I'd better read books as they come in, so I'll read this before returning to the Watt-Evans series.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by captobvs

Any advice on some other military Sc-Fi? It would be great if they would put out The Sand Wars by Charles Ingrid in ebook form!

The obvious starting point is David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series.

Honor Harrington is the yeoman daughter of two doctors on the planet Sphinx of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. The books follow her career in the Royal Manticoran Navy, from Midshipman to Fleet Admiral and peer of the realm in two star nations. At the outset, Manticore is preparing for war. The neighboring Republic of Haven is a hereditary oligarchy whose home planet is a welfare state with a huge population of Dolists who live on government handouts and expect a continually increasing standard of living. The Republic is going broke paying the upkeep, and had been conquering and looting smaller neighboring star nations to bay the bills. Manticore is next in their path. The RMN is better, ship for ship, than the Havenite navy, with better technology and better crews, but the Republic is much bigger.

It's the Napoleonic Wars in space, with Manticore as Britain and Haven as France. Weber has fun with the physics he postulates for his space drives, allowing his to have ships drawn up in "walls of battle", stationary relative to each other, and whaling away with lasers, grasers, and missiles till one side is forced to break off and retreat. Weber also pays attention to politics, and Honor's biggest problems may be back on Manticore.

Lots of fun, and a protagonist worth cheering for.

Another suggestion would be a set of collaborations between Weber and Steve White. Mankind has settled the stars, and encountered a variety of alien races, including the Orions, Ophichi, Gorm, and Thebans. Interstellar transit is via wormhole, so "close by" bears no relation to positions in real space. Man fights what the Orions call the "Wars of Shame" with them (and the Orions call them that because they see themselves as a warrior race, but are beaten by a humanity they consider soft and unprepared), then the Thebans. Finally, all intelligent races must ally against the Bugs, a species resembling giant spiders, whose goal is to expand, and who see all other species as food.

Weber and White do a nice job with characterizations, especially of the Orions (called Tabbies by humans because of their resemblance to upright biped felines), and there is to the death combat in abundance.
______
Dennis

[The_Casualty]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

This book came to mind while I was reading another thread: A Face in the Frost, by John Bellairs. It's a bit old, and I don't know if it can be found as an e-book, but if you get a chance, please give it a read. It has lots of elements that strongly remind me of the Riyria series (which I'm in love with, too!).

thanks! barnes and noble have A Face in the Frost

Originally Posted by Care

I swear I was just thinking it reminds me of another series, and now that you ask I totally can't remember what that series was. How frustrating. Sometimes it does remind me of The Wheel of Time, but it is only sometimes and WoT is much more epic. Uggggg, I wish I could remember what series I was thinking of before.

thanks too! somebody else suggested this book and i'm planning to read it next.

[captobvs]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The obvious starting point is David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series.

Can't believe I forgot about this series! Thanks for the reminder.

[LCEvans]

I'm reading Daughters, by Consuelo Saah Baehr. I just started, but so far very good.

[Rumpelteazer]

I just finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I'm not wild about but I did like it. On GoodReads I have seen many reviews of people who prefer the tv series over this book, I don't know yet which I prefer. I only saw the first season and had the same feeling about it as the book: I didn't love it but I did like it.

I liked the way how everthing was told from Dexter's perspective, how he as a sociopath/maniac/etc observes the most mundane things that happen during the day and his analyses of other people.

Now on with The Wheel of Darkness by Preston and Child, the eight in the Pendergast series. I delayed going on with this series for a while. I expect that Constance will play a bigger role from now on and I don't really like her character.

[Care]

I am reading The Eye of the World - book 1 in The Wheel of Time. I am re-reading it along with a friend that is reading it for the first time. I have to go slow though since she doesn't get a lot of reading time.

I am also reading Shadowfever, the final book in the Fever series.

I also feel like YA, but I don't know if I should go with Anna and the French Kiss, a contemporary YA fiction or Hollowland, a dystopian type zombie book.

[aquabel]

I'm reading The Sorceress, book 3 of Michael Scott's series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.