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

[ElyseDraper]

I am in the middle of enjoying a complete sensory overload and laugh riot, courtesy of Terry Pratchett: Unseen Academicals and Snuff

[maianhvk]

I've been reading some compilations by Jean-Jacques Sempé: Sempé à New York, Quelques Représentations, Un peu de Paris... His illustrations are excellent.

And I'm reading Inheritance, the last book in the cycle by Christopher Paolini. I don't enjoy this series very much.

[pilotbob]

Well... I finished Storm Front on the plane today when coming home from "vacation". It was "ok" as people have said, but not brilliant.

Do fans of Dresden feel the TV show was any good. I think I can watch them on Netflix streaming.

I will be reading Moxyland by Lauren Beukes next.

BOb

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Wowzers [Inspector Gadget]!! Midnight Come Again was a powerful book! The events in the previous book in the Kate Shugak series, Hunter's Moon served as the set-up for Kate's state-of-mind throughout most of Midnight Come Again.



For Father's Day my daughter sent me a gift of the entire Harry Potter series from Pottermore! Sometime in the next 6 months I'll probably re-read the series as I always enjoy being immersed in the Potterverse for a while. My wife got me a gift card for Amazon (always useful) and my son got me a Kindle book I'd never heard of, Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon by Jeff Grubb & Matt Forbeck. He says it's a fantasy novel based on a computer game (no wonder I've never heard if it or the Authors). Anyway I'm starting it next.

Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon was okay, actually an enjoyable read on the whole.

I picked up some new books with my Father's day gift cards, two of which were Hex Appeal by P. N. Elrod and Blood Lite III: Aftertaste by Kevin J. Anderson. Both are urban fantasy short story collections from various authors. I wanted them because of the new Harry Dresden stories by Jim Butcher included in them, I Was A Teenage Bigfoot and Bigfoot on Campus. These two are my next read!

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Well... I finished Storm Front on the plane today when coming home from "vacation". It was "ok" as people have said, but not brilliant.

Do fans of Dresden feel the TV show was any good. I think I can watch them on Netflix streaming.

I watched the entire series when it was first aired and enjoyed it a lot. When it was not renewed, because I missed it, I started buying and reading the novels. I've read all thirteen of them twice and am anxiously awaiting the release of the fourteenth novel this Christmas (I hope). I bought the entire TV series on DVD and have watched them all multiple times. The nice thing about the TV show was that (and there are people who criticize this rather than appreciate it as I do) only one episode (Storm Front, by the way) followed the books at all. So it doesn't really matter which you do first, watch the TV show or read the books.

[carld]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Well... I finished Storm Front on the plane today when coming home from "vacation". It was "ok" as people have said, but not brilliant.

Do fans of Dresden feel the TV show was any good. I think I can watch them on Netflix streaming.

I will be reading Moxyland by Lauren Beukes next.

BOb

The series is worth watching, as said, it won't really follow the books, which is fine. It had a lot of unrealized potential. What I remember from the time is that SyFy is aiming for a young male audience, as evidenced by wrestling and dumb monster movies, and while The Dresden Files got good ratings, the demographics were older and more female than they wanted, so it didn't get renewed.

Back on topic: I'm just starting Harvester: Ascension, which was a recent freebie. It's got lots of stars at Amazon, but it hasn't pulled me in just yet.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by carld

...What I remember from the time is that SyFy is aiming for a young male audience, as evidenced by wrestling and dumb monster movies, and while The Dresden Files got good ratings, the demographics were older and more female than they wanted, so it didn't get renewed.

Back on topic:...

Back Off-Topic:

I think the SyFy network is missing the boat with many of their new shows. What's up with their airing reality shows like 'Total Blackout'? Are they still committed to sci-fi, or has their commitment to it become like MTV's commitment to music has become? I'd rather see reruns of classics like 'The Twilight Zone' than crap like that.

And now, back On-Topic once again (but staying with the ψ-φ genre):

Just got a paperback copy of Harman Ellison's City on the Edge of Forever. Those who follow Star Trek will recognize this episode as a fan favorite (it certainly is my favorite episode of the original series). Even though the episode won a Hugo as well as the 1966-67 Writers Guild of America Award for best teleplay, Ellison has to this day complained bitterly about the way Gene Roddenberry "eviscerated" his original vision. This book presents the original script as the author intended it to be filmed.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon was okay, actually an enjoyable read on the whole.

I picked up some new books with my Father's day gift cards, two of which were Hex Appeal by P. N. Elrod and Blood Lite III: Aftertaste by Kevin J. Anderson. Both are urban fantasy short story collections from various authors. I wanted them because of the new Harry Dresden stories by Jim Butcher included in them, I Was A Teenage Bigfoot and Bigfoot on Campus. These two are my next read!

Quoting Jim Butcher's website from May 21, 2012:

Fans can look forward to two Dresden short stories in the next two weeks! “I Was a Teenage Bigfoot,” which takes place around the time of Dead Beat, comes out on May 29th in Kevin J. Anderson’s Blood Lite 3: Aftertaste. “Bigfoot on Campus,” set a few months before Changes, hits June 5th in P.N. Elrod’s Hex Appeal. The third (or rather, first) story in Jim’s Bigfoot trilogy, “B is for Bigfoot,” comes out at the end of August. You can pre-order them all from Jim’s store!

Finished both Bigfoot short stories and they were superb. Now on to the 6th of the Wool series (now called the Silo Series), First Shift - Legacy by Hugh Howey.

[JSWolf]

I've finally gotten around to reading Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. I did see the miniseries on Starz. That was quite good. But there is a lot more to the book then they were able to televise.

[tecweston]

Just Finished:

- Professor Moriarty: the Hound of the D'urbervilles by Kim Newman - First of all, there are two types of non-canon Holmes stories: the pastiches that act like a long-lost Watson story and try to insert themselves into the canonical timeline without contradicting anything, and then there are the "what if" stories. What if Holmes was on the Titanic? What if Holmes met Dracula? What if Holmes was a woman?

Both are enjoyable in their own way, but knowing from the get-go which one you're in for goes a long way toward making the story more enjoyable. Thinking you're in for a pastiche and finding out three chapters in that the story has ghosts in it can be jarring.

The Hound of the D'urbervilles feels like it's not sure which type of story it wants to be. Moriarty is the Holmes figure in this story, and Colonel Sebastian Moran is his Watson. Moriarty is a consulting criminal, and Moran his biographer and henchman, tagging along on cases where someone has hired Moriarty to steal something unstealable or kill someone unkillable. All the cases in the novel parody or parallel actual Holmes cases (sometimes more than one, and sometimes in name only, such as "The Adventure of the Greek Invertebrate" instead of "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter"). Characters from other Victorian-era literature show up by the pound, as well as several characters from the Holmes canon. Holmes himself, however, is never mentioned by name and his presence is not felt for the first three-quarters of the book. It feels like a "what if" novel, in other words, what if Conan Doyle never created Holmes, but wrote about a consulting criminal instead of a consulting detective?

Then, during the final case ("The Problem of the Final Adventure"), the novel suddenly decides it wants to tie everything together and insert itself firmly into the canon. The "death of Holmes" story ("The Final Problem") is retold from Moran's point of view, following Moriarty as he chases Holmes and Watson across Europe and finally finding themselves as Reichenbach Falls. We see Moran acquire his famous air-gun. We see Moriarty take credit for several of the crimes Holmes has solved throughout the years, but it's the first time in the book we've heard of any of these crimes.

Reading the acknowledgments, it turns out each of the cases were written as stand-alone stories for various anthologies before being put together in novel format. It feels that way... a bit disjointed rather than a single cohesive story.

Currently Reading:

- Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins (70%)

- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (16%)

- Moby-Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville (28%) [on hold]

[carld]

Harvester: Ascension has completely failed to grab me so far. The subject matter appeals to me, but I don't care for the writer's style at all. It seems mostly Tell instead of Show, or maybe I'm just being grumpy and picky. I'll give it a bit longer before I give up on it, but not a lot longer.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Started (Late Last Night): Ashes of Victory (Honor Harrington #9)

Still working my way through Ashes of Victory (Honor Harrington #9). Between the lack of quality reading time and the much slower pace of the story, I 'm only about half way through. I hope to rectify that this weekend.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Finished both Bigfoot short stories and they were superb. Now on to the 6th of the Wool series (now called the Silo Series), First Shift - Legacy by Hugh Howey.

Finished reading First Shift - Legacy. It answered the major question that the first 5 stories left unanswered. I enjoyed it a lot. I'm looking forward to more stories in this series.

I saw a movie staring George Clooney on cable the other day called The American and I really liked it. Went looking for the novel that it was based on. Found it in Kindle format on Amazon. Luckily I had enough on my Father's Day gift cards to include it on my shopping spree! I'm reading it next! Its title is A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth.

[BlueSky77]

I just finished reading Jubal Sackett by Louis L'Amour yesterday. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in action/adventure and history.

Today I started another L'Amour book called The Sackett Land. So far it's great. Any other Louis L'Amour fans out there?

____________________
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[CRussel]

Finishing up the third of Wen Spencer's Elfhome series, Elfhome. This has been an excellent urban fantasy/romance/whatever. Totally fun to read, with absolutely no redeeming social value.

Have to hurry and finish it, since I have the eARC of the new Lois McMaster Bujold on my Kindle -- Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and I really want to read it.