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

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I found Firefly to be just OK at best and boring at worst. For those that do not know, it was a movie that needed a TV series to explain the movie and none of it was any good overall.

I put Firefly in my BB queue. Currently watching The Lost Room miniseries. The plot is good but the lead actor is not. He just reads the lines.

Fringe is much better.

[arcadata]

I just ordered Douglas Anthony Cooper's book 2 of his YA Milrose Munce series, Milrose Munce and the Plague of Toxic Fungus. I loved the dark comedy of the first book Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help (Extended Edition), so I'm looking forward to reading book 2!

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I found Firefly to be just OK at best and boring at worst. For those that do not know, it was a movie that needed a TV series to explain the movie and none of it was any good overall.

Actually, the movie was called Serenity, and it was released after the t.v. show.

I'm (still) reading "The Mists of Avalon". A great book, but I'd like to finish today, as I don't like dragging a book out. I've got "Poison Study" next on my TBR list.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

I sounds like interesting SF

And it was indeed interesting SF, and a rather good book. Although the first couple of chapters introduced rather more alien words than was wise, IMO.

Next: The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Another book I bought a while back (April 2009), so it's time I got to it. I liked The Silmarillion and The Book of Lost Tales, although I didn't get into the long sequence of books that followed. But I think I heard that this was back to more narrative rather than textual analysis.

I think I paid more for this than for 99.5% of the ebooks I've bought: $10.86, back when it was available at Fictionwise. I probably shouldn't have done, as I could buy it now from Amazon for £5.99, about $9.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by feenix1363

I'm currently reading 'Against all things ending'. The final part of 'The final chronicles of Thomas Covenant' by Stephen Donalson (Stephen R Donaldson in the US).

I've been waiting for soooooooooo long for this to be released.

The Thomas Covenant Chronicles are split up into three sets of trilogies. The first chronicles of Thomas Covenant began release in 1977 (according to the authors website).

The second trilogy began release in 1980 and ran to 1983

I met the author in 2004 when he started the release of the third trilogy (very nice, very approachable man) and he explained that he'd never intended to release a third trilogy, it was purely down to demand of fans, and the fact that maturity had given him further insights into the personalities of the characters. He explained when I met him that he was not going to be rushing to complete this trilogy and that it was a labour of love, to be spread over several years for each book, but this didn't stop me craving the next installment.

This book is as well written and plotted as I've come to expect over the years. Mr Donaldson has a huge vocabulary and isn't scared to use it, though never in vain.

I'm only part way through it, but would recommend this book, and indeed the whole series to anyone interested in the 'fantasy' genre.

Mr Donaldson has his own website, managed by him, and answered by him (not simply a slick publishing house site). Easy to find with Google, you should be sure to check out the 'Gradual Interview' section where he answers fans questions on a regular basis.

I have read the first book of the last chronicles. Really enjoyed it. Just have yet to get back to the the second and then the third parts. I've sort of been staying away from really large books. May get to part 2 in March when I'll get up the effort to go back to really large books.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

You're right, of course, and H.G. Well's name as the author is what I had in my list of books read in 2011 on my hard drive. I don't know why I affixed Jules Verne's name to that post.

Fixed it. Good catch, Jon! Keep the old man honest!

Happy to help.

[teadonkey]

@Talk of Firefly/Serenity: Watched Serenity and loved it, now I want to watch Firefly. (:

Finished my Amish book, moving right a long to Dead in Dallas! I wanted to read a few more of my free books but I've been itching to read the next installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by teadonkey

@Talk of Firefly/Serenity: Watched Serenity and loved it, now I want to watch Firefly. (:

Finished my Amish book, moving right a long to Dead in Dallas! I wanted to read a few more of my free books but I've been itching to read the next installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

It seems like people seem to love or hate Firefly. Personally, I thought it was a fun show and enjoyed it. However, I agree the book just wasn't the same... I'm not sure why.

Hulu used to have all the Firefly episodes and that is how I originally watched them... but I think they have been pulled. Of course there are "other" ways to get this great 1 Season wonder.

BOb

[jgaiser]

I came to Firefly through the back door. Watched the movie Serenity first. Loved the story and picked up the DVDs for the TV show. I'm a fan, but I also have friends that hated it.

Fox did a good job of killing the TV show. Not running the pilot as the first episode (lots of explanation of the world and characters) and then proceeding to run episodes out of sequence which seems to have confused a lot of people. I always offer to lend my DVDs to the naysayers, telling them to try the show in the original order.

[maianhvk]

I'm re-reading the Godfather right now. And the book's so amazing that I think I must have not understood anything when I read it 7 years ago!

[ATDrake]

Had an extra-long transit trip this afternoon, so started and finished Ruth Downie's Terra Incognita: A Novel of the Roman Empire, 2nd in her Gaius Petreius Ruso ancient Roman Britain murder mystery series.

I bought this for 72 cents including tax at Kobo after reading Medicus, the 1st in the series, as a freebie (it is incidentally now back to free in several stores and the sequel is again down to < $2 pricing in several venues).

This sequel was well worth it. The first book was entertaining enough, but had some rough patches due to its being a first novel.

Terra Incognita is somewhat more polished, with the characters better characterized, and the writing a little less coy, and the narrative has a certain wry wit. As well, the whodunnit this time was one that I didn't see coming, but made good sense and was not an outlandish stretch, with plenty of misdirection as Ruso and Tilla between them try to untangle the plot while working at opposite ends (and occasionally at cross-purposes).

I rather liked this one, and picked up the 3rd book in hardcover while I was at the library, where I discovered that the UK edition of Terra Incognita is called

Spoiler:

Ruso and the Demented Doctor

, which kind of gives away part of the plot.

Anyway, a good successor to and improvement over the first book (and also might look better because it doesn't suffer from the horrible scannos and dropped punctuation that afflicted the e-book edition of Medicus); this again comes with some nifty author's notes in the back on the known and invented history used to supply setting and detail for the story (something about uprisings among the native tribes near the garrison), which I always appreciate in historical fiction.

Recommended for people who like ancient Romans, Roman Britain, snarky world-weary medical amateur sleuths who are put-upon by practically everyone around them, and especially those who like to get all of the above at a dirt-cheap promotional price.

I think I'll be picking up the official Kindle version of this currently on sale at 99 cents, too, just to encourage the publisher by monetarily demonstrating that if they give me one good book that I like for free and also offer its sequel for less than a dollar, I'm perfectly happy to buy, and they should do it again with some other books.

[GraceKrispy]

let's see, I recently read the following:

Leviathan by Zachary Harper (epic poem in style of Beowulf- a parable of man's response to guilt and death)

The Only Thing I See by Jessica Barksdale Inclan (sort of a chick lit romance)

A New Birth of Freedom: The Visitor by Robert Pielke (aliens, time travel to the past, first in a planned trilogy)

(links go to my reviews, review of the last book will go up on my website tomorrow as part of a book tour)

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Had an extra-long transit trip this afternoon, so started and finished Ruth Downie's Terra Incognita: A Novel of the Roman Empire, 2nd in her Gaius Petreius Ruso ancient Roman Britain murder mystery series.

I bought this for 72 cents including tax at Kobo after reading Medicus, the 1st in the series, as a freebie (it is incidentally now back to free in several stores and the sequel is again down to < $2 pricing in several venues).

This sequel was well worth it. The first book was entertaining enough, but had some rough patches due to its being a first novel.

Terra Incognita is somewhat more polished, with the characters better characterized, and the writing a little less coy, and the narrative has a certain wry wit. As well, the whodunnit this time was one that I didn't see coming, but made good sense and was not an outlandish stretch, with plenty of misdirection as Ruso and Tilla between them try to untangle the plot while working at opposite ends (and occasionally at cross-purposes).

I rather liked this one, and picked up the 3rd book in hardcover while I was at the library, where I discovered that the UK edition of Terra Incognita is called

Spoiler:

Ruso and the Demented Doctor

, which kind of gives away part of the plot.

Anyway, a good successor to and improvement over the first book (and also might look better because it doesn't suffer from the horrible scannos and dropped punctuation that afflicted the e-book edition of Medicus); this again comes with some nifty author's notes in the back on the known and invented history used to supply setting and detail for the story (something about uprisings among the native tribes near the garrison), which I always appreciate in historical fiction.

Recommended for people who like ancient Romans, Roman Britain, snarky world-weary medical amateur sleuths who are put-upon by practically everyone around them, and especially those who like to get all of the above at a dirt-cheap promotional price.

I think I'll be picking up the official Kindle version of this currently on sale at 99 cents, too, just to encourage the publisher by monetarily demonstrating that if they give me one good book that I like for free and also offer its sequel for less than a dollar, I'm perfectly happy to buy, and they should do it again with some other books.

I'll be putting this on my TBR list, for sure!

[jgaiser]

Finished Richard K. Morgan's "Altered Carbon" last night. Amazing book for a first novel, but it certainly won't be on everybody's reading list.

Noir detective novel meets science fiction. Near immortality with the ability to change bodies (sleeves), AI, super drugs, murder, revenge, violence (including torture), and sex. Takeshi Kovacs has his cortical stack (consciousness) restored in a new body to investigate a suicide or maybe murder. Things kind of go down hill from there. Another page turner for me and I'll be taking a look at the second and third books in this series.

[kainne]

Recently finished both Sandman Slim novels which I liked, & The Hunger Games which was amazing. It reminds me a bit of the Battle Royale graphic novels (18+). Every year a class of grade nine students are put on an island & have to fight to the death. They are given a backpack of supplies & a random weapon.

Currently reading Catching Fire Book 2 of The Hunger Games.