I am about to start "A Feast for Crows", from George RR Martin. I couldn´t wait for the spanish translation after reading A Storm of Swords so I purchased it in english.
But first, I have to finish Los Hijos de Húrin (Children of Hurin), so I am planning a weekend of swimming pool and good reading :D
daedel, el azote.
Just finished "No country for old men" by Cormack Mccarthy". It is a very good book.
I am about to start "A Feast for Crows", from George RR Martin. I couldn´t wait for the spanish translation after reading A Storm of Swords so I purchased it in english.
But first, I have to finish Los Hijos de Húrin (Children of Hurin), so I am planning a weekend of swimming pool and good reading :D
daedel, el azote.
you have good taste in books.
Feast of crows was worth the wait but I know a lot of friends are generally about to throw in the towel if Dance with Dragons doesn't come out soon.
I am currently reading Blood of Fold by Terry Goodkind. I am also rereading the Harry Potter books before the last one comes out.
Just finished "No country for old men" by Cormack Mccarthy". It is a very good book.
Mmm...Is it the book from Cohen Brothers' new film? Javier Bardem (with Antonio Banderas, our most international actors) is in it...
daedel, el azote.
Just finished "No country for old men" by Cormack Mccarthy". It is a very good book.
Mmm...Is it the book from Cohen Brothers' new film? Javier Bardem (with Antonio Banderas, our most international actors) is in it...
daedel, el azote.
That's the one - can't wait to see what the Cohen brothers have done with it:)
"Don't Eat This Book" by Morgan Spurlock, the book companion to the documentary "Super Size Me." Something you should read before you pick up that burger from the local fast food joint.
"The Deeds of Paksenarrion" by ELizabeth Moon
Its okay but as I read, I can hear the dice clinking around in my head.
Up next is either China Mieville's "The Scar" or "The Elegant Universe" by some guy...
Outlaws of the Marsh : one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. In many aspect it is very D&Dish.
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Oof. I've finally finished a couple more books.
#17: The Samarkand Solution by Gary Gygax
I read this one back in the 1990s when it first came out, and I'm pleased to report that it remains enjoyable (not least because I recently acquired the rights to republish it as part of the Planet Stories line). This time Setne Inhetep, philosopher-wizard of Pharaoh and part-time detective, stays in the fantastic triple kingdom of Aegypt, which helps Gygax develop his infectious interest in the somewhat off-kilter fantasy setting. It's a genuine mystery this time around, and the end is much more satisfying than the last chapter of "The Anubis Murders," which seemed a bit tacked on. I predict you guys are going to really enjoy this one.
#18: Imaginary Worlds by Lin Carter
Written by one of the most important authors in the history of sword and sorcery, about the history of sword and sorcery. Lots of biographical and historical details on writers like William Morris, James Branch Cabell, JRR Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber and more. The book covers the genre through 1973, and is a good summary of the type of fiction that inspired Gygax and Arneson to create Dungeons & Dragons. It also presents the genre before it became infected by shared world novels and tons of copycat books (often written by Carter himself). Carter is awfully fond of himself and his writing in this one, and can barely help himself from giving a plug to his own projects both published and otherwise. A critical book about my favorite genre. Despite its somewhat pedantic nature, Imaginary Worlds is a surprisingly quick read and is probably Lin Carter's most important written work.
I've also been reading a lot of short stories lately, notably Eando Binder's Adam Link stories and Richard Sharpe Shaver's Lemurian tales, both from the office's handy complete Amazing Stories archive.
Other Books on the "To Read or Finish Soon" List:
Virgin Planet by Poul Anderson
The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett
Masters of the Pit by Michael Moorcock
Death in Delhi by Gary Gygax
Call of the Savage by Otis Adelbert Kline
Lots and lots of Edmond Hamilton stories
--Erik
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Just discovered this thread, and what the heck Planet Stories are. I've just finished Ayn Rands "Atlas Shrugged". Very good book. I tend to read across a wide spectrum...I am just coming off of a philosophy phase (I read Ayn Rands "objectivism" before atlas shrugged) and before that I was mired deep in classic literature: The Prince by Machiavelli, Homer's illiad and The Oddysey (awesome!) etc.
I am definitely ready to burn through some Pulp Fiction!
Joe Abercrombie; Before They Are Hanged: Book Two Of The First Law
A fun fantasy; with the ancient wizard, the killers, the torturers(sorry "the Inquisitores") and the quest.
The evil is wicked and the good guys are only marginally better:)
And its a year til the next book...
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Senior Software Developer
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It is summer in Seattle and the days are long and hot and there is nothing on TV (I don't have cable), so I read. A lot. This is what I've read in the past month or so:
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge. Holy crap. You want a picture of the next 20 years? Buy this book. Read it. The library that walks and the shredder from hell. And wearing. Yeah. We'll all be wearing.
Practical Cryptography, Bruce Schneier; Applied Cryptography, Bruce Schneier. Useful for thinking about security issues. Obviously read for work purposes.
1634: The Galileo Affair, Eric Flint & Andrew Dennnis -- I love the 1632 series. Except this one, it's OK, but felt more like a Hardy Boys adventure. Not that I didn't own or read practically every single one when I was a kid. I probably can't give a bad book review. I like them all.
1633: David Weber & Eric Flint. Thumbs up. The whole series is basically, take a chunk of 20th century West Virginia and stick it in the middle of Germany during the 30 years war. All parts of the series highly recommended.
American Gods, Neil Gaiman. Nice. Read it. Seriously. The old gods are real but, you know, nobody quite believes in them anymore, so they have to do stuff to make a living. Plus, because they're gods, they're bastards.
Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman. Enjoyable. Fun. Sons of gods and whatnot.
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman. I actually liked this one better than Anansi Boys, and it closes in real tight on American Gods. There is a London, invisible to London, populated with.... Umm. Anyone who doesn't quite fit in London.
Practical WebObjects, Chuck Hill & Sacha Mallais -- I was one of two technical reviewers of this book. I never bothered to sign all the paperwork, so I get NOTHING with each copy sold. Buy one anyway. Chuck and Sacha like that.
I Am Alive and You Are Dead, Emmanuel Carrère. Outstanding biography of Philip K. Dick.
Zodiac, Neal Stephenson. Fun story about a~%@&!+ trying to protect the environment by f+%@ing with big polluters.
The Cobweb, Neal Stephenson & J. Frederick George. Previously published in the late '90s under a pseudonym. A counter-factual from the first Gulf War. What if Saddam was doing bad things in Iowa prior to invading Kuwait?
The Ecstasy Business, Richard Condon. God I love Richard Condon. Satirical writing at its best. I was not impressed until near the end. Normally Richard Condon's novels involve great recipes, lists of things, over-the-top greed and plots that seriously reshape the world. This one was just about making a movie with the worlds' two most-famous actors. And a murder plot. Only his fifth or sixth novel, he was just hitting his stride here. He wrote The Manchurian Candidate, you know.
Emperor of America, Richard Condon. A wicked novel, in every sense of the term. Read it. Yeah, an actual emperor of the USA, and it's evilly believable. And funny as hell. All of his books are funny as hell if you're paying attention. And scary. I seriously hope the world really doesn't run that way, but as far as I can tell, it actually does.
Variable Star, Robert Heinlein. Umm, crap. I don't mean the book is crap, I mean, I don't remember anything about it. This is probably the one that he shelved and was later finished by Spider Robinson. I remember enjoying it. Seriously. But I can't really remember what it was about. Oh, wait. Yeah. It was good. Read it.
Boundary, Eric Flint & Ryk E. Spoor. Gah. Another one I can't remember, except that I liked it.
The Way to Glory, David Drake. Drake does spacewar novels like nobody's business. Obviously part of a series about the progression of some space naval officer's career. He's charming and gets the job done. Read it if you like that sort of thing.
1634: The Ram Rebellion, Eric Flint, Virginia DeMarce, et al. Another exploration of the 1632 universe, written apparently by a bunch of fans. Doesn't matter. Was still funny, entertaining and good.
Concurrent Programming in Java, Doug Lea -- Purchased and read a LONG time ago, but reviewed recently for various reasons. Threaded programming is hard, and my copy predates the very nice Java concurrency libraries. Still useful.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse, Max Brooks. Zombies. Taking over the world. How can you not love this?
Glory Season, David Brin. Good book about very strange planet colonized by people with "interesting" ideas about how the sexes should interact.
Very Bad Deaths, Spider Robinson. Scary. Picture the worst serial killer you've ever heard of, and then imagine what would make that guy vomit in fear. Not graphic, mostly.
Callahan's Key, Spider Robinson. I love Callahan's Place. I wish there was one around here. Now there's one in Florida, and they're saving the world (again).
The Grantville Gazzette, Eric Flint, et al. Umm. More 1632 fanfic stuff. Plus some technical articles about how radio works and whatnot. Still worth reading if you're at all into this.
The Broken Bubble, Philip K. Dick. One of his posthumously published mainstream novels. Excellent stuff. Good enough to make me realize I'll never be a writer.
Mary and the Giant, Philip K. Dick. Another posthumously published mainstream novel. Combine this, The Broken Bubble, and I Am Alive and You are Dead, and you start to realize that PKD had a serious thing for mysterious 19-year-old brunettes. Also good enough to make me realize I'll never be a writer. I mean, come on. THIS was never published while he was alive? What chance do I have?!
Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco. Every conspiracy theory is true. At least that's the line I've used for the past 18 years to sell this book to friends. It's not that simple. (I mean, come on, it's Eco here, how could it possibly be that simple?!) But find a copy and read it.
In the hopper, a handful of books I'm pretty sure I've read before but there they were, so here they are:
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
The Annals of the Heechee, Frederik Pohl
The Venerable Bead, Richard Condon. (Actually I know for sure I haven't read this one. But looking forward to it. Richard Condon totally f**~ing rocks. He also wrote the whole Prizzi's Honor thing.)
Philip K. Dick, Four Novels of the 1960s (Library of America edition): -- Seriously recommended, these are all great books.
- The Man in the High Castle. A counterfactual in which the US lost World War II.
- The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich (sp?!). I can't begin to describe this work. Barbie meets acid meets god meets alien domination meets god.
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Eventually became the movie Bladerunner, though I don't recall it being novel-length.
- Ubik. Seriously weird. And important. And weird. Did I mention weird? They're all dead... or are they? And WTF is Ubik? Even PKD himself didn't know what to make of this novel.
Still haven't read a single Harry Potter. People at work make fun of me for this.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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"The Deeds of Paksenarrion" by ELizabeth Moon
Its okay but as I read, I can hear the dice clinking around in my head.
Up next is either China Mieville's "The Scar" or "The Elegant Universe" by some guy...
Did you notice that the 2nd book was essentially T1: Village of Hommlet?
It is summer in Seattle and the days are long and hot and there is nothing on TV (I don't have cable), so I read. A lot. This is what I've read in the past month or so:
...
My bold.
Reading Gary's list, nodding, too many books to count later.
So that confirms it, guys, Gary is a machine.
I'm currently reading The Illiad for school, Education of a Wandering Man, and The Blue Sword (fantastic book by the way, I recommend it)
I'm currently reading H.P. Lovecrafts 'The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories' collection. Right now its 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'. Good stuff.
of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Trippy, but really cool. I'm not very far in, but I'd still reccomend it. Also--don't read at night; it's not meant to be a horror novel, but still.
p.s. I really need to learn how to post links.
Just take what you wrote and put it in <url=website>word</url>
start bracket - type "url=" (without the quote tags) - paste in the http link you want to use - close bracket - type in the name you want for the link (can be anything such as "this is it") - start bracket - type "/url" - close bracket
Sooo it looks like this (without spaces): [ url= http:whateveryourlink ] this is it [ /url ]
You could also click on the "Show" button when making a post, which is next to the statement that says "BBCode tags you can use". :)
Did you notice that the 2nd book was essentially T1: Village of Hommlet?"The Deeds of Paksenarrion" by ELizabeth Moon
Its okay but as I read, I can hear the dice clinking around in my head.
Up next is either China Mieville's "The Scar" or "The Elegant Universe" by some guy...
I don't know that mod but as I read it, I keep thinking about her levels and how much Gird reminds me of St. Cuthbert. -sigh- I figure that since I've invested about 400 pages into it, I must finish it. A co worker told a me a brief and hilarious synopsis, but I'm still reading it.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Trippy, but really cool. I'm not very far in, but I'd still reccomend it. Also--don't read at night; it's not meant to be a horror novel, but still.
I love love love love that book! My copy is beat to hell and held togethor with rubber bands, which just makes it even cooler considering. I read it first when I was about 15 during a family vacation/road trip thing and it scared the crap out of me.
Still haven't read a single Harry Potter. People at work make fun of me for this.
Well, if you could be encouraged to read just 1 Potter book, try the third one. It captures the heart of the series AND it is the best of the set. The writing is much tighter than Rowling's later works.
Judging by how much and how quickly you read, you should be able to squeeze it in in a coupla nights.
Just ordered Waiting For Jake by China Mieville. What I really want is another Bas Lag book, but I'll take what I can get since I've already read the three in print.
Finished my vampire book binge.
Just about to crack Un Lun Dun which I found out about here, and I'm really looking forward to it.
While on vacation, I knocked off ...
"Dragons of a Vanished Moon" by Weis and Hickman, a solid effort that put right what others had sent askew in the World of Krynn. Best bargain of the year, picked it up for a buck at the Dollar General.
"Subtle Knife," Part II of His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman.
This is a kids' book? Only if fifth-graders are reading and understanding Milton -- or maybe the Book of Genesis. Wow! This series is worth 10 Harry Potters.
And speaking of the Boy Who Lived, I'll be tackling his last book next.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Just finished Vernor Vinge's "Rainbow End" which is everything Gary said it was. I love the Vinge - ever since I read "A Fire Upon the Deep" - which is amazing!
Also zoomed through Tim Power's "On Stranger Tides" - voodoo piracy historical fantasy genius.
Next up is Kim Stanley Robinson "Sixty Days and Counting" and then I have promised myself to take the time to read "House of Leaves." It's been waiting about six months for me now :)
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While waiting impatiently for more Harry Dresden books, I'm feeding my Southern Africa addiction. Went through Alexandra Fuller's Don't let's go to the dogs tonight (awesome) and Scribbling the cat (very good), Rian Malan's My traitor's heart (awesome) and Antije Krog's Country of my skull (double awesome) over the last two weeks, and just finished Andrew Meldrum's Where we have hope (about Zimbabwe - merely OK). Next up is Eric Hobsbawm's Bandits, which may not be about Africa, but still looks like a great read, and Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long walk to freedom. Read on!
Just finished up "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell.
Six words:
True Story.
Fantastic read.
I wept.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
And we'll give it four broomsticks.
"The Rapture of Canaan" by Sheri Reynolds
Sartre. It's a compendium of four of his plays: No Exit, The Flies, Dirty Hands, and The Respectful Prostitute. Just finished the first two.
Dragonlance Heroes vol three; Weasels luck; boning up on Dragonlance setting for upcomming campaign; reread all the chronicles and some other heroes books.
hehe i read Deathly Hallows last Sunday; middle was boring, but beginning and end were worth the 4 broomsticks.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Great thieving con-man story.
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Senior Software Developer
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Looks like the Great Summer Reading Frenzy of 2007 may be drawing to a close. The days are getting shorter. I'm getting home from work later. (Cursed Pathfinder/GameMastery module combined shipping! Remote watermarking of PDF downloads! Printing a half-mile of postage! Gaah!) And my weekend will probably be spent working rather than reading.
Plus I have Pathfinder #1 to read. Ha ha! I have it and you don't. And you won't, until I finish a massive rewrite of code. Hmmm. So yeah, reading less.
Anyway. Here's what I've been reading:
Telempath, Spider Robinson. The man who destroyed the world did it with smell. No, really.
Callahan's Lady, Spider Robinson. It's a Callahan's novel. Without the space aliens. But with hookers! Spider really was the best choice to continue Heinlein's work (and I do remember what Double Star was about, honest).
Fifty Degrees Below, Kim Stanley Robinson. (Why yes, I do browse the library stacks alphabetically, thanks for asking! And the library files science fiction, mystery and westerns in with the rest of the fiction. Interesting policy. May get me to read more mainstream fiction.) I wasn't sure if I'd already read this book. Turns out it's a sequel to Forty Signs of Rain, which I enjoyed and recommend. (Actually, I recommend everything he's ever written.) I think I like this one even better. NSF scientist goes off the grid after D.C. is flooded due to crazy global warming. Then winter sets in. Treehouses are involved. So are displaced Tibetan Bhuddists. I've loved treehouses ever since The Swiss Family Robinson and My Side of the Mountain.
Dinosaur Summer, Greg Bear. A book set in the universe of Conan Doyle's The Lost World (think King Kong with dinosaurs if you haven't read it). It's 1947. The protagonist is a 15-year-old boy. The last dinosaur circus is giving its last performance, then the dinosars are going home. What better way to spend a summer? Oh, and several of the characters are real people from our timeline. How can you not like a book that includes a postscript titled "What's real"?
The Postman, David Brin. Never saw the movie, thought I'd read it already, but no. A good book. You know, the hopeful kind of post-apocalyptic book.
Friday, Robert Heinlein. A non-person super-human female combat courier who can't catch a break and loves sex. The world is crazy, people marry in groups, violence aplenty. So, your typical late-era Heinlein novel. A good read. Recommended. (But then again, I recommend everything!)
Buying Time, Joe Haldeman. Living forever, ten years at a time. The premise of the book annoyed me until the conclusion cleared it all up. But I still find it a bit implausible.
Gateway, Frederik Pohl. The first Heechee novel, a classic. The Heechee are mysterious -- who were they? What were they doing? Why'd they leave all those working ships at that crazy base, and where do the ships go, anyway?
The Annals of the Heechee, Frederik Pohl. I was going to try to re-read the series in order, but I picked this one instead. Whatever. By this time the Heechee are known, why they did what they did is known, etc. But there are other mysteries to explore.
The Venerable Bead, Richard Condon. Wealth, greed, etc. Classic Condon. I may have to re-read Mile High or A Trembling Upon Rome next. Good books.
Four Novels of the 1960s, Phillip K. Dick. See previous post.
The Cosmic Puppets, Phillip K. Dick. Classic Dickian themes. Things are not what they seem. What you remember is not what appears to be. We're living in a damn snowglobe! Also, ancient gods.
Venus on the Half Shell, Kilgore Trout. For some reason filed with Phillip Jose Farmer.... Actually not a bad read. What is the meaning of life, told pretty authentically through the voice of Vonnegut's fictional crazy science fiction writer.
Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut. I don't know how I missed this one back when I was exploring Vonnegut. Wow. I'll probably have to go back and revisit books like Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse Five to be sure, but this is now one of my favorite Vonnegut books.
Marooned in Realtime, Vernor Vinge. A sequel to The Peace War. What happens if you can "bobble" yourself through the eons? Good stuff.
Next up:
Some Golden Harbor, David Drake. Sequel (I think) to The Way to Glory.
The Anubis Murders, E. Gary Gygax. Yes, that Gygax. I got a staff copy the other day.
While I'm impatiently awaiting A Dance With Dragons, I am reading Dickens' Great Expectations, Marques' One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I just finished rereading Watchmen.
Despite the objections of my toddler, I finished PKD's Eye in the Sky during the last two days.
A bunch of people are dragged through a series of realities that are restructured by the whims and dysfunctions of their peers, with whom they suffered a terrible accident in a physics lab, the very accident that that cast them into their nightmare.
I also read Where the wild things are and other various titles about 15 or 20 times.
I've read Gateway, but never been able to track down the other Heechee novels - any good Gary?
Well, you didn't ask me, but I think the Heechee saga is great. I read them a while back and it just kept me buying them one after the other.
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Just got finished reading I am Legend and Sandworms of Dune.
Legend was really good - a great take on the whole vampire mythos. I still have to go through the other short stories that were collected in the book.
Sandworms was OK. I've enjoyed the books that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have written, but they just can't compare to Frank Herbert's own work. Having read many of his own work's (including all his original Dune books), I can't help but think how Hunters of Dune and Sandworms would have been so much better (and probably a single book) if Frank had survived to write them himself. Maybe its just me, but I found Brian and Kevin's work to be far too predictable.
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Callahan's Lady, Spider Robinson. It's a Callahan's novel. Without the space aliens. But with hookers! Spider really was the best choice to continue Heinlein's work (and I do remember what Double Star was about, honest).
Ah, the Callahan books. Those are fun.
The first couple were the best, though. The later ones seemed to be missing something to me.