What books are you reading now?

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 3:16 am

R Scott Bakker's new(er) thriller, Disciple of the Dog, is really good.

It's as smart as anything else he's written, but, unlike Neuropath, it actually reads like a thriller instead of a horror novel. And, unlike every other book of his, he's managed to create a character who is likable and genuinely humorous. Disciple might actually be funny enough to make up for how everything he's written prior to this has been all but bereft of humor.

I got the impression that the book received almost no publicity and generally sold like shit; this is a shame, because I'd love to see more books starring Disciple get written.

His White Luck Warrior is next on my list, and I am extremely excited. I suspect WLW might be better than Dance with Dragons.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:59 am

I've been re-reading the Wheel of Time in whatever order I feel like, and have developed the theory that the BBEG's actual view of the entire events of the series is "Hey, hold my beer while I try this". It explains everything.

Sarandosil · Post by **Sarandosil** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:12 pm

Got the Tao Te Ching on recommendation from several people.

So far it's oddly straightforward. I can't shake the feeling anything this metaphorical that makes sense is probably a whole lot of confirmation bias at work.

Mask_De_H · Post by **Mask_De_H** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:03 am

Sarandosil wrote:Got the Tao Te Ching on recommendation from several people.

So far it's oddly straightforward. I can't shake the feeling anything this metaphorical that makes sense is probably a whole lot of confirmation bias at work.

One of the concepts of Taoism is kind of based off of things being/becoming so simple that they eventually can be done without thought and just *are*. That whole Wu Wei Wu thing.

So it's supposed to make sense and feel completely natural, because Taoism is about following tenets that eventually make sense and feel completely natural.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:40 pm

Bought Rule 34 by Charles Stross earlier today. Pretty interesting near-future speculative fiction with emphasis on how crime has changed. About 80 pages in.

First 3 chapters can be read online here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-st ... -sale.html

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:47 pm

Rule 34 . . REALLY? O.o
They could not have chosen . . i don't know . . some other number maybe? o.O

Also, i am reading Jules Verne - Journey to the moon, right now.

Quantumboost · Post by **Quantumboost** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:54 pm

Stahlseele wrote:Rule 34 . . REALLY? O.o
They could not have chosen . . i don't know . . some other number maybe? o.O

Based on the preview chapters, they chose that number for exactly that reason.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:09 pm

Ha. Postscript: Contains descriptions of crimes that may be unsuitable for those with weak stomachs.

K · Post by K » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:42 pm

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:18 am

Finished "Zoo city" by Lauren Beukes. It's a pretty cool idea on animal totems in the modern world. Reads a little pop culture referency. But the setting overshadows it. Johannesburg by midnight is a pretty damn good setting in my opinion.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 5:58 am

Just finished "A Dance With Dragons" by George R.R. Martin. Worth the wait, I suppose. Aside from the bullshit cliffhanger endings, it was quite good. Now I only need to wait another 3-4 years for the next one...

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:34 am

I got and read Heartless, by Gail Carriger.

The Parasol Protectorate books are some good light reading and...oh, I dunno. They're lessons on how you do the whole "Supernatural Romance" shit and do it right.

Strong cast of secondary characters, leads who don't always get along (and turn bickering into a past-time), so forth.

I sort of like how the whole idea of supernaturals being integrated into society is handled. The time period and setting is Victorian London, early 1870's. Being immortal and getting superpowers parlays into some good social perks, so the vampires and werewolves both are considered high-society and have drones and clavigers respectively--willing human servants of that particular group, who are given status among each (sort of "Yes, I'm considered part of the group") and on a sort of waiting list to be made immortal. First, you have to prove you're useful and you're someone they can stand being around for potentially forever. Second, you have the survive the conversion. Most people don't.

It's actually a believable "What if" evolution. There's a lot of mention of nations and groups who have a strong anti-supernatural bent, and places were life is not nearly as pleasant. One mention that gave me the willies is the Templars declared themselves Infallible.

So, good series for light reading. First book is Soulless, author is Gail Carriger. Next books are Changeless, Blameless, and Heartless. Next one's due out in March.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:51 pm

PoliteNewb wrote:Just finished "A Dance With Dragons" by George R.R. Martin. Worth the wait, I suppose. Aside from the bullshit cliffhanger endings, it was quite good. Now I only need to wait another 3-4 years for the next one...

Meh, there was a fair chunk in the middle where I thought it was bullshit, but other than the Wall, I don't think that any of the cliffhangers where any more cliffhangery than the end of any chapter.

SPOILER!

Fuck the Wall ending so hard. Either he dies, and Martin is the mos epic troll that you will ever know who ends the last book with the White Walkers killing everyone and him laughing in a pile of money, or more likely, he totally lives because of... who gives a fuck, Melisandre sorcery or something, and then, that ending is fucking bullshit where he ends the book horribly just to punish you for enjoying the series.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:37 pm

Kaelik wrote:Meh, there was a fair chunk in the middle where I thought it was bullshit, but other than the Wall, I don't think that any of the cliffhangers where any more cliffhangery than the end of any chapter.

I'd agree they're not worse than the ending of any chapter...they're just cliffhangery in this case because the end of the chapter is also the end of the goddamn book.

While you're right (completely and 100%) about the Wall ending, I also thought the whole Meereen storyline ended on kind of a crap note.

It's basically as if he decided to end book 2 BEFORE the battle of the Blackwater, not after. WTF? And the Daenerys part was just icing on the cake.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:47 am

The end of the Dark Tower series was worse.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 3:47 am

Got a hold of Through the Language Glass, by Guy Deutscher (Thanks, Catharz).

Holy shit you need to be on your language game to read it!

"after years of travail, it was Louis Le Laboureur..."
"big thinkers in their grandes oeuvres have not always risen much above little thinkers over their hors d'oeuvre."

Very clever and very interesting.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:15 pm

I hate losers who write in english, but throw in french expressions to make themselves appear intelligent. It has a certain .. "je ne sais quois"

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:38 pm

Sounds kinda like http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... tousGerman

"The entire Gestalt of the Weltanschauung of these former Wunderkinder was characterized by a certain gemütlich attitude toward each other's Schadenfreude."

in other news, i am reading this here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Ang ... ion_novel)

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:44 am

sabs wrote:I hate losers who write in english, but throw in french expressions to make themselves appear intelligent. It has a certain .. "je ne sais quois"

Considering the focus of the book is not English, but language in general, it's entirely appropriate - the point is to explain how language influences thinking. I just happened to pick two lines involving French, but there are lots of lines from multiple languages in there.

So stuff it.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 4:06 am

"THe Rime of the ancient mariner" by Samuel Coleridge.

It's pretty awesome stuff. Coleridge has some cool imagery.

The water, like witch's oils / brunt green and blue and white.

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 10:09 pm

Brief history of time by Hawkings - Stands up surprisingly well, given it's 30 odd years old.

Makes me wish I had the Maths/Physics ability to actually understand this stuff, rather than merely be informed of it.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:31 am

I picked up a couple books at B&N's bargain bin selection. The aforementioned "Rime of the ancient mariner" was one of the four.

I also got an anthology collection of Burrough's barsoom books. It's interesting and I've gone through several chapters of "A princess of mars."

I also picked up a giant hardback copy of important documents/speeches in American history since the iroquois confederacy to the Obama years.

All of that and a few more books for only 8$.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:00 pm

I finished:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Ang ... ion_novel)
Now am reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Com ... ry_America
Afterwards, gonna read this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_(novel)

And then the Neuromancer Trilogy which i got in one book recently.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 2:09 am

I picked up and read Ghost Story.

Harry vs. He Who Walks Behind is shown in flashback-o-vision, wheren we discover that, despite being literally the first thing Harry beat, He Who Walks Behind is in no way fucking around. He's called that because he has the magical power of always being directly behind you. Including if your back is to a wall, because he can phase through those.

The Dresdenverse took an abrupt turn even further towards the GrimDark, because some nasty dudes called the Formori are in the house, and transformed enough regular people into enhanced servitors that the regular police have begun to notice. It's actually kind of weird, where the hell were these guys previously? Did they spend Dresden's entire life vacationing on Mars? In six months, they've somehow ended up with enough influence to drive paranoia to Invasion of the Body Snatchers levels.

Molly is a Star Trek fan, much to Harry's dismay.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:13 am

name_here wrote:Fomor

They got showcased in a couple of shortstories--Marcone and Murphy have both tangled with them. They breed up/crossbreed critters, like those hellcats Nicodemus uses. They tend to go organic tech, and need a bunch of folks to render down to soup to grow their stuff. They prefer people magic talents and so forth--they can grab as many vanilla humans as they want.

They stayed clear of Chicago partially because of Dresden, mainly because it was Red Court turf.