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Maklershed · Feb 1, 2013

Maklershed · Feb 1, 2013

Hosted by GAF's own Cyan, it's the ...

The book for February/March is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Find it here:
Amazon paperback
Kindle edition

Yen · Feb 1, 2013

Will attempt UBIK again, the opening chapter/prologue was so boring I had to put it down.

teruterubozu · Feb 1, 2013

I read this a couple years ago:

Now I'm reading this:

Both can be dense sometimes, but I recommend them to those "Guns, Germs and Steel" style "reassessment" history fans.

Yenrot said:
Will attempt UBIK again, the opening chapter/prologue was so boring I had to put it down.

Ubik's not for everyone - it's highly satirical and metaphorical. I would read "Flow My Tears the Policeman Said" if you're more into the "Blade Runner" style PKD.

ShaneB · Feb 1, 2013

Last month's thread was probably my most active, and I'm proud to say that! Been loving getting back to reading a lot more since I got the eReader for christmas. I had set my yearly goal to read 12 books, I am going to blow way past that. lol

Started this.

Slygmous · Feb 1, 2013

A collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov that I found at a secondhand bookstore. I think I've read everything in it before, except Nightfall which was hard to locate until now (which is strange as it's considered one of his best).

Maklershed · Feb 1, 2013

Kindle

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Hard copy

The Chase by Clive Cussler

Nezumi · Feb 1, 2013

Still reading:

About halfway through and I'm still somewhat torn. There is something that I like about this book, no doubt, or I wouldn't have read on thus far. I have, however, trouble imagening how the world is supposed to look like. The way he gives details and information about the world seems somewhat limited to me.

Also started Atlas shrugged for the book club. Not so far into it yet but the writing is not so dreadful as I suspected it to be.

BrokenFiction · Feb 1, 2013

Alternating between:

and:

Chronicles%2Bof%2Bthe%2BBlack%2BCompany.jpg

perryfarrell · Feb 1, 2013

Short stories by George Saunders, after reading a fawning write-up in the New York Times about this dude a couple of weeks ago. Looks pretty decent. It's like Philip K. Dick mixed with Pynchon, but gentle and less sprawling.

Just started I Curse The River of Time by Per Petterson, a very good contemporary Norwegian novelist.

pa22word · Feb 1, 2013

It's so underwhelming I may start Neuromancer before I even finish the book...and I wasn't planning on reading it until I finished both Feast and Dance :X

MoGamesXNA · Feb 1, 2013

I've almost finished the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I've really enjoyed them so far but I'm a sucker for teen fiction.

Does anyone have any recommendations for similar fiction with female protagonists (especially if you liked Z for Zachariah, Tomorrow When the War Began, Testament of Jessie Lamb etc)?

KingGondo · Feb 1, 2013

pa22word said:
It's so underwhelming I may start Neuromancer before I even finish the book...and I wasn't planning on reading it until I finished both Feast and Dance :X

Persevere.

While there are definitely slow parts, some of the best stuff in the series is in AFFC/ADWD.

As for me:
Just finished:

Now reading:

MoGamesXNA said:
Does anyone has any recommendations for similar fiction with female protagonists (especially if you liked Z for Zachariah, Tomorrow When the War Began, Testament of Jessie Lamb etc)?

Divergent by Veronica Roth is the new big one. My wife is a teen librarian and absolutely loved it (and it's also being made into a movie).

Maklershed · Feb 1, 2013

MoGamesXNA said:
Does anyone has any recommendations for similar fiction with female protagonists (especially if you liked Z for Zachariah, Tomorrow When the War Began, Testament of Jessie Lamb etc)?

Feed by Mira Grant

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt

MoGamesXNA · Feb 1, 2013

Divergent by Veronica Roth is the new big one. My wife is a teen librarian and absolutely loved it (and it's also being made into a movie).

I just read the description and that sounds brilliant. Many thanks for the heads-up. I'll queue that up for later tonight.

Edit: @Maklershed thanks for those, I'll be hunting down a copy of Eternity Road now as well. I'm a sucker for post-apocalypse fiction, so I'm looking forward to this.

KingGondo · Feb 1, 2013

MoGamesXNA said:
I just read the description and that sounds brilliant. Many thanks for the heads-up.

I've got plenty more recommendations if you want them, so feel free to ask! My wife is a YA fiction addict.

nicoga3000 · Feb 1, 2013

Finally reading the third book of the series. So far, I enjoy it. Quick read, too.

Still deciding what to read next. A not-too-heavy sci-fi would be fun (I view heavy as anything AFTER Speaker for the Dead of the Ender series...). I'll see what the Kindle tells me I should read.

Fjordson · Feb 1, 2013

My reading stalled out a bit towards the end of January, so I figure going back to Abercrombie will get me going again. He has yet to let me down.

Krowley · Feb 1, 2013

Nezumi said:
Still reading:

About halfway through and I'm still somewhat torn. There is something that I like about this book, no doubt, or I wouldn't have read on thus far. I have, however, trouble imagening how the world is supposed to look like. The way he gives details and information about the world seems somewhat limited to me.

I had a similar reaction to Shadow of the Torturer. Ultimately I decided that Wolfe is the kind of writer who has a little too much fun toying with his readers and playing little games for his own amusement. He wants to hide information from the reader and make his world as impenetrable as possible. I found the book a little self indulgent. Still, there are things I really liked about it, and I may pick up the series again eventually.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for what I'm reading at the moment...

Just finished:

Wheel of Time book 14 - A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson = A great conclusion to the WOT series. Highly entertaining and action packed.

No country for old men by Cormac McCarthy = I found it excellent but not as good as The Road. McCarthy's prose is second to none. Everything is so vivid and I love the way he can grab you by the balls and put you on the edge of your seat with just a couple of short sentences. Great, economical, writing style.

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming = This book is so weird. Nothing at all like a Bond movie. Bond is such an incredible misogynist and such a huge dickwad. It actually makes the book more interesting in a way because the character is so far from your typical good-guy type. I really liked this a lot more than I expected. It defied my expectations in a number of different ways.

Dune by Frank Herbert = I'm finally done with this book. after waffling back and forth over whether or not I liked it for months and trying to stay interested, I've finally decided that it's just a flawed piece of fiction. The characters are one dimensional. It jumps around in time too much, skips over important events and focuses on shit that doesn't matter. The writing itself is excellent, and I love the world, but I just don't like Herbert's storytelling style.

Currently, I'm reading:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman = Started this a while back, got halfway through and put it down for a while, always intending to pick it back up. I read so many books at the same time that this happens to me periodically. I love some things about this one but some of the stylistic flourishes annoy me. The little interlude chapters where it jumps away from the story of Shadow to profile how some god or another came to America are especially annoying. Overall, I think I'm loving it a lot more than I'm hating it, though, and if it all comes together at the end, I might decide the flourishes were justified.

Ringworld by Larry Niven = Highly entertaining science fiction book with all sorts of cool ideas and great, larger-than-life characters.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami - This is my first Murakami book and it is amazing so far. I tend to enjoy elements of surrealism in fiction and film, so I think this is going to be a good fit for my tastes.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke = This is a little slow-paced so far, but I'm early. The characters seem interesting, there's some decent humor, and the ideas about magic seem pretty cool.

NekoFever · Feb 1, 2013

I read seven books in January, so I think I'm going to slow down a bit. My target for 2013 was 40 books, and at this rate I'll blow past that.

Right now I'm on...

I read the first four last year when I was in hospital and really liked them. This one's good so far, only I'm about halfway through and it still seems to be setting things up. We'll see.

MoGamesXNA said:
I've almost finished the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I've really enjoyed them so far but I'm a sucker for teen fiction.

This is next on my list. Although I didn't like the second one as much as the original, I'm an unashamed fan when it comes to something fun to blast through.

Nezumi · Feb 1, 2013

Krowley said:
I had a similar reaction to Shadow of the Torturer. Ultimately I decided that Wolfe is the kind of writer who has a little too much fun toying with his readers and playing little games for his own amusement. He wants to hide information from the reader and make his world as impenetrable as possible. I found the book a little self indulgent. Still, there are things I really liked about it, and I may pick up the series again eventually.

Thank you! Good to know that I'm not alone with that notion. As I said I like the book, but yeah, a little bit too self indulgent is exactly the describtion I would choose.

SolsticeZero · Feb 1, 2013

sparky2112 · Feb 1, 2013

Maklershed said:
Hosted by GAF's own Cyan, it's the ...

The book for February/March is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Find it here:
Amazon paperback
Kindle edition

WHY, GOD, WHY?

sparky2112 · Feb 1, 2013

Cornwell is like money in the bank - a little formulaic, but still smooth as butter, and nobody writes better battle scenes. Major plus is this taking place at sea. It's interesting to see him tread the same ground (water, really) as Patrick O'Brian.

Monroeski · Feb 1, 2013

Still reading this -

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

and this -

The Dark Side of the Sun by Terry Pratchett

Should hopefully finish both this weekend, though.

Ala Alba · Feb 1, 2013

I just started re-reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson for the third time.

Finished The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks yesterday.

Nezumi · Feb 1, 2013

Oh, also listening to:

Liking it a lot. Though I have to say that the parts where (spoiler for around halfway book three) Logen

transforms into the Bloody Nine are a bit too harsh. I mean I love Logen and I had a hard time imagening that any part of him would have killed Tul Duru.

sgossard · Feb 1, 2013

ShaneB said:
Last month's thread was probably my most active, and I'm proud to say that! Been loving getting back to reading a lot more since I got the eReader for christmas. I had set my yearly goal to read 12 books, I am going to blow way past that. lol

Started this.

Great book, I think you'll enjoy it.

Just finished this one

and was very disappointed. Is the 3rd book in the series much better than this one?

Just started this one

Monroeski · Feb 1, 2013

sgossard said:
Great book, I think you'll enjoy it.

Just finished this one

and was very disappointed. Is the 3rd book in the series much better than this one?

Was that the one that ended with the

irradiated money that was embezzled from Iraq or something like that

? Hated that ending.

Don't remember much about the third one.

sgossard · Feb 1, 2013

Monroeski said:
Was that the one that ended with the

irradiated money that was embezzled from Iraq or something like that

? Hated that ending.

Exactly. Same book. But I loved Pattern recognition so much that I really want to read Zero history hoping it's more like PR than SC. Any opinions?

themadhatter444 · Feb 1, 2013

Addicted to both. Fools Errand took a good ~35% to pick up, but I'm loving it. I adored the Farseer trilogy and skipped Liveship.

4 Hour Chef is also wonderful and I've increased my cooking skills one hundred fold with little to no effort. Highly recommended.

angelkimne · Feb 1, 2013

Krowley said:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke = This is a little slow-paced so far, but I'm early. The characters seem interesting, there's some decent humor, and the ideas about magic seem pretty cool.

Snap. I'm ~350/1000 pages in. Loving it more and more. Then again, I am British and rather curious about the Napoleonic period. I also live in London so I love recognizing all the place names and imagining what they were like back then. That said, the excellent writing, dialouge, and characterization all helps.

Also reading The Presidents by Stephen Graubard, and It's Even Worse Than It Looks by Ornstein/Mann. Two thoroughly interesting books about American politics. The former has to be one of the most broad and impressive works I've ever read. (An in-depth and totally un-deferential take on every president from TR to Obama.)

Dresden · Feb 1, 2013

A little over halfway through Red Country. Enjoying this far more than The Heroes, which I thought was one-note and far too long for what it was.

I'm surprised by how likable the two main characters are, Shy and Temple. I guess this means one will end up as Caul Shivers 2.0 and the other either dead or crippled.

---

Also went through a little of:

It's . . . decent, but I get the feeling I've read far better work from him.

Mackenzie 92 · Feb 1, 2013

Dresden said:
A little over halfway through Red Country. Enjoying this far more than The Heroes, which I thought was one-note and far too long for what it was.

I'm surprised by how likable the two main characters are, Shy and Temple. I guess this means one will end up as Caul Shivers 2.0 and the other either dead or crippled.

Temple is awesome. I love sarcastic smartass characters like him.

SolKane · Feb 1, 2013

Krowley said:
Currently, I'm reading:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman = Started this a while back, got halfway through and put it down for a while, always intending to pick it back up. I read so many books at the same time that this happens to me periodically. I love some things about this one but some of the stylistic flourishes annoy me. The little interlude chapters where it jumps away from the story of Shadow to profile how some god or another came to America are especially annoying. Overall, I think I'm loving it a lot more than I'm hating it, though, and if it all comes together at the end, I might decide the flourishes were justified.

Ringworld by Larry Niven = Highly entertaining science fiction book with all sorts of cool ideas and great, larger-than-life characters.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami - This is my first Murakami book and it is amazing so far. I tend to enjoy elements of surrealism in fiction and film, so I think this is going to be a good fit for my tastes.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke = This is a little slow-paced so far, but I'm early. The characters seem interesting, there's some decent humor, and the ideas about magic seem pretty cool.

How do you read several books at once? I can only read one at a time when it comes to fiction without losing things from my reading.

nakedsushi · Feb 1, 2013

Started on this but it's slow going b/c I'm not used to the language. It's hard to tell who is talking about whom since some people seem to have two names.

Loving by Henry Green

Also, it's hard to keep the character's straight while watching Downton Abbey at the same time!

sparky2112 · Feb 1, 2013

Cyan said:
Think I'm going to read some YA and other easy stuff this month, to balance out the giant Rand tome.

Rand is YA.

ShaneB · Feb 1, 2013

Cyan said:
Think I'm going to read some YA and other easy stuff this month, to balance out the giant Rand tome.

I figure I should probably read the Hunger Games books, since I did really like the first film. ( edit: changed from loved since I remember the things I didn't like lol)

Krowley · Feb 1, 2013

SolKane said:
How do you read several books at once? I can only read one at a time when it comes to fiction without losing things from my reading.

I used to be the same way, but lately I've cut way back on TV and movies and my main form of entertainment has been reading fiction. And now that I spend so much time reading, I've found that it's sort of natural to read several books at once, in the same way that you might watch several different TV shows during the week from one day to the next.

One day I'll focus on one book, the next day, I might rotate chapters between two or three. Sometimes one book will rise to the top and take all my attention until I finish it.

I'm actually reading even more than I listed, but some are on the backburner until I finish those.

Jarlaxle · Feb 1, 2013

Finished Neverwinter last week and pretty much blew through this one as well. They are what they are but I've been reading them for 20 years now so it's always nice to go back to the characters once a year or so.

I havent' decided what I'm going to read next. I want to keep it somewhat short because I believe ADWD comes out in paperback in March (I waited) and also Wise Man's Fear. I'm looking pretty forward to both of those. I might read the Long Price Quartet between time. That or something like Heroe's Die which has been on my shelf for awhile.

DarkChronic · Feb 2, 2013

Just finished the first Mistborn book last night.

I enjoyed it, but as of now, I'm a little torn if I want to read the sequels. I really enjoyed a lot of the mystery aspects of the novel - The Lord Ruler, the Deepness, the Mist, the ash...that stuff is extremely intriguing and I would love to know more about the world and its past in the later novels.

Unfortunately, the characters felt somewhat flat to me. I sort of cared for Vin, but the rest of the ensemble was hardly memorable. And it's hard to explain, but the writing felt..."childish" for lack of a better word. The dialogue was nothing outstanding and there were a couple of spots where I actually face palmed at the way the characters were interacting with each other.

Regardless, there were some insanely cool ideas found within. What do you guys think? Worth pursuing the sequels? Does the writing get better, and do we get some cool payoffs/answers to some of the deeper underlying mysteries?

nicoga3000 · Feb 2, 2013

Has anyone read the Rho Agenda series? I'm considering that after I finish Hunger Games.

Dresden · Feb 2, 2013

Finished Red Country - this was a pretty badass read, and a nice way to wrap-up this part of the series' history. Amused by Abercrombie subverting the expectations that he'd subvert the expectations of this particular subset of a subgenre. Probably the best ending, and the best novel, from him so far.

Unfortunately Millennium People is falling flat on its face. I think I'm going to just go read War Fever again; Ballard not at his best, may he rest in peace.

Masamune · Feb 2, 2013

pa22word said:
It's so underwhelming I may start Neuromancer before I even finish the book...and I wasn't planning on reading it until I finished both Feast and Dance :X

This is a good idea in all contexts. Very few authors have that fast-passed stylistic edge Gibson can pull off, even in an early novel like Neuromancer. Which, as you probably know, created an entire genre. Far removed from GRRM's long-winded political intrigue. I'm reading Pattern Recognition right now and loving it up and down. One of those books I can't stop reading but wish I could, if only to prolong the enjoyment.

On tap next, I have:

...as soon as I finish Pattern Recognition. It's daunting, but I've heard the accolades around here and I'm ready to give it a go. I've read a few pages and the style looks engaging without being esoteric, so I'm excited.

Dan · Feb 2, 2013

sgossard said:
Exactly. Same book. But I loved Pattern recognition so much that I really want to read Zero history hoping it's more like PR than SC. Any opinions?

Zero History is definitely better than Spook Country. Spook Country was easily the weakest of his latest 'trilogy'. Zero History doesn't reach the peaks of Pattern Recognition, but that's a tall order.

Jarlaxle · Feb 2, 2013

DarkChronic said:
Just finished the first Mistborn book last night.

I enjoyed it, but as of now, I'm a little torn if I want to read the sequels. I really enjoyed a lot of the mystery aspects of the novel - The Lord Ruler, the Deepness, the Mist, the ash...that stuff is extremely intriguing and I would love to know more about the world and its past in the later novels.

Unfortunately, the characters felt somewhat flat to me. I sort of cared for Vin, but the rest of the ensemble was hardly memorable. And it's hard to explain, but the writing felt..."childish" for lack of a better word. The dialogue was nothing outstanding and there were a couple of spots where I actually face palmed at the way the characters were interacting with each other.

Regardless, there were some insanely cool ideas found within. What do you guys think? Worth pursuing the sequels? Does the writing get better, and do we get some cool payoffs/answers to some of the deeper underlying mysteries?

The writing remains on the same level for the last two books. I personally thought the first one was the best one so if you didn't really care for that it might be better to stop. By the end of the third book pretty much every question is answered though in a pretty satisfying way, so I guess it's up to you to decide what weighs heavier for you.

DukeBobby · Feb 2, 2013

I've only just started reading it, but it's very good so far.

Nymerio · Feb 2, 2013

20% into Fool Moon

I fucking hate Murphy.

Mully · Feb 2, 2013

50 pages in so far and it's pretty telling of what has been going on over in Afghanistan the past few years.

Nezumi · Feb 2, 2013

Nymerio said:
I fucking hate Murphy.

Well she isn't my favorite character in the series either but she does get better.

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