I finished Deadly Quicksilver Lies yesterday - it was o.k. but definitely a big step down from the earlier books in the series.

I have started on the next book - Petty Pewter Gods. So far it looks like it is another step down in the quality department.

forgot to mention, also read the new book in the new FR series The Fighters. Master of Chains by Jess LeBow. A good idea, just poorly executed :rolleyes: haven't given up on the whole series yet though. I'll give the next book a shot when it comes out, it may be better.

I wouldn't bother Enaganios, Ghostwalker is even worse than Master of Chains. Forget WOTC, pick up Gardens of the Moon and read some intelligent fantasy. Plus the Malazan books are so long, you have lots of reading material to keep you busy and save on your pocketbook.

I didn;t mind the cleric series, I quite enjoyed it, even just for research for fanfics

I have just started reading 'Mizora: A World of Women' by Mary E. Bradley Lane. Apparently its a Victorian feminist-utopian science fiction novel set inside the (hollow) earth, oh my!

Having finished Midnight's Children (which actually turned out to be quite good, after slugging through the somewhat irrelevant beginning) - I'm now reading Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin.

I read Lady of Poison in the Cleric series. It was quite possibly the worst FR book I've ever read. Okay, thanks Newfie. Problem is: Erikson's books aren't readily available here. They had the whole collection maybe 9 months ago but I didn't have enough money to get it at the time so I passed on it. Now that I DO have the cash all they have left are midnight tides and house of chains..

Am about to start The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follet.

Check out your library, Enagonios. They are pretty popular fantasy books so they might have them. Key to Rebecca is a great Ken Follet book but I liked Triple and Eye of the Needle a little more.

Ah, I'm afraid 3rd-World libraries aren't like the libraries you guys all seem to be used to :eek:

Maybe I'll get lucky and some relative will be visting the U.S. If so, I can order via Amazon, have it sent to the U.S and have it carried home by my relative.

You can get your hands on all the new WOTC stuff but not Erikson? Dungeons and Dragons must be really big where you are. Erikson is pretty big in North America and Europe so you probably can get your hands on it somewhere. Just goes to show how many little things we take for granted here in Canada.

I just finished Petty Pewter Gods - it was an absolute mess.

I am starting on the next book Faded Steel Heat (which is the last one that I have). If there are no signs of a return to the quality level of the earlier books then I will probably not bother looking for any further Garrett novels.

Well, the first Otherland book got much stronger the mid/late stages (or my mood changed)...and then fell apart at the very end. When the characters start saying stuff like, "it's the council of elrond!" and "an unlikely group of heroes bands together to save the world," and aren't kidding, it's time stop reading.

JSBB - told ya' so. Don't bother (although I though Faded Steel Heat was better than Petty Pewter Gods, in no way did it recapture any of the "magic" of the first few books).

the train ride I have ahead of me is going to include taking a good long hard look at Jane Eyre... endeavour to catch the reins, indeed. :bang:

Yeah, so far Faded Steel Heat is a step up from Petty Pewter Gods but that isn't saying a heck of a lot.

Oh well, I picked up the first nine books together as a cheap package deal so I guess I will be happy with the good earlier ones and just forget about the later not so good ones.

Finished China Mieville's (spelling?) Perdido Street Station, and, um...

Well, I highly recommend him. He's up there with Erikson, with the caveat that he probably isn't for everyone--his imagination is a bit too bizarre for that. Take the world from the Arcanum CRPG, then remove all the dwarves, elves, dragons, and other recognizable fantasy critters. Now add in weird stuff along the lines of human females with scarabs for heads. Also add cyborgs, self-aware washing machines, science that's far different from what we know, and you'll have the very tip of the iceberg.

Sounds stupid, doesn't it? That's what I thought when a friend described it to me. Then he gave me the book and I started reading it. It's really, really good.

Currently reading Greg Keys' Charnel Prince. It's been at least six months, probably more than a year, since I read the first book in the series, and the distance is hurting me. I don't have a friggin' clue who the characters are or what the current crisis is. I think I need to stop reading (I'm about 60 pages in) and reread the Briar King first.

Just finished Eragon by Chris Paolini - not bad, just started The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfield

I finally found a copy of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents at the library! Everytime I say that title, I picture Michael Palin doing his greasy emcee impersonation. :lol:

All of the Chris Paolini (sp) books - Eragon and the sequal - have heavy waiting lists. Or I could drive to Nowhere, Labrador and check out a copy. :rolleyes:

I did a review of Perdido Street Station - it's not the wackiness that's the problem, it's the total lack of making that wackiness have something to do with the plot.

The setting is very good, however.

Well I just finished 'Angles and Demons' and let me be the first so say that I hate Dan Brown's genius! :p

I couldn't put that damn book down for 2 nights in a row, and the book ends right as a sex scen is about to begin! That's the *last* place a book should end! :bang:

So now I'm deciding if I should read the 'Chronicles of Narnia' or if I should go out and buy 'Digital Fortress'. I seem to have fallen in to Dan Brown's books, and I really like the Robert Langdon character...I hope he's not only confined in 'The DaVinci Code' and 'Angles and Demons'. :rolling:

I did a review of Perdido Street Station - it's not the wackiness that's the problem, it's the total lack of making that wackiness have something to do with the plot.True to a point, but only to a point; the wackiness is integral to the setting, which in turn is integral to the plot, and the wackiness is no more strange than elves and dwarves and dragons and orcs and...yeah, you get the idea...it's just that it's not the sort of wackiness we're accustomed to.

if I should go out and buy 'Digital Fortress'.No. Don't. I don't care how much you like Dan Brown, don't read that book.

Er ... no, I'm not sure that you quite get what I mean...

Probably spoilers ahead:

You have the setting involving civil unrest, authoritarian governments, class divides, species discrimination, dodgy underworld sorts, funky technology, and other good, original ideas.

And then you have the plot: It's about hunting giant insects.

My problem if that it turns all that juicy setting into merely colour - nice details, but not integral to the story itself. It doesn't hit the issues that matter, which have already all been set up. Instead the characters ... go kill bugs - bleh. How dull.

You have the setting involving civil unrest, authoritarian governments, class divides, species discrimination, dodgy underworld sorts, funky technology, and other good, original ideas.

And then you have the plot: It's about hunting giant insects.
I think you missed something important in the book. That you can boil the plot down to "hunting giant insects" and dismiss everything else outright tells me...

well, I'm damned if I know what it tells me. Point is, that's a gross oversimplification, and the elements of setting you mention all play a role in the plot. In some respects, the plot is merely a tool used to explore those ideas.

It does hit the issues that matter; an oblique approach remains an approach.

No. Don't. I don't care how much you like Dan Brown, don't read that book. I do hope you'll give an explanation for your dislike for 'Digital Fortress'. From what others have said, it's just as good as the 'DaVinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons'. It can't be *that* bad. :confused:

Would you be more willing to recommend 'Deception Point'? :rolling:

@Kitrax

I'm with Amaster. Skip Digital Fortress. 1st off, because if you've read Dan Brown's other novels already, you'll detect early on just who the villain is. Also, iirc it's hist 1st work among the 4, and it shows. It's boring. Deception Point isn't as good as the 2 Langdon novels but it is light years better than the crapola that is Digital Fortress. However, if you're intent on picking it up, go ahead. Might as well grab a copy of Elminster in Hell as well if you're into (as Tal put it) literary S&M ;) :p

@Newfie

Yeah, we get lots of D&D books (which I don't read) Magic: The Gathering books (which I also don't read) and Dragonlance books (which I ALSO don't read :rolleyes: ) but our FR selection is qctually quite limited :( and while Martin has become quite popular recently (I latched on to him a long time ago though thanks to you guys), the demand for Hobb is still very small and Erikson practically non-existent.

I'm now reading Blood Storm by Colin Forbes. It's okay so far. Not nearly as good as his old stuff imo, the characters seem to be acting out of character, Tweed and Newman are getting kinda annoying in this one.

I went to a Lifeline bookfest today and picked up a heap of second hand books cheaply ... but first, to finish Always Coming Home, which is not exactly the easiest thing to read.

And AMaster - guess it's just down to agreeing to disagree :)

The last books I read were Richard E. Leakey's and Roger Lewin's Origins and Terry Pratchett's Thud!

Origins is a rather old book concerning human evolution. Bit outdated really, but not that awful.

Thud! was, well...Terry Pratchett. I loved it. But maybe he's getting a little too repetitive.

Just finished "The Darkness that Comes Before" by R. Scott Bakker.

True its recommendation, this is a great book for anyone who is waiting around for the next Steven Erikson or George R. R. Martin books to come out because it is written in a similar style with events covering a wide area and no characters that are specifically "good" or "evil".

I'm reading The Secrets of Harry Bright by Joseph Wambaugh. His characters and writing are very entertaining.

Lord Of Chaos by Robert Jordan. I'm hoping to get all the way through the series so far. From what I've heard though, it might be best if I didn't :p

And AMaster - guess it's just down to agreeing to disagreeI refuse! You must acknowledge that I am correct, I demand it! I DEMA--er, um...right. Agree to disagree. Gotcha.

True its recommendation, this is a great book for anyone who is waiting around for the next Steven Erikson or George R. R. Martin books to come out because it is written in a similar style with events covering a wide area and no characters that are specifically "good" or "evil". You're the umpteenth person I've heard say that. Will definitely be getting those when they're released as mass market paperbacks.

Just finished Pratchett's "Going Postal" and I have to say that I am not impressed. Sure it is worth reading but ranks among his less good work. Re-read "A hat full of sky" before that and despite it being a "childrens" book it was vastly more entertaining.

Am now reading Diamond's "Collapse" about how and why some societies collapse and cease to exist. Skipped the first fourth of the book cause it was an indepth analysis of Montana and it didnt peak my interest at all. The current look on Easter island is more interesting but Diamond is till too scientific for my tastes. I want more hearsay, anectdotes and legends and not a bunch of cold hard facts!

Just finished Temptation and THe Art of Deception by Nora RRoberts...... not-very-memorable light fluffy romance stuff. did keep me occupied for the bus ride home fromt he city... :D

The problem I find with Pratchett is that he's adding social commentary to his books, and making them darker.

I miss Rincewind....

Still, I still adore his books and buy whatever I can get my hands on, I just wish there were more wet-yourself jokes

I haven't read any since Carpe Jugulum (I think) I've felt he's started to just churn them out, also like Daie I miss the greatest WIZZARD of all time Rincewind. There's nothing like a "oh **** I'm going to die" to get your pulse going and of course you know somewhere lurking in the darkness is the Luggage.

DS, have you read the Last Hero then?

I enjoyed that.

@Daie no what's that one about ?

Conan. :D It's an illustrated book, great stuff. A must have.

http://www.sorcerers.net/Books/index_pratchett.php

Btw, it starts picking up right after Carpe Jugulum. Apart from Thief of Time and Going Postal, I've enjoyed the rest.

:hmm: Perhaps I'll have to borrow some from the bil he's got everything Pratchett

Robin Hobb's "Fool's Errand" has FINALLY become available at the library (it was so popular that I was the 6th person in the queue for it) so I am now reading that. I have high expectations so it had better be good.

@HB

Not as good as the Farseer trilogy, but still very good.

Have finished Blood Storm by Colin Forbes, was quite disappointing imo.

Since so many SP people bring up the game "The Dig" in the playground, I bought a copy of the book by Allan Dean Foster. May start that.

Pratchett is able to combine great social commentary and wonderful humour when he tries. Jingo, Small Gods and others are great exemples of that. Now and then he fails though and a book like "Going Postal" arrives, still worthwhile but not in Pratchett's normal class.

I like it when it is a bit darker and have to say that the worst Pratchett book ever is a Rincewind one, dont really remember the name but the one where he is at that desert place. It is really really really bad.

Monstrous Regiment is a good example of social commentary, and its pretty good. Small Gods and Interesting Times ruled though. I love the slogans of the resistance movement

Going to try and read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Hope I finish it this time.

The World Is Flat, by Thomas Friedman.

I got it for Christmas, and thought I'd never even crack the cover. I was bored, so I did, and it turns out that it's rather fascinating. Highly recommend it.

Decided to put The Name of the Rose on hold again. Am reading Bump & Run by Mike Lupica. It's fiction but it's supposed to be what the real "behind the scenes" goings-on are in the NFL. Good stuff.

Bump & Run is AWESOME. It is SO funny. I had as good a time with it as I did reading the Fletch novels. I'm now reading Prince of Fire, Daniel Silva's latest which I've been waiting for for some time now.

Reading Hobb's Ship of Destiny now. I like the series, its definitely a nice change of pace from all my other books.

Ship of Destiny rules.

I just finished Deadhouse Gates and can't say that it even compares to Gardens of the Moon. Great start, great finish but that little thing called the middle was very boring.

What's with all the death and torture in this one? 10, 000 crucifictions along a road? Shattering a child's limbs and leaving him to suffer? Mr. Erikson must have some really twisted stuff going on in his head. He really kind of turned me off.

I am going to give Memories of Ice a try because he has great descriptive writing, there's no denying that. But before that I am reading Greg Keyes "The Charnel Prince".

Book 3 of the Wheel of Time (again).
Shoot me. Please.

Currently trying to tackle Gardens of the Moon again and I am teetering between getting into it and getting bored of it, need to read it more.
I've just started Fool's Errand as well. Before anyone jumps on me; it's because it's the first Hobb book I found for cheap on eBay, alright?! :p

What's with all the death and torture in this one? 10, 000 crucifictions along a road? Shattering a child's limbs and leaving him to suffer? Mr. Erikson must have some really twisted stuff going on in his head. Possible. Or he's going for versimilitude; that sort of stuff happens, unpleasant though it is.

Oh, I'm sure it does. But it doesn't have to happen in a fantasy novel. There are a lot of things that go on in this world that I really don't want to hear about. Why have it included in my fictional reading?

The book is riddled with it: pogroms, torture, mass executon. If I wanted to read about that I would sit down and read accounts of Nazi Germany's concentration camps. Not something I would pick up and enjoy reading on a rainy day.

The book is riddled with it: pogroms, torture, mass executon. If I wanted to read about that I would sit down and read accounts of Nazi Germany's concentration camps. Not something I would pick up and enjoy reading on a rainy day. A perfectly understandable sentiment. What you're learning, I think, is that Erikson shouldn't be read to escape from the horrors of the world. To be frank, though not, I hope, insulting, I'm surprised you didn't realize that during the first book of the series.

It wasn't as blatant in the first one. It fit into the bill of the book and did not seem overly excessive (if torture and death can be called not excessive). There was enough interesting sub plots and entertaining characters to divert from the morbidity in Gardens of the Moon. There was a story.

Deadhouse Gates seems to spend it's time trying to turn us off. The prison survival, the bloodflies, and all the previously mentioned acts. It seems like he went out of his way to make us squirm and to realize the horrors of his world. We know what happens, Mr. Erikson. Chances are if we are reading your books, we are intelligent enough to know what happens in war. No need to beat us over the head with it.

The purpose of a fictional book is to entertain, especially in a fictional world. If he is writing to make his world more realistic, he did not need to tread this path. It seems very morbid indeed to describe such acts of evil. Hey, I am not one for babying the reader when it comes to realism but am I the only one who found it excessive? I know Steven Erikson is a very detail oriented person, which works to his favour most of the time but not in this case. Discretion please.

The same kind of thing with The Passion of the Christ. Why the hell would I sit down and spend two hours of my life watching a man getting tortured to death? I cannot imagine what he went through but no need to slam it in my face. Is it morbid fascination for some people? It does nothing for me.

I'm reading some fairy tale book written in 1969 which I pivked up at that bookfest. The author wasn't afraid to make it blatent Christian/conservative propaganda...

After a somewhat lengthy (for me at least) time off from reading due to my being on a week long course I have only just got around to finishing reading Faded Steel Heat. It was quite a lot better than the previous book in the series, which was just plain bad, but not quite up to some of the earlier books in the series. Still, if I happen upon the next book for a cheap price I may give it a chance.

I have started on Storm Front by Jim Butcher. So far it has been o.k. but nothing really special. It reads like a second rate knock-off of Laurell Hamilton's earlier Anita Blake novels. That still makes Storm Front much better than Hamilton's last several books though.

I bought an AWESOME book today. It's a sort of anniversary edition of all the Conan stories from back in the day! A lovely leather bound volume that wouldn't look out of place on a shelf in Faerun, it's full of great sketches that accompany the tales of everyone's favourite homoerotic barbarian.

I'm currently reading The Halfling's Gem, looking forward to moving on to The Legacy soon!

I finished Storm Front, my intitial impression was pretty much dead on - o.k. but nothing special. I am starting on book 2, Fool Moon.

I just finished Avatar Trilogy's second book. It was better than I expected. Can't wait to get the third and final book! It is so exciting!

BTW I didn't know Elminster was such a...well...

Anyway, I really expect a lot for the third book. Though I already know the basic consequences of the trilogy...

I really look forward for Bhaal's demise. Playing as a Bhaalspawn was so much fun in BG series that I like Bhaal somewhat. Poor Bhaal. A shame what is going to happen to him. :wail:

@Silverstar

I agree, I enjoyed the Avatar trilogy as well, but (and this isn't a spoiler because it's a "given" like the Bhaal thing) the way they handled Cyric's transition is one of the worst things I've ever read :sick: :bang:

Ah, I've just passed through The Gardens Of The Moon (Black Company, hello!?) and going to start with the Deathhouse Gates now. All this agitation makes me curious. And Sorry is such a fine romantic character. A true heroine!

The fourth book of the "Paths of Darkness" -serie. For some reason Salvatore has a habit to make poor endings. In the first one it was obvious that he just couldn't pity to kill off Drizz and thus ended up being not only forced, but predictable. In the second one Wulfgar's lament was pretty interesting, but you could already see that Salvatore is intent on returning him back to the group and like nothing had happened. Don't agree with Drizz x Catti romance either... Lastly,in the third book he just blatantly turned Artemis Entreri into a good guy when he saved that *itch enemy of his for no other reason than her being a woman. Pfeh. :nolike:

I finished Fool Moon, it was decent but not great.

SPOILER: I kept :rolleyes: everytime the main character came across another bunch of werewolves. Near the beginning we had a nice little explanation about the "four different types of werewolves" and sure enough we had to have a group of each type show up at some point. Come on, what are the odds of the main character having never run into a werewolf before and then withing 48 hours running into four seperate groups with each group being a seperate type of werewolf?

I have started on Grave Peril (book 3). So far it has been better than the first two books in the series.

The Private Life of the Cat Who... by Lillian Jackson Braun.

One that looked interesting at Chapters was The Diary of Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

Just finished Peter David's Knight Lite, and it's easily one of the five most entertaining (not "best") fantasy books I've read. Very, very funny.

Just finished Prince of Fire, Silva's streak is still up and he hasn't disappointed me yet.

Now for the Name of the Rose. Really!

Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn...So ready for a change of scenery from Hobb, Martin, Goodkind, and Jordan...They are all great authors(or started out as) But you can only read their works so many times before it gets old.

CVUrrently going therough Mercedes Lackey's Free Bards anthologyu - am gfoing through the last book and what can I say, i like. a bit cliched but doesn't mean it is not very, very good... also read the first book of the Hewralds of Vandemar trilogy, the Arrows of the Queen. Liked muchly.

On the side, I am reading Laurel K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry books. The first one was mediocre at best, far too heavy on description... I have some hopes for the second one but not many.

@Arabwel - actually the first book in that series reads like a masterpiece compared to all of the others. I am not saying that the first one was good, just that the others are really really bad.

Oh lord, the Merry Gentry books. Awful, awful memories. Ara, I hate you for reminding me of those :p

Reading "Shaman's Crossing" by Robin Hobb and I have yet to make up my mind about it. I dont knwo what to think, the quality of her authorship shines through often but the story itself and where it is going, well, I dont know.

I also think that my recent readings of Jared Diamond to not go well with this book cause they seem to deal with similar topics except then that Hobb does it in a fictional way and by having recently read Diamond I cant stop myself from analysing it from a scientific and historical point of view which removes quite a bit of the fun.

I finished Grave Peril - it was good and I look forward to reading book 4 - the only problem being that I don't have book four and I don't think the Scienc Fiction Bookclub is selling it.

I have started on Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. I am only about 10 pages into the actual story (although I am on page 40 of the book - I think that has to be the highest amount of non-story pages that I have ever encountered at the front of a fantasy novel) so it is far too early for me to form an opinion about it.

Edit: I am on about page 125 now - it is pretty slow going as every time I start reading it I seem to have to fight to stay awake. Maybe the series should have been called The Malazan Book of the Fallen Asleep. I actually nodded off to the point where I dropped the book yesterday. :sleep:

[ February 08, 2006, 16:17: Message edited by: JSBB ]

I decided to try Robin Hobb. I'm starting with Fool's Errand. Or would Assassin's Apprentice be a better place to start? I see that they seem to have the same character, but I'm not sure. I picked up Fool's Errand because it looked quite interesting...

The Fool series is basically a sequel to the Assassin series so you would most definitely be better off starting with Assassin's Apprentice.

Start with the Apprentice, Not with the Errand. The first half of the Errand dates you up on everything that happened since the Quest. And you couldn't savour all bad things happening without some background info. Besides, it's a huge spoiler to know that later books exist. I would never have doubted that Hobb would kill Chivalry Junior off. Am surprised she did not. She lied as she said she hadn't a sequel in mind.

Besides I'm through with the Deathhouse Gates. I think I start with the Memories next Weekend. Feisin was such a Malta! By the by, I start wondering, does anyone die here without being reborn? Instant rebirth and immortality, Ok, that's a little bit Black Company under the command of Bleys of Amber.

I am reading Fool's Errand right now. You definitely need to start with Assassin's Apprentice. Hobb and Erikson rule.

As they said, start with Apprentice.

Currently reading Peter David's One Knight Only, sequel to Knight Lite, and I'm disappointed. It's not nearly as funny as the first book was.

Besides I'm through with the Deathhouse Gates.I think I start with the Memories next WeekendWell, since you finished Deadhouse Gates, I was wondering what you thought. I wrote a review (which is in the index)on this one a while back and I was wondering if your thoughts were similar. What I can tell you is that about half-way through Memories of Ice some of Deadhouse Gates will make more sense. Memories is a great book!

[ February 09, 2006, 07:19: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

They are all great books, Chandos! I wonder when the next one will come out.

Hobb rules, I'm near the end of Fool's Errand after reading the first trilogy. The way her books engage you is incredible, I just can't put it down once I've started reading.
Fitz and his adventures is definitely the best series of books I've ever read. I couldn't tell you a favourite out of them, they all rule. Hobb is my favourite author by far.
I keep trying to read Gardens of the Moon as well, but it never really seems to happen whilst I have unread Hobb books knocking around (have the last 2 of Tawny Man and the Liveship Trilogy to tackle yet!)

@Barmy
I followed my own advice, and got GOlden Fool. However, it's in a queue behind Gardens of the Moon, and Priestess of the WHite, Trudi Canavan's new book, which is great. Did anyone read the Black Magician trilogy?

Finished it. Her books are always really moving. Again, made me sad at the end!!! She just has a thing for bitter-sweet endings doesn't she??

Incredibly good read though, I just want to read the next one now.

I've almost finished Fool's Errand now as well. I see that does include some mention of his journeys to Chalced and Bingtown. These are the main settings for the Liveship Trader books and his comments make more sense for having read those books, but it's not a big deal.

I absolutely love the Liveship series. Actually I love all of Hobbs books, but I haven't read the assassins trilogy in a while, and dont have the money for the rest of the fools errand series(i have Fools Errand).

Currently reading Star Scroll by Melanie Rawn...different view on dragons and magic thats for sure.

Just read the first 3 chapters of Golden Fool. I have put it down for the night because my eyes are thrashing. This last week or so I've done entirely too much reading and my eyes are killing me!!

Looking good though. As always. I want to have Robin Hobbs babies.

@HB

the Liveship trilogy doesn't really have a big bearing on the Tawny Man trilogy. It just helps because you know what went on when they make these little references to it.

@Barmy

If her kids are anything like her writing: You want kids that'll have to grow up way tooo early and take more crap than anyone else in the world?? ;) :p

Currently reading Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing, and it's rather funny. I've been chuckling every other page or so.

Also just finally found a mass market paperback copy of Deadhouse Gates. Do I need to reread Gardens of the Moon before I start it? I don't really remember anything from Gardens...

Still reading Lackey... working my way through Winds of Change and being rather bored. Enjoyed Exile's Honor ans Take A THief immensely, and am hoping to get my hands on Exile's Valor soon... Alberich is AWESOME :love:

I'm slooooowly making my way through The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago - but I have so much school stuff to do (plus a severe Mount&Blade addiction) that it's not going to be finished any time soon.

I've abandoned Always Coming Home - maybe some other time...

Starting rereading Gardens of the Moon in preparation for Deadhouse Gates, and boy oh boy, I'd forgotten just how kickass it is. Best thing since sliced bread? Just might be.

Also, I don't seem to have any trouble following what's going on, and it's been so long that I read it that everything seems new. I guess I'm just paying more attention this time.

Hrm. I think I'll have to hang up Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose again for a while. I got farther than I did last time though and it's getting pretty interesting...

but I think I'll go for a quick read right now of The Dig by Alan Dean Foster. I picked it up bec it's a novelization of a game that a number of SPers say was cool.

I never had much interest in biographies, but I'm currently in the middle of Roy Buchanan: American Axe, by Phil Carson, and I must admit that it's very good to read. This may partly be because of Buchanan's interesting personality; he wanted to become the greatest guitarist that ever lived, but still wished to avoid the spotlight as much as possible. He might have succeeded at both.

Just finished Sunrunners Fire by Melanie Rawn....trying to decide what to read next.

I have begun reading "Kane of Old Mars" by Michael Moorcock. The book is a homage to the Martian tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Being an admirer of both Moorcok and Burroughs, I have high expectations.

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

Eric Flint's Mother of Demons. Pretty good "starting life on another planet" stuff.

I'm currently reading "The Dreams In the Witch-House and other Weird Stories", by H.P Lovecraft.
Lovecraft is definitely my favorite horror writer of all time, mostly due to his use of language to create the most incredibly vivid images.

Just finished "Fool's Errand" by Robin Hobb. Great stuff.

Now reading "Golden Fool" by Robin Hobb.

picked up the Kama Sutrra when i was in the city. Should be a fun read :D

At the moment I'm reading assasin's quest by Robbin Hobb. It took me ages to get my hands on it but it was worth it.

After working from home most of last week (and thus not having my daily reading time on the train) I finally got around to finishing Gardens of the Moon yesterday. I found the first 150 pages to be absolutely brutal - the writing was just terrible. After that it suddenly got much better so that the rest of the book was fairly decent. I wouldn't say that I liked it nearly as much as most of the people here seem to though. The plot was decent enough but there was not enough focus on developing the characters and the descriptions of the action tended to make what ought to be exciting seem almost dull. Lastly, Erikson seems to like to create uber characters almost as much as Simon Green does - the problem being that Green's uber characters are typically interesting and quirky while Erikson's were just overpowered.

I have started on 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber. For me 1632's appeal was based upon the characters more than anything else but this time out they seem flat and dull with more of the focus being on the big picture.

1632 was a fairly interesting book with many intriguing culture clashes. 1633 is a quite boring wanna-be Tom Clancy political thriller.

JSBB, the appeal and greatness of Gardens of the Moon isnt completely apparent until you either reread it with more focus and concentration which is hard to keep up the first time due to it being quite overwhelming and admittantly a bit incoherent at times or if you continue with the series which gives you the bigger picture.

I didn't really find Gardens of the Moon to be overwhelming - there are a lot of (woefully underdeveloped) characters and things going on but I was able to follow the plot without any troubles.

*stands up*

Hello, my name is Colthrun and I am reading the fourth book of the Wheel of Time... again.

*sits down, rubbing his hands*

I actually complely disagree with you there JSBB, one of Erikson's greatest strengths is in my opinion his ability to develop deep characters with quite a small amount of text for each character. Yes, you get to know the characters of Hobb and Martin better and they may be better developed but they have a completely different style and compared to most authers I find Erikson's characters to be much more intriguing and developed despite not being given huge amounts of texts and lenghty dissertations about motives and thoughts. I get more attached to some bi-character given very little space in Erikson's work than most main characters in other novels.

JSBB - Joacquin has the right of it. Erikson's writing IS hard work, but it is so rewarding. Erikson breathes more life into 100 characters than most authors manage to breathe into 3. I know more about a minor character like Picker or Lady Envy in Erikson's books than I do about just about anyone in, say, a Terry Brooks book.

Wheel of time is nice. Will it ever end. For myself I am reading an old classic by the master mr J. Vance. many will know it: Suldrun's garden. Poor little lass

I agree with JSBB - I did find the characters underdeveloped in Gardens. But that is something that Erikson fixed in Deadhouse Gates, but he slowed down the pace of the narrative to do so. But I thought Gardens was throughly engaging, despite the lack of character focus. IMO, Gardens was just a great story. I going to go back and read it again while waiting for the release of House of Chains.

The Dig by Alan Dean Foster. Got sidetracked by Agtatha Christie :/

Reading The Great Gatsby for my English class for the second time. Brilliant writing style and all, but as a whole it doesn't really appeal to me...

I got my grubby little hands on Exile's Valor by Mercedes Lackey so I should be spending many happy moments with tthat one - Lackety is a wee bit fluffy in her weriting but damn, Alberich is such an awesome character :D

Currently reading Device and Desires by K. J. Parker. I love this guy's style and refreshingly mimetic approach to fantasy. Not quite as good as the Scavenger Trilogy so far, but still mighty fine. I'm not too far in yet either, and I have a feeling it's going to get much better.

David Weber's Short Victorious War

When I feel the need for some spaceships to explode, Weber satisfies.

Aiky, I just finished my Gatsby coursework, and never want to see it again.

I finished 1633 - it wasn't nearly as good as I had expected. It was trying to do far too much considering the length of the book. Besides the characters who were interesting in 1632 suddenly becoming dull and boring in 1633, what really annoys me is that they set up three seperate main plot areas and resolve none of them. From what I gather each one will have a seperate 1634 book to resolve it.

I have started on Princess of Wands by John Ringo. It has Ringo's usually pulpiness but it is actually fairly entertaining so far. I was about 90 pages in and wondering how on Earth the plot could possibly keep going for the rest of the novel when I was taken completely by surprise by the story actually ending. It turns out that there are at least two seperate stories in the book. I have not started the second one yet but I imagine that it will be further adventures of the first story's main character.

The fifthbook in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Its quite allright, am about a 4th into it now. Cool series I must admit.

I want to have Alberich's bsbies. *is halfway through Exile's Valor* The book is decent enough, although Lackey's obvious self insert is rather annoying - and so very Mary Suey - but LAberich more than makes up for it.

and he so totally should have gotten together wth Selenay.

I am reading a bunch of Russian short stories, by very many different writters. I think I will start "Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" trilogy by Terry Brooks before I am finished.

Well, I am halfway through "Golden Fool" and I am stunned that anyone could possibly recommend reading this trilogy before The Liveship Traders given that it contains MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR spoilers as to what happens in that series. For anyone wanting to get the most out of reading Robin Hobb, there is no question you should read them in this order:
1 - Farseer Trilogy
2 - Liveship Traders Trilogy
3 - Tawny Man Trilogy

Just read the first couple of paragraphs of Fool's Fate.

For the first time: A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R.R.R.R. Martin.

I like it - I finished the first two books and am now reading The Storm of Swords. It's still good, but the plot seems to be dilluting somewhat - there are too many POV characters and not that much happens to all of them. This isn't going to turn into another Wheel of Time is it?

Vukodlak - no, Song of Ice and Fire is much tighter than the ever rolling Wheel of Time.

Harbourboy, the order you've given is the order that's listed on SP and the order in which the books were written... So it's hardly surprising that it makes the most sense.

Well Vukodlak, I am one of the biggest Martin fans around but I am sorry to say that I saw some WoT tendencies in the fourth book of aSoIF. Others disagreed with me though so I reckon you will have to make you own judgement. I however am a bit fearful as to where Martin is going, as an upside Jordan's latest was a step in the right direction and I still think he can salvage the entire series.

Tal - there seem to be plenty of people around who think it is OK to read Farseer then Tawny Man, just because none of the Farseer characters are in Liveships, but I can now see that it would be disastrous to do so. Oh well, Golden Fool is great so far.

Nah, nah, nah. I completely disagree. I'd rather have people read Tawny man directly after Assasin's Quest instead of not mangaging to finish Ship of Magic. I at least could not finish Ship of Magic until I've finished Tawny Man. And things only get interesting (but very then) with Mad Ship.

There is no need at all to read Liveship-Traders before Tawny Man. You just going to be baffled like Kentricken if someones pretends that her dragons were not real. But there is only a very vague story connection. It's the background about the elders that gets clearer, but that does not necessitate a preset sequence.

Vice-versa one can say reading Liveship Traders afterwards gives some background info on the elders and while dealing with different stories of different people in different places. Both trilogies give in a random manner fragments of the Elders away that together yield a bigger picture.

a very vague story connection Huh? The ENTIRE plot of the Liveship Traders trilogy is revealed in Golden Fool! How is that vague? Anyway, this is probably getting a bit off-topic so if anyone else wants to debate the order of Hobb books, we'd better start another thread.

Reading David Weber's In Enemy Hands, and I have to say I'm impressed. This book, and the previous book in the series, might just be moving out of the realm of pulp military scifi.

I finished Princess of Wands - I actually liked it quite a bit. As with all of Ringo's work it is certainly no literary masterpiece but it is enjoyably pulpy and most definitely not sappy like the title might lead you to believe.

I have started on Bolo by David Weber. So far it has been fairly mediocre. The characters and plot are so predictable and cliche that Weber ought to be ashamed of himself.

@HB

while that's true, (that golden fool spoils the whole liveship trilogy) what Iago probably means is that while the events that happened in liveship affect the Tawny Man, it's not necessary to read it in order to fully appreciate Tawny Man. It just gives it more background because you actually know who these people are and what they refer to. That's what I think he meant. That's what I mean at least :D

Yeah, but it means you could never really enjoy reading The Liveship Traders if you'd read Tawny Man first. Half the fun of Liveships is the slow revelation of the mystery.

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook. I didn't realize it was the basis for the movie out, but it sounded good fro mthe blurb. It's not a book I would recommend though. Sarah Hurlihy (protagonist) is too much of an indecisive doormat for my tastes.

I just started _A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America_, since I'm almost finished with _Fool's Errand_.

But I don't get this part of the story: "Is Fitz really pretending to be Lord Golden's man-servant, Robin Hobb?"

Robin Hobb: "Why yes, Chandos. That's why he does many of the things he does in a large part of the story."

"Well I'm not sure I get it, that he's just pretending and all..."

Robin Hobb: "Don't worry, Chandos; I'll just repeat it 1200 times during the story. And at the end of every paragraph. I will also explain why he unpacks things, and opens the window and goes to the stable and sleeps on a hard bed, and...well...I'm sure you will get it at some point" ;)

"Gee, thanks, Robin Hobb. I should get it by then...I think." ;)

Should have read the rest first.

If you're frustrated with Hobbs 'slow-pace' I'd suggest you give most fantasy books a wide-berth (save Eriksson, who bombs along so fast you lose what the hell he's talking about).
Hobbs characters are by far the richest I've ever known, and the way she has advanced Fitz through the books is magnificent.

Brilliance.

The theme with Fitz not being good as servant is followed through all three parts of the tawny man. He just wasn't raised that way. You get some more clues on the second and third part. Particularly the second part. There's a big hint on that at the end of Ship Of Destiny:


"You worry too much.... Humans live such short lives. I believe they have little impact on the world. So Wintrow will not be a priest. It is probably no more significant than if a man who was meant to be a king became a philosphical recluse instead."

"Oh, ship," she rebuked him softly. "Was that meant to be comforting?"

It would seem that Hobb is deserving of her own thread. So, I responded on the topic thread for Hobb.

I finished Bolo yesterday - it had a few good moments but for the most part it remainded far too cliche and predictable.

I have started on Beyond World's End by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. So far it has been quite good.

I recently started "The sun also rises", by Ernest Hemingway.

At work (lunchtime) I am reading and old pulp sci-fi novel called "Return to the Stars" by Edmond Hamilton.

I finished "Player Piano", by Kurt Vonnegut. It was great. The ending was perfect. He consistently blows my mind.

I finished Beyond World's End. I really liked it. The characters were interesting and so was the plot. On top of that the writing style was very good and surprisingly consistent for a co-authored book.

I have started on the next book in the series - Spirits White as Lightning. I am a little concerned about the level of co-incidence that appears to be going. There are two big co-incidental things so far.

The first will either turn out to really be a co-incidence in which case it will be a really lame plot hook, or, I am hoping, it is not a co-incidence and there is some sort of scheming going on.

The second co-incidence is just plain stupid.

Actually come to think of it there was a pretty big co-incidence near the end of Beyond World's End. It didn't bother me all that much at the time but it kind of looks like part of a bad trend now.

I have dived into Wheel of Time again, along with my other millions of books. I am now reading:

Wolf Brother, Michelle Paver
Bloodsong, Melvin Burgess
Priestess of the WHite, Trudi Canavan
Lord of CHaos, Robert Jordan
Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson


And that's before I even mention my reading for my studies:

Interview with a Vampire, Anne Rice
Frankenstein, Mary SHelley (yuck, I hate this book)
The Aeneid, Virgil IN LATIN!
about 4 English Civil War books, most of them by Peter Young.


I read way too much. My head shall explode soon, I think.

I'm about to start Deathstalker Coda by Simon Green and then I'm going to try Deadhouse Gates

Jane Eyre

I finished Spirits White as Lightning - it was shockingly poor compared to the previous books in the series. I am going to have to go back and check out the first co-incidence mentioned in my last post to make sure that I didn't get the facts wrong initially because that co-incidence turned out to be completely unimportant to the plot.

I have started on the next book (Mad Maudlin). So far it has been decent enough. Hopefully it will stay that way.

David Weber's War of Honor.

Pretty good, actually. My initial reaction was, "oh, he's just artificially extending the series to get more money. No one could be as stupid as these politicians." And then I thought about real-world examples of idiotic, politically motivated military decisions (Iraq, Somalia, Lebanon, Vietnam, the pre- and early-war decisions Stalin made, Hitler, the utterly unnecessary slaughters of the First World War, and so on) and realized that, actually, it's not unbelievable at all. So I'm having fun with it.

I just finished Mad Maudlin - it was really quite good which was a welcome surprise given how poor the previous book was.

That being said, I still don't quite know what to make of some of these stupid coincidences that Spirits White as Lightning introduced - they have not had any significance to the plot so why would the authors include them? There is either some really weird long term planning going on here or they are just plain poor decisions. All they have done so far is to stretch plausibility to the breaking point.

Tomorrow morning I will be starting on the next book in the series - Music to my Sorrow.

I've more or less given up on the WoT 200 pages into the sixth book. TBH, I just couldn't handle reading it much more. I will come back to at some point, but I've just started reading Bernard Cornwell's Harlequin. This will be the third time I've read it and it's still fresh each time I read it. I have the other two in the series, so there's no doubt I will fly through them before I move on.

Just finished "The Golden Fool" by Robin Hobb. Great book. Now starting "Fool's Fate" by Robin Hobb.

The Vampire Mountain by Darren Shan. We read the first part of the series during school, and I fell in love with it. Too bad only the first 4 books out of 12 are translated into Finnish. I'll have to find the English versions.

As for the book, it falls somewhere between horror and fantasy. The vampires are different when compared to the common picture of vampires - for example, they don't kill their victims. Better not reveal the plot thoughoutly. If you're a youth like myself, I'm sure you'll like this one, so check it out. :)

Darwin's Radio - Greg Bear. Excellent book.

Yes, Darwin's Radio is quite good. One of Bear's stronger recent efforts.

Having finished War of Honor, I'm now reading Erikson's Memories of Ice. As expected, it's superb.

I just finished Music to my Sorrow - I liked it - it was at the level of the other books in the series - that is if you excluding Spirits White as Lightning which definitely stands out as a lone dud in an otherwise enjoyable series.

I really don't know what I am going to start on tomorrow morning - I don't want anything heavy as I only have two days before I take off for my business trip to China.

Reread some Ringo or Weber?

I settled on rereading Guilty Pleasures by Laurell Hamilton. The more recent books may be garbage but the first few Anita Blake books were quite good.

Edit: I managed to finish Guilty Pleasures and The Laughing Corpse (book 2 in the series). It looks like that will be it for reading until I get back from China.

[ March 10, 2006, 04:32: Message edited by: JSBB ]

I'm still plowing therough Gardens of the Moon, but I've also started Fool's Fate, by Hobb.

I'm sad to have reached the last Fitz book, but at least I've still got Liveship Traders to read, and SHamans crossing.

Not another person who read Tawny Man before Liveships? *sigh*

Anyway, I am still reading Fool's Fate as well. It's great so far. There have been some quite emotional parts so far.

I read Tawny Man next because I wanted to know what happened next. I'm loving it so far, I'm about a third of the way through it. I'll be finished by Wednesday, since I've got 5 hours of train journey.

@JSBB

wow :eek: you must be some accountant for them to fly you around as much as they do, must be fun :)

just finished Ressurection, finale in the WotSQ by Paul S Kemop. Ending kinda pissed me off. I'm now back to The Dig.

Finished Memories of Ice, and it continued to kick ass throughout.

JSBB's earlier point about Erikson making overpowered characters seemed valid to me, until this book, which made it clear that the overall story arc is about a contest of gods. That being the case, it stands to reason that the players in the contest are going to be a tad, ah, powerful.

Now started Glen Cook's Tyranny of the Night. It's quite good, though not Erikson or Martin good.

I read Bedlam Boyz by Ellen Guon on the flight from Canada to Hong Kong. It was pretty poor although given that Mercedes Lackey wasn't involved in writing this one I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it isn't as good as the rest of the series. Oh well, I downloaded it for free from the Baen Free Library so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

starting The Armageddon Rag by GRRM

Just finishing _In Search of the Dark Ages_ by Michael Wood, and starting _Exile's Return_ by Raymond Feist.

My Fool's Fte progress was impeded by my friend giving me a copy of A Game of Thrones. Now I have to go and get Clash of Kings from my library.

I'll finish Fool's Fate tonight though.

Just finished Fallen Dragon by Peter Hamilton. I found it to be a rich and multi-layered story in the true SF tradition. It's interesting that the reason for the title doesn't become clear until near the end :)

just got done with "the king's own" by lorna freeman . the first book in the series(covenants) was more enjoyable imho but i can't quite say why? :hmm:

Hmm, I've been lazy in telling you all what I've been reading (which admittedly hasn't been much).
Since finishing The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (and not finishing Gatsby), I've read Midnight Blue by Pauline Fisk and Thoughtworld by Terry Greenhough. Both of them were random books I picked up cheaply, and made for nice light reading. Midnight Blue had a nice sense of the magical, while Thoughtworld had some nice imagery in parts, but was certainly nothing special.

Next I think I'll be moving on to Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling.

I've finished Fool's Fate, and am now reading Clash of Kings by Martin, and The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe.

A hundred or so pages into Homeland. It's been a while since I've read anything in FRand I thought I'd get into it again before I start my next run through of Icewind Dale.

Finished Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn, now alternating between "Naruto" mangas and Zelazny's Amber novels.

Just finished Fallen Dragon by Peter Hamilton. I found it to be a rich and multi-layered story in the true SF tradition. It's interesting that the reason for the title doesn't become clear until near the endI would like Hamilton a great deal more if he weren't so fond of resolving his plots with Deus ex machinas. At the end of Night's Dawn [alleged] trilogy, IIRC, he essentially gives the protagonist a magic wand. Unsurprisingly, the protagonist uses this "wand" to fix all the seeminly unfixable problems overwhelming humanity--in perhaps twelve pages. I believe Fallen Dragon ended in much the same way, albiet with the resolution solving the protagonist's personal problems rather than humanity's crises. I find that sort of resolution utterly unsatisfying.

Over spring break (that is, last week) I read three of the books in Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Man Who..." series. They confirmed my belief that Donaldson's most famous work--Thomas Covenant--is his weakest work. Which isn't to say I think the Thomas Covenant books are poor. I merely believe that the Gap and Man Who... cycles are significantly better.

I understand what you mean, but don't quite agree as far as Fallen Dragon in concerned. The power available to Lawrence was not really unexpected or introduced suddenly, in fact it was foreshadowed through the stories told by Denise to her students (which we find out later were history, not fiction). I actually found the end very enjoyable in that all the questions are answered, even though they required the cliche time paradox wherein Lawrence provided himself with the Prime which essentially enabled him to make the mistake he regretted and at the same time "correct" the mistake as an older and wiser (in mind, yet the same age physically)Lawrence. Yet the mistake was not erased; the events of those 20 years still happened and Lawrence was able to learn from his experiences.

In my opinion what makes good SF is how the human condition is explored during the story, and I thought Fallen Dragon did that very well. There is the political backdrop of corporation control and stakeholding; there is the expansion of humanity from Earth as a way of trying to change the mistakes made on Earth, yet most of the expeditions are tied to Earth due to the enormous expense and are thus subject to the "asset realization" missions from the corporations to which they are indebted; there are the resistance movements and their varying reasons for their resistance (as seen through the eyes of Lawrence during the missions he was on), and then there are the personal agendas of people like Lawrence, Denise and Simon. Like I said, I found it very rich and multi-layered; I suppose your mileage may vary :)

I'm reading the Forever War by Joe Haldeman and then the list is in no order
Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson
The Demon Princes - Jack Vance (classic re-read)
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe (classic re-read)
More than Human - Theodore Sturgeon (classic re-read)

Like I said, I found it very rich and multi-layered; I suppose your mileage may varyOh, I found it rich and multilayered; the ending just pissed me off. That's how I've respond to all the books of his I've read, actually. I enjoy the novel, then I get to the end and emit a stream of profanity, along with words to the effect of "you've got to be kidding."

Armageddon Rag was awesome imo. Just finished The Light Fantastic and am nearly through Equal Rites, both by Pratchett

finished both Equal Rites and Sourcery and am about to start on Guards! Guards! all by Pratchett

Cool, I finally finished "Fool's Fate" by Robin Hobb. I thought it was brilliant. There were some really emotional bits toward the end. I can't believe that saga was actually nine books long, as it seems to have been over so quickly. Hmm, what to read now.....

Cat's Eyewitness - Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Browne

Just finished "The Halfblood-prince" Rowling keeps going somewhat strong. Not brilliant literature in any way but worthwhile and they sure are page turners.

Reading "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. Lord this book owns. Just one question, where does he get most of his facts from? Training, rituals, names, beliefs and such? Or is it just fiction?

I agree, Gates of Fire is one of my favorite works of historical fiction, if not my favorite. AFAIK many of those details are factual. Not really sure where he gets his info, perhaps from other books. I did a search on amazon.com and there are a number of books that discuss early Spartan culture.

Do yourself a favor and skip Tides of War. After Gates of Fire it is crap. I have Last of the Amazons as well but I haven't read it yet. The reviews are quite good though, it's supposedly better than Gates. I seriously doubt it though.

The complete Chronicles of Narnia

Well I'm blown away... Am like halfway through and am loving it. Think I might have got some historical fiction loving going on here :)

Could you guys recommend me some nice history books, never mind the period or theme. Like the idea that something is based at least loosely on facts :)

The Star Trek Encyclopedia

@Mel

I think that the most popular historical fiction author right now is Valerio Massimo Manfredi. You could check his stuff out. I've only read Spartan and Tyrant but they were both pretty good. Nowhere near Gates of Fire quality though.

Also, as I already mentioned, I suggest staying away from Tides of War, Pressfield's other book. It is, imo, crap. And although I haven't read it yet, reviews say that his last one, Alexander: Virtues of War was mediocre. It was better than Tides (not hard to be) but very much short of Gates. You could try out the Last of the Amazons though. Many people prefer it to Gates.

Could you guys recommend me some nice history books, never mind the period or theme. Like the idea that something is based at least loosely on facts Historical fiction, or actual history books?

Historical fiction, or actual history books? Well to be honest I think both :) Thing is I get so impressed reading Gates of Fire that I end up searhing Interent for the smallest of references mentioned :) Like Marathon battle for example. Took me a whole day (no kidding there) to have read enough so I can continue reading Gates :) Problem is that most of the stuff I've found are short and don't explain things in great detail like I would have liked it :/ So I'll hit our library later today and see if I can find some more there :) And this is just one reference. There are 100s that I would like to check up on :p

So even if I am to read fiction I would still have to read history books that I strangely find myself burning to read now :p

So fire away mates, no need to be gentle ;)

@Enagonios
thanks mate I'll look this Manfredi fellow up. Damn shame that rest of Stevens books are not up there with Gates :( Wish I've read his books from worst to best perhaps :)

Np :)

Wish I've read his books from worst to best perhaps hehe, probably not advisable as you would probably get sick at the worst stuff and never even get to Gates :p

A good way to find similar books would be to look for Gates of Fire on amazon.com and then check out what "other users that bought this also bought:" I've picked up a number of good ones from there, the reviews of some users are also very helpful.

"About Time!" by Robyn Pearce.

For the life of me I don't know why but I grabbed Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind before I left for work this morning. I received it as a gift when it was first released in hard cover and it has been sitting there unread ever since.

So far it has been a step up from the previous book in the series but that isn't saying a hell of a lot. It is decidedly mediocre but given how low my expectations were that is actually a pleasant surprise.

Edit: I finished Pillars of Creation. I spoke too soon when I made my original post - this book turned out to be brutally bad. Intelligent characters frquently act like morons and the main character after being horribly gullible for the entire novel just has an Aha! moment at just the right time and figures everything out.

I have started on Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon. So far I am not impressed. The first book in this series was disappointing and this book looks to be even worse.

Hmm, I just checked my reading log and amusingly March did not mess up my reading pace despite my three weeks in China with almost no reading. I have been averaging eight books per month and as it turns out I finished eight books in the first ten days of March.

[ April 04, 2006, 22:10: Message edited by: JSBB ]

Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies

A compilation of diaries from (allegedly) ordinary Japanese folks circa WWII. Rather depressing, so far. The diary of a kamikazee pilot was...

I don't have the words, really.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown...
After Gates of Fire it feels cheesy :) But I don't have anything else to read so :/

Mel - Here's a few good historical fiction novels I've read:

Shogun by James Clavell
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Death of the Fox by George Garrett

d'oh! :doh: forgot to list Shogun! Good thing you mentioned it Chandos

Love you Chandos. Now let me just finish Angels and Demons and I'm all set :p

Ordered "Last of the Amazons" and "Spartan" by Massimo fellow should arrive next week

During my lunch break I finished Marque and Reprisal - it got better as it went along but it still wasn't great.

On the train home I will be starting Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin.

Reading Ship of Magic, the first in the Liveship Traders trilogy...

... and it's already boshed my head out!

You're telling me the Fool was actually a lass? Give yourself up...

This is nowhere near as good as the Farseer books. I'm still trying to work out who the protaganist is... it appears to be Althea, but the book spends a lot of time with other characters as well.

it's certainly a much different writing style she's employed this time.

This is nowhere near as good as the Farseer books. No, it's better :p

Taking a break from the parade of depression that is wartime diaries and am reading Smoker by Greg Rucka. Pretty good thriller stuff.

You're telling me the Fool was actually a lass? Give yourself up...
BA - Thanks for giving that away. :rolleyes:

This is nowhere near as good as the Farseer books. No, it's better. What AMaster said.

And I don't think that any book truly reveals the real nature of the Fool.

Finished Smoker--which was fun throughout--and am now rereading Dan Simmons' Ilium in preparation for its sequel, Olympos. It's even better than I'd remembered. I <3 Dan Simmons.

Illium and Olympus were two of those books you just happen to pick up at the library and you find yourself enjoying a lot. Very interesting and entertaining books.

Me I am now reading Bonehunters and man, Erikson rocks. It is just as good as the previous installments. Only slight criticism I have is that the story lines seems to be even more shattered in this one, instread of a few main ones as in the previous books everything is getting covered at once meaning we get a few paragraphs about everyone and everything in one big mess. It isnt bad really, just different. Every character from the previous books have gotten some action around 2/3 into the book and that must be good.

I disagree. It's a matter of preference HB. The Liveship Trader trilogy had more fantasy elements in it but imo the Farseer trilogy was far more involving.

Now starting Moving Pictures by Pratchett.

I finished Tuf Voyaging on Saturday. It was quite enjoyable even if Martin belaboured the obvious biblical/ethical issues a little too much.

I started reading Talon of the Silver Fox by Raymond Feist on Sunday and I finished it this morning. I had previously read it but I wanted to refresh my memory before I read the rest of the series.

I will be starting King of Foxes either today or tomorrow on the plane flight home.

Finished Ilium, onto Olympos. It's only gotten better.

Jack Vance - The Demon Prince series

Finished Olympos. The ending was a bit of a let down, but it was otherwise excellent.

Started Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing. Good, but not great--so far. We'll see how it goes.

I finished King of Foxes - it turns out that I had read it before but it is such a mediocre book that I had forgotten all about it. Everything is much too rushed and works out far too easily for my taste. Oh well, I know that I have not read the last book.

I have started on Exile's Return. So far it has been a little more interesting than King of Foxes but it is too early to say for sure.

I've just finished "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmerbradley. A wonderful and epic tale about king Arthur and the ancient religions of great Britain. The caracter are interesting, especially their thoughts and feelings, excellent described in the book, are as if they were real persons with a real background and own story.
I loved the fight between the pagan ways of Avalon and the Christian invaders. how it is presented by the view of a priest of the ancient religion it shows a totally different perspective of the Christianity and its mistakes, false believings and sake to convince the "disbelieving" people of Britain.
The whole book has an anti-christian way of telling the story but in the end it changes into an understanding view of Morgan, a reconciliation of the 2 not-so different religions.

on a ranking from 1-10 it would be a 9!

im not yet that secure in using my english, you may forgive me from german introduced words^^

mfg
Michael


ah yeah, forgot^^
I'm reading "the crystal shard" now which I have started some months ago

[ April 12, 2006, 19:45: Message edited by: Michael Walker ]

"The Warrior-Prophet" by R. Scott Bakker.

It's no shock to read that this author lists Steven Erikson as his biggest inspiration. It's definitely the same sort of writing, but with less of the loving attention to minor characters.

Bradley has written quite a few worthwhile novels, was a while since I read them but she shouldnt get forgotten when speaking about fantasy.

I need to pick up Bakker's second one, read the first and I really like the intentions of the author. He tries, he just isnt there. Hopefully he will be further along.

I am myself reading "Transformation" by Carol Berg, saw two of them in the library and picked them up. A positive surprise and is of yet quite intruiging.

Well, I just tried to read Hitchikers guide to the Universe while I was in the bathroom, but in my drunken state it didn't make too much sense. When I'm sober, I often wonder if the guy who wrote it was high.

@joacqin I hope you have all 3 Transformation, Revelation and Restoration, I found it frustatting when I had to wait for Restoration. I hope you continue enjoying them as well she is different from other writers.

_Grendel_ by John Gardner. This is a retread for me, but it is such a good book. This very dark, yet funny book is a must read for anyone who has more than a passing interest in _Beowulf_.

Chandos, I have to ask... is your ' key not working? :lol:

Oh, sorry. The format I use is left over from my college days of having to email messages containing titles to literature professors. It's just a substitute for the italics.

@JSSB: I have to agree that King of Foxes is probably Feist's most uninspired book to date. I thought Exile's Return was much better, but the entire Conclave of Shadows series was one big disappointment for me. A shame, because I enjoyed almost all of his other work. He's not Tolkien, but his books used to be entertaining and well-written, and sometimes quite original.

Everything is much too rushed and works out far too easily for my taste. I think the narrative is pretty good. But yeah, there is little tension because of how easily some of the story works out, especially the prison section. The lack of character development is the book's real weakness, however, IMO.

Started reading the Elric books by wassname...Moorcock?

I finished Exile's Return yesterday. I didn't like it but it was better than King of Foxes. I think it would have been a much better book if it had just been about Kaspar trying to survive and return from exile and left out the epic storyline components.

I am probably not going to start on anything else until Monday. I am having a little trouble deciding what to read next so I am putting off the decision until then.

Revenge of the Babysat - Bill Watterson

Took me all of 15 minutes to read it. Damn, I miss Calvin and Hobbes! :cry:

Anne Bishop - The Black Jewels trilogy

DS - I've been thinking about that one as well. Is it any good?

It's a re-read for me I enjoyed them before and think they are are worthwhile because they are different from most fantasy books the society is matriarchal with the Males in service/bonded to the Females. Try it.

Thanks, DS. I will. :)

Just read the first 150 pages of The Mad Ship, after just finishing the first one. Man, I ccan see this baby keeping me busy for a long time. You could build houses out of these damn things.
Pretty good stuff though, as always with Hobb. Wonderfully well written. I feel like I want to just grab a hold of Malta and throttle her already.

Malta rules! She's one of my favourite characters in any book. Even though she's a spoilt brat, Hobb manages to show us why she thinks the way she does. That is a rare gift in a writer.

Black Jewels is pretty good, though the names are annoying--Daemon, Saetan, Lucivar? Gag me with a spoon.

After working at home Monday to Wednesday I finally started another book today. I am rereading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I plan to reread the first three books before tackling A Feast For Crows.

I am reading A Game Of Thrones for the first time.

Clive barker's Abarat, but it is a bit childisch. The drawings are, well uncommon but nice. all whit all it is not bad, but no feast like a game of thrones.

An in between kind of story that you will forget after a few weeks. Sorry Clive.

Also halfway in Mary Gentle's Grunts. It is a fantasy meets marine core parody. An orc tribe gets their hands on the hardware like m16, cobra gunships you get the point. well, a lot of trial and error for our green friends.

Just began reading the "The Blue Star" by Fletcher Pratt.

Still making my way through "The Warrior Prophet" by R. Scott Bakker, so that when I've finished that, I'll be able to start the precious copy of "Bonehunters" by Steven Erikson that I got from the library.

You wont be disapointed man, Erikson keeps going strong and he is darn productive as well! One of those bricks every one and a half year or so. It is a bit different in structure though so be prepared for that, it covers a lot more characters than the previous books.

@Merlanni

I found Abarat pretty boring. Of course it really is just an "intro" and much more happens in the next book. Still I didn't really take to it. His "Thief of Always" was awesome though. Weaveworld wasn't too bad either.

covers a lot more characters than the previous books MORE characters? Erikson's books already have more characters than the human mind can safely deal with. I'll have to get a couple of spare backup brains ready.

Metamorphasis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka. Metamorphasis itself is absolutely brilliant, and some of the other stories are pretty damn good too (well, one other one I'm a fan of - the others seem a bit pointless...)

Harbourboy, more characters in *one* book, basically no new ones but pretty much all of the old ones get smoe action in this one.

Going through my collection of Pratchett again, so I just finished Going Postal.
You know who I love? Rincewind. Heck yeah, a coward in a dress.

Reading the First book in "The Black Magician Trilogy"...The Mages Guild or something, can't remember specifics, but its pretty cool so far, I'm just over half way.

I'm reading "Daughter of the Drow" right now. Pretty good book.

going postal was nice. But it was a lot like the truth. The patrician should be made president of europe.

Kate Fox - Watching the English.

I expected it to be a fun collection of stereotypes about the English, and it occasionally is, but on the whole it's a remarkably astute analysis.

@Merlanni-I agree. Thud! was wicked good, but I think Pratchett should now stick with character's he's already introduced. Bring back Granny Weatherwax!

@ Dave.

Trudi Canavan is great. The series gets bettereach book. I've just read the first book in her next series, and it is good, though I can see some definite motifs she is developping as a writer.

re-reading some books of douglas addams, and starting on the belgarion saga written by david eddings, for the tenth time or so.

I swear, i've read all good fantasy books we have in our local library, and theres not enough new ones appearing. :(

50 pages into "Bonehunters" by Steven Erikson. I have no idea what the heck is going on, but it's still awesome. Erikson really is the master of bringing depth to minor characters through dialogue.

xosmi - have you read all the Steven Erikson books yet? They rock.

Also, check out Greg Keyes' "Kingdoms of Throne and Bone" if you already haven't. Very good stuff, IMO.

@Chandos

How many books are in the series and what is it similar to?