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Voldenuit wrote:

Currently reading the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.

On the fourth book (The Rise of Endymion) at the moment. The first book is especially notable, it is cast within a narrative structure similar to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, only set in the future, and interspersed with references to and quotations from Romantic period English poets. The style is more utilitarian in the suceeding books as the plot coheres, but the narrative tends to remain multi-threaded. Is this science fiction posing as literature, or vice versa? Since it hasn't bored me to death yet, I am surmising that it can't be literature .

Other than that, the most notable series I've read recently was the entirety of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, which stands among some of the favourite books I've read.

I finished this series a few months ago. Simmons is on my "Read everything he writes" lists. The Terror got me started.

Right now I'm reading the Septimus Heap series.

I've recently started The Gathering Storm. It's the next book in the Wheel of Time series. Jordan dies before it was finished, but his wife and publisher tapped a guy named Brandon Sanderson to look over Jordan's notes and finish the series. I had long been a fan of the series, but Jordan seemed to be dragging it out for far too long. Now I know it will end in two more books, and Sanderson's writing seems to liven up the stuff Jordan outlined.

Now I just need George R. Martin to finish his Song of Fire and Ice. Great series.

My current favorite books are anything Alastair Reynolds has written, and Peter F Hamilton's Void trilogy.

Does anyone have similar authors to recommend?

Oh yeah, the audible version of Alastair Reynold's books, narrated by John Lee, are amazing. I look forward to my 1 hour commute when I have one of these books to look forward to.

O. M. G.

I may be a little late to the party, but apparently, the Adams estate, being hard up on cash or something, decided to sell out The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for some dude to write a sequel.

And so a sixth book was born. 'And Another Thing...' by Eoin Colfer.

You know the story where if you have a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters, eventually, you'll get Hamlet? This is not that story.
It's more like what would happen if you give a single monkey a word processor, copy & paste, 5 previous novels, and the end result would not be wholly indistinguishable from the sixth book.

This book is BAD. REAL BAD. It makes yaoi fanfiction look respectable. You have been warned.

Just had a book arrive in the mail today, "Hell's Faire" by John Ringo. About to start reading it now.

David Drake's The Way to Glory.

The 3.3.3 WoW patch notes.

It's been a long time since I've been reading something. That's why spring break is nice.

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. About halfway through the last book.
Dungeons and Dreamers by Brad King and John Borland. Just started it.
Queen of Swords by Michael Moorcock. I keep this in my car for emergency reading. Since starting the Elric series and Corum series Moorcock has become one of my favorite authors. Fireclown is great, too.
Last but certainly not least: MCITP Kit.

Whirlwind by James Clavell. I'm finally finishing the Asian Saga. I've tried to read this book 3 other times, and its finally interesting enough to me to keep reading.

I am reading, What are you READING right now? thread.

I just finished The Electric Church, The Digital Plague, and The Eternal Prison by Jeff Somers. They're pretty much kick-ass, futuristic action movies forcefully and violently crammed into novels. I couldn't put them down and got through the trilogy in about a little over a week. Great reads!

David wrote:

[Queen of Swords by Michael Moorcock. I keep this in my car for emergency reading. Since starting the Elric series and Corum series Moorcock has become one of my favorite authors. Fireclown is great, too.

Moorcock has long been a favorite of mine. The Warhound and The Worlds Pain(story of a deal with the devil at its finest), The Dreamthiefs Daughter and Behold The Man are some of my favorites.

If you wanna talk Moorcock, I'm your man.

roont wrote:

If you wanna talk Moorcock, I'm your man.

Just for kicks, while at work, try repeating this aloud 3 times.

Gerbil Jedidiah wrote:

roont wrote:

If you wanna talk Moorcock, I'm your man.

Just for kicks, while at work, try repeating this aloud 3 times.

Being a longtime fan, I've heard all the MoorCock jokes

bit of a necro, but just finished book 13 of the Wheel of Time. It's called Towers of Midnight, and the authors (Sanderson with Robert Jordan's copious notes) resolved plot threads at breakneck speed. I really enjoyed the book, unlike some of the books in the past (books 8-10 were the worst).

It will be fun to finish this series in 2012.

Plato's "The Laws".

Just finished up my Carl Sagan binge including Cosmos, A Demon Haunted World, Pale Blue Dot, and Varieties of Scientific Experience. All great reads. I know he has a few other books, but since obviously won't be publishing any more, I've decided to save them for a rainy day.

And now I'm gunna see how much I can get through On The Origin of Species By Means Of Natural Selection.

Hawkwing74 wrote:

bit of a necro, but just finished book 13 of the Wheel of Time. It's called Towers of Midnight, and the authors (Sanderson with Robert Jordan's copious notes) resolved plot threads at breakneck speed. I really enjoyed the book, unlike some of the books in the past (books 8-10 were the worst).

It will be fun to finish this series in 2012.

Yeah, it was good to see some more plots resolved this book...too bad Jordan had to die to have some of them get wrapped up. At least the series will finally be done in one more book...its going to be strange to be done since I pretty much have been reading this series since I was 18. Well once it is done, then I can start griping about George martin never finishing his book series. Speed it up, its only been 4-5 years since his last book came out...maybe Sanderson can help him finish it too

Now as a total suprise, I picked up The Dwarves by Markus heitz on a whim because it looked like it might be interesting. It turned out to be an actually good book, its translated from german...I guess he is a big author in germany. I really enjoyed the book, and plan to pick up the next one in his series.

I just finished reading the "Paul Sinclair" and "Stark's War" series by John G. Hemry and I'm currently about 3/4 of the way through book 2, "School of Fire", of David Sherman and Dan Cragg's "StarFist" series. All are great reads if you're a fan of military sci-fi.

The Best of Gene Wolfe by, uh, Gene Wolfe.

I can't believe I never ran into him before - he writes masterfully like a virtuoso. Reminds me of Chesterton in his prose, Kafka in his perspective and Heinlein in his vision.

I'll have to check out his Long Sun series.

Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions
Mark Danielewski - House of Leaves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:I ... ogy_series

Found a box on my doorstep from AbeBooks with all 25 volumes in the series. I've got lots of reading to do from the Golden Age of Sci-Fi which, as defined by the series, runs from 1939 through 1963. The Gardner Dozois collections start in 1984, so all I need now find is an anthology series covering 1964-1983.

_The Wasp Factory_ by Iain Banks.

I'm about the finish up Charles Sheffield's Heritage Series (Summertide, Divergence, Transcendence, Convergence) I'm not sure I want to start Resurgence, because it starts a new story arc and was followed by the authors death :-/

I'm debating doing the Brian Hebert Dune novels (the 7th and 8th in the series, Frank died after writing the 6th, leaving everybody with a monumental cliffhanger).

SpotTheCat wrote:

I'm debating doing the Brian Hebert Dune novels (the 7th and 8th in the series, Frank died after writing the 6th, leaving everybody with a monumental cliffhanger).

BTDT. I'd advise that anyone who loves the Frank Herbert novels should avoid all of the Brian Herbert stuff, most specifically the two novels that claim to adhere to the "Dune 7" notes that Brian supposedly found on a 5.25" floppy among his dad's effects after his death. To accept this "Dune 7" fiction is to accept that all of the Erasmus/Omnius crap Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson spewed out in the prequel novels had already been forethought by Frank. There's not enough storage space on a 5.25" floppy for all of the crap Brian created.

Duncan Idaho is the "true" Kwisatz Haderach and can imagine/will things into or out of existence? Puh-fargin-leeze.

That said, I slavishly read all of the prequel and "Dune 7" mess hoping that some kernel of Frank would peer out from behind the dreck. Never happened and I've not read any of the stuff he's put out after the "Dune 7" duology. Of course, this is coming from someone who devoutly wishes that the Dune Encyclopedia had not been made non-canon by the abominations spewed out by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson. The revised version of how the Atredies/Harkkonen feud started is a simpering and callous chickenout compared to the Dune Encyclopedia, not to mention how the need for publishing revenue completely threw out the Encyclopedia version of the Butlerian Jihad for the story seen in the prequels.

Yes, I have strong feelings about the Dune universe. The Encyclopedia was canon to Frank, thus it's canon to me. Omnius, Erasmus, and the Titans can just bugger off.

I'm going to do Dan Simmon's Hyperion and its sequel. It supposed revitalized the Sci-Fi scene in the 1990's.

Failing that I'll pick up Stephen King's Under the Dome at the library. It's long, but I've usually liked King's work.

SpotTheCat wrote:

I'm going to do Dan Simmon's Hyperion and its sequel. It supposed revitalized the Sci-Fi scene in the 1990's.

The four books that make up the Hyperion Cantos will never leave my library. If the last 50 pages or so of The Rise of Endymion don't leave you shattered and weeping, you have no soul.

Captain Ned wrote:

SpotTheCat wrote:

I'm going to do Dan Simmon's Hyperion and its sequel. It supposed revitalized the Sci-Fi scene in the 1990's.

The four books that make up the Hyperion Cantos will never leave my library. If the last 50 pages or so of The Rise of Endymion don't leave you shattered and weeping, you have no soul.

Is the first one good on its own?

SpotTheCat wrote:

Captain Ned wrote:

SpotTheCat wrote:

I'm going to do Dan Simmon's Hyperion and its sequel. It supposed revitalized the Sci-Fi scene in the 1990's.

The four books that make up the Hyperion Cantos will never leave my library. If the last 50 pages or so of The Rise of Endymion don't leave you shattered and weeping, you have no soul.

Is the first one good on its own?

I think it's the best-written, certainly stylistically.