What are you READING right now?

[Voldenuit]

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.

[bthylafh]

Greg Bear's _Hull Zero Three_. Almost 2/3 through and it's really good.

Seems to be only novella length, which is too bad - I think this idea could be fleshed out to something longer.

EDIT: no, it's a novel in its own right. I'm just used to reading dirty great brick novels, I guess.

[Captain Ned]

Is the first one good on its own?

They're all good. Hyperion is written as a frame story, much like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and is the best of the four (though "worst" is still very high quality).

I started reading them when they first came out and bought the next three as soon as they hit paperback (I'm working now on finding reasonably-priced hardcover replacements). I've got a PDF version of the short story Simmons wrote that billowed into the Cantos. If you want to read it and decide to go further, that story is available here:

http://livearchive.org/2010/pdf/dan-sim ... ring-siri/

EDIT: The only other recent author that I consider an "automatic buy" is Alastair Reynolds. Be it in the Revelation Space universe or not, the man knows how to write sci-fi.

[themattman]

I am currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I already read The Three Musketeers by Dumas two years ago, and a good friend of mine said Monte Cristo was his favorite book, so I am giving it a try.

[grantmeaname]

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

That's horrifying... I guess I'll skip the non-Frank works. I just finished Dune and loved it, I'm on to Messiah on Monday when I get back to school and have someone to borrow it from.

[SpotTheCat]

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

That's horrifying... I guess I'll skip the non-Frank works. I just finished Dune and loved it, I'm on to Messiah on Monday when I get back to school and have someone to borrow it from.

My favorite, after the first one, was Heretics of Dune.

Be warned that God Emperor of Dune can be a tough sell. It's a lot of people's favorite, and a lot of people's least favorite.

[Hawkwing74]

I just finished Abraham Lincoln: The War Years by Carl Sandburg. Very interesting book, and makes one wish for a President like that again.

Now I'm finally working on The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Good so far. The 3-4 names for each Russian character can be annoying though.

[StrangeDay]

I'm giving my post-apocalyptic books another pass through.

Dies the Fire
The Zombie Survival Guide
The Earth Abides
The Postman

Got any recommendations?

[Captain Ned]

Got any recommendations?

A Canticle for Leibowitz
Footfall
Lucifer's Hammer
Farnham's Freehold
The Greatwinter Trilogy
Blood Music
The Forge of God
Childhood's End

[MadManOriginal]

A Stranger in a Strange Land 'complete and uncut' as Henlein originally intended apparently.

You grok?

[Dashak]

Greg Bear's _Hull Zero Three_

I'm reading that too; don't really know what's going on still and I'm on page 223 of 307. I usually finish a book within a couple days, but I've had this for over a week.

[Voldenuit]

Just finished Book of the Long Sun tetralogy by Gene Wolfe. Masterfully crafted, although something of a 'wtf? M Night Shamalayan ending*' going on there. Will be checking out the sequel (Book of the Short Sun).

*So after travelling through space and God sending them Space-Jesus to lead them to the Promised World(s), they land on a planet populated by shape-changing space vampires? Was he smoking crack or did he just get a crack to the head while writing this?

[bthylafh]

Starting on Charles Fort's _The Book of the Damned_ collection. It's pretty odd so far; one wonders if he was writing under the influence.

[paulWTAMU]

I tried lUcifer's Hammer and couldn't get into it at all.

Just finished "Their Blood Ran Cold" by Whit Gibbons, an ecologist doing studies in the SREL back in the 60s and 70s. Pretty narrow focus I guess but I liked it. Hearing about an 8 foot gator writhing out of it's bonds and climbing into the cab of his pickup pissed off and ready to go was amusing
I've got to say I like Dune less with each rereading. Will give Hyperion a try. Need to find good horror, particularly werewolf horror. But really anything non-zombie/vampire would do. I *like* zombies and vampires but there's only so much I can take.

[TurtlePerson2]

I am currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I already read The Three Musketeers by Dumas two years ago, and a good friend of mine said Monte Cristo was his favorite book, so I am giving it a try.

I read that over Christmas too. I had previously read The Three Musketeers as well. I feel the same way about Dumas as I do about Dickens. He creates the beginning of great stories, then ruins them with sentimentality and romanticism. I enjoyed the recent film about of Count of MC a lot more than I enjoyed the book. Similarly, I enjoyed the Christmas Carol story until I actually read it.

[StrangeDay]

A Canticle for Leibowitz
Footfall
Lucifer's Hammer
Farnham's Freehold
The Greatwinter Trilogy
Blood Music
The Forge of God
Childhood's End

I read A Canticle for Leibowitz based on what I believe is your earlier recommendations. Loved it. You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. Thanks for the list!

Stranger in a Strange Land

I have that! I just have to dig it out. Now I'll definitely have to read it.

[Hawkwing74]

I feel the same way about Dumas as I do about Dickens. He creates the beginning of great stories, then ruins them with sentimentality and romanticism. I enjoyed the recent film about of Count of MC a lot more than I enjoyed the book. Similarly, I enjoyed the Christmas Carol story until I actually read it.

To each their own. "A Tale of Two Cities" is one of my favorite novels.

[anotherengineer]

TNO Coloured books on risk assessment :|

TSSA ftw

[drfish]

Children of Dune

Just finished the first two Dune books on the Kindle I got for Christmas. Great stuff, wish I had read them ages ago.

[Corrado]

Mass Effect: Revelation
The Roadside PIcnic
Metro 2033



...


I'm a sucker for Video Game books. Loved the Halo books too.

[SpotTheCat]

I am about half way through the fall of Hyperion. Hyperion did one of my biggest pet peeves: ending the book without an ending. Dune and Harry potter, to name two, both ended each book in the series with a conclusion to the plot in that series. This one was more like K THX SEE U NEXT TIME.

[Captain Ned]

I am about half way through the fall of Hyperion. Hyperion did one of my biggest pet peeves: ending the book without an ending. Dune and Harry potter, to name two, both ended each book in the series with a conclusion to the plot in that series. This one was more like K THX SEE U NEXT TIME.

Because Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion was originally written as one book. You can understand why the publisher decided to make it two given their sizes, but it does mean that one should really read both and consider it one book.

[SpotTheCat]

I am about half way through the fall of Hyperion. Hyperion did one of my biggest pet peeves: ending the book without an ending. Dune and Harry potter, to name two, both ended each book in the series with a conclusion to the plot in that series. This one was more like K THX SEE U NEXT TIME.

Because Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion was originally written as one book. You can understand why the publisher decided to make it two given their sizes, but it does mean that one should really read both and consider it one book.

Yep. I see it as a scam to make more money.

I just hope Fall has an appropriate ending. I've got a different set of books to read when I'm done.

I have about half of the book left, I wonder if I can finish the thing out in the sun. My flight leaves today and I am not looking forward to the 100 F temperature drop from Maalaea to Minneapolis.

[Captain Ned]

I just hope Fall has an appropriate ending.

It does, but it's not even close to the ending of Rise of Endymion.

[omg23]

listening, not reading. Audiobook called "on ****" film school has got me so tired

[bthylafh]

Bernard Fall's _Hell in a Very Small Place_, about the siege of Dien Bien Phu.

[wosteen]

I've just wrapped up the last available book in the Spinward Fringe series, and am ANXIOUSLY awaiting the next book.

I found this series when I got the first book for free from Amazon.

Check out http://www.spinwardfringe.com for details. It's hard to put down, space opera style Sci-Fi.

I'm also slowly making my way through lots of the Project Gutenberg classics. I've recently finished The Swiss Family Robinson (one of my favorite books ever), Dracula, and the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

My Kindle is the best gift I've EVER received!

[Kevin]

I'm also slowly making my way through lots of the Project Gutenberg classics. I've recently finished The Swiss Family Robinson (one of my favorite books ever), Dracula, and the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

If going through Gutenberg, be sure to read H. Beam Piper.

[bthylafh]

One of Piper's best, _Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_, is still in copyright & hence not on Gutenberg.

Going through China Mieville's _Perdido Street Station_ now. It's an interesting blend of steampunk and Lovecraft, in a pretty rich world. Having a Kindle & its built-in dictionary is a win with this one, since the author's got a habit of using four-dollar words, but I still think it's enjoyable.

[pikaporeon]

I've finally dived into the world sprawl of William Gibson's Neuromancer