• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

What are you Reading Now?

Sir Kieran

Scribe
@Sir Kieran:

Lehane is quite good. You'd probably enjoy a lot of his work. There are some other good detective writers, most notably Michael Connelly and Robert Crais.

I like Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm as well.

I don't remember exactly what it was about Eragon, but I remember I really had to force myself through the first chapter because I thought the writing was so bad. People complain about Meyer, but I thought Paolini made Meyer look like Dostoevsky. But it could just be my own tastes as much as anything. Clearly, Paolini captivated a lot of readers, and that's not a small thing.

The more I read Eragon, the more I realized that there were things that bothered me. For instance, I thought Eragon was a brat. There was one scene in which Roran was so violent I thought he was on the verge of raping innocent women (he bursts into a castle, forces women against the wall). By the middle of Inheritance, I realized that Eragon and Roran were endangering the innocent in order to win the war; this is likely what Paolini intended. I hope he did, because for a while I believed that their whole crusade was wrong.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I don't remember exactly what it was about Eragon, but I remember I really had to force myself through the first chapter because I thought the writing was so bad. People complain about Meyer, but I thought Paolini made Meyer look like Dostoevsky. But it could just be my own tastes as much as anything. Clearly, Paolini captivated a lot of readers, and that's not a small thing.

I expected Eragon to be much worse than it was, but as far as "bad fantasy books" go it wasn't so bad. Certainly it wasn't very creative. The whole thing read exactly like a teenager taking bits and pieces from his favorite fantasy books and mashing them together, which is what it was, of course. But I was surprised to find that the story moved along pretty well and wasn't as tedious and bland as I expected it to be. It's a perfectly fine fantasy novel for a younger audience.

The Assassin's Apprentice trilogy, on the other hand, I tried really hard to be interested in because I'd heard the characters praised to the end of the world and back but just couldn't care about or like anyone in the books. I couldn't care about the events. I couldn't care about the setting. It was the most surprisingly bland and boring trilogy I've ever read.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
The Assassin's Apprentice trilogy, on the other hand, I tried really hard to be interested in because I'd heard the characters praised to the end of the world and back but just couldn't care about or like anyone in the books. I couldn't care about the events. I couldn't care about the setting. It was the most surprisingly bland and boring trilogy I've ever read.

Glad I'm not the only one. My older sister goes on and on about how good those books are, and how much I'll love them. I tried reading the first one but couldn't get all the way through it. It just plodded.
 

Lace

Troubadour
I read Eragon when it first came out, I remember really enjoying to in high school, but when I went back to re-read it recently I had a harder time getting back into it. I think it flows well, but I feel like sometime the author dawdles too much on certain things that aren't really necessary to the story. That being said, kudos to him for publishing at such a young age, he really inspired me to take writing seriously.
 

teacup

Auror
I'm not on it yet, but in a week or so I will finally be able to read book 2 of Abercrombie's The First Law Trilogy. I've been too busy with college work to read novels, though I did read 2 Physics books. I have the trilogy already, and after I finish it I'll buy the standalones in the same world, I think.

I enjoyed book 1 quite a lot. It took a while for me to get into it and a while for me to start to enjoy Glokta, but I loved all of Jezal's parts. There wasn't a whole lot of plot in book 1, but the characters were very well done, I thought.



When I first read Eragon I really enjoyed it. When it got to Brisingr it started to drag A LOT for me. There were sideplots going on that didn't go anywhere. As I remember they could be compared to unimportant sidequests in games. Still, I liked the it enough and carried on. Same with Inheritence, but I carried on, because hey, I still liked it. I think it should have wrapped everything up much sooner after the climax. I could be wrong but I'm sure there is like 100-200 pages after the climax? That bored the hell out of me.

Anyway, so I enjoyed it when I was younger, and when I first started writing. I just don't see what the big deal is with it now. The writing is really nothing great, I don't think. I don't understand why so many people think it's amazing, but eh, people can like what they like.
 
On audio, I just finished Michael Lewis's FLASH BOYS, which is as good as THE BIG SHORT; Stephen Greenblatt's THE SWERVE, which made me want to write about uterine vellum; and Italo Calvino's INFINITE CITIES, which was trifling, but interesting.

My current couch book is Jack Vance's NIGHT LAMP. After I finish it, I'll have only one novel (LURULU) and a dozen stories to go before I've read all his sf/f.

By current bathroom book is Arthur C. Clarke's collection THE WIND FROM THE SUN. It's a clinic on how to structure a short story, starting with the first paragraph.

My current ebooks are CONTAGIOUS by Jonah Berger (BookShout) and, because of True Blood, THE KING IN YELLOW (Kindle).

And today is comic book day, so THE WOODS #2 and RAI #2.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I've tried to read a couple more Zothique stories but gave up before finishing them. I wanted to like them, really, because I love Howard and Lovecraft and others of that era. Ah well.

Had to chose another book from my List last night as I'd just finished rereading Terry Pratchett's Soul Music (which was better the second time around). Decided to get Legend by David Gemmell. I've never read anything by him before but I've heard good things about this one. Looking forward to something new.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
I've just started Justin Somper's Allies & Assassins. Well, actually, I've reached Chapter 9, but the chapters are easy reads by themselves.
 

kayd_mon

Sage
I'll jump back in here...

I am on a Neil Gaiman kick. I finished Fragile Things last week. It's a little uneven, but there are quite a few treasures in the bunch of short stories there. None of the poems really resonated with me.

I am now reading Stardust, and I have only knocked down two chapters. He's writing in a very betime storylike way, which makes everything sound a little quaint and light, though sometimes it reads a little funny. It's a really short book, and now that I have a bit more free time, I should finish it quickly. I am becoming a big fan of Gaiman's, and I hope that I'll like this one, too.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I have just started reading The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. Any of you steampunk writers out there, I recommend you read the opening chapter. He published it in 1901, but he begins the tale in the 1870s. It's a brilliant description filled with tasty details. As a bonus, he sometimes sketches the progress of, say, shoe styles, or domestic architecture, up to his own day. Since the book itself is free, what've you got to lose?

Of course, it would never get published today because Everyone Knows you can't start a novel that way. No one will read it. Obviously.
 
Just finished "Adrift:76 days lost at sea" by Steve Callahan.
Currently devouring "The Complete Grimm's fairy tales" for the umpteenth time.

SEVEN AT ONE STROKE!!
 

phoenixgrey

Acolyte
Currently reading Heaven's Net Is Wide by Lian Hearn. I read the original Tales of the Ototi trilogy a few years ago now and loved it. Finally got around to reading this prequel. Enjoying it too.
 
Just finished "A Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss (book two of The Kingkiller Chronicle)

I highly recommend this series, although we are still waiting on book three.

Now I am going to dive back into book three of A Song of Ice and Fire. It starts out slow, but I am told it is worth powering through.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
The third Song of Ice and Fire book is one of my favorites in the series. It's worth a read.

I'm currently finishing reading Red Country after putting it down when I first got it. I'm enjoying it a lot more now that I've gotten into it.
 

TWErvin2

Auror
I will be reading Shattered, by Kevin Hearne, the next installment in the Iron Druid Chronicles. It's scheduled for release in a few days, and I've had it in pre-order for a very long time (both print and audio).

I may have to share time reading the print edition with my daughter, but that's okay.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I've misplaced my kindle (I have a chaotic, 5 children household) and so I've had to find new reading material other than the handful of books I had started on the kindle. Sigh.

I read a few short stories by Jorge Luis Borges from the Labyrinths collection:

Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
The Lottery in Babylon
The Library of Babel
The Circular Ruins

Only The Circular Ruins actually read like a story. The other three felt more like essays than stories. There weren't really any characters and there was no real plot. They read more like explorations of an idea and as such were certainly fascinating. But after a few of them, I'm longing to get back to more traditional story telling.

So I've started reading The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson, another classic of fantasy.
 

teacup

Auror
I was going to read Book 2 of the First Law Trilogy, but instead (and I don't know why) I just picked up Asimov's The Caves of Steel off of my shelf, and began reading that.
I'm only 37 pages in but so far I'm enjoying it a lot. I like the way it reads and the world so far. I'm excited to keep reading :D
 

Ophiucha

Auror
Just finished The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood. Ostensibly the story of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, it focuses more on the twelve maids who were killed for fraternizing with the suitors. In that regard, it was an interesting book, and Atwood is - as always - an excellent writer. I'd have liked a bit more exploration of Penelope's character, though.

Currently re-reading Beowulf, doing a side-by-side read of the Heaney translation (the one I've read before) and the recently released translation by Tolkien.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Just finished The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood. Ostensibly the story of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, it focuses more on the twelve maids who were killed for fraternizing with the suitors. In that regard, it was an interesting book, and Atwood is - as always - an excellent writer. I'd have liked a bit more exploration of Penelope's character, though.

Currently re-reading Beowulf, doing a side-by-side read of the Heaney translation (the one I've read before) and the recently released translation by Tolkien.

I'm interested in how that comes out. I've only read the Heaney version, which I quite liked.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I got the Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig today. I was kind of on the fence about getting it because some of the advice is in other books I have by him, but I think he's cool so I want to support him when I can. :)
 
Top