What are you Reading Now?

[Ophiucha]

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

So far, it's certainly a lot drier and reading Beowulf in prose feels like blasphemy, but it offers some interesting ideas on the raw translation if you have an interest in the Anglo-Saxon/Old English language. Tolkien's commentary is definitely worth a read, both from the scholarly perspective and from a 'I like The Hobbit' perspective.

 

[Jabrosky]

Just finished The People of the Black Circle by Robert E. Howard, which is a Conan story set in the Hyborian Age equivalent of India and the Himalayas. It's actually part of an anthology of his best-rated stories titled Crimson Shadows.

 

[Fyle]

I'm going to start Steven King's Dark Tower series. I got the first installment (the Gunslinger) today.

It's really short at about 300 pages so, I suppose I'll know pretty quickly whether I will get into the series or not.

I just finished A Dance with Dragons. So, I needed a new series. I read the 5 Song of Ice and Fire books over the course of this past year.

 

[teacup]

I'm finally onto Book 2 of The First Law Trilogy and I am loving it so far. I'm a bit over 1/3 of the way through and the way it reads is just really good, imo.
I love all the characters, too. In book 1 Jezal Dan Luthar was my favourite pov character and Glokta my least favourite (though I didn't particularly dislike him as a character) - now Logen Ninefingers is by far my favourite, and it's hard to choose a least favourite, because I really like each one a lot, now.

It's already looking like a big improvement compared to the first book, which I enjoyed too, but not nearly as much as I'm enjoying this one.

 

[skip.knox]

Reading the Iron Pen anthology, which was recommended from somewhere. Probably somewhere mythical.

Also reading The Magnificent Ambersons, which began well but is rather draggy now. It's tough to follow a main character who is callow, shallow and spoiled.

Oh, and T. Russell Davies' book on writing, which is also a little slow because it's nothing more than a very long email thread. An interesting experiment in following how a screenplay gets developed, but also illustrates the difference between writing and mere communication.

 

[ThinkerX]

A book order came in a few days ago, contributing to my slow pace on 'Iron Pen XIV'. Three books, plus one from the library.

Anyhow...

'Crown of Renewal', book four in Moon's series. My view is the entire series should have been one book, as it was she was reaching in some places and creating unneeded problems in others. Read the dratted thing out of sheer stubbornness. Now, most of her long ago books in this setting 'Sheepfarmer's Daughter', 'Oath of Gold' and whatnot, were pretty good.

'On the Steel Breeze' by Reynolds, sequel to another book. This is hard SF, with POV's bouncing back and forth between clone sisters. One clone is on a starship facing a major problem not normally accounted for in SF (how to slow down from relativistic velocities when the fuel gauge is sitting on empty), while the other deals with intrigue in our solar system, and meanwhile an enigma awaits in another solar system. The ending was ambiguous, and the motivations and means of various 'bad guys' unclear.

'Truth and Fear' by Higgins, book 2 in a series set in brutal totalitarian state with 1930's technology and no small amount of magical elements and influence. Finished reading that today.

Next up, 'Crimson Campaign', by McClellan, also book two in a series featuring elements of both technology and magic.

 

[Jabrosky]

Yesterday I started reading David Anthony Durham's Pride of Carthage, which is historical fiction about Hannibal Barca. The author is the same guy who wrote the Acacia books.

 

[Smith]

I'm finally onto Book 2 of The First Law Trilogy and I am loving it so far. I'm a bit over 1/3 of the way through and the way it reads is just really good, imo.
I love all the characters, too. In book 1 Jezal Dan Luthar was my favourite pov character and Glokta my least favourite (though I didn't particularly dislike him as a character) - now Logen Ninefingers is by far my favourite, and it's hard to choose a least favourite, because I really like each one a lot, now.

It's already looking like a big improvement compared to the first book, which I enjoyed too, but not nearly as much as I'm enjoying this one.

You and I are opposite! I have yet to finish The Blade Itself, but Logen and Glokta were my favourites and Jezal was my least favourite. I'm looking forward to the second one!

I'm also reading Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. I haven't made it far, but it had a compelling opening.

 

[Anora]

I am reading JANE AUSTEN'S novel PRIDE and PREJUDICE but feeling desperate to read it because she had worked on a very limited canvas. She has opted old issues .here is a woman having 5 daughters and searching for the suitable matches for them. Their father was very indifferent from his daughters and girls always felt his indifference.

 

[teacup]

You and I are opposite! I have yet to finish The Blade Itself, but Logen and Glokta were my favourites and Jezal was my least favourite. I'm looking forward to the second one!

Book 3 now Then I'll be onto the other 3 set in the same world.

 

[Steerpike]

Book 3 now Then I'll be onto the other 3 set in the same world.

You'll like them. Best Served Cold is still the best one, in my view.

 

[teacup]

You'll like them. Best Served Cold is still the best one, in my view.

There's no particular order to read the next 3 is there?
I'll read Best Served Cold first if not.

 

[Steerpike]

There's no particular order to read the next 3 is there?
I'll read Best Served Cold first if not.

No, it doesn't make a difference.

 

[Philip Overby]

I guess it doesn't make a difference, but I'd recommend reading Best Served Cold, The Heroes, and then Red Country. It just flows better that way for me personally. Definitely don't read any of the books before you finish the trilogy though. I got something spoiled by reading The Heroes before I finished The First Law trilogy.

 

[ThinkerX]

Read 'Authority', book 2 of Vandemeer's 'Southern Reach' trilogy. Hard to classify this one. Could be some very strange SF. Could be Urban Fantasy, if some of what's going on proves to be more magic than science. If so, its a type of Urban Fantasy I'd like to see more of.

Book 1, 'Annihilation', chronicled the 12th expedition into 'Area X', a very strange area 'cut off' from the world decades earlier, seemingly restored to pristine wilderness. Yet there are all sorts of weird things, many of them lethal.

Book 2 describes 'Control', the new administrator of the agency sending teams into Area X. He's confronted with an obstructive staff and subject to hypnotic control from his bosses back at 'Central'. Plus a lot of things about Area X are either being ignored or do not add up.

Area X seems to dominate a fairly extensive coastal region - maybe part of Washington State or Oregon?

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm currently going through the Benevolence Archives (Amazon.com: The Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 eBook: Luther M. Siler: Kindle Store).

It's a collection of short stories about two mercenaries/bounty hunters. The original idea that spawned the stories started with the author wondering what it would have been like if Han and Chewie hadn't gotten involved with Luke and just dropped him off and left.

 

[Mythopoet]

I finished reading The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson last night. It's a sort of cosmic horror story. Reading it, I can see exactly how much Lovecraft was influenced by Hodgson. I remember one of Lovecraft's stories that had A LOT in common with some of the events in House. I found this book fascinating, despite the fact that it contained no satisfying explanations for the goings on. (Normally, I like things explained.) But I recognize that in the horror genre, the less you know the scarier it seems. Considering that this book was written in 1908, it is remarkably creative and original.

I'm also still working on The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson. It's a sort of historical fantasy (before that became a thing) written around the same time as LOTR and also playing heavily with Northern European mythology and themes. While the two main characers are men, the story mostly deals with a conflict between the Elves and the Trolls which they are caught up in. One is a human babe who was stolen away by the Elves and replaced with a Changeling so that he has been raised by Elves and taught their magic. The other is the Changeling who was raised among humans, but never truly fit in among them, because in truth he is the product of a magical union between an Elf and a Troll. In true Northern fashion, there's already been a lot of war and death. It's not, thematically, the sort of thing I usually like. But I'm finding Anderson's take on the Changeling mythology and such very interesting.

I'm also reading Witch World by Andre Norton. This book took a long time for me to get into. It feels in many ways unfocused and the worldbuilding is quite bland. It almost seems like it should be her first published book, but it's not by a long shot. Still, after I got past the first section there was a new character introduced who was fairly interesting and things got better. It's a short book, but it's taking me forever to read.

 

[sjlinton]

I'm reading And the Night Growled Back, a short story/novella by Aaron Dries. It's really good. It's about these three friends, two of whom are a couple, who are travelling across Europe. They're in Iceland where they get into some trouble at a fair. They hurry back to the cottage where they've been staying to figure out what to do and are hunted by some sort of creature. I don't know what the creature is. I haven't gotten that far yet. I love how Dries flashes from the action to the past and back again in such a way that isn't jarring and adds to the tension in the story. Dries is establishing the relationships and tensions of the three friends and slowly building up the surrounding scariness of the landscape. Have I said yet that it's really good?

I'm also reading Writing the Fiction Series: The Complete Guide to Novels and Novellas by Karen S. Wiesner. It's good. She's a HUGE Rowling fan, so keeps referring to Rowling for examples on arcs and series plants. It's almost annoying, to be honest, but the book is full of really useful information.

On and off, I've been trying to read Windswept House: A Vatican Novel by Malachi Martin. It's packed so full of political innuendos, I'm surprised the weight of it hasn't broken my coffee table. After reading it for a while, my brain just wants to melt but there's this undercurrent of danger he's woven into the story that keeps me going back. I pick it up whenever I feel I have the brain cells to spare for it.

 

[Mythopoet]

I'm also reading Writing the Fiction Series: The Complete Guide to Novels and Novellas by Karen S. Wiesner. It's good. She's a HUGE Rowling fan, so keeps referring to Rowling for examples on arcs and series plants. It's almost annoying, to be honest, but the book is full of really useful information.

I have to say, as far as fantasy series go, I think Harry Potter was easily one of the most cohesive, consistently interesting, well characterized, well plotted and just well written series I've ever read. I don't think she gets enough credit. Though if you're going to write a book on writing, you should be able to refer to many different author examples in many different styles and techniques.

 

[sjlinton]

Well, Wiesner does give examples from other series. She has a list of different examples from different genres at the end of each section and she talks about the different series she's written or her colleagues have written. However, she keeps referring back to Rowling and the final third of the book is a break down, book by book, of all of the major story and series arcs. I think Rowling deserves the credit but, after a while, I just feel like I'm being hit over the head with it. All that said, though, it's still a good book with good instructions.