What are you reading, part 3

[WriterDan]

So I bailed on Black Sun Rising by Friedman after about halfway through.  Just couldn't get into it.

Onto Furies of Calderon by Butcher.  Interesting beginning anyhow.

[Hero of Ages]

Liked Furies but gave up (for now) on the 2nd book.  Some books just seem to heap on the bleakness until they are just oppressive and I find myself finding excuses to not read them.  Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy is like that for me (It eventually finish it, and liked it) as is the 2nd Furies book.  It may pick up later on but as of about half way, I put it down and haven't read any of it for about 3-4 months.

[Bookstore Guy]

Read The Company by KJ Parker. I didn't love it, but didn't hate it by any means. I'm now reading an ARC, and a novel titled The Electric Church. It is a quick read, and pretty cool, but it's the first time in a LONG time that I have been seriously distracted by HOW MUCH swearing there is in it.

On the list to read:
The Somnabulist
The Devil's Company
The Devil You Know
Vicious Circle
The Quiet War
Blood of Ambrose
Dead and Gone
The Warded Man (The Painted Man...whatever...)
Darkest Hour
and whatever comes in the mail from Pyr, Orbit, and Wizards of the Coast.

[Sigyn]

I'm reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I just finished The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. I'm really enjoying the Percy Jackson series.

[Bookstore Guy]

You know, I think I have a copy of Little Brother sitting around somewhere. I've just never gotten around to reading it. Let me know what you think.

[Patriotic Kaz]

The only Brother character i know is George Orwell's "Big Brother is watching you" what an awesome book that was a bit freaky too.

[WriterDan]

Liked Furies but gave up (for now) on the 2nd book.

So, I bailed on that one too.  Got about 60 pages into it and quit.  I just couldn't believe how poorly thought out the thing was.  It's like, "Don't think about anything.  Just put it all on paper and never go back," was the motto for this one. 

Young girl slices through a military-grade tent (can you say heavy, burlap-like fabric?) with a small dagger and jumps through the resulting hole before the guy with the SWORD can take two steps and run her through?  Before he can even yell for "the guards" to come and help him?  Um, no.  Random teenager doesn't know who the most powerful fury-crafter in the area even is, and brashly offends her without even thinking that she might get mad and send her magical fury after him?  Uh huh.  Girl runs into a forest and immediately knows it will try and capture her (fury-controlled trees), and instead of backing up a few steps and running around keeps running deeper into the trees?  Did I miss something here?  Same young girl being "okay" with the fact that she's going to get raped and then killed if she gets caught by some knights that are chasing her?  Okay, yeah.  No chance.

Butcher's writing is decent in this one.  I read the first two chapters and decided that if these ridiculous notions didn't stop soon that I'd quit.  And they didn't.  So, it's done.

Picked up Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon on the turn-around.  Really quite good so far.  She does have some pretty big problems with jumping POV in a single section, which can get confusing, but I read somewhere that this goes away after a bit.  So, I'm willing to push through it.  Really looking for great things from this book.  It's the first science fiction book that I've read in a LONG time that focused so heartily of characters and their lives.  Gives me hope that there are science fiction writers out there that still care about things like character and story and aren't stuck in yesteryear thinking that the "wow" factor is all that matters.  Well, here's to hoping anyhow.

[Patriotic Kaz]

Classic Sci-Fi is pretty much the only Sci-fi i read because the newer ones, in my not so humble opinion, generally blow.

[Sigyn]

You are reading the wrong new scifi. There are some amazing things out there (i.e. Karl Schroeder).

[little wilson]

I'm on to to the 4th book in Chris Stewart's "The Great and Terrible" series. It's an LDS series about the last days. And it's really good. There are some fairly big continuity errors (ones that I'm REALLY surprised the editors didn't catch, even though they're not that important to the plot), and the writing is amateurish in places, but the story itself is really good.

And sad. I was reading the 3rd book (finished it last night, and am now half-way through the 4th) before one of my classes yesterday, and I very nearly started crying. I had to skip/skim the part to make sure I wouldn't. And then come back to it when I got back to my apartment to really read it....And then I did cry...Amateurish though the series may be, it's still very good. I love it.

[WriterDan]

i.e. Karl Schroeder

I actually have Permanence by him in my TBR list.  Glad to know this could be another good sci-fi book.  The problem that I'm seeing comes mostly from the sci-fi that I've read, which I will agree is not very wide-reaching.  Even though Fantasy is by-and-large my favorite, I'd still like to be proven wrong about sci-fi.

Here's a few sci-fi authors I have on my TBR list.

Karl Schroeder
Tobias Buckell
Alastair Reynolds

Any others people can suggest that will deliver good stuff without sacrificing either character or actual story?  Or any of those three that I should wave off?

I've tried some of the "popular" authors (Iain Banks, Robert Sawyer) and haven't much cared for what I saw.

[Bookstore Guy]

I tried Buckell, and didn't care for it. Reynolds is pretty good--start with Revelation Space. The Safehold series by Weber is pretty good. Lots of people say Hamilton is good Hard SF. We were just sent a bunch of SF from Pyr to read, so we'll let you know: The Quiet War, and a ton of Mike Resnick. My buddy Skar says that the Jack Campbell series is OK, as well as the military SF by John Ringo (but I suggest you avoid the novel GHOST). There are a few other authors I was told to read for the SF equivalent of Hack'n'slash...but I can't recall the author names...

[Slamel]

Hamilton is the hardest SF I have ever seen and it is really, really great.

[Patriotic Kaz]

Heinlein is one of the absolute best author's in any genre! (if you dispute this FACT i will smother you with a pillow ) My favorite of his is Stranger in a Strange Land.



P.S. Anyone grok (if don't get it...don't ask and go buy SSL)

[Sigyn]

I finished Little Brother and it really wasn't my favorite.  It was probably a better read before Obama was elected.  It was really one-sided, and while it brought up a lot of good things to think about,  the main character's attitude just made me roll my eyes.