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What are you Reading Now?

skip.knox

skip.knox

Staff
Moderator
The mentions of Silverlock (I'm proud to say I own a 1979 copy) made me think of another book in which many famous people appear -- The Fabulous Riverboat and To Your Scattered Bodies Go by the strangely brilliant Philip Jose Farmer. I'm not reading any of that at this time, so I'm sort of cheating here, but the books deserve attention, especially as an entirely different sort of fantasy.
 
D

Devouring Wolf

Mystagogue
Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani. Its the first pure historical fiction I've read in a long time, and while I wouldn't consider it a page turner, I am really enjoying it and its written beautifully.

Trying to get through Watership Down. I have a feeling a younger me would've enjoyed this book. I admire that it doesn't talk down to the reader as so many children's books do and the bits about the religion are interesting, but according to the forward, the author told the story to entertain his kids on a road trip, and it definitely reads that way. Its meandering, loose plot and none of the characters are particularly memorable to me. I'm not doubting why it became a classic, if I had kids, I'd read this to them, but its just not for me.
 
Sabu

Sabu

New Member
Desiderium: The War Within by Katherine Frances. It's a self-published work by a writer I found via her fanfiction. I blew through about 70% of it and then put reading on hold. It's one of those where I can see the potential and I know she can write better, but it's a little hard to get through.

I've also been reading some Drizzt stuff on nights I can't sleep. Looking forward to a few other self-published novels and the rest of the Mistborn series since I loved the first one.
 
CupofJoe

CupofJoe

Istari
Medieval Warfare Source Book: Volume 2 Christian Europe and its Neighbours.
From 400 to 1400 and from China, Russian, Turks and Mongol forces to Persian, Muslim and Byzantine warfare. It covers a lot and think you don't expect [like how the loot was divided, and how the forces were fed]. There are four pages on how armies were taxed...
It's a dry read but not a difficult one.
 
Mythopoet

Mythopoet

Dark Lord
skip.knox said:
The mentions of Silverlock (I'm proud to say I own a 1979 copy) made me think of another book in which many famous people appear -- The Fabulous Riverboat and To Your Scattered Bodies Go by the strangely brilliant Philip Jose Farmer. I'm not reading any of that at this time, so I'm sort of cheating here, but the books deserve attention, especially as an entirely different sort of fantasy.
Click to expand...

I've also started reading A House Boat on the Styx by John Kendrick Bangs (written in 1895) which seems to be one of the earlier incarnations of this sort of thing. In which a whole host of famous dead people establish a club in a house boat on the Styx. Charon is the caretaker/butler. It's quite an interesting read, though so far seems to be more a series of vignettes where famous people of disparate ages get together to chat rather than a story. The banter between the dead is highly amusing when one is feeling in an intellectual reading mood.

Wikipedia calls To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat science fiction novels, which is perhaps why I hadn't heard of them. Seem very interesting though. May have to check them out.
 
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Clearmadness

Clearmadness

Apprentice
I just finished reading The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson. I like it but it wasn't my favorite book by him by a long shot. I was expecting more to get resolved in the third novel but that didn't happen. They've still barely introduced the Big Bad.
 
tiggywinke

tiggywinke

Apprentice
I'm reading Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander." The first two chapters were terribly, terribly dull, and unnecessary if you know what a Jacobite is, but the book has gotten better. I'm enjoying her portrayal of 18th century Scotland.
 
Russ

Russ

Dark Lord
CupofJoe said:
Medieval Warfare Source Book: Volume 2 Christian Europe and its Neighbours.
From 400 to 1400 and from China, Russian, Turks and Mongol forces to Persian, Muslim and Byzantine warfare. It covers a lot and think you don't expect [like how the loot was divided, and how the forces were fed]. There are four pages on how armies were taxed...
It's a dry read but not a difficult one.
Click to expand...

Good on you for actually reading those. I own them, but always thought of them as more reference texts rather than books one reads from cover to cover.

Just reading Elantris right now, and a Tom Clancy/ Grant Blackwood novel, Under Fire.

Elantris is really strong for a debut.
 
C

Chessie

Istari
Elantris was also like his 5th book or something. I remember watching an interview with him where he talks about how he had been trying to get published for some time.

Just started "Silver On The Road" by Laura Anne Gilman. It has the best of both worlds for me: fantasy western. I'm still in the first chapter and loving her way with words.
 
Mythopoet

Mythopoet

Dark Lord
Just finished Silverlock. It was excellent. Not sure what I'm going to dig into next. Maybe Elantris.
 
Russ

Russ

Dark Lord
Chesterama said:
Elantris was also like his 5th book or something. I remember watching an interview with him where he talks about how he had been trying to get published for some time.

Just started "Silver On The Road" by Laura Anne Gilman. It has the best of both worlds for me: fantasy western. I'm still in the first chapter and loving her way with words.
Click to expand...

Interesting about Elantris, the copy I have has a blurb that refers to it as a debut so I thought it was.

Gilman is a great lady. I got to know her years ago and had my wife "tuckerized" for charity in one of her series. Very nice lady and a pretty good writer to boot.
 
Mythopoet

Mythopoet

Dark Lord
Well, I'm into Elantris and liking it well enough. I've not read a Sanderson book before and I wanted to give him a try but didn't really want to get into a series so this works. I think it tends to suffer from a bit of "serious writer voice" though.
 
Mythopoet

Mythopoet

Dark Lord
Russ said:
Interesting about Elantris, the copy I have has a blurb that refers to it as a debut so I thought it was.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that Elantris is his debut, as his first book to be published. But he had written several books before it that were not published.
 
Incanus

Incanus

Shadow Lord
I don't think I'm going to make through Brothers Karamazov. At least not all at once. I might have to set it aside for awhile and try again later, but I don't know. The main characters are interesting enough and I don't mind a plot taking a while to get underway. The main problem I have is that a majority of characters have a tendency to babble. A lot. The story and the babbling is... diffuse to say the least. I just can't tell what the point of most of the babbling is, unless it is to deliberately add fog and diffusion to everything, effectively hiding the plot and much of the characterization.

I'm sure I'm wrong about all this, and just don't 'get' it. Perhaps this is book for swifter readers? I guess I'm more of a Crime and Punishment kind of guy.

Next up is Gormenghast (book 2). This book is sure to be awesome...
 
C

Chessie

Istari
Russ said:
Gilman is a great lady. I got to know her years ago and had my wife "tuckerized" for charity in one of her series. Very nice lady and a pretty good writer to boot.
Click to expand...
Really? Oh, that's so neat! She's a very good writer...but the problem I'm having with this story is that...well...it's much too slow a beginning for me. I haven't made it past the first chapter and I'm already bored which is a TOTAL bummer. The introduction into the mc's world is beautifully described, but I seriously don't need an entire page's worth of pointless backstory combined with bread making techniques from the 1800s.

Sigh. I was really hoping to get into this book but idk if that's going to happen. It's probably just me though. I have a short attention span so if a book doesn't captivate me within the first few pages, I'm kinda done. :(

So next up is "Doom Of The Dragon" in the Dragonships series. Will be biting into that tonight.
 
X Equestris

X Equestris

Scribal Lord
Just recently finished Sapkowski's "The Sword of Destiny" anthology. I think "A Little Sacrifice" ended up being my favorite story in it. That ending was a real gut punch.
 
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