Books: What have you been reading?

[Old Man Ollie 1962]

West African Folktales by Jack Berry, Scottish Myths & Legends by K.E. Sullivan

[Professor Moriarty]

I've started reading Console Wars.



it's about when Sega rose to prominence in the early 90's and became Nintendo's biggest rival. Nintendo came onto the scene after the video game crash of 84 and dominated the late 80's. Then in 91 Sega came along with the Genesis and Sonic The Hedgehog and declared war on Nintendo. In this book i've learned things i've never knew about Nintendo & Sega.

[Cold Water]

Getting ready to start this:


It was sent to me as a gift.

[JediMindTrick]

Finished reading Calamity by Brandon Sanderson. I loved the first two books in the Reckoners series but found this to be very disappointing and I didn't like the ending at all.

Just got done listening to Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. It was written in 1998 but it has a lot of of relevance in today's world. Basically it raises a lot of moral questions about whether there should be limits the government spying in the tech world.

Just started listening to Finders Keepers by Stephen King.

[JediMindTrick]

Richard K Morgan's Altered Carbon. This book was amazing. It's all about a future where people can download their consciousness into new bodies after dead, and explores how this would impact crime in the future. I will definitely be reading the two sequels and watching the Netflix show when it comes out.

I read this is as part of a book club a year or two ago and liked it. However, those who have read the series said that the rest of the books are nothing like the first one. Whereas the first one is sort of a crime noir book the others are straight forward sci fi with aliens and guns. I'm not opposed to such things by any means but at the time I had so many others books on my reading list that I put this series on the backburner and actually had forgotten all about it til your post.

[Malvolio]

Star Trek Titan: Taking Wing by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels

[maeda]

I've started reading Console Wars.


it's about when Sega rose to prominence in the early 90's and became Nintendo's biggest rival. Nintendo came onto the scene after the video game crash of 84 and dominated the late 80's. Then in 91 Sega came along with the Genesis and Sonic The Hedgehog and declared war on Nintendo. In this book i've learned things i've never knew about Nintendo & Sega.

it's on my RL, would you recommend?

[Ragdoll]

I just finished Ghost Story by Peter Straub. It's funny how much of Stephen King's 80s style can be traced back to this 70s book that paved the way for the literary horror genre. I wish I had read this sooner, because a ton of books I love (Stephen King books in particular) feel like hacks ripping off this book.

I also read Orson Scott Card's Shadow Saga, all the Bean books. They got way realer than I was expecting, and the last book concluded Bean's life history, and the next book will feature his children finding Ender, and link the Ender saga with the Shadow saga finally. We haven;t had an actual Ender book in over a decade, so this will be awesome for everything to finally culminate.
Every time Card writes something poignant about how horrible it is that racism exists, it blows my mind that this dude preaching racial harmony and world peace hates homosexuality. It makes sense when weirdos like Lovecraft are bigots, but OSC writes some Ghandi level stuff about wanting global harmony between the races, yet somehow doesn;t have room for gay people in that future utopia he imagines.

Today I'm starting Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes. So far it is good stuff.
EDIT: I finished it and it was frigging amazing. I highly recommend it to fans of True Detective that wished the ending had elaborated more on the supernatural angles while still feeling grounded in reality. As contradictory as that sounds, this managed to feel more like magical realism than horror, despite featuring a Lovecraftian type entity at work.

Finished reading Calamity by Brandon Sanderson. I loved the first two books in the Reckoners series but found this to be very disappointing and I didn't like the ending at all.

Do you follow the bigger Sanderson Cosmere? I liked the ending because it seemed to hint that Sanderson's Earth books might get linked to the Cosmere down the line. Especially with the sequel Reckoner's trilogy confirmed for taking place in one of those alt-worlds that were involved with the 3rd books plot.

I read this is as part of a book club a year or two ago and liked it. However, those who have read the series said that the rest of the books are nothing like the first one. Whereas the first one is sort of a crime noir book the others are straight forward sci fi with aliens and guns. I'm not opposed to such things by any means but at the time I had so many others books on my reading list that I put this series on the backburner and actually had forgotten all about it til your post.

Hmmm... while I like alien action sci-fi, the noir style was what made the book so unique. Sad to hear the tone shifts, but I won;t dismiss them offhand because of this. Hopefully they aren;t a letdown when I get to them.

[Ragdoll]

I just read all 4 of Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz series. Highly enjoyable stuff.

Other books I read
3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (very spooky stuff)

[Old Man Ollie 1962]

[Ragdoll]

Read the first Rot & Ruin book at work yesterday, going to pop on #2 today.

Also, here's a shameless plug of a short story I wrote for a contest. If anyone wants a quick read, check it out. It's PG-13 content.
https://www.booksie.com/posting/rand...argains-462959

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[Deathstroke]

I finished reading the advance reader's copy of An Honorable Man by Paul Vidich. It comes out April 12th.

[Expletive Deleted]

I just finished the first two books in Ian Tregillis's new series, The Mechanical and The Rising. It's a little unnecessarily steampunky in places, but the central idea (robots with free will and French secret agents rebelling against a clockwork empire run by the Dutch) is a lot of fun. Next up is Brian Stavely's The Last Mortal Bond.

I've also been reading a number of e-book serials, lately. It's an interesting format, and the flexibility can lead in some interesting directions. Some of them are basically one big novel released chapter-by-chapter, but even then the rhythm of a weekly/monthly release changes how you read them. Quite a few of them use procedural elements to divide the chapters, which works better than you'd expect.

Two of Swords by K.J. Parker. Parker (AKA Tom Holt in serious mode) is kind of an acquired taste, but the open-ended nature and the rapidly shifting narrators change the feel just enough.

Indexing and Indexing: Reflections by Seanan McGuire. McGuire doing a take on fairy tales mixed with a procedural. I liked the first book better, before it delved too deeply into the mystical side, but both are worth a look.

The Witch Who Came In From The Cold, Tremontaine, and Bookburners from Serial Box Publishing (Max Gladstone, Ellen Kushner, Ian Tregillis, and a load of other folks). These are interesting in that they're multi-author collaborations, very much in the TV series "writer's room" style. Sometimes it works better than others, in that some of the writers are clearly better than others, but each series has its charms.

[Deathstroke]

I finished reading the Julie Hyzy mystery novel All The President's Menus.

[John Ossie]

I finished reading the Julie Hyzy mystery novel All The President's Menus.

Is that any good? Just that I've ordered it for my wife as a surprise.