"What are you reading?" thread.

[Hailey Knight]

Finished all my available Hellboy trades. I'm irritated that the last story volume ends on a cliffhanger after so much build-up, but volume 12 is apparently out to finish things, so I'll see to that when I get the chance.

Honestly, after having read 10 trades, and reading BPRD on the side (just finished volume 8, so still lots to go), I feel like Hellboy is the least interesting part of his universe. His backstory and his role in events are engrossing, but his personality often leaves a lot to be desired when he's not around his friends, and unfortunately he hasn't been around them since the start of BPRD.

I also don't like how sometimes Mignola has a great concept going and then just cuts it off suddenly to bring in another one. Joss Whedon has had that problem in the past. Very frustrating. The books are still great and I love the universe, but I think Guillermo del Toro made some important changes when he did the movies. Fortunately each medium of Hellboy can be enjoying on its own merits.

Not sure what to read next. Possibly Anansi Boys.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Although Hellboy's one of my favourite comic characters, I've grown disinterested in both his title and BPRD. I used to love both of them, but for Hellboy, you're right. He's more interesting when he's with them. My problem with both, honestly, is the "shit just got weird" factor happens a lot that it's sometimes hard to really understand what's going on. Abe's origin, for example, still confuses the hell out of me. As a writer myself, I feel the "keep it simple, stupid!" motto should always apply, but it just doesn't for these titles.

Honestly, aside from the movies, my favourite medium to read Hellboy stories are the prose novels. Most of them are written by Christopher Golden, and I've always enjoyed them for being great, self-contained adventures within the Hellboy universe.

 

[Hailey Knight]

That's something that also annoys me; sometimes it feels like the actions dictate a monster be in a certain role, but it hardly matters what the monster is, because the rules get made up almost on the spot, and/or whatever the specific method is for killing it was given just an issue earlier by a deus ex machina dream character.

I still love the books and will continue reading the trades; I am interesting in the overall story, the characters, and the imagination present. But I feel the fiction is only good when the stories are at their opposite sides, either something to do with the major arc with the Ogdru Jahad, or something entirely self-contained. Anything between those and we hit narrative problems. Darkness Calls, for example, didn't feel like anything mattered despite three or four long-running villains in the series being killed or made irrelevant during its chapters. On the other hand, Conqueror Worm was a fantastic long story, while stuff like The Crooked Man was a good stand-alone.

I've not really had many problems with BPRD. Even The Universal Machine, which in the long run seemed like it accomplished nothing, was still a decent character bit.

Also, as best I can glean for Abe's backstory:

Spoiler

As a human, he was part of a secret society wanting to unravel the world's mysteries and then to tap into a power that would allow them to save the world after its destruction. Whatever that little egg thing they found was, it tapped into some ancient sea goddess power that transformed Abe into a fish-man.

Actually, that's a lot simpler than the books present it once it's written out. Huh.

 

[GasBandit]

Just finished the latest Riftwar book.

Feist needs to fire his editor, or start self-policing a whole lot better. Continuity errors, missing words, typos, and erroneous homonyms galore. A moat in his eye? Really? The story has its gripping parts and it's dull parts... but the lack of competent editing along with a MASSIVE continuity error (Pug and Magnus go to a city in an early chapter, and then in chapter 15 Magnus teleports back to tell Pug about the city since he didn't go with him and then takes him to the city where the inhabitants meet him again for the first time) and several medium ones (like referring to a character as "the elf" who is NOT AND NEVER WAS AN ELF NOR IS THERE EVEN AN ELF PRESENT at the time)... just make it seem rushed and crappy.

 

[Emrys]

Just finished the latest Riftwar book... Feist needs to fire his editor, or start self-policing a whole lot better.

What's the title?

 

[GasBandit]

What's the title?

A Crown Imperiled.

 

[checkeredhat]

Still reading Grave Peril. I haven't had time to do any reading in a long time now, or I'd have been done 3 weeks ago. This is seriously hurting my goal of finishing 30 books this year.

 

[Dei]

I broke my Kindle. :'(
Waiting for Amazon's replacement to get here.

 

[Hailey Knight]

looking for books to read. What kind of sci-fi fantasy would you guys recommend?

It helps when you specify the kind of stuff you're into; sci-fi and fantasy have a huge breadth to each of them.

Reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman at the moment. I'm in a weird way with it, because on the one hand, it's taken over 150 pages for the story to really feel like it's coming into anything, yet on the other hand, I've been oddly captivated by what's going on. My resistance to it might be from its structure, which Gaiman calls "movie-shaped," which doesn't always work in a novel. But I've still got half the book to go and I'm looking forward to seeing if everyone can come out okay on the other end of all this. Plus, seeing if something from American Gods that seems inconsistent here will come to be explained at all.

 

[checkeredhat]

I don't know much sci-fi, but as far as fantasy goes, I'll continue to recommend Patrick Rothfuss' "The Name of the Wind" and "A Wise Man's Fear". Not enough people are reading the Kingkiller Chronicle.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I don't know much sci-fi, but as far as fantasy goes, I'll continue to recommend Patrick Rothfuss' "The Name of the Wind" and "A Wise Man's Fear". Not enough people are reading the Kingkiller Chronicle.

Waiting for it to finish. I think I can actually do that this time.

 

[GasBandit]

mr_thehun I'll second Kingkiller. And even though I grumble about the latest few, the FIRST 20 or so riftwar books by Raymond Feist are good fantasy reading (starting with Magician: Apprentice).

As for Sci Fi - I expect to get pelted with wadded balls of paper from all directions for the transparent libertarianism, but If you haven't read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, you should. An old favorite of mine for light sci fi reading is Crashlander by Larry Niven. Old Man's War by John Scalzi is pretty good and more recent, and the next two sequels are pretty good but I lost interest in the 4th book as it's just a retelling of the third from another character's viewpoint. If you like cynical superhero/superscientist villain stuff, Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman is a fun read. I'm having a hard time thinking of a whole lot else good in the way of Science Fiction written later than 1980.

 

[Officer_Charon]

I want to get into honor harrington. is it any good?

Hell yeah it is, son, although it can get sorta crunchy during the combat sequences when he starts throwing math around (MATH MAKE JARHEAD BRAIN HURT! ) And the later descriptions of the political interplay, while necessary, can get very.... viscous, for lack of a better word. I've not read his last two offerings, by simple virtue of not having picked them up yet (working through other series.) I will be remedying this in short order, however.

tl;dr, yeah, I'd recommend them for a read.

 

[fade]

I just read Night by Elie Wiesel from cover to cover in one sitting. Couldn't put it down. To think this stuff really happened. The truth is more horrible than fiction.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

On to book 3 of the Dresden Files.

I recently started reading this series. I finished book 6, but I'm not sure if I like it enough to continue reading them.

 

[checkeredhat]

I recently started reading this series. I finished book 6, but I'm not sure if I like it enough to continue reading them.

I'm still on book 3. Part of it is that I don't have much time to read anymore, but it's also that I'm kind of getting a little sick of it. I'm definitely going to need to take a break from the series and read something with a little more .... weight? You know what I mean?

 

[Hailey Knight]

Reading... a very un-engaging book. Kinda pissed that it's so bland, when I was expecting an epic, but at least it was only $3. I'm a little put off by this and probably won't start reading another book until next week.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Reading Anansi Boys

Ever heard about Gaiman's story the time Hollywood wanted to adapt it? I'm paraphrasing here. They had three "small" things they wanted to change:

1) Not have any scenes, mention, or origins of Africa.
2) No mention of gods.
3) Could the main characters be white?

Gaiman turned them down in a heartbeat, of course. He asked, "Why would you even call it Anansi Boys, then?"

 

[Hailey Knight]

Ever heard about Gaiman's story the time Hollywood wanted to adapt it? I'm paraphrasing here. They had three "small" things they wanted to change:

1) Not have any scenes, mention, or origins of Africa.
2) No mention of gods.
3) Could the main characters be white?

Gaiman turned them down in a heartbeat, of course. He asked, "Why would you even call it Anansi Boys, then?"

Yeah, I did hear about that, and I kept meaning to write a tweet about it, so thanks for reminding me.

Having finished it, I can't say it was as fantastic as American Gods, but it would make a good movie. It feels like it was written for people not familiar with Gaiman's usual themes and such, so there wasn't a lot new. But it was still very good.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

I'm still on book 3. Part of it is that I don't have much time to read anymore, but it's also that I'm kind of getting a little sick of it. I'm definitely going to need to take a break from the series and read something with a little more .... weight? You know what I mean?

Yes I do know. Dresden was ok when I didn't have much time to read because I could pick it up before bed as an easy read. Now I have a bit of extra time since I won't take classes until fall. The story itself is getting tiresome and I could use a book I can really get lost in.

 

[ElJuski]

Just finished Reveille In Washington. About halfway through New Kings of Nonfiction. Bitchinnnn

 

[North_Ranger]

Did a little nerd shopping at the local games/comic book store.

Just finished Walking Dead #16: A Larger World, now reading Zombie Survival Guide and peeking at World War Z. Also reading A Game of Thrones, but pacing it more slowly. Jeeves short stories are currently on hold.

On my waiting-to-be-out list: a pocket book version of City of Dragons by Robin Hobb.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Reading Dust by Arthur Slade.

For a story that begins with a child abduction, it's kind of weak. It's bad for the same reasons it's good--much of the book is told from the POV of the abducted kid's brother, who has an imagination so vivid that he's often distracted from the world around him, which makes for a lot of colorful descriptions and enjoyable scenes. However, most of the book is padded with these daydreams and I feel like it this story were told straight, it would be less than a quarter of its current length (and it's already a short book). Plot moves like a snail. I suppose this works for me since I'm too busy to read a really involving book right now, but I can't exactly recommend it unless you're looking for a book that considers story to be something you eventually get around to, and only briefly then.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

I decided to torture myself with Temple of the Winds (book 4 in The Sword of Truth series).

 

[WasabiPoptart]

I barely made it through book 3. I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to read, so picked that up just to have a book.

 

[Kovac]

just wait until it's a couple hundred pages about the evils of communism and charity. While I can agree with a lot of what he says, it doesn't make for the most interesting fantasy series.

It's not interesting when the characters put the brakes on the progress of the book just so that they can get up on their soapbox and rant about something which has been gone over before many times in great detail.

But i'm a bit slow so it took me until book 6 to realise...

 

[HCGLNS]

Just finished the first 6 books of the Dream of Eagles saga by Jack Whyte and posted reviews of them in the book section.

Dave worked hard on that section, jus'sayin'.

 

[Bubble181]

re-reading part 6 of the Trilogy. Still enjoyable, but noticable it's a different author. Probably like it better than part 5 though

 

[PatrThom]

All my reading is currently on hold due to either time pressures or the shiny-of-the-day.

--Patrick

 

[Bubble181]

Rereading Interesting Times. Still like it.

Next up: the World according to Garp. I've read the book probably 1 times and still've never seen the movie; maybe I should get around to that some day.

 

[GasBandit]

Rereading Interesting Times. Still like it.

Next up: the World according to Garp. I've read the book probably 1 times and still've never seen the movie; maybe I should get around to that some day.

I dunno, watching Garp after reading it... it made me feel the same way I felt watching Breakfast of Champions after reading it.

 

[PatrThom]

Nothing. All books on hold.

--Patrick

 

[Hailey Knight]

This might sound strange, but it's comforting for me to sit down and read a Stephen King book. I think it's been three years since the last one, Cell. I finally picked up Four Past Midnight, wanting to take a look at some novellas besides The Mist.

 

[PatrThom]

All reading projects still on hold. Dividing my time up between work, life, and video games, no more reading for now.

--Patrick

 

[checkeredhat]

FINALLY finished reading the King of Plagues this morning. It took me forever to get into. Shortly after I started it my work schedule got crazy, then I just lost interest. I read like, 100 pages of it over about 3 months, and the remaining 340 pages of it yesterday/ this morning. Turns out, it's a good book.