April's Amazing Adventures in Fiction

[ktabic]

This weekend I finished Court of the Air (Stephan Hunt). Good stuff, looking forward to more.
This weekend I also started and finished Space Captain Smith (Toby Frost) and Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C Clarke, like you needed telling).

Just started Ringworld (Larry Niven), cause I just realised I had never read it before.

 

[Waziwig]

Disregard last comment ... found a copy of Feists' new book, RIDES A DREAD LEGION!!! Sod the coursework, this is important!

 

[GOLLUM]

This weekend I finished Court of the Air (Stephan Hunt). Good stuff, looking forward to more.
This weekend I also started and finished Space Captain Smith (Toby Frost) and Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C Clarke, like you needed telling).

Just started Ringworld (Larry Niven), cause I just realised I had never read it before.

Well, you got 2 good 'uns there in Rama and I'm told Court Of The Air (have but yet to read).

Niven's Ringworld is a bit of a classic and having had the chance to hang out with the man in Yokohama (Worldcon) he was a pretty relaxed and amicable character.

Enjoy those.

 

[AE35Unit]

Just started Ringworld (Larry Niven), cause I just realised I had never read it before.

I envy you reading it for the first time!
Superb book!

 

[ratsy]

I finished Ship of Destiny...great book! Then started on Servent of the Empire by Wurts and Feist....but I bought Renegades Magic, so I will read that first.

 

[soulsinging]

Just finished Charlie Huston's 'Six Bad Things.' I loved it. The guy has the blood-drenched noir novel thing down pat. It kinda stretches credulity at times, but man is it a fun read. I'm now moving on to the last novel in that trilogy, 'A Dangerous Man.'

 

[Hypnos164]

Just finished Charlie Huston's 'Six Bad Things.' I loved it. The guy has the blood-drenched noir novel thing down pat. It kinda stretches credulity at times, but man is it a fun read. I'm now moving on to the last novel in that trilogy, 'A Dangerous Man.'

After enjoying his Joe Pitt vampire novels this post just made me go and order these 3 books on amazon

Ouch, nearly £9 each for paperbacks

 

[Althain's Warden]

I'm confident you'll enjoy Servant of the Empire ratsy, have you got all three books lined up? Also if you've not already read her work, it will probably give you an appreciation for Janny Wurts books. Many people belive that the empire trilogy is Feist's best publication, these same people largely put the improvements down to JW's influence. Enjoy !

 

[GOLLUM]

Well I would say that for me this co-authored Daughter Of The Empire Trilogy along with Feist's original classic Magician are the best of his books to date.

 

[Connavar]

I finished reading Death Masks by Jim Bucther and have started reading Fevre Dream by George R R Martin.

 

[soulsinging]

After enjoying his Joe Pitt vampire novels this post just made me go and order these 3 books on amazon

Ouch, nearly £9 each for paperbacks

Ha, I finished 'A Dangerous Man' last night, and now I'm thinking of ordering the 4 Joe Pitt books myself They are rather pricey for a bunch of relatively short paperbacks, but so are Ken Bruen's books I suppose.

In any event, the third book was also excellent. Maybe not quite as thrilling as the second, but a fitting end to a great trilogy.

Now I think I'm going to take a crack at Richard Price's 'Lush Life.' I want to read Bruen's new novel, but I think I need a bit of a breather from the pathos and carnage after Huston!

 

[Talysia]

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

Finished Conqueror's Moon by Julian May last night. I have to say I wasn't all that impressed. I never got attached to any of the characters, they all felt very flat to me. I don't believe I will be continuing on in the trilogy.

I have now moved on to The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.

 

[Pyan]

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

First time or a re-read, Tal?

 

[Hypnos164]

Finished Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

I can see it has some flaws - the main one being that its a bit "lecture" oriented; in the first 1/3 of the book its little lectures on network security and encryption. Later in the book this gives way too more civil liberties (and history of civil rights) pieces.

Despite that I really, really liked it* - the "lectures" are short and usually pretty interesting - and the story itself moves along at a good pace. Well deserving of its Hugo nomination.

Read it quickly though ... this kind of near future stuff based around computing has a tendancy to become outdated very, very quickly

*Those who didn't grow up on Heinlein may have a different tolerance level for this kind of thing

 

[ktabic]

Finished Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Not so much a novel as an instruction manual on online privacy and civil rights.

Despite that I really, really liked it* - the "lectures" are short and usually pretty interesting - and the story itself moves along at a good pace. Well deserving of its Hugo nomination.

Just as a note, pretty much all of the technical stuff in the book is real and (except for the xbox OS and the pirate game) exists and works, and the key-signing stuff is the correct way to do it. A manual, not a novel

 

[j d worthington]

Well, after an abortive attempt to tackle Balzac's Séraphîta a couple of days ago, now that I've got some of the major nonsense life has thrown at me lately stowed away, I'm going to go for it again. I only got a few pages into it then, but what I read told me enough to know that I'm likely to at least find it quite interesting....

 

[Allegra]

Finished Iain M. Banks' Condsider Phlebas - the best book I've read so far this year and moved on to The Player of Games.

 

[dreir]

This weekend I also started and finished Space Captain Smith (Toby Frost) and Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C Clarke, like you needed telling).

I believe Toby is a regular poster here?

I'm about one-third of the way into Lean Times in Lankhmar (Lankhmar collection no 2). Yeah, shame on me for only reading it now..

- Dreir -

 

[murphy]

Thanks. I'm about in the middle and enjoying it. Compelling story and very informative too. Never read this author before, must check about his other books after this.

I have been looking for the past year on the next book in this series. Really loved the book.

Well I would say that for me this co-authored Daughter Of The Empire Trilogy along with Feist's original classic Magician are the best of his books to date.

Totally agree with you on that! It seems that after Magician, the books really didn't live up to the first one.

Finished Conqueror's Moon by Julian May last night. I have to say I wasn't all that impressed. I never got attached to any of the characters, they all felt very flat to me. I don't believe I will be continuing on in the trilogy.

I have now moved on to The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.

I have Conqueror's Moon and haven't finished it yet after years on the shelf, but I did love her Galactic Millieu series which starts with The Many-Colored Land. That series had been read and reread many times and you might give it a try.

So, in the meantime, I'm reading The Bellini Card, Jason Goodwin's third book in the Investigator Yashim series. It's a mystery set in the Istanbul of the 1840s and is very intriguing.