What are you reading right now?

[rooster707]

Well, I finished Catalyst the other day, so I went to the bookstore today to pick up Ahsoka. Didn't have it. Nor Rebel Rising. So, I'm sucking it up and going into Aftermath: Life Debt. May god have mercy on my soul.

Hoo boy. Good luck.

Right now I'm reading Tomorrow's Kin by... somebody. TBH I only grabbed it because the cover looked nice, I was kind of in a hurry. So far it's okay, but not particularly interesting.

[Spirit Turtle]

Currently reading Perilous Waif by E. William Brown

It's a fun, interesting little trans-humanist sci-fi story that focuses on the misadventures of a young augmented orphan girl as she finds her place in the universe and who she really is. I'm enjoying it a great deal.

[ElevenSided Die]

I'm currently reading Battlefield Earth; my wife picked up a free copy for me at the ALA Convention in Chicago back in June.

She also bought me a Kindle for my birthday in August, which I still have not used, because I've been reading 1050 pages of L. Ron Hubbard for the past four months. I really should spend more time reading my books, and less time posting on internet message boards...

[Kato]

I'm binge-reading all volumes of Bakuman. Anyone here likes manga?

Well have a Manga and anime thread, probably the better place to ask.


I started reading aaronovitch's Grant books.. Well, I started the second book. It's fun so far. Nothing too deep but decent.

[Lector87]

Just finished The Proof House, the final book in KJ Parker's Fencer Trilogy. Was just as good as the first in the series, Colours in the Steel, but not as good as the second book (that climax was just wonderful and squick at the same time).

Picked up a book on Minimalism and Neal Stephenson's infamous Snow Crash, so that's next on the docket.

KJ Parker is awesome! Just about my favorite living author. I'm reading The Proof House now, so don't spoil anything...

Have you tried any of his other books? The Scavenger Trilogy is also good, but I think The Engineer Trilogy is his very best work (that I've read).

[Vogie]

KJ Parker is awesome! Just about my favorite living author. I'm reading The Proof House now, so don't spoil anything...

Have you tried any of his other books? The Scavenger Trilogy is also good, but I think The Engineer Trilogy is his very best work (that I've read).

I absolutely LOVED the Scavenger trilogy. I'm looking forward to reading more of his stuff, including the Engineer Trilogy.

[Lector87]

I absolutely LOVED the Scavenger trilogy. I'm looking forward to reading more of his stuff, including the Engineer Trilogy.

One of the things I loved about Parker is that he was anonymous - so mysterious! - buuut I just found out that in 2015 it was revealed to be a pen name for a guy called Tom Holt, who apparently writes very different, almost Pratchett-like fantasy under his own name. I'm really looking forward to picking up some of his fiction as Holt, and seeing how different it is.

[BWR]

One of the things I loved about Parker is that he was anonymous - so mysterious! - buuut I just found out that in 2015 it was revealed to be a pen name for a guy called Tom Holt, who apparently writes very different, almost Pratchett-like fantasy under his own name. I'm really looking forward to picking up some of his fiction as Holt, and seeing how different it is.

I read some Tom Holt. Not impressed. Part of it is being not as good as Pratchett while trying to do basically the same thing.

[Lector87]

I read some Tom Holt. Not impressed. Part of it is being not as good as Pratchett while trying to do basically the same thing.

I suspected as much, judging from descriptions of his work as Holt. "Knock-off Pratchett, and not as good" were what immediately sprang to mind.

His work as Parker, on the other hand, is magnificent.

[McMurderface]

The Welcome to Night Vale novel by Joseph Fink has had me laughing out loud and causing a scene on the bus every day this past week. Highly recommended if you're a fan of the podcast or just a fan of dark comedy.

[Lethologica]

I lasted less than two chapters with Heir to the Empire *grimaces*, so now I'm reading Peter Beagle's In Calabria instead. Late-20th-century crusty middle-aged Italian farmer encounters unicorn, and presumably shenanigans will ensue (I'm not very far in yet). Prose worthy of Beagle, as expected, but surprisingly distinct from his voice in The Last Unicorn. Or maybe not surprising, for someone who has read more than one of his works--but hey, I'm working towards that.

[Velaryon]

I've been reading some non-fantasy stuff lately, because of doing book talks at local schools.

Game Change by Joseph Monninger is the story of the backup quarterback on a high school football team, who gets thrown into the spotlight when the starting QB breaks his leg right before the state championship. The book takes place during the week between the other QB's injury and the big game, as his life turns upside down - recruiters from colleges start reaching out to him, people all over school and town keep telling him how much it all means for him to lead the team to victory, and he reconnects with an old classmate from grade school and sees her in an entirely new light. The story is really more about everyone's expectations of him than it is about the football game itself.
I liked this pretty well, mostly because it didn't focus too heavily on the actual football. However, it's not the kind of book that will stick with me for very long.


A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White follows high school senior Jill Cafferty as she becomes the first woman to be drafted by a major league baseball team. What follows is all the insanity that you'd expect around that, from media hyping her as some kind of hero, to little girls swarming her for autographs, to angry sexist baseball fans (and players) harassing her for entering into a world where they don't think she belongs. Through all of that, Jill has to contend with trying to make it in the minor leagues and focus on actually playing the game, while wondering if she might not have been better off accepting that full-ride scholarship instead...
This one was really good, although I hate that it kind of ends abruptly, just a few games into the season. We don't find out how well she does over the whole season, or whether she ever makes it to the big leagues, or fails and has to quit baseball in embarrassment. It's not a short book, but it still feels like there should have been more resolution than what we got.

And then there's Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. This is one that I sell in book talks as the sports book for people who don't like sports (and hey, I hear there's a few people who hate sports on this forum, so maybe y'all should listen up). Main character TJ is athletically gifted but refuses to participate in major sports, much to the frustration of his school and the coaches. He's also multiracial, adopted, and has some anger issues. When one friendly teacher wants him to form a swim team at the school, TJ reluctantly agrees. He then proceeds to fill it up with every misfit, outcast, and freak he can find. TJ's goal is to get as many of them as possible awarded prestigious varsity letter jackets, because he's sick of how his school treats athletes as more important and more privileged than other students, and he wants to see them afforded those privileges as well. Along the way, the book also deals with issues of racism, domestic abuse, and bullying. Basically, imagine The Magnificent Seven transplanted from the Old West into high school, with the bad guys replaced with overzealous coaches and particularly nasty jocks.

---------------------------

On a more fantasy-related note, I've been slooooooooooooowly working my way through the audiobook version of Tamora Pierce's Wild Magic. I can't point to any specific thing that I don't like about the book, but it's just not terribly engrossing. I know Pierce's name and her place in both fantasy and YA, so I really want to give this series a chance, but I'm not sure I can continue past the first book if something more interesting doesn't start happening soon.

[Kantaki]

Started reading Worm 2 today.

Well, the first prologue/prequel/teaser/whatever-you-call-it chapter, technically.
The actual story will start in a few weeks.

But what we got so far looks interesting.
Some hints how the world was affected by the events in part one.
In true Wildbow fashion things look grim, but not entirely bad.
I guess that'll come later...
Anyway, I'm exited for more Cape-stuff.

Edit:The first story, Worm, starts there, for those interested.

[Peelee]

Finished Aftermath: Life Debt. Its like reading bad fanfiction. I want to know who thought it was a good idea to give Chuck Wendig a three-book deal.

My wife got me Ahsoka and Rebel Rising. I'm excited, dive I don't have to go straight to the third Aftermath book. Didn't expect them to be YA novels though. Starting on Ahsoka today.

[Velaryon]

I'm starting in on Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn , sequel to Rebel of the Sands that I read a few weeks ago.

The series is pretty bog-standard YA fantasy with most of the tropes that come along with that, but I like the setting which is an interesting mashup of pseudo-Arabian culture with an American Old West thing.

[2D8HP]

As is my habit I had planned to do some Halloween themed reading for the month of October, but instead it was

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version

by Philip Pullman



that fed my eyes.

Despite (because?) the stories being (or feeling) familiar, they still engrossed me.

[Vogie]

Just finished up Snow Crash, now reading the new Cory Doctorow Novel, Walkaway.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

I'm re-reading Mary Renault's Fire From Heaven, her fictionalised account of the early life of Alexander the Great.

I'm reading it to my wife, as is our habit each night: I read out whatever book I'm reading, so we both get to enjoy it, instead of being isolated in our own thing. It's helped improve my GMing, too.

[Shadow of the Sun]

At the moment I'm rereading the Stormlight Archive, since Oathbringer drops in two weeks or thereabout. Finished The Way of Kings, am now on Words of Radiance.

[Corlindale]

At the moment I'm rereading the Stormlight Archive, since Oathbringer drops in two weeks or thereabout. Finished The Way of Kings, am now on Words of Radiance.

I headed into this thread to post exactly this. Thanks for doing the work for me!

They are just as amazing the second time, half the excitement of Oathbringer coming out is that it's a great excuse to read the other two again! (I'd been wanting to re-read them for some time, but I figured the timing might as well be just before Vol III).

[Mith]

Did a re read of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I had forgotten how enjoyable of a character Sam is. Also, IMO the events of Rohan are much more enjoyable read than Gondor, but I guess that's because Rohan is supposed to be more of a rise to greatness, while Gondor is a decline.

Also finished re reading the First Chronicles of Druss the Legend by David Gemmell. Druss is a fun character in my opinion because although he isn't written like the stereotypical knight in shining armour Paladin, he still is a man with an uncompromising sense of integrity which is really enjoyable to read IMO.

[Lethologica]

Finished In Calabria. Pros: prose, unicorns, grumpy man living alone in the hills. Cons: predictable plot, eye-roll at the age difference in the romance. Read if you like Beagle, but not if you want Beagle at his best.

Casting about for another novel now. Might end up in the Vorkosigan universe, since I recommended it to my mother without reading it and she recommended it back to me after reading it. We'll see.

[dariathalon]

I headed into this thread to post exactly this. Thanks for doing the work for me!

They are just as amazing the second time, half the excitement of Oathbringer coming out is that it's a great excuse to read the other two again! (I'd been wanting to re-read them for some time, but I figured the timing might as well be just before Vol III).

Make that 3 of us doing this. I don't have enough time to reread both of the previous two, so I skipped Way of Kings which I've already been through a couple of times, and am going straight into Words of Radiance. Can't wait for more!

[Jay R]

This thread been going on long enough that my answers are completely different.

1. Memoirs of D’Artagnan, by Courtilz de Sandras. Cool to see the basis for Dumas’s novel.

2. Douglas Fairbanks: The Making of a Screen Character, by Alistair Cooke. It’s fascinating to realize that Fairbanks wasn’t primarily a swashbuckler, since that’s all we remember today.

3. The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land, by Diana Wynne Jones. Hilarious. If you think the game you’re running isn’t composed of well-established clichés, then this book will set you straight.

4. Poincaré’s Prize, by George Szpiro. Fascinating look into the birth and growth of topology.

5. My new non-Marvel, non-DC comics. I'm folding a bunch of recently acquired comics into my collection, which necessitates reading them. I finished the DC and Marvel books last month. Cerebus. Tom Strong. Turok. Magnus. Tarzan. Supreme. Mad House. Savage Dragon. Zorro. A huge number of wildly varying quality.

[rooster707]

Just finished up Snow Crash, now reading the new Cory Doctorow Novel, Walkaway.

I read Walkaway about a month ago. It's good!

Not really reading anything right now except school stuff, but I ran across the Thursday Next series during a TV Tropes binge and it sounds amazing, so I'll be reading those once the library gets my holds in.

[2D8HP]

The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land, by Diana Wynne Jones. Hilarious. If you think the game you’re running isn’t composed of well-established clichés, then this book will set you straight..

I read that!

It was a lot of fun.



There was a (sort of) sequel:

Dark Lord of Derkholm

[Grinner]

I'm reading it to my wife, as is our habit each night: I read out whatever book I'm reading, so we both get to enjoy it, instead of being isolated in our own thing. It's helped improve my GMing, too.

That is adorable. I must do that sometime.

[Mith]

Just finished Legend by David Gemmell. I personally recommend it, although I believe reading the series in chronological order is best. Legend was the first book published, but then Gemmell went back a filled in the details.

[BWR]

I read that!

It was a lot of fun.



There was a (sort of) sequel:

Dark Lord of Derkholm

An excellent book, as is most of her stuff. The sequel, "Year of the Griffin" was good, but not quite as good as DLoD.

Finishing off Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman's "The Fall of Kings". Return of magic and the rightful king (at least so far) but interestingly set to a university setting, with much of the university politics and student life one might expect. the wordsmithing is good enough I may well get more of their works, if I can find it. Seems like they do a fair amount of fairy tale-ish stuff.

[thorgrim29]

Right now I'm reading The Name of the Wind since I got the 10th anniversary edition for my birthday. Still the same book I've read many times but the book itself is very pretty. And now I am responsible for Pat Rothfuss having a bit more money to live on while he fails to complete The Door of Stone.