Well, I am quite the bookworm and always looking to share and find new books. Books I read in the last weeks and really liked: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt The beginning is a bit like Jonathan Safran Foer meets John Irving - the protagonist, who has a very close relationship to his mother and an absent father, witnesses his mother die. That's only the beginning though. Great characters, unexpected twists, good pacing. The writing seemed a bit pretentious to me in the beginning, but it quickly grew on me. House Of Suns by Alastair Reynolds One of my favourite SciFi authors, House Of Suns is another great piece of Hard Space Opera. Reasonably believable technology, interesting characters and an overall great plot, as well as exotic planets and the vastness of space and time. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajitami (I think?) Reminded me a bit of Locke Lamora in space, with a mind-boggling plot and a very interesting universe, and some amusing digs at Finnish culture. Good pacing, a fun read, you need to think quite a lot and sometimes backtrack though. Now you!
Hannu Rajaniemi (I had to look it up) I haven't read much in the last couple weeks, but I've got a bunch of books I'm about to read. Finished in the last month: Jo Walton, My Real Children Alt-hist (two of them, actually) about a woman living in England in the 20th century. Martha Wells, "The Falling World" Novella set after her Raksura novels, a low-key fantasy series about a race of shape-shifters. Jim Butcher, Skin Game After a couple chapters I decided I was done with this series. Currently Reading: Mary Robinette Kowal, Vanity and Valour Fourth novel about Regency England with minor magic. Books Waiting to be Read: Paul Cornell, The Severed Streets P.C. Hodgell, The Sea of Time Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Air War
I'm currently reading the latest translated Witcher novel, Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski. It's book 3 of 6 telling the story of Geralt and Ciri, a young princess who gets embroiled in large-scale events. Blood Red Snow by Günter K. Koschorrek is the memoir of an infantry soldier on the East Front in 1942-1945, a heavy machine gun operator. It's based on his contemporary notes which is probably why it feels so lifelike and has a strong sense of being there. One of the better WWII memoirs I've read. I actually bought and read both of these in Finnish because I want to support the Finnish publishers but these are their titles in English.
Children of the Sky (Vernor Vinge) - It's really not like either A Fire Upon the Deep or A Deepness in the Sky, as it focuses purely on post-countermeasure politics on the Tines' world. It was a good read, even though the ending is rather weak and I was annoyed with most of the characters for large periods of time. Pensees (Pascal) - meh... his complete notes are too scattered, alternating between beautiful ramblings and endlessly repetitive platitudes. It was better when I just read the good parts as excerpts. Plus an anthology of poetry by Lorca, which goes well with a glass of wine and a lazy afternoon. ^_^
Thank you, thank you. I am eagerly awaiting more gentlemen bastard books. This will make do nicely. Have not read much lately, but here are some great books that come to mind Rivers of London. Ben Aaronovitch. Police detective set in alternate London. With a cool science based magic system. Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi. Awesome rewrite of an old scifi novel. Hard to explain, Read it
Lots of books I already appreciate in this thread, thats already been mentioned (Scott Lynch, Aaaronovitch, Tartt - even if I haven't read Goldfinch yet). I recently finished Iain M Banks - The Hydrogen Sonata. So sad he passed away with so much left to write, a huge loss for SF and humanity. Another recent read was The Islanders by Cristopher Prist, well written and interesting, but I guess it was a bit scattered if looked on as a novel. On the top of my pile waiting to be read I have: Tigerman by Nick Harkaway, which is supposedly really good. Ghost Story by Graham Joyce. The Air War - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Children Of The Sky by Vernor Vinge was a pretty good read and an interesting continuation of the series, but didn't quite reach the heights of Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness In The Sky for me. I have read some of his other books as well, I did quite like "Across Realtime" as well. It's an anthology of two novels and one novella set in the same universe, and just as the Deep-Universe (no idea how it is called) they are all very different. Aaronovitch is a great light read, a pageturner with a nicely realized setting. It has a very good sense of place, something I miss a lot in many other great books. Authors that can pull that off are George R.R. Martin and Alastair Reynolds (well, for space anyway). I'll look into some of the books mentioned here, I'm travelling quite a bit these days and when the road isn't too bumpy I can actually read without throwing up. Thanks!
THANKS FOR THE POST! I ALSO ENJOY READING SINCE I WAS A CHILD. MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIMES BY FAR FAR FAR IS THE URANTIA BOOK. IT IS THE GREATEST BOOK YOUWILL EVER FIND IFU ARE THIRSTY AND HUNGRY. WWW.URANTIA.ORG IT HAS 2096 PAGES FILLED WITH THE MOST THRIVING IMPACTFUL INFO YOU WILL EVER READ! A BOOK I FINISHED LAST MONTH IS CALLED ON BECOMING A MAN!!! THIS BOOK TOTALLY HAS SHIFTED ME AND I WISH ID HAVE READ IT YEARS AGO ASWELL. FROM AMAZON: On becoming a man: A book for teenage boys Hardcover – January 1, 1951 by Harold Shryock MM MY BROTHER IS ALMOST FINISHING THE ASIMOV SAGA OF THE FOUNDATION,. HE HAS BOUGHT ALL OF THE BOOK EXCEPT FOR THE LAST ONE THAT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE FOUND IN ANY LIBRARY/ BOOK STORE IN MYCONTRY, HE HASREAD LIKE 6 BOOKS ALREADY....SO I STARTED TO READ THE FIRST ONE.....BUT ..WELL ON BECOMING A MAN AND THE URANTIA BOOK ARE TAKING THE SPACE HA-HA. OH AND I WAS GIFTEDA BOOK A YEARBOOK O F NEW IN CHESS BY A FRIEND I MET BEFORE E LEFT MY HOMETOWN...TIT IS THE YEAR BOOK OF NEW IN CHESS A HARDBOOK COVERBOOK IT HAS LIKE 5000GAMES FROM THEYEAR 1984 FULLY ANNOTATED SO IT IS GREAT! SO, THE URANTIA BOOK ISTHE BEST OF ALL ,THEN THE ON BECOMING A MAN BOOK. THANKS FOR THE POST I REALLY LIKE READING!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urantia_Book Seems to be a lesser known combo of The Book of Mormon and The Silmarillion. Never heard of it before. Pretty cultish. Bob and FSM approve.
