What did you just read?

Re-reading the original Dune Saga. It's become a once every 3-5 years habit since I was 9.

Mentioned David Eddings in some post on these boards recently so thinking about going through his books again some day soon.

Just finshed theCodex Aleraseries byJim Butcher. Excellent series for something he wrote on a bet. For those that have enjoyed The Dresden Files, these are also well done. It does make me wonder if he's going to come back to the series since he's kind of set up another confrontation 20ish years in the future.

Just finishedThe Red Knightby Miles Cameron.
Fantasy Book Critic: "The Red Knight" by Miles Cameron (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)
It is book one in a series (only two books out so far) but is superb. He lists Glen Cook and Erikson as influences and you can see it plainly in the story about mercenaries aspiring to become, well, noble in the defense of an abbey against an army of monsters.

The author blurb says he also writes historical fiction on medieval times and that comes through in scenes featuring mounted combat, probably some of the best I've read in a fantasy novel.

After I finish the next one I will start the Codex Alera.

I just finishedSword of the Bright Ladyby M. C. Planck. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a spur of the moment buy and I'm definitely glad I got it. In a nutshell it's about an engineer from modern society that somehow ends up in a medieval-era fantasy world and he uses his modern knowledge to help things along. Sounds a bit ridiculous but it worked very well.

Finished the Codex Alera series... all in all didn't like it, Book 2 has one of the most annoying scenes I have ever read. That said Book 3 was fantastic imho and the only reason I finished the series.

Also just finishedThe Fell Sword (The Traitor Son Cycle, #2) by Miles Cameron - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Listssecond book by Miles Cameron. Not as much combat as book one, more political intrigue and setting the rest of the narrative up for future books. On its own it is flawed but if the story goes where I think the writer is taking it, the series as a whole will be freaking awesome.

Just reread a compilation of poetry and short proses by G?rard de Nerval, a french author from the first half of the XIXth century. I had the book since high-school when I worked on some of his poems, but read the short stories for the first time. Several of these short stories are records of nights out, going from bars to dancing halls, flirting with girls, being dragged to secret spots where you can eat well and for cheap at 4 am, etc. These texts written almost 200 years ago surprised me by how fresh they were and how little things changed after all this time. It was also funny to read about him and his friend getting jailed for disorderly conduct or complaining about how the nightlife in London is so much superior to the one in Paris. No masterpieces in there (such has his brilliant Sylvie - read that one if you have the chance it's a short read and absolutely brilliant).

I remembered well his late poetry with each verse oozing with classic culture references, but was equally impressed by some of his earlier works, mostly inspired by german and english poets (he also did a lot of translations).

The Mote in Gods Eye.

Probably some of you guys have read it. I never had, and it's old. After finishing it, I felt guilty that it took me this long to read it. It's that fucking good.

So if you never have read it and feel like a First Contact story. They write in the essay which accompanies it that they didn't just want to write a first contact story, they wanted to write the first contact story. I believe they succeeded.

Prince of Fools (The Red Queen's War, #1) by Mark Lawrence - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Mark Lawrence brings the awesome as usual. Book totally kicked ass.

Just re-read The Businessman: A Tale of Terror. Despite the title there's little terror in it, it's hard to categorise but I'd place it as a darkly humorous ghost story.

The Businessman: A Tale of Terror: Thomas M. Disch: 9780425137468: Amazon.com: Books

Great read inBlood Song (A Ravens Shadow Novel): Anthony Ryan: 9780425268285: Amazon.com: Books. Worth the 5 bucks to pick up, up there with rothfuss and sanderson for new authors.

Just finished A Dance With Dragons, and ready for more

Sacel_sl said:

Just finished A Dance With Dragons, and ready for more

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Too bad

Just readGlasshouseby Charles Stross. It's a post-humanity SF book (minds can be stored, downloaded, duplicated, altered, bodies can be fabricated to any specification, several minds can be in a body, several bodies can be governed by the same mind, different instances of a same mind can run concurrently, etc). The funny idea here is that the main character has a fucked up mind that underwent several layers of surgical amnesia and is being targeted by unknown killers for an unknown reason. To hide he accepts to join a secluded archaeological experiment that tries to understand how humanity's distant ancestors used to live. The experiment is basically a fake late XXth century world where the social norms of the time (or at least the idea of what they think the social norm were) are enforced by a point system. So it's part introspection, part social satire and part thriller and its all pretty original. I would say that the biggest problem is that the plot limits the technological possibilities of the characters (the world provides so much freedom of action that making an intelligible story that makes sense is probably close to impossible) so when some of these possibilities are party restored the reader is unprepared. Still a pretty cool and original read (recommended to me by a player of the post-humanity PnP RPG Eclipse Phase).

I just went through a Sanderson run with all of his books. I'm ready to move on to something good. I'm trying to decide on a decent multibook series. Any suggestions?

First Law trilogy and the 3 stand alone follow ups. DO IT!

I was looking at that today actually. If you say so, let it be done.

Grimmlokk_sl said:

First Law trilogy and the 3 stand alone follow ups. DO IT!

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Listen to this man.