What did you just read?

Grimmlokk_sl said:

See, this one I enjoyed. Unlike that festering cockpile that was Snow Crash. Still haven't read the other 2 Kovacs ones.

Only mention the textual diarrhea that is Snow Crash because I often see them mentioned together as big deals in the cyberpunk genre, along with Neuromancer.

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Probably my favorite series/character of all time, I love this series. The second one is very different in tone but still awesome, the third one goes back to the roots a little and is great though Altered Carbon is in my opinion the best of the series. If you enjoy these also check out Black Man (13 in America). very good stand alone. His first book Market Forces is kind of out there but some how I think he makes it work. His ongoing fantasy series is also really good in my opinion though not for everyone due to the graphic gay sex. Morgan writes some great anit-heroes.

If you like the Kovacs books I also recommend the Avery Cates books starting with Electric Church, good series of futeristic bad ass anit-hero a d quick to read.

Just finished reading Digital Divide by K.B. Spangler. I picked it up partially as support for the webcomic ( a girl and her fed ) which I quite enjoyed - I was surprised though, the novel turned out to be an excellent book in it's own right.

It's about one of the cyborg agents, who has been assigned as a liason to the metro police. The cyborgs in this are not physically augmented, but rather have an implanted chip that gives them wireless communication and interaction with computer systems. It's soon after they are first revealed to the public, and public reactions are mixed at best. The story follows an increasingly wide scale police investigation into some crimes that feature suspiciously manipulated video monitoring systems.

Mogworld- By Yahtzee Croshaw, ofZero Punctuationfame.

Basic idea is the main character is an undead NPC in an upcoming MMO. It's mostly a humor/fantasy book in the vein of Discworld, and while it's not as sharp as those books it's still entertaining. Especially if you've spent any time playing MMO games. There's really not much to go in to beyond that.TV Tropes summaryof it should be enough to let you know if you are interested or not.

Also read Prince of Thorns, but I think I'll start a thread for that once I finish the second book.

Just finished Scott Lynch's stuff. Glad I waited until now since the third book doesn't come out until October. I feel for you guys who read this stuff in 2007.

Going to read Matthew Stover's stuff next. It was mentioned in another thread.

Just finished plowing through all the Dresden books (fantastic) and Inferno (awesome, if you enjoy reading Wikipedia).

Starting on the 4th book in the Paladins series by David Dalglish. First 3 kicked ass, this one is great so far.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...-broken-pieces

Mist_sl said:

Snow Crash literally fell out of my closet so I just read it again.

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I'm so sorry...

I just finished The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi, the sequel to the The Quantum Thief which has been recommended here a few times.

Overall, I loved both books. They are intensely post-human, with the line between technology and biology blurred to the point of non-existence. This, coupled with the fact that the author rarely defines the many invented words he uses, can make every page a contextual challenge. It makes the books fun mental exercises. The writing is pretty good, and he is able to artfully create worlds and history with which you are comfortable having a love/hate relationship.

Overall, his writing has some elements of M John Harrison in it, which I love, and some more simple detective/superhero stuff which I often don't love but the combination works well enough for me.

Last book I finished was the second book from the Corean Chronicles series by L.E. Modesitt; not great, but it works well enough if you've got a gap between the releases of better books.

Currently I'm reading a history book about the Greek Hoplites entitledStorm of Spears, which is a detailed study of the fighting style of the Hoplites. So far, I'd recommend it, if the subject matter grabs you; it's detailed enough to basically qualify as a proper scholarly work, but written in plain English, so you don't actually need a degree in history to understand it.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey.
Was a pretty good space opera type novel and the first of a trilogy, going to get around the the next 2 as soon as they arrive.

in the mean time i'm on the Sandman Slim books by Richard Kadrey.
Paranormal/fantasy type setting with a bloke who, while alive, gets sent to hell, becomes mr kickarse, escapes hell and then starts to kill shit. Fairly enjoyable so far, could be fun or go to shit.....

Just finishedMaledicteby Lane Robins. It is a dark medieval fantasy about politics, vengeance, love and betrayal. It is definitely missing something, maybe a bit more depth and background but it is the author's debut novel and she did a decent job. Definitely recommend it this is a genre you enjoy.

Vvoid_sl said:

Just finishedMonster Hunter International, fucking loved it.

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Loving this series so far through 1 book, but uhh....does the gun porn lessen as it goes on? I don't mean the shooting and gunfights, I mean the multi-paragraph descriptions of guns and all their modifications....where it's pretty clear Owen wants to put his dick inside the guns. Because that shit is awful=P It's like every so often he hands the typewriter over to Ted Nugent or something.

Aside from those small digressions(and itisa minor thing), I love the whole idea of monster mercenaries. It's like organized/militarized Dresden files. Harbinger rules.

Finally got around to reading Dune. For the two other people who haven't yet read it, it's pretty decent if a bit dated in its future tech (as pretty much all older sci-fi is). It's pretty much the movie + more. The movie doesn't seem to have drastically changed the story so much as simply shortened it and left out interesting background and character development.

Worth a read, but I'll never reread it. That's reserved for Feist, Butcher, and Clancy.

I just finished Dan Brown'sInferno. I liked it a lot more thanThe Lost Symbol(which on completion seemed pretty pointless to me), and it was mayyybe about as satisfying asThe Davinci Code. It's been a while since I readDavinci; while that may have been a bit quicker read for me because while you're reading it you're thinking "Omg Holy Grail" the whole time,Infernohas an actually legit issue at its core which most of Dan Brown's books really lack. There's a very little bit of conspiracy theory bullshit in this one. As always he throws a lot of history into the mix whenever he gets the chance, and at times it can drag things a little bit. But unlike in his other books, all the history is not being used as a foundation on which some modern day super secret society might be built. Overall, it's similar to the other Robert Langdon novels but kind of stands apart from the others because of that. Pretty good read.

Just finished A Crucible of Souls by Mitchell Hogan. It is the authors first novel and I must say I am really impressed.

It is the first in the series, fantasy based, with a lot of switching of view points from chapter to chapter as the author builds the characters and world up in what I hope will be a lengthy series of novels. Was just released in July of this year and is currently ranked at number 4 in amazons fantasy category.

Just finished the second book in Conn Iggulden's Emperor (Julius Caesar) series. It's a great read, both books are super page-turners so far.

Magic Rises, Ilona Andrews - The 6th book in the Kate Daniels series, this one was excellent, as usual.

Demon Girl/Keelzebub/Mistress of Souls, P.S. Power - start of a series about a high school girl who is a greater demon that has been hidden in her current life. This one was interesting, a pretty good take someone being an amoral sociopath but thinking they are the good guy, and the gradual descent into objective evil. It was pretty lacking in editorial quality though, quite a few glaring spellchecker mistakes.

John Dies at the End, David Wong - I was inspired to read this one by the movie, which I liked a lot. It's off the wall batshit crazy, pretty whimsical and occasionally really funny. It's closest to horror I guess, but it's difficult to categorise it as such.

This Book is Full of Spiders, David Wong - The second book was a bit of a disappointment for me, it's a much more traditional story structure and the whimsical crazy has been dialled way down ( with a few exceptions, the fur gun had me lol'ing ). It's pretty much straight horror this time around - it was still good horror, but I missed the fun of the first one.

First Grave on the Right, Darynda Jones - Urban fantasy about a grim reaper. Was well written but a bit too much women's sexual fantasies for my liking.

Hunted, Kevin Hearne - 6th Iron Druid book, where they spend the book on a cross country run across europe with various nasties chasing them. Maintains a good standard.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman - very fairy tale like. While a good book, it's far from his best IMO.

Sleight of Hand, Mark Henwick - Urban fantasy about an ex-special forces soldier that became partially infected with vampirisim on a black op, and is currently being used as both a lab rat and bait for real vampires by the military while trying to run a PI business. This one was an excellent read, and is definitely the best new urban fantasy book I have read so far this year.

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

All about the history of Marvel comics, from the very beginning clear up to 2012. If you have any interest in comics it's a really great read. Really moves at a good clip, I suppose it has to if it wants to cover 70+ years. Just getting an insight in to the inner workings of the company as it grows and changes so drastically and goes from super low key to fluctuates between being all casual and super professional. How the boom and bust cycle of comic book publishing changes people and the company as a whole. How the company alienates so many artists and writers and how they almost inevitably end up back there working for them. No punches pulled, but it's never like a witch hunt or expose or anything, honest.

The thursday war, part of the halo series, I quite enjoyed it, was well written and enjoyable

Also ready Earth Unaware, part of the Enders Game prequils (formic wars) it was boring and terribly predictable