Recently finished "Redshirts" by John Scalzi, narrated by Wil Wheaton. Fantastic, and recommended for ST:TOS fans. Also finished "Fuzzy Nation", a modern update of the classic H. Beam Piper "Little Fuzzy" from '62. Once again, narrated by Wheaton. Fantastic. Currently doing another Scalzi/Wheaton audiobook, "Agent to the Stars". I'm having a blast.

Finally read Ender's Game - really enjoyable book glad I finally read.

The Strain - Del Toro and Chuck Hogan - pretty good 'summer blockbuster' type of book. Part 1 of a trilogy.

Reading now - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Taking some time with this one. Set in early 20th century England. Worth checking out.

I really thought I would like Jonathan Strange...but I didn't. Just sort of boring to me, unfortunately.

You definitely need to read Ender's Shadow since you read Ender's Game. It's, arguably, better. The series drops off pretty steeply for me after those two books, but a lot of people like them all.

I had read about 140 pages of Jonathan Strange before I gave up. Just picked up again a week or so ago. Its a bit of a slog but I like the subtle jabs it takes at society in turn of the century England.

How long in The Name of the Wind does Kvothe's back story go on for? I'm definitely interested in it, but the stuff with the Scraels in current day seems more interesting. So far I'm enjoying the shit out of this novel.

Finished "Agent to the Stars" by Scalzi. Had a couple of nice twists that kept the story interesting. Thought about either listening to some classic sci-fi ("Foundation" by Isaac Asimov) or an action/thriller ("The Lions of Lucerne" by Brad Thor), but I looked over my audiobook list and realized I had another Scalzi/Wheaton collaboration on my Zune... "The Android's Dream"... starts off with a human trade negotiator killing an alien emissary with a series of insulting farts.

Sold! LOL. I gotta read that now. LMAO

There is a Doctor Who parody with Rowan Atkinson where he uses Alien fart language to communicate with his companion.

Put Jonathan Strange aside for now. Picked up Mistborn trilogy. About 100 pages into first book. Liking it so far.

Read The Graveyard Book by Gaiman a couple months ago. Really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the movie adaptation.

Jonathan Strangr started dragging for you too? I liked it, but at a certain point the book wasn't calling for me to pick it up and read nightly.

Just started reading "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. Supposed to be one of the greatest works of science fiction ever. The first few chapters are pretty intriguing.

Pretty much. Felt more like a chore or reading for an assignment rather than reading for enjoyment.

That one is a mind trip.

One of the few books that really made me think about what we're here for.

I tried to go the audio route with The Dreaming Void, by Peter F. Hamilton. The story sounds interesting, but the narrator isn't working for me.

Awesome. I like that. :)

Finished "Year Zero" by Robert Reid. Don't waste your time. It's a great big "Microsoft Sucks" piece.

Started a good one though, "The Long Earth" by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Lots of potential here.

Great book. I love "discovery and exploration" stories. Another great book in that genre is Ringworld by Larry Niven. It's a really cool premise and has some pretty interesting concepts.

Thanks for the tip, just e-reserved it at the library. AC Clarke kicks it old school.

I enjoyed "Speaker For The Dead" but nothing in that series came close to the first book in my opinion. I did really enjoy the Prentice Alvin series by Card.

Slide over to "Ender's Shadow","Shadow of the Hegemon", "Shadow Puppets", and "Shadow of the Giant".

I don't remember where I tailed off on that series. I might have read all of those, I'll have to look at the synopsis of each online. I do enjoy Card's writing, I'd say he took the place of Heinlein in my mind.

Note: Audible cranked "The Way of Kings" back up to 2 credits, so I checked it's availability on an "alternative audio library" site. Downloading via bittorrent now. Then I'll use ZODWC to create a .wax file and transfer it onto my .mp3 player.

I really loved Rama, man. It's kind of crazy how your mind just starts developing theories as you go along with the story. I'm going to have to check Ringworld out, thank man.

Yeah, man, let me know what you think. Clarke is definitely old school. Dude knew WTF he was doing, though. Kind of mind-blowing, really.

Yup. You owe it to yourself. Niven is very, very good and the original in this series is a classic.

Yeah Niven is a trip. Dude was/is prolific, bet his biblio is a mile long.

Will do. Picking it up when I take the kids for the weekly library trip this Wednesday.

Yeah, sorry about that. That was actually a mistake on my part. I guess I never remembered to edit that post.

Oldandslow's Top 10

10 - Shute "on the beach"
09 - Brin "the postman"
08 - McCarthy "the road
07 - King's "the stand"
06 - Niven & Pournell "lucifer's hammer"
05 - Cronin - "the passage"
04 - Bacigualupi "the wind up girl"
03 - McCammon "swan song"
02 - Stewart "earth abides"
01 - Frank - "alas babylon"

I love this genre of fiction. I sometimes wish I hadn't read the best yet, so that I could experience them again. Driving on the train tracks in "Lucifer's Hammer," or the brother giving the code word in "alas, babylon", or the soldier and his wife crying as they put down their baby as well as themselves in "on the beach" are some of the most humbling and emotional reading excercises I have ever experienced.

Thanks for mentioning 'Swan Song". That's one of my favorite books, on par with 'The Stand", but I don't think many know about it.

I read 'Lucifer's Hammer" when I was a kid and remembered liking it. I picked it up again recently and started re-reading it. I burned through the first half but kind of slowed down after that and then got stuck about 100 pages from the end. I'll pick it up again at some point to finish it but kind of went in a different direction in the meantime.

Just finished "The Long Earth" by Terry Pratchett & Brandon Sanderson. Very good book, has potential to become a great series if they want to serialize it.

Reading The Passage after a recommendation. Very entertaining.

Going to get a kindle for Christmas. Maybe I can start up reading again. Really want to read the last book in the Wheel of Time series.

GOing old school (?), and I've been listening to The Belgariad by David Eddings. I'm into The Castle of Wizardry, with Enchanter's Endgame on deck.

Listening to books isn't really old school. Back in the day we used to read them. :p

the newest Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher comes out Tuesday. SQUEE!

Yeah, I know where you're coming from. It's almost a necessity for me. One hour commute to work and back, and in my down time, I have to get ready to certify on Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Lync Server 2012 and Microsoft Exchange 13, so basically 5 different MCSE tracks between now and the end of next year.

Due to all the fanboi love for it, I picked up the Star Wars Thrawn series.

I'm about halfway through the first one and I'm hoping someone here can tell me the books get better as they go along. :(

Just finished the Belgariad by David Eddings. Not bad. Just started "Eon" by Greg Bear. Really liking it a couple of hours in.

Lots of great stuff on that list, but I have to say that "Earth Abides" is one of my favorite books of all time.

I have tried audio books and I just can't do it. When I read I visualize to heavily to be aware of my surroundings, and I can't stand the pacing of a recorded spoken story.

One thing about Eddings is that once you've read one of his series, you've read them all. He just puts different names on them but the characters are the same. They even have the same banter during their quests.

I understand completely. But, in my case the only real opportunity I have to focus on fiction (and some non-fiction) is while I'm commuting. Considering the state of sports talk radio in Kansas City, I'm better off listening to books than some of the jackhammers that have airtime.

Decided to go old school on my listening the past couple of weeks. Came into the complete audio recordings of Heinlein. Started off with "Methuselah's Children" and am now almost through the original "Starship Troopers". 2 thoughts on Starship Troopers - it's little wonder that it's on the reading lists for all of the service academies, and is required reading at one (West Point?). I also now have so much more disdain for the crappy movie that bears the name. A featured element of the book is the powered armor, very novel at the time of it's writing in 1959, and that was completely absent... a well as butchering the story. I've got "Stranger in a Strange Land" ready next, then we dive a little deeper into the chronicles of Lazarus Long.

I'll have to read "Stranger in a Strange Land" again someday. I liked a lot of Heinlein but I thought that one was boring. However, I read it in high school so may be able to appreciate it differently now.

Recently started the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.

Taking my time with this one. The story is pretty complex and difficult to follow in the early going (Lots of characters, lots of places, lots to learn/get used to), but I can feel the epic scope coming.

I also tore through the "Schools Out" series by Scott Andrews of late. It's a post-apocalyptic series set in England after a worldwide plague. Story centers around a soldier's kid who attends an all-boys military school in the English countryside, and the school's attempts to survive sans-adults in a world that's falling apart.

Pretty awesome stuff. Gritty, fast-paced, and engaging.

I tried reading it a few years ago, and just couldn't get into it.

"I Will Fear No Evil", which was about an old guy who gets his brain transplanted into a young woman's body, was another I tried reading around the same time and didn't care for. I guess I'm an "Early Heinlein" type of reader.

I've been reading Ship of Fools the last few days -- WOW.. FANTASTIC BOOK!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ook_cover).jpg

It goes into political intrigue, philosophy and is probably more "social fiction" than science fiction. It's the book that resulted (anecdotally) from his bet with L. Ron Hubbard as to who could create a religion first. Hubbard won the bet with Dianetics. Heinlein himself criticized the book.

It was a goofy, and clumsy, attempt at a story from a female's perspective. He did a much better job of it in Friday and To Sail Beyond The Sunset. As a warning, Sunset contains a lot of unusual and unconventional sexual situations. If you like his early stuff you'd probably prefer Friday.

Yeah. Anyone who read and enjoyed that book should absolutely despise the movie. It's a ridiculous parody. I'd recommend Time Enough For Love if you haven't read it yet and you're interested in the Lazarus Long character.

Good to know. It seemed like 90% of the book was the two "minds" in the body talking to each other.

So I started reading (listening) to the second "Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell. I've ruined it for myself. I've been watching too much Futurama lately, so now when "Black Jack Geary" has dialogue, I hear Zapp Branigan. And the rest of the Futurama characters fall in ...

I know a lot of people have read Stephen King's Dark Tower series so I wanted ask this here:

I got to the fourth book, Wizard and Glass about a year and a half ago. I had burned through books 2 and 3 and it all came to a crashing halt with this book. It is so boring that I am having a hard time time getting through it. I put it down after the first third or so and will occasionally pick it up an endure another chapter or two before turning to something else to read.

This Amazon reviewer says it better than I can:

So, for those that have read the entire series, how critical is the uber-long flashback? I would like to get back to the present storyline. If I read a synopsis on wiki or something, could I accurately get the gist of things enough to skip the flashback and continue the current storyline or do I need to continue to force my way through it? I know this sounds bad but my reading time is extremely limited and I have a lot of books lined up. I have too many good books on tap to waste time having to force myself to slog through a book.


tl;dr : Wizard and Glass is boring

Neuromancer.It's not always enjoyable, but it's an incredibly rich read

I did recently read (in print!) Bitter Seeds, the first novel in Ian Tregillis' Milkweed Triptych, and holy crap, I can't wait to read the next two. It's hard to describe, but it's a WW2 alternative history with what's basically a Nazi team of X-Men fighting against Warlocks from England. But that's an oversimplification. It's awesome.

Somewhere in this thread I mentioned that I was reading The Name of the Wind.

Well I stopped reading about a third of the way through the book. Well I finally started reading it again and I read the middle third of the book today. I really like it and can't wait to finish it and see where this story is going.

You're welcome.

Well I should finish the book tomorrow night, and I'm getting to the point now that I'm not sure how big of a payoff there will be by the end of this story, but luckily there is a 2nd book already that I can pick up.

I know I'm probably wrong, but it seems like this book is "the college years" and that maybe the next one will be post-college?

Pretty sweet ending.

Can't wait to pick up book 2.

I just started reading Emperor of Thorns, third and I think final book in Mark Lawrence's 'Broken Empire'. I would recommend the series to anyone, first book is Prince of Thorns and second King of Thorns. Good mature fantasy.

Well this is extremely disappointing.

http://www.imgur.com/aoU7YPQ.jpeg

I listened to Childhood's End on CD; never have read it. The book held up incredibly well for being 60 years old, imo. You can tell that book laid the foundation for a ton of sci-fi to come after it.

I tried the audio route with Name of the Wind, but couldn't get into it. The narrator just wasn't working for me. I'll have to give it a try the old fashioned way.

I went to the store and bought the larger version of The Wise Man's Fear, started to read it, and realized maybe I want to read a different book in between these two.

I'm going to read Ship of Fools before I start The Wise Man's Fear.

This book is fantastic!!!
I seriously can't recommend it enough.

Really struggling finding good fantasy lately. Everything seems so juvenile.

Think I may have to fall back on sci-fi. So recommendations? Starship Troopers good?

What have you been reading? There's tons of good new mature stuff out there.

I really enjoyed Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon.

http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon...Richard+Morgan

If you haven't read anything by China Mieville, do so, any book is great.

And, as this is the first time I have seen this thread, how is the Wheel of Time series not listed in the opener?

That's part of a trilogy, also has Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

It's very, very adult, just as a warning. Graphic sex and violence. Which I think is great, but some people are offended by it.

He has a really good fantasy series running as well, called A Land Fit For Heroes. It too contains graphic sex and violence, although this time with more of a homosexual bent. Two novels so far, The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands, with the third and I think final, The Dark Defiles, due sometime next year.

I have Broken Angles, haven't read Woken Furies yet.

I'll have to check out his fantasy. Thanks for the suggestion.

I don't mind the adult content. One of my favorites parts of the books was how he showed the affect of being able to download into a new body on people like hookers.

Which brings me around to another Fantasy series: Terry Goodkinds Sword of Truth Series. There is an author who uses rape everywhere.

I'm also going to throw out Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Erikson.

I just started Erikson's series. I've found the first book to be okay, but hard to get through at times. I've heard it gets better in ensuing volumes. I think I have the 2nd and 3rd Malazan books waiting on the shelf.

I tried reading the Sword of Truth series, but thought it was terrible. Just cliche after cliche, and not very well-written in a general sense.

I'm sure I mentioned him earlier in the thread, but anything by Joe Abercrombie is good, whether it's his First Law trilogy, or the stand-alone books in that world.

I keep hearing good things about R. Scott Bakker, but I've had a hard time getting through his stuff. Just another name to throw out there, in any case.

I've liked Daniel Abraham's Dagger and Coin books a lot, The Dragon's Path, The King's Blood and the Tyrant's Law. He's also co-authored a solid science fiction series called The Expanse under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey. Novels there include Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate.

Runelord series my David Farland
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Dresden Files
Dragonriders Of Pern Anne Mccaffrey
Terry Brooks (Shannara series)
The Belgariad Series - David Eddings (read them years and years ago though)

1) 1984 - it's not a theory it's a game plan for control. It's a warning to the world about how once complete control is given to the government there is absolutely no escape.

It's an eventuality. And you can hope and dream but once we hit that tipping point it's over.

2) A Clockwork Orange - I think the time has come and gone but the argument is mind control and behavior modification. If I can make you behave the way I want you to does that solve or create problems?

3) Farnham's Freehold - a very bold and honest view of how world dynamics would change if the Northern hemisphere decided to go nuclear. The science in the science-fiction is very wobbly but it's a damned good book that makes you think about just how you see people...

Has anyone here tackled Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson? I'm doing the audiobook route with this one, as it is Game of Thrones long (34 discs!). Fantastic story taking place on three or four different stages at once, all getting tied together. Great read/listen.

For those that go the audiobook route, the narrator is William Dufris. He does as good a job reading this book as Roy Dotrice did on the first three books in the ASoIaF series. I may go find other audiobooks he has read just because he worked on them.

Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books. There is a passage near the middle, that involves fecal matter, that had me laughing so hard I was in tears. Stephenson is one of my favorite authors as well. The Baroque cycle has characters related to the characters in Cryptonomicon.

I liked Crytponomicon the first time I read it (summer of 2008 I think it was). I tried reading it again this summer and stalled. Not sure why.

Dufris for me is a hit-or-miss narrator. I either really like his reading (first 3 books of Modesett's Imager Portfolio), or really hate his reading (Woken Furies, the final story of Metatropolis). Not much in the way of middle ground with him.

Two more names to add to the fantasy list (probably listed them both earlier in the thread, but it's early and I'm too lazy to look my own posts up):

Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies. His third novel in the Locke Lamora series, The Republic of Thieves, is coming out in a couple weeks.

Brent Weeks: The Night Angel Trilogy and The Lightbringer Series (currently 2/4 novels finished).

There's a self published sci fi writter that I can't get enough off.

There are two series that I'm following.

Warrior's Wings (book 1)
http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Wings-W...9861917&sr=1-9

Odyssey One (book 1)
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Black-Ody...9861917&sr=1-7

I follow him on Google+ and I believe that he said Warrior's Wings will be at least a 15 book story arc. He's only done 4 so far.

Currently into Book 8 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Having a blast with this series, but I know within the month I'll be through Book 14 and looking for a new fix.

Has anybody read the Nightside series by Simon R. Green? Looks like it's in the same vein as Butcher, but would like another opinion by someone with more experience with the series.

Love the Dresden books.

Sort of similar series that I like a lot is Larry Correia's Monster Hunter series, which right now includes Monster Hunter: International (self-published originally, believe it or not), Monster Hunter: Vendetta, Monster Hunter: Alpha and Monster Hunter: Legion. I think there's 3 more planned volumes. It's urban fantasy with a military bent.

He also has a trilogy called The Grimnoir Chronicles which was really good. Also urban fantasy, but set in the early 20th century (after WW1). Sort of a mix of hard boiled detective and military sci fi.

Similar series to that set during and after WW2 is Ian Iregillis' Milkweed Triptych, which I may have mentioned already. It's sort of like a german version of the X-men versus british wizards, with a sort of lovecraftian twist.

I think I'd recommend any or all of those after the Dresden Files.

Right now I'm working through Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Really, really good. Like can't put it down good.