I need to start reading the 2nd Kingkiller Chronicles book. I bought it as soon as I finished Name of the Wind 6 months ago, but haven't touched it yet.

I'm not sure if I've asked this before bit was anyone upset with Book 2? I forget what it's called.

Thanks!

In my queue now - the balance of the Dresden books (8-14), followed up by Larry Correia's books, and I also snagged some of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series. Those, combined with Simon R. Green's Nightside series ought to get me into spring.

Eventually, I must do the Dark Tower series. Yeah, I'm a loser. I get too distracted, but next year I'll definitely do Dark Tower.

Not sure if it follows the whole Sci-Fi / Fantasy genre but I have been reading Harry Turtledove's "The War That Came Early" series. Up to book 3 in an anticipated 6 book series.

Good read and Turtledove has “fixed” most of the complaints that I had about his writing style from previous books I have read.

If you like history, or like to play “what if” with historical events, you’ll enjoy this series.

Hey keg,

Pulled Larry Correia's Monster Hunter series off Audible.com, and gave my youngest brother (truck driver) access. He texted me last night to let me know how much he was enjoying that series. The guy goes through a book every day or two. I need to find some longer books.

Just finished reading Michael Vey 2: The Rise of The Elgen. I enjoyed it just as well as I enjoyed the first one. Part 3 came out a couple months ago and I will be getting to that soon. I also just discovered that this is supposed to be 6 or 7 parts. What? :banghead:

You're in for a real treat. Butcher really finds his footing in the next several books. The world really starts connecting and the story really starts to come together.

You might look at the Malazan Book of the Fallen next. Big series (10 books), very unique fantasy setting.

It's a complex story with a lot of moving parts and storylines, but it really picks up steam as you go.

Awesome, glad to hear he likes it.

Periodically I go to the best sellers on there and search by length, just to feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

This is the theme I've been gearing up for lately. Reading "Warday" (loved it) and recently King's 11/22/63 kind of geared me up.

I think I'll start with Dick's "The Man In The High Castle" and work from there. Apparently there's a big surge in alternative history books out there...

I'll add it to the queue. Thanks! Long is good... but I'll put off the Wheel of Time series for awhile yet.

What do you know about the "Destroyermen" series?

Nothing...

So after enjoying Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon as much as I did, I tried listening to a couple of his other books. Reamde was pretty good, if a bit more far fetched in areas than others, and Anathem was awful. Couldn't get into that book on a dare. Might be one of those that is better to actually read than listen to.

I love all of Stephenson, but some of his stuff is more Thomas Pynchon than regular scifi. Reamde was really good and pretty accessible. Anathem is very challenging but the back half payoff of it is well worth the slog of the front part. The Baroque Cycle is amazing and more like Cryptonomicon, except historical.

I'm sure you've read Snow Crash, but you'll likely love it if you haven't.

Love Hearne's Iron Druid series.

Cryptonomicon is his best IMO, but I liked Anathem a lot.

Diamond Age is really good too. It's cyberpunk and I think I liked it even more than Snow Crash.

I need to get my gf a bday present. She likes politics and scifi. I am going to get her The Foundation Trilogy, what else can I get her? Nothimg too hard scifi. She also likes psychology. Is there any psychological scifi out there?

I've been having trouble lately finding books that hold my interest for long (I currently have six or so books I'm in the middle of and just can't seem to get back into).

A while back, Amazon was running a special on Kindle books and I bought several on impulse but hadn't gotten around to reading them. I finally started one the other day and it turned out to be the first "can't put down" book I've come across in quite a while.

The book is "The Scourge". It is a story of a knight making his way across a plague ridden England during the 1300's. Only, in this story, the plague isn't the Black Death; it's a plague that turns its' victims into zombies.

Like "The Walking Dead", the tale isn't really about zombies (or the afflicted, as the book calls them); it's about how men deals with it and the resulting power void.

There is a second book called "Nostrum (The Scourge, Book 2). The final book of the trilogy is schedules for release this March. The second book is as good as the first.

The books were originally released as a serial and there are Author's Notes after every four chapters or so explaining the history of the time, whether the people in the story were real people or not and notes about the places in the story. I didn't find them distracting at all and actually looked forward to them.

Highly recommended.

Based on another thread I have started reading Leviathan Wakes. I'm not a huge fan of the alternating POV chapters, but it just got to a point (about 40% in) that the POVs are starting to intertwine so that's sorta cool.

Like the direction it has started in, I hope I like the ending.

I also read Ubik a few months back. Didn't care for it too much. Found it way too predictable.

I'm pretty comfortable in predicting you'll like the ending.

So this Expanse series, are the follow ups sequels or concurrent? Or prequels?

Direct sequels. As in each one continues the story from the previous book. No giant leaps forward in time or anything like that that (related to your previous mention of Foundation in the other thread). There are recurring characters and points of view, etc. Part of the reason I think it's going to translate so well to TV...

Three books currently: Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War and Abbadon's Gate, with a fourth, Cibola Burn coming in June.

I finally started Starship Troopers. I'm about half way through it and absolutely love it.

I'm about 90 percent of the way through the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Finally working through the last book, The Crippled God.

The series has been excellent and brilliant, but is some of the more difficult fantasy reading I've done. I'd probably rank it HIGHER in difficulty than George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

But it's worth it, if you stick the whole thing out. Huge, rich canvas of characters. Ever-shifting landscape of layered antagonists with complex motivations.

I'm about halfway through Toll the Hounds. I think you are absolutely right about the difficulty. And initially the constantly changing landscape of characters was off-putting, but I've grown used to it.

Yes. Once you absorb the cast, it really starts to improve as a reading experience.

Eriksen is also a weaver of incredibly intricate, intense and twisty plot points. And there's so much going on, you don't spend enough consistent time with any one character to get a great feel for the coming twists.

Some brutal and impactful moments in the series, though.

Finished the Dresden Files. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

Did two books in the Monster Hunter International series. They're OK. Great if you love guys describing weaponry for half the book.

Currently into the 4th book of the Iron Druid series. After you listen to the audiobooks, you'll hear Oberron's voice everytime you look at a dog. Best. Pet. Ever.

Sorry you didn't like the Monster Hunter books more, I'm a big fan of those.

I don't think I mentioned it at the time, but another good urban fantasy series (also military based, but quite a bit different from MHI) is the Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Maberry, which began in '09 with Patient Zero. Up to 6 novels now, and it's really good stuff. It's much more akin to horror and it's almost like the game of thrones in that anybody in the cast can drop at any point (excluding, obviously, Joe Ledger himself...).

Really enjoy the Audible versions, Ray Porter does a great job with them. Good enough that I dropped everything else I was listening to a couple of weeks ago when I realized the newest one had just been released.

Maberry covers a wide variety of stuff, from genetic engineering (including bioengineered zombies) to vampires to aliens. And he somehow makes it all...well, believable is the wrong word, but it all works.

Weird. In the "extras" section at the end, the author states the next two books are titled, "Caliban's War" and "Dandelion Sky." Wonder why the name was changed.

Pretty fun book. Never though that splicing a noir-detective storyline with a hardish scifi storyline could work so well.

I'm assuming that the sequels don't do that, but I could be wrong. I already ordered the 2nd book.

I hope the show turns out good. Seems a lot more grandiose than SyFy's budget allows.

Finally read The Man In The High Castle.

Very, very underwhelmed. There was a ton of interwebs talk about how innovative and great it was and it was just...very stiff, very hard to care about the characters.

I read these last weekend. Pretty enjoyable, but I actually liked the first one best. Was a little more personable, less expansive. The characters seemed more open and available. I thought the Julie / Miller duo was a great way to describe Miller. He became my favorite character of the series.

I was put off originally by the detective story descriptions as I'm not a fan of that genre. Decided to read based on the TV show announcement thread. Didn't get the detective vibe when reading though. Just a typical sci-fi/fantasy, me against the universe quest for truth kinda thing.

I didn't see these listed, so if Q, my apologies. Anyway, two trilogies I've read over the last 5 or 6 years have really stuck with him, even though I've read hundreds of other books (thanks to Baen for the awesome free library and cheap bundles).

Apparently these are "hard scifi", although I had never heard that term until recently. Either way, they are some of the best character driven stories I have ever read. They are both near future stories that focus on the people and relationships, building up slowly but engagingly. They both start out with almost a post-apocalyptic colony vibe, the characters building a society/culture of their own. These were books that I just couldn't put down.

Rather than try and describe them, I'll just add links to the Amazon pages/reviews. The Rifters series is available free from Feedbooks, which was actually the only reason I gave it a shot.


The Rifters by Peter Watts (Starfish, Maelstrom, Behemoth)
http://www.amazon.com/Starfish-Peter.../dp/0765315963
(Available free at http://www.feedbooks.com/book/974/starfish)

Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars)
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Trilo.../dp/0553560735

It's been twenty years since I read them, but as I recall I found the Mars Trilogy to be dry and pretty poorly/stereotypically characterized. I thought it like a lot of hard science fiction was too nuts and bolts for my taste, too much about ideas and tech and not enough about the people and what was going on.

It's similar to some epic fantasy, where you might have pages and pages of description of shit I don't care about, like food and clothing, sometimes even long descriptions of scenery makes me start to skim read until something happens. Same way with hard science fiction, i find myself starting to tune out during the technical and scientific jargon and discussions.

I hear ya. Steven King got like that for me. Could skip ahead a few pages and find out he was still describing the weather. But with the tech stuff, I just feel that much more drawn into the story. Make me believe it's possible, and it's easier to suspend my disbelief. Tried reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons and couldn't get past the beginning of chapter 2. If you want me to believe you're in a space-faring tree that is powered by black holes in the trunk, you really ought to try and explain a little. Was like the author was just trying to list all the sci-fi cliches on one page. One sentence after the other was quantum leap this, whisker-carbon tubes that. I was rolling my eyes every other sentence and just couldn't get into it.

As far as the characters went, I liked the dry presentation. You learned who they were through their actions and less through their dialogue or author descriptions. You got insights into their personality through the way they viewed the world around them. Much like Miller is described by how he relates to his "idea" of Julie in Leviathan Wakes. I thought that was really well done. I know a lot of people didn't particularly like the politics either, but I may have actually enjoyed that part the most. Kind of like a fantasy version of the American colonies in space.

Give Starfish a try. More action based than the Mars Trilogy, and the tech is different and described in less detail. Also it's free! ;) The psycho/socio "trash" of society being thrown together in the deep and interacting kept a constant edge of suspense as well, at least for me.

Hyperion is one of the best novels I've ever read. You should really give it more than a single chapter and a few pages. Simmons received the Hugo award for it (same as Robinson got for Green and Blue Mars as I recall).

I used to be waaay into the "Drizzt" the Dark Elf books, by RA Salvatore.

Anyone heard of it?

I read the Icewind Dale trilogy probably 15 years ago, inspired by Drizzt's appearance in the original Baldur's Gate. It was pretty entertaining fluff.

^

Glad I'm not the only one.

I probably should, but I've got a long list of stuff I'm going after currently. Just went and checked the Amazon look inside, and it was actually only a few pages into the first chapter that I gave up. The prologue was OK, although the external balcony with a piano on a spaceship had me scanning forward and back for some sort of explanation. Page 11 just felt like a joke. Talk about "jargon", and completely unexplained jargon at that. Had me going WTF so often I just couldn't continue.

Maybe a few shots would help me get past that page. I'm told the stories are fantastic, but much like William Gibson's works I just have trouble getting past the writing.

That would be why I don't particularly enjoy Kim Stanley Robinson. I'm just not a fan of his writing style.

Nobody plays MMPORPG with a Dark Elf wielding two scimitars anywhere... just doesn't happen.

Bob Salvatore probably created the most iconic fantasy character in the last 50 years. I've read almost all of the books. Used to be a big D&D/Forgotten Realms fan. Teaching my son to play Pathfinder these days.

Have you ever read a book written by Misplaced_Chiefs_Fan?

Gotcha. Just glad there's so much to choose from!

I've been on a sci fi kick lately. Anyone else finding that a lot of these sci fi writers are dirty old men that keep writing about the people of the future getting it on all the time?

Another vote from the Hyperion Trilogy here.

Check out Richard K. Morgan's Takashi Kovacs trilogy. No sex there. Promise!

o:-)

Nope, but if I knew what to look for, I'd be all over it.

Maybe one or two. :evil:

Didn't you write a forgotten realms book a while back?

Sounds like I need to get around to finally reading Hyperion.

No, I haven't been able to crack the Forgotten Realms nor Pathfinder books yet.

I did a novelization of Gauntlet Dark Legacy, and then did some novellas and short stories for Star Trek, Doctor Who, and the Incredible Hulk.

Now, I'm doing some original fantasy work (short stories - ebooks), as well as some "New Pulp" (action/adventure stories using either original or public domain characters).

A list of most of my work can be found here - My Bibliography. I've got a few more book covers to upload there once I get this paper done for school (the last one I have to do for my Masters outside of my Thesis. Huz-frickin-zah!)

Congrats!

The new Dresden Files is out Tuesday on Audible, looking forward to that, so I'm re-listening to Cold Days.

I'm sharing a hotel with these people called BayCon. Wow.

Skin Game was awesome...

I don't know if anyone bothered to check these out but if so, the third book is finally out.

Emaculum

I haven't had a chance to read it yet but am looking forward to it once I am done with my current crop of books.

A couple of days ago almost everything by LE Modesitt was on sale on kindle for 2.99, so I've just started reading the whole Recluse series. Not bad so far, through the first book.

I was a Wheel of Time fan, so I learned about Brandon Sanderson when he took over for the final three books. I finally got around to checking out his Mistborn series and...wow...I waited way too long. I loved it.

Time to check out some more of his stuff.

Did you ever finish the other two? Though I agree that they all stand on their own, the worldview changes dramatically in the next ones, so I'd strongly recommend doing all three if you liked the first one.

Nice. The last few days I've literally been thinking about starting up a new sci-fi series. I did the Hyperion Cantos via Audio and had started reading the first one (good in print, as well), but am in the mood for something new.

Will take your recommendation.

After getting through the WoT books and the Game of Thrones books, it's a nice, easy read (about 2000 pages total). Let me know what you think if you dig into it!

BTW, if you're a Kindle user, you can buy all three for $14 or so on Amazon.

Cool. Will get that going here in a few. Thanks again!

Recently read The Martian by Andy Weir. Really quick read and entertaining.

One of my friends recommended Mistborn a while back but haven't gotten around to it. I am a little reluctant since it sounds a little more into fantasy that I usually like.

Currently reading Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and really enjoying it.

It's definitely fantasy - no dragons, but plenty of magic. The difference from the typical is that the magic system is really unique and operates under a very specific set of rules that the logical person in me was drawn to more than the hocus pocus spell type systems.

Cryptonomican is one of my favorite books, ever. Have you read The Baroque Cycle?

I liked it. It wasn't as good as the first, but I am invested in the main character's story, and I want to know what happens to him, so I would have kept reading even if it was bad.

Huge fan of the Baroque Cycle. Stephenson is so underappreciated as a writer by academia. He has serious chops along the lines of Pynchon, imo.

Finally got around to reading Mistborn. The middle drug a little but other than that, I thought it was excellent. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

Also recently read the first book in the Bobby Dollar urban fantasy series by Tad Williams (The Dirty Streets of Heaven). I am a big Williams fan and this didn't disappoint. It's tough to find decent urban fantasy that hasn't been polluted by Twilight, so I'm glad Williams jumped into the genre.

Having read the rest of the trilogy at this point and now in the middle of Sanderson's Way of Kings (much more "epic" fantasy), I can tell you that Sanderson tends to meander around a bit in the middle of each book, but the endings are all incredible. Enjoy.

By the way, if anyone has any interest, the Way of Kings is free right now on Kindle. Just be ready for a long ride - it's book 1 in a 10-part series, all of them probably in the 1000-page range. #2 is out, but that leaves 8 to be written.

Yeah, I picked that up. I usually hate to start a series before it's done so may hold off on reading it for a while, though.

Finished the final book in Lev Grossman's The Magicians series, the Magician's Land.

Absolutely fantastic. The whole series. A lot of people call it Harry Potter in college, but that's a pretty poor generalization. It's such a smart series, and I think would appeal to anyone who is a fan of fantasy because of the sort of meta nature of it.

Glad you mentioned that. I need to finish that series up. Really liked the first two.

Also need to grab Brent Weeks' The Broken Eye, Daniel Abraham's The Widow's House, Abraham and Ty Franks' Cibola Burn, and get started on Mark Lawrence's Red Queen's War series and Joe Abercrombie's Shattered Sea series.

Reading all of the Recluse series and all of the Malazan series has taken up too much of my attention this year...

I started A Canticle for Liebowitz last night and got through the first act (out of 3 I think).

The end of the first act left me completely stunned and I had no desire to read on anymore.

I don't want to spoil it, but I'm sure a lot of you know what I'm referring to. I'm not a heavy reader, but I do t think I've ever read a book that used that specific plot technique before.

Spoilers for what I'm talking about below.

I'm having a lot harder time getting into the second Mistborn book. The first was really good but this one is pretty slow.

I am going to start the entire anne rice vampire chronicles for the second time after the game~

Finally finished Erikson's Malazan series, took me almost a year, although part of that was losing some steam during Dust of Dreams and spending a couple of months reading another fantasy series.

In the end, I thought the latter half of book 9 and then the final book did a really fine job at finishing up the series. Much better than, for example, Sanderson's work on The Wheel of Time. But of course Erikson finished his own series, so there's that distinct advantage. In any case, for the density of the writing, and the crazy number of plot threads, I thought he did a pretty amazing job at bringing everything together at the end. Actually a bit sad to be done with it.

Midway though the second book of this 3 part series and it has been pretty damn good. Like that it is more character and maneuvering for power driven while the fantasy elements work their way in. Reminds me a little of Game of Thrones in that aspect.

What kind of series is this? Is primarily a political fantasy?

Third one is even slower. There's a stand alone Mistborn book that's essentially a western that's pretty damn good though.