hey there....
some pretty good recommendations in this thread...dunno why i never bothered with DLP before, this place is pretty cool
anyone read 'the magicians' by Lev Grossman? I was extremely excited about it....and apart from a few boring chapters here and there..i really liked....the author has presented the magical world in a much detailed way without going too 'LOTR'.

 

Learn to write with capital letters and fewer ellipses.

I'm reading a few books at the moment. Scott Westerfeld's Peeps and Midnighters trilogy, a great new book called The Queen Must Die (Chronicles of the Tempus) by K A S Quinn. I really enjoyed the latter.

I've discovered this thing called the library. Free books!

 

Just finished "Replay" by Ken Grimwood. Same time-replay set-up as Harry has in Joe's Wastelands of time, only much more mundane (no magic, set in real world, etc.).

It's a pretty interesting book, but it ultimately feels like trash-fiction - fanfiction that happens to be original fiction. Stylistically it's very tell-heavy - a side effect of the scope of the story - and in many ways feels like a summary. The plot also feels unrealised in many ways, in that Jeff (the main character) has a very different approach to his situation than I would. He doesn't take full advantage of it at all. He just seems to drift through it, mostly powerless and reactionary.

All in all, an okay book with a cool premise - only not executed very well.

 

I think there's a fair few people on DLP who might enjoy Christopher Brookmyre's books. Each one is so-called 'Tarten Noir', as mysteries set in Scotland, with a vicious streak of humour throughout. Half his books are satires, the other half are parodies of action films and videogames - both are good, although the parodies are a bit predictable.

 

A definite recommendation for anyone who hasn't read it is "Halting State" by Charlie Stross.
It's rather out there, being set in the near future and featuring speculative technology. The main plot is centred around a bank robbery inside the biggest MMORPG in the the time its set. There are three main protagonists and it's written in the second person, with first person portions in italics to represent thoughts. It sounds a little strange, but if you're of a technical mind I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

This disappointed me, as it was third on my to read list.

Despite the retard being the one asking and singing its praises, I'm really enjoying The Magicians. Don't let comparisons to Harry Potter mislead you - it's unfair to both books.

 

That the world makes no sense is one of the biggest problems. It's set post fossil fuels, but it seems to completely ignore nuclear, solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal power. They're reduced to having to use animal labour to power everything. And so the energy crisis - the fundamental premise of the world - seems fake.

They keep referring to calories as currency too, but it makes no sense and there's been no attention given to how a calorie might be exchanged or stored.

On top of that, Anderson (the main character) is a massive dick and you don't care if he lives or dies.

 

Just finished reading Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian Cameron Esslemont and is set in the Malazan Universe. This book ties together a few loose ends between Reapers Gale and Toll the Hounds and is a novel in it's own right.

I have to say, having finished all the current Malazan books, that the series is deserving of all the praise it has recieved. Fucking awesome!

Now on to the First Law Trilogy...

 

I've read "The Strain" by Guillermo Del Torro and Chuck Hogan recently and overall it was a decent book. It was well written and there was some suspense and the new take on the vampires, as a biologically explained disease was fairly interesting.

Although that was also part of the problem. While I appreciated the try for something new, it didn't make much sense. On one hand, it explains Vampirism as some sort of super-virus that can be genetically explained and as such things like crosses and other supernatural means will not help. But on the other hand vampires still can't cross running water. Didn't really make much sense to me.

That and the vampires were more like mindless zombies and it felt more like a zombie themed book rather than a vampire one and at parts was fairly predictable.

On the other hand, that was partly a setup and I believe the vampires, who will now have matured and spread, will be more challenging and interesting in the sequel. So while it was not one of the best books I have read, it caught my attention enough to want to read the next one.

 

Just finished Mistborn (the trilogy). A decent read, especially the first one. The second two weren't so great. The conclusion was satisfying, but it took far too long to get there. Everything up until then was just killing time. The trilogy could have been a book shorter and not suffered for it.

I'm now considering the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. Any opinions on it?

 

I read the first one a few years back and loathed it. The first person point of view is obnoxious, and I normally have nothing against that narrative mode. It's supposed to be a character-driven series, but I found none of the characters interesting or even likable. Don't remember much else except that echoes of an over-arching plot got jammed haphazardly into the last forty pages.

Can't speak for books two and three. YMMV.

 

I've read them all, they're well written but really quite depressing, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to read them again. If you can get into them it's worth a read I'd say. It's been a while though, so I might be doing them a disservice due to being younger when I read them.

 

Zombro have you read Stephen Baxters Manifold series? I just picked it up recently and it's a fairly interesting read, the basic idea is that its focused around humanity waaaaaaay the fuck in the future after the heat death of the universe called the Downstreamers and a man in the present time called Reid Malenfant. Some of it is just strange but its a good read overall.

 

Errr... I'm slightly hesitant to recommend this, because you may not like, but try some of the Miles Vorkosigan series from Lois Mcmaster Bujold. It's sci-fi, though some parts are less sci-fi than others. Also, have you read Friday, by Robert Heinlein? It's pretty good.

 

Zombie: Have you read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman? It's not exactly what you're looking for, in that it was published in the 70s and has a war going on for pretty much the entire book. Politics don't play a big (if any) role, and it takes place over a large period of time. It's mostly focused on the characters & the changes as time progresses. From what I remember, it was a good read.

 

Can't remember if you've dug into the Black Library, Zombro - if not, I recommend the Ciaphas Cain books heartily.

 

Read the Dune series by Frank Herbert.

 

Well basic idea is that the story starts off focused around Reid and he's more or less I think the term is Space Cowboy and he's running an aeronautics company thats trying to launch a mission to start mining asteroids. After a lot of plot important stuff that I'm not going to spoil unless you ask me to they find something on that asteroid that lets them

Spoiler

see the end of everything basically, the future of the galaxy and the human race all the way until after everything has collapsed into massive blackholes that humanity of that age are farming.

However much more you want me to tell you is up to you.