It wasn't bad, but hardly a best seller at the same time. Something to spend a half-hour on or so.

Twilight Realm, faggot. Twilight Realm. And that sounds kinda cool.

Currently reading The House of the Scorpion. It's a sci-fi futuristic novel about a young clone who is raised by a wealthy drug lord (who is one of the major members of the aristocracy in a fictional nation straddling Mexico and the USA) as a source of spare parts, and upon discovering this, escapes thanks to the aid of the house-cook, his care-giver and the token female love interest. He flees to Mexico and spends time forced into working plankton farms before raising a rebellion and breaking out. He then makes common cause with the female love interests biological mother, who is coincidentally very powerful in Mexico and takes over the drug nation. Much better than it sounds.

 

I'm saving up to get Wheel of Time's latest installment in Towers of Midnight, upon which I will spend a week reading the other books to catch up before reading it.

 

Just finished up the Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and I've got to say it was a very good book. I haven't quite read anything like it, The Gentleman Bastards are epic.

I just picked up the second book Red Seas Under Red Skies and cannot wait to get started. I highly recommend this series to everyone here.


Wiki link

Authors official Website

 

I also loved LoLL (as would most people on DLP, I suspect. It's fucking epic), but I'm having serious doubts as to whether or not Scott Lynch is going to be able to finish all 7 books he has planned.

Edit, content:

I just finished The Strain (book 1 of a trilogy), and it's really not bad. Starts out a bit slow (took about 200 pages for it to really get going), but the writing doesn't suck and the author has clearly done his homework (like when he writes about an exterminator, he actually knows interesting shit about about rats). I'll pick up book 2 (currently available in hardback) next week, but even without reading it book 1 is worth looking at.

 

Agreed, although I found the vampire lore within not as good as it could have been. It was less of a vampire novel and more of a zombie novel, although I expect that this problem will vanish in the second book

 

True Fact: Gentlemen Bastards #7 will be out before Rothfuss's Kingkiller #2 (Wise Man's Fear).

 

About to start The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Anyone here read it?

 

Yes. It and Cryptonomicon are probably my two favorite Stephenson books. I liked Snow Crash as well, but I think Diamond Age was a more mature novel, whereas Snow Crash was gonzo geeky fun, but had me seriously rolling my eyes by the end.

I used to be a serious Stephenson fan, but I must admit I haven't read his more recent stuff, after I found myself unable to slog through his Baroque Cycle.

 

I remember reading it soon after it came out (mid 90s?) It's one of his better novels, bleaker than most of what he's done. As Inverarity says, it's more serious and substantial than Snow Crash, deeper than Zodiac or Interface, less dry than Quicksilver (the only of his Baroque novels I've forced myself to read). I still enjoyed Cryptonomicon the most of his work that I've read, but Diamond Age is a close second.

Stephenson is one of those writers who I find is hit or miss. When he's on his game, he's exceptionally creative and his prose is a joy to read. When he's not, like when he delves into precious alternative history wank... Meh.

 

I thought the Baroque cycle was absolutely epic and amazing, but I admit that -as with some parts of his other books- the writing can be a bit dry and hard to get into. I don't regret reading it at all.

 

Oh God, i hope not. I havent read the above series but will get on it asap but i really want to read the Wise Man's Fear, i want to know what the fuck happens!

But i believe both will finish their series before the next Game of Thrones (A Dance with Dragons) is released.

 

Of that I have no doubt. I don't think we will see that book before 2012. Hopefully it will be so awesome that it will make up the wait. But I shouldn't talk, I got into ASoIaF this year. There are people waiting years for the next book.

 

I've just finished both books of Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain. It's basically about what happens when a plane full of fucking dead corpses lands in NYC and how it leads to the end of the world.

I'd say more, but the whole point of the first half of the book is to keep you guessing, never letting you figure out what you're dealing with.

It can be a bit frustrating especially when there's no point to it, and the monsters were as durable as cardboard (a ten-year-old kills or at least disables on at one point). But apart from the stall 1/5th of the way through the first book while the author took some time to set up future installments it was a pretty good read.

 

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings.

I wrote a much longer review here, but basically, it's very good, and also very long, and if you're one of those people whining about how long it's taking GRRM to finish ASoIaF, you might want to think twice before you get into this series, since Sanderson says there are going to be nine more volumes.

 

Currently reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's really good so far, but I have a feeling that this will not end well. I've avoided spoilers so far, but apparently it's supposed to be really sad. Oh well, I like sad endings.

 

I don't know it it has been mentioned yet, and I'm not going to go though 30+ pages too look, but has anyone read the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. I've only read two books, Odd Thomas and Brother Odd, of the series so far but it's pretty good if you into Mystery and Suspence

Thats an excerpt from the first book Odd Thomas.

 

I must read that book.

 

If you do read Odd Thomas, don't skip to the last chapter, it will most likely ruin it for you as my brother can attest.

 

I actually felt that the ending to Never Let Me Go was a bit limp. It lacked punch.