What are you currently reading?

[RH | 4,904]

On 7/23/2022 at 1:46 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

My (ancient) memory says it retcon'ed a major development in the first book

Yes, it did and it was a MAJOR retcon. 

It's more a sequel to the JP movie, rather than the book.  I liked Crichton as a kid, but I was agitated that he wrote to the money rather than his canon.

[RH | 4,904]

My daughter found Ambush at Corellia at a thrift shop and wanted it.  That was the first novel for SW I read as a kid and it was the trilogy that introduced me to the Legends saga.

So, we bought it and we read it together in the evenings.  Now I have to hunt down the other two books in the series.  I had bought about 20 SW novels after I read this one as a kid and I read most of them.  I got rid of them a couple years into marriage because they were in a box in our closet and we didn't have a lot of space.  I think I sold the lot on eBay for about $20-30.  #Regerts.

Edited July 25, 2022 by RH

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

I've been buying Legends books too.  They're pretty cheap in general.

[G-type | 2,482]

On 6/3/2022 at 12:28 PM, DoctorEncore said:

Ready Player One is one of my all-time favorite popcorn reads, so I decided to give Ready Player Two a try. So far, it's been a huge disappointment. I'm only about 25% of the way through, but so far it reads like really bad fan-fiction. Also, I'm pretty sure I've already figured out where the plot is going. I'll see it through to the end, but it's nowhere near the page turner the original was

The problem was that the appeal of the first book rested entirely on the novelty of his world-building and you can only be introduced to a cool new SF world once.. The actual writing was like middle school book report level.

[Gloves | 11,780]

Just finished Atomic Habits by James Clear. Listened to the audio book.

Found it really engaging and full of some really solid ideas and meaningful points, I plan to give the whole approach a serious try. Definitely suggest giving it a read if you want to try some self improvement.

[360collector | 289]

Been enjoying George Best : True Genious. Great book about a great player .

Finished Ready Player One yesterday, I liked it. Checked my ebay and I bought that book in 2014, the backlogs are extreme around here. I didnt buy the new book but now I might next time I see it. It was weird to see all the negative reviews on goodreads, did the author do something bad? I guess Console Wars are coming up some time after I finish the big Obama book im currently reading

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

Lots of audiobooks going on:

 His newest collection of short stories.  Lots of winners here: the carnivorous car, the "bad" little boy, the woman who attacks a child, Ur (a Kindle product placement story that works because the central idea is so good), the guy whose life is falling apart, Blockade Billy... just super solid overall.

The sequel to Mr. Mercedes, and an extremely slow burn, I loved it.  Morrie is a great villain 

Novellas.  The first two are merely okay, although I love the idea of the second one.  The third story is a very good Holly Gibney story, which unfortunately spoils some things in End of Watch and The Outsider, which I have not read.  Oops.  The final story is rather good too.

One scene made me light-headed to read.  Recommended.

Vonnegut's final novel.  And by novel, I mean a series of amusing stories and observations.  Not one of his better works, but still very funny.

Finally got around to it despite owning it since I was a kid.  Painfully slow start, with lots of pages dedicated to mundane government bureaucratic crap, but still highly enjoyable to the end.  I mean to read all 6 original books, but don't have high expectations for the rest.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

7 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Finally got around to it despite owning it since I was a kid.  Painfully slow start, with lots of pages dedicated to mundane government bureaucratic crap, but still highly enjoyable to the end.  I mean to read all 6 original books, but don't have high expectations for the rest.

One of my all-time favorites. The second book is also excellent. I couldn't make it through the third, though.

[PII | 1,886]

2 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Finally got around to it despite owning it since I was a kid.  Painfully slow start, with lots of pages dedicated to mundane government bureaucratic crap, but still highly enjoyable to the end.  I mean to read all 6 original books, but don't have high expectations for the rest.

One of my all-time favorites. The second book is also excellent. I couldn't make it through the third, though.

1st one def. wet my beak when we read it last year for the book club.  Def wanna read the 2nd, one of these days as soon as I finish a couple other things.  Maybe I'll try and read one a year each time late summer comes around...

[Tabonga | 2,318]

I just started a new (to me anyway) urban fantasy series - "Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus" by Lydia Sherrer - it is a 7 book series with a couple of novellas - I just started the second one and I am liking it so far.

 

 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

14 hours ago, PII said:

1st one def. wet my beak when we read it last year for the book club.  Def wanna read the 2nd, one of these days as soon as I finish a couple other things.  Maybe I'll try and read one a year each time late summer comes around...

I would argue that the second book is just as good as the first one and provides a fitting conclusion to the story. The quality drops off rapidly in the third novel and I just couldn't force myself to spend time on it. There's a very valid reason that Denis Villeneuve only wants to adapt the first two books.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

Just finished another audiobook after a road trip:

I really, really liked this one.  It's another slow burn, covering the entire lives of the two main characters.  But I really love the two characters.

The way the motivations of the antagonist are slowly revealed works really well, and the (many) allusions to another classic story made me slap my head that it took the entire story for me to see it.

It's also one of the biggest downer endings he's ever written.  Maybe the biggest.  Which is a good thing.

[Tabonga | 2,318]

I just finished this this morning:

 

And I started this:

Two of my favorite urban fantasy series!

[fcgamer | 4,724]

@Simple1500 very nice! I read that one years ago, classic mythology is great.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Over the last few years I've been focused on early sci-fi and worked my way through most of the Dune series and every Asimov novel. Asimov's writing style is a little bland but he had big ideas and it was fun to see the genre grow with him. I'm now moving on to Philip K. Dick.

He was a prolific writer, but his most comprehensive collections are not available digitally, so I decided to start with one of his most famous novels, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner is one of my all-time favorite films so I'm excited to see how it compares. The opening dialogue between a husband and wife is really strong and reveals a lot about the post-apocalyptic world and daily life of its inhabitants without explicitly explaining what happened. Hopefully it maintains that allure throughout.

[Brickman | 3,987]

7 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

Over the last few years I've been focused on early sci-fi and worked my way through most of the Dune series and every Asimov novel. Asimov's writing style is a little bland but he had big ideas and it was fun to see the genre grow with him. I'm now moving on to Philip K. Dick.

He was a prolific writer, but his most comprehensive collections are not available digitally, so I decided to start with one of his most famous novels, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner is one of my all-time favorite films so I'm excited to see how it compares. The opening dialogue between a husband and wife is really strong and reveals a lot about the post-apocalyptic world and daily life of its inhabitants without explicitly explaining what happened. Hopefully it maintains that allure throughout.

Philip K Dick definitely has his ups and downs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is my favourite of his, it's a great read. I used to really enjoy Blade Runner but then I read the book and now I can't watch the movie because I personally felt it doesn't capture a lot of the book and also leaves out a lot of scenes. I wish I could view them differently but I can't.

A Scanner Darkly and The Man in the High Castle are also great reads.

I know you said you're exploring early sci-fi but I highly recommend a series called The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Really love this series so far.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

I read Do Androids earlier this year, and own copies of High Castle, Uzik,and Dr. Bloodmoney.  Heard lots of mixed things 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

6 hours ago, Brickman said:

Philip K Dick definitely has his ups and downs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is my favourite of his, it's a great read. I used to really enjoy Blade Runner but then I read the book and now I can't watch the movie because I personally felt it doesn't capture a lot of the book and also leaves out a lot of scenes. I wish I could view them differently but I can't.

A Scanner Darkly and The Man in the High Castle are also great reads.

I know you said you're exploring early sci-fi but I highly recommend a series called The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Really love this series so far.

 

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I read Do Androids earlier this year, and own copies of High Castle, Uzik,and Dr. Bloodmoney.  Heard lots of mixed things 

My curated list is Androids, High Castle, Scanner Darkly, Remember it For You Wholesale, Valis, Ubik, and Minority Report. If I can get me hands on the big short story collections, I may read those as well. It will probably take me a few years to get through all those, but I'm pretty sure I can do it.

[avatar! | 1,812]

Not a big fan of PKD. That said, I did order the COMPLETE Short Stories limited Edition because... well, I figured it was a decent investment and I wanted to see if his short stories are as bad as I remember. They are! okay, to be fair, I think he has a great imagination, but he's a terrible writer. All that said, this limited edition (now sold out) is gorgeous regardless of the quality of the stories

This collection of all 118 of Philip K. Dick’s pieces of short fiction, with 24 illustrations by 24 different artists, is a celebration of the freewheeling imagination of a science-fiction master. Introduced by Jonathan Lethem and presented in four volumes, this unique set is limited to just 750 hand-numbered copies. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by avatar!

[Brickman | 3,987]

Got a few books going right now (what reader doesn't?)

ハピネス (Happiness) Vol 4 

Finally picked up the rest of this manga series. It's at the perfect Japanese level for me, just enough that I learn some new words but not so hard I'm checking the meaning of every second word. Highly recommend this series, it's a vampire manga and how the main character lives with being turned into a vampire.

よつばと! (Yotsubato!) Vol 6

This manga is just so good. It's so innocent and funny. Pretty sure I've mentioned this series before, it follows the daily life of a 5 year old girl. That probably sounds pretty lame but it's surprising how interesting and funny this manga is. A great slice of life manga.

Stephen King- The Stand

I'm listening to the audio book because I just don't have the time to read it. Fantastic so far, I'm probably about a quarter in and it's definitely climbing the ranks towards a top King novel. I really do love how diverse Stephen King is as a writer and how different his characters are. Definitely one of the best modern writers imo.

[Astor Reinhardt | 199]

I just finished The Planet of the Double Sun (Professor Jameson Space Adventure #1) by Neil R. Jones.

I started the second in the series: The Sunless World.

It's really good so far. Old sci-fi novels from the 1960s (I believe the stories were first written in magazines in the 1930s and 1940s and then put into book form in the 1960s). It's a short series though, only five novels and they're pretty small paperbacks.

I ended up finding the first three in an antique store for $2 each. First editions...but not in great shape lol. I hope I can find the fourth and fifth in the series before I finish the ones I already have.

Without spoiling much, the novels are about a race of "machine men" who replaced their bodies with metal (but kept the brains). They're pretty much immortal now and travel the universe, exploring planets they come across. Lots of adventure to be had.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

On 7/25/2022 at 4:52 PM, G-type said:

The problem was that the appeal of the first book rested entirely on the novelty of his world-building and you can only be introduced to a cool new SF world once.. The actual writing was like middle school book report level.

Finished up a few books since my last update.

Ready Player Two was pretty terrible. As others have said, the writing is just so, so bad and the story is painfully generic. The book is also horribly paced, taking long detours into uninteresting territory on a regular basis. It was a real slog. It looks like Cline struck gold with the first novel and used up all his talent to make that one work. I won't be checking out any of his other books.

I really enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. I like that it is so different from Blade Runner. I wish there was a little more depth to the characters and a little more time spent on the central question of what defines humanity, but it moves briskly and let's the reader do the majority of the pondering on that. I also had a love/hate relationship with the dialogue and thought processes which feel very stilted and unnatural. This robotic style definitely plays into the uncertainty that is prominent in the novel, but also makes characters unrelatable. Definitely recommended for sci-fi fans though.

I also just finished The Three Body Problem. I was quite excited to get into this series from all the positive press it's received from friends and critics, but I ended up very disappointed. As with many other sci-fi novels, the central characters are really under-developed. Their actions and motivations are so thin as to make them feel like they exist solely to advance the plot (spoiler: that is precisely why they exist). Speaking of the plot, it's also pretty feeble. There are a few interesting ideas regarding first contact, the challenges of extreme distances, religious exremism, and loyalty to family/humanity, but they are explored at only a surface level. In the end, the book devolves into 100 pages of silly B-movie action and nonsensical pseudo-science which had me rolling my eyes and praying for the final page to come soon. I've heard that the second and third book are better, so I'm going to give them a shot, but my expectations have been checked.

Edited October 14, 2022 by DoctorEncore

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

1 hour ago, DoctorEncore said:

also just finished The Three Body Problem. I was quite excited to get into this series from all the positive press it's received from friends and critics, but I ended up very disappointed

Thanks Obama!

It's also sitting in my booklog

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

3 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Thanks Obama!

It's also sitting in my booklog

I hope I didn't mention anything too spoilery and I hope you enjoy it! It has a really good score on Good Reads so most people liked it a lot more than I did.

[avatar! | 1,812]

I just started reading what many people consider Oscar Wilde's masterpiece... which sadly I have not read until now! Anyone care to guess what this is?

It also has a few famous lines, including this gem -

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by avatar!