War Horse - Michael Murpurgo

With the film coming out I thought I'd read the novel again. Now I remember why I loved it so much.

Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By...Possibly...I think it's called...Aaamywho...It's by the amazing Dan Abnett anyways...Who's one of me fave authors at the mo...

HAH!!...Who's...Geddit?... ...

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*Tumbleweed*...

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Warhammer 40 000 - Soul Drinkers Omnibus by Ben Counter...

I've read "Hunger Games" trilogy last weekend, in a sort of a reading frenzy. Even my gaming suffered because of it. The books are good, but the topic depressed me (even more).

It feels like the same kind of gut-wrench that I experienced when I read first 50 pages of Thomas Covenant saga. Normal human being just doesn't come prepared for mental images of children being thrown into death like that, while the whole world watches it as if it was a spectacle. It just shows how much of a failure we, as a species, are, or might become really soon.

Dresden Files. Currently on book 5.

I'm making my way through them. I'm on book two. Not trying to finish them anytime very soon though.


Excellent books. For the most part they get better as you get later in the series. Harry really pulls off some cool stuff.

Currently rereading the Saga of Beowulf at the moment. Currently I'm rediscovering the delightful way I can enjoy it on two different levels; part of me is thinking 'Ah, I see the author is employing an epic simile here' or 'Ooh, I see we have some iambic pentameter' and another part of me is jumping up and down and going 'THIS IS AWESOME!!'.

It's a fun feeling

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover...

Just finished the famous Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. In a word; ohmygodohmygodohmygodsoooooogoooood!

I liked it quite a bit.

Mark Charan Newton - Nights of Villjamur...

After leaving the fantasy genre in disgust at yet another formulaic sword-n-sorcery quest cookie cutter (y'mean to tell me I wasted fifteen bucks on this??), I picked out a new author that sounded interesting.

Joe Abercrombie. First I read "Best Served Cold" OMG! It was gritty, it was bloody, it was BRUTAL! Just the way I like it! And this guy wrote one of the toughest female characters I've ever read, and I could identify with her! Unlike so many of the fantasy novels I had been reading which seemed like they were meant for the "young adult" (an oxymoron if I ever saw one) crowd - full of emo's and flimsy stereotypes, this was very adult and very real. It almost didn't qualify as fantasy, since there was very little magic in it. Then I read his First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings), and kicked myself for not reading it first (since Best Served Cold takes place after these three). Love, love, love the character development in these four novels. Now I have a fifth one of his - The Heroes, which is supposed to take place before The First Law. I will read that soon!

I have also read a few other outstanding fantasy fiction - it's enough to get me back into the genre after years of hard SF. Next was the Cartamandua Legacy, by Carol Berg. Going from the really gritty, bloody gutter style of Joe Abercrombie, I went into something that was more pure magic. It's a retelling, basically, of the old Celtic tales of the Danae (more Welsh I think, than Irish) and the connection of the Old Folk to the land. But it was so well done I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last is Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's set in a country that strongly resembles Tang China, and is very Chinese in its treatment of characters and events. A truly amazing epic and very different from the usual slash -n- smash.

Right now I'm reading "The Fountain head" written by Ayn Rand. This novel was written on 1943.

Cool, that was the year my Dad was born... ...

I'm now reading a book about the real life pirates behind the stories that wind up being in films/tv etc...

Crucible by S.G. Maclean...Bought it at Tesco for £3.50 'cause it looked cool...And it is... ...

I'm not much of a comic guy, but after reading this and seeing this I got myself some summer time reading, Also Scarlet and the White Wolf.

I just finished L'eau des Collines (The Water of The Hills) by French author, Marcel Pagnol.
After getting around the tricky tenses and grammer, I rather enjoyed it. I probably should have just bought the English translation though.

And, because I have a fascination with Great Britain during that period of time before the Normans and after the Romans, I just bought The Warlord Chronicles series by Bernard Cornwell.
I also bought the first two James Bond books, Casino Royale and Live and Let Die.
I expect I'll finish all five by late July. But, then again, it'll be summer and if the weather is nice I probably won't finish them until September, unless they're particularly gripping.

I started Game of Thrones. So far it's pretty good, though I'm less than a hundred pages in.

It only gets better.

Not surprisingly, what I am reading at the present is TES-related. The Infernal City, and also obscure lore stuff they have on Imperial Library.

That's good to know.

Re-reading the graphic novel, V for Vendetta; so good!

And Game of Thrones is good, but I eventually gave up after George RR Martin got a bit too trigger happy with killing his characters. I can respect any author who's willing to do that, but as the saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing, and when I'm placing bets with myself over how many chapters a new character will last before they're killed off, then I'm hitting, for me, a problem.

Ooo only just read the first one, getting Clash of Kings soon.

who dies?

NO WAIT DON'T TELL ME!







but seriously who dies though?

I SAID DON'T TELL ME GODDAMMIT!

EVERYBODY! EVERBODY STOP WHAT YOU ARE ALL DOING! HARKEN! HARKEN, SAYS I!!

*Waits for everybody to harken*

*Holds up a copy of Reading LIke a Writer: a guide for people who lovebooks and for those who want to write them, by Francesca Prose (I'm pretty sure it's a pseudonym too)*

This book arrived in the post yesterday. I am 114 pages in. If you want to write well, I seriously recommend reading it. I've already applied some of the lessons in its pages to one of my own pieces of prose and it's stepped up several levels from what it was. It is without a doubt one of the most important and valuable books I've ever read in my entire life.

Get it! Read! Learn! Ascend to greatness!

*Adds to Cart*

Thanks, Colonel!

Im on 'Poor Little B***h Girl' by the fabulous Jackie Collins! I'm also reading Madame Bovary when the mood for real literature strikes me

Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz...

He's the chap that Ed Harris played in Apollo 13...

Fantastic book...

Warhammer 40 000 - Horus Rising, by Dan Abnett...

Warhammer 40 000 - False Gods by Graham McNeill...Or someone-suchlike...

Having finished my current stock of new/unread books, I'm re-reading some older ones I've not opened in several years. Currently on:
Star of the Guardians Vol 1: The Lost King by Margaret Weis.

Currently reading this:


Read the prequel, The Warded Man and found it to be extremely well-written with characters I really do care about. Finding the same is true with this one.

I've been reading Alastair Reynalds' Redemption Ark. It the sequel to Revelation Space and I must say it's very very good. It's unusual to come across quite so original ideas and characters. The thing I really like though is his mixing of hard and soft SF, he is a physicist and knows what he's talking about. Where it's something fantastical to examine the effects of on people there's only a bit of handwaving as more would be meaningless but then other times there's excellent detail. It shows how much he's though about things without getting in the way of the plot if the reader isn't interested (or doesn't understand, I suspect some is passing me by).



Anyway good story and interesting SF if that's what you're into. I'd strongly recommend.

Absolutely my fave AR book...Loved that one... ...

He's gone a bit awry since the first four novels, but I will still say he's one of my fave authors...

YAY! Another Jackie Collins Fan! I thought I was the only one.

I'm reading the 50 Shades books at the moment. Awfully written, but it is just so gripping. They're pretty awesome!

Greg Keyes - The Briar King...Yes, yes I am... ...

Currently reading The Hobbit - getting ready for film in December which will be my birthday film!

Greg Keyes - Lord of Souls, love it.

Greg Keyes getting a lot of love at the mo... ...Tell you what though, The Briar King is most definately in the top five of my fave novels of all time...I so absolutely love it it's untrue...So absolutely the way I would wish to write a novel...

No, I said how I would wish to...I can't seem to manage to keep it as together as he did though... ...

Don't hold that ^ against the novel though... ...

Forever Young by John Young (and someone else as well but I can't remember his name )...Aaaamywho, it's another astronaut biography, but this one is by my favouritest astronaut ever...Made me want to become an astronaut when I was teenie...

That went well... ...

Aaaamywho, he was the first pilot of the Space Shuttle, Columbia...Bless her... ...

I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring.

Warhammer: Sword of Justice by Chris Wraight...Or someone...

Recently I purchased a book from Kindle called The Crew: Farron and the Xerxes. It's really good!

It's a short story which I think is planned to be a weekly series. It's kinda like Buffy and Charmed, or at least goes along with that theme, but it is really original and it's pretty darn exciting.

Haha

I'm re-reading the Saga of Beowulf at the moment; bloody awesome poem, one that'll put hair on your chest, and it makes me want to play Skyrim again as a heavily armoured, greatsword-wielding Nord fighting for feudalism, monarchy and ma's fresh sweetrolls.

Sod it, I'm off to play Skyrim as a heavily armoured, greatsword-wielding Nord fighting for feudalism, monarchy and ma's fresh sweetrolls.

Cold Days by Jim Butcher.

Oh my gosh, I haven't finished the last one yet and there's a new one?! Happy day.

Red Badgeof courage. I hate it.

It's really good.

Assassin's Creed - Forsaken, which is the novel that ties in to Assassin Creed III game...



Hmmm...Me thinkee me pressie wrong button...Sssshhh, Maybe no-one noticed...

The Guns of Seneca 6- Parts 1-3 (so far). I loved Firefly (sniffle) and also enjoy Westerns... so these are a good fit. I especially enjoyed the geekdom of seeing how many real people from the American West I could spot the author "recycling".

I'm not reading a novel but I've been looking through a Ripley's......believe it or not book.

Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter...