Right now I'm about to start a new book actually, but I'm a bit torn. I've got the Appeal from John Grisham, American gods by Neil Gaimann and the first Shannara books by Terry Brooks. All were acquired on my recent trip to Orlando, and I'm not sure which to begin with tbh as all are quite appealing

American Gods is superb, one of the better urban fantasy books I've read for years. Mind you, Gaiman can be an acquired taste. Have you read him before?

Never, but I've seen his books around and from what the back of the book told me, it sounded quite interesting.

Oh it is. It's a very impressive, creative and well written book. I loved it anyway

Alexander- it kind of depends on the kind of reader you are. Grisham tends to be fast, good- and a little forgettable when it is over. American Gods is excellent, in a dark and surprising way. Gaiman really weaves a lot of Western mythos into it. Brooks--- I found somewhat disappointing. Granted that was some 20 years ago, and my impression might be different now. If it was me, I would save the best (Gaiman) for last.

As for my own reading- Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell.

A book from Alister Mclean.

Well I went with Grisham for now. And I think I'll be taking Gaiman next.

As to Grisham, I've got a real mixed feeling about him to be honest, I've read a number of his books, and some are great, but there are some which are not so great, to put it mildly. The best ones, or the ones I've enjoyed the most anyway, are definitely the Testament, The Runaway Jury and the Rainmaker. I also loved A Time to kill, The Firm, The king of Torts and the Pelican Brief. But the chamber on the other hand I found very disappointing. And another of his books, not sure about the english title but it's called "de Erfpachters" in dutch, I didn't even finish. And the other novels he's written, not related to law, I didn't even try those.

So while he's written some great books, I also think he's written some less then great books. Mixed feeling really :shrug:

I just finished reading Enchanter's End Game, book five in th Belgariad series by David Eddings. Not entirely sure what to read next..... I wish I had the money for some new books, I've read all the ones I own so many times and there's no decent libraries anywhere nearby

If you like fantasy/sci-fi, try the Baen Free Library Baen. You can read on the PC directly from the web or download in PDF, RTF, or other formats.

Well, there is a sequel to the Belgariad. It's called the Mallorean and it picks up right after the Belgariad's end.

And of course there are the Belgarath and Polgara novels. Though I'd really recommend reading those after the Belgariad and Mallorean.

Perhaps that's an idea

That could work, though I've always preferred having an actual book to reading on my pc screen. I shall check it out.


Yeah, I've read all of those.... unfortunately don't have access to copies of any of them to read again XD. I'm gonna have to have a look for them in shops around here at some point....

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

I read one of Brooks' Shannara boks (first of the second series I think), I do normally read in order but you get what you find in India... Anyway to put it mildly I won't be reading the next one though perhaps reading out of order spoiled it a bit.

I just finished Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy which was somewhat mixed though ended well enough to put it among my favourite books. I really loved her use of first person and am a bit dissapointed that its finished - anyone know any other long works in first person (other than her other works)?

Now I'm starting The Man in High Castle.

Not first-person, but I strongly recommend Feist's Riftwar and Serpentwar series. Will have to consider the first-person question... not a lot of sci-fi/fantasy is written that way...

Of course, Raymond Chandler is one of my all-time favorite writers- and likely to be available to you- if you like hard-boiled detective stories.

So I perused m,y bookshef for a long while, and eventually settled on my reading plan for the next while. All Middle-Earth stuff I own, in chronological order, starting with The Silmarillion, then The Children of Hurin, then The Hobbit, and finishing up with LOTR.
So I'm reading The Silmarillion currently, and have just passed the point where Feanor decides it's time to leave Valinor XD

Ah yes, the Riftwar was excellent (if rather happy), I must get round to reading the rest of Feist's stuff.

And all of middle earth - that should take at least a while...

Since Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series is complete. I've decided to re-read all twelve books in order to get an overall impression of the series. I started reading this series before it was completed so there were points when I had to wait a year or two before the next release which meant I read other stuff between books. Kinda makes me forget things that get mentioned in books that way.

Hopefully by the time I finish "Confessor", George RR Martin will have finally released his next book (what's taking him so long? I thought this book and the previous one were basically written at the same time and because there was so much material he was forced to split them up). And whoever is finishing Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series will have the final installment written as well. If I remember correctly, there were still a lot of loose ends that needed tying up so that could prove to be a daunting task to do in one book.

Year of the Rogue Dragons: Book Two

I'm resurrecting this thread to sing the praises of Tony Hillerman's mystery novels. They're primarily set on the Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico, and the lead characters work odd cases for the Navajo tribal police. It's fascinating stuff, with a mix of different cultures, marvelous landscapes, complex (but quite logical) plots. I'm currently reading Skeleton Man.

About to start "Nation," the newest Terry Pratchett. Also re-reading "Habeas Corpses" by William Mark Simmons. Listening to "Eddie's honoured user" by William Kowalski during my drive to and from work. (There is something to be said for a 1 hour commute.)

Well, I've finally read American gods by Neil Gaiman. I've been meaning to for a long time but never got around to it. I'm currently rereading Tolkien books, finished the Hobbit today and now off to start on The Lord of the Rings.

No Silmarillion or Children of Hurin?

I'm currently rereading the Serpentwar Saga (Raymond E. Feist) for the 4th or 5th time... more specifically, Rise of a Merchant Prince. After that I finish with that lot... probably more Feist, till I read up to the latest one I have.

I am about to begin rereading all seventeen Shannara books by Terry Brooks. My friends and teachers all stare at me when I bring out a book about 2-3 inches thick lol.

I'm bogged down between two books just now: Feersum Endjinn by Iain Banks is great except that a quarter of it is in a rediculous made up english which is almost unreadable, and as far as I can see unnessesary. Still its got a good plot and the usual bizarreness of Banks.

The other is a fairly heavy translation of Beyond God and Evil which I'm really enjoying even with its two page plus sentences.

So, after reading every Feist book in my possession bar the Empire Trilogy, including the latest one, Wrath of a Mad God (good, but not what I had hoped, and there was a couple of annoying inconsistencies with earlier books) I'm now back to reading Dan Abnett again. More specifically, First and Only, the first of many books about Gaunt's Ghosts.

hehe, nope, not this time. I've read Silmarillion twice, and while it is fun, it's not as fun as some of the others. Children I've only read once, right after purchasing it.



I felt the same way. Minwanabi Vassals to the Acoma? What the.....

Terribly disappointing reading such obvious flaws in the authors memory. (I'm guessing he meant Anasati as the vassals, not resurrecting a dead house.)


Right now I'm reading "Necronomicon, the best weird tales of H.P. Lovecraft." This is simply awesome. I'd read some of his work previously, a long time ago, but in Dutch. And again I'm proving myself right when I feel books are best read in the author's native tongue. A dutch version of HP Lovecraft doesn't begin to do justice to the creepiness and mystery of reading it in English. I'm at "The Dunwich Horror" right now and it's proven one of the best.

So anyone who enjoys horror, and hasn't read HP Lovecraft previously, I can definitely recommend his work.

There was 3 others I noticed, as well. We had Ryath changing from a female golden dragon to a male red dragon. Then there was Kitty, Erik VonDarkmoor's wife, being erased from existence when it was stated he never married. And then we had the original ancestral Acoma home still being in their hands, even though it was given to Lujan when he started his own noble house. It's entirely possible there was other ones, too, I just missed them.

All true yeah, and the one where they hinted so badly at the young guy (can't think of his name) that they find a few books earlier, containing a spark of the nameless one in him, and now all of a sudden it's a spark of a lost warrior god from that realm. Another change.

But really, I could have accepted one or two of these things, like the changing of a divine spark, and Kitty without too much trouble, but I thought Minwanabi was probably the biggest thing changed around, I mean two out of three books of the Empire Trilogy centered around the conflict between them and the Acoma, and for them to be resurrected, sheesh.

On another forum I have heard some wild theories though, about a mirror universe, different dimensions where things happened differently etc. I'm not sure if there's really a chance for such a thing to be brought up in a latter book and it's not simply a case of an author gone sloppy, but I guess a very small part of me still holds out some hope that the author will address these things in a latter book and make them right again. (Talk about idle hope eh )

I don't think that I have ever recommended a fantasy trilogy before, yet the best books I've read in 2008 have been just that. Step forward newcomer Brent Weeks and his "Night Angel" trilogy - "The Way of the Shadows" "Shadows Edge" and "Beyond The Shadows". They've all come out in the last 2 months, and I highly recommend them. Best fantasy series I've ever read. Ever. I've never felt more inspired to get writing again, they've reminded me of just how entertaining a really good fantasy series can be.

i´m reading the last Eragon book, it´s very good. And something I always have wanted to read is Mao's little red book.

Currently reading Refuge, by Terry Tempest Williams. Also saw her give a reading from her most recent book back in September in Missoula. She was hanging out there as visiting writer in my Environmental Studies program.

I'm readin' The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, and it is very cool. It's a lot different from King's usual stuff, since this is his own fantasy world.

Two books, as I always do. One political/philosophical and one fiction.

Currently a 1921 reprint of an 1866 edition of The Republic of Plato, I like reading old books. Its also surprising what a facist Plato was.

And Stephen King's, The Stand. Its an uncut edition which to be honest is far too uncut but its still good tense stuff.

I recently received Crime and Punishment for Christmas. Plan on reading that. I think it might be fun.

Ahh a good thing, even if the book is rather dark, it's a classic. I wish you many good reading-hours!

One of few good things that came out of my [limited] monetary ability this C.Eve was that I got Clive Barker's "Damnation Game", Pern Trilogy by Anne McAfree and Lowecraft's short stories collection. I've done Barker and right now I'm finishing up 3rd Pern Book.

I have to agree about it being too uncut. Sometimes he spends too much time on little details we don't need to know too. Be careful with the uncut edition, it's looong and it took me a few weeks to read and I normally finish books in a couple of days. It was very good though, tense and suspensful, and very much worth the read.

I picked it up for £2 second hand, otherwise I'd never buy an 'uncut' edition, if the editor cut it there's a good reason (the only exception I've come accross so far was Feist's Magician which the uncut version certainly didn't need cutting, but that was his first book IIRC).

And yes it does wander and have irrelivant section but I survived Tad Williams' Otherland quadrilogy (in the name of all thats holy don't read it) so I'm immune to waffling.

Yea it has alot of irrelevant sections in it. I was thinking about getting that series too, hmm. I'll take your advice and not get it.

Being the teenage girl I am, I had to get the Twilight saga. I really liked and I even got my mom and step mom, my aunt, and my grandma to read it. Very entertaining and Stephanie Meyer gor her inspiration from Pride and Prejudice (sp?). Very addicting too, trust me.

Okay, note to self. Never, ever post a comment like this up anywhere again, straight after finishing a series.



Oh good lord. There's no objectivity at all present there, just excitement from having put the final book down about 15 minutes before posting that comment. Lets try to give a more balanced comment shall we?

It’s bloody good. There’s the simple truth. It's not the best fantasy trilogy ever written, but it is bloody good. It’s very much in the style of George R.R. Martin – smaller in scale though obviously – with a very gritty feel to the world. Like Martin it uses a technique I’m not usually fond of, multiple 3rd person viewpoints, each chapter from one of the characters eyes – which drives me insane sometimes, I have to fight the urge to skip over several chapters to find out what happens next with the current character.

It's very exciting (he knows how to write action sequences, I'll give him that), very inventive and very ambitious. Which is staggering considering they are the author’s debut novels.

So, to sum up. Whilst it’s not quite as inventive as Tim Powers or Neil Gaiman, not quite as beautifully realised a world as Bujold or Martin and not quite as well written as Gene Wolfe, it’s still a superb work, that impressed me no end – and by far the best new fantasy series that I've read in the last few years. I feel confident that fans of “A Song Of Ice and Fire” won’t be disappointed. For what it’s worth I highly recommend it.

That's a bit better isn't it?

So, basically what you're saying is, me ordering three different collectors editions versions based on your rave review earlier, might not have been the best course of action?

Started reading The Colour of Magic. I've been putting Discworld off for far too long, and I have no excuse for it.

Gulp.

Erm...

Well. Three different collector's editions????

I am 100% convinced you will really like the series. You especially Al. They're your kind of books, and I think you'll love them.

But three different collector's editions? I don't think I've ever liked a book enough to do that!!

My rave review still stands though, even though I tempered it a little. I still called it the best new fantasy series of the last several years and compared it favourably to A Song Of Ice and Fire. I think that's pretty high praise to be honest...

Put it this way, in my opinion it's better than anything I've read of Eddings, Feist, Gemmell, Canavan, Hobb, Goodkind, McCaffrey, J.V. Jones, Brooks etc etc

hehe, well I'll definitely have to look for the books the next time I'm in the local bookstore then

Well, I got around to picking up the first part of the trilogy, and I'm liking it so far. A good mix of action and drama and I like the way the characters are built, they really seem lifelike.


On a different note in the past few weeks I've read several books I can recommend, the 6th and seventh parts of the Runelords by David Farland, and both books of the chronicles of the Necromancer by Gail Z. Martin.

Better than Feist??? BLASPHEMY!!!

More in keeping with the thread, I'm currently reading Guns of Tanith, a Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett.

Almost finished "Catch As Catch Can" which is basically a collection of Joseph Heller's short stories before he got the prestige garnered from "Catch-22" as well as some stories after he wrote that book and some non-fiction articles of him reflecting on the movie project for the book and his life on Coney Island and his bombardier experience in the war.

After that I'm re-reading "Ender's Game" and then moving on to "Speaker For The Dead". Obviously I plan to buy the other books in the series after finishing "Speaker".

Well, the Night Angel trilogy was definitely fun. After having finished the first book on thursday, I couldn't wait to see how it ended so I got the two other parts and spent most of my weekend reading them. It was a lot of fun and I have to echo Burnt's sentiments; for a debuting author this is quite something.

This of course leaves me with a small problem though, now what do I read.

Glad you enjoyed it. Even if you did make me panic earlier

I've just finished book three of Greg Keyes "Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" quartet. Only "The Born Queen" left to go now, which I picked up in hardback yesterday.

For some reason, most people I know give me book vouchers for my birthday. Wonder why...

Can't remember who recommended Greg Keyes to me, must have been a very wise person indeed

I'm reading a collection of short stories by HP Lovecraft called The Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Tales. As the title suggests, the stories are all very strange, and so far, each has had its own wild twists. They are all horror stories, (at least what I've read up to this point) written in such a way that the reader is in the dark until the very end, when everything suddenly makes sense. (or not-- sometimes I've had to go back and reread the entire story to figure out what happened at the end. Lovecraft is good at making you think.) The writing style is difficult to read sometimes since the stories were written in the early 1900s, but that's part of the charm for me.

Even though I haven't finished reading them, I've liked every story in the book so far.