what are you reading?
- limb_clock
- Baaaaaaa!

- Posts: 8186
- Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 9:46 am 0
- XBL Gamertag: LimbClock
- Location: Winland a.k.a. Finland
- betamax
- Sheepie Whore

- Posts: 10520
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2003 11:36 pm 0
- XBL Gamertag: Betamax_W
- Location: Coalition Anxiety
- Contact:
HP Lovecraft Omnibus 3: The Haunter of the Dark. Cthulhu's adventures in almost waking up to devour the minds of humanity are scuppered by a lone nordic and his trusty stolen steamboat. Fried gold.
"Shouting lager, lager, lager, lager. Shouting lager, lager, lager, lager. Is just one of the reasons you're not welcome at Claridges any more". -Psychic Bob
I'm currently re-reading David Weber's Honor Harrington stuff - it's military sci-fi space opera with a heavy amount of influence from classic stuff like Horatio Hornblower. The basic plot involves the rise (and occasional fall) of a top-class officer during a war of attrition between two empires: a small but rich democracy (somewhat akin to the British empire during it's trading heyday) and a vast communist empire, which must continue to expand and absorb resources or collapse after years of raiding the piggy bank to keep the unwashed masses placated.
The guy's clearly done a lot of thinking and research into it all, and part of the appeal is that there's a steady R&D effort throughout the books: new weapons and tactics are introduced (e.g. faster ships, better missiles, stealth tech), along with the various political events which tend to cripple one empire long enough for the other to take advantage for a short while.
Better yet, a large chunk of the series is legally available free of charge as e-texts, as listed on the Wikipedia page.
(the same applies to a large chunk of Baen-published books, and it's worked nicely for them - speaking only for myself, I've splashed out on about 20 books since parsing a large chunk of their free library)
Worth a try - it's free and you can read it in a browser or on your PDA/iPhone/etc...
The guy's clearly done a lot of thinking and research into it all, and part of the appeal is that there's a steady R&D effort throughout the books: new weapons and tactics are introduced (e.g. faster ships, better missiles, stealth tech), along with the various political events which tend to cripple one empire long enough for the other to take advantage for a short while.
Better yet, a large chunk of the series is legally available free of charge as e-texts, as listed on the Wikipedia page.
(the same applies to a large chunk of Baen-published books, and it's worked nicely for them - speaking only for myself, I've splashed out on about 20 books since parsing a large chunk of their free library)
Worth a try - it's free and you can read it in a browser or on your PDA/iPhone/etc...
- HippyDave
- Baaaa!

- Posts: 529
- Joined: Thu Jun 13, 2002 8:13 am 0
- Location: Worcestershire, UK
- Contact:
Currently re-reading for the first time since the late 80s...

50 pages in, and already as ace as I remember it being...
Worryingly, though, it appears to be out of print, at least in the UK. None of the usual stores appear to have it in stock! Which is a blow to anyone in the UK who hasn't read it yet who fancied giving it a go. e-Bay and/or Amazon marketplace etc it is, then...
I'll be keeping my copy nice and safe...

50 pages in, and already as ace as I remember it being...
Worryingly, though, it appears to be out of print, at least in the UK. None of the usual stores appear to have it in stock! Which is a blow to anyone in the UK who hasn't read it yet who fancied giving it a go. e-Bay and/or Amazon marketplace etc it is, then...
I'll be keeping my copy nice and safe...
"...a chicken vindaloo, kamikaze hot, with a fire extinguisher on standby."
- RiK
- Sheepie Whore

- Posts: 16092
- Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2002 11:32 pm 0
- XBL Gamertag: Dr Olpin
- PSN: Dr Thumpy
- Location: The Shire
- Contact:
Currently reading "Wormwood Forest, a natural history of Chernobyl"
RiK
Yakyak Admin
Martial Arts: http://www.BlackBeltAcademy.info
Photography: http://www.richardolpinphotography.co.uk
Yakyak Admin
Martial Arts: http://www.BlackBeltAcademy.info
Photography: http://www.richardolpinphotography.co.uk
- ThetaReactor
- Baaaaaa!

- Posts: 3543
- Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 4:46 am 0
- Location: Face-down in the shag rug.
- shock combo
- Baaa!

- Posts: 278
- Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:50 am 0
- Location: Leamington Spa
- disciple
- Sheepie Whore

- Posts: 13941
- Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:33 pm 0
- XBL Gamertag: LiberMentis
- PSN: Prime_Heretic
- Location: Greenfield
- Contact:
Guys, I know everyone posts in this thread and never actually reads anything posted here, but for those few that do don't forget there is the yakyak book club on LibraryThing.
http://www.librarything.com/groups/yakyakbookclub
LibraryThing is free to join and it allows you to track you library and us to track each others reading. It also provides recommendations and such based on your reading habits and lots of other useful book related features, it is a very awesum web app. You should join up and then join the yakyak group!
http://www.librarything.com/groups/yakyakbookclub
LibraryThing is free to join and it allows you to track you library and us to track each others reading. It also provides recommendations and such based on your reading habits and lots of other useful book related features, it is a very awesum web app. You should join up and then join the yakyak group!
PS4 : Prime_Heretic
Steam: bitstorm
Elite Dangerous: Cmdr Britain
Steam: bitstorm
Elite Dangerous: Cmdr Britain
- HGFB
- Sheepie Whore

- Posts: 23575
- Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2002 8:51 pm 0
- Location: At my desk. Tap tap tapping.
Re: what are you reading?
I just finished Excession by Iain M. Banks and have moved onto Consider Phelbas.
However if you guys love your spaceship and AI porn Banks style I'd like to recommend Neal Asher's books set in his Polity universe. IMO the spaceship porn is more hardcore (Especially the space battles) and the Polity AIs are much more interesting characters.
A couple of good books to start with are
Prador Moon
and
Gridlinked
However if you guys love your spaceship and AI porn Banks style I'd like to recommend Neal Asher's books set in his Polity universe. IMO the spaceship porn is more hardcore (Especially the space battles) and the Polity AIs are much more interesting characters.
A couple of good books to start with are
Prador Moon
and
Gridlinked
My bag is called Mr Shitface
Re: what are you reading?
I've just started Great expectations. It's not as good as I'd hoped.
YOUR IMAGINARY FRIEND
Re: what are you reading?
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
This guy is rapidly rises next to my Holy Trinity of writers, Erikson, Martin and Scott Baker. They will be a Holy Quartinity?!
This guy is rapidly rises next to my Holy Trinity of writers, Erikson, Martin and Scott Baker. They will be a Holy Quartinity?!
Armed with a Cintiq+4+bless I'm off to fight bad taste!
Take a look at my art and t-shirts
Take a look at my art and t-shirts
- Fuseball
- Baaaaaa!

- Posts: 3139
- Joined: Mon May 13, 2002 4:58 pm 0
- Yahoo Messenger: fuseball80
- Location: London, Cosmos
Re:
Great books.HippyDave wrote:Currently re-reading for the first time since the late 80s...
50 pages in, and already as ace as I remember it being...
Worryingly, though, it appears to be out of print, at least in the UK. None of the usual stores appear to have it in stock! Which is a blow to anyone in the UK who hasn't read it yet who fancied giving it a go. e-Bay and/or Amazon marketplace etc it is, then...
I lost my old editions of this. Managed to get all three from abe-books. Similar setup to the Amazon marketplace but more focussed on bookselling. A lot of independent bookstores are on there.





