what are you reading?

[limb_clock]

just finished John WAters' Shock Value. Again.

[Colonius]

Just finished Terry Pratchett's Making Money

Me too, OK but not a patch on Going Postal. Reacher Gilt was such a better adversary.

Now re-reading 'Give War a Chance' by P.J. O'Rourke.

Regeneration was very good. There's a good play 'Not about Heroes' that explores the relationship between Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen which a mate and I intend to perofrm one year real soon now. Regneration intersects with that in a few ways as it examines the treatment of WWI soliders returned from teh front for mental problems.

[nyarla]

Currently reading "The secret history of the world by Jonathan Black

Hehe, I just finished reading Secret History of the World by Laura Knight-Jadczyk.

as well as William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers (best bits about sailing ever! I need to re-read the Swallows & Amazons books!)

[SimonB]

I need to re-read the Swallows & Amazons books!

Go for it. I've been meaning too since listening to a reading of the first one last summer, just not got round to it yet. Essential part of my childhood was Arthur Ransome.

Oh, and since my last post have polished off Diamonds Are Forever and now reading The World according To Clarkson 2 (And Another Thing).

[HGFB]

I've just finished Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J. Anderson. The final book in a rather nice 7 book space opera (Despite his reputation I enjoyed it). I've now started reading Saturn's Children by Robert He... I mean Charles Stross This book is Charlie's tribute to late-era Heinlein and damn it's good. The heroine even gets chained to railway tracks. Railway tracks on Mercury. The train is a city.

Here's a short excerpt.

Lindy chatters away breathlessly as her probes nuzzle and squeeze into my orifices, filling my intimate spaces front and rear, top and bottom. It's not the intromisson that offends - she is considerate and lubricious, the pulsing sense of congestion pleasant after so long without intimate contact - but I find her personality annoying. It's like being molested by a sleeping bag that speaks in Comic Sans with little love-hearts above the i's

"Ooh that's a big colon you've got! Does it go anywhere? It's a long time since I've been inside one of these!"

Our heroine is Freya. An obsolete human form sex bot. Lindy is a transport device intended to get her from Venus to Mercury via an orbital pinwheel. The books screams Heinlein at you on every page but it's tempered by Charlie's modern touch and wild imagination. Basically it reads to me as if Heinlein were writing books today. The passage above isn't really what the rest of what I've read is like. I just found it funny It's how artificial life travels steerage.

[F-ZeroOne]

American Shaolin, by Matthew Polly. Basically a 98-pound American weakling obsessed with China decides he wants to be a monumental baddass, and how better to do so than by spending a year with the Shaolin monks.

Apparently, there is an "Iron Crotch" technique.

Description of training required for this technique omitted lest every male YakYakker spends the rest of this evening with their legs crossed.

[Public Hermit]

Just finished Reynolds' Revelation Space series (again).

I just got into these a few months ago, and received the last one (The Prefect) for my birthday. Not started it yet though!

Does anyone know of the Peter F Hamilton books? Are they any good? I've not really read any of these grand space opera books before, and really like the Revelation Space ones.

[HGFB]

I've just finished Saturn's Children by Charles Stross (Buy it now) and I'm currently reading Time's Champion by Craig Hinton and Chris McKeon.

[Firefox]

Does anyone know of the Peter F Hamilton books? Are they any good? I've not really read any of these grand space opera books before, and really like the Revelation Space ones.

His books are very, very good indeed!

I've enjoyed absolutely everything he's written, so the only recommendation I'd give is to make sure you pick one that's at the beginning of a series/trilogy. The only self-contained novel he's written is Fallen Dragon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_f_hamilton

[benedictw]

Just finished Reynolds' Revelation Space series (again).

I just got into these a few months ago, and received the last one (The Prefect) for my birthday. Not started it yet though!

Does anyone know of the Peter F Hamilton books? Are they any good? I've not really read any of these grand space opera books before, and really like the Revelation Space ones.

I've only read his Nights Dawn series. There are some really good ideas in there, some really nice concepts but for me the whole thing doesn't quite jell.

Spoiler: show

Voidhawks,Nighthawks,Edenists,Bitek habitats - fantastic
Zombies, returning dead - argh.

I'll heartily recommend Reynolds' Pushing Ice - probally the best book he has done, you could view it as being Accelerando-lite.

[HGFB]

I'll heartily recommend Reynolds' Pushing Ice - probally the best book he has done, you could view it as being Accelerando-lite.

I saw it as Rama++ Excellent book.

[Public Hermit]

Thanks guys.

Is The Night's Dawn trilogy a good start for Hamilton? Wikipedia says the first one is "The Reality Dysfunction". Is this a good 'un?

[HGFB]

Thanks guys.

Is The Night's Dawn trilogy a good start for Hamilton? Wikipedia says the first one is "The Reality Dysfunction". Is this a good 'un?

Hell yes to both questions.

[F-ZeroOne]

There is one major plot point in the Nights Dawn trilogy that a lot of people have trouble with. If you can accept that issue, then everything else about the books is bloody fantastic, especially if you like really detailed explanations of how exotic SF weapons go bang.

[HGFB]

If the plot point is the one I think you're talking about it's not going to matter to much since it happens at the end of the third book