what are you reading?

[WiteWulf]

Kickstarter for The Final Years is live today:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14 ... =user_menu

And I got in the wall plot perk! I really want a giant poster of the Agnus chip on my wall. (As I would love for Denise and Paula too ofc.)

Oo, that's very tempting

[zip accident]

I recently read this, having been given a copy. It is good, if you are interested in that sort of thing. Wikipedia criticises it somewhat.



https://amzn.to/2w4QLFH

[PFVA]

Quite entertaining reading for a Summer afternoon of 34ºC

Back in the Shade

[yurt]

Currently reading The first fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North

[RiK]

'Mars By 1980' by David Stubbs



https://amzn.to/2KRZnnz

[PVB]

Knights & Bikes by Gabrielle Kent, based on the game of the same name which is due out later this year.



https://amzn.to/2BCkQ4G

[Deckard]

Loving Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valence which owes a huge debt to Hitchhikers -

Hey there, I’m Clippy, your computer assistant. It looks like you’re trying to survive the night and not get slaughtered in the next 5 minutes like the miserably finite mortal organics you are. Would you like some fucking help?”

[merman]

Soupy Twists - The full, official story of the sophisticated silliness of Fry & Laurie by Jem Roberts

Tracing how Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry met at Cambridge University, took part in a highly successful Footlights Revue (winner of the first Perrier Award for Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe) and became a double-act.

[merman]

Soupy Twists - The full, official story of the sophisticated silliness of Fry & Laurie by Jem Roberts

Tracing how Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry met at Cambridge University, took part in a highly successful Footlights Revue (winner of the first Perrier Award for Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe) and became a double-act.

So that was amazing, and includes a section of PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN MATERIAL - unfinished & unrecorded sketches.

Now reading/browsing The Art of Super Famicom from Bitmap Books. Glossy art book filled with classic box artwork.

[NorthWay]

New Jack Reacher story "Past Tense". The non-Reacher part rubbed me a bit the wrong way until it picked up its pace, but otherwise solid as usual. I still can't help not noticing how suitable the books are for filming.

"Commodore: The Inside Story" by David Pleasance etc co. Just started. The man was kinda obsessed with how much guitar training he did...

[Mat]

I'm currently reading Death's End, the second book in Cixin Liu's trilogy (The Three Body Problem, Death's End & The Dark Forest).
It's enjoyable and thought provoking, but I have a couple of problems with it.
One, the translation is very workmanlike, with the books reading very drily.
And two, as I've experienced with other recent Chinese media, it can't escape the need to include some degree of state propaganda.

I think some of my enjoyment definitely stems from reading a story written from such a different cultural perspective than I'm used to, for sure.

[WiteWulf]

I read Three Body Problem and the same issue with the dry translation, it was reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke in that respect.

I just finished vol. 2 of John Scalzi's Interdependency series, The Consuming Fire, and very enjoyable it was, too. Rollicking space opera with great writing.

I started the latest volume of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London/Peter Grant novels last night, Lies Sleeping. Urban fantasy, special branch of The Met for dealing with occult and magic. Jolly good fun, but not the best place to start the series if you're new as Ben dives straight in as if it's the following chapter of the last book with no recap or easing you into things. I like it

[venusian]

Hey, just started Three Body Problem yesterday. Quite enjoying the dry prose after a couple of florid crime novels by Saul Black a.k.a Glen Duncan.

[noodles]

Finished the incredible, can't put down type testimony of a burglar at the end of the nineteenth century called "You can't win" by Jack Black.

Now in the middle of "In the court of the red tsar" by Montefiore on Stalin.

[Mat]

If you like books about burglary, I can highly recommend Bill Mason's "Nine Lives" and Geoff Manaugh's "A Burglar's Guide to the City" (both of which I have probably mentioned in this thread already).

I've got Richard Morgan's "Thin Air" and Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren" lined up for when I finish The Dark Forest, but I've been curious about "Rivers of London" for a while now. I like a good bit of urban fantasy. Mur Lafferty's Shambling Guides, Charlie Stross' Laundry series, Charlie Fletcher's Oversight trilogy, Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim, David Wong's John Dies... trilogy, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, the list goes on
Sure, a lot of that stuff is incredibly pulpy, but that's half the charm.