What are you reading?

Warhawk said:
Just finished book 4 of The Expanse, Cibola Burn. I find myself enjoying the books after watching the shows because the books add a lot of detail that the shows gloss over (or I just missed?). Good stuff.
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Just got back from vacation - before I left and while gone for 3 weeks I read the rest of the books in this series:

  • Nemesis Games
  • Babylon's Ashes
  • Persepolis Rising
  • Tiamat's Wrath
  • Leviathan Falls
Also:
  • Memory's Legion (a collection of interesting short stories in The Expanse universe that tie into the books)

I just have to say that they are excellent and well worth reading the entire series. Highly recommended.
 
I forgot to note when I finished Wheel of Time, book 4, Shadow Rising.

I just finished book 5, Fires of Heaven - and these two are the longest books in the series so far (looks like the next one is indeed the longest of all 15). Again, good stories, a few more characters to keep track of than I'd care for, and the books are long. I find myself skimming some paragraphs that are mostly descriptive just because of the length of the books. But still recommended!
 
Warhawk said:
I forgot to note when I finished Wheel of Time, book 4, Shadow Rising.

I just finished book 5, Fires of Heaven - and these two are the longest books in the series so far (looks like the next one is indeed the longest of all 15). Again, good stories, a few more characters to keep track of than I'd care for, and the books are long. I find myself skimming some paragraphs that are mostly descriptive just because of the length of the books. But still recommended!
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Just finished book 6, Lord of Chaos - and the refrain gets a bit stronger. Good story, but the first half of the book should be trimmed significantly to get the story moving quicker. Just so many paragraphs that don't actually advance the story. The second half of the book moves much more quickly, thank goodness. Glad to be done with the longest book of the series - feels like I'm on the downhill side! :)
 
Warhawk said:
Just finished book 6, Lord of Chaos - and the refrain gets a bit stronger. Good story, but the first half of the book should be trimmed significantly to get the story moving quicker. Just so many paragraphs that don't actually advance the story. The second half of the book moves much more quickly, thank goodness. Glad to be done with the longest book of the series - feels like I'm on the downhill side! :)
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You're about to hit the infamous slog so you might want to hold off on the celebration. It took me months to grind through books 8 and 9
 
Decided to delay delivery of the next couple Wheel of Time books by a couple weeks to switch things up a bit (catch up on some TV, etc.), but did just polish off the new Lincoln Child novel, Chrysalis. Quite a change from WoT - finished it off in just about 4 hours. :)

An easy read, the action keeps moving and there are a couple of plot twists here and there. But as I've said before, he and his writing partner (Douglas Preston, who he collaborates with frequently) have seemed to move more towards less complex or involved storylines towards easy reads that might be easier to make into movies, for example. Sometimes I wish they would get back to the writing they displayed in Relic.

But it was an enjoyable read overall and definitely was something I was needing before the next couple of WoT books are available on the Libby app.
 
I keep forgetting that I have numerous books sitting in my Kindle app on the iPad - with Amazon Prime you get to select a free book every month from a selection they provide. While most they offer each month don't interest me, I pick up one every other month or so but with the deadlines for reading the books on Libby, I tend to leave the Kindle books sitting there for "whenever I get around to them". I decided to read one of them - City Dark by Roger Canaff. A decent little murder mystery thriller that keeps moving and has some interesting characters. The bad guy is a bit too omnipotent, for lack of a better word, but overall it was an enjoyable and fairly quick read. Nothing earth-shattering, with a twist introduced in the last 1/5 of the book I didn't see coming.
 
Tetsujin said:
You're about to hit the infamous slog so you might want to hold off on the celebration. It took me months to grind through books 8 and 9
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Just finished Book 7, A Crown of Swords - thankfully somewhat shorter than the previous several books (by, oh, only 100,000 words or so), but still longer than it needed to be. The ending in this one was a tad anti-climactic, and likely misleading. We'll see how it plays out....
 
Tetsujin said:
You're about to hit the infamous slog so you might want to hold off on the celebration. It took me months to grind through books 8 and 9
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Book 9 or 10 was the last one I finished (can’t remember exactly, this was 18 years ago!). They definitely became a slog, and I was starting college, so it was tough to focus on them…

I just finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Will be thinking about this one for a while…
 
I highly recommend this work of fan fiction:

Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived

It's a retelling of the Harry Potter saga, set in the world of James Bond. Harry's father was the current 007 when he was killed when Harry was a baby. There's no magic; the purebloods in this story are the Lords and Ladies of the aristocracy. It's told from Hermione's point of view. By the end of the story she's ready to be another Emma Peel, and Harry could be the next 007. Very well written and lots of fun
 
Tetsujin said:
You're about to hit the infamous slog so you might want to hold off on the celebration. It took me months to grind through books 8 and 9
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I just finished book 8, The Path of Daggers, and I didn't feel like it was quite as slow going as the last couple. It did feel more...disjointed, though. Some battle scenes felt like they were intentionally unclear of certain outcomes, there are just so many freaking characters to follow, and the ending was very ambiguous.
 
Warhawk said:
I just finished book 8, The Path of Daggers, and I didn't feel like it was quite as slow going as the last couple. It did feel more...disjointed, though. Some battle scenes felt like they were intentionally unclear of certain outcomes, there are just so many freaking characters to follow, and the ending was very ambiguous.
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Just finished book 9, Winter's Heart, and the trend continues. More characters than are (apparently) really necessary and lots of excess description and character's thoughts than I would think should be included. But a good story and ending to this one. If he could just not be so wordy these books would just be that much better.
 
Decided to try something a bit different and read The Betrayal by Robert Mazur (one of the freebies I got a while back from Amazon Prime). An interesting true story about his time at the DEA going undercover in Panama, etc., to bring down some of the money launderers working with some of the world's biggest narcotics dealers. He keeps the story moving and I enjoyed the read. There are a LOT of characters to keep track of (frankly, I didn't always succeed, but that's OK). Some of the conversations are reportedly verbatim from transcripts / recordings, but some seem to have been a bit fictionalized to keep the story understandable and "on track" for the readers. Not a "great" book by any means, but still recommended just for the real-life peek into this topic. He keeps the story moving without too much superfluous text. (I'm looking at you, Wheel of Time). ;)
 
Warhawk said:
Just finished book 9, Winter's Heart, and the trend continues. More characters than are (apparently) really necessary and lots of excess description and character's thoughts than I would think should be included. But a good story and ending to this one. If he could just not be so wordy these books would just be that much better.
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Done with Book 10, Crossroads of Twilight - they could probably cut 1/4 of the words in the book and not impact the story. This one was a bit different as there was no "grand finale"-type of ending, but a bit of a cliffhanger instead....
 
Warhawk said:
Done with Book 10, Crossroads of Twilight - they could probably cut 1/4 of the words in the book and not impact the story. This one was a bit different as there was no "grand finale"-type of ending, but a bit of a cliffhanger instead....
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And book 11, Knife of Dreams, is done. The story seems to be picking up a bit even if they still have way too many characters. Also, the last book or two have prologues that are 10% of the book! What I thought was going to be the big battle sequence to end the book actually wasn't (and seemed a bit short / "easy" compared to the buildup), but overall the story is still pretty good.
 
Warhawk said:
And book 11, Knife of Dreams, is done. The story seems to be picking up a bit even if they still have way too many characters. Also, the last book or two have prologues that are 10% of the book! What I thought was going to be the big battle sequence to end the book actually wasn't (and seemed a bit short / "easy" compared to the buildup), but overall the story is still pretty good.
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Just finished Book 12, The Gathering Storm, and finally the story really starts picking up again with some gusto. An excellent entry in the series.
 
Warhawk said:
Just finished Book 12, The Gathering Storm, and finally the story really starts picking up again with some gusto. An excellent entry in the series.
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This trend continues with Book 13, Towers of Midnight - the story continues to develop at a good pace and the stage is set for the final book/battle. Again, one of the best in the series.

The last 3 books are "co-authored"/"completed" by Brandon Sanderson due to the death of Robert Jordan (he left extensive notes and outlines for how the story was to end that Sanderson would turn into books 12-14). Frankly, I like these books the best (so far) I think. Jordan must have been paid by the word. Sanderson keeps them much less verbose and definitely keeps the story moving better.
 
kingsboi said:
seems like Hawk is the only one reading since October it's been nothing but you posting
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Or........

Maybe the rest of the KingsFans.com readers just decided, on or around October 11, 2022, that sharing ain't caring, and just decided to no longer share their favorite books to read...:p:p:p
 
kingsboi said:
would you care to share?
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QWERTYLICIOUS said:
I don't read.
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I've REALLY tried to get into reading books (novels) in the past. I really have. But I just can't find myself being able to do it. I am not sure what the problem is, but I ALWAYS find myself losing interest very quickly, thus eventually dozing off while reading.

I used to read quite a bit back when I was young, and in school. And I do remember enjoying it quite a bit back then.

Just not quite sure what my problem is now that I am in my late 30s, and rapidly approaching my 40s.
 
QWERTYLICIOUS said:
I've REALLY tried to get into reading books (novels) in the past. I really have. But I just can't find myself being able to do it. I am not sure what the problem is, but I ALWAYS find myself losing interest very quickly, thus eventually dozing off while reading.

I used to read quite a bit back when I was young, and in school. And I do remember enjoying it quite a bit back then.

Just not quite sure what my problem is now that I am in my late 30s, and rapidly approaching my 40s.
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I know your problem. You haven't found something you like reading. It could even be a subject that you don't think you like until you give it a chance. Give yourself some variety and you will surprise yourself.
 
Warhawk said:
This trend continues with Book 13, Towers of Midnight - the story continues to develop at a good pace and the stage is set for the final book/battle. Again, one of the best in the series.

The last 3 books are "co-authored"/"completed" by Brandon Sanderson due to the death of Robert Jordan (he left extensive notes and outlines for how the story was to end that Sanderson would turn into books 12-14). Frankly, I like these books the best (so far) I think. Jordan must have been paid by the word. Sanderson keeps them much less verbose and definitely keeps the story moving better.
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Finally! Done with Wheel of Time, book 14, A Memory of Light. These last 3 books were possibly the best of the entire series and if you have the time it is definitely a good read.

According to wikipedia, reading the entire series means I plowed through about 4.4 million words. At times it felt like it. For you audiobook lovers, that would be over 19 days of 24-hour listening. :)
 
QWERTYLICIOUS said:
I've REALLY tried to get into reading books (novels) in the past. I really have. But I just can't find myself being able to do it. I am not sure what the problem is, but I ALWAYS find myself losing interest very quickly, thus eventually dozing off while reading.

I used to read quite a bit back when I was young, and in school. And I do remember enjoying it quite a bit back then.

Just not quite sure what my problem is now that I am in my late 30s, and rapidly approaching my 40s.
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I found I had the same problem with reading novels -- I'd always get bored within the first 100 pages -- so I switched to reading non-fiction about 15 years ago and never looked back. Maybe give that a try if you are trying to get back into reading as a break from more passive forms of entertainment and/or staring at electronic screens? There's as many different things to read about as the world is wide so just go for whatever topic sounds interesting to you -- a historical time period or event, a person or group of people, stories about bands or artists making music and touring, travelogues or essays about the natural world. I'm sure you can think of something that you always wanted to know more about.
 
Warhawk said:
So I just finished the trilogy, having read Death's End. I have a hard time putting my impression of the author and his works into words. His sci-fi approach is unlike any other I have read and that alone is interesting and new. His scope and breadth of topics and ability to weave micro and macro together is unlike anything else I have come across. And the scope of this trilogy is truly vast.

But....I don't find his writing style to be as compelling. He seems to gloss over things that seem like they should be more important or interesting. He delves into technical detail on things that I'm not sure deserve it. And the book is long and sometimes fairly mundane.

His ideas are fresh and different. I'm glad I read it. But I'm pretty sure that unlike Dune, or Ender's Game, or The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, or other series, this isn't one I'll likely read again.
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@Capt. Factorial , these books are apparently being adapted by Netflix! I could actually see how these might be better as films/series than books. I missed this when it was announced, apparently.

Netflix’s adaptation of 'The Three-Body Problem' will arrive in 2023 | Engadget
 
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hrdboild said:
I found I had the same problem with reading novels -- I'd always get bored within the first 100 pages -- so I switched to reading non-fiction about 15 years ago and never looked back. Maybe give that a try if you are trying to get back into reading as a break from more passive forms of entertainment and/or staring at electronic screens? There's as many different things to read about as the world is wide so just go for whatever topic sounds interesting to you -- a historical time period or event, a person or group of people, stories about bands or artists making music and touring, travelogues or essays about the natural world. I'm sure you can think of something that you always wanted to know more about.
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@QWERTYLICIOUS - Depending on what you are interested in, you might want to try some of the following (all good books):
  • The Lost City of the Monkey God (finding a prehistoric city in the Honduran jungle using LIDAR and then ground-truthing the discovery, along with the associated history and dangers of jungle exploration)
  • The Great Influenza (history of the Spanish Flu and worldwide historical impacts)
  • Cities of Gold (dangerous horseback journey retracing Coronado's search for the Seven Cities of Gold)
  • Battling the Inland Sea (history of water control in the Sacramento Valley - from Native Americans through early settlers, the Gold Rush, etc.)
  • Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History (stories of the amazing expeditions and people behind the collection in the museum)
  • The Monster of Florence: A True Story (an investigation into the identity of a serial killer in Florence, Italy)
 
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Warhawk said:
@Capt. Factorial , these books are apparently being adapted by Netflix! I could actually see how these might be better as films/series than books. I missed this when it was announced, apparently.

Netflix’s adaptation of 'The Three-Body Problem' will arrive in 2023 | Engadget
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I also had missed that! Thanks for the update!

BTW, it appears that the production team for this series may already be in line to do The Dark Forest (link, about 80% down).

Needless to say, I've just cleared my calendar for the rest of the year - it could be released any time!
 
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