Eat any good books lately Worf?

[drthmik]

Just read "Free Wrench" by Joseph R. Lallo
It's a Steampunk adventure
Pretty good characters and good action, He keeps the tension throughout and has decent worldbuilding
Definitely worth the Price on iBooks of $0.00
I'm seriously considering buying the Sequels

[SlackerinDeNile]

Finally got round to reading 'Song of Ice and Fire', I've almost finished Clash of Kings.
It's really good, George R.R. Martin is excellent at making fantasy seem incredibly vivid, epic and disturbing when it has to be, the exposition and world-building is often very well handled, unlike in the TV show where it's typically quite clunky.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Just starting 11-22-63.

[Mickey_Rat15]

Finally got round to reading 'Song of Ice and Fire', I've almost finished Clash of Kings.
It's really good, George R.R. Martin is excellent at making fantasy seem incredibly vivid, epic and disturbing when it has to be, the exposition and world-building is often very well handled, unlike in the TV show where it's typically quite clunky.

You have not gotten to the clunky book yet. It is not precisely bad and there is a point to it, I think, but it does not sing like the first three.

[SlackerinDeNile]

You have not gotten to the clunky book yet. It is not precisely bad and there is a point to it, I think, but it does not sing like the first three.

Yeah I've been told they start to get clunkier from Book 4 onwards, I'm gonna stop with Book 2 and read some other stuff, maybe return to the series in the future.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Just started Anna Karenina. After finally reading War and Peace, I have no doubt that it will be a very rewarding read.

I'm also looking into acquiring The Book of the New Sun, which I've heard a lot of good things about.

[Karha of Honor]

Just started Anna Karenina. After finally reading War and Peace, I have no doubt that it will be a very rewarding read.

I'm also looking into acquiring The Book of the New Sun, which I've heard a lot of good things about.

Convince me to read War and Peace. I ignore the romantics.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Just started Anna Karenina. After finally reading War and Peace, I have no doubt that it will be a very rewarding read.

I'm also looking into acquiring The Book of the New Sun, which I've heard a lot of good things about.

Convince me to read War and Peace. I ignore the romantics.

I'm not sure if I'd necessarily want to convince someone to jump into War and Peace as their first taste of that style of literature. It's 1200 pages, there's a very large cast of characters who have complex names (if you aren't Russian) and have multiple nicknames. There are several long breaks in the narrative where Tolstoy gives a history lesson, advocates his own philosophy of history, and otherwise editorializes. An edition with good footnotes/endnotes would be needed to make sense of a lot of the historical and cultural details.

With all those disclaimers aside, what I love about the book is Tolstoy's almost unparalleled understanding of human nature, human motivation, the way people interact depending on standing and situation, and the way they change over the time. In a way many of the characters seem unremarkable, but only because they're so completely plausible and real. I don't really feel that I can do justice to the book's shades and nuances by trying to explain it. Most of us have the conceit that we have original thoughts about the way people behave and the reasons why they do things, but I've found many of my own hazy observations fully articulated in Tolstoy. A well-known quote about War and Peace from Isaac Babel- "If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy."

Finally, the writing itself is something special (although those of us who read in English doubtless lose a lot in translation- I read the Pevear-Volkhonsky translation), and I really enjoy weaving of his story into a very well-researched and interesting historical setting (Napolean's campaigns against Russia, from 1805 up to his invasion in 1812). There's also some intrigue and action, and a lot of drama.

TL:DR- it's well worth the attention of anyone who has an interest in classic literature, history, or human nature, but it's also a pretty big investment.

[Steve]

I've actually stepped away from speculative fiction lately. A co-worker introduced me to the works of J.A. Jance and Patricia Cornwell, and I'm currently working on the latter's Kay Scarpetta series of forensic/crime mystery novels, having finished Jance's Joanna Brady and Ali Reynolds books (two different sets, although she did cross them over in a couple of novellas). Although the most recent Reynolds book, "Man Overboard", has a bit of speculative fiction in it, as the serial killer villain is a master computer programmer that wrote his own AI to help him, and has the resources to give the AI a large dedicated hardware base to grow, learn, and improve itself.

(And that's not spoiling anything since the AI is introduced rather early in the story, and its existence explained.)

[yamiangie]

Reading "The Curse of Capistrano" aka The Mark of Zorro, which has a lot less sword fighting and a lot more holding people at pistol point. Odd to read a book where you already know the twist ending because it became who franchise of things.