What's the last book you've read?

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

I just finished The French and Indian War by Walter Borneman and The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.

Currently working on Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (50s post-apocalyptic) and Grant by Ron Chernow. Really early in the latter, but it's excellent so far.

[Yukaphile]

I have Dune, and am in the process of reading it, but damn, haven't even got past the summary with Neil Gaiman.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Globalization and Its Discontents

This was the last book that I began to read 10 years ago and just didn't finish. It was a summer of reading every day which is unprecedented for me otherwise.

[Mecha82]

Mephiston: City of Lights by Darius Hinks.

Yes, another 40k novel. Those are all that I tend to read these days. And how could I resist one about my favorite Blood Angels named character Mephiston. Especially when it's about him going against Thousand Sons Sorcerers trying to empower Magnus the Red.

[Riedquat]

I have Dune, and am in the process of reading it, but damn, haven't even got past the summary with Neil Gaiman.

I read Dune but didn't really get in to it, it just didn't work for me. I also eventually got through Dune Messiah, but I just found it a slog.

[Robovski]

I finished Last Man Out (Poor Man's Fight #5) by Elliot Kay, reading Wandering Monsters by the same author now. Trying to read more this year, even if it is just recreational.

[Edvarius]

Just about done with The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum.

[Yukaphile]

Atm, reading Dune.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Just finished True Grit by Charles Portis. Excellent. Also recently read As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and Lincoln's Last Trial (history lite) by Dan Abrams and David Fisher.

Haven't decided what to read next, but it will probably be Children of Dune. I hate to admit it, being a big fan of the original Dune, but I haven't made it further in the series than Dune Messiah. Hoping to change that soon.

[GreyICE]

Just finished Borne by Jeff VanderMeer. Excellent biopunk book, I really enjoyed it. It managed to evoke one of those moods where I wasn't sure what was going to happen - where the plot was far enough off the beaten path and the events so twisted that you just buckled in and went along for the ride.

One of the things I really liked was the use of biopunk. Cyberpunk in Neuromancer was more about grit, dirt, and ugliness - a world where "what is human" is an open debate no one has time for because they're just struggling to survive, and the powerful casually crush others under foot. Over time, it gradually became about mirrorshades, cool cybernetics, and flash. By using a biopunk setting, VanderMeer gets to explore something new, that's far uglier and more horrific than the usual fare, without evoking any of the 80s retrofuturism that has come to dominate the feel of most cyberpunk works.

I'm starting to think biopunk might be the future of the ideas of cyberpunk (while cyberpunk itself lurches more into becoming a parody of what it once was).