What are you reading?

If you really enjoy the Dune books and the created world, yes I would recommend them. I enjoyed them for what they are. They aren't all good, but they do provide a lot of background information. Besides the mentioned downsides of reading them (taking away some of the surprises in Dune) there is also the situation that you already know up front, who is going to survive, so if they get into a tight spot, you already know they are getting out of it :)


I think the most informative trilogy was The Houses trilogy.

Currently I am reading Paul of Artreides. The book that is chronologically placed between Dune and Messiah.
 
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Currently reading Brothers of the Wind by Tad Williams. It's a novel set in the Osten Ard world. It takes place roughly 1000 years before the events of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. It focuses around the dynamic between two brothers: Hakatri and Ineluki who are Sithi nobles. It's told thorough the eyes of Hakatri's squire, Pamon Kes, and his view of the events that transpire between the brothers and a certain tragic incident. These characters play a big part in the original MS&T trilogy and the new trilogy The Last King of Osten Ard so it's been super interesting to learn more about them and Zida’ya/Hikeda’ya/Tinukeda’ya culture. In the later novels Tad has greatly expanded on the lore concerning these cultures which makes the books even better. They now feel less like cookie-cutter elves/dark elves, and instead like real cultures with customs, traditions and back story. I only have around 20 pages left and I'm already sad about leaving the world again. My only criticism would be that the last third of the book lacks a bit in excitement and feels a bit sad/grim, but it is a tragic tale so that's to be expected.

It was great to get back into the Osten Ard world. I'm currently waiting on the final two books for the Last King of Osten Ard that will come out next year. Can't wait since this is one of my all-time favourite fantasy authors. The latest book in the new trilogy: Empire of Grass was amazing in my opinion and maybe his best book ever?
 
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I finished book three of the Dresden series, Grave Peril. I've read this one before and now I remember what irked me about it back at the time, this assumed relationship with Michael. That in itself seems worthy of a tale, perhaps disclosing how they first met and got on, yet he's already a part of the group in this book, with no explanation as to how it happened. In any case, it's still a good book, and sets up lots of intriguing dilemmas that will need to be dealt with in the future. I'll be getting the fourth book to see what happens next, for sure.

Up now for me is Later, by Stephen King. For some reason I've not read this one before, he writes so much that I guess I simply missed it. Taking care of that right now. -)
 
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Yesterday I finished Later, it was a pretty decent read, though a tad short for King. Maybe it's a novella or just a longer short story. The work seemed a cross between the Dead Zone and the Mercedes series, in how it dealt with dead folk and, at times, a heavy police presence, more so than the standard sheriff or constable that simply gets drawn into the tale. I thought it a pretty good yarn, I'm still not sure how I missed this book when it was issued.

And next up is a re-read that I've intended to do for years.... Hyperion. I first read this book some thirty years ago, and I sat on a waiting list for three months to get it this go-around, so to say I've been looking forward to this would be an understatement. I'm ten percent in and enjoying every word so far!
 
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Yesterday I finished Later, it was a pretty decent read, though a tad short for King. Maybe it's a novella or just a longer short story.
It's a novel, just shorter than his usual, and about typical length for an entry in the Hard Case Crime imprint (historically, crime novels were tightly written). At around 64,000 words (248 pages in my paperback), it's certainly bigger than a novella (<40,000 words), and only just slightly shorter than Joyland (~65,000 words, also a Hard Case Crime novel). Carrie is only around 65,000 words as well.

Maybe you just read too fast. :p

And next up is a re-read that I've intended to do for years…. Hyperion. I first read this book some thirty years ago, and I sat on a waiting list for three months to get it this go-around, so to say I've been looking forward to this would be an understatement. I'm ten percent in and enjoying every word so far!
I love that book and its sequel. The later sequels (Endymion and its sequel), not as much, but they're still good.
 
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Good lord yes, I read two hours past my usual time today, didn't even notice the afternoon swept by me!! Now, imo, that's the hallmark of a great book, you totally lose track of the time.

And thanks for the hard case crime reminder, I need to look into a few of those books.
 
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This morning I finished Hyperion and man, what a fantastic sci-fi journey. I'm not sure what's better, the individual six pilgrim tales or the over-encompsing plot that finally becomes somewhat clearer in the last forty or so pages. It's really good, I'd stack this book against anything ever done in the genre, I'm not certain it would be my absolute science fiction favourite, yet I'm sure it would be in the top ten easily, perhaps top five. Looks like my library doesn't carry any of the other books in the series, so I'll have to resort to other means to continue the tale.

And I've just started Billy Summers, by Stephen King. I'd requested this one back in July and it finally arrived!
 
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Yeah Thrasher, even as I'm reading my current book, I'm thinking on the novel after Hyperion. I guess that's when you really know a book's made an impression on you, as you keep thinking about it afterwards.
 
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Yeah, I'm digging it so far. No spooky stuff yet, though knowing King, it's almost certain to pop up at some point!
It's not really that kind of book. Closer in tone to Blaze or Mr Mercedes. Though, he does sneak in some references to certain other, more supernatural, books.
 
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I got curious about exactly what Amazon changed in their Wheel Of Time adaptation, so I re-read The Eye Of The World over the weekend. Now I'm a hundred and forty pages into the sequel.

This might not end well.
 
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Somehow out of every fantasy and sci-fi book series I have read, and that includes almost all the very famous ones... I haven't read the Wheel of Time books. I recall once starting the book about thirty years ago (the first one in the 14 or whatever book series) and... I guess I couldn't get into it at the time. That has no bearing on how I'll feel about the series now, so I am kind of looking forward to picking these up again.

I'm enjoying the Amazon show. It's pretty good, and I like Pike as an actress a lot.

Otherwise, I have weirdly found the new Star Trek books to be somewhat decent, and I haven't read one since the whole origin of the Borg books that came out a while back. The Picard books are really delightful, and the Coda books are pretty good. I very much like that the books were written with continuity in mind, so they go together with the previous books written and the entire history that was written about in the couple of decades we had no Trek on TV at all. TNG and DS9 and Voyager ended; there were a couple of decades of books that built on what happened after the shows ended, and the producers decided to keep all of that history and have the new books tie into the new shows instead of declaring the books "not canon" which just... annoys a lot of people, as evidenced by some fans of the Star Wars base.

Anyway, blather blather, the new Star Trek books aren't bad and I'm interested in seeing if I like the Wheel of Time books. Isn't Sanderson writing the next book or the final book in that series because the original author didn't finish them or something of that nature?
 
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I'm interested in seeing if I like the Wheel of Time books. Isn't Sanderson writing the next book or the final book in that series because the original author didn't finish them or something of that nature?

The entire series is complete at this point. Sanderson wrote the final three volumes based on material left by Jordan before he died, and did a pretty good job of it IMO.

The first book is very reminiscent of Tolkien, deliberately so, but the later books quickly turn into their own thing.
 
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I was a big fan of the Star Trek novels, yet now it seems the sad, demented mentality that's ruined both the films and television series has seeped into the books as well. I'll just have to stick with the hundreds that I've enjoyed in the past, I've no interest in this current era of Trek, where not a single person seems like they'd ever pass muster at a quasi-military/scientific academy.

Today I finished Billy Summers, and it was an exceptional read. King has had some clunkers, duds, misfires, yet this is not one of them. I highly recommend this one, especially if you like a tale from the perspective of a not-so-nice bloke.

A few hours ago I started the sequel to Vicious, this one is entitled Vengeful. It's off to a solid start!
 
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This morning I completed Vengeful, and it's a solid follow-up to the first book in the series. It does a fine job of wrapping up much of the main/origin tales, yet leaves plenty to go back to, should the author feel the urge to write again in this universe. I highly recommend these two books, should the idea of exotics amongst us be in any way appealing to you.

Next up for me, book four of the Dresden series, Summer Knight!
 
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I'm currently reading

- a collection of articles & interviews made by the Prog Magazine and the Classic Rock magazine, all combined into ine "book"
- the exhibition catalogue of a Stonehenge exhibition in Herne, Germany (Ruhrgebiet)
- when I want to have fun, I take a look at Pheobe And Her Unicorn
 
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I finished book four of the Dresden line, Summer Knight. It was ok, I found it perhaps a bit lackluster compared to the prior three books. The backrounds that the author uses at times to bring on new characters, or existing ones that are being elevated to higher roles, I often find are too simplistic, with not enough history given to fully understand the relationships that some of these folk have with the protagonist. I do intend to continue the series, yet next up for me is Solar, which I'm already a hundred pages into, due to the inclement weather we're having in my area this morning.
 
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