Books and things with words in them!

So what are people reading?!

I am currently enjoying Caliban's War by James S A Corey.  Very fast paced sci fi space opera stuff.  Been slowly getting into sci-fi reading and this has been one of the more enjoyable series I have started.

I am reading world War Z ... I am quiet near the end and loving it... I have Stephen King's Doctor Sleep on stand by...

I write horror stories myself and haven't read much lately but at the moment I am a little burned out with writing so taking a break and reading.

Going back through Lee Child's 'Jack Reacher' books.

I have been making my way through them too. The last one I read was Worth Dying For, which I thought was one of the best. They have to be the most consistent series of books, each one has been a great read.

Agreed! I read most of them quite a number of years ago but have been buying them on the Kindle store to read on my iPad.

Been reading them in order of release. Last I read was Persuader which was brilliant. Now on The Enemy which is also great.

Taking a break from my book of Greek and Roman myths (there is only so many times you can read about people dying from broken hearts and turning into flowers before you start loosing your mind!) and I am reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars.

I'm loving it. This is the perfect book for me and I am so glad I decided to give it a go after watching the superb John Cater movie that Disney let flop for no good reason! The John Carter of Mars series is classic sci-fi and is the base and starting point for so many things.

Also despite its age it is a really good read. The are some quirks of the language of the time but for the most part it flows nicely painting a rich picture of one man's account of his adventures on Barsoom.

I watched John Carter on netflix... all I had heard was that it was a flop a failure.. I loved it thought it was a great film. I haven't read any of the related books yet but the film certainly wouldn't put me off... Disney have pushed much worse films a heck of a lot more than they pushed John Carter.

Started reading through some Buffy novels that I picked up on the cheap a few years ago.

Read two over these past couple of days with the first being Unnatural Selection which was short and OK and the second being Prime Evil which I really enjoyed.

I thought John Carter was a woeful movie. It did a terrible job of setting up its universe, which is why it failed. It did not introduce its universe to newcomers in a way that was manageable, or stop you from laughing at its ridiculousness. Barsoom indeed.  

Wolvieware wrote:I thought John Carter was a woeful movie. It did a terrible job of setting up its universe, which is why it failed. It did not introduce its universe to newcomers in a way that was manageable, or stop you from laughing at its ridiculousness. Barsoom indeed.  

 

I'm currently watching The Strain series which is based of a book by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan and the series is that good I think I'm going to go and read the book.

I absolutely love The Strain! It is excellent, although the sequels are not quite as good...

Looking forward to starting the series soon.

I have to admit I've been watching it as airs in America and its fantastic.

Finished two more Buffy books which I enjoyed once I stopped nitpicking about them fitting into the TV series.

They were Blooded and Resurrecting Ravana.

Just finished Dances With Wolves by Michael Blake. For once this was a film just as good as the book - because they are so similar. It's pretty much identical to the movie with only very minor changes. And this epic western movie also makes a fantastic book. I loved it. It's written in such an involving way and slowly details a white soldiers introduction to American Indian life that it's interesting. I have no idea how accurate a portrayal of natives it is but I hope it's realistic. It's a nostalgic, emotional story and brilliant from cover to cover.

Read Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts on holiday.  Sci-fi set  in the Soviet Union, starting post-war with Stalin asking a small group of sci-fi writers to concoct an alien threat to  unite the Soviet people but with most of the book set in the mid 80s just prior (and just after) Chernobyl.  Good stuff, with a sense of humour (unlike a lot of sci-fi).

I also caught up on some Batman - Gothic trade paperback from years ago that I'd never got around to reading and the Noel graphic novel based on A Christmas Carol (seasonal, I know).

I'm taking a break from the highly enjoyable A Song of Ice and Fire books (I'm half way through the second) and I'm whizzing through Personal (Jack Reacher 19). So far, so sticking to the winning Reacher formula and I can't complain.

Finished the Buffy Gatekeeper trilogy.

Enjoyable read.

I keep re-reading bits of Frankie Boyle's  My shit life so far

I picked up a book called The Martian (by Andy Weir) and I bought it purely based on the blurb on the back and the first line of chapter one.

The Blurb wrote:I'm stranded on Mars.


I have no way to communicate with Earth.


I'm in a Habitat designed to last 31 days.


If the Oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I'll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death.


So yeah. I'm screwed.

Chapter One wrote:I'm pretty much fucked.

Finished Princess of Mars on the train this morning which is the first book in the John Carter of Mars series (otherwise known as the Barsoom series). It was nice easy-reading pulp sci-fi. Will be making a start on the next book soon

Started reading Arnie's autobiography after a recommendation.

Not too bad so far.

just started the shinning again  .... read it loads of times but just got Dr Sleep and thought id read it again first

As I was on a holiday last week I managed to get through a bunch of books. So just briefly:

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - a decent, but slightly depressing look on relationships from a man's perspective. The everyman nature of the main character means that we can all relate to at least some of his thoughts on love and commitment. But the best bits really remain the inbetween sections, that take place in a record store, and has silly but fun chatter about music and lists. 

Redshirts by John Scalzi - a loving tribute to the famous Star Trek redshirts who were fated to die in each episode. This tells the story of a similar crew, who twig that they have a high chance of dying on an away mission, and do all they can to escape being designated for that role. It's funny, and rips the piss out of Star Trek, but is also lovingly reminiscent of the show and idiosyncracies, plus as the plot develops, it almost is like a ST episode in novel form. The finale is meta, and brilliant. 

Eight Lives Down by Major Chris Hunter - a true story of a bomb disposable expert. It gets plaudits for not being at all technical, and for skipping the boring repetitive aspects of modern military life - many books seem to include a training section, which refreshingly this one doesn't, just skipping to the action. But that is almost my complaint as well - it just focuses on action. Each chapter is pretty much another bomb incident, and it starts to get a bit repetitive. But a great insight, all the same, to a terrifying job.

I've just finished Dream London by Tony Ballantyne and really enjoyed it. Can't say too much without giving the plot away but  London has been taken by mysterious powers, greatly altering the geography (the rivers widen, skyscrapers soar, buildings remodel and move around) and people (people seem to revert to a kind of Gaiman-esque Regency period (think Neverwhere). Very imaginative.

Also finished Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Wizard detective (adapted for TV inThe Dresden Files a few years ago). I was wanting something like Mike Carey's Felxix Castor books and it follows the same type of themes (real world, magic exists, demons exist) within a detective narrative. Not as well written as the Carey books but it rattled along. It's the first of the Dresden books and I might give it another go (my wife has loads).

But now I'll be turning to Redshirts by John Scalzi that I bought last weekend, so good to see Wolvie give it a decent write up!