Be Excellent To Each Other

I opened the ebook on a colour screen and... look!

That's as I remember it, with red and green text. I used to have a copy with the dual text. I have wanted for a long while to own a copy again, but it is strangely rare. Maybe it will be one of those things that I treat myself to one day.

Just finished Whiskey Sour.. Cheers Grim for the recommendation.

I am just going to read the new Jack Reacher one, then get back on the the other Jack Daniels ones.

The Jack Daniels ones are great up until the last two, which were alright, but not a patch on the others. Make sure to read his 'Jack Daniels Stories' short stories collection, as that's really good, including a hilarious Harry McGlade one that's one of the funniest short stories I've read.

Currently reading: The Monster Hunters by Larry Correia. It's an omnibus of the first three Monster Hunter International series. It's basically B-movie monsters + gun porn, and it's very entertaining.

I read a short little story about a private detective and her assistant who was a server called Hu. The story is called Annabel Scheme.

It was pretty good, and it's free if you want the .pdf, or you can pay a couple of quid for the Kindle version http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... nkCode=as2

Just finished the latest Jack Reacher book 'Never go back'. It was quite good and on par with is other good Jack books.

Basically Jack is drafted back in the army to answer for a murder 16 years ago....

flow my tears the policeman said - loved it, and it probably ranks now among my favorite pkd books. It kinda reminded me of Ubik sometimes, but his books have always the same themes so that is kinda expected.

Just read "Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store". I forget the author, but you'll hardly struggle to find it with that title. I think it might be cheap on Kindle at the mo. It was when I bought it.

ANYWAY!

It's a cracking read. It's quite similar to Douglas Coupland in style, but without descending into some of the tosh he has written in recent years.

I doubt all the tech he mentions in it is strictly true to life, but it's such a joyous journey that I didn't care a jot. Just a fun, geeky, tech and book and code and cult based thing.

The author is Robin Sloan, the same guy that wrote Annabel Scheme that I posted about yesterday (just up there).

Synchronicity!

Another year, another Nobel prize winner which I have no idea who is. They really have some weird criteria on how to choose the winner.

Barack Obama is quite well known. So is the EU.

Is this the " New generic world peace thread"?

Obama won the Nobel Prize for Literature?

His autobiography was pretty good.

So he did more to earn it than he did for the peace prize?

There's another book in that world, by the way:
http://www.fsgoriginals.com/digital_ori ... umbra-1969

I'm not quite sure how you'd buy it, though.

Assassin's quest: stupid book just brought tears to my eyes on the bus. Naughty book

It's a hardback and you dropped it?

It did not have pictures.

The pages are soaked in lemon juice.

No, he said it was a naughty book, so it had pictures.

In other news, I recently finished Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings. That is a great book if you like fantasy, and blimey is it value for money on the kindle version, it is enormous! It is also really rather good, but it is a wait until April until the next in the series, which is annoying as I want to read it now.

The new one is out soon and I can't remember what happened in this one as I bought it when it first came out.

Any chance of you writing a chapter-by-chapter summary? Say a paragraph per chapter? You'll not get paid or even thanked for doing the massive amounts of labour, by the way, but you can sleep soundly at night knowing that I know what happened in a huge tome of a book.

(Seriously though, does anyone know of websites that do this kind of thing?)

His 'Steelheart' is an excellent standalone book, too.

Ooooh, bought.

Sanderson has rocketed up to being one of my favourite authors this year, everything I've read of his has been worth reading.
I do wish he'd stop starting up new book series though! Good job he is prolific.

Doesn't have it. But I've heard of the term "cliff notes" before but not really understood it. NOW I DO. A quick google for 'Way of Kings cliff notes' (which wikipedia "helpfully" changes to way Of Kings chapter summaries) shows:

http://stormlightarchive.wikia.com/wiki ... _Summaries
http://coppermind.net/wiki/The_Way_of_Kings/Summary

Which is annoying, as I'm sure I've search for "way of kings chapter summary" before and found nothing

You didn't state that in your question

Glad you found the stuff, though.

Finished Hector Berlioz's memoirs. It's completely self-serving, arrogant, wickedly cruel towards his enemies, and very, very fun to read.

In contrast to Kern's highbrow choices, I've just finished the Hunger Games. Teen Fiction rules!

Third book in the Gentleman Bastards/Locke Lamora series done.

I found it disappointing to be honest. Well written, but it doesn't really have much action, Jean is a bit out of focus, being pushed aside for , the B plot is okay but it feels like the author wishing he hadn't In fact those particular characters are probably the most entertaining in the book. it also feels a bit out of place, like the extensive sailing bits in the previous book felt like a piece of another book slotted in.

It's still worth a read, but when you finish a book and think 'well the next book is going to be awesome!' rather than 'I enjoyed that!'...

What am I reading? I know I've just finished the two latest Ben Elton books - both of which wibbled between good and very good. What the fuck am I reading right now? Oh yeah, a little novella about unicorns. It's pretty good so far. Glad I could help.

Just read Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy, really very good. Now reading a novel set lots later, which is even better. He's bloody good, this chap.

I am barely reading anything at all at the moment. Been slogging my way through GoT for what seems like forever. I think I've read for a total of two hours in the last three months.

Nearly finished Mockingjay (Hunger Games 3). 2 books in a week and the quality dips sharply towards to the end.

Should have stopped after the first one. Stupid compelling Peeta.

The Unicorn Inside?

Edit : Wow, there are more unicorn-based erotic novels than I originally envisaged.

Traditionally, unicorns are randy beasts. That's why they're usually pictured chained (eg, on the Royal arms).

That's because they've always got the horn!

Malc

I am currently between books. Might get the new Patrick Ness one, as he's awesome.

But I also have some short stories by Charles Stross based around 'The Laundry'.

New Dresden book soon too!

This is a book I'm reading, which I'm enjoying so much felt compelled to share. READ IT (the book, not my guff below)

The Son by Phillip Meyer

I'm about 80% through it and so far it's a beautifully told account - or accounts - of the US Frontier in the 19th - 20th century. Told from the perspectives of three members of a family, across three generations, it captures the landgrabbing wars between frontiersmen, the destructive search for oil and the horrific tit for tat between the Red Indians and the whites.

It's about being left behind by a changing world and the narration is permeated with ulterior motives for self affirmation and retelling history to vindicate one's actions. As it goes on, you gradually realise that history is destined to repeat itself, whoever's story it is.

Its structure reminds me of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, and is just as readable. Each chapter is written from a different family member's perspective. The sections about life with the Commanches on the prairie are particularly evocative (and brutal and upsetting and thrilling and, frankly, ace. Also reminiscent of Blood Meridian, though not as bewildering).

Many thumbs up. Highly recommended, best book I've read in a long, long time.

Aye, The Alloy of Law is great, probably better than the original trilogy.

Elantris is bloody good too. In fact every single book of his is well worth a read, i've gone through all of them this year.

That's exactly what the unicorn story is.

We have some weird book sync, man.

Including Steelheart? Liked that a lot.

Aye, was very good. I'm getting a little tired of his repetitive inventiveness though, sure he has some really different ideas to add to the genre, and the attention to detail is fantastic, but if you read all his books in quick succession then they all have a very distinct pattern to them.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the pattern and his writing, but what seems like a revelation in the genre the first book you read, is actually just an evolution of the same theme than runs through all his books. The protagonists, the magic system, the heist nature of the plots, it's all just variations on those building blocks.

Despite your criticism of my taste in books the other night.

Sounds ace. Will keep an eye out for it

That's the one you told me to read, though. I'm just going to carry on using psychic power to make sure we're reading the same books.

I love Charlie Stross' books. Except Accelerando. That was shit.

Recently I have read:

Kate Griffin's Matthew Swift series and the Magicals Anonymous spin-offs: Really good, sort of Neverwhere-ish, basically 'Sorcerors, weird tribes, unusual urban magic, crazy beasties in modern day London' (as an aside, why London? Can't someone write British-based urban fantasy set in Leeds, or Birmingham, or Edinburgh?)

First three books of Chris Grabenstein's Ceepak series. I quite enjoyed these. Humourous detective novels in the vein of Jack Daniels, the main conceit is that the hero (the eponymous Ceepak) is a Due-South-Constable-Benton-ish super do-gooder, but the viewpoint character (his partner)who actually narrates is a bit of a loser.

John G Hartness' Black Knight series. Vampire detectives. A reasonably good read... some nice ideas.

Simon Morden's Petrovitch series. Russian scientist dude in post-apocalyptic London. Entertaining post-cyberpunk with a likeable bastard as the main character.

Currently reading the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne (sort of Dresden-lite, but with more mythology) Which is enjoyable.

Dunno what to get next. I'm a bit urban-fantasied out.

I've just read 'the sound of the wind' in about three days and started on the sequel. Reminds me of 'the painted man', but even better. I'm not sure what makes it better but the writing is lovely. Highly recommend for any fantasy fans.

Better than The Painted Man? Cor.