Be Excellent To Each Other

Oh shit. I'm pretty much up to date on Sanderson Cosmere novels... but that means I need something to read.

Finished the Jack Daniels novels.. I need something else to read.

Try the Jim Beam ones.

Will do.

Ready Player One is an ace little book about a huge challenge held in an advanced MMO world, and is more than recommended.

Bought and downloaded (it's things like this level of convenience the internet was invented for IMO! )

Ta.

That's the one Wil Wheaton was banging on about, isn't it?

No idea, I don't follow Wheaton. He is mentioned briefly in the book, though.

He reads the audiobook - it is really good and although has been optioned for a film I dont think it would work because of the amount of other films / games / etc that would need to be licensed.

The author (Ernest Cline) drives around in a Delorian and was in New Mexico at the weekend for the unearthing of the atari landfill site http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/u ... lorean.jpg

That numberplate, coupled with some stuff from the book, suggests that Cline may not be an entirely happy person.

His blog : http://www.ernestcline.com/blog/

If you read down he explains that he actually at the moment has 2 delorians (and he's just reclaimed the one in the pictures which was on loan to George R R Martin) , the blog info in itself does seem to be upbeat , but that does not mean that he's actually happy or not.

This is a bit good isn't it.

I read the whole thing in two days.

I scoffed at a couple of bits, but overall I liked it a lot.

I have nothing to do at work this afternoon and kindle cloud reader open in a browser. I wonder what i'll be doing for the rest of the day...

Masturbating?

Is the book that good?

Updating your sewing blog?

I am going to read the Drenai Series by David Gemmel, I really like the first book Legend.

Most of Gemmel's work is amazing. Wish I was in your situation and able to read them all again for the 1st time. Enjoy

Nobody does tragic hero quite as well as Gemmell.

This will be my 2nd or so read through...

Ahh fair play

Yup just finished it myself, a few parts were meh but overall a most excellent read.

Now back to Midnight Tides, was nice to have a small interlude in the Malazan series

Hmmm.... I did like it, but only because of the geekness. It was a reasonable story, but nothing that hasn't been done a million times before, and his writing ability is mediocre at best.

just finished words of radiance. Liked it, but not the best. Thought the end was a bit lame, and there was nothing really exciting in it, unlike the first. Still better than a load of books, mind.

Now I just need to decide whether to go straight back into Malazan, or extend this break. I was getting a bit tired of them having read 5 on the trot, is the 6 good?

Yeah. A step up from 5.

There's a new Dresden files book out today.

Also, a new Nick Harkaway book came out a couple of days ago, called 'Tigerman'.

Both should be good.

I'm currently re-reading all the Flashman books at the moment...I'd forgotten just what a complete bastard he is in them, a funny, misogynist, racist, Hero of the Empire, drunken, lecherous bastard.

Think Sharpe but a version of Sharpe who will only act in a noble or heroic manner when all other opportunities to run away, surrender or throw someone in front of a cavalry charge have failed. Unlike Sharpe though, he never gets demoted only endlessly promoted (in various armies) and lauded further as the series goes on.

Excellent stuff and well researched by Fraser.

I read the first one and it left me somewhat cold. I was expecting it to be laugh out loud funny.

That's because you're a broken, soulless, shell of a man.

I like the way Flashman's utter caddishness is often tempered with a level of humanity for the poor sods at the messy end that is missing from some of the more conventional Victorian heroes he comes across, and the fact that for all his devious shagging around and misogyny, his relationship with his wife is quite complex and touching in places.

Also, he has a tremendous 'tache.

Ever happy to be found wanting, I have ordered book 2 to be sent to my Kindle.

I'm currently reading Watchmen again, for about the hundredth time. It's still amazing.

Latest humble books bundle

https://www.humblebundle.com/books

Pay 60p for

Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker
Ed Piskor

March: Book One
Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

The Sword & Sorcery Anthology
Various, George R

Pay more than the average (currently around £5.80) to add

From Hell
Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell

Wizard's First Rule
Terry Goodkind

The Alchemist
Paolo Bacigalupi

The Executioness
Tobias S. Buckell

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Jam
Yahtzee Croshaw

Lovecraft's Monsters: Anthology
Various, Neil Gaiman. Ellen Datlow, Editor

They have also said they will add more to the list next week (for Beat the average)

Wizards 's First Rule was alright, I read a few of that series.

Did anyone try the TV series based on it? That was absolutely terrible

The guy was a bit worryingly rape obsessed for my liking (books).

finished the brilliant Thinking fast and slow, by daniel kahneman, on how your brain fools you , and your intuition helps you and not helps you
http://www.bol.com/nl/p/thinking-fast-a ... 001150837/

Indeed. But, If you want true misogyny, then David Eddings is hard to top!

The Alchemist and The Excecutioness are short stories or novellas, I forget which. They are both, however, set in the same world, despite being written by different people. They are also both very good, I seem to recall.

Not a Book, just a (very) short story with some intresting science bits thrown in for fun...

http://ph.qmul.ac.uk/ancient-worlds-aro ... teyns-star

Wizard's First Rule was enjoyable, even though it was almost the exact story line of Star Wars but in ye olde times.

Because I'd started the series, I then felt compelled to finish it. Which is a shame, as after book 4 (of about 15 or something) they turned into some of the worst books I've ever read. The first half of each sequel was just a complete re-telling of the last few books, and then second half was a completely absurd plot that usually revolved around the magic-touch-lady being captured and the handsome hero going on a rampage to get her back, leaving entire villages dead simply because they got in the way.

I think the third or fourth book where the EVIL EMPIRE was introduced. Y'know, the one that was a poorly disguised attack on communism (or whatever) that made no sense in the way it was organised, communism or not. (My favourite was: A city was doing just fine, then it gets taken over by evil communism, then suddenly the bread makers run out of bread, because there's no longer free market enterprise to keep the bread shops open or something). The emperor of this continent spanning empire had a personal grudge against the hero of the books, because he would continually foil his plans at the last minute, usually involved massive dues ex machinas.

Oh, and then there's a book in which he gets captured as some kind of slave by the evil communist state, and is possibly the toy boy of the evil emperor (can't remember), and he secretly makes a statue in expensive marble, unveils at a KEY MOMENT and causes every single person in a billion foot radius to fall over in show and start crying about how beautiful is, which reconnects all the slaves with their lost emotions, which then results in a slave rebellion. A rebellion, simply because he built a statue? Worst of all, I think the statue was of himself?

I read China Mieville's "The City & The City" to try some contemporary science fiction. Well, it wasn't very good, so i guess i'll stick with the classics from now on. The premise was good but the plot was a boring crime story.

Because of that i had to read some Philip K. Dick to make up for it. "Martian Time-Slip" is quite good. Not among PKD's best works, but as the elders used to say "Average dick is better than no dick".

Now i'm reading José Saramago's "The Cave". I'm still not sure about it. He writes wonderfully well, but the story isn't gripping me. Too much details about pottery for my liking. I hate pottery as i had bad experiences in school. Anal Cunt was right about it. Well, it's not very long so i'll probably finish it tomorrow or something.

"The City and The City" by China Mieville is:

1) Comfortably his least good book for adults
2) Not really science fiction

If you want a good book by him, try:

"Embassytown" - highly confusing for the first third, but more conventionally SF, and an amazing story about language and exploration

"Perdido Street Station" - bordering fantasy and SF, it's the definitive steampunk novel and is absolutely brilliant.

Alternative high quality modern SF is also available from the likes of Nick Harkaway, Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jeff Somers, Patrick Ness, James Smythe etc etc etc

Yes, i should have added that it wasn't really science fiction. But that wasn't really the reason why i didn't liked it.

I think it was Jorge Luis Borges that said he only reads books with at least 50 years because time had done its work of separating the wheat from the chaff. After "the city and the city" i thought about following that philosophy, but i will take your recommendations into account.

Perdido is excellent.

I really enjoyed The City and The City. It was pretty slow to get going but the entire central concept of the intertwined cities fascinated me and kept me interested.

For me it was the opposite. It was indeed a great premise, and that's why i liked the beginning. In the end i didn't cared for the characters or the plot. There's not one poignant or unforgettable moment like O'Brian's speech in 1984, for example. And this book was ripe for that.

The book had so much wasted potential that i even wrote a micro review on Goodreads, for the first time:

"This was my first China Miéville book and judging by all the praise the book got, I came away slightly disappointed.

The premise is absolutely brilliant. A divided city not much unlike cold war Berlin, but instead of a physical wall, it's divided by a metaphorical one, with citizens on both sides having been conditioned to "unsee" and "unhear" everything that is happening on the other side.

The problem is that while the setting could have been used for a very thought provoking story, its spoiled by a run of the mill crime-fiction/neo-noir thriller. "

Yeah, I largely agree with that review.

New Dresden was very enjoyable. Now reading: #2 in Paul Cornell's Urban Fantasy series.

Flashman book two is pretty good.

His version of Bismark is great and Rudi is one of a long line of dashing villains who are braver and cleverer than Harry (although he always manages to out do them in the end).

It's rollicking stuff all round.