What books are you reading right now?

Brandon Sanderson's second Mistborn novel on the Kindle, James Patterson' Private: #1 Suspect on audio book. I discovered the OverDrive app driving back to Louisiana over the 4th of July weekend. It let's me check out audio books from the two libraries I'm a member of and runs them perfectly on my phone. With all the driving lately, I'm devouring them like crazy.

 

I liked the Foundation series, as I like most of Asimov's work, though his dialogue and some of his narrative sound very dated (younger characters in the far, far future saying things like "gee whiz," and so on). But his ideas remain fresh, innovative, and gripping. I preferred his Robot novels, featuring R. Daneel Olivaw, to the Foundation novels, but enjoyed them all, nonetheless.

 

I'm about 54 pages into One by David Karp, also published under the title Escape To Nowhere. I call it a 'Big Brother' novel, more educated people use the word dystopian. The copyright is 1953; apparantly during the Cold War citizens-under-strict-government-control novels were quite common.

 

I teethed on Foundation. That was my gateway book into Sci-Fi. (and yes I did read Frederick Pohl's Gateway part of the Heechee saga) I think I've read all of the Foundation stuff over the years, and even tried to return to the original. Sadly I was disappointed by the writing style that I remembered so fondly.

I spend a lot of time reading historical fiction, thriller, action ( thank-you Jack Reacher!) mystery, horror or historical commentary (eg Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin) But I always go back to Sci Fi for comfort reads. That's why I am deep into Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy right now. 1.2 million words of hard SciFi comfort baby!

Never could get into fantasy except a couple of readings of the Lord of the Rings, and an equal number of readings of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Un-Believer by Stephen R Donaldson. There's another series that you guys should check out which i don't know is fantasy or horror, or horror fantasy/thriller: Necroscope by Brian Lumley. A guy who is born with the ability to talk with the dead, and it goes on from this to vampires, parallel worlds, cloak and dagger espionage and fantastical monsters. It's got everything!

 

Fibre Channel over Ethernet by Robert Kembel

Not much of a plot; but it seems I'm expected to know this shit.

 

A period piece called Never Let Me Go, and somebody gave it to me highly recommended. I don't love it seventy pages in, because it just hasn't been able to hook me in, or show any sign of the promised suspense. It's just kind of boring. But I don't know, maybe it gets good soon.

 

One A/K/A Escape To Nowhere contains way too many overlengthy discussions regarding free will and the rights of the individual verses the need for a unified state. I don't mind 'future fiction' (that's my term for fiction that's set in the future but doesn't involve much science) once in a while, but not when the author turns the novel into basically a series of philosophical debates.

 

I'm trying out The Secret Life of William Shakespeare, by Jude Morgan. It's a historical fiction novel. Just getting started.

 

Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. Fun SciFi!

 

Just finished a little triad of short stories Tales From Spiral Castle, by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison. Her Keltiad series is one of my guilty pleasures: the idea (the Celts came from Atlantis and left for outer space when Christianity came to the Celtic lands) is so creative and entertaining, I stay with her stories even when some of them get weird. She was married to Jim Morrison of the Doors (after he was already married to another woman) in a non-legal pagan wedding, and she has major emotional issues with being his "true soulmate" who has been scorned and whatnot by Jim's friends and the rest of society; this occasionally makes its way as a theme of varying subtlety in her work, and when it does, her work suffers. But when she can keep that stuff in check, her work is quite readable and very fine reading. This collection is her best production in years.

 

Still slogging through Patricia Cornwell's Port Motuary....

 

I read only one Patricia Cornwell book, the non-fiction Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed. Her writing didn't inspire me to read any of her novels.

 

I'm sticking with it to find out what happens, but I doubt I'll read her again....

 

The very same. I have to admit, the setting is intriguing. And it's not that I mind reading the book, I just don't have much of a drive to when I have nothing on the agenda. I kinda see what you mean by dystopia, but I think I have to get farther before I can relate. In the meantime, it's good to hear more positive reviews (that's why I'm reading it, after all)!

 

I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas--it's not a recent book... I finished All I Love and Know by Judith Frank. It was touching and very good.

 

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Nice read, so far.

 

1636: Seas of Fortune

It's part of the Ring of Fire series about the town of Grantville Virginia that gets dropped back in time to Germany in the middle of the 30 Years War and all the changes in history that it causes.
Eric Flint wrote the first book but other people have taken over for other places in the world.
This part takes place in the New World and Japan.
Recommended if you like alternate history.