The Sword and Laser discussion

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth. It's like 24, but Jack Bauer is a vampire, the terrorists are seeking to release eldritch abominations, and Chloe is a slimeball politico who's given what's supposed to be a crap job after getting caught in the Lincoln Bedroom with the President's daughter. Not great literature, but fun.

How did you start this thread here? I tried to start one in the general forum and it wasn't an option, so I started an identical thread in Off-Topic...which I'll go try to delete.

Ok I think I deleted the other thread. And this is what I'm reading....
Figured I'd start up the thread for June. I'm currently listening to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and reading Catching Fire on my Kindle. I'm actually a bit annoyed, Catching Fire (the 2nd book in The Hunger Games trilogy) was not released for the Kindle until today, though it was released in hardcover on Sept 1, 2009. If the same thing happens with the 3rd tome in the series, I may have to see if my library has it or actually buy a dead tree version.

I'm also reading Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, though since it's mostly a collection of essays, I find it easier to pick up here and there.

terpkristin wrote: "How did you start this thread here? I tried to start one in the general forum and it wasn't an option,"

Yeah, that confused me too, but it turns out if you don't select a folder, the thread goes into General.

Then after I posted it, I saw you'd started one at the same time.

Most of my reading these days is Audible editions during my commute (roughly 2-3 hours a day depending on LA traffic). Currently, I'm on Jay Lake's Green, and enjoying it, though I don't think Jay did quite as well writing a young girl as John Scalzi did in Zoe's Tale. Nice world-building, though, and an interesting protagonist (at least at the half-way point). Also re-reading a couple of Frank Herbert novels, specifically the Jorg X. McKie books, Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment on my e-reader.

I'm going with a classic I wasn't familiar with before: Stranger in a Strange Land byRobert A. Heinlein I had no idea how popular it was, but since I started it I have heard references all over the place. I heard Molly Wood use "grok" the other day. I love imagining it in terms of the 60s idea of the future.

As soon as I finish a couple of non-SF&F books, The California Roll: A Novel and The Moonlit Earth, I'll be starting A Deepness in the Sky. My current audio book is The Desert Spear. It's the second volume of a series by Peter V. Brett. I loved The Warded Man, so I downloaded the sequel as soon as it was available.

An excellent and thought provoking book I just finished is Freedom by Daniel Suarez, it's not just science fiction, it's future fiction. I'm also enjoying the Quantum Gravity series by Justina Robson, book 1 Keeping It Real was interesting and book 2 Selling Out seems promising so far.

I'm reading:
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
The Solitude of Prime Numbers

I recently finished:
Muse and Reverie
The Swan Thieves
Bitter Seeds

Sean wrote: "Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth. It's like 24, but Jack Bauer is a vampire, the terrorists are seeking to release eldritch abominations, and Chloe is a slimeball politico who's ..."

I heard about this on the SFF Audio podcast, I have it on my to-read list. I look forward to seeing how you liked it.

I'm still working on The Glass Castle via audio, which is great. Also Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America via hardcover, and starting a re-read of The Road via audio with my oldest son on our drive to his baseball games today.

Well, I started Catching Fire yesterday and finished it today. What a crazy book, I really can't wait for the final tome in the trilogy!

This means that for now, I'm still listening to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and reading Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly in dead tree version. Having surgery has been a little bit of a blessing, I've had a lot of time to read...hopefully I'll be finished with these other books by the time I go back to work next week.

terpkristin wrote: "Well, I started Catching Fire yesterday and finished it today. What a crazy book, I really can't wait for the final tome in the trilogy!

This means that for now, I'm still listening..."

I think the final book is called Mockingjay, and I can't wait! I love Bourdain more than words can say. You have good reading taste. :)

I'm making my way through Four Past Midnight, about halfway through it at the moment.

Trying to finish Bitterseeds so I can listen to the new podcast!

terpkristin wrote: "Well, I started Catching Fire yesterday and finished it today. What a crazy book, I really can't wait for the final tome in the trilogy!"

Jenny wrote: "I think the final book is called Mockingjay, and I can't wait!"

Aha! I knew I wasn't the only one in this group who was itching for Mockingjay. Been a while since I was this excited for a book to be released.

Currently though, I'm reading Mass Effect: Revelation. I was surprised at just how good Mass Effect: Ascension was. It wasn't "good for a novel based on a game" good, but "good for a novel of any sort" good, so I decided to pick up Revelation. I also downloaded Death Ray Butterfly simply because I loved the name (and because it was free on Smashwords). I read a little bit here and there. It's weird but fun so far.

I decided to pick up a sword book as well and have started reading Dragonsong.

I just started The Magicians: A Novel last night and stayed up until four before I put it down. I hope it continues being this good.

I feel the same about Galileo's Dream.

I'm somewhere in the middle of Bite Marks at the moment, and I plan to follow that up with Shadow Blade, which was a random pick off the new book shelf at the library.

That should take care of the books that are due back to the library in the immediate future, so then I can get off this mini urban fantasy kick and start on the six book club books I'm reading this month.

Cameron wrote:
"Aha! I knew I wasn't the only one in this group who was itching for Mockingjay. Been a while since I was this excited for a book to be released."

Oh, you are not alone. I waited for Catching Fire to come out on the Kindle. But I might have to get the hardcover of Mockingjay, so I don't have to wait.

Aeryn98 wrote: "Cameron wrote:
"Aha! I knew I wasn't the only one in this group who was itching for Mockingjay. Been a while since I was this excited for a book to be released."

Oh, you are not alone. I waited f..."

I CANNOT WAIT FOR MOCKINGJAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Though I did not get them on kindle, good ol' dead tree for me. :)

Everything I have started lately I have stalled out on, so I went back to something I stalled on a year ago to give it another shot. Picked back up on the Wheel of Time series at book 8, The Path of Daggers and am liking it more than the last time I started it.

I finished reading both The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly today (I tell you, the one advantage of having surgery is all the time I have to catch up on my reading!), so now I'm moving onto a book that's been in my Audible queue for awhile, Ringworld. Given that I generally prefer swords to lasers, I don't know what to expect with this one, but I'm looking forward to reading what I've been told is one of the "must read" classic sci-fi novels.

I started listening to The Graveyard Book. I've read a bit more of Bitterseeds but I'm going out of town and I'm not bringing my kindle... :(

I'm just finishing up The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and just started The Blade Itself.

Reading Dragonheart from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series written by her son Todd McCaffrey.
Looking for advice on which of the series to read next. I started with this one and unsure if i should go forward or read the previous or go all the way back to the beginning.

Just started Coming of Wisdom (Dave Duncan), book 2 of his Seventh Swordsmen collection. So far, so good.

I'm currently listening to the audiobook version of Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" read by Paul Giamatti, and reading William Gibson's "Burning Chrome" short story collection.

Matt wrote: "I'm currently listening to the audiobook version of Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" read by Paul Giamatti, and reading William Gibson's "Burning Chrome" short story collection."

I listened to Giamatti's reading of A Scanner Darkly and I liked it, I'm curious to see what you think of it. I'd like to see the movie with Robert Downey Jr.

@Philip - I'm halfway through and I'm loving it. Paul Giamatti is my favorite actor, and Philip K. Dick is my favorite science-fiction writer, so its a pretty obvious win for me.

I still have to finish Bitter Seeds :( I'm also reading Stephen King's The Colorado Kid in preparation the new Syfy show based on it called Haven.

Just finished Into the Storm: Destroyermen, Book I, about a WWII warship that goes through a negative space wedgie to an alternate world, where the crew is caught in a war between evil dinosaur men and good cat-monkeys.

I am rereading The Darkness That Comes Before.

I am reading (almost finished) Incarceron by Catherine Fisher.
Awesome book! Cannot put it down!

Books on tap:

The Road (Cormac MaMcCarthy)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larson)
The Dreaming Void (Peter F. Hamilton)
The Temporal Void (Peter F. Hamilton)
The Second World War: The Grand Alliance (Winston Churchill)

I may not get through all of them, but I'm going to try (and with the summer television break, it should be pretty easy.)

I know the book is old news but I just started listening to "The Time Traveler's Wife."

I am reading "Called out of Darkness" by Anne Rice, and when that is done, "Empire of Ivory" by Naomi Novik (Temeraire #4) is next on the list.

Reading The Stand (yes, for the first time). Also reading Stephen King's book on writing as well as several other writing books, as I'm wanting to pursue writing as a career.

After a reread of the Name of the Wind (my 4th read, I think), I started Perdido Street Station, which I admit to not being keen about so far. About 30% through and finding it a bit of a slog. The new Jacqueline Carey book, Nahmaah's Curse comes out Monday, so I'll be picking that up ASAP. After that, thinking I'll start World War Z.

I had also intended to pick up The Passage by Justin Cronin this week after hearing for months on Books on the Nightstand about how good it is, but upon seeing that the Kindle edition is $2 MORE than the hardcover, I'll be waiting for the price to come down.

I recently started listening to Isaac Asimov's Foundation since I found the Audible.com version is narrated by Scott Brick. I read the trilogy about 8 years ago, but it's nice to revisit it.

I'm also re-listening to Orson Scott Card's Folk of the Fringe.

I'm trying to get into Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker, but after 5 chapters it is still not capturing me... It might be that I cannot stand the narrator.

Lastly, I just sent the sample of Bitter Seeds to the Kindle app on my iPhone and will probably get started with that soon. It sounds very promising. Wasn't expecting it to be read by S&L so quickly.

Nathan, Warbreaker was the first audio book I ever listened to. I really enjoyed the story but hated the narration. I especially hated the stoned-surfer-dude voice he gave Lightsong. I could tell from the words that I wouldn't have heard him that way in my head if I had read it. It took me a long time to listen past the narrator and only hear the words. Maybe you should try it in print or e-book format. I wish I had.

Warbreaker dramatized on http://graphicaudio.net is pretty good.

Yeah, I may try continuing Warbreaker with the ebook... Thanks for the recommendation!

Between Windup Girl and Bitter Seeds, I read Makers by Cory Doctorow. It grabbed my attention early and never let go.

I'm currently reading Windup Girl and the fourth book in the Greywalker series by Kat Richardson. The name of the book escapes me though.

Finally found a copy of Running with the Demon so I'm reading that. I've read all of the Shannara books but never these ones.

I just finished listening to The Bradbury Report by Stephen Polansky. It's set in the near future when the U.S. Government has turned to cloning as the answer to catastrophic health care needs. Medical care has changed to the point that if you have not had a 'copy' made and a kidney fails, you can get dialysis for 3-4 days & that's it. The big question becomes, how are these 'copies' maintained while their originals lead their happy, healthy lives. A group of clone abolitionists obtain a clone and proceed to break the government's #1 rule: introducing an original to his/her clone. I have just told you little more than the dust jacket told me when I ran into this book in Borders. Whether you choose to read or listen to The Bradbury Report, give it time. It unfolds slowly and turns out to be something far more poignant than I ever expected. This is more fiction set in the near future than SF, but haunts days after completing it.

I also just downloaded The Passage from Audible and am about to start it. Interestingly, Audible had it on special for one member credit. The purchase price is going to be $62 when the sale ends. Yowza!!

Kyanni wrote: "Between Windup Girl and Bitter Seeds, I read Makers by Cory Doctorow. It grabbed my attention early and never let go."

LOVED Windup Girl. Now reading Bitter Seeds on my iPad. My first attempt at a book on an e-reader.

Amy wrote: "The new Jacqueline Carey book, Nahmaah's Curse comes out Monday, so I'll be picking that up ASAP ..."

Oh man, I had no idea this was coming out soon. Thank you so much for mentioning it! I can't wait to get my hands on that book.

Obxboy wrote: "Kyanni wrote: "Between Windup Girl and Bitter Seeds, I read Makers by Cory Doctorow. It grabbed my attention early and never let go."

LOVED Windup Girl. Now reading Bitter Seeds on my iPad. My fir..."

I know this is way off topic but do you have any problems with reading on the iPad?

Kyanni wrote: "Obxboy wrote: "Kyanni wrote: "Between Windup Girl and Bitter Seeds, I read Makers by Cory Doctorow. It grabbed my attention early and never let go."

LOVED Windup Girl. Now reading Bitter Seeds on ..."

No problem so far. I've seen the occasional complex word truncated differently in different paragraphs, but nothing that has interfered with my enjoyment of Bitter Seeds, which is, again, my first try at an e-book. What problems are you experiencing?