What we're reading, the SFF edition

Fenika

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What are you reading and would you recommend it to a friend? Is it something you typically read? Any other comments?

I just finished Thief of Time by Pratchett last night. It started out slow and very telly, but picked up and was a great read in the end. I always recommend Pratchett to folks, though I try and pick and chose what themes they might like :D

I may be picking up Jhereg next, if it ever reaches my local library...
 

DragonHeart

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I just finished Sympathy for the Devil by Holly Lisle and I did in fact recommend it to a friend already. It's the sort of humor he likes. :) I don't usually read urban fantasy but lately I've enjoyed several titles in the genre thanks to AW recs. The book was published over ten years ago though so it does feel a little dated in places, but certainly nothing that doesn't translate. Just some terminology differences, nothing major.

Now I'm reading Sleipnir by Linda Evans. Not very far in so I have no comments to make yet. It is urban fantasy though. XD I usually trend more toward epic.
 

eyeblink

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Currently reading Ilfayne's Bane by, er, someone or other...debut novelist from the UK I think. :)

Sitting staring at me in a big pile are the four novels which are shortlisted for the BSFA Award and one of them will be next - haven't decided what yet. They are, in alphabetical order by author:

Ark by Stephen Baxter
Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin
The City & The City by China Miéville
Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

Also a collection, Cyberabad Days by Ian McDonald, which contains a novella that's up for the BSFA. I'm trying to get these read by the voting deadline, which is Easter weekend.
 

Mr Flibble

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Currently reading Ilfayne's Bane by, er, someone or other...debut novelist from the UK I think. :)
Who could that be?

I'm reading a book Waylander lent me: Gordath Wood by Patrice Sarath. It's a portal story, (not exactly my thing), but it's solidly written, some of the characters are very appealing and she gets the horses right :D

Next up is the Curse of Chalion

And I really must get round to typing up the reviews for the half dozen latest books I've read!
 

waylander

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Currently reading 'The Whale Road'. Historical fiction about Vikings searching for the hoard of Attila the Hun.
 
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Etola

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Currently making my way through Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear. It's a bit daunting, considering it's very much entrenched in its time period and opens with several pages listing dozens of relevant characters--quite enough to make my head spin. And it's been slow going since I've been spending most of my reading time on novel research. But I like what I've read so far, which admittedly isn't very much.

I also just finished a YA fantasy called "May Bird and the Ever After," which reminds me of Coraline done with a Harry Potter-esque tone with its quirky, sometimes tongue-in-cheek worldbuilding. Its ability to hold my interest waxed and waned, and I find one of the primary side characters to be annoying to the point of frustrating. But the heroine is engaging enough that I care about her enough to read the remaining books (it's part one of a trilogy).
 

Fenika

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My reading list is getting longer :D

I think I'm going to pick up the Neverending Story, which is sitting around here somewhere, since I have no plans to brave the weather and pick up my library book later this week...
 

Etola

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My reading list is getting longer :D

I think I'm going to pick up the Neverending Story, which is sitting around here somewhere, since I have no plans to brave the weather and pick up my library book later this week...

Ooh, ooh! That is such a good book :) Did you get the proper edition with the green and red ink?
 

Fenika

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I think so... *Hunts down book* Damn, no. I've got caps and italics in there but no colors. There's a few illustrations... It's the mass market paperback...
 

Kaiser-Kun

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I'm juggling Captain's Fury and Bloodrites, from the Codex Alera and The Dresden Files series, respectively. I love how Jim Butcher's capable of start low, then pick up to an enormous climax.
 

Etola

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I think so... *Hunts down book* Damn, no. I've got caps and italics in there but no colors. There's a few illustrations... It's the mass market paperback...

I really recommend getting the colored edition, if you can find it. Especially if this is your first time reading it. Not only because it adds a lot (for reasons which get explained in the story) but because my sister-in-law tried reading the italicized paperback edition and it was a real eyestrain.
 

Fenika

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Please define 'adds a lot' :) (I need something to read tonight! lol)
 

Etola

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Please define 'adds a lot' :) (I need something to read tonight! lol)

It adds another metatextual dimension...The different colored ink separates Bastian's world from the world of the Fantastica narrative, so it's a visual cue. Of course, it doesn't become particularly plot-relevant until near the middle of the book, when the book becomes more and more self-referential and people start referring more to the different colored inks and the two worlds interact more and more. So you could always start on the paperback version tonight and switch to the colored version when you get the chance? (Yes, I spent a chapter of my master's thesis on this novel :p I could go on, but then I would start lapsing into theory-speak...)
 

Fenika

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Neat. And sounds like a plan :D Cheers
 

Kateness

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I'm re-reading Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen; currently on book 4, because I have book 9 sitting beside my bed and I feel like I've forgotten giant great chunks of Important Story Stuff since I read the first 8.
 

J. Koyanagi

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Currently reading The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi and Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions by Fredric Jameson.
 

fadeaccompli

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I'm just about to get started on the latest Connie Willis book, Blackout. I also have Ash (Malinda Lo) sitting at the top of my to-read pile, ready to go. Hard to recommend either without having started them, but everything I've heard about either has been good, so far.
 

defcon6000

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I recently read The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia (Russian author, 3rd publication).

I was excited at first to read this since it's one of the few books that has a robot MC, set in a steampunk fantasy world. Unfortunately the ideas are all that holds it up. The plot splits into two, which creates a a mess when it comes time to wrap it up. But I give the author C+ for effort. :tongue
 

K_Woods

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Currently about 100 pages into The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg, which my local library got in right after I went and ordered it at the FLGS/book/pet supply store -- so I'm getting a head start :D Given the other stuff by her that I've read, I'm surprised at how little the protagonist has been kicked around before the start of the story (or, possibly, how little of that has been revealed). But not in a bad way.
 

Fenika

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Excellent book, but they need to translate the next one stat.
 

Mr Flibble

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Wathership Down by Richard Adams.

Great book!

Actually you've reminded me to buy the book for my son ( lost my copy). I forced him to watch the film - I am NOT watching bunnies he said. By the end he was all choked up saying 'This is so great!'
 

GeorgieB

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You should'a asked me yesterday when I was finishing up the reading of "The Year's Best Science Fiction", Nineteenth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois. Picked up the huge hardback for $.50 (you got that right, 50 cents) at a white elephant sale. Great stories by Kress, Reynolds, Simmons, etc.

Now I've moved on to a book that I paid full price for, "The Merlin Trilogy" by Mary Stewart. I read this series years ago and decided to re-read it. The Arthurian legend has always fascinated me.

So, is "The Merlin Trilogy" SF, F or just plainly good reading?