What fantasy/science fiction book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:26 pm

It's funny. Based on posts here, I've never known anyone whose world view came so very close to mine the way Av's does. I've read posts of his that I assumed I had written, then noticed it was one of his. And yet, I've come to largely ignore his book advice. Canticles... Illuminati... something else I can't remember off hand. Go figure.

Orlion wrote:
aliantha wrote:Sounds like the stage is set for a Watch Steel-Cage Death Match over Gormenghast.
It's more than that! We're fighting over Fist's soul! (such as it is).

Post by **Vraith** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:04 pm

Fist and Faith wrote: Canticles... Illuminati... something else I can't remember off hand.

Wait...is that "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and The Illuminatus! Trilogy?"

What IS wrong with your soul???

I probably will go along with O and do Gor., put off Malazan till spring/summer. I read the first chapter of Titus and it feels more like my winter mood.

Post by **Linna Heartbooger** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:06 pm

I agree with A.A. Milne.
(the un-misquoted version.)
There are so many great quotes I don't know exist.
Thank you.

Currently reading "The Sundering Flood," thanks to someone who posted a link to a "10 most (something) fantasy stories of all time" webpage...
..in a thread somewhere around here, I think.
...well, and thanks to whoever went to the effort of writing that article that was linked to.

Post by **Orlion** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:20 pm

Linah Heartlistener wrote:I agree with A.A. Milne.
(the un-misquoted version.)

No worries, I agree strongly with the correct quote as well

It's gotten to the point where there is a small list of books that I try not to mention, for if my friends were to read and not like them, we could not be friends anymore

V wrote:I probably will go along with O and do Gor., put off Malazan till spring/summer. I read the first chapter of Titus and it feels more like my winter mood.

It is a good winter mood book! The first time I read it, I was in Utah for my brother's wedding...

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:04 am

Vraith wrote:
Fist and Faith wrote: Canticles... Illuminati... something else I can't remember off hand.
Wait...is that "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and The Illuminatus! Trilogy?"

What IS wrong with your soul???

Yup. That's the very crap I'm talking about. I quit Leibowitz part way into the second part of the book. One or two hundred pages of profoundly ignorant people looking at books and electrical diagrams, not knowing what any of it is, much less what it says. It's exactly like the seagull in The Little Mermaid. Except the seagull is supposed to be a joke. Enough of my life wasted.

Probably nothing wrong with Illuminatus. Just not my kind of thing. I have fun joking around with a guy at work about Whitney Houston having been killed by the Illuminati, but that's as much involvement with that whole thing as I care for.

And if there's any fantasy or scifi fun about either of them, I didn't see it.

Post by **Sorus** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:20 am

Frostheart Grueburn wrote:
I may have gyrated too much in the Malazan vortex of intrigue and massive battles lately, but craving either for something grittier or just plain silly (akin to Discworld in space; yes I've read Douglas Adams...).

The first thing that came to mind was Grant Naylor's Red Dwarf novelizations (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and such) - they seem to be out of print, but that's not much of an obstacle in this day and age.

Edit: That may have been a lie. The only version on Kindle is in German. I downloaded a sample to see if I could muddle through it, and nope. I used to be able to muddle through Star Trek in German, perhaps it's time for a marathon...

Edit2: Amazon believes that Diana Gabaldon is a good recommendation for people who read Red Dwarf in German. The robots will not be taking over today.

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 5:43 am

Vraith wrote: I read the first chapter of Titus and it feels more like my winter mood.

If you survive, come back and tell us about it.

--A

Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:10 am

Orlion wrote:
Rawedge Rim wrote:
Wildling wrote:Finished Reckoners 2 and have started The Way of Kings: Book One of The Stormlight Archive.

Man, am I ever having a hard time getting into this one. It's jumping all over the place and I'm having a hard time giving a damn about finding out WTF is going on.
So far the Way of Kings has been an outstanding set
I liked The Way of Kings, but I imagine Wildling is listening to the audio... which I imagine would be confusing!

Err confusing how?

I have the Stormlight Archive ONLY on audio; one of my favorite readers dramatizes the story.

Post by **Orlion** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:14 pm

Frostheart Grueburn wrote:
Orlion wrote:
Rawedge Rim wrote: So far the Way of Kings has been an outstanding set
I liked The Way of Kings, but I imagine Wildling is listening to the audio... which I imagine would be confusing!
Err confusing how? I have the Stormlight Archive ONLY on audio; one of my favorite readers dramatizes the story.

I only imagine it would be so, what with the bunching around, quotes at the beginning of the chapter, interludes, etc. But I also have only listened to one audiobook in my life time, so I probably just suck at listening to audiobooks

Post by **aliantha** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 5:11 pm

It helps with Illuminatus if you remember the '60s. And it's better if you lived through the '60s but *don't* remember them.

Sorus wrote:Edit2: Amazon believes that Diana Gabaldon is a good recommendation for people who read Red Dwarf in German. The robots will not be taking over today.

Post by **Orlion** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:54 am

aliantha wrote:It helps with Illuminatus if you remember the '60s. And it's better if you lived through the '60s but *don't* remember them.

I think it also helps if you are welling to wade through hundreds of pages of nonsense... I mean, talk about padding!

I still need to finish the third book. I set it aside to focus on The One True Author and have not really returned to it since.

Sorus wrote:Edit2: Amazon believes that Diana Gabaldon is a good recommendation for people who read Red Dwarf in German. The robots will not be taking over today.

I think Amazon is trying to push product based on potential new popular shows... it also shows that there may be no robots involved in the recommendation process at all!

Post by **Linna Heartbooger** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:36 am

Orlion wrote:No worries, I agree strongly with the correct quote as well

It's gotten to the point where there is a small list of books that I try not to mention, for if my friends were to read and not like them, we could not be friends anymore

Uhh, well, I was more assuming that he was using hyperbole..
I'm not that extreme.

Though there is this one work of fiction I love for which I seem to get the response of, "I didn't get it." from people.
I am always at a loss for how or where I would begin to explain it. (I basically don't try.)
But I inevitably feel distanced from the person who confessed to not understanding it.

vraith wrote:I read the first chapter of Titus and it feels more like my winter mood.

I don't see the connection to winter... Is the link the discussion of Cretans? Makes you think of the culture adjustment one makes for a vacation to Crete? And people go to Crete in the winter because the Mediterranean is warm?

Or is it a sort of wintry despair that sets in because of the dark deeds of the aforementioned false teachers?

Post by **Avatar** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:51 am

Which one?

Oh, I'm reading Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch.

--A

Post by **Linna Heartbooger** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:23 am

You mean the work of fiction people keep telling me they don't understand?

Post by **Vraith** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:02 pm

Linah Heartlistener wrote: Or is it a sort of wintry despair

More of that, kinda. The opening of the thing [which is all I've read now] gives both a feeling of endless size and endurance combined to create total confinement/imprisonment/permanent claustrophobication.
That's winter for me.

On a side note/oddness [this happens to me with books sometimes...and I don't like it, really].
I am POSITIVE I read at least the first one, and I think the first 2, before.
I am SURE I had thoughts about it, liking it---I specifically recall thinking something like "This is kinda what "Edwin Drood" would feel like if Dickens knew how to write."
But so far, I don't remember a single word/incident/scene reading now having been read before. Complete blank/unfamiliarity.

Post by **Orlion** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:28 pm

Vraith wrote:
Linah Heartlistener wrote: Or is it a sort of wintry despair
More of that, kinda. The opening of the thing [which is all I've read now] gives both a feeling of endless size and endurance combined to create total confinement/imprisonment/permanent claustrophobication.
That's winter for me.

On a side note/oddness [this happens to me with books sometimes...and I don't like it, really].
I am POSITIVE I read at least the first one, and I think the first 2, before.
I am SURE I had thoughts about it, liking it---I specifically recall thinking something like "This is kinda what "Edwin Drood" would feel like if Dickens knew how to write."
But so far, I don't remember a single word/incident/scene reading now having been read before. Complete blank/unfamiliarity.

The Dickens comparison is often made, Peake also influenced other writers in at least some of their books... such as the one I am currently reading: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville!

It also "unconsciously" influenced Donaldson's Mordant's Need... but I do not think your deja vu is related to that.

Post by **SoulBiter** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:41 pm

Rawedge Rim wrote:
So far the Way of Kings has been an outstanding set

I ordered this for my kindle today.. I have two sets of books ahead of it to read so it might be a bit before I get to it.

Post by **aliantha** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:19 pm

Vraith wrote:I specifically recall thinking something like "This is kinda what "Edwin Drood" would feel like if Dickens knew how to write."

That's priceless.

Post by **Avatar** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 4:40 am

Linah Heartlistener wrote:You mean the work of fiction people keep telling me they don't understand?

Yes.

Oh, I'm now reading Oryx & Crake by Margaret Ashwood.

--A

Post by **Linna Heartbooger** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 5:02 am

linna wrote:Or is it a sort of wintry despair that sets in because of the dark deeds of the aforementioned false teachers?

Vraith wrote:More of that, [well, just "a sort of wintry despair, " actually. -Ed] kinda. The opening of the thing [which is all I've read now] gives both a feeling of endless size and endurance combined to create total confinement/imprisonment/permanent claustrophobication.
That's winter for me.

On a side note/oddness [this happens to me with books sometimes...and I don't like it, really].
I am POSITIVE I read at least the first one, and I think the first 2, before.
I am SURE I had thoughts about it, liking it---I specifically recall thinking something like "This is kinda what "Edwin Drood" would feel like if Dickens knew how to write."
But so far, I don't remember a single word/incident/scene reading now having been read before. Complete blank/unfamiliarity.

wacky.

Also, I've pinpointed the source of my earlier apparent confusion.
I was thinking of a diff. "Titus, Chapter 1."
You guys are still talking about some fantasy book on this thread or something, aren't you?

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

What fantasy/science fiction book are you reading RIGHT NOW?