Which book are you reading currently? #2

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Despite being 450ish pages the poison master turned out to be a fast read, on to Marry Gentle's Chronicles of Carrick 5 - Orthe

 

"The Da Vinci Code" - Dan Brown. Everyone else seems to have read it so I figured I should as well.

 

Read three noir-ish books by Dan Simmons; Hardcase, Hard Freeze, and Hard as Nails. Sheesh. I thought David Drake had some screwed up protagonists, but this Joe Kurtz detective guy is, uh, scary. Stuck a man's hand in a garbage disposal, tortured him for a few minutes, then threw him out the sixth-floor window. And that was just the first chapter.

Currently reading "Jarhead" by Anthony Swofford, a memoir of his time in the Marines and Desert Shield/Storm. One of the most depressing books I've ever read. The mental state of many of the men he describes--and himself--is more than just a tad unhealthy. Think attacking corpses with entrenching tools. For several days. *shudder*

 

Two in the wors rigth now - Robert Ludlum's The Icarus Agenda as a re-read (I love this book - both serious and hilarious at times) and I am also finally reading A Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein...

 

The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb.

Just finished Ship of Magic and it took me awhile to get into it. Currently I'm thoroughly enjoying it but someone should kill of Malta ASAP, never have I encountered such an annoying character which doesn't add anything, in fact hurts the book in my opinion.

 

Apeman - oh yes ... for that book She adds muchly later on.

I have almost finished The Count of Monte Cristo - absolutely brilliant. Well worth the huge amount of text to go through to get to this conclusion - indeed, without that much there it would not be nearly as powerful.

 

Rereading Neuromancer

 

I have not been bringing my computer bag back to the hotel so Crown of Slaves is still unfinished.

Instead, I have reread Once a Hero and Rules of Engagement both by Elizabeth Moon. They are fun and fast reads which suited me just fine for late night/early morning hotel room reading.

Edit: I finished Crown of Slaves - it was decent but not great. Everything seemed to work out a little too neatly and favourably for all of the characters. Also, the opposition was never really developed properly and never really seemed to pose much of a threat.

I have started on Gust Front by John Ringo. Pretty well more of the same in terms of the characters and plot from A Hymn Before Battle although Ringo's writing skills seem to have become slightly more polished between books.

[ March 19, 2005, 03:49: Message edited by: JSBB ]

 

Finished Jarhead, and it stayed depressing throughout.

Also started and finished the Hostile Takeover Trilogy by S. Andrew Swann. Pretty good Scifi stuff.

Now reading Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. Judging by the first 30 pages, it's going to be dense but rewarding.

 

The Remains of the Day by Kauzo Ishiguro... for real this time I'm on page 14 and the 8 book report is due on wednesday. I've gotta stop being such a procrastinator

 

It is a good book! Enjoy it and dont view at as a chore.

Reading the third gunslinger book, they are good but at times King draws things out too much filling page after page with irrelevent blabbering just before big events which forces you to just skim it and jump straight to the action.

 

I just finished Gust Front and that had to have been the single longest battle sequence I have ever read. The battle starts about half way through the book and doesn't stop until about ten pages from the end. Wow, I checked and it is 407 pages long.

Overall I would say that the book was pretty entertaining. It is certainly a fair bit better than the first book in the series (A Hymn Before Battle) . It is certainly not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but if 400 fairly well written pages of humans and aliens trying to wipe each other out sounds good to you then I would say definitely give it a try.

 

I'm currently reading a novelization of Mobile Suit Gundam. Afterwards I may take Lazy Bonzo's cue and re-read Neuromancer (for about the 12th or 13th time).

@joacquin
What's the title of the third Gunslinger book? I've read the first two, and I've seen Song of Susannah and Wolves of the Calla (#6 & #7 IIRC), but I have never seen the books in between...

 

Good book, DMC. Ellis really gets "inside" Washington as a person, stripping away the "marble coating." But please view his take on Jefferson with some skepticism. It really is not very fair. For a much fairer view of Thomas J., take a look at R. B. Bernstein's very good, but very short, take on the "Sage of Monticello."

 

Going back through Victor Hanson's "Carnage and Culture"

 

El-Timtor, the third is called the Wastelands and the fourth is Wizard and glass.

 

@joacquin
Thank you--will now add those to my "Have to read" list.

 

joac, you were right about the remains of the day. It started out kind of slow for me but I found myself feeling kind of sad at the ending

 

I have just started When the Devil Dances by John Ringo. You have to love it when book three starts off with a timeline listing how badly everything has gone since the end of book two.