Which book are you reading currently? #7

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Finished WH40K: The Last Chancers - Gav Thorpe

Much better than Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts stuff; perfectly suitable for anyone looking for pulp milsf.

 

The Manifesto of The Communist Party - Karl Marx

 

Currently jumping between Den Koontz's "Life Expectancy" and "The Husband" and Richard Bachman's "Blaze", damn it's hard when I find so many interesting books in one hit

 

I finished 1634: The Baltic War on Saturday - I found it to be the second best book in the series so far (the best being the first book).

This morning I started on In Fury Born by David Weber. I wanted to start on the next book in the Briar King series but I still have not been able to find it. It is so typical that I go on a business trip and when I return I find that my mother has decided that taking care of my house while I am away involves moving things around so that I can't find them.

 

I just finished Wuthering Heights for a school paper. It was pretty good actually.

 

Just finished reading Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Really good, unique book. Portrays what is probably a more real representation of a post-apocalyptic world than some others like Fallout and Mad Max (but they're still awesome). That versimilitude is what makes it much more thought provoking than those others.

Been working on 1984 since April. Almost done. It's my backup while I wait for stuff to come from the library.

 

Anyone care to point out some good Low Science Fiction / Fantastic novel to me, pretty please?

 

What exactly is "Low" sci-fi or fantasy is always a bit hard to define but I will throw out a few choices that I like with brief descriptions. There is nothing really outside of the mainstream here so you may have read most of them already but I suppose that also means that they should be easy to find.

Science Fiction - if military sci-fi is low enough for you then David Weber's Honor Harrington series is an obvious choice. His other military sci-fi is pretty good too. The main complaint about them is that they tend to focus on spaceship and weapon specifications a little heavily at times.

Elizabth Moon's Serrano series is another good choice for military sci-fi. It is less technical than David Weber's novels.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series is another choice in the same genre but it is somewhat less military oriented and has more espionage.

John Ringo's stuff is very pulpy and usually is a lot of fun - however he does have very strong political views that may annoy the hell out a lot of people. His work is mostly in military sci-fi but his book Princess of Wands is a pretty decent modern day fantasy novel. His Ghost series is not sci-fi or fantasy so you may want to avoid it.

For Fantasy - Jim Butcher's Dresden series is very good. It is about a wizard who offers his services kind of like a PI in modern day Chicago. As the series goes on it moves progressively towards "high" on the fantasy scale.

Laurell Hamilton's first five or six Anita Blake books were excellent but the series has gone completely down the drain. It was a fantasy/horror/mystery series.

Glen Cook's Garrett series is set in a high fantasy world but the stories had a real PI feel to them. Again the series started well but has gone down hill over time.

Terry Brook's original three Word and Void books were actually quite good modern day fantasy. It is just a pity that he is now linking the series in to the Shannara series. It is basically a human vs demons series with the main character trying to prevent an apocalyptic future.

[ October 16, 2007, 19:53: Message edited by: JSBB ]

 

I meant, by Low Science Fiction, That

 

Low SF = hard scifi?

 

Blood Knight was kinda disappointing, so many loose ends :/ I guess they're just paving the way for the next chapter though.

Just started The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, a friend lent it and said it was good.

 

That would certainly be exactly the opposite of the definition that I have always heard associated with low sci-fi or low fantasy. I don't have any hard sci-fi recommendations as I really don't read the stuff.

 

Well, if low SF does equal hard SF, check out Alastair Reynolds. Begin with Revelation Space, follow with Chasm City.

He's overrated, but still rather good.

 

acorna's children-second wave............by anne mccaffrey and elizabeth ann scarborough

 

Any good?

 

No, it isn't.

But then, it's a propaganda pamphlet. Give Das Kapital a whirl instead.

 

I finished In Fury Born yesterday - it was actually pretty good despite some pacing issues.

I have started on At All Costs by David Weber.

 

Finished the third of Glen Cook's Garret books.

JSBB, when does the series start to go downhill, and is it still worth reading when it does?