What are you reading at the moment?

[StrangeLife]

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Currently trying to work my way through Jaye Well's Sabina Kane series.

Not sure I'll make it though. The books are excellently written, the story is interesting, the world Wells has built is intricate and vivid and the supporting cast of characters are compelling. So why does it suck? Because of the protagonist. She is supposed to be tough and sassy, but instead she comes across as abrasive, childish and simply plain stupid.

When you spend most of the book wishing for the hero to die, there is something wrong...

:caning:

 

[JKendallDane]

I have always had a thing for Fletcher Knebel novels thanks to reading Seven Days in May not long after it first came out. (I was only 12 or 13, but even then, loved political thrillers)

Recently ran across a couple of his later books that I had never read at a thrift store, and right now am working my way through Crossing in Berlin which he penned only a few years before the wall came down.

 

[squirrelzo]

I'm reading one of the early Patricia Cornwell before she got bad. Well, listening to books on tape. Good mystery!

 

[StrangeLife]

I'm reading one of the early Patricia Cornwell before she got bad...

At what point did that happen and in what way? I have read a few of the Scarpetta books, but I have never really gotten into the series...

 

[PennLady]

Almost finished the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. Ran into a small problem when my Kindle died last week (new Paperwhite is on the way). I have them on the Kindle app on my iPad, but it is currently pressed into service playing music for PennGirl to sleep to while we visit my parents...

 

[squirrelzo]

Her first 5-6 are great. Tight, compelling mysteries with a focus on forensics. Very very good. Im reading All that Remains.
She just lost it at some point. Lost focus on the plot and tension. Less of the forensics and all this weird stuff with her niece took over. She became insufferable!


[=StrangeLife;59115942]At what point did that happen and in what way? I have read a few of the Scarpetta books, but I have never really gotten into the series...[/QUOTE]

 

[StrangeLife]

Almost finished the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. Ran into a small problem when my Kindle died last week (new Paperwhite is on the way). I have them on the Kindle app on my iPad, but it is currently pressed into service playing music for PennGirl to sleep to while we visit my parents...

If you are on book 11 you are almost done with the series - that's fast. Maybe PennGirl is doing you a favor by making it last longer...

I just finished watching episode 6 in the final season of the TV series btw, and it sucked. The first 6 seasons are great - made in the same style as the books - but the writers seem to have lost their focus with season 7.

 

[StrangeLife]

Her first 5-6 are great. Tight, compelling mysteries with a focus on forensics. Very very good. Im reading All that Remains.
She just lost it at some point. Lost focus on the plot and tension. Less of the forensics and all this weird stuff with her niece took over. She became insufferable!

Oh I see.

Yeah, that happens to some writers unfortunately - Laurell K. Hamilton comes to mind as another example. They seem to fall in love with their characters at some point and start wallowing in their lives rather than using them to tell stories. From that point the books begin to suck for everybody but hardcore fans.

Too bad...

 

[One_Eye]

Just finished reading "Tower Lord" by Anthony Ryan. Probably the most disappointed I've ever been after reading a book. Didn't help that Blood Song(book1) was one of the better books I've read in the Sci Fi/Fantasy genre in the last couple of years.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Her first 5-6 are great. Tight, compelling mysteries with a focus on forensics. Very very good. Im reading All that Remains.
She just lost it at some point. Lost focus on the plot and tension. Less of the forensics and all this weird stuff with her niece took over. She became insufferable!


[=StrangeLife;59115942]At what point did that happen and in what way? I have read a few of the Scarpetta books, but I have never really gotten into the series...

[/QUOTE]

The 5th or 6th book is generally where authors fail. Its common.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm reading A QUIET FLAME by Philip Kerr.

After World War 2 Argentina provides sanctuary for many Nazis. Juan Peron recruits the best of them to improve his government. In this case its a former Berlin Police Detective who was famous for capturing sexual serial killers in the 20s and 30s. Much of the book is the detectives recollections of his work before Hitler took over. Peron uses the detective to hunt pedophile killers in Buenos Aires.

 

[allamagione]

Women by Charles Bukowski

Wow, that man drinks a lot.

 

[JagFarlane]

Currently working through the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

 

[StrangeLife]

Currently working through the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

Imho the best current urban fantasy series - which is interesting since the genre is otherwise dominated by female authors.

 

[JagFarlane]

Imho the best current urban fantasy series - which is interesting since the genre is otherwise dominated by female authors.

This is the second urban fantasy series I've read, the first was the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine. Liked the storyline to that series but sometimes the main character could be so shallow and obsessed with appearance that it drove me nuts.

 

[lileth_morgan]

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
Les Mis -Victor Hugo
and heavens net is wide-Gillian Rubinstein

all of which are pretty good

 

[robertreams]

I was lying in the hospital with a broken leg when my wife brought me a copy of "Misery"

 

[Essie1]

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.

It’s a tale of books and technology, cryptography and conspiracy, friendship and love. It begins in a mysterious San Francisco bookstore, but quickly reaches out into the wider world and the shadowed past.

 

[StrangeLife]

For those just starting out exploring the Urban Fantasy genre, here is my - highly subjective (but since I'm always right thats a moot point) - list of essential reading. As a man exploring the world of UF the single biggest danger is stumbling into Paranormal Romance by accident - a closely related genre that will invariably cause your testicles to shrivel and die almost immediately upon exposure. Consider yourself warned.

So here goes...

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Suggested curriculum for Urban Fantasy 101 in order of priority.




Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
15 novels and several short stories.
Protagonist: Harry Dresden, PI and wizard.

First book in series: Storm Front.



Anita Blake vampire hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton
22 novels (sucks from book 10 and onwards, but the earlier books are great).
Protagonist: Anita Blake, PI, zombie raiser, vampire executioner and necromancer.

First Book in Series: Guilty Pleasures



Southern Vampire by Charlaine Harris
13 novels - series finished.
Protagonist: Sookie Stackhouse, telepathic waitress.

First Book in Series: Dead Until Dark



Sandman Slim Series by Richard Kadrey
5 novels
Protagonist: James "Sandman Slim" Stark, video store owner and hitman from hell

First book in series: Sandman Slim



Blood Books by Tanya Huff
5 novels and a short story collection - series finished.
Protagonist: Vicki Nelson, PI and ex police officer with a degenerative eye disease that prevents her from seeing well at night (maybe she ought to team up with a vampire, hint hint nudge nudge ).

First book in series: Blood Price



The Hollow Series by Kim Harrison
12 novels (one more is planned). Has begun to suck a little in the later books, but is still an ok read.
Protagonist: Rachel Mariana Morgan, PI and witch.

First book in series: Dead Witch Walking.



The Nightside series by Simon R. Green
12 novels - series finished.
Protagonist: John Taylor, PI

First book in series: Something from the Nightside.



The Laundry Files by Charles Stross.
7 novels.
Protagonist: Bob Oliver Francis Howard, computer hacker, sorcerer and special agent for a secret British organisation that deals with supernatural disasters. Think HP Lovecraft meets James Bond.

First Book: The Atrocity Archives.



The Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter
7 novels.
Protagonist: Jane Yellowrock, bodyguard, hired assassin and shapeshifter.

First book in series: Skinwalker



The Walker Papers by C.E. Murphy
9 novels.
Protagonist: Siobhan Grainne MacNamarra Walkingstick (no shit!), Police officer, car mechanic (and car-nut) and shaman.

First book in series: Urban Shaman.



The Cassandra Palmer series by Karen Chance
8 novels.
Protagonist: Cassandra Palmer, pythia (an oracle with the ability to time travel).

First book in series: Touch The Dark



The Chess Putnam series by Stacia Kane
6 novels.
Protagonist: Chess Putnam, witch.

First book in series: Unholy Ghosts

 

[sr71plt]

Her first 5-6 are great. Tight, compelling mysteries with a focus on forensics. Very very good. Im reading All that Remains.
She just lost it at some point. Lost focus on the plot and tension. Less of the forensics and all this weird stuff with her niece took over. She became insufferable!


[=StrangeLife;59115942]At what point did that happen and in what way? I have read a few of the Scarpetta books, but I have never really gotten into the series...

[/QUOTE]

Her protagonist in this series got old with me very fast. Morose all the time. Wanted to give her a slap and tell her to lighten up.

 

[squirrelzo]

I agree...I think Scarpetta began to mirror Cornwell. She's a kook in real life. Still I like the early books. I love mysteries based on crime scene forensics.




Her protagonist in this series got old with me very fast. Morose all the time. Wanted to give her a slap and tell her to lighten up.[/QUOTE]

 

[Handley_Page]

The Los Alamos Primer
[it's fascinating]

 

[StrangeLife]

Miracles do happen. I just read a Dan Brown book that was actually good!


Dan Brown is the quintessential formula-writer. His template is pretty simple:


1. Some ominous shit happens.

2. Robert Langdon, middle aged professor in "symbology" (whatever the fuck that is) get's involved. Thanks to the movies I always visualize him as Tom Hanks.

3. Robert get chased by both the bad-guys and the authorities while desperately trying to figure shit out by visiting museums and landmarks with hidden clues. Because we all know that bad-guys love to hide clues to their dastardly deeds in ancient art.

4. At some point he gets a side-kick in the form of a beautiful and intelligent woman ten to fifteen years his junior. He never gets to fuck them though... although didn't he bang the one from the Da Vinci Code? I don't remember. Oh, and he doesn't believe in recycling - Robert gets a new chick in each book.

5. Anyway, eventually "the dong" finds the definitive clue in some painting or statue and the bad-guy is history.


A pretty simple and linear plot really. If you took out all the artsy-fartsy stuff there wouldn't be much left. So imagine my surprise when I picked up Inferno and discovered that it was actually both intelligently written and skilfully plotted out. It even threw me for a few loops, which is unusual for a Dan Brown book.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but if you are looking for something light to read and don't mind hearing a lot about Italian art, this book is a pretty safe choice...


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[PennLady]

Reading "Serpent of Venice" by Christopher Moore on my iPad Kindle app while waiting for my new Kindle. Not bad reading on the iPad, but it does strain my eyes after a bit. I also have "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jones but I'm not too far into it.

SL, I have to disagree on "Inferno." I read it and ... well, I read it. I will say I was a bit surprised by the end, although to some extent I thought the end negated a lot of stuff that happened before. But I may not be thinking about it correctly; his books don't stick in my mind too well.

 

[Belegon]

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson