Those influences are too high brow and literary. Add some Brandon Sanderson to the pile.
And Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.
What are you reading? (August 2015)
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Those influences are too high brow and literary. Add some Brandon Sanderson to the pile.
I was surprised to find I've read 17 hugo winners, and am currently listening to the 18th (I had no idea Potter and Norrell had won hugos). I own at least 10 of the other winners, I really should get round to them.
Are we still doing that read of Pale Fire? Actually I also have the People in the Trees which I haven't read yet... anyway, I was thinking of starting Pale Fire some time next week.
Are we still doing that read of Pale Fire? Actually I also have the People in the Trees which I haven't read yet... anyway, I was thinking of starting Pale Fire some time next week.
D
Deleted member 125677
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Sure! I'll get going as soon as it hits the mail box
While we're on it, I've read the following Hugo winners:
- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
- Redshirts by John Scalzi
- Among Others by Jo Walton
- The City & The City by China Mieville
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge
- Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarkes (Did not finish)
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
- The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
- Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (Did not finish)
D
Deleted member 125677
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I've read the following Hugo winners:
- Kurt Vonnegut
Excellent
Mine are mostly
The Demolished Man
Stranger in a Strange Land
Dune
The Left Hand of Darkness
Rendezvous with Rama
The Dispossessed
The Forever War
Downbelow Station
Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Hyperion
The Vor Game
Barrayer
A Fire Upon the Deep (listening to atm)
The Doomsday Book
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Windup Girl
Woah @ Cyan's list
Here are the 11 Hugo Winners I have read:
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1961)
Dune (1966)
The Left Hand of Darkness (1970)
Ender's Game (1986)
Hyperion (1990)
The Vor Game (1991)
Forever Peace (1998)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2001)
American Gods (2002)
The Graveyard Book (2009)
Redshirts (2013)
If you want to count retro Hugos, I have read Fahrenheit 451 as well.
I'm sorry. I fell asleep. Several times.
Luckily Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown is the same book with all the boring removed.
It's a slow burn. I started it two or three times and gave up each time before finally powering through on the audiobook. The way I always put it is that it starts out like "this is pretty dull," moves on to "actually this is kind of fun," then "wait this is getting really good," and finally "I NEVER WANT THIS TO END."
I hope someday you will join us in the sun.
Yes yes, you and your previews.
You Know Nothing
Member
Bruh.
I found it slow at the beginning but after the gentleman with the thistledown hair makes his first appearance I couldn't put it down.
But I do have Sorcerer to the Crown on my list.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Sonnet 116 is the best.
Hey, it could be worse. Look at that recent "books you started by never finished" thread.
I never finished Les Miserables. I could only get to page 561 of 754.
No it's marketing and artistry in action.
I've been really getting into cover design lately, and I find it really hard to look at this beautiful design for something and then find out the book is terrible, or something I don't even want to read. That or I go to buy a book I do want and the cover is awful. Needless to say, I think I've become enamored with something completely pointless that's only going to cause me problems.
sparky2112
Member
I can't stop staring at Pessl's author photo long enough to read the book...as far as hot authors go, she wins it walking away.
GAF being newly blocked at work sucks for keeping up with this thread. <_<
I finished it a few days ago. Absolutely beautiful, especially Book III. I'm reading Shakespeare's Sonnets, so Octavian's extended commentary on poets and poetry rang especially true:
So good. If anyone is a regular poster in this thread and isn't reading this, they're missing out.
<3
How far into Kokoro are you now? And what do you think?
Right? Just sad. Poor aidan. JS&MN is astonishingly good stuff.
I think my favorite is Sonnet 30, though 29 also made quite an impression!
I finished it a few days ago. Absolutely beautiful, especially Book III. I'm reading Shakespeare's Sonnets, so Octavian's extended commentary on poets and poetry rang especially true:
The poet contemplates the chaos of experience, the confusion of accident, and the incomprehensible realms of possibility which is to say the world in which we all so intimately live that few of us take the trouble to examine it. The fruits of that contemplation are the discovery, or the invention, of some small principle of harmony and order that may be isolated from that disorder which obscures it, and the subjection of that discovery to those poetic laws which at last make it possible. No general ever more carefully exercises his troops in their intricate formations than does the poet dispose his words to the rigorous necessity of meter; no consul more shrewdly aligns this faction against that in order to achieve his end than the poet who balances one line with another in order to display his truth; and no emperor ever so carefully organizes the disparate parts of the world that he rules so that they will constitute a whole than does the poet dispose the details of his poem so that another world, perhaps more real than the one that we so precariously inhabit, will spin in the universe of mens minds.
So good. If anyone is a regular poster in this thread and isn't reading this, they're missing out.
<3
I finished Falling Free, Mumei. I liked it enough to keep reading more MilesVor (despite not featuring MilesVor) but right now it's time to go back to Meiji-era Nippon.
How far into Kokoro are you now? And what do you think?
Right? Just sad. Poor aidan. JS&MN is astonishingly good stuff.
I think my favorite is Sonnet 30, though 29 also made quite an impression!
Right? Just sad. Poor aidan. JS&MN is astonishingly good stuff.
I'm not so tacky as to point out that I have as many Hugo Awards as Clarke. OR AM I? WHO'S THE FRAUD NOW, MR. MUMEI?
On another note, Barrayar is teeeeeeeeeeerrrrific. Bujold's writing is a lot tighter, and you can tell she's a lot more comfortable in the universe than she was when she wrote The Warrior's Apprentice and Shards of Honor. In fact, it's making me retroactive appreciate The Warrior's Apprentice after not enjoying it all that much.
Also, is Bothari the most tragic character in SF? Holy crap. His arc through the three novels is heartbreaking.
TheKaeptain
Banned
I'm at 3. Going to read more from the list before the year is over.
Finally someone understands.
I wrote a paper on Sonnet 30 my first year of college for a history of lit class. It was fun.
Yes, she is quite attractive.
She's almost what I would considered my perfect woman.
Clarke wouldn't fall asleep during your stories
About 7%. I like it so far. Nothing more to say on it for the time being.
I've got 17. Gave up on Leibowitz and The Dispossessed, never made it as far as the Foundation novel that won.
Top 5 in no particular order:
Neuromancer
Dune
The Forever War
Hyperion
The Yiddish Policemen's Union(do we even want to count this? Maybe take The Man in The High Castle instead)
Wolfe, Vonnegut, Bradbury, Douglas Adams, European authors, where's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep anyway? But I forget myself, this is the same award that one erotic short story received, with the tentacle alien.
Kafka on the Shore was a great place for me to start. I looked into his book though because I wanted to read some magical realism. Another of his books, which I've yet to read, Norwegian Wood, is very well-regarded, but is missing elements of magical realism.
Speaking of Murakami and starts, I read both books included in Wind/Pinball and I do not believe that I could take any particular event and tell you which of the two it came from, with the exception of anything having to do with pinball. Very, very similar books with the second just feeling like another version of the first. Meandering by design, I probably enjoyed my read of these more since I wanted to see where Murakami started. I probably enjoyed them more than Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki though. I would not recommend reading Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, the better book, back to back.
I just finished Authority by Jeff Vandermeer, I read Annihilation only a few nights ago. Good books I liked them a lot. I've heard the third book is mediocre, what say you guys? Still going to read it anyway.
Any recommendations for some other surreal/weird works like these books?
Any recommendations for some other surreal/weird works like these books?
Third book is anything but mediocre. It's much closer to the first book in tone, honestly. It's great. Most people's sticking point is Authority so if you finished and liked that you should read the third for sure.
These are my book's read for the month so far.
Really liked this series, from what I can see these are the only books the author has written outside a few short story's on the same world, so for his 1st trilogy I am quite impressed.
Looking forward to what he puts out in the future.
This is certainly an interesting series, and from what I can see there are about 40 books set in the Deathstalker universe and going off the 1st and the majority of the 2nd book I am going to enjoy them immensely.
Before I really get into the Deathstalker books I have these 2 to read which came out today.
Really liked this series, from what I can see these are the only books the author has written outside a few short story's on the same world, so for his 1st trilogy I am quite impressed.
Looking forward to what he puts out in the future.
This is certainly an interesting series, and from what I can see there are about 40 books set in the Deathstalker universe and going off the 1st and the majority of the 2nd book I am going to enjoy them immensely.
Before I really get into the Deathstalker books I have these 2 to read which came out today.
I reached Book III, and I plan to finish it tonight. I am enthralled with this work. The framing of the narrative is top-notch, each of the main characters have their own diverse personality, and the writing style is accessible yet superb.
Due to being sick for a few days, the beginning of book two didn't click instantly, but I have fallen for it as well. As I reach the ending of Augustus, I am slightly sad to see it end. If the ending remains strong, this will easily be better than Stoner.
If you haven't finished it and posted your impressions by the time I am home tonight, I will be sorely disappointed now!
sparky2112
Member
I read it 25 years ago and keep meaning to go back to it. So, so good.
nailbombxx
Member
I'll finally be getting this in the mail today. So hyped.
I'm going to hold off from reading any spooky stuff until the fall
I'm going to hold off from reading any spooky stuff until the fall
Maklershed
Member
What spooky stuff are you going to read?
Finished the novel. I liked Book 3 a good deal, but I found it to be the weakest of the three (granted I was also slightly fatigued as I read it). However they were all top notch. Spoilers for Book 3:
I will say it was an interesting experience to read Augustus's account on what happened in his life, and to have a definitive conclusion to his arc. The epilogue was bittersweet, especially knowing the outcome of Nero's reign.
Augustus is a fantastic book. One of the finest historical fictions I have read, which is limited truth be told. I was flip flopping on whether I should give it a 4/5 or 5/5. I decided on the former as I thought the last book I gave a 5/5, A Little Life, gave me no doubts of its rating. I plan to pick up a hard copy of William's Magnus Opus when I return to America in a couple of years. Gotta give my future apartment some class after all.
I am also sold on future book clubs. You chaps appreciate fine literature.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Hugo Winners, huh?
Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Not that great many, to be honest. Should perhaps read up on my sci-fi.
Currently reading: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 5: The Prisoner by Marcel Proust.
Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Not that great many, to be honest. Should perhaps read up on my sci-fi.
Currently reading: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 5: The Prisoner by Marcel Proust.
I love Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, so I'd intended to read the rest of her books.. but if they're anything like Nightingale Wood then I'm going to have to call it done right here. There are some good points, Gibbons still has plenty of wit, but altogether I found it pretty tedious.
Blame Mumei, Cyan, and besada, because I've gone and written a love-letter to Shards of Honor and Barrayar for the Barnes & Noble SF&F Blog.
These two books have totally turned around my opinion of the series after being lukewarm on The Warrior's Apprentice. Barrayar, in particular, is outstanding.
sparky2112
Member
Home stretch! I had a hard time in the middle, but you're right at the point where it went turbo for me. Hope you like it. I think it helped that I was once on the wrong side of an unrequited love, so it killed me.
Yaaaasssssssss
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Yea, I can feel it. I think I'm at page 250 or so, so I'm more than 50% done with volume five. The last two should be a push-over compared to the earlier parts. I'm used to reading his writing now so I know what to expect. Something that initially was a bit overwhelming. Even after having read Joyce.
I'm about to hit a region of the Hugos where I've read all of them. Getting through the fifties and sixties was occasionally difficult, but as I roll into the seventies, it's old favorites as far as the eye can see. I've read all those, except the Jo Walton, which is WAAAY down the list.
Such a good book. I cry like a baby at the end.
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