Books and reading thread

[Gus Mears]

Chapter 2 of Opening Up by Geoff Boycott is up there with the most I have laughed at anything in written form. The chapter is titled 'Players I Admire' or something and consists of Boycs explaining why everyone is shit at cricket apart from him. This includes Don Bradman and Gary Sobers.

[Wideload90]

My algorithm has been full of dungeon crawler Carl and I used a voucher to purchase it. Simply put, the world gets wiped out to anyone left inside a building by an alien corporation. Carl, left outside with only a prize winning cat and his boxers, has to make his way into a dungeon and compete against other species to survive. 

It's an RPG style book where characters level up and the cat (called Donut) talks. The dungeon has 18 levels and it's currently 8 books in. 

Great pacing, the humour is the right side of juvenile and I can't wait to start the second one.

Definitely one for the geeks.

[Chest Rockwell]

I just finished book 8 last week. Really enjoyed the series. I listened to them all on audible and I thought the guy who does it is a really good voice actor. Was shocked it was pretty much all one guy except for a few guest stars for bit parts.

[Bus Surfer]

1 hour ago, Wideload90 said:

My algorithm has been full of dungeon crawler Carl and I used a voucher to purchase it. Simply put, the world gets wiped out to anyone left inside a building by an alien corporation. Carl, left outside with only a prize winning cat and his boxers, has to make his way into a dungeon and compete against other species to survive. 

It's an RPG style book where characters level up and the cat (called Donut) talks. The dungeon has 18 levels and it's currently 8 books in. 

Great pacing, the humour is the right side of juvenile and I can't wait to start the second one.

Definitely one for the geeks.

Just finished the first Audiobook yesterday myself. I've no interest in LIT RPG's but this is so much fun and the narration is just great! I'll be spending a few credits on the rest over the next few months. 

Might as well add that I finished my read/listen of Blood Meridian. I massively enjoyed it and the immersive reading really helps with McCarthy's writing. I've just started the same process with The Road... Beautifully bleak as always. 

 

Edited August 11 by Bus Surfer

[Carbomb]

The Matt Dinniman Dungeon Crawler books do very well at our bookshop, selling out very quickly. I might add them to my backlog soon.

Currently reading Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace. Murder mystery set in 1946 Japan. The writing is quite esoteric, not necessarily the easiest to stick with - it's first-person perspective, told from the POV of the investigating detective, and it's very much a stream-of-consciousness. I get what the writer is trying to do, to convey the sense of post-WWII depression, degradation, and dereliction, brought on by the sense of national shame of defeat and the sheer shock of destruction by the A-bombs and the levelling of most of Tokyo, and it results in a confused reel of images, emotional snapshots, and internal discussions that intersperse with the narrative. Whilst it's difficult, I do quite like the effect of it - it feels like it comes as close as a writer gets to creating an immersive experience for the reader - so I'm enjoying it, albeit slowly.

That said, I'm only a third of the way through, so it will be interesting to see how it develops.

[Jazzy G]

Red Dwarf Titan was an interesting read/listen. Chris Barrie has lost a step, but I found by setting Audible to 1.1x speed it made up for it. He can still bring the voices, but it felt a little slower than the others. Although they were 30 years ago.

The story is interesting. It starts as a prequel, but takes an interesting twist when some space/time weirdness happens and Kryten kind of turns up partway through and sets everything on a very different course. There are more characters that get more time, and some new characters as well. Kochanski has a whole subplot, but the highlight is Petersen and Kenneth Pear's shore leave adventure.

It absolutely sets up a sequel, which makes sense because it was adapted from what was going to be an animated series, but unfortunately Rob Grant has passed away, and I don't know whether Andrew Marshall would want to continue this stuff on his own. I guess time will tell.

I've also been slowly making my way through Sin Bin Island by Doug Naylor as well, which is interesting. People have been describing it as the new Harry Potter, but any YA series with somewhat magical stuff involved gets described as the new Harry Potter nowadays.

[RedTwoster]

Originally posted elsewhere as I couldn’t find this thread, but here’s my lot:

Thou Savage Woman - Blessin Adams

The subtitle kind of explains what this book is - a look at female killers throughout history. It also veers into the world of witchcraft - the wrongly accused, basically - and the obsessions of men that led to innocent women burning at the stake. It’s a really interesting book, and an easy read.

An Atlas of Extinct Countries - Gideon Defoe

Another non-fiction book that pretty much explains itself - it’s all about countries that no longer exist, some you’ll have heard of, others not so much. Their stories are universally interesting though, and it’s a very fun read.

The Castle - Jon Ronson

I’ve only just started reading this one, and being a big fan of Jon Robson’s pop-journalism, I’ve been excited about this newly-released title for a while. The opening is typically bizarre and compelling, featuring a very wealthy older man, a castle, an apparently fake reality show and princesses. I won’t give specifics but the early signs suggest it’ll be another Ronson book that I very much enjoy. 

So what have you been delving into? Any recommendations?

[Gus Mears]

I'm finishing the final book in Robin Hobb's Liveship Trader's series. Didn't enjoy it as much as the preceding Assassin's Apprentice series set in the same world. The character building and internal politics of the series is - again - the highlight. The worst part is - again -

Spoiler

The plot being resolved by all-powerful dragons. Completely unneeded and destroys loads of the interesting character depth written over the course of the prior 1,000 pages. Such a shit trope, especially here.

And the official biography of  Labour politician Herbert Morrison, which is a bit shit because it's one of those official biographies that verges on hagiography. Oh, the intro is by his nonce-adjacent relative Peter Mandelson.

[The Gaffer]

2 hours ago, Gus Mears said:

I'm finishing the final book in Robin Hobb's Liveship Trader's series. Didn't enjoy it as much as the preceding Assassin's Apprentice series set in the same world. The character building and internal politics of the series is - again - the highlight. The worst part is - again -

  Hide contents

The plot being resolved by all-powerful dragons. Completely unneeded and destroys loads of the interesting character depth written over the course of the prior 1,000 pages. Such a shit trope, especially here.

And the official biography of  Labour politician Herbert Morrison, which is a bit shit because it's one of those official biographies that verges on hagiography. Oh, the intro is by his nonce-adjacent relative Peter Mandelson.

Non-specific Liveship spoilers:

Spoiler

I couldn't shake that notion either the entire time reading it. Realm of the Elderlings is one of my favourite series ever - and it seems to constantly dangle dragons as a major selling point - but anything to do with them tends to be the weakest stuff she writes. Those interminable chapters where the ssssnakes are sssslithering along the oceansssss floor? Awful.

Hobb does human character development so well, and all. Kennit being built up so well as a potential antihero only to turn out to be a hiding in plain sight wrong'un was a gut punch. 

Good news for you is the next Fitz trilogy is excellent, and dragons largely go back to being background periphery. 

The Rain Wild Chronicles, after that? Skip it. She writes four books of YA dragon pap. 

Edited August 23 by The Gaffer

[Carbomb]

I finished the first volume of The Liveship Traders trilogy some months ago - am enjoying it, but I haven't felt the urgency to get back to it just yet. It's good, but, as you guys (and other readers of it that I've met) have said, it's not as good as the Fitz trilogies. Farseer and Tawny Man were great. Need to read the final series, haven't got round to that either.