I am about to hop on a plane at 4am and I was searching for a good book.

What I am most interested in is something about space exploration and colonization of a new world.

What are you reading - any recommendations?

I have been reading Bernard Cornwall's excellent Last Kingdom series. I really can't do it justice. I started watching the first two seasons on Netflix which are incredible. Imho better than Game of Thrones - great acting, production, everything.

The story follows a young Briton who is captured and raised by Danes - who eventually serves King Alfred in the age of Vikings. I have never read a better author. It is like every paragraph is finely honed and chiseled perfectly.

However, I wanted to grab a nice pulp space story.

Stainless Steel Rat if yo want some comedy.

James Corey, 'Leviathan Wakes', first book that has been made into the TV series The Expanse. Plenty more books to come after this one. Mostly hard science, relatively near-future science fiction.

In reply to ChromaticNewt (msg # 3):

The Last Hurrah of The Golden Horde is a collection of 16 short stories by Norman Spinrad.

The Millennial Project:  How to Colonize The Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps is a work of speculative non-fiction by Marshall T. Savage about the future of manned space exploration.

thanks horus! I just saw this as we are about to pull away - no time to amazon it - but I will check it out!

A Fire Upon the Deep has some pretty cool high-concept sci-fi.

Lately I've been reading all the Sandman graphic novels so I have to recommend that too, pretty heady stuff there!

Definitely recommend the James Corey books.  Not my usual - technically they are probably space opera, but there is so much more.  So many personalities developed, a touch of mystery, politics and history, etc, along with the science fiction and space exploration.  And best of all there is lots to read - several large books plus some short stories, and still ongoing with a new one due in December.

Fiction - I've been going classics lately: Tale of Two Cities and CS Lewis' Till We Have Faces (A retelling of Cupid and Psyche)
Nonfiction - Kicking up a Racket, Stiff Little Fingers 1977-1983 Yeah, the old punk is still the best punk.

Listening to The Lord of the Rings audiobooks (trilogy plus Silmirillion and Hobbit).

Drowtales: Moonless Age graphic novel webcomic.

W.I.T.C.H. graphic novels.

Currently re-reading the DragonLance books...atm I'm nearly done with "Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes".

I've been rereading some of my Heralds of Valdemar series, particularly the Herald Spy trilogy, the new one "The Hills Have Spies", and "Brightly Burning."

I'm about to embark upon one called, "Passage to Juneau," a real-life account of a person who traveled there by canoe in the 70s and 80s.

Also need to reread my D&D Eberron book "Secrets of Xen'drik" because my party is exploring there this Friday...

I've just finished reading Kings of the Wyld. It is D&D The Campaign in fiction. Fantastic light read.

Now I have starter A Practical Guide to Evil. So far it has been really cool dark fantasy.

"G-man" by Stephan Hunter.

I'm waiting for "Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints" by John Ringo and Larry Corriea to come out in July.

You're welcome.  I'll add a work of speculative fantasy to the mix:  The Book of The Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, jr.

My all-time favorite is a thing by Roger Zelazny called Lord of Light.  One day I'll figure out how to make a game out of it...

Well, it's not new, but anyone with a marginal interest in Ancient Greece, military history, or ancient combat techniques might find Gates of Fire (by Steven Pressfield) a good read.  I've read it a few times...I'm currently working on Tides of War, which he also wrote, but it's about Alcibiades and the Peloponesian (spelling!) war, as opposed to GoF being about a single battle...there's a lot more politics and intrigue involved, and it's just not as gripping a story, overall, although I still find it an interesting read (it's just not an "I can't put this book down!" read.)

But it's perhaps far more relevant to our times than GoF, as Alcibiades was a master of creating a cult of personality, as well as being a brilliant general, and all the political tides that shifted for and against him feel disturbingly familiar in many ways.

On a whole different tack: This Idea is Brilliant, John Brockiman, 2018, Harper Collins.

A collection of 205 mini-essays by various scientists (broadly defined) naming and discussing scientific concepts, from "The Longevity Factor" through "The Navier-Stokes Equations" to "Humility". A mind-expanding book to be read a few pages at a time.

Im currently listening to an audiobook version of The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Not for kids - Cosmic Horror and some expletives). Its very good. Also just finished reading The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson andits very funny.

Also a good read - Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren (Caution: This last one contains explicit erotic prose).

Tarzan the Untamed (number 7)

Currently reading "John Carter of Mars", a collection of ERB's Barsoom books.

I'm slowly, very slowly, making my way through the Prince of Nothing series.

It's a fantasy series with the kind of worldbuilding where it seems like the author has gotten ahold of a portal to a fully fledged world. History, quotes from ancient philosophers, local customs and proverbs is plobbed in without explanation, but with context that makes it so you understand. And there it seems there is at least one tidbit on every single page, which makes you wonder how he would make up all that stuff without aforementioned portal. Add to that the people of the world that are very much human (with all the horribleness that can entail), and a bunch of protagonists that are damn interesting with their own personalities, philosophies and character arcs.

It is heavy, but oh so good if you are into that kind of stuff.

I was reading the Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher.  Until my wife left it at her father's house.  We live in Kentucky, he lives in Florida.....

In reply to Starchaser (msg # 17):

Starchaser, the entire Laundry Files series are amazing.
Also note, Cubicle 7 has, in fact, put out a version of Call of Cthulhu based in the Laundry Files reality (Laundryverse?)  Stross wrote an intro piece for it.
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was off-topic, at 19:38, Mon 25 June 2018.

An excellent recommendation. Read this novel last year. Starting calling my greyhounds "Tines" because of that book.

Was reading Sailor Nothing. Very good, but so dark I had to take a break.

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 19):

Huh.  One of the Barsoom novels, the eleventh and final book of the series, was, in fact, titled John Carter of Mars.  I believe all the Barsoom novels should be freely available via Project Gutenberg Australia, as they are public domain in Australia (even if not all of them are PD in the USA because of differences in copyright law between our two nations).

I read them all many many years ago when I was still quite young, and do remember them and Edgar Rice Burroughs's other other-worldly series, Carson of Venus, fondly.

At the recommendation of my sister-in-law, I recently finished Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher (a penname for Ursula Vernon), which is about a girl who lives in a rather oppressive household (mother loves you SO MUCH why would you do anything to make mother feel bad you can't go outside something might HAPPEN etc) and sneaks out of the house when she sees, I kid you not, Baba Yaga's hut walk down the street.

I'm currently reading another of her books called Castle Hangnail, which so far is about a little girl with amazing boots (they're not magical, she's just got really cool boots) who bluffed her way into being the Wicked Witch and Mistress of Castle Hangnail, which really needed a magical evil overlord or it would be put in foreclosure and unmagicked, which the minions who worked there did not want.  It's a great book so far.

In reply to horus (msg # 25):

Just two tiny problems...  :)

1: I don't live in Oz.
2: I prefer dead tree editions.
This message was last edited by the user at 09:10, Tue 26 June 2018.

Hey, to each his own, man.  My error on point 1, though.  Only the first five of the Barsoom novels are public domain in America where I live. I hope you are enjoying the book you have in hand.

I get the attraction of hard-bound books - I used to collect them.  In my case it was Katrina that convinced me digital books were easier to carry with me during an evacuation.

(During Katrina I lost over 5,000 books, a collection gathered over my lifetime to that point, including some rare first edition hardbacks.  Never again, my friend.  I'm afraid Mother Nature has radically re-shaped my perceptions on that score.)

Sorry to hear about your literary loss.  But I'm with you on prefering digital books.  I've never had to evac (despite living in tornado alley for a time), but about the 4th or 5th time you move your library you realize, both physically and financially, the toll of moving *all* those books!!!


And, to add to the thread, currently I've found a good cybertech book called Necrotech by K.C. Alexander  It's pretty much Shadowrun.  Fun action.  Not for readers who are easily offended.

Just remember that in many cases you’re effectively renting those ebooks ;)

What one hand giveth the other taketh away

I'm rereading the Foundation trilogy by Issac Asimov and my wife turned me onto the Thursday Next stories by Jasper Fforde.

Now, not for myself but I have been reading Dracula, by Brams Stoker, as a bedtime story to my eight year old.  Planning to follow that up with Frankenstein, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.  I want to get another copy of The Chronicles of Narnia.

You must have a particularly patient 8 year old to sit through the Victorian linguistic formalities of Dracula and Frankenstein - the latter bored me at 12!

You might find LotR to be tough going, too. The Hobbit and Narnia sound more like it for that age group. You're sure they're "not for myself"? ;)

My recent reading is mainly historical fiction - Bernard Cornwell, Susanna Gregory, George Macdonald Fraser, along with World War Z, in line with my Rpol games.
This message was last edited by the user at 04:17, Wed 27 June 2018.

There are ways and there are ways, friend.  I try to choose wisely when acquiring ebooks.  One of the reasons I like Project Gutenberg is their commitment to preserving the great literature of the world.

I still buy the occasional paperback if no unencumbered ebook is available, but my dead-tree collection right now is still under one hundred volumes.

So, my friend is reading the Ship Who Sing series to me, again.

I really like it because it blends a lot of aspects of sci-fi into what was contemporary when the author wrote it. It aged well, but has a good aged feeling still. It doesn't have ALOT of action in it if you like more fast paced novels, but I think it did a good job of blending the drama from moral, to lethal, to emotional trials. It deals with a lot of issues in subtext as well, as the protagonist is basically an otherwise "non-viable" child that was grafted to a ship, to become it's N.A. "Natural intelligence".

I don't read novels. Never enjoyed it, as I'm VERY slow. RPoL is about the most I've read in my life (of fiction). I pretty much only read non-fiction for pleasure. I love HEARING stories though. Just not reading them. Weird, I know.

In reply to V_V (msg # 35):

Not so weird.  The spoken word has rhythm, cadence, and power all its own.  This concept is nearly universal, existing in some form in many different cultures.

A friend who will read to you is a friend, indeed.

In reply to horus (msg # 36):

Yeah, Anne is a gem. :)

I do enjoy spoken words much better. You're about cadence, I think it's also the sharing too. I am not this bad about movies, but if both my company and I have seen a movie before, I will comment and inquire thoughts. Books Anne has read work well for this, because she reads like a biblio-addict, reading just about anything she can get her hands on. So after she's read something (that's the key) she is willing to cherry pick things she thinks I'd like, and read them to me. Then I interject every now and then, which would be annoying if she hadn't read it before (that and speed) but really helps me enjoy it. :)

Anne is a clerk at the county library, and our county library is ranked well in the (American) nation, certainly not top ten, but well regarded. She wants a job (I forget the position's name) where she recommends books to people who liked one genre/author/period/etc and they want to know something else. It would also be mandatory to pay her to read an hour every day. Which is like a dream job for her; talking about books, and being paid to read. So reading to me, and listening to my input is actually a little bit of training for her too. She read the Harry Potter Books, up until Order of the Phoenix (where she just couldn't stomach it) and we admitted one of the few times the movies were better than the book, in our opinion.

Anyway, another Sci-fi book Anne liked is Sassinak (sp?). I never read it or heard it, but it's by the same author as the Ship Who Sang, and Pern series.

There are many many others, that if Anne deemed to log onto RPoL she would love to recommend. Sadly, I'm a fantasy audience. Most Sci-fi isn't my thing. BEcause of McCaffrey's fantasy voice though, and the gray nature in between soft and hard sci-fi, it worked for me.

As I've said to others though. I enjoy doing, rather than hearing or watching. Like with sports, I would rather play, even poorly, than watch something. Hence most media is very out of touch for me. Music is one of the few medias I consume regularly, mostly because it's easy to do something; like play video games, or an RPG, while I listen. Reading character text, or watching a game video also works. Hence I'm on RPoL. ;)

I won't continue on that tangent though, and risk derailing the thread.

V_V: A suggestion:

Open a book to a page. Using two fingers, find out the span of yo9ur reading eyes. Tips of fingers, maybe index and little, close together of further apart. Remember where the midpoint of the length is. Then put a fingertip that far in from the left margin of the line. Do the same thing on the right edge. Your eyes should start in form the left line that distance and finish the line that same distance from the end.

Black Company. One of the wonderful pieces of literature that made a young me realize Illusion magic could be so much cooler than parlor tricks.

I tried reading 'Pat the Bunny,' but I'm just going to wait for the movie to come out.

In reply to OceanLake (msg # 38):

I can't really visualize, and therefor neither understand what you're suggesting. I just don't enjoy reading fiction silently. Even reading aloud is dry.
This message was last edited by the user at 09:43, Sun 01 July 2018.

If your eyes focus on the first letter of each line, you're reading the margin. First focusing your eyes a little in will speed your reading.

I often don't have time to read but when I'm doing chores or on long drives I greatly enjoy audio books.

Currently starting the audio book of the Black Company and I like it already. My favorite audiobook series is the Expanse series of books. Realistic sci-fi (no FTL means humanity is stuck in the solar system) and over time different "cultures" have evolved. Earth is one big ball of decay, Mars is heavily militarized and "Belters" (those that live and work mining asteroids) are second class citizens to both... it's a great political dynamic.

I also enjoyed listening to the Nightwatch series. Currently on book 3 because while the 1st book was amazing, I didn't really like Daywatch and it was kind of a slog. Twilight Watch is back on my good side though.

Other fun ones are the Bobiverse books (a quirky engineer is plugged into a Von Neumann probe and told to replicate and explore the universe).

Anyway if you have access to a smartphone chances are you can get an audiobook player. If you're active with your library they often have audiobooks that you can "check out" as it were. Some popular ones even come on CDs (I listened to the Big Short on CD).

Finally finished up Oryx and Crake. Interesting tale about a guy who thinks he's the last human on Earth, somewhat due to his own actions. A study on how terrible loneliness can be, and how even the little things can lead to bad ends. Somewhat dark, but an excellent book.

Also recently read The Lies of Locke Lamora, a wonderful bit of swashbuckling and crime set in a city that seems like a fantasy version of renaissance Venice. Highly recommend.

Another recommend is Traitor's Blade - First book in a series about wandering bringers-of-justice whose king was deposed and executed ... There's a lot to it, but it's a great book with a swashbuckling-fantasy feel to it.

Current audio- powering through The Dresden Files. Interesting stories and magic, but there are ticks about the main character that make me dislike him. :/

Just started Madeline Miller's Circe, and so far I am quite impressed.
I'm a sucker for a good retelling of the old myths.

If you're into that, check out Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology.  I'm about 3/4 done - pretty fun read!! :)

In reply to jwneil (msg # 46):

Read it the day it came out.  I love how his "Freya's Wedding" reads just like you imagine a Loony Toons Norse Myth would read.

Half way through Adrian Tchaikovsky's ten book epic the Shadows of the Apt. The author came to my attention after he won the Arthur C Clarke award for Children of Time and I've been working my way through his oeuvre ever since. Highly recommended, both his Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels.

Since last I posted on this, I finished up that book, and another one ("Time Lord Fairy Tales"...I never knew the book existed, stumbled across it at a thrift store a few days ago!)  It's a fast read, the stories are only a few pages long each, and very similar to the fairy tales most of us are familiar with...just, given a Dr. Who twist.)

I wouldn't recommend it for anyone looking for anything deep and profound...but it was entertaining light reading for a couple of days' worth of free time...