Which book are you reading now? Volume XIV

[hobbsyoyo]

In other words he's never going to finish it.

 

[Birdjaguar]

In other words he's never going to finish it.

At lest he is working on it and not traveling around.

 

[EnglishEdward]

The City of the Iron Fish

by

Simon Ings

which is a rather strange Sci-Fantasy book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_the_Iron_Fish

 

[EgonSpengler]

Just finished Artificial Condition (book 2 of The Murderbot Diairies, 2018) by Martha Wells. Top-notch.

Then I started Foundryside (2018) by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm only about ¼ of the way through, but it's threatening to become one of my favorite fantasy novels *. I'm enjoying it at least as much as City of Stairs, which I also loved. Great world-building; fascinating magic system; a thief/rogue character. Evokes the Thief PC game series a little bit, with its pilfering protagonist in a magical-industrial urban setting.

The Verge, 23 Dec 2018, "Foundryside is a cyberpunk adventure wrapped in an epic fantasy novel"

I'm also a fan of cyberpunk. Many years ago, I came up with an idea for a D&D campaign: Where Star Wars is a fantasy story draped in sci-fi clothing, I wanted to do a sci-fi story draped in fantasy clothing, and cyberpunk was one of the genres I wanted to incorporate. That never went past the note-taking stage, but Foundryside may be the story I was looking for.

* Perdido Street Station; Tigana; Elantris; City of Stairs; Shadow of the Torturer; The Fifth Season; The Golden Compass; Neverwhere. I feel like I'm forgetting something obvious, but oh well.

 

[Synobun]

I would be keen for a cyberpunk story recommendation that isn't the drivel that is Snow Crash and Neuromancer. Those were my two and only forays into cyberpunk despite having an appreciation for the aesthetic and underlying premise of the genre. They were written so poorly that I haven't been able to convince myself to bother with another. Something that more closely resembles modern genre fiction would be nice.

 

[Arakhor]

Foundryside looks interesting.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I would be keen for a cyberpunk story recommendation that isn't the drivel that is Snow Crash and Neuromancer. Those were my two and only forays into cyberpunk despite having an appreciation for the aesthetic and underlying premise of the genre. They were written so poorly that I haven't been able to convince myself to bother with another. Something that more closely resembles modern genre fiction would be nice.

I'm a fan of all of Walter Jon Williams' books, and Hardwired (1986) is considered one of the classics of the genre. It's been forever since I've read it, though. On the bright side, if you enjoy it, he wrote a few sequels. I also remember liking Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net (1988), but again, I haven't read it in at least 25 years and I'm not sure how well I remember it.

Others I remember liking:
Vurt by Jeff Noon (1993)
Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1995)
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (2002)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
Dome City Blues by Jeff Edwards (2011)

EDIT: The Shift by George Foy (1996)

 

[Synobun]

Bookmarking that post...

 

[dusters]

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31138556-homo-deus?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=kC0xw2MZxB&rank=1

Has anyone read it here in CFC? it is about mankind's future scenarios

 

[Arakhor]

I own a copy, which I bought in Dec 2017 or so, I think, but I haven't got around to reading it yet.

 

[Ajidica]

Thanks to Covid19 I've gotten a lot of reading done.

Finished up The Saxon Shore and The Fort at Rivers Bend by Jack Whyte, part of his historical fantasy/fiction Camulod series. I'd rate the stories a 2/5. They aren't bad, but the connection to either history or the Arthurian myths are pretty poor*. The writing is nothing to write home about, the sex scenes are atrocious**, and the author takes forever to get anywhere. He creates conflicts, has characters agonize over them, and then get resolved with no consequence. I'm probably about 3,000 pages in and King Arthur has finally reached manhood.
Despite my complaints, the author does a passable job in making characters have non-modern concerns and ways of understanding things. Some of the characters, notably Lucanus the Physician started to grow on me over the books.

*Stirrups are introduced in ~430AD, he includes the visit of Germanus of Auxerre to Britain, but neglects to include the famous story of Germanus leading the Britons in a great victory over Picts and Saxons. There are a whole bunch of other things that, even based on out limited knowledge of the 'Arthurian' period, indicates the author wasn't too bothered about accuracy.
*After reading about the fluids he described in one of them, I felt the last shreds of my heterosexuality slip away.

In light on the above books, I reread the majority of Guy Halsall's Worlds of Arthur to remind myself of how much space there is to work and create awesome historical fiction in an 'Arthurian' Britain that is not inaccurate. The book is highly recommended, as are all of Halsall's books.

Looking for fiction that moves faster than Jack Whyte, I started on a Best of compilation of Robert Howard's short stories.

 

[Arakhor]

Oh him. I have a couple of his books waiting to be read. Maybe I should get to them and see if they have the same effect on me.

 

[tjs282]

Reading India (Sanjeev Bhaskar), based on the TV series he did (which I didn't see). Basically a travelogue.

The writing's nothing special, but does show the occasional flash of wit.

 

[Morty]

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Has anyone read it here in CFC? it is about mankind's future scenarios

I preferred his first book (the name of which escapes me!). This one feels a bit more...I dunno...a bit more wishy washy.....but then it's about the future so it can hardly be based on facts can it!!?

EDIT: So why isn't my copy of the first book on/in my bookcase? Who's been messing with my books!?

 

[Arakhor]

You're thinking of Sapiens.

 

[Morty]

Thank you! Complete brain failure there.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Last night, I finished some light reading:

Faust Among Equals

by

Tom Holt

which was very entertaining.

 

[Traitorfish]

Finished/starting.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Finished/starting.

You always pick really interesting stuff

 

[Takhisis]

Does the ‘sea people’ mention the spread of the word ‘kumara’ (sweet potato) from parts of the Andes all the way to present-day New Zealand?