Topic: Resurrection: What are you Reading?

[PhillipAEllis]

I've been reading Dreads and Drolls by Arthur Machen, the expanded Tartarus Press edition. The various articles in it, since it is a collection of articles by Machen, have been giving me all sorts of ideas for adventures. For example, a player's longlost brother returns from foreign climes, rich as, but disappears before the player can catch up with him; has he been robbed and murdered for his money?

[Colin-ICE]

I've just been on holiday and read Nod by Adrian Barnes and The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Both are realistic science fiction and funnily enough follow similar veins.

Nod is about what would happen if one day no one (except a select few) slept and continued not being able to sleep until they died. For me the etymological background of the book was fun and it did show some interesting ideas about what might happen and how relationships would be effected. For me though it was just a little too depressing. I'm more a Douglas Adams Sci-Fi guy than a swathes of people dying kind of guy.

The Dog Stars is set in a future where a virus has killed off most of the human race and one guys fight to survive in a world without any laws. It is slightly less depressing than Nod and I enjoyed the relatively realism of the way people would defend what little they had in those circumstances.

On the whole I'd recommend The Dog Stars more than Nod but both are very good reads.

[Thom @ ICE]

Finally had some time to return to my Forgotten 500 (World War II).
I started this a while ago, but had to put it down for a while due to other commitments.  I'm looking forward to making my way through it as I'm enjoying it very much (and I've got a half dozen other books waiting....)

[KacyCrawford]

I have just finished "Inferno" by Dan Brown. He went completely mad. I have survived Robert Langdon´s jump from the helicopter with only a handkerchief over his head moderating the fall in Angels and Demons, but his solution to the over-population in the Inferno seems rather immoral to me. I hope the Church will be wise enough not to react.

[jdale]

I just finished A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge. Some interesting aliens ways of thinking and an intriguing idea about different laws of reality in different zones of the galaxy. E.g. FTL communications/transit/computing is possible only in the Beyond and the Transcend, not in the Slowness. Devices (which includes minds) from a higher zone break down quickly in lower zones. You could do something similar with deities, and in fact they talk about things from the Transcend as "gods". It gives an SF way of explaining how transcended beings could aid those in lower realms, and even have avatars, but only under fairly tight restrictions.

[PhillipAEllis]

I just finished Night Games by Anna Krien, an examination of rape, sex and football, particularly in Australia.

[Colin-ICE]

I have just (rather foolishly) started reading 'The Belgariad'. I will now have to read all the books in this cannon as I'm really enjoying this one.

[jdale]

I have just (rather foolishly) started reading 'The Belgariad'. I will now have to read all the books in this cannon as I'm really enjoying this one.

That was a fun read. I also liked the idea of opposing prophecies as entities of their own. But if I remember correctly, the series that came afterwards was pretty much just a retread of the same things.

[Cory Magel]

But if I remember correctly, the series that came afterwards was pretty much just a retread of the same things.

Yep.

I like Eddings a lot, I just don't love the fact that his various series seem to be very similar to each other.  I really liked The Diamond Throne, The Ruby Knight and the Sapphire Rose.  The next three were ok and I tired of it after that.

I won't get into detail so as not to provide spoilers, but I very much liked the character Sparrowhawk.  A church knight that's going to strangle a villain with a piano wire in a back alley... it was... refreshing in a way.

[RandalThor]

I have just (rather foolishly) started reading 'The Belgariad'. I will now have to read all the books in this cannon as I'm really enjoying this one.

I did this very same thing little over a year back. While I will not say I disliked them (unlike Tad Williams' series Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn, sheesh!), they have not aged well since the first time I read them - way back when they first came out.

I recently read The Lives of Tao by Westley Chu, and wait impatiently for the next one The Death's of Tao, due out this December. (I already got it pre-ordered.) It is a very interesting and fun read. Check it:

When out-of-shape IT technician Roen woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it.

He wasn’t.

He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans. Now split into two opposing factions – the peace-loving, but under-represented Prophus, and the savage, powerful Genjix – the aliens have been in a state of civil war for centuries. Both sides are searching for a way off-planet, and the Genjix will sacrifice the entire human race, if that’s what it takes.

Meanwhile, Roen is having to train to be the ultimate secret agent. Like that’s going to end up well…

[Cory Magel]

While I will not say I disliked them (unlike Tad Williams' series Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn, sheesh!), they have not aged well since the first time I read them - way back when they first came out.

I've experienced that with a couple series.  Loved them when I read them, but so many years later when I attempt to re-read them I'm left disappointed.  Simple age factors in depending on how far apart you read things, but sometimes it's just that the more well read (amount) you are the more you start to expect from authors.  I have a little bit of a hard time finding fantasy books/series that I really like anymore.

For a few years I've been trying to find a sci-fi series that has a large scale 'setting' with various books set in it that tie together anywhere from only loosely to very tightly.  I hate to say it, but almost along the lines of Star Wars, but not actually Star Wars.

[arakish]

I just started rereading SRD's Mordant's Need series: The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through.  Haven't read them since they were first published in mid-80s.

I just remember loving the way mirrors worked there.

rmfr

[Zut]

I have a little bit of a hard time finding fantasy books/series that I really like anymore.

Me too. The stories feel like the same: same plots, same characters, same issues. I watched Game of Thrones and I liked it for the most part, good political intrigue, but too violent sometimes.

I am reading more and more non fiction books these days. I came upon a "old" book written in the '60 with extracts from famous French authors of the 18th century. One I found particularly interesting was the philosopher Pierre Bayle (not exactly 18th century, but he was a precursor for some ideas developed during the French Revolution).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bayle

I like to know when (in history) some "modern" concepts come from.

[RandalThor]

For a few years I've been trying to find a sci-fi series that has a large scale 'setting' with various books set in it that tie together anywhere from only loosely to very tightly.  I hate to say it, but almost along the lines of Star Wars, but not actually Star Wars.

I know several good sci-fi series, but they are not quite the way you describe, they are more "tight" in their stories. But, if you are OK with short stories, you could check out the various Bolo books. Each one of those books has around 3 stories in it, and they don't generally directly coincide with each other but there is a timeline of sorts; from the earlier books to the later ones the Bolos mark numbers and capabilities progress. (Bolos are totally awesome and I want one! A Mark-XXXVI or higher!)

The not so tight series I really like are:

Old Man's War (trilogy, with another book The Human Division about one of the secondary characters from the main series) by John Scalzi. Super fun and funny, Scalzi does a really great job of writing smart-alec characters. Also, I want to play an RPG in the setting after the third book.
The Heritage Trilogy, The Legacy Trilogy, & The Inheritance Trilogy (while each trilogy is its own series, they tie together into a single story) by Ian Douglas. I had a lot of fun reading this series (twice, so far) and I liked how the technology grew between the series and within the series. He also does the Star Carrier series and the Star Corpsman series both of which are still ongoing. You can find information about these books here: http://www.amazon.com/Ian-Douglas/e/B007KO51OY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
The Helfort's War series (4 books) by Graham Sharp Paul, a fun and more gritty series than the other two I mentioned.

[markc]

 I also enjoyed the various books I read of Ian Douglas's and right now I am reading the Iron Druid 1st book. It is ok in a very cinematic way and I am looking forward to reading the rest.
MDC

[GrumpyOldFart]

I have a little bit of a hard time finding fantasy books/series that I really like anymore.

Me too. The stories feel like the same: same plots, same characters, same issues.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett is what I'm currently in. The "same old, same old" doesn't seem nearly as common as usual with Pratchett, at least not to me... particularly the Sam Vimes story arc.

Which is not to say his stories never go with the same old plot line. And sometimes when they do, they're his best work. See MacBeth transformed into Wyrd Sisters, A Midsummer Night's Dream transformed into Lords and Ladies and The Phantom of the Opera transformed into Maskerade. But the stories tend strongly to be character driven rather than plot driven, so like Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, once you change something fundamental in the outlook and worldview of even one major character, that changes everything else.

[Old Man]

Just finished  The Expanse Trilogy by James S.A. Corey
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A271585011%2Cp_lbr_books_series_browse-bin%3AThe%20Expanse|Void%20Trilogy

Good Space Opera mixed with politics, intrigue, super science and alien armageddon. I think the second was the best of the three.

[RandalThor]

Something else I read recently: The Stonehenge Gate by Jack Williamson (Copyright 2005). The strange thing about this book is that it reads like it was written back in the 60s or 70s - or perhaps earlier even - though that is just because the writer is so old. It is pretty-good, I would not say great, but if that is indicative of Jack Williamsons writing I will probably not be reading any more.

[Bruce]

I am currently reading (very slowly unfortunately) Robert Jordan's last book in the "Wheel of Time" series, "A Memory of Light". For the most part I have enjoyed his books though I think the pace is better with the last couple. Amazing and deeply intricate characters. When I said slowly I mean i was one to get a first printing and it is now October, whereas earlier books in the series I've read in like two days (with almost no sleep). I am also reading the Bible, of course I will always be reading that.
Do rulebooks count? If so I am also reading (in parts) the three in print HARP books and the RMU stuff I have.....

[Zut]

Just finished to read "Game Design Theory" by Keith Burgun. He has a very interesting take about what IS a game (competition, puzzle, and ambiguous decision making). He talks mostly about video games, boardgames, and a little bit about P&P RPGs. as the author says himself, it is a book about establishing a theory of (video) game design and not about how to design a game.

It was the first time I read about this subject (I read about world building, session prep, but not game design) and I am quite pleased to see this is a growing field of research (more than just the sociology of games).