Whats everyone reading?

[von Boom]

Just gave up on Leviathan Wakes. Simply could not continue with this crapfest. A badly written mash up of several tropes with a heavy dose of the flavour of the moment. [spoiler]Vomiting Space Zombies were a load of crap too far for me.[/spoiler]

[Dog Deever]

I love Chew - it just gets more and more bonkers as it goes along with weirder and weirder food-based powers. I got vols 7 & 8 recently, I think it's gong to run to 10 books in all.

Yeah, I'm pretty set on getting the rest of the series- they only had 1, 4 & 5 in the shop or I might have been tempted to get the first 3 books. I suppose the first book was always going to be a little more 'grounded' just to set out the basics of what is going on. It did more then enough to convince me it was worth sticking with, so it's good to hear that it gets more mental as it goes along. Kudos to the Megazine for putting me onto it in the first place (like it did many moons ago with Hellboy).

[Darren Stephens]

Just started on the first huuuuge hardback volume of 'Fear Agent', which the GF got me for my birthday. Always loved Tony Moore's art since the start of the walking dead comic. He has a similar style to Henry Flint, one of 2000ads best ever artists. So far, its a great read, too.

[Professor Bear]

Leviathan Wakes...
crapfest. A badly written mash up of several tropes with a heavy dose of the flavour of the moment

I guess that answers why SyFy are making a television series based on it, then.  Sounds like it'll fit right in.

[von Boom]

Leviathan Wakes...
crapfest. A badly written mash up of several tropes with a heavy dose of the flavour of the moment

I guess that answers why SyFy are making a television series based on it, then.  Sounds like it'll fit right in.

Reads like it was written while the authors were watching television and copying whatever made them go 'hey, that's cool'. So, yeah, it's perfect for SyFy.

[Mardroid]

I'm reading through the early Marvel Transformers volumes (on 2 now). The dialogue is a little cheesy and there's way too much exposition in those speech bubbles too,  but I'm finding the stories good fun.

[TordelBack]

Douglas Coupland's Worst. Person. Ever.  A great premise (ghastly media person gets job as B-unit director on Survivor, brings canny homeless person along as his PA/slave), and some entertaining self-delusions and elaborately contrived farce, all wrapped up in the superficial concerns of the early 21st, but it just goes on and on in the same vein and never really gets anywhere very interesting. 

The story progresses through a long series of predictable air-travel jokes towards a 21st C Lord of the Flies, with the important difference that the cast are already as vicious and debased as humanly possible before ever they reach their island.  The measures of worth and cultural obsessions and of our age (nostalgic trinkets, ridiculous sex, nut allergies, environment, spelling) are paraded and dutifully mocked, and the imminent/ongoing apocalypse that forms the backdrop to so much of Coupland's work is present and correct, but beyond that... There just isn't much. 

I'm a big fan of Coupland, and I feel sure I'm missing something important here - although admittedly I felt much the same about Generation A.  I suppose this superficiality, this procession of memes and wikipedia entries and contrived personnas, is itself a wry mirroring of western culture and its attitudes, but just like the real thing it doesn't make for a very satisfying read. 

[pictsy]

I just got around to finishing Dune Messiah having let it sit with a bookmark inserted halfway through for the last goodness knows how many months.  First thing I was impressed with was how easy it was to just pick it back up.  Overall, I enjoyed the book.  Dune is an awesome book and I feel Messiah is certainly a worthy sequel.  Loved the ending.  I have Children of Dune on my bookshelf waiting for a read but I'll probably crack into Ubik first.

[von Boom]

I just got around to finishing Dune Messiah having let it sit with a bookmark inserted halfway through for the last goodness knows how many months.  First thing I was impressed with was how easy it was to just pick it back up.  Overall, I enjoyed the book.  Dune is an awesome book and I feel Messiah is certainly a worthy sequel.  Loved the ending.  I have Children of Dune on my bookshelf waiting for a read but I'll probably crack into Ubik first.

Whatever you do, don't subject yourself to the fanfic bile put out by the wonder-twits (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson). Ubik is a trip.

[pictsy]

Whatever you do, don't subject yourself to the fanfic bile put out by the wonder-twits (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson). Ubik is a trip.

I've already been warned off those particular 'additions' to the series. 

[Hawkmumbler]

Tried giving A Star Called Henry another shot today after two years of lauding it as one of the worst books i've ever read. Four chapters in and i'm still uncertain...

[Zarjazzer]

Creepy (but enough about me ) and CREEPY the comic "At Death's Door." Alas not knowing much I managed to pluck for the modern version rather than the classics of old. That said I've enjoyed my error so far, some duff but mostly gems so far especially the story Commedia dell morte, that happily takes another angle on the creepy clown trope, all in loverly B& w art.

[Theblazeuk]

The Good the Bad and the Infernal by Guy Adams - didn't get anywhere in particular by the end, but was fun en route. A real page turner of pulpy goodness.

[I, Cosh]

Well, I was reading Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson until I foolishly left it in the seat pocket in front of me despite all warnings to the contrary. It's the first Robinson I've tried for a while: Years of Rice and Salt was very heavy going and I found the central conceit of Galileo's Dream so offensive I abandoned it after fifty pages and haven't given him a penny since.

This got an enthusiastic endorsement from the woman in Waterstone's and has proven, so far, to be an entertaining attempt to fit Robinson's usual, earnest belief in the power of science and cooperation around an Ice Age tribe. The titular shaman fills the role of the observer trying to interpret the world in as rational a way as possible.

Not entirely sure I want to pay for it again to see how it all works out.

[The Legendary Shark]

'The Last Days of Socrates' - Plato.
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To be honest, this is one of a small collection of ancient Greek books (translated into English, of course) that I purchased because they looked good on my bookshelf and made me appear orders of magnitude more intelligent than I am. Although I had the vague notion that I might read these volumes one day, the truth is that I was frightened to even attempt it because I believed such things were beyond my capacity to understand.
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Some of it was, of course, but after understanding and even enjoying large chunks of it I think that consequent re-readings might diminish even my lack of comprehension.
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I am now totally in awe of Socrates, or at least Plato's version of him. In some ways, Socrates reminds me of me in that he was awkward, full of difficult questions and didn't have the good sense to shut up once in a while. Socrates questioned and argued with the systems and beliefs of his day without advocating their destruction, which I was astounded to find chimed particularly well with my own attitude. The State ordered his execution for impiety and corrupting the young by refusing to believe in the state-sanctioned gods and believing in gods of his own. It seems that the state expected him to escape from prison and flee Athens, for which he was afforded ample opportunity but resolutely refused to do for reasons I won't detail here (spoilers!).
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In amongst this compelling story, scattered almost carelessly about like discarded diamonds, are questions and observations that are still as relevant, and some just as unanswered and confusing, today.
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A completely wonderful book that, I was immensely relieved to discover, doesn't require a genius-level mind to thoroughly enjoy. It's one of those rare books that does indeed make one feel better for having read it. Brilliant.