Whats everyone reading?

[Dark Jimbo]

The great Perdido Street Station is the obvious place to start, but I loved Kraken, an 'under London'-type novel with a sustaining maguffin that you can readily imagine Harry Absalom or Stickleback pursuing, and a Gaimanish environment of a-la-carte magical hustlers, gangsters and petty godlings. Not sure my opinion here is the majority one, and it is v-e-r-y long.

Kraken was my first Mieville, and left me distinctly underwhelmed. He's a great 'ideas man', but stumbles a bit with his characters - too many, too underdeveloped - and the bombardment of constant new magicians, cults and demi-gods did get a bit wearying towards the end.

Gave him one more try this summer with Perdido Street Station, and thought that was hugely improved. There's a much stronger sense of an over-arcing, guiding plot (even if it does take a good third of the book to kick in with earnest) to sustain you through to the end. And his invented world is laid out with a much stronger sense of 'place' than the London of Kraken, I thought. It's a very 2000AD kind of book.

[Theblazeuk]

I think I just loved being bombarded with all the strange things in Kraken, actually. It may have something to do with being the first book I read after moving to London. You are right about the plot however.

[JPMaybe]

I just finished Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union and it was excellent.  Like an Ian Edgington story by way of A Serious Man.

[jacob g]

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff. This book feels like The Wire episode. Best non-fiction work I read for a long time (I guess since Amexica: War Along the Borderline).

[Colin YNWA]

I just finished Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union and it was excellent. 

Really enjoyed that book, though I have to say if you've not read already 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' is exceptional (mind his non-fiction 'Fatherhood for Amateurs' I found horrible)

[TordelBack]

Dead grud did I hate Manhood for Amateurs - and this when I've loved almost every other word Chabon his written.  The very worst kind of coyly self-depreciating but-aren't-I-great-really twaddle. And even accepting this premise it STILL made me feel utterly inadequate.

Good job Yiddish Policeman's, Amazing Adventures, Wonder Boys, The Final Solution and Gentlemen of the Road are some of my favourite modern writing.  Enjoyed John Carter too. But sheesh, I wish I'd never set eyes on MfA.

[JPMaybe]

Ta for the tips, it's the first Chabon book I've read.  Reckon I'll try Amazing Adventures... next.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Various books since I started reading again late last year. including but not limited to the following (in order):

• Tarkin
• A New Dawn
• Heir to the Jedi
• Arkham Knight: The Riddler's Gambit
• Lords of the Sith
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• Dark Disciple
• Inferno (Dan Brown)
• Aftermath
• Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel (Currently Reading)

[sheldipez]

Various books since I started reading again late last year. including but not limited to the following (in order):

• Tarkin
• A New Dawn
• Heir to the Jedi
• Arkham Knight: The Riddler's Gambit
• Lords of the Sith
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• Dark Disciple
• Inferno (Dan Brown)
• Aftermath
• Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel (Currently Reading)

I've been reading the all new canon Star Wars books too. I thought 'Heir to the Jedi' was probably the best thus far, I was expecting probably too much from 'Lords of the Sith' which felt all a bit like it could have been an entry into the Teen Fiction section of Star Wars to me. I have very nearly finished 'Tarkin' and it's all a bit dry and non-eventful for my liking. Moving straight onto 'Aftermath' once I've put Tarkin to bed.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Whst about Dark Disciple? You read thst one yet?

[sheldipez]

Whst about Dark Disciple? You read thst one yet?

I did. I enjoyed it right up until they end when they do that thing they always seem to do with female characters.. for drama. It was nice to see that Ventress got some needed depth its just a shame the character arc ended like that and I ended up thinking I wish I never bothered. Started off at a four star novel, ended up being a two.

I am audibly sighing in the office thinking about it..... *sigh*

[Taryn Tailz]

Just about 100 pages into Clive Barker's latest - "The Scarlet Gospels". Enjoying it quite a bit so far.

[von Boom]

Just finished The Martian by Andy Weir. Started out a bit rough, but got better as it progressed. Definitely a slow builder, but finishes very strong. I recommend reading it before the film is released.

[Radbacker]

yep I just read The Martian too, read in a few days its a real page turner.  I love me some science shows so I really enjoyed all the sciency stuff in it and Mark Watney is a great relatable nerd. 
Movie looks good, getting some good early reviews too.

Cu Radbacker

[Professor Bear]

Be interesting to see how Ridley Scott tackles the irreverence of the main character of The Martian, and the light-hearted nature of the story's central conceit that rocket scientists are rarely space cowboy hero types and are in fact a bunch of geeks who probably didn't get laid much in college.

The Martian Chronicles - a bit of a faster-paced read than I'd expected based on the old 1980s television series, but full of ideas that have been mined to buggery elsewhere, particularly the whole "loved one back from the dead" meme currently throttling US television output.  It's a cracking read - if anachronistic - and I was unprepared for what a bummer it is, as while the tv series adapts a lot of the material (apart from - thankfully - the "black folk exodus" chapter), it misses out on some minor details that might arguably be essential, such as the - admittedly baffling - decision for the Martian colonists to return to Earth when war breaks out, leaving the planet sparsely populated once again - this wasn't explained in the tv show, Mars was simply a ghost planet all of a sudden, but here it's an essential part of the mythos of why humanity follows the Martians into extinction (as well as - /puts on nerd hat - showing that Dan Jurgens and John Byrne got a few ideas from Bradbury when it came to fleshing out post-Crisis Krypton in the Superman comics).
There are apparently about a dozen different versions of Chronicles out there with chapters removed or added, so I probably have to track down another one to get some of the stories that seem to be considered important in the Chronicles/Bradbury canon - Usher 2 and The Wilderness are notably absent from this version.  In the meantime, I get to use my status as someone who read the original novel to look down my nose at the godawful BBC radio adaptation (available to listen to for the next three weeks), which takes four stories and misses the point spectacularly for each on top of adding pantomime-level dialogue and characters, while Youtube throws up a charming Soviet-era oddity in the shape of Nazim Tulyakhodzayev's animated adaptation of There Will Come Soft Rains, which is worth a gander as it's only 9 minutes long.