Whats everyone reading?

Radbacker · 03 May, 2011, 03:12:24 PM

QuoteIt's got me all excited about fantasy again and I've ordered The Blade Itself by Joe Abacrombie and book one of The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson as recommended by Radbacker.

The Malazan books are rather epic, you'll know after the first book if its what your after. World building at its greatest.

CU Radbacker

Keef Monkey · 04 May, 2011, 09:42:57 AM

Just finished The Eternal Prison, and loved it. Oooft it was good, possibly the best I've read in the series so far. It's like Snake Plisskin running around the world of Blade Runner, and the action is brilliantly done (one of the trickiest things with novels I think, it's rare that an action scene really grabs me in a book to be honest). If you like sci-fi action thriller novels and haven't read these then I heartily recommend grabbing 'The Electric Church' and getting stuck in.

Just getting started on Level Up: The Guide To Great Game Design. A friend got me it as a gift when I was working as a tester/audio guy at a game studio, and I'd been talking about maybe wanting to get into scripting and design. I've since left that job so don't really have my foot on that ladder anymore, but I am learning to program so it should still be a useful and interesting read.

SmallBlueThing · 04 May, 2011, 05:02:16 PM

After a week of dipping in and out of "Can You Survive The Zombie Apocalypse?", and ending up each time at "An End"- dead, trapped, zombified, or escaping into a life far worse that the one I felt behind- I finally reached "THE End"- which is so mind-bogglingly brilliant, hilarious, and punch-the-air wonderful that I want to shout about it. However, since there is the chance one of you may try this out at some point, I won't. Just take solace in the fact that "THE End" does exist, and it's madder than you could imagine.

SBT

MacyMoore · 05 May, 2011, 12:16:00 PM

I am reading My Life in Orange by Tim Guest for the second time. I plan to go get Memoirs of a Geisha this weekend or whatever I see that looks good. Suggestions?

Paul faplad Finch · 07 May, 2011, 01:01:17 AM

About a year or so back I gave up on all my GN purchasing because of money troubles. Since I am now in a position to possibly pick up again (although to nowhere near the level I was at before) I've decided to re-read all the volumes I have of series I never finished, as a refresher.

So today I started First Shot, Last Call, which is of course book 1 of 100Bullets. I have the first 5 of them, then a couple of The Boys books, a few Fables and the first 4 Buffy Season 8. As well as the first Hitman. Hopefully I should be able to get caught up some time soon.

Rationing them at the minute though because my first priority once the money is flowing again will be catching up on the 2 Casefiles, Harlem Heroes, Stainless Steel Rat, Fiends... etc that I've missed.

HOO-HAA · 07 May, 2011, 06:57:52 AM

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 04 May, 2011, 05:02:16 PM
After a week of dipping in and out of "Can You Survive The Zombie Apocalypse?", and ending up each time at "An End"- dead, trapped, zombified, or escaping into a life far worse that the one I felt behind- I finally reached "THE End"- which is so mind-bogglingly brilliant, hilarious, and punch-the-air wonderful that I want to shout about it. However, since there is the chance one of you may try this out at some point, I won't. Just take solace in the fact that "THE End" does exist, and it's madder than you could imagine.

SBT

Man, that sounds like a lot of fun.

I used to love the old Fighting Fantasy books - how does it relate to them? Is there a combat system (to ignore)?

After finishing James Herbert's Haunted, I'm on the Guy N. Smith again - this one being a first edition 1987 novel called Neophyte. Pure Satanic-Panic stuff. Very good so far.

Keef Monkey · 07 May, 2011, 08:15:33 AM

Quote from: Paul faplad Finch on 07 May, 2011, 01:01:17 AM
About a year or so back I gave up on all my GN purchasing because of money troubles. Since I am now in a position to possibly pick up again (although to nowhere near the level I was at before) I've decided to re-read all the volumes I have of series I never finished, as a refresher.

So today I started First Shot, Last Call, which is of course book 1 of 100Bullets.

I absolutely adored 100 Bullets! I found I had to re-read the first few once I got about halfway through because once all the strands start tying together it gets pretty complex and I'd forgotten a ton of stuff. One of the coolest things about it is most of the stories work really well as great standalone crime stories, but with a big plot running through the whole thing. Brilliant series.

Paul faplad Finch · 07 May, 2011, 04:17:52 PM

I seem to remember that Bullets was starting to move away from sef contained arcs and into exploring the wider mythology when I gave it up, although it hadn't gone too far that way yet. It was partly for that reason that I figured I'd be better off starting from scratch and making sure I had the groundwork straight in my head.

And if I was doing that for Bullets, I might as well do it for everything else as well. Besides, you don't really need a reason to re-read stuff this good.

Quote from: HOO-HAA on 07 May, 2011, 06:57:52 AM
I used to love the old Fighting Fantasy books - how does it relate to them? Is there a combat system (to ignore)?

Frankly, I am shocked and apalled at the very notion that one might ignore the rules of combat in those books. Thats cheating. Cheating I say!

I must have been dense because it never even occured to me to do that. Did loads of those books and followed the instructions to the letter. If I died in battle it was right back to the start I went. Took me longer to win I suppose(but at least mine were all honest victories

)

SmallBlueThing · 07 May, 2011, 09:41:02 PM

Nah, there's no combat system involved; just choices. If there was a combat system, i'd probably ignore it in exactly the same way i used to with the ff gamebooks at school, where trevor slater managed to get citadel of chaos 'done' in 45 seconds.
SBT

TordelBack · 07 May, 2011, 09:59:24 PM

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 07 May, 2011, 09:41:02 PM
...where trevor slater managed to get citadel of chaos 'done' in 45 seconds.

It's not the longest one by any means, but the solution to Citadel involves about 20 locations and probably twice that number of paragraphs. Let's be generous and say 1.5 seconds to read one and find the next. That's bloody impressive, seeing as I never won it in one go.

chris_askham · 07 May, 2011, 10:01:05 PM

That zombie gamebook sounds like a good laugh.

I'm currently reading Catcher In The Rye (there was an old copy kicking about at work and it was about to get binned, so I thought I'd give it a go) and the fourth volume of The Boys, which so far has been the best yet.

HOO-HAA · 08 May, 2011, 12:03:21 AM

Quote from: Paul faplad Finch on 07 May, 2011, 04:17:52 PM
Frankly, I am shocked and apalled at the very notion that one might ignore the rules of combat in those books. Thats cheating. Cheating I say!

... Took me longer to win I suppose(but at least mine were all honest victories )

I developed the dexterity of Mr Fantastic doing those books, fingers everywhere (oo-er!), never straying from the last two or three choices in case I hit a bum note with my next move. But then they introduced some weird code number shit in Appointment with Fear and my cheatin' ass days were over...

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 07 May, 2011, 09:41:02 PM
...where trevor slater managed to get citadel of chaos 'done' in 45 seconds.

maryanddavid · 08 May, 2011, 01:18:46 AM

More Jeff Hawke from the fan club and they are so good, why are british comics so underated outside 2000ad?

David

HOO-HAA · 08 May, 2011, 12:04:52 PM

I've reviewed HAUNTED by James Herbert over at my blog....

http://darkcentralstation.com/?p=1600

Kerrin · 08 May, 2011, 09:31:26 PM

Kraken by China Miéville after decent reviews here. Very enjoyable, very Miéville but with a touch of Stross' 'Laundry' books. About a third in and there are already a plethora of brilliant characters.

I didn't realise till I went looking for this on Amazon but Miéville has got a new book out as well, Embassytown, which according to the bumpf is a foray into sci-fi. It's now on my list.