Books - What are you reading?

[Leithen]

Ian Rankin, A Song For The Dark Times.



Still as good as ever.

[DoctorX]

^ Next on my list, glad to hear it. Then it's the Pillars of the Earth prequel by Ken Follett.

[Jim on the hill]

Ordered Darkness Descending written by Ken Jones

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Darkness-Descending-Ken...

Sounds incredible and as a supporter of the Fan Dance big respect to our Special Forces.

[TheJimi]

DoctorX said:

^ Next on my list, glad to hear it. Then it's the Pillars of the Earth prequel by Ken Follett.

Yep, I'm reading it right now. Really enjoying it so far

[DoctorX]

TheJimi said:

Yep, I'm reading it right now. Really enjoying it so far

Excellent. I’m still only 30% through the chunky Strike book, so with that, Ian Rankin and this, I shall return to this thread in 2022....

[Stan the Bat]

K12beano said:

Surprisingly good romp.... again .... from "Galbraith".... now 2/3rds of the way through.... it takes a long time to get anywhere, but difficult to put down even if it is a bit trashy in parts. Doesn't require too much brainpower, and quite entertaining - 7/10

Have just finished this, a bit convoluted--I was getting mixed up with all the characters.

But, on a par with the previous ones, so not a bad read then.

[coppice]

Newc said:

An interesting idea, let down at the start by some unimportant but irritating physics errors (note to author - if you're going to write a techno-details book about rocket science, have it proof read by some rocket scientists) and then let down at the end by a structure of

Part 1 - establish background and develop some interesting characters
Part 2 - put characters in jeopardy, display erudite knowledge of historical events
Part 3 - form the outline of a plot climax
Part 4 - give up on the hard part of resolving everything and skip straight to the epilogue where it is sunny and time for tea and biscuits and everything is lovely

Readable because Harris is a good crafter of prose, but not a book I would rush to recommend unless you just want something light and simple. Most illuminating part (if true) was just how deeply plugged in to the nazi setup Wernher von Braun was.

I have nearly always greatly enjoyed Harris' work , especially Pompeii, Ghost and (bets of all ) An Officer and a Spy. His last book , The Second Sleep , was risibly dreadful and at least V2 is an improvement . But it's still poor- paper thin , single dimensional characterisation, over contrived plot - the whole thing feels formulaic and tired.

Now it's time for his brother in law (and far better writer) Nick Hornby's latest , and then the masterful William Boyd's ..

[Prolex-UK]

Just finished Warlord

Its the lasr utred book

Read in 3 sittings in 2 days.

As ever a great read

[FunkyNige]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is one of my favourite books so I pre-ordered the authors next book - Piranesi hoping for something vaguely similar.
It's quite a bit different - it's much shorter for a start and is almost completely world-building with not a whole lot of plot going on until the last quarter where it's pretty much "this is what's going on". I enjoyed reading it but it could've done with fleshing out a bit.

[egor110]

The last 12 months have been a pretty good reading period for me .

Coming from not reading at all i've read :

the don winslow cartel trilogy

the jason matthews red sparrow trilogy

the mick herron - spook street series

ben coes - entire series

joel c rosenberg kremlin conspiracy trilogy

newt gingrich - conspiracy

rick campbell - empire rising , trident deception

and i've just started charles cummings a foreign country.

I've dabbled with a bit of dystopian fiction by reading an excess male , the power and the feed and struggled with some sci fi with the golden son and red rising but i find sci fi a bit of a slog compared to spy / techno thrillers.

Future plans are to have a real stab at cracking out a book a fortnight .

[tomw2000]

egor110 said:

The last 12 months have been a pretty good reading period for me .

Coming from not reading at all i've read :

the don winslow cartel trilogy

the mick herron - spook street series

The Don Winslow and Mick Herron books are ace. If anyone has recommendations in a similar vein, I'm interested

[egor110]

tomw2000 said:

egor110 said:

The last 12 months have been a pretty good reading period for me .

Coming from not reading at all i've read :

the don winslow cartel trilogy

the mick herron - spook street series

The Don Winslow and Mick Herron books are ace. If anyone has recommendations in a similar vein, I'm interested

The Jason Matthews books are worth a read .

[tomw2000]

egor110 said:

The Jason Matthews books are worth a read .

Thanks, I'll give Red Sparrow a go in that case (haven't seen the film!)

[siovey]

Just finished reading the draft copies of my brother's books. Loved them! Very proud of him!
He's just putting the finishing touches to them before he releases them on amazon and I can give him some free publicity here..

[notslopes]

Curently reading Gunship: Spectre of Death by Henry Zeybel. Not sure if he meant it to be but it is quite funny in places.

[dsgrnmcm]

notslopes said:

Curently reading Gunship: Spectre of Death by Henry Zeybel. Not sure if he meant it to be but it is quite funny in places.

Its £56 on Amazon!!!!

[M5-911]

2084 by John C. Lennox. The title of his book was given to him by another scientist with whom he had great debates, P. Atkins.

[notslopes]

dsgrnmcm said:

notslopes said:

Curently reading Gunship: Spectre of Death by Henry Zeybel. Not sure if he meant it to be but it is quite funny in places.

Its £56 on Amazon!!!!

I think i paid about £10 for it on adebooks. Comes from the US but way cheaper than Amazon.

[Mezzanine]

leglessAlex said:

K12beano said:

grumbledoak said:

I just finished 1Q84, all three books. It's begins with a young woman stuck in traffic in a taxi in Tokyo, who has to disembark and use an emergency escape ladder to make her appointment in a hotel. Where she kills someone. It goes on to involve a religious cult and a long lost love in a parallel world that she entered on the ladder. It starts well, an intriguing situation, and there are interesting bits along the way, but it didn't really merit three books.

Three?

I don’t remember it being three books!

I do recall the premise was immediately original and intriguing.... and I will give you that once it got going it did seem to coast towards the end a bit.

The first Murakami I read and certainly hooked me in for more!

Books 1&2 are generally sold in one volume.

I love Murakami, but he is a bit weird and I'd probably have recommended starting with Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Norwegian Wood. Still, I have to say I enjoyed 1Q84 too, and will probably read it again at some point.

I have just finished this hefty tome.

I don’t know how he does it, but I find Murakami’s book so damn readable. Something about his stories just flows and you have read a hundred pages without thinking about it. 1300 pages flew by.

I really like how the weirder elements of his books do not appear too weird, so they seem grounded in that reality and entirely feasible - they are just naturally woven into the story.

He also creates such bold characters.

This was the third book of his I have read and have to say he is fast becoming my favourite author.

[SistersofPercy]

Really enjoying this, but I do like Johnny Herbert. Tells it as it is I find.