MingtheMerciless wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 5:55 pm
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, rip roaring space opera. Proper page turner for me.
Based on this I picked up an AT book in Waterstones a while ago. I haven't read it yet but the missus has and says to thank you for the recommendation. She really likes it, which is marv, it opens up a few months worth of reading as we haven't read any of his books before.
Marvellous - the expedition diary of Maj. Roy Homard.
Only just started it but it's addictive and very good so far, I thoroughly recommend it.
I was in a London club as a guest a few days ago and pursued their library, it was very nice, thousands of books, some very old, and I then sat in front of the open fire reading a few pages of a few books, to see if anything took my fancy, these two stood out...
The Strange Death of Tory England - Geoffrey Wheatcroft - I bought a copy on Amazon last night for about four pounds and it's winging it's way to me now.
The Time of my Life - Denis Healey - not bought yet but I will - I might not usually have bothered with such a book but a flick through the pages had me hooked quite quickly and it seemed interesting and not the dry parchment that I thought it might be.
Mosquito by Rowland White - story of the aircraft's development, tied in with the story of the Danish resistance and how the two tied up with Operation Carthage. Detailed but never dry. Worth a read.
The first two of J K Rowlings 'Cormoran Strike' books, written under the nom de plume Robert Galbraith. The first I enjoyed, which is unusual as I don't usually read fiction, but the characters are good and the story fast-paced. Jumped onto the second one and started feeling it was following a similar pattern: police reach a conclusion, Strike has his doubts, lots of running (limping) around London and right at the end, he unmasks the real killer. Maybe I'm being too critical. Might try one more.
Also read another fictional book, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. In an old basement coffee house in Tokyo there is a chair that allows customers to time travel, albeit with specific rules. You can tell it's written by a playwright as it is only set in the cafe. Each of the characters has their reason to want to time travel and all are intertwined. I actually enjoyed it. Recommended.
Popped out to the next village (well small town really, it does have a train station) and found an absolute cracker of a secondhand shop with a huge selection of books. Picked up these, for £3.99 each.
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gremlin wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 9:14 am
Had the chance to read a few lately:
Mosquito by Rowland White - story of the aircraft's development, tied in with the story of the Danish resistance and how the two tied up with Operation Carthage. Detailed but never dry. Worth a read.
Reading that myself at the moment.
I quite like Rowland White's style (Vulcan 607 was excellent) - apart from his habit of constant, nested, back-storying which means you lose track of where you are in the original story. "This happened, but only because of the contributions of this fella... his story is interesting so we'll start to tell it, but not before we tell you about this other feller who was so-and-so's brother, and he's involved as well, because their mother was married to this other feller who happened to be the man who's grandfather brought sliced bread to India, which is an interesting tale that goes like this .........."
I think Rowland White grew up watching reruns of Ronnie Corbett's shaggy dog stories....
Count Steer wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 10:09 am
Just read 'On the road' again but my 'Oxfam books scout' has snagged all of the Mortal Engines (and the prequels). She says they're well written/plotted etc so it's a bingefest of YA fiction next for me.
(Then 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' to get back in 'road trip' mode )
I've read some of them, they're not bad.
Well, I read the Mortal Engines books and enjoyed them but I enjoyed the prequel series (Fever Crumb etc) more.
Currently on the first of the Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time books. Bit of a slow burn start with lots of world/species development etc going on.
Count Steer wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 10:09 am
Just read 'On the road' again but my 'Oxfam books scout' has snagged all of the Mortal Engines (and the prequels). She says they're well written/plotted etc so it's a bingefest of YA fiction next for me.
(Then 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' to get back in 'road trip' mode )
I've read some of them, they're not bad.
Well, I read the Mortal Engines books and enjoyed them but I enjoyed the prequel series (Fever Crumb etc) more.
Currently on the first of the Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time books. Bit of a slow burn start with lots of world/species development etc going on.
After i binned Banks, well i think i binned them, i left them downstairs and they've gone away now
I picked up a Val McDermid from the local little 'box' on the high street. We've got 2-3 in the village and they get filled and emptied of books by various locals just like me i guess. It was pretty decent with a few nice twists, plenty of death, blood and violence... yeah not bad. Decent number of pages and decent content.
weeksy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 8:00 am
After i binned Banks, well i think i binned them, i left them downstairs and they've gone away now
I picked up a Val McDermid from the local little 'box' on the high street. We've got 2-3 in the village and they get filled and emptied of books by various locals just like me i guess. It was pretty decent with a few nice twists, plenty of death, blood and violence... yeah not bad. Decent number of pages and decent content.
Well, I read the Mortal Engines books and enjoyed them but I enjoyed the prequel series (Fever Crumb etc) more.
Currently on the first of the Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time books. Bit of a slow burn start with lots of world/species development etc going on.
Hope you're not scared of spiders.
A couple of the humans are scarier than the spiders.
I'm reading Military Blunders after a recommendation from someone on here, it's hard going to be honest and not terribly exciting, I doubt I'll finish it.
So far my impression is that he seems to be brilliant at making exciting events appear not very exciting.
I'm also reading (again) (I always have a few books on the go) Stan Stephens The Mechanic Who Got Lucky, personally signed by the chap himself.
It's one of those books that you can pick up, flick to any part and read as much as you want and the stories (and the stories inside the stories) just roll out one after the other. It's apparently all written by Stan himself without a professional writer doing it for him, so it comes across just like he's talking to you in the pub, and it's brilliant because of it.
Well, I read the Mortal Engines books and enjoyed them but I enjoyed the prequel series (Fever Crumb etc) more.
Currently on the first of the Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time books. Bit of a slow burn start with lots of world/species development etc going on.
Hope you're not scared of spiders.
Finished the first book. It's quite a long read but the last 1/3rd romped along a bit more. The resolution at the end actually came as a complete surprise...which was nice...and sets things up nicely for book 2. Might read something a bit 'easier' first. (Got the latest Murderbot book on top of the stack).
Picked up 2 books in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor in the bus stop library recently. 'We are Legion (We are Bob)' and 'For We are Many'. Sci-fi. Really quite funny and snappily written. (Chap has his head frozen after being killed, wakes up as an AI with absolutely no rights in an America that has been taken over by the religious zealot far right. Gets sent into space as a ship's control unit kind of thing.
Count Steer wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 8:05 pm
Picked up 2 books in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor in the bus stop library recently. 'We are Legion (We are Bob)' and 'For We are Many'. Sci-fi. Really quite funny and snappily written. (Chap has his head frozen after being killed, wakes up as an AI with absolutely no rights in an America that has been taken over by the religious zealot far right. Gets sent into space as a ship's control unit kind of thing.
Funny enough to plan to buy the rest of them.
I've read the four that are currently out (think there's a fifth in the works). They're funny and well written, bit I seen to remember them starting to get a bit heavy on moral questions on the last one.
I've just finished 'Dead Fathers Club' by Matt Haig. I dip in and out of his books randomly, and have enjoyed the ones I've read so far (Humans, The Midnight Library, The Radleys), but I didn't like this one as much - mostly down to the last part of the book, and the fact that most of the characters aren't that likeable.
Googling it afterwards apparently it's supposed to be a modern take on Hamlet, so that explains a lot. But different to his usual fare.
Count Steer wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 8:05 pm
Picked up 2 books in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor in the bus stop library recently. 'We are Legion (We are Bob)' and 'For We are Many'. Sci-fi. Really quite funny and snappily written. (Chap has his head frozen after being killed, wakes up as an AI with absolutely no rights in an America that has been taken over by the religious zealot far right. Gets sent into space as a ship's control unit kind of thing.
Funny enough to plan to buy the rest of them.
I've read the four that are currently out (think there's a fifth in the works). They're funny and well written, bit I seen to remember them starting to get a bit heavy on moral questions on the last one.
It looks like it was only ever intended to be 3 books (it's referred to as a trilogy on his Web page). The ideas are probably running a bit thin. He couldn't get them published at first so did them as audio books - on Audible I think - and they worked well enough to attract a publishers interest.
There's a lot of series books that sell well so they keep cranking them out long after they should have stopped. Publishers like to keep an earner going.
The tone/style and some aspects of the AI topic remind me of the Murderbot books (which I also like ).
Count Steer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 7:59 am
It looks like it was only ever intended to be 3 books (it's referred to as a trilogy on his Web page). The ideas are probably running a bit thin. He couldn't get them published at first so did them as audio books - on Audible I think - and they worked well enough to attract a publishers interest.
There's a lot of series books that sell well so they keep cranking them out long after they should have stopped. Publishers like to keep an earner going.
Agreed!!
Count Steer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 7:59 am
The tone/style and some aspects of the AI topic remind me of the Murderbot books (which I also like ).
I've not long finished all the current bobiverse audio books and really enjoyed them, I'd recommend them to anyone who enjoys a not too serious future of the human race in spacy type book.
I have had Children of Time in my audible for ages, final got round to listening it last month, absolutly solid book... And I hate spiders.
Currently, I'm on Dan Simmons - The Fall of Hyperion, and also Connie Willis - Doomsday Book.
She really likes it, which is marv, it opens up a few months worth of reading as we haven't read any of his books before. 
