Read any good books lately?

[ArmorOfGod]

Has anyone here read anything unusually good lately?

I have read several books over the past several months, but one that sticks out in my mind is "The Wee Free Men" by Terry Pratchett.
Imagine if Douglas Adams tried to retell "Lord of the Rings." That is not a great comparism, but is pretty close to the truth.

I don't know why I picked the book up; I was looking in the "Youth" section of the library, which is where they keep the classics like 1984, The Grapes of Wrath, and all Shakespeare books. I was looking for a classic that I have not read yet and saw the Wee Free Men, which is about a small girl with who meets a large clan of pixie-like creatures that drink, cuss, and steal.

I HIGHLY recommend the book to anyone who likes clever, sarcastic, fantasy tales.

AoG

 

[zDom]

Not recently, but:

"Shatterpoint" by Matthew Stover.

It's about Mace Windu between episode II and III.

Wish this would be the next Star Wars movie.

 

[Don Roley]

I have read several books over the past several months, but one that sticks out in my mind is "The Wee Free Men" by Terry Pratchett.
Imagine if Douglas Adams tried to retell "Lord of the Rings." That is not a great comparism, but is pretty close to the truth.

It is not recent, but if you liked that book, check out his book with Neil Gaiman- Good Omens.

My wife actually had to come out of the bedroom to tell me to put the book away and come to sleep because my helpless peals of laughter were keeping her awake.

Pratchett is good and funny. I have read a lot of his stuff- mainly the Discworld series. Good Omens is his best work IMO.

Right now I am reading Paladin Of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. I love everything she writes because she fleshes out the charecters and the world they live in so well in addition to writing a good story. It has been a while since I read the book previously set in the same universe, but it is all coming back to me and I think I will soon reach a point where I can't put the book down.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

I love Bujold. Especially the Miles Vorkosigan stories.

And Armor of God, read the followup to Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky. It's a blast.

Right now I'm reading Peter David's "Sir Apropos of Nothing" series. Damn good stuff.

Jeff

 

[ArmorOfGod]

I love Bujold. Especially the Miles Vorkosigan stories.

And Armor of God, read the followup to Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky. It's a blast.

Right now I'm reading Peter David's "Sir Apropos of Nothing" series. Damn good stuff.

Jeff

I read Hat Full of Sky right after it. It was great also. BTW, Wee Free Men is in pre-production by Sam Rami (of Spiderman) to be filmed as a movie.

AoG

 

[SFC JeffJ]

I read Hat Full of Sky right after it. It was great also. BTW, Wee Free Men is in pre-production by Sam Rami (of Spiderman) to be filmed as a movie.

AoG

Cool! I did not know that.

That'll be a fun flick!

 

[SFC JeffJ]

But when I think of Sam Rami, I'll always think of "Evil Dead 2"

Jeff

 

[Don Roley]

I love Bujold. Especially the Miles Vorkosigan stories.

That's what sucked me in. I got the Vor Game on a whim and by that point in the series everything was so well set in her universe that it was instant brain suck.

If you love military SF, she is a good one in that series. But the best military SF I think is the Falkenburg's Legion series by Jerry Pournelle. I wish he were still putting out more books like that. But his universe for that is based on the idea that the US and Soviet Union joined together to form a world goverment, and that caused problems when the Berlin wall came down.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

That's what sucked me in. I got the Vor Game on a whim and by that point in the series everything was so well set in her universe that it was instant brain suck.

If you love military SF, she is a good one in that series. But the best military SF I think is the Falkenburg's Legion series by Jerry Pournelle. I wish he were still putting out more books like that. But his universe for that is based on the idea that the US and Soviet Union joined together to form a world goverment, and that caused problems when the Berlin wall came down.

I used to love reading his columns in Byte magazine. I'm going to have to check out some of his fiction. Interesting fellow:
POURNELLE

"Pournelle opposed both Gulf Wars, maintaining that the money would be better spent developing energy technologies for the United States. He is quoted as saying "with what we spent in Iraq we could build nuclear power plants and space solar power satellites and tell the Arabs to drink their oil." His web site is critical of the Iraq War, but demands support of troops committed there. "Once you send the troops in, you have no choice but to give them what they need until you bring them home." "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkenberg's_Legion

 

[Jonathan Randall]

"The Sociopath Next Door". Good book. A bit sensational at times but good information and a great reminder that some people simply do NOT have a conscience - although only a fraction of these conscienceless souls commit violent crimes, all damage or destroy the lives they touch.

 

[Mcura]

Non fiction stuff that's passed through my hands:
- The Secrets of Cabales Serrada Escrima by Mark V. Wiley (naturally there'd be something related to martial arts)
- Glenn Barr's Haunted Paradise (a collection of various artists' work)
- Joe Chiodo's How to Draw and Paint Pin-ups (partly author's portfolio and a series of running tutorials that remind me how much I've forgotten about painting since college)

Fiction that just arrived:
-Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie (I've been hearing so much buzz about this, and now it's here!)

 

[arnisador]

Body of Secrets, James Bamford

A history of the NSA.

 

[jks9199]

If you love military SF, she is a good one in that series. But the best military SF I think is the Falkenburg's Legion series by Jerry Pournelle. I wish he were still putting out more books like that. But his universe for that is based on the idea that the US and Soviet Union joined together to form a world goverment, and that caused problems when the Berlin wall came down.

Yeah... But it was freaky for a while there how close history was following his predictions!

Another military science fiction series I enjoyed was the one about Nick Seafort by David Feintuch (Midshipman's Hope, Challenger's Hope, and the rest).

I also recently read The Two Space War by David Grossman and Leo Frankowski. Some neat ideas, and Grossman's influence was clearly present on the effects of combat.

 

[Flying Crane]

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, by Robert E. Howard. Howard was the original author, and wrote these short stories back in the 1930s, and established the Barbarian/Hero fantasy story genre. Good stuff.