The Sword and Laser discussion

The Heroes, I Shall Wear Midnight (Tiffany Aching, #4).

Slow reading month for me so far, until we pick the next book!

Wizard Knight
Gormenghast

For me so far.
hoping to start on:
Wintersmith (Tiffany Aching, #3)
The Name of the Wind

Currently:
Regular read: City of Golden Shadow
Popcorn read: The Spy Who Haunted Me

On deck:
Book of the Month reads: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, Lord of Light, Black Sun Rising: The Coldfire Trilogy #1 and Foundation(so far)
Other: Across the Nightingale Floor and Deadhouse Gates

I just finished reading or starting the last of the 2010 Nebula Award nominees for the novel category, and you can read by natterings here.

I also finished Decoded by Jay Z, which was a great read with annotated songs. It took a while since I listened to every song he mentioned.

I saw that Barnes and Noble has Consider Phlebas (Culture #1) by Iain Banks for 99 cents (Nook edition) so I downloaded it to try on my iPad. I've been wanting to give that series a try for quite some time.

I am still in the middle of The Blade Itself is good, but not great for me. I am also reading, for months now, Security 2020: Reduce Security Risks This Decade, but I am going slowly and trying to absorb and critic every line to apply it at work...

Just finished Deathless, which I really enjoyed and am reading Zombie Spaceship Wasteland right now. Should be done that in time for my pre-order of Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin to download on Tuesday. Camera Obscura will be downloading on the 7th, so that will probably be next. I try to read my pre-orders right away so that they don't languish in my to-read collection with everything else. :) The Hidden Goddess is out the 26th, so I'll be reading that this month too. Not sure what will be in between.

For my non-fiction book this month, I'm going to start I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World next.

And I have 38 chapters of War and Peace to read this month for the read-along too. Phew. At least they're all short chapters. :)

Jenny, I think it's Consider Phlebas that's 99 cents for the Nook. I downloaded it Friday. I hated The Algebraist, but I seem to be quite alone in my low opinion of Iain Banks. I figured I could give him a second chance for 99 cents. It will probably be a long time before I get to this book though.

I'm still plodding through the audiobook of Pandora's Star. I picked up a print copy at the library, so I'll try to use that to help me get through it. The audiobook narrator is so awful and I can't keep track of the characters and subplots.

I'm also listening to the audiobook of The Wise Man's Fear. Needless to say that this book is making Pandora's Star take a backseat.

In text, I'm reading One of Our Thursdays Is Missing. It's probably the best Thursday Next book since The Eyre Affair. Speaking of Jane Eyre, I've got that one going on the Nook. It's funny, I know I've read it before, but I don't remember that it starts with Jane's childhood and education. I must have read an abridged version when I was in my teens.

I have been reading Off Armageddon Reef on the Nook, but I'm considering putting that on my unfinished shelf. It's not that it's awful, but it has taken a long time for not much to happen and I read the blurb of the next book. It looks like the events of the second book take place not long after where I'm at now (400 pages to go in a 734 page ebook). Life's too short and there are too many other books to read.

I've started my re-read of the Song of Ice and Fire series. I'm about a third through A Game of Thrones. It's been the only thing I've been reading; I've mostly been listening to it.

Slow reader thatI am, I'm still plugging away at Best Served Cold and am making my way through the arduously complete reading of The Dark Tower by starting up Salem's Lot

I still don't see the point in doing the side reads for the Dark Tower series, Tom.

I read through the related works after plowing through the series itself. The non-tower books are only really relevant in an "oh, hey, that's kinda cool" way and not a "OH, it all makes sense now!" way.

I've been on travel for work for the last three weeks and managed to fill in a lot of gaps in Hugo winning novels of the past that I set my mind to reading. I read Fritz Leiber's The Wanderer, Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, Philip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Arthur Clarkes's Rendezvous with Rama and The Fountains of Paradise, Kate Wilhem's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, and Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake. Great road trip.

Sandi wrote: "Jenny, I think it's Consider Phlebas that's 99 cents for the Nook. I downloaded it Friday. I hated The Algebraist, but I seem to be quite alone in my low opinion of Iain..."

Oh, right, sorry, Culture #1, not Surface #1. I'll fix it in my original comment. Still, nice to find the first book in a series so cheap, in case I don't end up liking it. I pick it up at the bookstore a lot and am just not convinced enough to pay full price.

Jenny wrote: "Sandi wrote: "Jenny, I think it's Consider Phlebas that's 99 cents for the Nook. I downloaded it Friday. I hated The Algebraist, but I seem to be quite alone in my low o..."

Consider Phlebas is only available on Audible UK, not US. Darn licensing restrictions!

I just finished Childhood's End a couple of days ago and picked up Animal Farm. I'm still waiting for The Black Prism from the library but I'm pretty sure I'll get it this month.

Now that I got an iPad (1st gen, bought Apple refurbished), I'm vociferously devouring every digital comic I can get my hands on. I stopped reading in 2004 when I had to look for a new job and I just never picked it up again until now. I am catching up on almost seven years of comics (mostly the DC universe). I feel as if I missed so much and am totally blissed out to be catching up!

I toyed with going back to comics about three years ago, but the thought of bagging them and storing them was so much work I couldn't do it. Now, with digital comics, I'm very happy to pick them up again (thank you Comixology!)

Sandi wrote: " I hated The Algebraist, but I seem to be quite alone in my low opinion of Iain..."

Try Walking on Glass this was the first Banks book I read and it caused me to try several others all of which I hated. I'm looking at you The Wasp Factory (yuck!!)

Finished Storm Front and read True Grit, which I believe I would have enjoyed more had I read the book before seeing the movie. Now reading Un Lun Dun by China Miéville, and afterwards plan to finish the first arc of Shadows of the Apt by reading The Scarab Path

I just finished The Wise Man's Fear but I don't know what to read next... I think I'm going to start Sword & Citadel

I'm finishing up The Concrete Jungle from The Atrocity Archives and reading along with tor.com on A Game of Thrones. At two chapters per week, it'll take a long time, but at least I'll get through it. I'm really enjoying it so far, and having a set pace that's pretty reasonable for me is nice. All the hype about the HBO adaptation got me excited to read the book, and maybe I'll finish it before the blu-ray comes out (no cable TV to watch it live).

Kindle read: The Wise Man's Fear
Audible "read": Tigana

Reading for work: A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers, Third Edition

When I'm done with The Wise Man's Fear, I'll most likely move on to Gardens of the Moon.

Eric wrote: "Sandi wrote: " I hated The Algebraist, but I seem to be quite alone in my low opinion of Iain..."

Try Walking on Glass this was the first Banks book I read and it caused..."

You have to remember that Ian Banks and Iain M. Banks are the same person writing in two different genres. Ian M Banks is the science fiction author whose high points for me are the Culture Novels- The Player of Games and Use of Weapons being the most accessible. I liked Consider Phlebas but it has a high bounce factor.

His M-less work is his non-speculative fiction which I don't enjoy nearly as much.

Finding it difficult to find a book that will hold my attention at the moment so have a number of books which remain partly read. Persisting with Noonshade (Chronicles of the Raven, #2) which i'm, enjoying but it's not compulsive. Also about a third of the way into Monster Island: A Zombie Novel which is an easy read...but again not compulsive reading. Having been a big fan of the early Necroscope books i picked up Vampire World: Blood Brothers bk. 1 which has been a little slow so it's no held my attention but i'm assured it is one of the better sequels. I ordered the Masterworks version of Earth Abides. I flew through the first two thirds of this but am struggling with the later parts. went shopping and picked up From The Dead which i am hope to finish tomorrow. Never sure where it is a lack of concentration on my part or just trying to pick my books to better match my moods? What do others think?

I finally overloaded my brain on technical non-fiction, so I've decided to take the plunge and I'm now reading George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones: Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire on Kindle. I got the 4-in-1 set, though I don't think I'll ever do that again. I much prefer individual volumes!

Started reading through Dune for the first time. I think I said this last time, but there's a lot of big authors out there whose works I've never gotten around to reading, so I'm going to try and make a point to read at least one of their works so I can at least form an opinion on them. I'll probably try Stephen King's The Gunslinger before too long as well.

Listening to The Last King of Scotland. Pleased to find a good one to catch my interest after a string of books I started and quit on.

Philip wrote: "Listening to The Last King of Scotland. Pleased to find a good one to catch my interest after a string of books I started and quit on."

Is that the one about Idi Amin?

Sandi wrote: "Is that the one about Idi Amin?"

Yes, it is. The book is historical fiction, told from the point of view of a fictional character in Amin's inner circle. Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation of it, but I quit reading the entry after I got a better grasp of the book in order to avoid spoilers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last...

Philip wrote: "Listening to The Last King of Scotland. Pleased to find a good one to catch my interest after a string of books I started and quit on."

They also made that into a very good movie (I.M.O.) with James McAvoy and Forrest Whitaker. You should check it out after you finish the book maybe.

Micah wrote: "They also made that into a very good movie (I.M.O.) with James McAvoy and Forrest Whitaker. You should check it out after you finish the book maybe."

Most definitely. I've been wanting to see the movie for some time and barely missed it on IFC the other day. My Dish Network info told me about the book so I downloaded it from the library.

I've been a fan of McAvoy ever since he played Leto II in SciFi's Children Of Dune.

Matt wrote: "Thanks for the heads up on Consider Phlebas, it's also 99 cents for the kindle edition and I've been wanting to read that for a while as well.

Consider Phlebas is the Orbital Drop for the month. They pick one book a month and offer it for 99 cents as an ebook at most e-book stores.

Sign up for the email list if you want the monthly notice.

http://www.orbitebooks.com/

Curt wrote: "Consider Phlebas is the Orbital Drop for the month. They pick one book a month and offer it for 99 cents as an ebook at most e-book stores.
..."

Just tried to pick it up for the Kindle. "This book is not available in the following regions: Australia"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

What are U.S. house prices looking like at the moment?

More than 99 cents, unfortunately.

I finished Blindsight last night and started on Crossover: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel today.

The kindle sample didn't wow me but the postive reviews did enough for me to pick it up. If the kindle sample had been about 10 pages longer it would have been a lot easier decision to buy. Now I just hope it lives up to the reviews.

I've been in kind of a reading funk for a couple weeks and am trying to get out of it with Ship Breaker. I'm not very far, but enjoying it so far. I gave up on Boneshaker about 100 pages in. Not sure what it was....it just wasn't doing it for me.

Listened to What I Talk about When I Talk about Running, read Best Served Cold and started reading The Heroes while on vacation.

Also finished listening to The Name of the Wind and will start The Wise Man's Fear as soon as my Audible credit is ready.

Just finished The Wise Man's Fear and Quicksilver. Both were audible listens.

I just started listening to King of the Vagabonds and I'm contemplating starting in on Blindsight.

Presently reading The Hidden Family and Understand Electronics: A Teach Yourself Guide Both are excellent, thus far!

Speaking of learning electronics (I can't embed here, can I?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORW7Qr...

Just finished The Eyre Affair for another book club, and still reading Mating off and on. Also reading through some of the books of poetry that the National Book Foundation have been profiling as they look back at the winners in their blog.

I went on a fantasy spree for this month. Not sure why. I started it out with the Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman. I really started these in March but they include Nightlife, Moonshine, Madhouse Roadkill and Deathwish. With those done, I went into Lisa Shearin's new novel: Con & Conjure.

Then this past week and the weekend, I finally decided to delve into Joe Abercrombie with The First Law Series (book 1 was covered in the podcast] So this weekend I read: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings and continued with a followup book (which has some characters from The First Law Series) Best Served Cold

I am currently reading Blindsight so I can do that, but will then re-read Game of Thrones so I can be prepared for the new series this month.

Jenny wrote: "Just finished The Eyre Affair for another book club..."

When I read it, it brought up stuff from Jane Eyre that I didn't remember. I could have sworn I read it in when I was in my teens (decades ago). I decided to reread Jane Eyre because of the new movie and I totally didn't remember the whole first part with Jane's childhood and education. So, either I didn't read it at all and just know the major plot points because it's such a classic, or I read an abridged version. How annoying. (For the record, Jane Eyre is quite excellent and I can see why it's endured.)

Sandi wrote: When I read it, it brought up stuff from Jane Eyre that I didn't remember...."

Gothic novels aren't my favorite, but Jane Eyre is my favorite of the lot. Plus my friend had a reading from it at her wedding after the place she was supposed to be married in burned to the ground the month before it ("I married him, dear reader," etc.)

Just finished Usurper of the Sun -- captivating in a very quiet way with characters who gradually fill out the space they're given in the book. Thanks to Sean for the suggestion some months ago. Pushing through Kraken -- I find I always run into a bump in China Miéville's books where I have to suck it up and get over the hill. I've been well rewarded so far, so I'll keep on. And the always entertaining C.J. Date...since I have to actually pay for these books.

Got The Wise Man's Fear from the library so I ought to be reading that but I've been side-tracked by Vellum: The Book of All Hoursand Ink: The Book of All Hours which are great ones for myth geeks and intertextuality fans.

Not reading along with the group this month, and I'm having a lot of trouble finding time to read. When I do have time, I'm reading A Game of Thrones on my Kindle and am listening to Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age from Audible. It was in their half-off sale so I picked it up today.

I keep staring at Atlas Shrugged in my queue to listen to, but I think I need a good couple of hours to dedicate to listening to get into it.

Re-reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher (and then the rest of the Dresden Files) in preperation for Ghost Story. Also just picked up Embedded by Dan Abnett. Also going through A Game of Thrones and the sequels again since I never finished reading A Feast for Crows and it's just been too long to dive back into the series at that point.

I wish I had more time for reading. Or that I could read faster and still enjoy...
A series I started some time ago is the Green Rider books by Kristen BritainGreen Rider She recently published the fourth book of the series.
Blackveil

Jenny wrote: "Just finished The Eyre Affair for another book club, and still reading Mating off and on. Also reading through some of the books of poetry that the National Book Foundat..."

Oh, I LOVE the The Eyre Affair. I read it back years ago and it was such a revelation as in "OMG! That's how inventive and fun books can be." Not that I hadn't read great books before, but The Eyre Affair just was a whole different thing.

I'm tryin'...

I just finished reading The Black Prism last night, the magic system alone made it well worth the read.

I'm starting Blindsight today. I picked up a copy from the library and it doesn't look like it's ever been read.