What are you reading right now?

Just finished Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson. Fantastic adventure/drama/geeky stuff. Funny as all hell.

Currently reading the first of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones. Yes i am a sucker for good fantasy, and yes it is really good. More like a character drama and power struggle set in a fanstasy world then the usual orc n' goblins crap that most fantasy novels are. It might even best out my favorite fantasy trilogy, 'Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn' by Tad Williams.

i've got so many damn books to read i dont know where to start after this. Like some others I really want to read Mcarthy's The Road before the movie comes out. 

Sweetiemuffin, how was Hyperion and Idoru? I've been wanting to get to those some point as well. The only other Gibson i've read was Neuromancer which was good and at the time it was published, groundbreaking. I'm curious as to how his other stuff is.

Also someone mentioned Metamorphisis. I fucking hate it. HATE it. Most depressingly soul sucking, colorless, makes-you-want-to-kill-yourself book ever. Maybe that actually gives it some merit. I dunno. Possibly my most hated "classic" lit, alongside Dracula.

Also, Lead, how is that Vampire Hunter D stuff? The movies are fantastic and I love his style, but i've had a chance to pick those up.

novairon:

Just finished Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson. Fantastic adventure/drama/geeky stuff. Funny as all hell.

I assume you've read Snow Crash?  That's my favorite one by Stephenson.  Have you read his Baroque Cycle books (first one is Quicksilver).  I can't get into those at all.

novairon:

Sweetiemuffin, how was Hyperion and Idoru? I've been wanting to get to those some point as well. The only other Gibson i've read was Neuromancer which was good and at the time it was published, groundbreaking. I'm curious as to how his other stuff is.

Neuromancer is by far my favorite by him.  But I've read All Tomorrow's Parties (not bad), Mona Lisa Overdrive (good), Pattern Recognition (good) and another one of his which is about environmentalists - it was total shit, and I cannot find it on any listing of his books, so he must have totally forsaken it.  Idoru was good, I enjoyed it.  Kind of a "what happens next?" ending though.

Hyperion was great.  Cliff-hanger ending, and there are two more books after it.  I'm trying to get myself through my next few books before I order those, though, but I definitely want to read them.

sweetiemuffinsugarplum:

I assume you've read Snow Crash?  That's my favorite one by Stephenson.  Have you read his Baroque Cycle books (first one is Quicksilver).  I can't get into those at all.

Haha, no i haven't read Snow Crash yet, i know i really need to. I'll get to it. Yeah the Baroque Cycle books didn't really seem very interesting from what i read about them, and kind of confusing as well seeing as how it uses one of the same character's names from Cryptonomicon, even though it apparently IS a different character and completely different setting/time. I hate it when authors do that.

Hedge Funds For Dummies.....

Angel and Demons(Dan Brown's books are dead easy to read and they never get old)

ash:

Hedge Funds For Dummies.....

Angel and Demons(Dan Brown's books are dead easy to read and they never get old)

George RR Martin and Harlan Ellison are actually Sci Fi dudes I can read, Heinlein and Dick.

I'm reading Douglas Clegg's "Naiomi" dude is probably the best living horror writer in the world. His books like You will come when I call you, The Nightmare Chronicles, the Attraction, Mischief, Infinite, etc are all killer horror stories that don't need grusex or OTT shit to hit you hard.

For you fans of Neil Gaimen and other like that (Charles D Lint) should check out Caitlien Kiernan, start with Silk, if you like that read Threshhold and then her sequel to Silk.

Finally finished The Brothers Karamazov, and after 700 pages of Dostoyevsky's heavy Russian existentialism, I'm ready to relax with some Lovecraft that I've yet to get to. Plan on starting with Shadow Over Innsmouth. I saw a Sci-Fi channel original movie called Dagon awhile back that I believe was based on it. I suspect it shall come across quite a bit better in print.

This which was suprisingly a very good book

Reason's Voice:

sloanan:

Also gonna start Cormac Mcarthy's The Road.

I've been planning on picking that up. Wanna get to it before the movie comes, which I believe is some time before the end of the year.

The Road is an excellent book.  I'm used to horror and sci-fi, it's his delivery and style that's so different.

Just finished:

Pretty good - near future, apocalyptic, with multiple universes (and multiple Earths), just a crazy, mind bending story, recommended!

I've also read the majority of Stephen King's stuff like some of you guys - has anyone read the whole Dark Tower series?  I'm considering taking that on - what is it, 7 books now?  That should keep me busy for a while and he's always entertaining.

Other than that, last year I read a few of Stephen Baxter's books including 2 of the 3 Manifold series books, which if you like Sci-Fi that just bends your mind with quantum theories, cosmology, and time travel, with plausable human characters experiencing it all, you'll like this.

sweetiemuffinsugarplum:

You're not alone, Viriconium is sci-fi, just finished Hyperion by Dan Simmons and Idoru by William Gibson, both sci-fi, and my next book will be The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds (also, big surprise, sci-fi).  Although in between Hyperion and Idoru was Hello I'm Special, a Columbia textbook about how individuality has become the new conformity.

Huh? So if someone chooses to conform, they're being a non-conformist?

On that note, the latest issue of Adbuster's has a front-cover story about "Hipsters" which is of a similar idea...I perused it in the bookstore the other day. 

SweetiePlum, who are your favorite contemporary sci-fi writers, could you recommend anything in particular?

What is that Striber book like? Been ages since I read Wolfen, the Hunger and Billy.

The Berkshire Eagle.

lee:

What is that Striber book like? Been ages since I read Wolfen, the Hunger and Billy.

2012 by Strieber was a good book - didn't blow me away or anything but at least the plot was original, and required some thought.  Would definitely recommend, I think you'd like it. 

Basically it works off the well-known Mayan prophecy, the return of the god(s)(?) and their calendar ending on Dec 12, 2012.  It mixes horror and sci-fi, and packs a lot of ideas into a medium-sized novel, but everything seems to work and feel right.

novairon:

Hyperion

Probably one of the best science fiction books I've read, assuming we're talking about the book I'm thinking about.

The Great Cretaceous Bob:

novairon:

Hyperion

Probably one of the best science fiction books I've read, assuming we're talking about the book I'm thinking about.

If it ends with a group of people singing "We're off to see the wizard" toward their almost certain death via the Shrike, then yes, we are.