What are you reading?

[homerpat]

I’m a big fantasy nerd and waiting patiently for the 4th Stormlight Archive book to come in November. Finishing second reread of the series in the meantime, but almost done. 

 

Any suggestions of some great summer reads?  Prefer Fiction and prefer not to pick up in middle of a series like a Jack Reacher or something like that. 

[Bwestbrook36]

No

[Gannan]

"The Stand" because I like to torture myself. 

[Gern Blanston]

On 6/7/2020 at 2:06 PM, homerpat said:

I’m a big fantasy nerd and waiting patiently for the 4th Stormlight Archive book to come in November. Finishing second reread of the series in the meantime, but almost done. 

 

Any suggestions of some great summer reads?  Prefer Fiction and prefer not to pick up in middle of a series like a Jack Reacher or something like that. 

You do not have to worry about reading Reacher novels out of order - they're all pretty much stand alones, with maybe a couple call backs here and there.

[Gern Blanston]

1 hour ago, Gannan said:

"The Stand" because I like to torture myself. 

One of my favorite books of all time.  Love reading stories about humanity rebuilding in a post apocalypse world, like SM Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time" and "Dies the Fire" series.

[Gannan]

4 minutes ago, Gern Blanston said:

One of my favorite books of all time.  Love reading stories about humanity rebuilding in a post apocalypse world, like SM Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time" and "Dies the Fire" series.

This is my second time with it, I figured now was a good to read it again. 

[wholesale_Melvin]

39 minutes ago, Gern Blanston said:

One of my favorite books of all time.  Love reading stories about humanity rebuilding in a post apocalypse world, like SM Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time" and "Dies the Fire" series.

might i highly suggest Without Warning by John Birmingham and it's sequel After America.

Also The Last Centurion by John Ringo.

 

[mr_hunt]

3 minutes ago, wholesale_Melvin said:

 

Also The Last Centurion by John Ringo.

 

and then roses have thorns by george paul.

[VaBeach_Eagle]

I listen to a lot of audio books (via Audible and my tablet). 

My most recent 5 audio books:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Green_Guinness]

On 6/7/2020 at 2:06 PM, homerpat said:

I’m a big fantasy nerd and waiting patiently for the 4th Stormlight Archive book to come in November. Finishing second reread of the series in the meantime, but almost done. 

 

Any suggestions of some great summer reads?  Prefer Fiction and prefer not to pick up in middle of a series like a Jack Reacher or something like that. 

There's a series called The Iron Druid by Kevin Hearne if you like fantasy.  Set in current time, but has loads of mythological characters from all cultures.  

Another one is a series called The Hallows by Kim Harrison.  All her titles are a twist on Clint Eastwood films.  For instance:  The Good, The Bad And The Undead.  It's an underlying ongoing story from book to book, but each book has its own individual story.  

Morgan Llywelyn meshes Irish history with fictional characters to create stories across the centuries.  From the Irish folk heroes like Finn MacCool to Brian Boru to the 1916 Easter Rising through Bloody Sunday of 1972.  She also co-wrote a couple books with Michael Scott called Silverlight and Silverhand, The Arcana Books I and II.  Total fantasy, no reference to historical or mythological figures.

And if for some reason you want to feel like you've aged 25 years I suggest Leon Uris' Trinity.  A tale that spans from 1887 to 1914 in Ireland about the division of Ireland - Northern Ireland, the building of the IRB and IRA and the build up to the Easter rising in 1916.  That book has multiple stories all going on at once.  

 

 

[mikemack8]

6 hours ago, Gannan said:

"The Stand" because I like to torture myself. 

I should read that one again- it’s been years 

[homerpat]

Love the Stand, easily one of his top 5 books. Most consider it his best, but I liked it and a couple of the Dark Towers better

[sameaglesfan]

I just finished powering my way through the Game of Thrones books.  The first three books were passably entertaining; the last two complete garbage.  Too many characters, too much aimless wandering about - like the Talking Heads said - [they're] on a road to nowhere.

[mikemack8]

Highly recommend The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin if you're into those post apocalyptic themed books - this one is with vampires

[Gannan]

13 hours ago, homerpat said:

Love the Stand, easily one of his top 5 books. Most consider it his best, but I liked it and a couple of the Dark Towers better

I have it as my second favorite book by Stephen King. 11/22/63 is my absolute favorite. I am probably the only hard core Stephen King fan that doesn't like the Dark Tower. I've tried 3 times to read "The Gunslinger" and I just can't get into it. It's too weird and there's nothing remotely interesting about Roland or the Man in Black or any of the other characters. If I had read it without the cover, I would have never in a million years guessed it was written by King. It's unlike any of his other books. The writing lacks the depth and detail of his other work. 

[Gannan]

4 hours ago, sameaglesfan said:

I just finished powering my way through the Game of Thrones books.  The first three books were passably entertaining; the last two complete garbage.  Too many characters, too much aimless wandering about - like the Talking Heads said - [they're] on a road to nowhere.

The only one I didn't like was "A Feast for Crows". Originally That book and "A Dance With Dragons" were one manuscript, but the publisher said it was way too long. So he split the books by characters. Feast for Crows just happened to focus on most of the characters I don't find very interesting. 

[sameaglesfan]

1 hour ago, Gannan said:

The only one I didn't like was "A Feast for Crows". Originally That book and "A Dance With Dragons" were one manuscript, but the publisher said it was way too long. So he split the books by characters. Feast for Crows just happened to focus on most of the characters I don't find very interesting. 

For me - they were both too long.  

[Gern Blanston]

22 hours ago, wholesale_Melvin said:

might i highly suggest Without Warning by John Birmingham and it's sequel After America.

Also The Last Centurion by John Ringo.

 

I read both of them - quite possibly on your recommendation many years ago on this (old) board.  Loved them.  Will have to check out the other one you mention.

I also read a couple Eric Flint novels, where some West Virginia mining town gets transported back into medieval Europe.

[sameaglesfan]

22 hours ago, mikemack8 said:

Highly recommend The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin if you're into those post apocalyptic themed books - this one is with vampires

Great series!

[Mlodj]

On 6/8/2020 at 3:34 PM, Gern Blanston said:

Love reading stories about humanity rebuilding in a post apocalypse world...

William Forstchen has written three books about America rebuilding after a massive EMP attack:  One Second After, One Year After, and The Final Year.  So far I've only read the first one, but it was pretty good.  If you want to go really old school there's Alas, Babylon written by Pat Frank back in 1959; it was one of the first post-nuclear war novels and one of the best.

[wholesale_Melvin]

2 hours ago, Mlodj said:

William Forstchen has written three books about America rebuilding after a massive EMP attack:  One Second After, One Year After, and The Final Year.  So far I've only read the first one, but it was pretty good.  If you want to go really old school there's Alas, Babylon written by Pat Frank back in 1959; it was one of the first post-nuclear war novels and one of the best.

it is good, and i say this because i only got as far as after it went down along the fence line with the pissed off truck driver and put it down....too depressing in how that kind of future was painted. 

[Mlodj]

43 minutes ago, wholesale_Melvin said:

it is good, and i say this because i only got as far as after it went down along the fence line with the pissed off truck driver and put it down....too depressing in how that kind of future was painted. 

It doesn't get any cheerier after that.  One of the reasons that I haven't read the other two books is that my experience with those type of books (Day by Day Armageddon being a prime example) is that the first one is good and the sequels go steadily downhill.  By the third book of the Day by Day series it was blowing raw chunks.

[wholesale_Melvin]

5 minutes ago, Mlodj said:

It doesn't get any cheerier after that.  One of the reasons that I haven't read the other two books is that my experience with those type of books (Day by Day Armageddon being a prime example) is that the first one is good and sequels go steadily downhill.  By the third book of the Day by Day series it was blowing raw chunks.

lol i was going to bring up day by day armageddon because that was another book i put down because it was too intense (beside mayo, my next phobia is zombies but i heard a lot about this book) and it didn't help that  i lived very near (a couple miles in some cases) where the events in this book took place (ie. the overpass with the zombie baby strapped in the car seat was less than 2 miles from where i lived while reading)

[Bill]

Finished "Gettysburg: The Last Invasion”. The author is a bit of an arrogant elitist a**, but it was a good read. I’m going through "Gettysburg: Day Three by Wert. After that is Coddington’s "Gettysburg: A Study In Command". 

[homerpat]

On 6/9/2020 at 11:30 AM, Gannan said:

I have it as my second favorite book by Stephen King. 11/22/63 is my absolute favorite. I am probably the only hard core Stephen King fan that doesn't like the Dark Tower. I've tried 3 times to read "The Gunslinger" and I just can't get into it. It's too weird and there's nothing remotely interesting about Roland or the Man in Black or any of the other characters. If I had read it without the cover, I would have never in a million years guessed it was written by King. It's unlike any of his other books. The writing lacks the depth and detail of his other work. 

Believe it or not, I think The Gunslinger might be my least favorite book of his. I couldn’t get into it either, but the second and third in the series Drawing of Three and Wasteland are both amazing. Roland alone is a bit much, but once he gets company it just gets so much better. 

On 6/9/2020 at 9:37 AM, mikemack8 said:

Highly recommend The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin if you're into those post apocalyptic themed books - this one is with vampires

Read it awhile back. Really enjoyed it as well. The time jump really messed with me at first and slowed me down, but once I pushed through it was great