Amph What book are you reading right now?

So Death Star didn't suck. It contradicts Tarkin as in that book they meet and respect each other where here they really don't appear to like each other. It has the usual Steve Perry tropes of martial arts, and moved at a fast pace.

Moving on.

The Gray Man by Mark Greaney. I heard about this but put it off. The author wrote another in the series so it has been rereleased with all new covers and such.

 

At the moment i'm reading children of the Jedi, and as soon as i'm done i'm gonna read Pacific Vortex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Vortex!
since i just watched Raise the Titanic (based on a book with the same main character)

 

All of Clive Cussler's books are good - you can't go too wrong with him. His later books branch out into other characters.

 

Keep in mind that the Death Star novel is now Legends and I think was published before The Clone Wars series (where Anakin and Tarkin worked together).

As for what I'm reading now, I'm on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

 

So I thought The Gray Man would be more 'Day of the Jackal' but it is more 'Jason Bourne'. It's very good though so far.

 

Ever since I finished Brent Weeks' most recent Lightbringer novel upon its release, I started reading Glenn Cook's Black Company series. The books follow a mercenary company through many decades of conflict and traveling across Cook's fantasy landscape. I made it to the 5th or 6th book but decided that I couldn't go on to read the final two novels in the series without a break in between (if ever). The series became increasingly bleak and with decades having passed since the original trilogy, the former main characters are pushed aside to make way for new protagonists. And while this might be somewhat unique, the former protagonists are still present...and in a pretty sad state. So I decided to jump ship and into:



Playing the Witcher 3 game got me fairly interested in the game's source material, so I downloaded the free ebook sample and was immediately drawn in. The writing is refreshingly good: swift, direct, and exciting.

The atmosphere between book and game is seamless. So far, it's proving to be a great read.

 

I've read the Lightbringer, i just wish I'd known it wasn't finished before i started! but if your a fan of long epic fantasies go for the wheel of time even if it is fourteen books and each one is huge its still great, speaking from experience you can read all 14 in 18 days...if you have no life...and are prepared for some serious eye strain...and headaches, but once i started i couldn't stop!

 

Wheel of Time has been on my To Do List for decades. I keep putting it off because it's so huge and the ebook sample doesn't really reveal Jordan's writing style. I'm an awfully picky reader and if a writer's style doesn't hold my interest, I abandon the book and waste my money. Such is what happened with World Without End. Ugh.

As for Lightbringer, Brent Weeks is perhaps my favorite new Fantasy author. I was immediately hooked years ago with the release of his Night Angel Trilogy. The Lightbringer series isn't quite as exciting or gripping as Night Angel, but Weeks does a great job with his characters and that's what keeps Lightbringer interesting, imo.

WIth regards to Lightbringer being yet unfinished: it was originally supposed to be a trilogy. But I suppose when writing the third book, Weeks realized that he couldn't neatly wrap everything up and so extended it into a four-part series.

 

I started to read Wheel of Time and finished Eye of the World on my second try and got about half way through The Great Hunt before giving up. It's not that it was bad, it's too much to ask a reader to plow through a twelve or fourteen book series when every book is at least thousand pages long. He really should have broken the series up into more digestible chunks. I still want to try Wheel of Time though and I am thinking I might try the audiobooks,

 

I would definitely suggest reading WOT series. You may be able to find a better sample of Eye of the World online.

 

Just finished Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, the first book of his Southern Reach Trilogy. Can't say I'm very compelled to continue reading. The world itself was interesting in some parts, but the characterization was nearly nonexistent, the protagonist a hollow shell with a forced backstory that did nothing to make her relatable, her companions even less so.

 

I wholeheartedly agree. I'm almost halfway thru the book, and for something labeled as a fantasy novel, nothing has really happened, and yet I am completely immersed in Kvothe's life story. I should be bored but I am not in the least bit.

 

Re-reading A Game Of Thrones since small details get carried over...

 

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's felt that way!

 

Ezio Skywalker

Not much i can say to that, except that i think that it is worth the read even though it is huge and it is hard to keep track of all the characters. As for style, that changes in the last three books after Robert Jordan died and Brandon Sanderson took over (for obvious reasons) but while it is a noticeable change it's not a bad change (if that makes sense)

 

Farscape: The Illustrated Season 2 Companion by Paul Simpson & Ruth Thomas

 

The Satanic Verses.

 

Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson.

 

The Martian

 

The Martian was very good. I'm looking forward to seeing the film when it comes out.

 

More Than This by Patrick Ness

 

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

 

Hot Springs (Earl Swagger #1) by Stephen Hunter. Dirty White Boys is one of my favorite books, sad it's taken me this long to dive into more of Hunter's stuff.

 

Men We Reaped (2013) – Jesmyn Ward

Men We Reaped has an undeniably powerful premise. Ward is a black writer from a small, poor town in Mississippi. Over the period of four years, she lost three close friends & two relatives to unrelated incidents of violence; all five were black men between the ages of 19 & 32. Why are young black men so prone to die in the modern world? Ward returns to her roots to do two things: first, to tell the story of each of these five men and, secondly, to tell the story of her own life in her poverty stricken town. Ward is a brilliant writer and she has genuine insights into life and racial experiences. She isn’t interested in going easy on anyone, the reader included, and the book has a claustrophobic, stifling atmosphere of dread and anguish that grows ever more and more palpable. It’s an astoundingly great book and an important one too. It’s emotionally devastating and deeply disquieting; it’s a book that, simply put, everyone should read as soon as possible. It’s not an easy read, though it is conversationally written and not very long. But when the emotions get too heavy for you, remember some people live their whole lives there. And keep reading. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

tl;dr – black writer explores the tragic, violent death of five young, black male friends and her upbringing in poverty; this book cuts to the heart of national issues by focusing specifically on the personal and emotional. A masterpiece. 4 stars.

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