Amph What book are you reading right now?

They don't really tell a connected story, so you can start anywhere, but of the ones that I've read, my favourite was Consider Phlebas. It's not necessarily the deepest of the Culture books, but its a superbly written piece of space opera.

 

New Jedi Order: Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial

 

Player of Games. It was the first Culture novel I read, and I think it's a good introduction to the Culture as a whole. It's quite fast paced and gripping, as I remember, and I think is one of the best reviewed entries in the series. It's also one of the most straightforward.

 

Thanks!

 

I really enjoyed Consider Phlebas, but the Culture, being the protagonist's opposition, doesn't get the insider viewpoint you get in other Culture novels, so I don't think it's such a good intro. Great book, though.

 

You could argue that of any of the Culture protagonists though, at least that's my understanding from the books that I've read.

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT read "The Courtship of Princess Leia" and/or "Tatooine Ghost" immediately following that book.

 

Yeah, Tatooine Ghost in particular. I'd wait at least, oh, ninety years, before you pick that one up.

 

I dunno, people are living longer these days.

 

Stephen Donaldson has a new trilogy starting late this year.

Not 'till November, but I just saw the interview.

 

Is he still alive? I thought he died years ago.

 

Still alive though he does joke about being old now.

 

Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

Last of the Liveship Traders trilogy. Well written and it certainly gripped me to the end, though I didn't like it as much as the previous two books.

 

The Child Warriors by J. Q. Ronan

 

Pour Me by A.A. Gill for nonfiction and The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths for fiction.

 

Reaper's Eye a Pathfinder tales novel by Richard A. Knaak. 100 pages in and this is fun.

 

Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To (2016) – Dean Burnett

I wanted to like this book quite a bit more than I did. I usually enjoy experts writing books in their fields for laymen and this one is right in that area, focusing on brain science. It was interesting enough, but Burnett’s prose was a bit awkward. He has a bit of a silly edge that I liked; sometimes his little jokes were only funny in a kind of corny “oh, that’s AWFUL” kind of way, but there were a handful of times when I laughed out loud, which I rarely do when reading. The book was interesting, but something about the prose style and the information actually being conveyed made it feel really slight and not in a good way. I was vaguely entertained, not much more. 2 ½ stars.

tl;dr – expert neuroscientist writes about his science for laymen, but, aside from the occasional great joke, this slight book isn’t particularly compelling. 2 ½ stars.

More Book Reviews!

 

A Forest Apart by Troy Denning

Also, listening to the audiobook of Aftermath: Empire's End by Chuck Wendig

 

The Escape, by David Baldacci. This guy is a best-seller? Why? The story is very ordinary, the characters aren't interesting or believable, and the dialog is unnatural. Nobody talks like that. He obviously does a lot of research, but includes it in clumsy exposition. I'd bet good money he's one of those guys who thinks the military is cool, but never served himself.

My mother read one of his books, and she suspects he is popular with people who watch a lot of TV. It sure reads like an unoriginal, predictable TV show.

 

Drinks Crow Drinks Again

I never read this comic strip (Maakies) back in the day but got this collection recently. Great stuff, the creator deals with his, apparently accute, alcoholism and depression in the strangest of ways, by creating a slovenly boozer crow and monkey inhabiting a (at least usually) late 19th century type nautical world.

 

Star Wars: Dark Apprentice by Kevin J. Anderson

 

About to begin Sphere by Michael Crichton.

 

Mountolive and Clea by Lawrence Durrell

The third and fourth novels in the Alexandria Quartet.

Adolphe by Benjamin Constant

A young man cannot escape an abusive relationship with an older woman.

The Burning Page Genevieve Cogman

The third novel in the Invisible Library series.

Jealousy by Alain Robbe-Grillet

An evening is described geometrically and a centipede is killed again and again.

The Great Ordeal by R. Scott Bakker

The third book in the Aspect-Emperor series.

 

A Plan For Escape by Adolfo Bioy-Casares