The Book thread

[Heid]

Reading Philip Roth's The Professor of Desire and my god it's good!

Also, just started reading a study on the theory of memetics.

[Johnny Tightlips]

Just finished the Millennium trilogy, fucking amazing and am now reading solely Swedish crime fiction for a while.

My parents, I suppose like millions of others, have been extolling the virtues of those books for years now - they are on my reading pile so I'll get to them soon.

Anyway, my latest roundup-

Fiction

Jeffery Deaver - Speaking in Tounges
Standard Deaver really, nothing groundbreaking but a solid plot and nice twist. Don't expect anything too different from the Deaver norm here but a worthwhile additional to his CV. Wouldn't recommend as first Deaver novel to read.
7/10

Will Adams - The Alexander Cipher
What I was expecting - standard Dan Brown-esque historical conspiricy thriller novel centred around Alexander the Great and some, no doubt, earth-shattering secret that some generic characters must race to unravel before time runs out.
What I actually got - a very well paced thriller that focuses far more on character development and emotions rather than plot.
While the overall plot is very much the usual for this type of book, the character development and interaction was not. The hero, at times, was vunerable and mis-guided and did not feature an encyclopedic knowledge of all things relating to the plot of Alexander (unlike a certain Mr. Langdon). The villans were, at worst, doing what they thought was right and sometimes I even found myself on their side.
A really excellent debut novel and I'm looking forward to tracking down more by this author.
7/10

Dan Brown - Angels & Demons
Upon coming back to this novel, the first thing that strikes me that passed me by the first time I read this is how religious it is. Obviously a novel that focuses on the Vatican is going to contain a certain amount of religious discussion, but when you really focus on what Dan Brown writes, you realise how preachy it is. I found myself skim reading or even skipping parts altogether when one of the characters started on a rant about religion and science.
On top of that, when you combine fairly lifeless and unbelievable characters with ridiculous situations you get a novel that seems to drag, despite being quite fast paced.
I really wish Dan Brown would abandon the historical conspiricy thrillers and go back to writing novels like Digital Fortress. Perhaps then he'll get round to writing something worthwhile again.
4/10

Non-Fiction

Jeremy Clarkson - The World According to Clarkson - Vol 1
The first collection of Clarkson's column that appears in the Sunday Times, this is Clarkson at his usual wit. If you like him, you'll like this. If you don't, you'll hate it. Thankfully, I like him.
6/10

[Big D]

Currently reading: Robert Masello - The Medusa Amulet.
Scholar gets hired to retrieve a mysterious long-lost artefact. Nasty people try to stop him.
Not bad so far.

[someone else]

Just finished the Millennium trilogy, fucking amazing and am now reading solely Swedish crime fiction for a while.

Finished the first one last week and for about half the book it was essentially a better written Dan Brown novel. Picked up towards the end though so I'll be reading the next one. Can't understand the massive hype myself, maybe I will with the second book.

I liked the first one, but can be seen almost as a stand alone story, a fairly conventional Agatha Christie type mystery. The second and third are much better - the only thing I didn't like about the style wa that fairly minor characters got given back-stories, which drags it out a bit.

[Dangles]

Anyone recommend a good sci fi novel to read?
Thinking of taking a break from the wheel of time for a while

[Twaddlefish]

I really wish Dan Brown would abandon the historical conspiricy thrillers and go back to writing novels like Digital Fortress. Perhaps then he'll get round to writing something worthwhile again.
4/10

Digital Fortress is hands down one of the worst books I have ever read. The one about the comet (Deception Point?) was slightly better, but only just.

Finished Yahtzee's Mogworld last night. Very funny, great characters and a dash of epicness.

Starting on Stephen King's Cell, after having it sit around for aaages. Really great so far.

[Tet]

Anyone recommend a good sci fi novel to read?
Thinking of taking a break from the wheel of time for a while

Frank Herbert -- "Dune"
Vernor Vinge -- "A fire upon the deep"
AE van Vogt -- "Empire of the atom"
James Blish -- "They shall have stars"

[Big D]

Don't read much Sf but:

Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat
Fritz Leiber - The Big Time
Harry Harrison - The Technicolor Time Machine

[Johnny Tightlips]

Digital Fortress is hands down one of the worst books I have ever read. The one about the comet (Deception Point?) was slightly better, but only just.

Finished Yahtzee's Mogworld last night. Very funny, great characters and a dash of epicness.

Starting on Stephen King's Cell, after having it sit around for aaages. Really great so far.

Starting on Stephen King's Cell, after having it sit around for aaages. Really great so far.

Stephen King's Cell. Really great so far.

Stephen King. Really great.

WARNING - DOES NOT COMPUTE - INVALID POST

[Dangles]

Anyone recommend a good sci fi novel to read?
Thinking of taking a break from the wheel of time for a while

Frank Herbert -- "Dune"
Vernor Vinge -- "A fire upon the deep"
AE van Vogt -- "Empire of the atom"
James Blish -- "They shall have stars"

I've read dune, but thanks for the recommendations, these 3 books will keep my busy on my book hunt

[callumascott]

My Swedish crime fiction binge took me to the Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg. The version I read was translated by the same guy who did the Millennium trilogy. I didn't like it at all, the way the author portrays all the characters in the most negative light possible makes the tone sneering and condescending.

[keera_envenomed]

Digital Fortress is hands down one of the worst books I have ever read. The one about the comet (Deception Point?) was slightly better, but only just.

Finished Yahtzee's Mogworld last night. Very funny, great characters and a dash of epicness.

Starting on Stephen King's Cell, after having it sit around for aaages. Really great so far.

Starting on Stephen King's Cell, after having it sit around for aaages. Really great so far.

Stephen King's Cell. Really great so far.

Stephen King. Really great.

WARNING - DOES NOT COMPUTE - INVALID POST

Don't you read Jeffrey Archer novels? That makes everything you say about books invalid.

In other news, still reading War and Peace

[markguy764]

Going through George RR Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series at the moment after loving the first book and the first tv series

[jackcake]

Don't you read Jeffrey Archer novels? That makes everything you say about books invalid.

I was there when Jeffrey Archer opened my junior school's refurbished library in 1992. For some reason my middle brother told the Mayor of Sandwell I wanted to meet him. Hmm?

[Johnny Tightlips]

Don't you read Jeffrey Archer novels? That makes everything you say about books invalid.

In other news, still reading War and Peace

God, I haven't used that in about 6 years