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What are you reading?
shadowonthesun
Banned
Strangely enough, I don't think I've seen this thread come up since the new forums were introduced. It was one of my favourites on the old format, because I enjoyed seeing forum members' recommendations for books to read.
So, what are you reading?
So, what are you reading?
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John Locke who publishes his books via ereaders only. He is very good.
Robert Goddard, Lee Child.
Yup, I like a book with a nice high body count.
Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves by Matthew Reilly
I have a love-hate relationship with Reilly at the moment. He was the first writer I really got into, the first writer whose books I would read because of the author's name. But his last few books - most notably The Six Sacred Stones and The Five Greatest Warriors - have been disappointing at best, and I found myself at something of an impasse in the lead-up to Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves. If it was a poor book, I might be put off Reilly for a while.
Fortunately, Reilly went back to the elements that made his original books so good: 1) a rag-tag bunch of heroes, 2) a critical, do-or-die mission, 3) overwhelming odds, 4) a tight time limit, 5) an enemy like a force of nature, and 6) a claustrophobic setting. Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves turns all of it up to eleven.
The plot centres around Dragon Island, the crown jewel of Soviet weapons research, a place where Soviet scientists could develop next-generation weaponry thanks to a blank cheque and no limits. While experimenting with sulfur and chlorine samples from Venus (in an attempt to create an atmospheric weapon that would unleash acid rain over America), they accidentally created a weapon of terrifying proportions: when mixed with rocket fuel and ignited, the sulfur/chorline compounds can literally set the atmosphere on fire. Because the Russians never fully understood what they had created, they decided it was too dangerous to try and destroy, and so they were forced to keep Dragon Island online. And now, someone has found that weapon and activated it. The heroes are a band of Marines and civilian contractors testing equpiment nearby, the only military unit that can get to Dragon Island before the weapon is fired and a firestorm consumes the northern hemisphere. Along the way, they have to brave the horrors of the Soviet weapons program (which itself would make for a decent Bond film) and a French assassination team (which is tied into the over-arching plot of the books). It makes THE ROCK look like EAT PRAY LOVE.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I was expecting the initial story arc to involve going though all manner of horrifying weapons programs, and while it does (there's a particualrly gory scene with a rabid polar bear), it only feels like we scratch the surface of Dragon Island before veering off into Reilly's trademark action. I also found the villains were not that intimidating until we actually learned who they were, which comes about 250-ish pages in. So, overall, it's not a good book, but nor is it a bad one. Importantly, it's a step away from the DIE ANOTHER DAY antics of The Six Sacred Stones and The Five Greatest Warriors and a step towards the elements that made Ice Station and Temple so strong.
Temple, on the other hand, is fantastic. It follows Will Race, a professor of linguistics who is asked by DARPA to translate a 15th-Century manuscript for a weapons project. The manuscript itself is a first-person story of a Spanish monk who commits treason. I won't spoil anything, but both stories are woven together very well. And yes, some of the things that the characters do are absolutely insane, but I still fondly recall reading the final scene with a mile-wide grin on my face and a sense of boyish "Oh, no way", like when Bond chases after and catches that plane in freefall in GOLDENEYE. Even if it's completely over the top, it's also meant to be a whole lot of fun.
I'd also recommend Ice Station, the first Shane Schofield novel which is really THE ROCK meets THE THING; a group of Marines get called to a remote Antactic station the discovery of an alien artefact in the ice underneath. It features a forty-page hovercraft chase that is superior to most action sequences in Bond films (it came out well before DIE ANOTHER DAY too). And you might be interested in the first sequel, Area 7, which features the same characters in another impossible stuation. I'd shy away from Scarecrow, the second Schofield sequel. It literally features nonstop action that just keeps getting more and more insane. Each individual sequence should be fantastic, but when they come one after another, they lose their impact about halfway through and when you get to the bananas final showdown, it's just exhausting. I'd hold off on Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves for a while; read it if you love the series, but it's a poor introduction. Scarecrow and Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves are also incredibly violent. Don't get me wrong; Temple and Ice Station and Area 7 have very high kill counts and the odd gory scene, but Scarecrow and Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves just take it to a whole new level.
Seven Ancient Wonders is worth a look. It's a love letter to Indiana Jones and less violent that the other books, and it does feature a lot more character development (for some, anyway) than Reilly's other books. Most of the time, characters get given a name and then get turned into a bloody pulp (like the infamous Mitch Healy - he lasts all of two sentences from his introduction to his death). But I'd save 7AW until last. And you might be interested in Contest if you want to venture into hardcore sciene fiction (it's STAR WARS meets GLADIATOR), but it's of noticeably lower quality - it's his first book and Reilly famously self-published it while at university.
"Cold Vengeance" by Child & Preston, their thrillers always leave me wanting more. This being the middle episode of a trilogy involving agent Pendergast will just do that for me. The next and closing part will be called "two Graves"
And a history book about the History of the Netherlands (1100-1560) called "Metropolen aan the Noordzee" by Wim Blockhuis (metropolis at the North Sea). Is about the power of cities in the early medival times and how they changed the way the folks lived in the Low Lands and how their actions changed the land and the people.
I have been reading Battle Lines
It's a sequel to another Andy Mcnab book, War Torn. The soldiers from book 1 come home from Afghanistan but are almost immediately called back again to protect a group of US soldiers.
Like the first book, it has great, exciting battle sequences as well as showing how war can affect those left at home. But also like the first book, I found the Afghanistan stuff much more intresting.
It's not that I need an explosion on every page, but the soldiers are much better, more believable more characters. The women at home aren't as intresting or believable and seem a bit cliche during some of it.
I haven't finished it yet though, so maybe the England stuff will get better. Still, for the most part so far, it's another good military story from Mcnab that does a good job of feeling authentic, and it has some cool, tense action bits.
about the Boerwar in 1899-1902, what happened before, during and after. An insight on the players during this dark part of history in Africa in which the 1st mediawar and prelude to the big wars to come.
Interesting reading.
As a Cash fan, this is a must read. Interesting because covers the life of other people and some of the social and cultural stage in the US.
It's a highly enjoyable collection of stories where hard science fiction and mysteries - often murder mysteries - are merged into one. It was a hard to track down copy but the pursuit has been worth it for sure. Fans of sci-fi from the old days (50s, 60s) like myself will surely appreciate this collection of short stories.
I'm currently reading The New Annotated Dracula by Bram Stoker - notes by Leslie Klinger.
This is a phenomenal book for sure, going at great length to dissect and contextualize one of the most powerful horror stories ever written. While the notes come plenty and sometimes tend to distract the reader from the smooth flow of the story, they aid tremendously in better understanding the times in which the story is both set and written. Besides, one can always do as I do - read an entire chapter once in full and then retrace the notes before moving on to the next.
Not only is this a beautiful book with many inserted pictures, some of them even in colour, but it also gets points for not limiting itself to the pages of the novel. Instead it additionally explores Dracula's film career, his connection with other notorious vampires, the 'factual' (?) origins of the character and so on. Merely one 'negative' element springs to mind: the fact that the author of the notes pretends, for the sake of amusement no doubt, that Dracula isn't fictitious and that the 'Harker notes' are as such to be taken, well, seriously. While many a reviewer seems to appreciate that extra little bit of fun thus offered, I myself would have preferred it omitted from the final approach. But, to be fair, it doesn't bother me that much - I can easily overlook the conceit.
If you can handle that kind of story thread, I do heartily recommend these books. I am re-reading All Clear now and enjoying it even more the second time.
I'll read another Bond book next. Probably TMWTGG since I read YOLT last and I want to see how the whole amnesia thing works out. I also want to read FRWL though.
@Creasy47 I have to say I definitely recommend them both! Do Blackout first; just know it ends abruptly because All Clear continues straight on. I also recommend do not read any plot synopsis on the internet, I don't want you to know too much ahead of time - just the blurb on the back cover is enough. And I recommend NOT reading anything else by Willis until you finish both. I am also now enjoying To Say Nothing of The Dog but because of some elements in that story (written before BO and AC), I am glad I read the two massive recent books first. The details and the atmosphere of the time - those are really well done. There are "cliffhangers" at the end of every chapter (yet some chapters are fairly short), so that can be frustrating, but it is an easy enough read - I hope you find them enjoyable. For me, I am very glad I read Blackout first, yet I enjoyed All Clear even more - but I would not have without reading Blackout first. I hope you find the time and patience for these two books. For me, they were very worthwhile.
My first Deaver novel. Lots of cool plot ideas. The writing itself I find very mediocre. The same goes for the character descriptions. I enjoyed how it went straight into some action (well, the ´some´ is an understatement). However, after a while I got a feeling of not enough juice and too much water.
I don´t feel compelled to delve deeper into Deaver´s work, especially since I already once started to read The Stone Monkey and didn´t get too far.
No problem though, still got a meter of Elmore Leonard novels ahead of me. Up next is Escape from Five Shadows.