What are you reading now?

[QualityChimp]

D'oh!

"Killing Floor" is Jack Reacher book #1.
The Tom Cruise film is based on book #9, "One Shot".

I'm up to book #5. They're great, but you need a break in-between as they're a bit similar, which is both a strength and weakness.

I really like the Cruise film. I think people like to slag him off because it's the cool thing to do, but it's a fun little flick with an intriguing story and some exciting action sequences. Worth a watch.

Definitely read The Killing Floor as it's a real page-turner. As I said before, I've listened to them all on audiobook.

[Fader209]

Will definitely pick it up if it has the QualityChimp approval :P
Will also give the movie a watch too if it's that far into the series. I have no problem with Cruise, like you say it's "cool to hate" on him. Only the other week I caught up with Edge of Tomorrow and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Dogg Thang]

I read the three Kovacs books by Richard K. Morgan, who apparently wrote the last Syndicate game. I enjoyed them mostly but things about them really irritated me. He crafts a really fantastic universe, a cyberpunk future where we download our memories into new bodies when we die (also used to get us from one planet to another) and the place feels very rich and very real. The stories and moment to moment plot seems good but he overcomplicate plot beyond his ability to tell the story and so then ends up with whole chapters awkwardly explaining stuff. And then there are really awkward sex scenes. They work well in the first book because they work with the plot and then in the second and third book it's like he felt the need to repeat that even though the stories didn't work with them. So they feel randomly placed and, in the third book, weaken every character involved including the main character.

But I kept reading them so that has to be a good sign. Great worlds.

Currently reading Armada from Ernest Cline, who wrote Ready Player One. That book build a world perfectly around gaming and pop culture references. Armada, on the other hand, is like a nerd quoting Monty Python or Riker from Next Gen. It's clumsy and a little embarrassing and I'm not sure how he got it so right with Ready Player One and yet not with this. Maybe it's me...

[QualityChimp]

I'm just starting Armada too!

I had to laugh when he said the game Armada gets you to join forces with the Earth Defense Force Alliance!

EDA! EDA!

[wicky]

I am also reading Armada but I am actually really enjoying it, possibly moreso than Ready Player One. When I am reading it and visualising the surrounds, it just feels pretty epic. I love the pace too.

[prinnysquad]

I'm reading a book recommended to me by a friend (who happens to be an author himself) called More Than This by Patrick Ness. It's classed as a 'young adult' novel. The first three pages describe a teenager drowning and dying. He wakes up in a familiar setting, that has clearly not seen human action for years, with streets covered in undisturbed dust and dirt, and plants overgrown everywhere. He's wrapped in conductive bandages and faces a struggle to survive, since nearly all food is rotten or disintegrated.

The 'current' scenes are in present tense, which takes a bit of getting used to, and the events are partially delivered through internal monologues. They're bleak, apocalyptic, and fascinating. As the main character falls asleep, he has flashbacks which piece together his backstory. 100 pages in and I'm fairly gripped by it.

[QualityChimp]

That sounds interesting, Prin, if a little bleak.

I am also reading Armada but I am actually really enjoying it, possibly moreso than Ready Player One. When I am reading it and visualising the surrounds, it just feels pretty epic. I love the pace too.

I wondered if you were, seeing as you pointed me to Ready Player One, to which I'm still grateful!

I'm actually listening to the audiobook, which is expertly read by Wil Wheaton (aka Anson Crusher), who also did RPO. His Yoda impression is pretty commendable!

I've just finished reading the second book in The Reckoners series, Firefight. The first book, Steelheart, was another Wicky suggestion! I really enjoyed it, but possibly not as much as the first one. I didn't realise the setting was going to be there for the whole book and was ready to move on to a new location after a while.

The basic premise is that after a cosmic event gives some people superpowers, the power corrupts them and they start becoming Dictators and thugs. The first book sees the protagonist teaming up with the rebel team The Reckoners to take down a seemingly invulnerable supervillian that killed his father and then turned the city of Chicago to steel.

The second book sees The Reckoners going to a submerged New York after working out a High Epic is sending lesser Epics to kill their leader. Conflict and mistrust are the order of the day as David and the leader disagree on whether the Epics can be saved or just have to be executed.

I loved it and was a lot of fun. The introduction of various super-powered bad guys leads to some exciting action sequences whilst the team try to work out their weaknesses. I can wait to read the concluding part due out next year.

[Asura]

I started Snow Crash this week. Anyone else read it?

I didn't like it much to start with, but getting toward chapter 5, some of the jokes have cracked me up.

[Dogg Thang]

I read it about a year back and I remember mostly really enjoying it. A fun world with the rat things and stuff like that. I seem to remember it being a little patchy and finding some actions of a 15 year old kid somewhat perturbing but, yeah, I think I really enjoyed it. It was fun.

[Zen Monkey]

One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan

It's a beautiful collection of poetry from the much loved Zen Buddhist monk.

My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest;
Every year the green ivy grows longer.
No news of the affairs of men,
Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.
The sun shines and I mend my robe;
The moon shines and I read Buddhist poems.
I have nothing to report to my friends.
If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after
so many things.


Beautiful.

[prinnysquad]

Things starting to hit their stride in this Patrick Ness book now. 240 pages in and there's been some exposition, although it's still very theoretical and partial. There's also a sequence of events which add a sinister element to the narrative. It's increasingly gripping me.

[wicky]

was another Wicky suggestion!

Heh - I was on a roll there...

I enjoyed firefight, really liked the ending but I did prefer Steelheart. I think I read somewhere they are about to make a movie about it.

If you are looking for a light-fun read that is along the lines of Steelheart I would recommend Control Point by Myke Cole. It has been described as X-Men meets Black Hawk Down!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11783484-control-point?ac=1

"Army Officer. Fugitive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set everything they touch ablaze.

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps, his mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly manifests a rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him overnight from government agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of situation: hunt him down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known, and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for."


Like I say it's a fun read.

[QualityChimp]

If you are looking for a light-fun read that is along the lines of Steelheart I would recommend Control Point by Myke Cole. It has been described as X-Men meets Black Hawk Down!

You're winding me up now.

That's exactly the book I've just started after finishing Firefight! :O

[wicky]

You're winding me up now.

That's exactly the book I've just started after finishing Firefight! :O

OMFG I think we may be book soul mates heh.

[prinnysquad]

Finished. 8/10

It was fascinating, but nearer the end the ruminations on the nature of being, purpose and relationships betrayed its young adult audience. Still, it was a neat premise and the characters written with the skill to encourage genuine pathos. The ending was a tad unsatisfying, but in keeping with the vagueness of its conclusions, I guess.