05-19-2010, 02:21 PM
Books read recently, for some values of recently:
Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series. Modern day wizard-detective. Great series, good writing, good humor, likable main character. Nothing fancy, really, just a generally good series and an enjoyable read. I'm waiting for Amazon and the publisher to stop fighting over the 12th book so I can read it on the Kindle.
Jim Butcher's "Codex Alera" series. Standard 'high fantasy' series I decided to try. It's completely different than the Dresden Files but I thought it was enjoyable. It's got a bit of "rah rah good guys win again" syndrome, especially at the end, and some people probably won't like it for that reason, but I thought it was an enjoyable read. And the whole series is out, from start to finish, so no worries about getting caught up in another fucking epic unending fantasy series where the author dies or goes insane without finishing it.
"On Wings of Eagles". Non-fiction tale of Ross Perot's efforts to extract some imprisoned executives from Iran during the Iranian revolution (this was prior to Carter's botched hostage rescue). Not my style of book, really, but pretty interesting. Basically two American executives -- Perot's employees -- got arrested and held by the Iranian government without any charges and with an insane bail set. The government was basically extorting Perot's company for cash. Perot, having no luck through all legal channels, rounded up a team to get them out and the book is about that.
"The Falcon and the Snowman". Another non-fiction similar to above. This one is a true espionage tale about two Americans mixed up in selling CIA secrets to the Soviets via Mexico in the 60s I believe it was (maybe 70s). Pretty well written, if you're into this sort of thing.
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. I seem to keep buying this guy's books. They're basically "dark fantasy". He's a great writer but utterly humorless. I also read "Stardust" which was quite good -- the ol' ordinary-man-has-a-run-in-with-the-fairy-realm kind of book. Not exactly classics but solid reads.
"Unseen Academicals" by Terry Pratchett. Funniest fantasy author known to man. Sadly, he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's so I'm not sure how many more books we're getting out of him. "Unseen Academicals" is one of the Discworld books -- a "wizard" book, if you're familiar with the series. Basically the wizards of Unseen University realize that in order to maintain their current level of funding, they are contractually obligated to have a football team...
I just started one called "Reluctant Swordsman" by Dave Duncan. It has good reviews on Amazon but I'm not far enough into it to say how good it is.
What do you have that you've read recently?
Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series. Modern day wizard-detective. Great series, good writing, good humor, likable main character. Nothing fancy, really, just a generally good series and an enjoyable read. I'm waiting for Amazon and the publisher to stop fighting over the 12th book so I can read it on the Kindle.
Jim Butcher's "Codex Alera" series. Standard 'high fantasy' series I decided to try. It's completely different than the Dresden Files but I thought it was enjoyable. It's got a bit of "rah rah good guys win again" syndrome, especially at the end, and some people probably won't like it for that reason, but I thought it was an enjoyable read. And the whole series is out, from start to finish, so no worries about getting caught up in another fucking epic unending fantasy series where the author dies or goes insane without finishing it.
"On Wings of Eagles". Non-fiction tale of Ross Perot's efforts to extract some imprisoned executives from Iran during the Iranian revolution (this was prior to Carter's botched hostage rescue). Not my style of book, really, but pretty interesting. Basically two American executives -- Perot's employees -- got arrested and held by the Iranian government without any charges and with an insane bail set. The government was basically extorting Perot's company for cash. Perot, having no luck through all legal channels, rounded up a team to get them out and the book is about that.
"The Falcon and the Snowman". Another non-fiction similar to above. This one is a true espionage tale about two Americans mixed up in selling CIA secrets to the Soviets via Mexico in the 60s I believe it was (maybe 70s). Pretty well written, if you're into this sort of thing.
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. I seem to keep buying this guy's books. They're basically "dark fantasy". He's a great writer but utterly humorless. I also read "Stardust" which was quite good -- the ol' ordinary-man-has-a-run-in-with-the-fairy-realm kind of book. Not exactly classics but solid reads.
"Unseen Academicals" by Terry Pratchett. Funniest fantasy author known to man. Sadly, he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's so I'm not sure how many more books we're getting out of him. "Unseen Academicals" is one of the Discworld books -- a "wizard" book, if you're familiar with the series. Basically the wizards of Unseen University realize that in order to maintain their current level of funding, they are contractually obligated to have a football team...
I just started one called "Reluctant Swordsman" by Dave Duncan. It has good reviews on Amazon but I'm not far enough into it to say how good it is.
What do you have that you've read recently?