Read any good books this holiday?

[Readsalot]

Started the Undying Mercenaries series by B.V. Larson. Rather fun so far. Has a Starship Troopers feel but without the idealistic military overtones. Rather, Earth is so primitive and backward that the only thing we can offer to the Galaxy that is of value is our willingness to go anywhere and kill anything.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

So I bought a brand new Generation 6 Amazon Kindle when I actually meant to order a Paperwhite model. Literally just switched it on to see if it works by syncing it to my Amazon library.

Anybody interested in buying it off of me at a reduced price???

[Fruity]

Going to attempt to finish reading The Hobbit this month. I say 'attempt' as I'm not the biggest fan of books.

Edited December 1, 2017 by HyruleWarrior80

[Paddaman]

Top 10 reading for the political aware:

 

"the Arms Deal" and "After the Party" by Authur Fenstein

Republic of Gupta by PL Myburg

Enemy of the People by Basson and du Toit

A Simple Man by Ronnie Kasrils

How to Steal a City by Crispian Olver

The President's keepers by J Pauw

Khwezi by by Redi Tlabi

Rule of Law by Breytenbach

Eerie Assignment: A journalist’s nightmare in Mpumalanga by Sizwe sama Yende

Rogue: The Inside Story of SARS's Elite Crime-busting Unit

 and bonus track:

Apartheid, Gun and Money by Hennie van Vuuren

[Readsalot]

I'm on book 7 of the Undying Mercenaries series. Great fun.

 

[Readsalot]

Started this and loving it. Grim, dark and brutal, an unflinching look at tomorrow written like an attack on all the senses and sensibilities. 

"The children are the future.
And someone is turning them into highly trained killing machines.

Straight out of school, Griffin, a junior Investigations agent for the North American Trade Union, is put on the case: Find and close the illegal crèches. No one expects him to succeed, Griffin least of all. Installed in a combat chassis Abdul, a depressed seventeen year old killed during the Secession Wars in Old Montreal, is assigned as Griffin's Heavy Weapons support. Nadia, a state-sanctioned investigative reporter working the stolen children story, pushes Griffin ever deeper into the nightmare of the black market brain trade.

Deep in the La Carpio slums of Costa Rica, the scanned mind of an autistic girl runs the South American Mafia's business interests. But she wants more. She wants freedom. And she has come to see humanity as a threat. She has an answer: Archaeidae. At fourteen, he is the deadliest assassin alive. Two children against the world.

The world is going to need some help."

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Bought a Peter F Hamilton book for the trip up to Durban. The Fall series. Only a day in, and I'm 60% done. Bloody awesome - I remember exactly why I love his writing style. 

 

FML. 

[Paul Ruinaard]

Picked up the new Phil Gaimon book. He comes across as very bitter whilst simultaneously trying to paint Danielson as a tragic hero character. He hates dopers unless they are his friends? I can't quite work out his new angle. Doping is bad unless I know you personally in which case...cool man, you do you.

 

Pro cycling on $10 a day was fantastic. This just seems...limp

 

Also just read it and wasn't sure what his angle was, the Cancellara attacks as well.

 

Just a bit strange.

 

However with the Froome bomb just going off, he may have a point. People like Paul Kimmage were a lone voice at a time when the Festina scandal seemed to indicate doping was all fixed.

 

I think he is pretty funny and can write a good story, but as to the actual value of it all i dont know. Its a bit self serving - lots of his hard luck stories in there and his angst and conflicts etc.

 

No great insights however. Just reporting.

[mazambaan]

Joey Evans - Para to Dakar; I won't whine about not doing well due to injuries again in a hurry.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

Reading the new Andy Weir novel, Artemis.

I enjoyed The Martian, I am at 70% and its pretty good. Easy read......

[Letum911]

Has anyone read the new Dan Brown book? I loved his first bunch of books but battled to finish Inferno. Cannot bring myself to commit and buy the new one yet.

[Slowbee]

 

Changing tack a wee bit.

 

 

Found this at a second hand book store. Really interesting read this. Nice and balanced from various points of view. I did not know Stanley was so against the slave trade and that Morton was so for the slave trade.

 

Two totally different characters that shaped Africa.

 

 

[fanievb]

My "holiday" reading

[Slowbee]

did you borrow them from the Steinhoff library ?

[Readsalot]

I just posted this list somewhere else, thought I'd share it here. Any of you who'd like to share your list of favourite/most memorable reads this year?

Graphic novels

I started this year by reading a lot of graphic novels and were most impressed by:
(They are all Must-Reads, imho.)

The Authority - Warren Ellis
Planetary - Warren Ellis
Sunstone, Ravine and Death Vigil - Stjepan Sejic
Lucifer - Mike Carey
Moon Knight (2016) - Jeff Lemire

LitRPG
2017 was also the year I discovered LitRPG! Not just the genre, but also the community. 

Two series that really stood out for me were:

Awaken Online - Travis Bagwell (The first LitRPG series I ever read. I will always remember Travis Bagwell fondly for that exciting introduction.)
The Weirdest Noob - Arthur Stone (despite the somewhat rushed and confused feel of the third book.)

Looking forward to reading many more, and The Divine Dungeon - Dakota Krout is next on my list to explore.

Fantasy
Two new authors I discovered this year to add to my list of Damn, They're Good 

Cradle and House of Blades series - Will Wight (who is now and forever part of my Top Ten list of greatest fantasy authors of all-time)
Faithful and the Fallen series - John Gwynne

A worthy mention also to the light novel Goblin Slayer series - Kumo Kagyu

Sci-Fi
Two great sci-fi discoveries:

Three Body Problem series - Liu Cixin
Ghosts of Tomorrow - Michael R Fletcher

And that's about it! Many more I read and enjoyed to a greater and lesser extent, but these were the books that really stood out for me and therefore defined my 2017 reading experience.

[Cois]

Started Next (Michael Crichton) last year. Got to page 80 and then left the book.

 

Picked it up this morning again... page 374 as now. Struggling a bit with my vision, but missed reading so much. The new glasses helps a bit, but doing most reading with my contact lenses so look like a Dagga smoker right now (burning red eyes)

 

 

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Edited January 1, 2018 by Cois