What are you reading/recommend a book

[Sinnertwin]

The last book i read was Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter. I purchased it on a whim from Kmart for $10. I was pleasantly surprised, i really enjoyed it. I've also been meaning to start reading the Stephen King Dark Tower series.

[fatbot]

it's funny how many conversations get started after people see the wheel of time tattoo on my arm.

I'd recommend 'Amtrak wars' by Patrick Tilley, but I don't think that's available in Australia. I know Amazon has the series for the Kindle

Fiest has just completed the Riftwar novels, there are about 20 of them for you to plow though

[The_Damned]

feist is epic. david gammel has some great books.

At the moment i am reading xenocide by orsen scott card 3rd book in the ender series, book 1 enders game is a movie coming out soon i totally recommand reading enders game awesome book.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Good on ya for starting this thread Trent !


Like you, I used to read a lot more than I do now. I used to get through a new book about once a fortnight, though if it was really good I would sometimes just read it all in one night. But these days between a full time job, a full time baby and a full time hobby farm, I'm lucky to sit down and read the latest MTMTE comics my mate brings me from Bendigo.

*The Discworld books are fantastic! Got the whole lot on my shelves. Sadly they have gone downhill in recent years as Terry Pratchet's sickness has progressed.

*A great Aussie author is John Birmingham (no not the 12th man dude - thats Billy Birmingham). He wrote 'Died with a Felafel in his Hand', 'The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco', 'Dopeland' and 'How to be a Man'. I'm going to get Orion a copy of the latter for his 18th birthday, the first 3 were very relatable to for me when I was an early 20's uni drama bum

*If you love Captian James T Kirk (and who the slag doesn't?!) Read the series of Star Trek books by William Shatner (in what has been termed the Shatnerverse). Bloody brilliant! The series of 4 or 5 books are all about Kirk alive in Picards time (The Borg brought him back after he died in Star Trek 7) and he basically kicks the entire universes arse in every single book, all while shagging most every female he meets. Lets see, he defeats the Borg, he defeats the Vulcan Sepretists, he beats the Romulans, he out-engineers Geordi, puts the smack down on Picard, gets in on with the Mirror-Universe Janeway - it's like Kirk in a point one percenter

*A lot of the earlier True Blood books are an easy read, later on they just spend too much time referencing themselves. Think the author got lazy when it got made into a TV show so they became rich.

*Read most of the Stephen King books, always great until the ending, for some reason the endings almost always suck in his books (look at 'IT' where at the end for no damn reason IT turns into a giant spider - WTF?!)

*The Painted Man & its sequels by Peter. V Brett are very good. Currently waiting for my wife to finish with the latest one (The Daylight War) so I can have a go at it.

*If I'd have to reccomend a book to read it would be 'Good Omens' cowritten by Terry Pratchet & Neil Gaiman. READ THIS BOOK! GO! DO IT NOW! I DON'T CARE IF YOU GET IN TROUBLE FOR LEAVING WORK - GO FRIGGIN DO IT!


*And of course, I have every Footrot Flats ever (Murray Ball) - love the comic strip of a Farmer and his Dog! Awesome movie too!

[UltraMarginal]

I haven't read much more than comics for quite a while now but I can highly recommend the Battleaxe Trilogy and its successor by Australian uthor Sara Douglass.

I read it while I was at uni and it's one of few series of books where every waking hour has been spent reading it. not so good when you're supposed to be studying.

I recommend books by Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke, very well written science fiction, if starting to date a little. the Foundation series is excellent.

[fatbot]

I haven't read much more than comics for quite a while now but I can highly recommend the Battleaxe Trilogy and its successor by Australian uthor Sara Douglass.

Be careful what order you read her books in. The Darkglass Mountain Trilogy tied everything in together, The Axis series, Beyond the Hanging Wall, Threshold, Serpent Mountain series.

Also try the Nightside & Deathstalker books from Simon R green,about 20 books all up, bloody good reading there!

[Paulbot]

I'll agree with BigTransformerTrve on the "Shatnerverse" Star Trek books, but mostly because they are co-written (well mostly written I would say) by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens my favourite Trek writers. They are Star Trek fans and you can always tell that when you read their stuff (like James Roberts in MTMTE) that they've thought about, care about and have interesting thoughts about these characters and universe. Their "Federation" is the TOS/TNG crossover that the movie couldn't be and is highly recommended (although canonically inaccurate now).

The last book I read was actually a non-Trek book by the pair called "The Search" which was good but a little bit too "Da Vinci Code"-esque. Their earlier action/adventure books all pretty great though too though (Icefire, it's sequel Freefall; and Quicksilver). If you like Matthew Reilly's stuff they'd appeal.

I haven't read Birmingham's serious novels, but his trilogy of Alternate History ("Weapons of Choice" is book 1) was quite enjoyable: International battleships from the near future accidentally get sent back in time to World War 2 just days before the attack on Pearl Harbour.

My favourite Alternate History books though are Harry Turtledove's World War four part series (and the Colonisation sequel trilogy). Basic setup: An alien reptilian species (The Race), come to earth to claim it for their Holy Emperor and expect to easily conquer the knights on horseback their scouting probes filmed. Instead they find that in the 1000 years they spent planning, mankind's technology has evolved much quicker than their's ever did (apart from better space-travel the aliens have the same level of technology as we did in the year 2000). And what's worse the major world powers are not only prepared for war, they are in the early days of World War 2! There's a mix of real life and fictional characters from many different cultures and perspective (America, German, British, Russian, Chinese) and there's fair share of story told from the invaders perspective too so they are not just generic bad guys.

I also agree with Kazza and have enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk's books but the most recent two or three weren't great. Definitely agree that "Invisible Monsters" is one of his best.

I have a few favourite books on my shelf that have been turned to movies, but I like the books so much I refuse to see the films. "The Time Traveller's Wife" is a timey-wimey romance, "Life of Pi" was a real pageturner, and "World War Z" is first person accounts of a zombie outbreak are scarily realistic. None of the movies could live up to these books IMO.

[UltraMarginal]

Be careful what order you read her books in. The Darkglass Mountain Trilogy tied everything in together, The Axis series, Beyond the Hanging Wall, Threshold, Serpent Mountain series.

Thank you, I'll keep that in mind, I've read the Battleaxe Trilogy and the following Trilogy but that's all so I'll have to be careful which I eventually read next. I have a couple more of her books from the Troy Game series but I haven't actually cracked any of them yet.

I'll agree with BigTransformerTrve on the "Shatnerverse" Star Trek books, but mostly because they are co-written (well mostly written I would say) by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens my favourite Trek writers. They are Star Trek fans and you can always tell that when you read their stuff (like James Roberts in MTMTE) that they've thought about, care about and have interesting thoughts about these characters and universe. Their "Federation" is the TOS/TNG crossover that the movie couldn't be and is highly recommended (although canonically inaccurate now).

I totally missed BTT's post, I know, how could I.

I've read some of those Trek books and they were great. I've found many of the un-numbered star Trek books to be great reads. Peter David always does a good job.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Finished reading the latest Discworld book: Raising Steam

It was responsible for me being hungover all yesterday as I got it late Friday night and I tend to sit and read them in one go, so sat up reading and not paying attention to how many drinks I was consuming. Went to bed at 1am leaving a finished book and a stupid amount of empty bottles behind me


I hate to say it, but in the end this was as dissapointing as the last two Discworld books (Snuff & The Science of Discworld 4). Since Pratchett has developed whichever particular brand of Altzimers he has, poor bugger, his writing has gone downhill. In fact now he dictates to someone who types it down for him as he is no longer physcially capable.

The Discworld books would have to be about my favorite long-running series of books ever, and I have certainly had to replace many paperback copies with hardback ones as I wear them out with multiple reads. But the last three books have been reading more like a David Eddings book. By this I mean that all the heroes are too competent. No matter the situation the heroes are always about 3 moves ahead of the bad guys, you never feel like there is any peril or a real danger of anything going wrong and that the whole time the situation is completely in hand. Also the brilliant humor that characterized all Pratchetts earlier works is practically non-existent now. If you were to read an earlier Discworld book like The Last Continent or Thudd, you would swear that the author of the current works is a pale imitator of the author that came before.

With Raising Steam, it focuses on the Discworld getting its first train and the hero is Moist Von Lipwig, who was the central character in Going Postal and Making Money. Going Postal was a brilliant book and Making Money wasn't bad. In this they could have used most any other character, the Von Lipwig character never has any real need to call upon his street smarts or his old criminal skills that served him well in the last two. Most of the characters are becoming more one-dimensional and they are all too proficient at what they do. I don't want to delve into the plot much in case others read it, but lets just say its not particularly riveting.


If you are a massive Discworld fan, then you can probably not resist picking up this book. If you are not, then sadly don't bother - you are not missing much.

[Trent]

Finished reading the latest Discworld book: Raising Steam

It was responsible for me being hungover all yesterday as I got it late Friday night and I tend to sit and read them in one go, so sat up reading and not paying attention to how many drinks I was consuming. Went to bed at 1am leaving a finished book and a stupid amount of empty bottles behind me


I hate to say it, but in the end this was as dissapointing as the last two Discworld books (Snuff & The Science of Discworld 4). Since Pratchett has developed whichever particular brand of Altzimers he has, poor bugger, his writing has gone downhill. In fact now he dictates to someone who types it down for him as he is no longer physcially capable.

The Discworld books would have to be about my favorite long-running series of books ever, and I have certainly had to replace many paperback copies with hardback ones as I wear them out with multiple reads. But the last three books have been reading more like a David Eddings book. By this I mean that all the heroes are too competent. No matter the situation the heroes are always about 3 moves ahead of the bad guys, you never feel like there is any peril or a real danger of anything going wrong and that the whole time the situation is completely in hand. Also the brilliant humor that characterized all Pratchetts earlier works is practically non-existent now. If you were to read an earlier Discworld book like The Last Continent or Thudd, you would swear that the author of the current works is a pale imitator of the author that came before.

With Raising Steam, it focuses on the Discworld getting its first train and the hero is Moist Von Lipwig, who was the central character in Going Postal and Making Money. Going Postal was a brilliant book and Making Money wasn't bad. In this they could have used most any other character, the Von Lipwig character never has any real need to call upon his street smarts or his old criminal skills that served him well in the last two. Most of the characters are becoming more one-dimensional and they are all too proficient at what they do. I don't want to delve into the plot much in case others read it, but lets just say its not particularly riveting.


If you are a massive Discworld fan, then you can probably not resist picking up this book. If you are not, then sadly don't bother - you are not missing much.

It's a shame. I noticed it with Snuff too. While it was a pretty good book, it didn't really do Vimes justice, which was a bit disappointing as he is my favourite Discworld character (with Moist a close second).

I have just got back into readin actually. I stopped forms while but have got back into the Wheel of Time. As of last night I have 6 down, 9 to go