What Book are you reading ?

Ok

We have done music, how about literature ?

At the moment I'm reading "Empire of the Sun" by JG Ballard

It's the story of a boy living in the international area of Shanghai when the Japanese invade China during WWII.

It's based on the authors childhood, who had most of the things happen to him, and was made into a film by Stephen Spielberg, starring a young Cristian Bale.

My favorite author has to be Terry Pratchett and I have Hardback first editions of everything he has published

I've just finished a very extended series by Robin Hobb. It starts with the Assasin books "The Farseer Trilogy"

1. "Assasin's Apprentice"

2. "Royal Assasin"

3. Assasin's Quest"

Follow up from these books is "The Tawny Man" Series.

7. "Fool's Errand"

8. "Golden Fool"

9. "Fool's Fate"

In chronological order between the Assasin and the Fool books, but also a separate series is the "The Liveship Traders" Trilogy. It's in the same world and in time comes after the Farseer Trilogy. It has some of the same characters but is not the exact follow up of it. I've read the 6 other books first and then the liveship ones, which is also possible, and then you will get some answers and will recognize stuff from the other three books.

"The Liveship Traders"

4. "Ship of Magic"

5. "Mad Ship"

6. "Ship of Destiny"

I really really enjoyed all three series, especially though the Assasin and Fool books. They are written in "I" form, which usually isn't that great, but these books are absolutely great. Just a week or two ago I finished Ship of Destiny, and I was pretty sad that it was over! But really, even if you don't like fantasy, give them a try!

I also love(d) The Wheel of Time serie by Robert Jordan. The last episode (12) is about to come out, unfortunately Robert Jordan died before he could finish it

I'm not busy in the Dark Elf Trilogy books, about Drizzt Do'Urden. Lovely character

Terry Pratchett I also love. But for everyone here who's dutch (or another language then English in fact), if you can, read them in English. It's not something that's easily translated and still funny. I always read books in English anyway. I was so buggered when I was 13 and read my first Harry Potter book that they named characters differently (Hermelientje instead of Hermoine!) and when the first movie came out you don't know who everyone is lol...

I've given up reading literature by the time I had to learn several 2000 pages English/scientific books for my study, I started reading easy and feel good fantasy that draws you in for relaxation

By all means if you have good tips for books, I eat them for breakfast!

I've just finished a book by Anne McCaffrey called The Rowan, excellent book, and now russ has to find me the follow up to it

Evillynne

Series I have read and recomend

somee series by Anne McCaffrey: The dragonriders of pern, The crystal singer series, The tower and the hive series ( see above ). ( Dont bother with the dinosaur planet it was one of her first and it shows )

Robert Asprin: Myth series and Phule series.

E.E. doc Smith: Skylark and lensman series, great ripping yarns space opera stuff

David Brin: The Uplift wars series especially the book of that name. and a one off called Earth, which is an eco/scifi book written in 1990 about now and gets a LOT of predictions right. He also wrote the postman which kevin costner hashed up when he made a film of it.

Peter F Hamilton: Nights dawn trilogy and commonwealth saga, huge concepts and characters fantastically written ( and he has released a new one that I didnt know about , so have ordered it now )

Phillip Pullman: his dark materials trilogy. The first one "the northen lights" was made as a film "the golden compass"

Neal Stephenson: zodiac,snow crash, diamond age and cryptonomicon. All different all excelent, the last one amazingly so

thanks for the heads up about the Robin hob books lizz, I'll give them a look

Im not really reading any fantasy books lately, but i absolutely love anything by Chuck Palahniuk. Palahniuk is the guy who wrote Fight Club (yesm there was a book before the film ), and if you want dark, disturbing and usually funny as hell in a very sick way, he is your man. By now ive read:

Fight Club (even darker and stranger than the movie),

Lullaby (about a lullaby that kills and then the story just goes bananas),

Choke (a recovering sexoholic trying to get money for his moms healthcare by acting as he is choking in restaurants...),

Survivor (last known survivor of a deathcult is still alive and becomes a guru and then it all goes wrong....)

Invisible Monster (a model gets half her face shot of and hooks up with a soon to be woman, and goes out for revenge).

All very funny, ut disturbing at times . Choke btw is coming soon as a movie, looking forward to that.

Other than that im reading a book from iceland (in danish) called Stormland, about a very angry man who wants to kill the prime minister (its funnier than it sounds).

luv

Eido

Ohhhh how could I have forgotten.... finished reading Dan Simmons 'Hyperion'.. fantastic book.. lots of twists and turns, and the ending is superb... another book recommended to me by my husband

Currently reading the Otherland serie by Tad Williams and my favorite fantasy writers that i've read untill now are Weis & Hickman. They are a writer duo and have made, and still are making, loads of books. I've read most of them and loved every single one of them.

Oh I totally forgot about Weis & Hickman! I've got some Tad Williams books as well and liked them a lot. But I enjoyed Weis & Hickman for sure! Me 'n Yorga have the Deathgate series and it was wonderful. The first half of the first book you kind of have to work yourself through, but after that it's magnificent. Can't go wrong there

A few years ago I also started in Terry Goodkinds "The Sword of Truth" cycle. And although I loved the first few books, the series slides down after a while. I'm still reading because well, you read all the books so you wanna know how it ends, but if you are thinking of starting it....there's some damn boring books in the middle! Warning

I've just finished a very extended series by Robin Hobb. It starts with the Assasin books "The Farseer Trilogy"
1. "Assasin's Apprentice"

2. "Royal Assasin"

3. Assasin's Quest"

Follow up from these books is "The Tawny Man" Series.

7. "Fool's Errand"

8. "Golden Fool"

9. "Fool's Fate"

Talk about co-incidence... Vorp and I are jusr reading the same series on recommendation from a (totally separate) friend. I'm about half-way in "Fools Errand" while Vorp finished the last book, "Fools Fate" last night!

We've both read Sword of Truth series, and got bored around book 5-ish so stopped there (was getting too samey/formulaic).

As to other's in the same vein, how about Trudi Canavan's Black Magician Trilogy, or the Age of the White (another trilogy) - both worth a read imo. Also Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire by Janny Wurst and Raymond Feist (also like the latter's "Magician" tho later books in the same series are supposedly not so good).

Impressive co-incidence on the Robin Hobb though

As.

i've recently finished "american gods" by neil gaiman on recommendation by my gf. kick-ass book as a fantasynovel and even greater if you get the symbolism behind it as well (which isn't my strongest point, but i try ^^)

before that i've read the 2 eragonbooks by christopher paolini (dunno if it's written right). i don't have to say that the book(s) are waaaaay better than the film.

the robin hobb series i should really get started on apparently cuz it seems that everyone finds them a good read.