Summer time reading...

[[JiF]ALargeWoodenBadger]

I am currently reading Joe Abercrombies' The Heroes. If you read the First Law Trilogy or Best Served Cold you'll probably love this. I'm only about 200 pages in but there is a strong hint that the Bloody Nine himself may re-appear! Yee-Haw!

So. What are you reading and what should I read next?

[[JiF]major confusion]

Right now I'm reading Cabela's fall preview hunting catalog.

[[JiF]zougathefist]

hi Badger, that looks like a nice new direction for me to go to.

I usually read a lot of SciFi books (e.g. Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Harry Harrison) However my two stand out favourites are Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton but most recently I have been reading stuff by China Mieville kinda Steampunk but a lot of his work is based in alternate reality/hidden world contexts. The City and The City is an outstanding book and has a fantastic underpinning idea. Also highly recommend Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council. These are all set in the same 'universe'

For fantasy books I like Robin Hobb and the Liveship Traders trilogy or Stephen R. Lawhead and the Pendragon cycle, which is loosly based on the Arthurian legend.

Its been mentioned before somewhere but the Dark Tower series (7 books) by Stephen King is (IMHO) his best work to date and whilst it has (IMFHO) a typically weak King ending and the so called 'meta-character' of King himself, it far outclasses anything else I have read by him - plus the rumour goes that he is writing a follow up.
To give you an idea, here is the opening line:
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"

Another excellent author is Neal Stephenson - a pioneer in technological futures and SciFi (he is credited with the first use of the word 'Avatar' as meaning an online representation - see Snow Crash)
he has alos written a trilogy (or in some places a 6 book series) called the Baroque Cycle that takes you through one of the most exciting periods of societal advancement (Newton, Leibnitz, Wren are all characters) but in a very readable and intricate storyline. Also worth reading is Anathema which has a great scope of ideas and has a quite believable future (in the main)

In a totally different vein I really like Cormac McCarthy (The Road, Blood Meridian) or Joseph O'Connor (Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls)

For comedic value try Colin Bateman's books - starting with Divorcing Jack, most of his books are based in Ireland and actually give a pretty honest reflection of the lunacy of the troubles and how they have affected society

I could go on but its HOMETIME!!!!!!

[[JiF]Uncle Stinky]

Zouga -- I'm also a big fan of Alastair Reynolds and Neal Stephenson. Did you read Cryptonomicon? I haven't read any Peter Hamilton, so will look him up.

I liked Mieville's Perdido Street Station; his others didn't seem as good.

If you like Reynolds, you should definitely check out Vernor Vinge (A Fire on the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky) and Iain Banks' Culture series (Matter is my favorite).

Another author I highly recommend is Connie Willis. Her Doomsday Book was one of the best I've ever read. She has a series of two books out now about time travellers caught in the London Blitz. She is a superb writer, and creates very believable characters.