My next batch of reading includes two book-club reads

Hyperion - Dan Simmons
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - H.P. Lovecraft
Doctor Who: The Romans - Donald Cotton

I read that one when I was a teenager. I still have the book along with other works by Lovecraft.

Hey Wolf, if you're into Lovecraft, check this out:

http://www.bigfinish.com/141-Doctor-...Sunlights-Edge

It's a brilliant (imo) homage to Lovecraft. One of the most fun Doctor Who audios I've listened to in ages.

I'd be very interested to hear your take on Hyperion, Wolf.

I used to get a lift to work with a hard sci-fi fan, and we often discussed what I was reading. I'd just finished Iain M Banks' Against A Dark Background and really enjoyed it so lent it to him. He pretty much dismissed it, which narked me. In return he proffered Hyperion and it blew me away. Banks is often described as sci-fi-lite, which is probably why I'm such a fan. Dan Simmonds also focuses very much on character and plot, but is definitely sci-fi.

I followed it up with The Fall of Hyperion and that makes it onto my Top 20 book list, but the final two didn't grip me in the same way. To the extent I have forgotten their names. Still worth reading though.

ETA - I often read this thread, and often feel so guilty about not relating what I am reading.
The truth is I get 10-15 books out of the library every three weeks and few of them move me enough to bother reviewing them. And I also have the worry that I'll rave about a book in a heightened state of emotion, only to have someone point out how very dire it it. Unlikely, as I am a pretty savvy reader, but the fear is there because I am still a child at heart and put a rollicking good plot and sympathetic characters about anything else.

Just read Silence by Josie Henley-Einion. Don't rate it. It left me confused. I don't like books that hint at events all the way through and then don't actually make them clear. I suppose it's clever, but it just left me confused and I didn't enjoy the book enough to go back through and thread the clues together. It's about a lesbian couple (both with aforementioned secrets in their past) and takes the form of an autobiography written after an event means one of them ends up in prison. Except some of it is written from the other's POV, which is odd as it's about the past, not the present.

Started Pratchett's Reaper Man. S'okay so far. The usual shits & giggles. I lost it yesterday, only to find it in my bed last night.

So I also started Peter Straub's In The Night Room. Straub is a very worthy author, and has some exceptional ideas (If You Could See Me Now, olfactory prescience) but sometimes I find myself drifting when I read him. I'll read a chapter and realise I've been skipping text. I do read quickly, but I am NOT a speed reader, so I have to go back and read it again. I'm going to stick with this one because the premise is good so far.

The Sevenwaters Trilogy

Really really good books if you like that kind of genre.

Need some recommendations for a good sci-fi/fantasy series. I read through the Song of Ice and Fire books and need more reading material but I don't want to waste time on a crappy book (which it seems there are a few in the genre.)

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven. Not a series, but a damn good book, and pretty long so it'll last awhile. :)

This isn't a book I'm reading but what do you guys know about the Kindle or Nook? Or has this thread already been made? Sorry...thinking about saving up for one for my mom for Xmas...yes that's how long it will take

Daughter of the Forest was pretty good.Very good if you like ancient Celtic lore. Good enough I wanted to read the sequel, Son of the Shadows.

It took me a while to get used to the writing style in the first book and to get through the story set up, so I keep thinking the second one will get better too, but I am 170 pages in and I am finding the long winded and without direction and not very believable or special as the first one is. I will probably forge on to the third, even though the reviews go down in estimation. I have found the Amazon reviews less than reliable at times.

Daughter of the Forest is great though.


I have never wanted the kindle, but the Nook[color] intrigues me. The touch screen the color, the other apps.

The Kindle is the most awesome device evah.

And yes, I do think we have several threads where I endlessly extol it's virtues.

http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=2...ghlight=kindle

http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?t=23021

Those are the dedicated threads, but there are a lot of other mentions including the Books You're Reading and Products I Wholeheartedly Endorse threads.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will check one or both of those out.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. For me, a good read.

Still reading Case of Charles Dexter Ward

finished Hyperion ... very disappointing. Even in extended series, I expect a little more closure, and a far less stupid ending.

Moved on to Doctor Who and the Zarbi - Bill Sutton

"Out of the silence" by Erle Cox

Justinian's Flea - Starting off strong smaat writing.