Tag: other worlds

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Discussion: What are you reading?

And so we come to the time of the week when we discuss things. And I’m a bit tapped out this week, so we’ll keep it to something simple: What are you reading?

What novel(s) did you just finish and are okay with admitting? What would you recommend? What authors are you mainlining right now? Hell, go ahead and ask for recommendations. As long as it has to do with science fiction and fantasy books, have at it. And by that I mean feel free to go above and beyond Star Wars.

I have some semi-embarrassing YA fantasy (not Twilight) that I’ll bring up in the comments later. Promise. If you’re good. There might even be a touch of rant.

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Other worlds: On the awesomeness of Katniss Everdeen

The Hunger Games. Meghan Lewit has praise for Katniss Everdeen in The Atlantic, calling her “the most important female character in recent pop culture history.” I can’t really disagree there.

Meanwhile, it’s being reported that Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) is the front-runner for the part of Katniss in the upcoming movie adaption. She’s 20 and blonde, but at least she can act, I guess. Hollywood, sigh.

Stephen King. A new installment in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, The Wind Through the Keyhole, will be published next year. It looks to be a gap-filler, not a continuation. Meanwhile, in November, he time-travels to the Kennedy assignation.

The Kingkiller Chronicle. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the genre as a whole, you probably know that Patrick Rothfuss is one of the hottest things in fantasy. His second book, The Wise Man’s Fear, just came out. I can’t even begin to catch up with the overwhelming hype and I wasn’t all that impressed with his first anyway, but there’s a nice interview with him on Amazon’s Omnivoracious.

YA mafia. The latest controversy sweeping YA is massive, but it prompted John Scalzi to snark, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that. Also noteworthy: Cleolinda on how reviews are not for authors.

Sunday reader. Mari Ness finished up her look back at the Narnia books on Tor.com a few weeks back. (She also did a massive series on the Oz books if you’re all Lewised out.)

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GRRM’s ‘A Dance with Dragons’ has a release date. No, really.

We’ve been waiting six years for the next installment of George R. R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire series and now – finally – Entertainment Weekly has the scoop: A Dance With Dragons will come out July 12. And at more than 900 pages, it’ll probably be big enough to brain a moose.

With the Game of Thrones TV series (there’s a new trailer for that, too) debuting on April 17, I’m sure that the folks at HBO and Bantam are dancing in their respective hallways.

Though actually, I’m not even sure I believe it myself, yet. Is this real life? Someone pinch me. Is July even enough time to reread?!?

BUT! On his website, Martin says he’s not done yet. What gives?

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Other worlds: Tor.com readers name their top SF/F novels of the decade

Tor.com has wrapped up their reader’s poll, naming the top ten science fiction and fantasy novels of the decade:

  1. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
  2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
  3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
  4. Blindsight by Peter Watts
  5. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
  6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
  7. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
  8. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
  9. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
  10. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

I’ve read half of them: I could see American Gods, Kushiel’s Dart, and A Storm of Swords among my own top reads, but I was distinctly underwhelmed by The Name of the Wind and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. (I’ve been putting off Old Man’s War – it’s in the pile!) What are your thoughts?

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Dunc reads: Book recommendations and best SF/F of 2010

I’ve been kicking the idea of a general genre book roundup for a while, and when I asked if anyone would be interested on Twitter I got several positive responses. Alas, some of them were folks asking for recommendations – while I was thinking of news roundups. So maybe we’ll try a little of both. (Don’t forget that Erika – who does book reviews for us, among other things – has her own book review blog over at Jawas Read Too.)

One of my favorite people for recommendations is Jo Walton and her posts at Tor.com. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve picked up because she wrote about them. Her latest entries include Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword and C.J. Cherryh’s Serpent’s Reach. Tor is a great blog if you’re looking for genre news and reviews, but Walton’s recs alone make it more than worth following.

But enough about praise for others… I’m sure what you really want to see are my opinions. I kid, but head beneath the cut for my fiction picks for 2010. Continue reading “Dunc reads: Book recommendations and best SF/F of 2010”