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It struck me as odd that no one had posted one of these threads. , Nearly every forum i frequent has one (even the geeky computer game ones ,) ).

So what are you currently reading? , Or did you just recently finish reading something? , Got a rating? Have some praise? , Want to grab people by the shirt and yell at the top of your , lungs to READ THIS BOOK?!

Please be careful of spoilers. , Please demark them with a SPOILER marking and at least a few lines of nothing before you post.

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Ok to start off, just read The embers of heaven by Alma Alexander. , It was a pretty good read though i was disappointed in the end...because there was no end just a pretty vision of the maybe future. , But Amais the main character is entertaining. , It's not based in real china but alot is taken from it so it's interesting in that sense. ,

Revolution is never pretty and never bloodless. , You get the feeling that the song of the nightingale is the book you are reading but it feels transient.

Now onto my next pile of geeky science books. The mould in Floreys pocket.

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I'm sorry if i'm scary.

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I am currently reading Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer - I have read it several times and still love it! I promise myself that I will get on to Emissary soon but I worried that I will like it too much and won't be able to finish the story!!

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HAIL the fantasy writer!

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i'm 3 quarters of the way through emissary!!! up to chapter 21, so im kinda slowing down coz i dont wanna finish it coz then i'll have 2 wait ANOTHER yr for the last one! nooooooooooooooooo lol  (i love Boaz he rocks!! )

thats also why im avoiding the percheron boards till i finish lol

catch  loz

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Currently reading McCaffrey's 4th Acorna novel after finishing Hillerman's latest, Shapeshifter. Koonts' Brother Odd and Cussler's Treasure of Khan in the wings. That's about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks worth. Phil

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The crystal singer trilogy is one of my fave Anne McCaffrey series! Currently reading Kushiels Scion by Jacqueline Carey. YAY! I don't know what it is but i just love reading how she describes things.

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I'm sorry if i'm scary.

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Just finished Kushiels Scion by Jacqueline Carey. It was absolutely delightful to get back into the world world of Imriel, Jocelyn and Phedre. It's nice to have the book writen in a different perspective, yet still retain that richness of the other characters too. My mind is just spinning with all these different ideas though it doesn't really leave all that many loose ends. If you've never read any of Carey's work it's definately worth at least a try. Her worlds are descriptive and luciously rich in atmosphere but not overly done. The characters are portrayed excellently. But my disclaimer is if you don't like sort of erotic stuff in your books don't read it....or at least skip those parts. The pace is great it just makes you have to read that one next chapter even though it's 3am in the morning.

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I'm sorry if i'm scary.

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i just read 'searching for senna' in the Everworld series by K.A Applegate. it didnt strike me as a gr8 book seen as tho it was... 3cm thick, n i really needed a new book at the time but its actually really crafty n funny n has quite a bit of action. so dont judge a book by its cover, lyk i did. heee. gr8 plot i reckon, definitely reccomended! Daughter of storms, Dark caller, and Keepers of light by Louise Cooper r also really gd but the protagonist is sooo annoyingly... annoying *eye twitch* but its still a gd plot n craftily done but i always felt it didnt go into the surroundings detail enuff. im v picky i kno but hey..

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I have just finished reading a new release by Russell Kirkpatrick called 'Husk'. This is the first book in a trilogy called 'The Path of Revenge' and is set about 70 years after the end of his first series "The Fires of Heaven'. It contains a lot of new characters and a couple of old characters from the last series but a totally different storyline set in the same world.

For those of you read the previous series and were a bit iffy about the writing (like me) then rest assured that he has greatly improved with this book and it is worth reading.

Like Melayna, I also read and enjoyed Kushiel's Scion and all Jacqueline Carey's previous books in the series and look forward to Kushiel's Justice out this year sometime.

Other fantasy authors (besides fmc) worth a read.

Kate Forsyth - esp Rhiannon's Ride series.

Robin Hobb - I thought her 'Liveship Traders' series was excellent.

Garth Nix - Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen books and 'The Keys to the Kingdom' series. (The latter for young adult)

P.S. Thank you Down under gal for not using excessive txt in your post. Call me a cranky old dodderer if you will but I can now read and enjoy your posts without the need of a translator.

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You just need to be around more young people mariner I was going to pick up husk for a read but wasn't sure if it was worthwhile. I'll give it a look.

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I'm sorry if i'm scary.

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I've been reading "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley only because I have to read it for school and decided to get in early and find out what it's about before i have to work on it for real.

So far its alright considering I'm only half way through it. I must admit it's not my normal read. I like the idea's it's posing why a utopia could never work and i must say the future concepts are intreaging especially since it isn't all that much of a stretch to see them happening. In all though I'm still in holiday brain mode and the deeper concepts, the ones i should be looking for, are going right over my head, so sigh I'll have to read it again and really think about it.

To tell you the truth I'd rather be re-reading one of Fiona's books because they can be read on all levels, deep - shallow, and still be enjoyed. I'll get their one day the HSC can't last forever even if it seems like it can at present.

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Well I have just finished reading the first 75,000 words of Goddess. And now I'm going to finish it!

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Cnt wait to read it!

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I finished 'emissary' a few weeks ago. Also just recently finished two school books; 'the quiet american' (for english), and 'sense and senseibility' (for english literature).  i personally thought the quiet american was pretty boring, i was trying 2 stop myself from skipping paragraphs, coz knowing my luck i would have missed the most important bits in the book! The fact that i was confused with some of the things going on didnt help either. sense and sensibility has been interesting though. The first half of the book irritated me, mainly due to the language (i dont know how people could understand eachother back then!). Sometimes a character would say something and i'd be thinking, 'hang on! what type of 17 year old talks like that!' But once i got used to the language the story flowed better for me and i actually did enjoy it, even though it was quite predictable (but then again sometimes i dont mind predictable). It was good for a school book, probably one of the best i've had to read.

i was also reading trudi canavan's 'black magician' trilogy about a month ago. I didn't like the first book, everything was waaaaay dragged out for me. The second book was ok at times, i only enjoyed a couple of the chapters. But 'the high lord' was pretty awesome. I dunno, it just seemed different to the other two books, and it didn't bore me. Overall I found the trilogy to be good as a fill in for my lack of new books, but im not really interested in any of trudi's other stuff.

P.S Emissary has been my highlight read of the holidays, and can't wait for godess!! Good luck with finishing it Fiona

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I have started Emissary and I am worried that I won't be able to read as much as I want to!!

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HAIL the fantasy writer!

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Thanks Loza - glad you enjoyed Emissary. I promise, Goddess is on its way! Yes, Ailsa...read slowly! Fx

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I plan too but I know how you write and I doubt I will be able too!!   

Cheers Fiona 

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HAIL the fantasy writer!

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I'v just finished the Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling, twas a very good read & has earned itself a place in my faves!!!

Now i'm reading Sea Dragon Heir by Storm Constantine...

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Sorry's not fish! What good is sorry?

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I'm kinda sad to report that I haven't really read anything new for ages. At the 'mo, I'm re-reading '.... Althalus' by David Eddings. I promise I'll get onto Percheron one of these days ...........

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i havent been able to find any good fantasy novels in the past week... so im back onto the manga!!! ahh my favs r Girl Got Game, Rebirth (its about vampires...!) and Hellsing... vampires again!!! if only i cud get a Fullmetal Alchemist one!!!! *drool*

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Generic spoiler warning for everything here. I don't think anything too dramtic is given away, but beware the paragraph on Stephen King. I wax lyrical about my disappointment in Wolves of the Calla...

Currently, I'm interspersing Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy and Roger Zelany's Amber series with various other titles. I find if I read too much of one author in a single spell, I get tired of them very fast, so I read a variety of authors intermingled.

Roger Zelany is a good writer, even if he did use the grammatically correct but awkward word 'builded'. In his defence, Nine Princes in Amber was written way back in the seventies. A bit chauvanistic, but a good little read. I have the first five Amber books in one and am about to start the second one.

Anne Bishop's Black Jewels is good, if at times a little tiring and confusing. Just finished the second book, Heir to the Shadows, and while it was an engrossing read, I got a little annoyed with the antics of the characters. Every time the precocious but powerful little queen-to-be announces her mastery of a new talent in often loud and spectacular ways, the men in her life respond with trembling worry and weary affection. After the first few, surely they would have viewed each subsequent one with a "Well, she survived the last, and so did we. How bad could it get?" and go back to their Sunday papers, or equivilant thereof - which they do, but not until after a page or two of them gawping at each other, many exclaimations of "Mother night!" and shared looks of concern. And Saetan. We have annecdotal evidence of his great and feared power, but barring one little scene that I had to read twice to catch, we never see it. Why the other characters fear him is beyond me. Even Hades in Disney's Hercules had more clout that this guy. All that said, I really enjoy these books. They'll hang around as some of my favourites for a long time.

Recently read Glenda Larke's Shadows of Tyr. Very able follow up to Heart of the Mirage. In fact, I think it far outstrips the first book in the triology. Glenda made the courageous leap from first person narrative to third between the two books and in my opinion, did it extremely well. The scope of the second book is wider than the first, but, strangely, feels more personal for it, viewed through the eyes of a young boy watching beloved figures make history.

Also lately read Simon Haynes' second Hal Spacejock novel, Second Course. Tom Holt, a very funny author, claims it's better than Red Dwarf, but I don't think so. I'm a die hard Dwarfer, so don't nay say it to me (especially the early series'). However, without this comparason, Hal does a mighty fine job of satisfying the gawfaw humourist (which I am when suitably provoked). The third novel, Just Desserts, is on my shelf.

Before that, read and regreted doing so, Stephen King's Wolves of the Calla, book la de da in the epic Dark Tower series. Its been ages since I read the previous one, Wizard and Glass, and while King does admirably well in catching up forgetful readers such as myself, he also, deploringly, does well in miring the story in pointless rehash of Salems Lot and then recounts a story that would have done better as a sequel to said old tome. The Wolves of the title are made out to be horrifying antoginists to a peaceful farming community but as physical threats, they're absolutely nothing. We're told about them and the nasty thing they do once a generation or so, but King sadly never makes you feel any fear of them. Before they even show up to spread their terror, the characters know how to defeat them - a secret that is hidden from the reader in a shocking use of deliberate deception on King's part. The book would have been better served by being titled "The Drawing of the Fourth", as this is what it amounts to. Not a story about the gunslingers helping a community against an evil spawned by the decay of the Dark Tower, but a story about an old priest's journey through his own wavering faith and the wavering barriers between worlds to end up smack dab in the middle of Roland's quest. The final leg of the book slams the reader over the head with King's cliched 'reason' for the story - and it's not even a good one. I have bought the final two books in the epic, and might gather the courage to read them... one day. Maybe.

Just finished Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Yes I know I'm just getting to the classics, but I've never done anything in the correct order. I really enjoyed the book, but felt it could have done without the final chapter. Felt very 'tacked on' to me and very final and a little too neat. Much prefered the end of the second last chapter. Otherwise, an excellent read.

Of course, recently devoured Emissary by some Aussie chick. Readable.

Also currently reading some  Richard Dawkins. Very smart fellow with some polarising ideas.

On the shelf... Thud - Terry Pratchet; two Dante Valentine novels (similar in genre to Anita Blake - Laurel K Hamilton, but I'm hoping better) - Lilith Saintcrow; Neuromancer - William Gibson (recommended by friends when I said I didn't read science fiction); Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (love Good Omens by this guy and Terry Pratchet, thought I'd give him a try); The Forgetting of Wisdom - Paul McDermott (love this man, way funny and intelligent, my first true celebrity crush, and still is in some ways...); Nocturnes - John Connelly (short stories).

On the way from QBD online... Second Glance, A Twisted Love Story by a chick with MS (I think. Saw an interview with her on 9AM, thought the book sounded good) and The Wayward Mind by some psychologist (love anything on the 'theory' of consciousness).

Wow. That's about used up my alloted board time and space for a whole year. Hope I didn't bother anyone...

Cheers, Lisa.