What's everybody reading? Got recommendations?

[Ian P. Johnson]

Oh, hey, it's even St. Patrick's Day in a week! Would anyone like some more Irish SF&F author recommendations?

If you haven't read the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, you're in for a treat. It's a YA series that centers around a super-genius Irish millionaire kid and his attempts to swindle the fairy folk out of gold. It's not particularly "high-concept", but the series is fast-paced, funny, action-packed, and incredibly fun. If you don't look down your nose at the concept of YA, it's really a good series to read. I read them when I was a lad, and I enjoyed them far more than the Harry Potter series. (I don't know why, Potter hasn't exactly grabbed me…)

[dwndrgn]

Artemis Fowl never did it for me, probably because I have specific requirements in order to enjoy a book and one of them is that I have to like the main character. I couldn't like Artemis so I couldn't get through the first book.

The Inferior (YA space cannibals, ha!) was a great concept that I felt wasn't executed as well as it could have been. I thought that most of the secondary characters were rather flat and the plot seemed to meander with no purpose for a bit there in the middle.

[RolandDeschain]

Cool new forum. I just finished House of Chains(re read) by Steven Erikson. Now reading Swordbearer by Glenn Cook.

[aidan]

Nearing the end of The Wise Man's Fear by Rothfuss. It's better than The Name of the Wind, which I wasn't quite expecting. It slows down a fair bit in the middle sections, but Rothfuss plants so much wonderful character and storytelling in there that it's not a bother. I delight to read so far.

[TorChris]

I was really intrigued by the concept behind Watermind by M.M. Buckner but so far it's reading like a thin Michael Crichton paperback. Wouldn't recommend.

I picked up a copy of Studs Terkel's Hard Times at the Housing Works event before the last Tor.com meet-up and that's been really good so far, questionable page stains and all. There's an amazing thread that you pick up throughout the various recollections about assigning blame in a failing economy, too. People were markedly less paranoid in the early 20th century.

[JLaSala]

Book of the Dead, part 3 of a trilogy by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I can't really get enough of Holmes-like characters and their nemeses.

But I've also only recently begun Cherie Priest's Boneshaker.

[Malana]

Anyone reading anything with a good horror bent right now?

[SteveFoerster]

I just finished Wise Man's Fear also, and loved it. I'm trying not to think about how long I'll have to wait for the conclusion! I've moved on to The Breach by Patrick Lee. I don't think he's Irish, but his name's Patrick, so that's as close as I can get. :-)

-=Steve=-

[RolandDeschain]

Glad to see good reviews about Wise Man's Fear, I'll be reading that soon enough.

I'm currently reading The Warded Man, by Peter V Brett. About 20 pages in and so far so good.

[SteveFoerster]

Okay, so I finished The Breach and its sequel, Ghost Country. They're techno-thrillers, which are not usually my thing. However, while the characters as as one dimensional as you'd expect in techno-thrillers, the situations in which they're placed and the surprising plot twists (especially the end of the first book) are very clever and made both books worthwhile. I'll read the next one when it comes out, which I suppose is the ultimate endorsement!

-=Steve=-