Those who like it might like The Forever War, which also looks at the evolution of a conflict over relativistic time.

Decided to just power through the spider bit in Children of Time and it's only gotten worse!

I will continue reading but I don't know how much more I can take.

I have acute arachnophobia, Nina, and I made it through. It’s not pleasant, and there were quite a few times when I wondered why on Earth I was reading it. It’s difficult for me to say whether I actually think it’s worth pushing on with or not. I think the bigger issue I had with the book that trumped the icky feeling it gave me, was the structure: one chapter for spiders and one chapter for humans and so on and so forth. It prevented me from getting deeply immersed in the storylines.

It's the Joe Helderman series folk are referring to, right?

He by John Connolly.

A novel based around the chaotic personal life of Stan Laurel. The facts provide the skeleton of the narrative but the creation of fancied inner thoughts create the novel.  A brilliant work. At times hilarious, at others, sad.  L&H are beloved of me so this adds to my enjoyment. A knowledge of their creative output helps but this is a great piece of literature.

I like short chapters in books as it gives me plenty of opportunity to take a natural break. This book is structured in almost page length breaks - but I kept reading. It's told in the present tense and has an unusual style but once I got used to that I couldn't put it down.

Finished Dune, which c80% was the word "presently".

Yeah it's bloody brilliant. It's one of those stories that sits at the back of your mind, forever influencing your psyche.

It's hailed as the start of modernism but it's also, I think, the instant rejection of it.

Gremill wrote:

Reading The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. It might be one of the best Scifi books I've read in absolutely ages. It's like nothing else I've read before.

I read the lot last year. 
Overall I enjoyed them.

pantyfire wrote:

Gremill wrote:

Reading The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. It might be one of the best Scifi books I've read in absolutely ages. It's like nothing else I've read before.

I read the lot last year. 
Overall I enjoyed them.

This prompted me to hunt down book number 3 on Audible. Downloaded and listening. Cheers.

The Malazan series is definitely on my radar. I’ve been snapping them up whenever they appear in a Kindle sale, so I will get to them at some point.

Busy week for Mark Lawrence , One Word Kill our today( free on kindle if you have Amazon Prime or 99p if you sign up to Amazon First Reads ).

Also the last of his latest trilogy Holy Sister , really looking forward to that one.

Raiziel wrote:

With the nice weather and the prospect of no job looming, I was thinking I might spend the summer in the garden reading an enormous fantasy epic. For years I’ve been tempted by The Wheel of Time series, but I’ve been put off both by its size and the fact that it was incomplete. Think I’m up for it now that it’s done and I’m going to have a bit more time on my hands. Has anyone else read it?

Yeah. The general criticism is that the pacing slows down in books 7-10, which would have been a massive issue when the books were coming out once every two years but I don't think matters so much now you can blast through them. To a lesser extent it's also noted that while Sanderson did a good job with the remaining books, the changeover is sometimes noticeable.

I reckon if you're into fantasy and inclined towards putting the major series on your bucket list then now is a good time for WoT as the TV series is out soon with all the potential internet spoilers and visual imagery making it harder to imagine stuff from scratch that that entails.

Raiziel wrote:

Oh wow, I had no idea there was a series on the way.

Eek me neither. Have read about the first six or seven I think but like ten years ago - any hope of me being able to carry on from the next one without a recap?? I think they each start with a "previously on Wheel if Time" don't they? Some formulaic elements I guess...

Anyone I'm on book one of the second Mark Lawrence trilogy ATM. Not sure I'm enjoying it quite as much as the first trilogy yet, but people say Wheel of Oshem is a goodun so hopefully it'll heat up...

I keep buying other random stuff too my Kindle had it's own huge PoS. The Body Problem amidst it, and the tower of Babel thingy, and I've not heard of Ian Irvine & have only read the first Malazan (which I find hard work), so fuck me there's lots of bookage ahead...

The publisher did a series of 'reread' blog posts that are pretty good. They might have republished them as free Kindle books, I can't remember.

So I "finished" the penguin classics edition of Monkey today (Journey to the West). A few months ago I mentioned that I found it odd that they only met up with Pigsy at the halfway mark of the book. Then I find out that Waley's translation has taken the liberty of editing and retelling the original 100+ chapters and condensing it down to 33. I'm sure with good reason; a lot of references would probably go over my head or right through it.

Thankfully there is a longer complete translation (4 volumes) from the early 80s that is still in print, so I get to find out.