I am about to hop on a plane at 4am and I was searching for a good book.

What I am most interested in is something about space exploration and colonization of a new world.

What are you reading - any recommendations?

I have been reading Bernard Cornwall's excellent Last Kingdom series. I really can't do it justice. I started watching the first two seasons on Netflix which are incredible. Imho better than Game of Thrones - great acting, production, everything.

The story follows a young Briton who is captured and raised by Danes - who eventually serves King Alfred in the age of Vikings. I have never read a better author. It is like every paragraph is finely honed and chiseled perfectly.

However, I wanted to grab a nice pulp space story.

Stainless Steel Rat if yo want some comedy.

James Corey, 'Leviathan Wakes', first book that has been made into the TV series The Expanse. Plenty more books to come after this one. Mostly hard science, relatively near-future science fiction.

In reply to ChromaticNewt (msg # 3):

The Last Hurrah of The Golden Horde is a collection of 16 short stories by Norman Spinrad.

The Millennial Project:  How to Colonize The Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps is a work of speculative non-fiction by Marshall T. Savage about the future of manned space exploration.

thanks horus! I just saw this as we are about to pull away - no time to amazon it - but I will check it out!

A Fire Upon the Deep has some pretty cool high-concept sci-fi.

Lately I've been reading all the Sandman graphic novels so I have to recommend that too, pretty heady stuff there!

Definitely recommend the James Corey books.  Not my usual - technically they are probably space opera, but there is so much more.  So many personalities developed, a touch of mystery, politics and history, etc, along with the science fiction and space exploration.  And best of all there is lots to read - several large books plus some short stories, and still ongoing with a new one due in December.

Fiction - I've been going classics lately: Tale of Two Cities and CS Lewis' Till We Have Faces (A retelling of Cupid and Psyche)
Nonfiction - Kicking up a Racket, Stiff Little Fingers 1977-1983 Yeah, the old punk is still the best punk.

Listening to The Lord of the Rings audiobooks (trilogy plus Silmirillion and Hobbit).

Drowtales: Moonless Age graphic novel webcomic.

W.I.T.C.H. graphic novels.

Currently re-reading the DragonLance books...atm I'm nearly done with "Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes".

I've been rereading some of my Heralds of Valdemar series, particularly the Herald Spy trilogy, the new one "The Hills Have Spies", and "Brightly Burning."

I'm about to embark upon one called, "Passage to Juneau," a real-life account of a person who traveled there by canoe in the 70s and 80s.

Also need to reread my D&D Eberron book "Secrets of Xen'drik" because my party is exploring there this Friday...

I've just finished reading Kings of the Wyld. It is D&D The Campaign in fiction. Fantastic light read.

Now I have starter A Practical Guide to Evil. So far it has been really cool dark fantasy.

"G-man" by Stephan Hunter.

I'm waiting for "Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints" by John Ringo and Larry Corriea to come out in July.

You're welcome.  I'll add a work of speculative fantasy to the mix:  The Book of The Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, jr.

My all-time favorite is a thing by Roger Zelazny called Lord of Light.  One day I'll figure out how to make a game out of it...

Well, it's not new, but anyone with a marginal interest in Ancient Greece, military history, or ancient combat techniques might find Gates of Fire (by Steven Pressfield) a good read.  I've read it a few times...I'm currently working on Tides of War, which he also wrote, but it's about Alcibiades and the Peloponesian (spelling!) war, as opposed to GoF being about a single battle...there's a lot more politics and intrigue involved, and it's just not as gripping a story, overall, although I still find it an interesting read (it's just not an "I can't put this book down!" read.)

But it's perhaps far more relevant to our times than GoF, as Alcibiades was a master of creating a cult of personality, as well as being a brilliant general, and all the political tides that shifted for and against him feel disturbingly familiar in many ways.

On a whole different tack: This Idea is Brilliant, John Brockiman, 2018, Harper Collins.

A collection of 205 mini-essays by various scientists (broadly defined) naming and discussing scientific concepts, from "The Longevity Factor" through "The Navier-Stokes Equations" to "Humility". A mind-expanding book to be read a few pages at a time.

Im currently listening to an audiobook version of The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Not for kids - Cosmic Horror and some expletives). Its very good. Also just finished reading The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson andits very funny.

Also a good read - Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren (Caution: This last one contains explicit erotic prose).

Tarzan the Untamed (number 7)

Currently reading "John Carter of Mars", a collection of ERB's Barsoom books.

I'm slowly, very slowly, making my way through the Prince of Nothing series.

It's a fantasy series with the kind of worldbuilding where it seems like the author has gotten ahold of a portal to a fully fledged world. History, quotes from ancient philosophers, local customs and proverbs is plobbed in without explanation, but with context that makes it so you understand. And there it seems there is at least one tidbit on every single page, which makes you wonder how he would make up all that stuff without aforementioned portal. Add to that the people of the world that are very much human (with all the horribleness that can entail), and a bunch of protagonists that are damn interesting with their own personalities, philosophies and character arcs.

It is heavy, but oh so good if you are into that kind of stuff.

I was reading the Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher.  Until my wife left it at her father's house.  We live in Kentucky, he lives in Florida.....

In reply to Starchaser (msg # 17):

Starchaser, the entire Laundry Files series are amazing.
Also note, Cubicle 7 has, in fact, put out a version of Call of Cthulhu based in the Laundry Files reality (Laundryverse?)  Stross wrote an intro piece for it.
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was off-topic, at 19:38, Mon 25 June 2018.

An excellent recommendation. Read this novel last year. Starting calling my greyhounds "Tines" because of that book.

Was reading Sailor Nothing. Very good, but so dark I had to take a break.