Shejidan / What have you been reading lately?

**Posted by Aja Jin** 8/15/2021 12:04 pm

Yeah, Hail Mary is a fluffy quick read. The Dan Brown of scifi LOL, pretty accurate. Altho Dan does quite well in terms of sales, so not a bad place to be.

**Posted by Surtac** 8/15/2021 5:28 pm

What put me off Dan Brown was realising that the structure and sequencing of each book was identical = they were clearly, in hindsight, written to the same pattern.

He's not the only author who does that, of course. I once made the mistake some years ago of reading two Patricia Cornwell books back to back having never previously read anything by her. I haven't been able to touch her writing since. Other than the character names, the books were essentially identical.

**Posted by starexplorer** 8/15/2021 5:32 pm

Aja Jin wrote:
Yeah, Hail Mary is a fluffy quick read. The Dan Brown of scifi LOL, pretty accurate. Altho Dan does quite well in terms of sales, so not a bad place to be.

If sales and money are the reasons to write - and those are understandable motives - Dan Brown is a success. Without going into detail, I find his actual books personally unreadable. But I’d swap bank accounts with him!

**Posted by Aja Jin** 8/16/2021 7:14 am

starexplorer wrote:
Aja Jin wrote:
Yeah, Hail Mary is a fluffy quick read. The Dan Brown of scifi LOL, pretty accurate. Altho Dan does quite well in terms of sales, so not a bad place to be.
If sales and money are the reasons to write - and those are understandable motives - Dan Brown is a success. Without going into detail, I find his actual books personally unreadable. But I’d swap bank accounts with him!

I thought the first one was quite good. The rest (I read a couple), were kinda the same. So yeah, same approach.

Last edited by Aja Jin (8/16/2021 7:15 am)

**Posted by Surtac** 8/21/2021 6:10 pm

Finished Abercrombie's The Trouble with Peace and jumped straight into the Bobiverse via the first book, We Are Legion.

Wow, what a contrast. Joe had me turning virtual pages at a ferocious rate because I needed to know what would happened to characters I've come to care about as I start to realise the long game he has been playing over all the earlier books in that universe.

Whereas Legion had me turning pages simply to get to the end, A procession of variations on a theme, the various Bobs had me so confused at times I had to go back to the chapter heads to remind myself which POV version was in play. It reminded me a little of Scalzi's Redshirts which is a book I have been unable to finish to this day. All sizzle but no steak imo.

**Posted by Kokipy** 8/23/2021 1:23 pm

I am not going to defend the Bobs. I have been extremely uncertain of whether they have any merit beyond the curious ability to group many topics of interest under a single umbrella.

**Posted by Aja Jin** 8/23/2021 3:21 pm

I just re-read I Am Legend. I'd forgotten what a good read it is. And the ending is amazing. Highly recommended. PS Don't judge it by the movies

**Posted by HRHSpence** 8/23/2021 5:58 pm

Yeah, the movie was a bit lame.

**Posted by joekc6nlx** 8/23/2021 6:09 pm

HRHSpence wrote:
Yeah, the movie was a bit lame.

That's one reason why I tend to avoid movies that are based on books, although some aren't too far off, I still want MY interpretation of the story, characters, scenes, etc., instead of the director's interpretation. For that, I rely on the book.

**Posted by Surtac** 8/23/2021 6:31 pm

Matheson's I Am Legend? Yes, I remember it well. It is indeed a good book.

I'm currently reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Expert System's Champion, and I discovered last night that there is a new Alastair Reynolds book imminent, set in the Revelation Space universe!