What are you currently reading?

[Ryan Mueller]

Finished City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. Wow, this was a great book. It took me a while to adjust to the third-person present tense, but once I did, I was completely immersed and enjoying every second. This is one of those rare books that I think can appeal to more literary fantasy readers and those who are simply looking for an entertaining read. It had good characters, a fast-moving and intricate plot, and some of the best worldbuilding I've seen in a while. Great writing, too. Highly recommended.

[JRTroughton]

Having recently finished The Vagrant, I'm at that difficult point of choosing the next book to read. SO MUCH TO GET THROUGH.

Looking between Varjak Paw, re-read of The Scar, or short stories from the Rogues anthology.

[Lady Ty]

I have given up on Seraphina and not sure exactly why. I like the concepts and dragons very much indeed, but Seraphina herself is annoying me and can't pinpoint the reason. It could be the audible narrator who is all wrong for me. I realise Seraphina is young but she isn't a teenage princessy girl at all.  To be fair I may get the print book from the library sometime

Gone back to Mistborn and happy to be back with Vin, pretty tough and getting tougher in The Well of Ascension.   This is read by a well known narrator, Michael Kramer, and it makes all the difference. His pacing is perfect and he brings each different character to life so well. You can always recognise who is meant to be speaking.

[JMack]

I have given up on Seraphina and not sure exactly why. I like the concepts and dragons very much indeed, but Seraphina herself is annoying me and can't pinpoint the reason. It could be the audible narrator who is all wrong for me. I realise Seraphina is young but she isn't a teenage princessy girl at all.  To be fair I may get the print book from the library sometime

Gone back to Mistborn and happy to be back with Vin, pretty tough and getting tougher in The Well of Ascension.   This is read by a well known narrator, Michael Kramer, and it makes all the difference. His pacing is perfect and he brings each different character to life so well. You can always recognise who is meant to be speaking.

Quality of narrator is certainly critical, isn't it? I'm listening to De Lint's Moonheart and the weak narrator may be part or the full reason I'm finding this meh. Has anyone else read De Lint?

[Idlewilder]

I have given up on Seraphina and not sure exactly why. I like the concepts and dragons very much indeed, but Seraphina herself is annoying me and can't pinpoint the reason. It could be the audible narrator who is all wrong for me. I realise Seraphina is young but she isn't a teenage princessy girl at all.  To be fair I may get the print book from the library sometime

Gone back to Mistborn and happy to be back with Vin, pretty tough and getting tougher in The Well of Ascension.   This is read by a well known narrator, Michael Kramer, and it makes all the difference. His pacing is perfect and he brings each different character to life so well. You can always recognise who is meant to be speaking.

Quality of narrator is certainly critical, isn't it? I'm listening to De Lint's Moonheart and the weak narrator may be part or the full reason I'm finding this meh. Has anyone else read De Lint?

Narration is the dealbreaker for me on audiobooks. I remember listening to Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves at the start of the year and the book was incredible, but the narrator was just appalling! If it had been a longer book I would probably have given up. Not keen on Michael Kramer personally, but I know a lot of people love his style. Steven Pacey and Michael Page (Joe Abercrombie/Scott Lynch respectively) are still the best I have come across!

I've been studying nearly non-stop for the last little while, but made time to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (amazing!), Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart (pretty good!) and The Magicians (even better the 2nd time around!). Exam is next week - will finish The Magicians and the first chunk of Last Call this weekend for the book club and then that'll be me until 1pm on Wednesday! Degree done!

[JMack]

I've been studying nearly non-stop for the last little while, but made time to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (amazing!), Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart (pretty good!) and The Magicians (even better the 2nd time around!). Exam is next week - will finish The Magicians and the first chunk of Last Call this weekend for the book club and then that'll be me until 1pm on Wednesday! Degree done!

Congrats! On all counts, but especially the reading. 

[Idlewilder]

I've been studying nearly non-stop for the last little while, but made time to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (amazing!), Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart (pretty good!) and The Magicians (even better the 2nd time around!). Exam is next week - will finish The Magicians and the first chunk of Last Call this weekend for the book club and then that'll be me until 1pm on Wednesday! Degree done!

Congrats! On all counts, but especially the reading. 

Thanks Jmack! I couldn't have done it without all the books. 

Spoiler for Hiden:

(and Fantasy Faction, of course  )

[Nighteyes]

Decided to read the Expanse Series in one go. I read Caliban' s War about a year and a half ago but struggled as had been a year or two since reading Leviathan' s Wake and had just forgotten so much. So with book 5 out in a week's time, I thought I d read all 5 back to back saving memory issues and hopefully when future instalments come out the story so far will be clearer in my head. (Plus Syfy series due relatively soon.)

[Elfy]

Got The Rebirths of Tao in the post just yesterday. Can't wait to read that, so added it to the pile of the other things I'm currently reading.

[Lady Ty]

Narration is the dealbreaker for me on audiobooks. I remember listening to Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves at the start of the year and the book was incredible, but the narrator was just appalling! If it had been a longer book I would probably have given up. Not keen on Michael Kramer personally, but I know a lot of people love his style. Steven Pacey and Michael Page (Joe Abercrombie/Scott Lynch respectively) are still the best I have come across!

@Idlewilder, many congratulations on finishing your degree -must be a great feeling

I couldn't agree more about  good narrators being a make or break.  I use audible for most of my books, partly for convenience of use, but also now for space considerations.   Audible.com are excellent at letting you return books and not liking the narrator is always accepted as a good reason.  They will sometimes credit your account with cash automatically or may ask you to exchange for another book.  The second option is if you have got the book from one of the cheap deals or special sales. The system for phoning from here never works but the live messaging is brilliant, they are there 24 hours a day and you get quick courteous service. I have returned book several times when the narrator was poor.

Audible have also learned from their listeners wrath if they have series running with a well liked narrator and suddenly change. Devotees just will not buy. This happened a while back when they suddenly brought out a Harry Dresden without James Marsters reading and comments went wild. They replaced it with a James Marsters version and I think we all got the new version free, can't quite remember.   I also remember that when The Thief of Time first came on audible they only had it as a dramatized version and some of the witches had  American accents.   That is no longer available.

[JMack]

  I also remember that when The Thief of Time first came on audible they only had it as a dramatized version and some of the witches had  American accents.   That is no longer available.

Now come on! We don't toss the crop of Aussie singers and actors out for pretending they're from Nashville or the Midwest. We don't get all huffy puffy when most of the decent audio books are read by Brits (or Austrialians pretending to be Brits, I imagine) when the action takes place in Rome, China or some second world). Is Discworld immune to all this? (Please do not reply. It's 5:50 am and the dog woke me up. So of course I'm on the Forum, but can barely keep my eyes open, no less write decently snarky posts that might actually both be funny and make sense.)

[Lady Ty]

  I also remember that when The Thief of Time first came on audible they only had it as a dramatized version and some of the witches had  American accents.   That is no longer available.

Now come on! We don't toss the crop of Aussie singers and actors out for pretending they're from Nashville or the Midwest. We don't get all huffy puffy when most of the decent audio books are read by Brits (or Austrialians pretending to be Brits, I imagine) when the action takes place in Rome, China or some second world). Is Discworld immune to all this? (Please do not reply. It's 5:50 am and the dog woke me up. So of course I'm on the Forum, but can barely keep my eyes open, no less write decently snarky posts that might actually both be funny and make sense.)

Lost the post again going to replace by modifying what am I doing wrong?

Sorry it's so early, have you fed the dog to the dragon now? Of course I'm going to reply, you should be up and
why haven't you written 500 words already?

No offence meant, of course TP 's books are going to be read with narrators of many languages, but this first series had been running for 24 previous books, perfectly read by Nigel Planer and then Stephen Briggs( even he got a hard time of it at first after NP) and suddenly this abominable production appeared as the only version of the next book. They could at least have made the witches maybe Appalachian or Chesapeake ie distinctly country people but it was some New York Theatre Company and it was all wrong.
I'm used to all accents as long as the books are well read, but some books just need their local sound. I am a great fan of your Mr Stegner and most of his books need that mid west voice to be perfect.

Sorry I've gone way off topic. Have a good day and that is a genuine wish not a MacDonalds one

[Elfy]

I have given up on Seraphina and not sure exactly why. I like the concepts and dragons very much indeed, but Seraphina herself is annoying me and can't pinpoint the reason. It could be the audible narrator who is all wrong for me. I realise Seraphina is young but she isn't a teenage princessy girl at all.  To be fair I may get the print book from the library sometime

Gone back to Mistborn and happy to be back with Vin, pretty tough and getting tougher in The Well of Ascension.   This is read by a well known narrator, Michael Kramer, and it makes all the difference. His pacing is perfect and he brings each different character to life so well. You can always recognise who is meant to be speaking.

I read a DeLint eons ago. I can't remember which one now, it may have been Moonheart. I thought it was okay, but couldn't quite see what the fuss about him was at the time. I may have a different opinion now. He did write what was for me the standout story of the most recent Borderlands collection.

Quality of narrator is certainly critical, isn't it? I'm listening to De Lint's Moonheart and the weak narrator may be part or the full reason I'm finding this meh. Has anyone else read De Lint?

[Saraband]

Finished Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls last night. What a beautiful story. Found the writing to be very compelling - I was gripped the whole way, even if I could see what it was all about from the beginning. And the ending of the book actually felt perfect.

Will now start reading Pratchett's Reaper Man 

[JRTroughton]

Looking between Varjak Paw, re-read of The Scar, or short stories from the Rogues anthology.

Went for Varjak Paw. A modern children's classic, I think. Genuinely loved it.