What are you reading at the moment?

[Sol thewall Bamba]

The Silmarillion, but struggling to be honest.

[bmt]

6 hours ago, The Bear said:

I enjoyed all of the three Andy Weir books. Did you read Artemis? Not quite as good as the other two but still entertaining. 

Not yet, I will get it at some point. I particularly liked PHM.

 

I've just got Good Reads and already got 70 or so books on my want to read! Open to any suggestions though - I really like dystopian/post apocalyptic fiction so particularly interested in suggestions on that.

[leicsmac]

6 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

The Silmarillion, but struggling to be honest.

The Sil is infamous for how dense and convoluted it is. It's really written more like a straight encyclopedia than the fiction work The Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit is. 

 

That being said, try to stick with it as the scale of things is so much more massive than either of the above and the story of the Akallabêth is one of the best such stories written, imo.

[Stadt]

19 hours ago, Wakeyfox said:

About halfway through this, really enjoying it so far

He’s good on The Rest Is Classified. I can’t get on with fiction generally but I’ve been devoted by his books 

[DJW1]

"Rip It Up and Start Again (post-punk 1978-1984)" by Simon Reynolds.

As the title suggests, a look at the new UK and US bands of that era. His writing style is excellent. I skipped a few pages on the groups I don´t know but otherwise it´s very good. Featured groups include Joy Division, The Fall, Human League, Public Image Ltd, Devo, Talking Heads, Cabaret Voltaire, Madness, Specials, Simple Minds, Orange Juice etc. etc.

[Trav Le Bleu]

On 02/02/2026 at 18:23, leicsmac said:

The Sil is infamous for how dense and convoluted it is. It's really written more like a straight encyclopedia than the fiction work The Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit is. 

 

That being said, try to stick with it as the scale of things is so much more massive than either of the above and the story of the Akallabêth is one of the best such stories written, imo.

 

On 02/02/2026 at 11:38, Sol thewall Bamba said:

The Silmarillion, but struggling to be honest.

Think of it like reading a history book, or fable.

 

Worth it for the two big story arcs of Turin Turambar (The Black Sword) and the story of Beren Half-hand (who if you've read LotR, Sam talks about quite a bit (but is never mentioned in the films, it think - their loss)) and Luthien Tinuviel.

 

I think when you read the Silmarillion you have to go and re-read LotR.

[BrummieFOX]

On 02/02/2026 at 18:11, bmt said:

Not yet, I will get it at some point. I particularly liked PHM.

 

I've just got Good Reads and already got 70 or so books on my want to read! Open to any suggestions though - I really like dystopian/post apocalyptic fiction so particularly interested in suggestions on that.

Also loved Project Hail Mary.

 

My (new) favourite trilogy of all time is The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, which definitely fits into the dystopian/post apocalyptic theme, but it's so much more. It's normally classed as "hard" sci-fi so there is some quite dense science to get through in parts, but it all adds to the plot. It starts out with an alien lifeform deciding to attack earth, yet it will take them 450-years to actually arrive. Genuinely an amazing read and it took me weeks to stop thinking about the ending of the last book, pretty horrowing.

 

It was also made into a Netflix series which is awful and I'd recommend completely avoiding.

[leicsmac]

49 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

 

Think of it like reading a history book, or fable.

 

Worth it for the two big story arcs of Turin Turambar (The Black Sword) and the story of Beren Half-hand (who if you've read LotR, Sam talks about quite a bit (but is never mentioned in the films, it think - their loss)) and Luthien Tinuviel.

 

I think when you read the Silmarillion you have to go and re-read LotR.

Luthien is mentioned in the extended editions, but only in passing, sadly. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Luthien is mentioned in the extended editions, but only in passing, sadly. 

I'd hazard a geeky guess that there's not many people on this forum who know more about Middle Earth than me. I can even put names to each of the Nazgul, sadly

 

Elen sila lúmenn' omentielvo.

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I'd hazard a geeky guess that there's not many people on this forum who know more about Middle Earth than me. I can even put names to each of the Nazgul, sadly

 

Elen sila lúmenn' omentielvo.

Impressive. Remembrance of the ancient kings of Harad and even the black Numenoreans is a dying art. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

7 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Impressive. Remembrance of the ancient kings of Harad and even the black Numenoreans is a dying art. 

For years I played MEPBM, a strategic middle-earth wargame with RPG elements (imagine an online rts game, but where there was two weeks between moves being moderated).

 

There were 10 "free people" nations, 10 "dark servant" nations (Nazgul + the Mouth of Sauron) and 5 neutral nations who needed to recruited to either the good or bad sides (Rhudaur, Dunlendings, Easterlings, Haradhrim and Corsairs of Umbar.)

 

Games often went 50+ turns with either the forces of light or dark (neutrals couldn't win without declaring for one side

 

To this day, I think I'm the only person to have won as the Northmen (the people who lived in and around Lake-town and Dale). 

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

For years I played MEPBM, a strategic middle-earth wargame with RPG elements (imagine an online rts game, but where there was two weeks between moves being moderated).

 

There were 10 "free people" nations, 10 "dark servant" nations (Nazgul + the Mouth of Sauron) and 5 neutral nations who needed to recruited to either the good or bad sides (Rhudaur, Dunlendings, Easterlings, Haradhrim and Corsairs of Umbar.)

 

Games often went 50+ turns with either the forces of light or dark (neutrals couldn't win without declaring for one side

 

To this day, I think I'm the only person to have won as the Northmen (the people who lived in and around Lake-town and Dale). 

The world that a single man managed to build remains unparalleled. 

 

Tolkien is the legend that wrote legends. 

[The Bear]

6 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I'd hazard a geeky guess that there's not many people on this forum who know more about Middle Earth than me. I can even put names to each of the Nazgul, sadly

 

Elen sila lúmenn' omentielvo.

 

[LanguedocFox]

I was given A History of the World in 47 Borders for Christmas. It's a fascinating concept and generally well explained although (personally) I found some of the humour a bit irritating. Still, it's a different way of looking at the world from the perspectives of geography, statehoods and history. 

[MC Prussian]

The Beauty (Book One).

 

Fantastic stories, great characters. Lots of action, gore, blood – and full frontal nudity.

 

Wonder how faithfully they've adapted it for TV (see my input in that thread), as I don't have Disney+.

[Trav Le Bleu]

1984.

 

Scarily, the way that past truth is wiped out, because Big Brother got it wrong and is altered so as to be "truth" in the present reminds me of a certain person in our times.

 

Several actually, but one more so than others.

[LanguedocFox]

 

 

Interesting novel this, certainly for someone of my age. It's the first of a trilogy about an 'accidental spy', set in the early- to mid-1960s. I can remember the events depicted because I lived through them, although in places some of the chronology is slightly twisted to suit the plot. I was left wondering if anyone under the age of (say) 60 would get some of the references. Names like Philby, Burgess and MacLean are familiar to most people interested in mid-20th century British history, and events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy's assassination are important historical events. However, I'm not sure many people will know much about Patrice Lumumba and his murder, or about George Blake and his escape from Wormwood Scrubs. For all that, Gabriel's Moon is a well-written and exciting novel with an intricate plot and well-drawn characters, and I look forward to the next two novels. And it would not surprise me to see the Beeb or Netflix make it into a TV series. Well worth the read.
 

Edited 28 March by LanguedocFox

[Sampson]

I’ve been reading the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Great sci-fi/fantasy page turners. I’m just starting book 7 now, book 8 coming out in May. No doubt they’ll make this in a tv show at some point as it seems really popular.

[Sampson]

On 22/03/2026 at 13:42, Trav Le Bleu said:

1984.

 

Scarily, the way that past truth is wiped out, because Big Brother got it wrong and is altered so as to be "truth" in the present reminds me of a certain person in our times.

 

Several actually, but one more so than others.

The biggest thing Orwell got wrong in that regards was that people would need to be coerced into an authoritarian post-truth surveillance state, and not that people would happily vote for him as long as Big Brother told them it’d help them keep out foreigners. 

Edited 28 March by Sampson

[Ian W LCFC]

On 28/03/2026 at 14:49, Sampson said:

I’ve been reading the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Great sci-fi/fantasy page turners. I’m just starting book 7 now, book 8 coming out in May. No doubt they’ll make this in a tv show at some point as it seems really popular.

Me too, its great as they're on kindle unlimited. I've almost finished the 1st book, very easy to read

[Sampson]

1 hour ago, Ian W LCFC said:

Me too, its great as they're on kindle unlimited. I've almost finished the 1st book, very easy to read

I thought someone else might be reading them too as it seems like the most popular sci-fi/fantasy series going atm. A couple of friends of mine have been reading them and hyping them to me for about a year, and finally started after Christmas and am already on book 7. Cant remember the last time I just destroyed a series like that, but I find them such an easy read but such page turners and impossible to put down and get out of my head.
 

They gets better and better as the books go on too. Book 5 and 6 which are the last 2 I’ve read are both brilliant.

 

I delayed it when my friends were hyping it because I thought it sounded like a fun premise (essentially aliens turning Earth into a deadly game of D&D that humans have to compete in, streamed on an galaxy-wide version of alien YouTube), but I doubted you can make an extended series of that premise. But it really builds and builds and the world and characters opens up as the books go on. 
 

Just has the perfect mixture of comedy, traumatic horror, action, intergalactic politics and human character drama. Honestly, most addictive books I’ve read in ages.

Edited 29 March by Sampson

[Trav Le Bleu]

16 hours ago, Sampson said:

I thought someone else might be reading them too as it seems like the most popular sci-fi/fantasy series going atm. A couple of friends of mine have been reading them and hyping them to me for about a year, and finally started after Christmas and am already on book 7. Cant remember the last time I just destroyed a series like that, but I find them such an easy read but such page turners and impossible to put down and get out of my head.
 

They gets better and better as the books go on too. Book 5 and 6 which are the last 2 I’ve read are both brilliant.

 

I delayed it when my friends were hyping it because I thought it sounded like a fun premise (essentially aliens turning Earth into a deadly game of D&D that humans have to compete in, streamed on an galaxy-wide version of alien YouTube), but I doubted you can make an extended series of that premise. But it really builds and builds and the world and characters opens up as the books go on. 
 

Just has the perfect mixture of comedy, traumatic horror, action, intergalactic politics and human character drama. Honestly, most addictive books I’ve read in ages.

Sounds like something I'd like.

[Sampson]

21 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Sounds like something I'd like.

If you like either video game or table top RPGs the books are great fun, it’s clever how it parodies a lot of the classes, spells, achievements, loot boxes, levelling etc. But they’re also just great stories even without that with sort of a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy style sense of humour, I forget it’s about being in a game after a while. 

 

The writing does start out a bit crass, but settles down after the first part of the first book. And as said, the books get better and better as it goes on, and the world and characters both inside and outside “the crawl” grow.
 

They’re very “popcorny” in that they’re very easy to read but hard to put down, so definitely worth giving a try if you think you’d like it for sure.

Edited 30 March by Sampson

[Uncle Monty]

On 10/02/2026 at 07:07, BrummieFOX said:

Also loved Project Hail Mary.

 

My (new) favourite trilogy of all time is The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, which definitely fits into the dystopian/post apocalyptic theme, but it's so much more. It's normally classed as "hard" sci-fi so there is some quite dense science to get through in parts, but it all adds to the plot. It starts out with an alien lifeform deciding to attack earth, yet it will take them 450-years to actually arrive. Genuinely an amazing read and it took me weeks to stop thinking about the ending of the last book, pretty horrowing.

 

It was also made into a Netflix series which is awful and I'd recommend completely avoiding.

Really liked tbp. If you're into sci-fi, have you read the Hyperion books or the Children of time series?

[BrummieFOX]

3 hours ago, Uncle Monty said:

Really liked tbp. If you're into sci-fi, have you read the Hyperion books or the Children of time series?

No I've not read either. Worth a go?