I actually initially planned to make a crack about the Wheel of Time books, but then I realized that I had yet to read them because of the horror stories from people who had endured them for so long. Still, I think the root of the problem goes back a wee bit more than either Martin or Jordan. Tolkien, while he had some good ideas in LotR, made that kind of abominable length thanks to shameless padding acceptable as a matter of course; the overlong descriptions of minor details and needless plot points such as the scouring of the Shire and Tom Bombadil were bad enough when they were responsible for murdering trees for the books they were in, but they've gone above and beyond by inspiring subsequent authors to mimic them. It's a case not so much of the baby being thrown out with the bathwater as it is people mistakenly thinking that the bathwater was a chief attraction that cannot be removed or at the very least made presentable by swapping it out with water that has yet to be pissed and shit it.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. (Beware: mild spoilers throughout this post) It was...compelling, I guess might work as an adjective. It's fast-paced, and includes lots of fightin' and 'splosions, if that's what you're into. It's also pretty much by-the-numbers genre fiction, with the twist that it happens to be cramming two or three different genres together. "What if them crazy muslim fundamentalists created a zombie superplague, and Only One Man™ could stop them from releasing it: a cop from Baltimore who gets recruited into a brand-new super-secret U.S. government organization (which has nigh-unlimited funding, zero red tape and next to no accountability, and is headed by a mysterious man who reminded me of a less-ridiculous, (slightly-)more-plausible, non-villainous version of Wesker from the Resident Evil franchise). There's a tough (yet beautiful), no-nonsense female British agent ("on loan" from the SAS), who starts out disliking Our Hero, but (Spoiler Alert!) winds up in bed with him; a mystery involving a traitor on Our Hero's team; and another plotline involving the internationally-renowned businessman-turned-philanthropist who has secretly been funding the ultra-high-tech research which allowed the creation of this plague, simply so that the pharmaceutical companies he owns could help develop an inoculation against the plague, generating a massive profit for him in the process.

The main problem I had was the logic (or lack thereof) behind so many of the goings-on. (To be fair, I'm probably not part of this book's core audience.) Apparently, in this version of the "real world", the Secret Service is so shockingly bad at their job that at least half a dozen -- probably several more -- terrorists with various nonmetal weapons (and the plague) managed, individually, to be admitted to a high-profile closed (i.e., NOT open to the public) government ceremony attended by dozens of members of Congress, the wife of the Vice President, and the First Lady. This is not by any stretch of imagination the only part in this novel which beggars belief, but (aside from the pathogen which turns living people into actual flesh-eating undead) it was, to me, one of the most egregious.

I imagine this is one of those stories which would work much better as a movie (possibly this was in the mind of the author as well); some of the things which seem ludicrous on the page might come off better, or at least be more easily glossed over, on the screen.

There were also some stupid slip-ups that any competent editor should never have missed ("cajones" instead of "cojones", "Allah Akbar" instead of "Allahu Akbar"), the worst of which is below: This was spoken by the aforementioned British agent. Now compare the following, spoken by this Mr. Church (the mysterious head of the secret organization I mentioned before) the next day, but appearing LESS THAN A FULL PAGE LATER: Were both of these characters paraphrasing the same press statement or something? Speaking seriously, though, HOW DID THE WRITER, EDITOR(S), AND ANY PROOFREADERS ALL MISS THIS BEFORE THE BOOK WENT TO PRESS?

This was kind of a weird book for me. I actually plowed through it pretty quickly (by my standards, anyway), but I found more to dislike or roll my eyes at the further along I got. I guess the fact that it wasn't quite offensively stupid enough for me to quit reading is a win for the author, but I'm not sure it's a win I'd be proud of. [/walloftext]

Mr Mercedes - Stephen King. Disappointing run of the mill "thriller", coulda been written by any disposable author. Retired cop is contacted by a person that drove into a bunch of people while driving a Mercedes, Killer tries to cajole the cop into suicide or try to find him before his next attack.

Revival. Very boring novel, while well written, it is just awesomely pointless. Kid grows up into an adult, during certain periods in his life he encounters Rev. Jacobs. Gets a bit supernatural towards the end, but even that just feels tacked on.

Small Gods; Making Money; Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett Discworld novels: always funny, often thought-provoking.

His Master's Voice - Stanislaw Lem A(nother) sci-fi masterpiece by a sci-fi master.

Fragmentos de Apocalipsis - Gonzalo Torrente Ballester One of my favorite spanish writers, a bit of an underdog because he lacked the connections and promotion. This is a novel about a failed novel (if that makes any sense).

La Vida del Buscón Llamado Don Pablos - Francisco de Quevedo A classic from the Spanish Golden Age.

Finished the first 3 novels in the Gaius Petreius Ruso mystery series by Ruth Downie. I have mixed feelings about them. Basically the books revolve around a medicus in the Roman Empire, during Hadrian's reign, trying to solve different murders.

As a setting I really like the books. Haven't found many books set in that time period. Then again I never actively search for any. But the setting is done really well. The author did her research and even if she took some liberties in order to fit the story it still turned out right as far as I'm concerned.

As for the solving of the actual murders I'm not entirely a fan. The doctor mostly stumbles upon clues, even when he's actively searching from them (and that's not always the case). In the first book he doesn't even want to solve the murder(s), it just kinda happens that he's put into a position from where he manages to solve it. To be honest he's a terrible detective. Ok, he's actually a doctor, but still. Apart from stumbling into clues a few times he accuses the wrong person. The one thing he does right is that at the end he manages to connect all the pieces of the puzzle.

Then again my complaints about the "detective work" make the books more believable. I guess it wouldn't make much sense for a doctor almost 2000 years ago to be a Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot and solve everything easily.

So the three books to be added to the 2015 list:
- Medicus
- Terra Incognita
- Persona Non Grata

Next I finished Snuff Tag 9 by Jude Hardin. It's the third book in the Nicholas Colt thriller series. I think it's actually the fifth if you count the prequel and the 2-author project "Lady 52".

Not going to say much about this book except it's has an over the top crazy plot with some explicit violent acts. So in other words just like the rest of the books in the series. Not a big fan of either of those two things, but I am a fan of the writing. The book takes a hold of you and just doesn't let go. The pace is just great. I finished the book in just one day. Now I'm moving to the next two books in the series.

I recently finished David Chandler's Ancient Blades trilogy, it was alright.
The ending was pretty crappy IMO, but it was still a decent enough fantasy series.

<rant>
I also have an unrelated rant about a trope or two that annoys me in the genre of (young adult mostly) fantasy.
Why do so many series start out with telling the reader how amazingly special and once in a million years the main character is only to make his/her sibling or best friend the exact same but more powerful?
And why do so many of them make every important character start out in the same place?
It's like "This is Pete, he has the blood of ancient kings flowing through his veins! Oh and his little sister is the greatest mage the world has ever known, his girlfriend can turn into a dragon and his best friend is the greatest swordsman alive!"
</rant>

I might be a little cranky after spending the entire night coughing up my lungs instead of sleeping...

Uh what, you answered your own damn question in the first damn line. You're talking about books for tweens and teens ("young adult" my ass). Part of the wish-fulfillment fantasy is having friends. So the protagonists' friends must also be awesome, or they can't go on an adventure.

--
Anyway, I read the first two Malazan books, on the assumption they are high-power fantasy based on an actual playable D&D setting and the author's promise that they start slow but will get better if I persevere. They didn't; the books are ass, the characters might as well hail from a shitty Saturday morning cartoon, and nothing high-level whatsoever is happening that has even the barest hint of being consequential RPG stuff rather than a terrible writer's masturbatory deluge.

Another book done: The Time of Contempt, by Andrzej Sapkowski. After reading this, I have to admit: 1) the Witcher books are good, with a well-realized world, colourful characters and many twists along the way and 2) CD Projekt Red really nailed the atmosphere in their games. I hope the translation of the next book will arrive soon (I'm reading them in Dutch), so I can continue this series.

List so far:
#0: What if?
#1: The Shadow Rising
#2: The Time of contempt

The Witcher: Storm Season

Great book but it feels as a collection of short stories that share elements rather than a novel.

So far I have finished only one book this year: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.
I enjoyed it. Feel free to recomend me more hard schience fictions books.

I agree with both. I wrote a review for "Revival" but it's not published yet. Mr. Mercedes, I couldn't even find one good thing to say about it.

Yesterday I read "Beyond the Gates of Gomorrah" by Stephen Seager, which is about his first year as a unit psychiatrist at Napa State Hospital (for the criminally insane). Quite entertaining.

I personally find Arthur C. Clarke utterly boring, the only book of his I've really enjoyed was Tales from the White Hart. I couldn't finish 2001: A Space Odissey - and I love the film-; Rendezvous with Rama was boring and dissapointing; The Hammer of God felt bland and unoriginal, with a Deus Ex Machina solution at the end to save the day. I think he's highly overrated, but that's my personal opinion (maybe my age when I read the books mentioned has something to do with this and I should give him another chance).

Now on to my recomendations, I'll mention authors and some of their books:

-Isaac Asimov- I, Robot, the Foundation original trilogy.
-Stanislaw Lem- Solaris, Fiasco, His Master's Voice, Star Diaries.
-Philip K. Dick- All his short stories, Ubik, The Man in the High Castle.
-Robert A. Heinlein- Starship Troopers the movie is a critique of the book's fascist ideology, but the book is amazing for all the bits the movie didn't (and couldn't) show.

And I'll stop here, this should give you enough quality sci-fi reading to last a while. Besides, I should leave something for the rest of the community ;)

It's a great book. It was the first Arthur C. Clarke book I read, and I was truly impressed with it. His short stories are also excellent, and I greatly enjoyed The Deep Range.

I would reccomend Asimov's Caves of Steel, but really only so that you can read it's sequel, The Naked Sun. The Caves of Steel are fine, but nothing great, just a good sci-fi crime story. The Naked Sun however, is a true masterpiece. A fascinating, beutifull and thoughtfull book on society, human relationships, technology... it's really incredible, and at the same time very accesible, it's still written as a crime novel, in outward appeariance at least, so it's a quick engaging read despite all of it's gravitas.

Also, Terry Pratchett's and Stephen Baxter's The Long Earth comes to mind. It has some of Pratchett's signature humor, but it is definately nothing like Discworld. It's a great story of how the discovery and easy access to parallel worlds changes our society, and influences humans on both micro and macro scale, form single people to entire nations. It introduces this one simple and awe-inspiring concept of "long Earth", an infinite chain of parallel Earths, with no other humans anywhere in sight, and does wonders with it. The sequels (Long War and Long Mars) are still good to read, but lack the scope and ingenuity of the first one.

I can relate to that. His book read half as a science book, half as a story. If you go looking for character development, you may find it lacking. However, I enjoyed it because the world was very much real and believable. Gibson can just pull a sonic screwdiver from a pocket and hack reality. Clarke wouldn't do that (I hope).

I already own (but did not read) I, Robot (well, the first volume) and The Man in the High Castle. I did not enjoy Do androids dream of electric sheep. Even knowing it was different from the film, I expected more from it. :-(

I should write down the other suggestions, and make a reading list.
I really hate the "Deus Ex Machina" endings, and after reading Rendezvous with Rama I did not expect it from Clarke.

You sell it well, I must say. :-)

I never read Terry Pratchett, but I always wonder if it something like Douglas Adams' writings.
I'll look at his books, too.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

I continued through the Nicolas Colt series by Jude Hardin. I finished Key Death ; Blood Tattoo and Sycamore Bluff from the series and another in the Jack Reacher setting The Jack Reacher Files - Annex 1.

In particular I enjoyed the Blood Tattoo. It's a little different than the rest of the series. It's more of a psychological thriller, less about the action. I was wondering all the way to the end if the character is going crazy with the protect the president from an assassination plot while working with a super secret agency that only a handful of people know it exists. I was wondering if he was imagining things. Turns out I was half right :)

The rest of the books are in similar fashion. Over the top plots. I like it :)

The Jack Reacher book sucked. It was just a short story where nothing is really resolved. The only good thing to come out of it was me laughing when I realized they got Tom Cruise to play a guy who's supposed to be a 6 feet 5" with biceps the size of bowling balls :)