I'm lazy so I'll just copy/edit a similar post I made on llllllll...
I recently read :
The Three-Body problem, by Cixin Liu. Not as impressive or mind-blowing as some reviews made me expect but not bad either. I suppose most of my reservations about it might be addressed in the second volume…
The Fractured Europe Sequence (all 3 books), by Dave Hutchinson. Europe in Autumn, Europe at Midnight, Europe in Winter. I really liked these. They have a sort of Warren Ellis/China Mieville vibe to them. Not that surprising as I read it after a recommendation in Warren Ellis’ newsletter. He says it better than me :
Turned out to be a near-future political fiction about a Europe splitting into independent states and The Coureurs Des Bois, a secret courier service rattling around the continent in determination to keep the Schengen dream of an open Europe alive. That had enough of a weird Thomas Pynchon kink - a secret postal service! - to keep me going. And then it gets a little weirder. And then there’s a bit probably inspired by those non-existent locations that pop up on Google Maps like mapmaker watermarks, brilliantly transposed to antique British mapmaking. And then it all suddenly goes a bit China Mieville. And then there’s a bit in the second book that’s pure “Laundry Files” Charlie Stross. By then you’ve already realised that Dave Hutchinson pulled a huge stunt on you and the conspiratorial poli-spy fiction you thought you were reading is actually something completely fucking mental.
I also started re-reading something I read as a teenager (and in French), Jack Vance’s Tschai cycle. Well, I stopped at the end of the kindle free preview, as some things annoyed me a bit too much (generic/uninteresting/talented at everything hero character, etc.). The world is interesting though (at least from what I remember) so I might get the book later if I want some fantasy/sf that doesn’t make me think too much…
And I bought these to :
Radiance, by Catherynne Valente
Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer
Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman
H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
I just started the VanderMeer and I quite it so far, the only other thing I read from him is the first volume of The Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation) but I want to read the next ones too.
And I also never read Harry Potter and don't plan to. I tried to watch the first movie in a place recently and couldn't go past 30 minutes or so. I guess, as said above, you probably have to read/see that as a kid and grow with it...