It's November. What are you reading?

[HareBrain]

Just finished The Green Man by Kingsley Amis, an effective and intelligent ghost story that reminded me of M.R. James. Very well written and occasionally bark-out-loud funny.

Have also recently read all eight volumes of Osamu Tezuka's manga Buddha. Now started Fevre Dream by George Martin -- three chapters in, and I think might well be better than ASOIF.

 

[Hazen Sealock]

Finished the Sothern Reach trilogy a while back. I never warmed to it. Thought I was going to for a while on the second book, but the last one left me disappointed. It's good writing, especially if you like new weird, but the actual plot was just far too scant for me.

On the other end of the spectrum, I just finished Anthony Ryan's Blood Song. Quite possibly the worst written book I have ever enjoyed. I'd say it is to The Book of the New Sun what Shanarra was to LOTR. The editing was especially bad, but I cut it some slack for being (apparently?) self published originally.

 

[Lord Soth]

Finished the Sothern Reach trilogy a while back. I never warmed to it. Thought I was going to for a while on the second book, but the last one left me disappointed. It's good writing, especially if you like new weird, but the actual plot was just far too scant for me.

On the other end of the spectrum, I just finished Anthony Ryan's Blood Song. Quite possibly the worst written book I have ever enjoyed. I'd say it is to The Book of the New Sun what Shanarra was to LOTR. The editing was especially bad, but I cut it some slack for being (apparently?) self published originally.

Wow, I loved that book! Although second read of your comment - you enjoyed it but thought it was badly written?

 

[Hazen Sealock]

Blood Song? Yeah, it was good; I'm reading the next one. It's just that there were a lot of tortured sentences, garden path sentences, homophone errors, and so forth. Basically stuff that should have been caught by a half decent editor. I also feel that Ryan was kind of doing a dark fantasy by numbers, patching on cool ideas rather than starting from a cohesive, unique, and compelling effort of world building. He mostly pulls it together at the end, though, and you can tell that it's starting to gel, giving him ample room for improvement in subsequent books. But still, it was an enjoyable read.

Compare that to the Southern Reach trilogy. Each book was beautifully written, sleek and modern, and inarguably original. All that, though, and it left me cold. I finished Acceptance not entirely convinced that it wasn't all a waste of time. Reading Annihilation, I was reminded a lot of Lost, and that assessment didn't prove too far off. The thing is, as many problems as that show had, at least it made me care about the characters, and I'm apparently one of the few that was OK with the ending. I can't say that about Southern Reach.

 

[tobl]

just read the trilogy theogony by chris Kennedy. not bad good work in mixing science fiction and fantasy, mitology

 

[BelgarionOz]

Just started Lord Foul's Bane, Book One of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.
Never read them before so this should be interesting.

 

[Hazen Sealock]

Just started Lord Foul's Bane, Book One of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.
Never read them before so this should be interesting.

I'm envious. One of my favorite books/series of all time (even if the Last Chronicles were mostly disappointing). If nobody has tipped you off yet, though, be prepared for an event around page100 that throws a lot of readers off the series. All I can say is that it's worth going on.

 

[Extollager]

Peter Bryant's Red Alert, relevant to this new thread:

1940s-early 1960s A-Bomb Thrillers

On hand also is Fail-Safe as serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, with a suitably lurid cover for the first installment:

Check the cover date of that issue & think about international news of mid-October 1962.....

 

[SloppyJoe]

Rereading H2G2 - my daughter has a report on the hero's journey and H2G2 was listed as one of the approved books!

 

[AE35Unit]

Well i finished an ebook of The Empty House and other Ghost Stories by Algernin Blackwood-new author to me. Some good stuff and some decidedly average stuff here.

And last night I started First Lensman by E.E. "Doc" Smith and after the first chapter Im wondering if Im gonna make it! Very wordy and meandering. And i thought Triplanetary was dull and was told the books get better after that first book.
Hmmm.

 

[ratsy]

Wow, I loved that book! Although second read of your comment - you enjoyed it but thought it was badly written?

I have Blood Song in my TBR pile and am looking forward to it so it's good to hear someone who really liked it.

I'm just popping in to say I'm about 140 pages into Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick and it is a great book so far. I'm really enjoying it.

 

[tobl]

just read blue labirynth nº14 of the pendergast series by Lincoln child not as good as the others in my opinion but acceptable

 

[Ray McCarthy]

King Lear
The Prince
Marco Polo's travels by the famous English Translator.
Might read a Georgette Hayer

Just read some Angela Brazil and Georgette Hayer.

 

[G.D. Lascelle]

I've just finished The Shadow of What Was Lost (Licanius Trilogy I) by James Islington. I found it reasonably engaging, but in some ways I felt unconvinced. It was well enough written, but I couldn't escape the sense that the author was making it up as he went along - which I know is a strange thing to say, because of course that's what all authors do to an extent. However, it was as if the author himself on several occasions wasn't convinced by the direction his plot was taking so he threw in not so much a plot twist as a flipping great U-turn. I also think it wasn't helped by the fact that the author seemed to be so self-consciously trying to avoid the dreaded info-dump, that I found myself 80% of the way through suddenly realising something so vital about his world's history and social structure that it should have been obvious within the first 50 pages. Still I was sufficiently intrigued by one or two things by the end, that as long as it's the subject of a special deal on the Kindle, I might by volume 2 when it comes out.

On a brighter note, I am about halfway through John Gwynne's Malice, which so far I like very much indeed. Epic fantasy on a grand scale, with solid characters and a believable plot. Looking forward to finishing it and moving on to the next in the series.

 

[biodroid]

Still on Odd Thomas but its moving along nicely and rekindled my love for Dean Koontz books.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I'm about to start the thick anthology Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural (1985) selected by Marvin Kaye with Saralee Kaye. There are several familiar old classics included ("Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker, "Carmilla" by Sheridan LeFanu, etc.) as well as less familiar old stuff and new stuff.

Watch for reviews in the short story thread.

 

[DavCorn]

I am reading Virus or the Mind and Leadership and the art of Self Deception.

 

[BigBadBob141]

Some months ago I read "Mr Mercedes" by Stephen King which I enjoyed a lot, now I'm reading his "Doctor Sleep" which I'm enjoying even more.
All I can say is that the King is on top form.

 

[HareBrain]

Finished George RR Martin's Fevre Dream. I haven't read many vampire stories -- the idea doesn't really interest me -- but this one is great. 1850's paddle-steamer captain Abner Marsh is a brilliant and unusual main character, very overweight and getting on in years, and his quest to build a steamboat fast enough to race against the best is a worthy story in itself. The way the vampire material (which seems to me quite an original take on the myth) fits in with this is very well done, and the Mississippi and the towns and plantation houses along it make an interesting setting. The amount of research on display is prodigious, but all of it seems to have been made good use of. The unusual story structure, in terms of where the climaxes fall and their relative strength, is perhaps a slight weakness, but it's otherwise top-notch.

 

[tobl]

just finished with volume 23 of ddirk pitt adventures by clive cussler interesting as usual