Juno's Bibliophiles...

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I've been on a bit of a Jack Vance trip lately, zipped through Wyst: Alastor 1716 and Star Kings earlier this week. For variety, I am now reading Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark. It's shaping up very, very well, so far!
 
I'm about halfway through Perdido Street Station but needed a break so yesterday I read The Callahan Touch by Spider Robinson and Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. I enjoyed both and both were light quick reads. The Pratchett book would also be suitable for younger readers.
 
I finished Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark' over the weekend. A good , racy and inventive fantasy adventure set in 16th century Europe, during a Turkish siege of Vienna. Riffs on myths and legends including King Arthus and, more unusually, the Fisher King. It was well written and plotted almost throughout, but fell apart at the end. Still a good read, excellent at times, and I shall certainly look for more by Powers.


I spent most of sunday reading Fernandez-Armesto's book on civilizations and a book about xenoscience, and woke up this morning with a great story idea that I managed to scribble down in about an hour. Now for the polishing and revising and submitting...:D
 
Well, nearly at the end of Perdido Street Station - very frustrating as lunch ended I only had one chapter to read!! It finally (a little over half-way through) got to the point where I was enjoying the story and wanting to know the rest. I think the build-up is longer than it needs to be. If I weren't reading it on purpose for a specific reason, I would have put it down long since.

Now I have to decide what to read next. I've got the choice of Neal Stephenson's latest, Confusion, which is a sequel to Quicksilver or the other book he wrote in the same world that is sort of a prequel called Cryptonomicon. And some vampire mystery thing that I picked up at the library on a whim. I'll probably try that first as the Neal Stephenson stuff is dense and long and will take a long time to read.
 
Just started the Gormenghast trilogy,
Been making plans to read this for a long while So I really hope I am not disappointed as I adored the tv drama :)
 
Amidala said:
Just started the Gormenghast trilogy,
Been making plans to read this for a long while So I really hope I am not disappointed as I adored the tv drama :)
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Amidala~I've started reading that several times but always got caught up in something else so let me know if you like it!
 
I've read it, I thought it was odd, but interesting. Very, very strange books.
 
House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson

Just finished this short (100 odd pages in small print) novel, part of a 4-novel collection by the author and I thought it was EXCELLENT!

Those of you that like Lovecraft will surely like this story a lot. I won't reveal the plot because unravelling it as you read is the real fun of this trip. Suffice to say that it's quite ambitious in scope and Mr. Hodgson reveals the kind of imagination and writing flair that makes you turn page after page without your interest ever flagging
 
Currently I'm just reading Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson and Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance (not the best I've read so far, to be honest). Still not finished the Odyssey, had a long break from the one now. And also trying to read a few of the stories in Legends II while avoiding those that contain spoilers for other works by authors I may try/have tried.

And my 'to read'-list is growing out of control. Currently on my shelf (figuratively, of course, since I've got no order at all and only books I've read are put on shelves) are:

Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Finn and Hengist by J.R.R. Tolkien (his interpretion of an old anglo-saxon story if I'm not much mistaken)
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

Books I haven't gotten my hands on yet but am planning to are Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, the whole Tawny Man-triology by Robin Hobb, Windhaven and A Song for Lya by G.R.R. Martin, Magician and Children of Dune by Frank Herbert. Sooner or later I'll also have to find Winter's Heart by Jordan in a library. And try Goodkind, Eddings and Brooks...
 
Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance (not the best I've read so far, to be honest).
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Not the best Vance or not the best book in general? If you have the omnibus edition comprising The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rialto the Magnificent, I suggest you press on. The first book is rather odd in that it has little by way of engaging plot, but it sets the stage, and the remaining books only get better.

I'm reading Gregory Benford's Against Infinity right now, a good dose of hard SF that looks to be better than my last disastrous brush with the genre, Niven's Ringworld Engineers.
 
Uggh, I've banned myself from books until the 30th, cos I know that once I start i'll lose all self control :(
Stupid exams, I hate them >.<
So now all I'm reading are lecture notes, excerpts from Historian's essays and writings, and lots of old dusty books on Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Levant and Anatolia. But it's ok, old books smell nice :)
 
Falagar said:
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
I hope you're aware that that implies the rest of the three/four part series?
Stone of Farewell
To Greenangel Tower I
To Greenangel Tower II
:)
Just to make sure you know what you get yourself into.

I've already read all of it in German and am now halfway through the last book in English. But it will have to wait till August...
It's a great work, I hope you'll enjoy it.
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Sirathiel said:
Falagar said:
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
I hope you're aware that that implies the rest of the three/four part series?
Stone of Farewell
To Greenangel Tower I
To Greenangel Tower II
:)
Just to make sure you know what you get yourself into.

I've already read all of it in German and am now halfway through the last book in English. But it will have to wait till August...
It's a great work, I hope you'll enjoy it.
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Yup (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, right?), but I'll check out the Dragonbone Chair before I decide whether to try the next ones. :)
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That's undoubtedly the most logical step, Falagar.:)

I hope you enjoy them. IMO, they're great books. Let us/me know what you thought about them.:D
 
Sorry, missed your post there Knivesout. :)
knivesout said:
Not the best Vance or not the best book in general? If you have the omnibus edition comprising The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rialto the Magnificent, I suggest you press on. The first book is rather odd in that it has little by way of engaging plot, but it sets the stage, and the remaining books only get better.

I'm reading Gregory Benford's Against Infinity right now, a good dose of hard SF that looks to be better than my last disastrous brush with the genre, Niven's Ringworld Engineers.
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Yup, it's the first one doubting. So far the characters haven't been very engaging (especially Turjan), and the plot...well, there hasn't been any plot. ;)

Sirathiel said:
That's undoubtedly the most logical step, Falagar.:)

I hope you enjoy them. IMO, they're great books. Let us/me know what you thought about them.:D
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I will. ;) Heard lots of good stuff about Williams, I'm just hoping I won't be disappointed.
 
I'm reading Against Infinity by Gregory Benford. So far, quite good. It's a tale of young man in a colony on Ganymede who decides to hunt down a strange ancient artifact, the Aleph, that has been stalking life on Ganymede. The book seems to work on a lot of levels - the science seems very well thought out, the technical ideas - the servos, genetically mutated creatures made to perform specific functions in terraforming - are well elucidated and the human element - a coming of age story - seems well drawn too. Oddly, the sense of outdoors being evoked here is something more like a Jack London novel than the usual alien-world sense of wonder, a touch that I think I like. I hope the book stays this good throughout!

Also carrying on with my non-fic reads.
 
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