Super September - What literary offering are you currently reading?

[Kettricken]

Riddlemaster and Forgotten Beasts are of course avaialble via the Victor Gollancz Orion (UK) Fantasy Masterwork series I've been harping on about of late...

I'll have a look if they ship books to the Netherlands, otherwise I'll ask my English in-laws if they will order it for me.

 

[Dave]

I've just read Philip K Dick's 'Time Out of Joint' and I'm currently between books.

 

[aarti]

I have just recently finished Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (VERY thought-provoking reading) and am currently reading Armadale, by Wilkie Collins and Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier.

After that, I am debating between starting Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy or Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion. Any suggestions?

 

[murphy]

I have just recently finished Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (VERY thought-provoking reading) and am currently reading Armadale, by Wilkie Collins and Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier.

After that, I am debating between starting Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy or Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion. Any suggestions?

Both are good so toss a coin.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I really enjoyed The Curse of Chalion. Predicting what someone will like is dangerous (one can so easily look like an idiot), which is why I don't do it very often, but from some of the other books you've read and enjoyed, aarti, I think there is a very good chance you would like Chalion.

 

[aarti]

Yes, I'm leaning towards Chalion, really, after reading some of the posts on Bujold on this site. So once I finish up Marillier, then I might go that route. Unless I have fallen behind on book group reads again!

 

[Riselka]

Just finished reading Michael Slade's new book "Kamikaze". Now I'm reading Steve Alten's "Meg" - the first book in the series that's being referred to as "Jurassic Shark".

 

[j d worthington]

am currently reading Armadale, by Wilkie Collins ...

I've got Armadale, but have not yet read it, so I'd be very curious to hear what you have to say about this one, aarti!

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Rereading Kim Harrison's four novels, in order to write reviews for Chronicles. (So not a chore.)

 

[aarti]

I've got Armadale, but have not yet read it, so I'd be very curious to hear what you have to say about this one, aarti!

I'll be sure to let you know! So far, I'm only about 90 pages in, but it's definitely got the Victorian quasi-Gothic feel to it so far. As with most Victorian novels, it's pretty slow-moving. But I think it will be a good read

 

[Perpetual Man]

Seems an age since I last posted anything - has it really taken me this long to read one book (White Crow by Mary Gentle)

Just started The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde. Looks like somethign really different!

 

[Mark Robson]

Just started 'Keeping it Real' by Justina Robson. I've been meaning to read something by my namesake for some time. Given that our families both originate in the Northeast of England there are probably some distant family ties somewhere, but nothing we could trace when we spoke last. At least now when I see her in November I will actually be able to place my hand on heart and say that I've read something of hers.

 

[ravenus]

Re-read Matheson's I am Legend yesterday. Great book for a one-sitting read...and also impossibly bleak for Hollywood to make a movie of, let alone with Will Smith.

 

[iansales]

Wasn't it was made into film before, with Charlton Heston? The Omega Man?

 

[ravenus]

Yes, and also with Vincent Price, as The Last Man on Earth. Haven't seen those movies so I can't comment on their effectiveness. It's up for a 2007 remake with Will Smith, made by the driector of Constantine.

 

[Taltos]

Finished with Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix Plus - pretty entertaining and memorable (both novel and stories)
Bought and started Peter Hamilton's A Quantum Murder - about 1/3 through it and it's as good as the first book in the series.

 

[j d worthington]

I'll be sure to let you know! So far, I'm only about 90 pages in, but it's definitely got the Victorian quasi-Gothic feel to it so far. As with most Victorian novels, it's pretty slow-moving. But I think it will be a good read

@aarti: Thanks for the reply. Sounds like something I'd definitely enjoy, then. Keep me posted when you finish it ... though it's likely to be at least several months before I get that far in my "to read" list.

And, yes, I Am Legend has been filmed twice before. The first film, with Vincent Price, is actually fairly close to the book, and does tend to be rather bleak; it was a low-budget piece, but is rather good, and has a nice moody direction to it. While I have a perverse fondness for The Omega Man, however, I cannot say it's a good film. Decent popcorn, and with some good moments, but my fondness for it is entirely sentimental, I'm afraid. Not a film I'd recommend, generally speaking. If a European (or Japanese) filmmaker were doing I Am Legend, I'd feel a lot better. As it is, I'm tempted to go burn down the studio.....

 

[ravenus]

A little off-topic but I might be getting a double-movie disc of Last Man on Earth and Panic in the Year Zero. The latter movie also sounds interesting, it has Ray Milland as director and lead actor...Ray who I thought did an awesome job in Roger Corman's heart-breakingly good X: The Man with The X-ray Eyes. It's about a family that flees their home in the wake of a nuclear disaster and about the breakdown of society's rules and establishment of primeval anarchy that they face and become part of. Sounds like a predator to the social themes of Romero's Living Dead films.

 

[Marky Lazer]

Someone sent me books, I think he'll kill me if I won't read HPL first.

 

[iansales]

Finished Dan Simmons' Worlds Enough & Time. Interestingly, one of the stories, 'The Ninth of Av', appeared to be a first pass at the world of Ilium and Olympus, although it couldn't be considered a spoiler for the novels.

Still on short stories, I'm now on Other Edens, an anthology of UK SF and fantasy from the early nineties, edited by Christopher Evans and Robert Holdstock.