Super September - What literary offering are you currently reading?

[dwndrgn]

Finished Armageddon's Children, wasn't too bad, some interesting concepts but it ended on a hard cliffhanger and I despise those. Anyway, now on to the much talked about Lies of Locke Lamora. Here's hoping it is up to the hype!

 

[Paige Turner]

My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki.

It won the Kiriyama Prize, and is supposed to be quite funny. It's only science fiction in the sense that it's a book, and many works of science fiction are also books.

 

[elvet]

My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki.

It won the Kiriyama Prize, and is supposed to be quite funny. It's only science fiction in the sense that it's a book, and many works of science fiction are also books.

I quite enjoyed it.

I'm continuing on with my G.G. Kay fix and have started Lions of Al-Rassan. I just love the way he pieces together bits of the story. Even though there are multiple characters, he sets up the early chapters from each main character's perspective so you can get an indepth feel for their personality. That way they they remain fresh and familiar as the story develops.

 

[Razorback]

Finished Protector by Larry Niven. This book is a terrific read. It is part of his Known Universe collection. Although written after Ringworld, it is set before Ringworld and involves man’s first encounter with the Pak. I liked it better than the Ringworld sequels. It is fast moving and highly imaginative. The plot kept twisting in interesting, unexpected ways. It was refreshing to read something so good and relatively short for a change. My copy has 218 pages. Memorable quote:

“And the air was full of the smell of burning bridges.”
​

 

[Karsa Orlong]

I'm about 60 pages into A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V.Jones, I'll give an opinion once I've read some more of it.

 

[beenorthern]

So far this month I've read *A Brother's Price* by Wen Spencer (a slight but enjoyable bonbon) *A Line of Polity* by Neal Asher (good hefty SF), *Bradbury An Illustrated Life* (who knew there were so many different paintings for "The Sound of Thunder"?!!). Tonight I'm on book 2 of *The Reality Dysfunction* by Peter F. Hamilton (great convoluted space opera!).

 

[Culhwch]

I love having a new library to plunder. Currently reading Imperial Spy by Mark Robson, and have lined up on my bedside table The Hidden Stars by Madelaine Howard, The Mark of Ran by Paul Kearney and Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman....

 

[Nesacat]

Just finisned The Dragon Quintet edited by Marvin Kaye with stories by Orson Scott Card; Elizabeth Moon; Mercedes Lackey; Tanith Lee and Michael Swanick.

Now reading Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk.

 

[nixie]

David Gemmell's White Wolf

 

[Stenevor]

The Scar - China Mieville , really enjoying it after American Gods.

 

[Rosemary]

Now re-reading 'A Time Of Omens' by Katherine Kerr

 

[iansales]

After the brick-like tome that was Gardens of the Moon, I fancied something a little slimmer: Rogue Ship by AE van Vogt. A thin novel it certainly is, a good one it certainly ain't. The central premise is ludicrous, and the plotting is as erratic as anything van Vogt's ever written. But my copy of Hunters of Dune has finally arrived, so I'll be reading that next...

 

[Werthead]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Awesome book, extremely well written and entertaining. I worried before starting it that it was going to be one of those huge, dense tomes I'd take months to get through (as with Neal Stephenson) but, on the contrary, the pages are flying past and I'm a quarter-way through it already. I'll be finishing it off on my holiday this week and then plough into Perdido Street Station.

 

[Razorback]

I just finished Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein. I just noticed that this won a retro Hugo (whatever those are about) for best novel of 1951. I like Heinlein a lot, but I do not know when or if I would have gotten around to this one if not for the Hugo. I doubt it would get any attention if published today, but it was remarkable for 1950. This was an early work on terraforming and I have a soft spot for the Boy Scouts. It is interesting to see both how little and how much things have progressed in the last 56 years. It is a fun read if you are in the mood for some nostalgia. Favorite quote:

“Figures like that are impossible to comprehend. The nuclear physicists keep a barrel of zeroes around handy the way a carpenter does a keg of nails.”

 

[GOLLUM]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Awesome book, extremely well written and entertaining. I worried before starting it that it was going to be one of those huge, dense tomes I'd take months to get through (as with Neal Stephenson) but, on the contrary, the pages are flying past and I'm a quarter-way through it already. I'll be finishing it off on my holiday this week and then plough into Perdido Street Station.

Please let us know how you find them...

Having read both books I found them to be excellent but in different ways.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Finished The Etched City. The prose is beautiful, and Bishop knows how to use her large vocabulary. But the book was a slog: unpleasant characters, soggy plot, imprecise theological maundering. The novel is ambitious, which I admire, but I kept waiting for something to pull the disparately clever and promising elements together to make the reading worthwhile. That something never materialized--at least, not for me.

(I can't help comparing The Etched City to Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, which does a more effective job of handling theological reflection and encounters with the strange.)

I'm going to read Tanya Huff's Smoke and Mirrors to recharge my batteries.

 

[fancying_fantasy]

Currently, although I almost finished, I am reading The Foreshadowing by Markus Sedgwick. It is good, but I think for next book I need a good fantasy book, I've been reading too much plan fiction, not that plan fiction is bad I just think you need to mix it up some. So I'll be heading to my bookshelf soon to scope out my next good read!!!!!

 

[j d worthington]

Finished Thomas Moore's The Epicurean and Alciphron... for those who like the old "prose romances" of the early nineteenth century, it has a lot of charm; the plot is rather thin, but the atmospheric descriptions are quite good, and often very evocative and eerie. It's obvious why some of these passages would spark HPL's imagination; but for readers who want plot or strong characterization, this is not a good choice (or pair of choices, as the case may be). However, I quite enjoyed it.

Next up is Kij Johnson's Fudoki...

 

[Chrystelia]

Just finished Greg Bear's Forge of God. Next will be Anvil of Stars.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Greg Bear's Forge of God.

Good book. The part near the end where they go through somewhere called Pinedale on the way to Yosemite (I don't think that's giving anything essential away)? Real place. If I went out and got in my car right now, I could be there in less than ten minutes.

I'm going to have to pick this one up and read it again, I think.