New year, new books... What we're reading in January.

[j d worthington]

Finished Pirate of the Pacific, and am now moving on to Moorcock's The Ice Schooner...

 

[DeepThought]

2/3rds of the way through Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edga Allen Poe.Will be starting yet another re-read of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series (all five novels).

 

[iansales]

Varley's The Ophiuchi Hotline was as good as I'd remembered. Now I'm reading Warring States by Susan R Matthews, the latest in her excellent Jurisdiction series.

 

[Nesacat]

Finished Embers by Sandor Marai and Secret Country by Jane Johnson. Very different reads both of them.

Embers is almost a monologue. The tale centres around two men who meet after four decades. The whole tale is told over one single night.

Secret Country is Young Adult fantasy and is part if a series. It's got all the usual ingredients. Two worlds, a young boy, a talking cat and the need to rescue one of the worlds. It was well written and thought out and I am looking forward to the next in the series.

 

[j d worthington]

Finished Moorcock's The Ice Schooner; am reading a few essays in amongst working on the Randall and Cthulhu's Heirs...

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Alice Hoffman's The Ice Queen. Beautifully written, so far.

 

[Stormpirate]

Dean Koontz's Forever Odd. I've heard that it's not as good as Odd Thomas, which I think is one of Koontz's best works. I'll make my own opinion when I finish.

 

[rune]

Ive just finished a book by Rachel Caine, the first by her Ive tried Ill Wind, quite enjoyed it

 

[Stormpirate]

Ah, I've read all the ones of the Weather Wardens that have been released. I'm eagerly awaiting the most recent one, out in August.

 

[Taltos]

Finished with Feist's Serpentwar - re-reading (Shadow of a Dark Queen and Rise of a Merchant Prince) - now started with the actual reading i.e. started Rage of a Demon King

 

[Carolyn Hill]

(Rune and Stormpirate, I also enjoy Rachel Caine's weather warden books.)

I'm now reading The Mysteries by Lisa Tuttle.

 

[Lenny]

Finished Shadowfall today. Good book. Just got to find the rest of the trilogy now.

And I'll move on to one of the Fallon's. Gemmell I'll save 'till last.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Decided to put Lisey's Story aside for a while. Decided to break into a bit of Lovecraft instead! So it's The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories for me at the moment. And damn, I've only just started on Dagon and I've remembered how much I love Lovecraft's style of writing.

 

[j d worthington]

Finished Lisa Randall's Warped Passages... very lucidly written, and fascinating stuff, if occasionally a bit mind-stretching... I highly recommend it for an accessible and entertaining overview of several of the advances in particle physics, string theory, etc. Sounds like we've got some very exciting times ahead in the next decade with the LHC....

It strikes me, by the way, that we're seeing a fair number of people in these fields that write much more accessibly the last few years; I can't help but think this is a good thing, to break down the barriers between the more esoteric aspects of science and the availability of such information to the layperson....

 

[Chrystelia]

Finished T H White The Once and Future King. Left me very depressed, I hate Modred.

After that, I took up the first book in Robert Newcomb's Blood and Stone Chronicles. I have read the bad reviews on his book and was curious how bad (borrowed from a friend). It was so unbelievabably cliche, bad characterisation, and unrealistic. Didn't like it. The protagonist was 30 years old but acted like a teenager. The magic was over the top sometimes, like cutting the pregnancy period from 9 months to 3 days, ridiculous! Well I was out of reading material that time ....

Then I got Dan Simmon's Hyperion, a change from the usual fantasy, and it was good, lots of Keats, including a robot Keats. Is this a stand alone book or is there a sequel? Is that how it was suppose to end? I want to know what happen next!

And now I am again out of new books ....

 

[j d worthington]

Chrystelia: There are four books, I believe, to the set:

Hyperion Cantos - Series Bibliography

though I vaguely recall mention of a fifth....

 

[Chrystelia]

Chrystelia: There are four books, I believe, to the set:

Hyperion Cantos - Series Bibliography

though I vaguely recall mention of a fifth....

jd,
Thanks! off to get them.

 

[j d worthington]

jd,
Thanks! off to get them.

You're welcome!

 

[Taltos]

though I vaguely recall mention of a fifth....

I think you mean Orphans of the Helix - which is a novella (short-novel - I'm not sure about the classification is english) describing some events taking place after the end of Hyperion Cantos.

 

[j d worthington]

I think you mean Orphans of the Helix - which is a novella (short-novel - I'm not sure about the classification is english) describing some events taking place after the end of Hyperion Cantos.

Ah... many thanks, Taltos! I knew I'd heard of another story, but couldn't recall anything more than that....