What we're reading in August...

[murphy]

Now I'm reading Straight Into Darkness, by Faye Kellerman. Bought it several months ago and hadn't gotten around to reading it, but after re-reading the other Kellerman book, I decided to pick it up.

It's a murder mystery set in 1929 in Germany.

Thanks for the reminder on this. I meant to get it and then forgot. Just found a hardcopy version at B&N that had been remaindered for $5.38. Yay, me.

 

[mosaix]

No Graves As Yet, Anne Perry.

 

[j d worthington]

Finished off Ringel's book... very interesting read... and a lot more stuff to look up on various topics of interest now....

Will now be dipping into The Curse of Yig, by Zealia Bishop (so it says on the tin) and Uncle Silas, by J. Sheridan LeFanu.....

 

[Quokka]

I got a suprising amount of reading done on the holidays.

Erikson's The Bonehunters was great, its nice now that the series is moving along that it doesnt feel like there's just an endless supply of new characters being introduced and there is already the feeling of things comming together.

The Dispossesed (Ursula le Guin), I don't know much about her background but Le Guin certainly has some knowledge of sociology/anthropology. This is easily my favourite so far but The Lathe of Heaven was also good, now I really need to go back and finish Left Hand of Darkness.

(I just wish I had the Masterworks version this new collection of SF looks shocking )

And on the flight home I finished Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters. Didn't think I'd be a fan of the Witches storylines but as it turns out that was one of the funniest ones yet.


Now I'm finally getting around to starting Moorcock's Elric. Seeing as the book order was a touch confussing Ive just grabbed the Fantasy Masterworks release, so hopefully that'll give me a nice overall introduction

 

[gully_foyle]

Cities in Flight by James Blish.

Scratch that, I fell asleep on the first page. I think I might give the classics a rest for a bit and read something a bit more contemporary.

So, tonight I start The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[elvet]

Still thoroughly enjoying the Sundered series. Am on the 3rd book, Lady of Mercy.

 

[Soggyfox]

So, tonight I start The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds.

good choice, very enjoyable.

just finished The Dreaming Void, by Peter F Hamilton and now started Hilldiggers by Neal Asher, which i'll have to reread the first chapter tonight cos i was a little tipsy last night.

 

[sci-fi girl]

I'm reading "Dark is the sun" by Philip José Farmer.

 

[xxxalice]

Hi. Actually right now I am reading Book 3 in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

 

[Sathai]

I'm reading Abarat by Clive Barker.

 

[nixie]

Valley of the Horse, Jean Auel

 

[sci-fi girl]

Wouah Nixie, this is one of my favourite !

 

[GOLLUM]

Valley of the Horse, Jean Auel

So how does that series stack up compared to the rest of fantasy, anything like any other authors we might know??

 

[Addy]

At the Mountains of Madness and other Novels of Terror - H.P. Lovecraft

 

[Connavar]

After alot Historical Fiction lately i feel for old School SF so im reading :


The Day It Rained Forever - Ray Bradbury

My first read of him so im pretty excited as always when i try a SF writer that has pretty good rep.

 

[murphy]

I've been read Sherwood Smith's The Fox. It's the second of a trilogy and is very well done. See here for more information.

 

[j d worthington]

After alot Historical Fiction lately i feel for old School SF so im reading :


The Day It Rained Forever - Ray Bradbury

My first read of him so im pretty excited as always when i try a SF writer that has pretty good rep.

Just keep in mind that Bradbury doesn't consider himself to be a science fiction writer, but a fantaisiste... not the "epic" sort, but the older kind of fantasy... the fantastic. Any way you slice it, though, the man has written some of the classics of the 20th century....

Finished The Curse of Yig; will be moving on to Marginalia....

 

[Connavar]

Just keep in mind that Bradbury doesn't consider himself to be a science fiction writer, but a fantaisiste... not the "epic" sort, but the older kind of fantasy... the fantastic. Any way you slice it, though, the man has written some of the classics of the 20th century....

Finished The Curse of Yig; will be moving on to Marginalia....

Which of his stories do you ike most? I have several of his but dont know which ones to read first. Farenheit 451 is pretty famous but i dont know anything about the other works.


I have read some old school writers that have confused the hell outta of me i kept thinking is "is this Fantasy? or Science fiction?"

 

[j d worthington]

Which of his stories do lyou ike most? I have several of his but dont know which ones to read first. Farenheit 451 is pretty famous but i dont know anything about the other works.


I have read some old school writers that have confused the hell outta of me i kept thinking is "is this Fantasy? or Science fiction?"

Well, that's because, until after LotR became so popular, the difference was not nearly so starkly drawn. A lot of earlier sf/f stories were very closely related (think of Vance's "The Dragon Masters", or Kuttner and Moore's "The Children's Hour", for instance). Frankly, I think that allowed for more healthy growth in both cases, as it made it a wider continuum....

Picking out favorite Bradbury's is... difficult. Fahrenheit 451 is a very good book indeed, and I'd certainly recommend it. Beyond that:

Something Wicked This Way Comes
Dandelion Wine
The Martian Chronicles
The Illustrated Man
I Sing the Body Electric
The Halloween Tree
A Medicine for Melancholy
S is for Space
The Machineries of Joy
Dark Carnival
The October Country (which is much easier to find than D.C., and has some of the same contents)

or, you might just save yourself the trouble, and go for The Stories of Ray Bradbury:

The Stories of Ray Bradbury - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In some ways, I prefer the older collections such as The Martian Chronicles or The Illustrated Man to having them in the larger volume, because of the "links" he wrote for the others... but either way, the stories themselves are well worth reading....

 

[Addy]

Yes, yes, j.d. is right, picking a favorite Bradbury is HARD. I was first exposed through The October Country, which I read as a child. I still have very fond memories of those stories. I didn't know it overlapped with Dark Carnival.

You could go a LONG way with just the two largest short-story collections:

Bradbury Stores: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
The Stories of Ray Bradbury