What we're reading in August...

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Reading Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk on the train and A RRetrospective by George RR Martin at home (just had my introduction to Haviland Tuf).
 
Im going through my library books.

Right now im in a Short Story/Short novel mode. Which is a great change from the usual huge book i have read alot lately.


Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption - Stephen King
The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
 
Predictably enough, Ilium by Dan Simmons has been put on the backburner again. (I'm sooo bad)

Instead I have been inspired to purchase the His Dark Materials Trilogy. Inspired how? I was in the cinema and saw that they're making the first book into a film. I read it as a kid from the library way back when and never got around to read book 2 and 3. So I used my gift certificate from my birthday in May to buy the whole trilogy. And since I'll be on vacation next week, that's just a great fit.

So, yeah, I've dipped into Northern Lights now and I'm struggling to understand what's going on. Much as Lyra possibly is. The mystery is still thick and I'm eager to discover more as the book progresses. More when I'm back from vacation. :D
 
And how is it Gollum? Another page turner? To be honest, I thought the series lost its way in about Report 4 and now they're so overburdened, there seems to be very little development of plot in each Report. I'd like to see what happens in the end of the series, but the authors are just milking readers of their money and stringing it out.
 
Couldn't gain any momentum while reading H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness, so I stopped and started reading Bullfinch's Mythology instead.
 
Locksmith said:
And how is it Gollum? Another page turner? To be honest, I thought the series lost its way in about Report 4 and now they're so overburdened, there seems to be very little development of plot in each Report. I'd like to see what happens in the end of the series, but the authors are just milking readers of their money and stringing it out.
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Well for me it was enjoyable because I only became a recent attending member and therefore this is the only report I have received, no back issues....:D
 
I just finished reading The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. I really enjoyed it. The third book was slow for the first half but it made up for it with the ending.

Time to begin Alfred Bester's - The Demolished Man. I saw a lot of conflicting view points about this story on chronicles and figured I had to check it out for myself.:D
 
I think if you are looking for politically motivated sci fi to read this summer you guys would probably really like Kurt Wenzel's Exposure set in 2019. It is about media obsession and how society is heading for a meltdown. No aliens, except hollywood types, and it's set in Los Angeles in the near future. Has a literary bent, but very cool commentary on the state of things and where we are going fast.

Much of the technology in the book is really cool too.
 
Finished:

Renegade Mage ~ Robin Hobb. Best book of that trilogy
Empress of Mijak ~ Karen Miller. Very different from her normal, but definitely enjoyable.
Blue Dragon ~ Kylie Chan An excellent read

Started:

The Serpent Bride ~ Sara Douglass Am really enjoying it despite reviews to the contrary.
 
Just finished The Jester by James Patterson and Andrew Gross. The speel on the back says "Once every thousand years a truly great adventure stuns the world." They should then have put:

"But this isn't it."

It was okay but predictable. Certainly not great and I'd only recommend it if you've completely run out of things to read!

Now I've got to finish Sovereign by C J Samson.
 
Finished The New Space Opera, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. Mostly a pretty good anthology - stand-outs were James Patrick Kelly and Dan Simmons. OTOH, the Kage Baker wasn't even remotely space opera, and featured some very unconvincing Brit characters. And Robert Silverberg ripped off a story from 1001 Nights, and tricked it up as space opera.

Now reading Moondust by Andrew Smith.
 
Question, Ian: "ripped off", or "retold"... the latter has always been pretty common in literature, and tended to be an author expecting the audience to know the original; they were simply presenting a contemporary version of an old story... to "rip off", to me, anyway, carries the connotation of trying to get one over on the readers. I've a bit of trouble seeing Silverberg do that, frankly... it's just not his style.

And I finished with Marginalia... otherwise, I've had little reading (or anything else) time this week, as it seems as if everything including the proverbial k.s. has been dropped on my head.... Last night, however, I did finally get a chance to get about a third of Uncle Silas read... a bit slow to start, but he builds the atmosphere well, and there are plenty of mysteries to unravel....
 
Finished re-reading Ian Irvine's Torments Of the Traitor. I've also re-read The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and I am re-reading The Blade Itself which I now find I haven't read it at all :eek:
 
j. d. worthington said:
Question, Ian: "ripped off", or "retold"... the latter has always been pretty common in literature, and tended to be an author expecting the audience to know the original; they were simply presenting a contemporary version of an old story... to "rip off", to me, anyway, carries the connotation of trying to get one over on the readers. I've a bit of trouble seeing Silverberg do that, frankly... it's just not his style.
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Which was precisely the problem I had with the story. I don't doubt he expected readers to recognise the story of Scheherazade, but his use of it just felt lazy - as if he couldn't bothered to think up a new story. Perhaps "ripped off" was the wrong phrase, but "retold" sounds like it could be approving and I didn't want that.
 
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