Marvellous March Manuscripts? So what are you reading this month?

[Tansy]

Just finished Magicians Guild by Trudi Cavanan and started Shadowmarch by Tad Williams

 

[Marky Lazer]

Harriet Jacobs - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
John Millington Synge - The Playboy of the Western World
Geoffrey Chaucer - The Caterbury Tales

 

[Talysia]

I'm reading Tales of the Otori - book 3, brilliance of the moon, by Lian Hearn.

Good book. I think I may reread the series soon.

 

[Connavar]

Gollum's blashampy about The Time Machine makes me spin too


I got sick of forcing myself library books and picked up again Tim Powers's On Stranger Tides.

Which i only took a break from cause of the library books.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Now reading Peake's Gormenghast as part of the christening of the new library...

That should keep you busy for a while.

 

[Ursa major]

I seem to have been reading a lot of Ken Macleod recently: and most recently, it's been his learning the world, "a novel of first contact".

I really enjoyed this: there is his usual wordplay in the narrative and the characters are, mostly, believable and sympathetic. It is this that helps build the sense of impending tragedy. There is no great villain, simply people acting out their ideals; or, rather, their take on them. Ken being the man he is, there is some politics, but it's not presented in the way it has been in other books of his that I've read; there are, for instance, no labels from, or related to, the world we know (i.e. no "Fourth International").

I could nitpick about some minor technical issues, but these don't spoil the story one bit.

All in all, this was a good read that kept me turning the pages. (There was one major problem: I rather regretted the ending coming as soon as it did; it isn't that the ending is bolted on (it isn't), simply that I could have enjoyed reading about the characters for a lot longer.)

 

[GOLLUM]

Well's has generated his own quantum time flux because that statement has made him spin in his grave so

Actually Asimov or is it Clarke is of the same opinion as myself on this one. It really is worth checking out!

@Teresa: Gormenghast will keep me busy, it's such a classic!

 

[Connavar]

Actually Asimov or is it Clarke is of the same opinion as myself on this one. It really is worth checking out!

@Teresa: Gormenghast will keep me busy, it's such a classic!

Which shows Asimov and Clarke are far from perfect in SF

 

[Talysia]

I'm currently reading John Wyndham's The Chrysalids, after my Mum very kindly lent me her really old hardback copy.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

Finished The Memoirs of Helen of Troy by Amanda Elyot. I was pleasantly surprised. Thought it was a pretty good short read. Still continiuing on in Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb. I wasn't that impressed at the beginning, (which is why I read Helen of Troy) but now I am starting to get into the story.

 

[Rosemary]

Finished re-reading Midnight Tides. I still didn't like it as much as his other Malazan books. Right now though, I am half way through re-reading The Bonehunters, with the return of a few of my favourite characters.

 

[Taltos]

So far finished Alexander Gromov Russian lasso (or something like that, if you translate the title word by word) - a continuation of his previous book, about a world without American continent, where Russia is a super power etc. Seems to be Russian wish at the moment - to rule and not to be discarded, but enough about that. The story is entertaining enough - it's about second part of the trans Atlantic travel of the Russian heir of the throne - from Europe to Japan on a diplomatic mission and about the assassination attempts on him. Personally I liked Gromovs earlier works more, they were a lot darker and grittier - and more social SF, not alternative history which he seems to prefer lately.
Also finished Tim Powers Anubis Gates - for me a nice adventure in Victorian England - exiting enough to keep me up at night. Also interesting and memorable characters.
Now I'm back to Lynch and adventures of Locke.

 

[Talysia]

Moving on to Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon.

 

[Pyan]

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, Tal....and if you do, there's three more out in the series...

 

[Talysia]

I'm loving it so far. I think I'll definitely be getting the other Temeraire books.

 

[chopper]

i've seen these in the local emporium - they'll be going on the library list i think, while the belt's tight

 

[Pyan]

Well worth it, Chopper...as someone said, think Anne McCaffrey writing Hornblower....

 

[murphy]

Well worth it, Chopper...as someone said, think Anne McCaffrey writing Hornblower....

What I said was "Horatio Hornblowers meets the Dragon Riders of Pern."

 

[Pyan]

Mea culpa, Murphy...I couldn't remember where I'd seen it...and my apologies for quoting you incorrectly!

 

[Razorback]

My latest is Deepsix, by Jack McDevitt. It’s my sixth by him and the second in the Academy series. The book starts out a bit slow, but McDevitt is an excellent storyteller once he gets going. He also does a very good job of developing characters that are more than stereotypes. In this instance, however, the story is essentially a Sci-Fi version of a Hollywood disaster flick. I’ve never cared for disaster flicks. I only read this because I’ve enjoyed all the others I’ve read by this author, including the first book in this series, and I don’t like to skip books. Consequently, I only rate this one a 6 out of 10.