February's Forays into Fiction

[dwndrgn]

It's the start of the second month of the year...what are you or will you be reading this month?

I just finished the first two books in the Greg Keyes Kingdom of Thorn and Bone and must now wait for the next. Despite the fact that so many people have died and so many that should have, haven't, I'm enjoying the series so far. I really like the fact that the Briar King is so ambivalent. Is he evil? Is he good?

I also just read the first two books of Mark Anthony's Last Rune series. I believe the library has one or two of the rest and hopefully one of them will be number 3. I'm glad that so many people recommended this series to me. Several times in the past I've picked one of them up just to put it back down for some odd reason. Now that I've actually read the first two, I'm anxious to move on to the rest. One thing struck me though, if any of you have read this series and have also seen Highlander the movie - did you notice something similar in the two? The author used an almost identical scene in his book to one in the movie. Not that it is bad by any means, I am an out-of-the-closet fan of both Highlander the movie and the tv series so taking elements from them isn't as bad as it sounds. He might not have even seen the movie since it is a logical scene for anyone who lives on this earth for more than 100 years...

So now I'm lazily reading an historical/fantasy/mystery called Spider Dance by Carole Nelson Douglas based on the character of Irene Adler in Conan Doyle's Sherlock stories. It's well-written, cute and I like the fact that the author throws in Mr. Holmes on occasion as well. She also takes liberty with many other well-known historical figures, fictional and real.

 

[Leto]

Well, I'm currently and very slowly reading a Deepness in the Sky by Vernon Vinge. And about to start Singularity Sky be Charles Stross. Two classical sci-fi type novels.
In horror/thriller about to start Saint-Germain by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and just finished The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. A disturbing little easy to read book but the end is very anticlimatical. Not reccommended because of this.

 

[rune]

Pleased to see another fan of Mark Anthony's The Last Rune series


I'm reading Medalon by Jennifer Fallon, unsure if I think it's very good or just a fair read at the moment

 

[Sirathiel]

I'm through with David Webers 'Ashes of Victory'. Since I've got some time on my hands until I'll be able to get hold of the next one in the series, I'm currently back to reading 'The Fabulous Riverboat' by Philip José Farmer (the sequel to 'To your scattered bodies go').

Like its prequel it's slow in the beginning as you get to know a whole new set of characters. But I'm sure the pace will pick up soon as it did with the other one.

 

[Dead Riverdragon]

I'm a couple of days from the end of 'Well of the Unicorn' and until today had nothing else worth reading on my scant uni bookshelf. Happily I found a cheap bookshop today and picked up 'The Turn of the Screw' and 'Moby-Dick', hope they live up to the hype.

 

[Shoegaze99]

Well, this (and this) about covers it for me.

 

[dwndrgn]

Pleased to see another fan of Mark Anthony's The Last Rune series

Have you seen Highlander and did you notice the scene I'm talking about? I'm waiting for someone to tell me I'm not a total geek and am the only one who noticed it.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Well, I got a fair amount of reading done during my holiday, and I'm here to tell you all about it!

On the train to Madras, I read Jonathan Carroll's The Wooden Sea. This is the second Carroll book I've read. This book reads a bit like a gentler Stephen King, as far as Carroll's evocation of cbaracter and setting go. There's a bit of metaphysical blundering about that wasn't totally to my taste, but the basic story - about a man who gets to meet his younger self again as well as inhabit the body of his older self for a while, in an attempt to gain a crucial insight - was as gripping as I'd hoped. I have a feeling this book could have done with some more editing - the whole thing is a first-person narrative, but there are shifts in the tone of voice that aren't entirely consistent. There's also a sudden burst of rather lazy phrasing that lasts for a page or two and then dissipates - surely the sort of thing a thorough run-through should have weeded out?

While in Madras, I finished the Derleth book, The Trail of Cthulhu. It was an amusing enough book, but rather repetitive and ragged at times - I'd only recommend it to an HP Lovecraft fan who isn't up for a re-read of HPL's stuff and needs a quick, easy Mythos snack.

On the train back from Madras, I read The Etched City, Australian fantasy author KJ Bishop's debut novel. I liked it a lot - Bishop's prose is well up to the challenge of communicating her very vivid vision. The story gets up to a running start, full of ravaged dying-earth motifs, an exciting chase sequence amidst dust and ruins, and then plunges us into the city of Ashamoil. You'd think that the run of fantastic cities popping up in fantasy lately would have started to bore, but Ashamoil is a worth addition to the gazeteer. I'll probably try and write a more detailed review of this one later.

I finally finished Nabokov's Lolita. It was every bit as good as I'd been led to imagine, and even oddly moving by the end. Some of the finest prose I've ever read.

Now reading: Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds and Masque of a Savage Mandarin by Phillip Bedford Robinson.

 

[Drachir]

I'm currently working my way through Michael Stackpole's Dragoncrown War trilogy. It is a fairly interesting read so far. There is nothing special about the book in terms of new ideas, but it is good adventure fantasy and the reader identifies with the characters.

 

[polymorphikos]

Still avoiding Veniss Underground. I'm just having trouble insinuating myself, is all. Going to have that Vurt book in a day or two and see how that turns-out.

 

[dwndrgn]

I picked up a book at the library called Dragon's Winter by Elizabeth Lynn and it was better than I expected. It's a fantasy about twin brothers - one with the family 'gift' and one without who don't see eye-to-eye. I think she could have expanded the story quite a bit - that was my only issue as the story seemed rushed at times - and there were a couple of parts that seemed as if they demanded more of an explanation. It's quite possible that she plans on continuing the story, and I feel that she should. The characters were well thought out and endearing and I thought she could have gone deeper into their histories. She still might, as the ending was a bit open, so I'll have to keep an eye out.

 

[PenDragon]

I'm currently halfway through Book 2 of the Elenium and struggling. I'm seriously considering chucking it and book 3. Much as I like the character Sparhhawk, the story and writing just seems very tired. I'm edging around the H word but it's all very obvious and almost feels half hearted. Oh well It's not as if I don't have plnety more to read.

 

[Lidora]

so i bought briar king for the january book club and didn't get very far into it before classes started again. so i guess i'm still reading that, even though i hardly have any time for reading other than class related (i'm an english and writing major so there is lots of reading!).

i'm currently taking a pretty awesome shakespeare class that has me reading all kinda of english renaissance drama. i just finished reading titus andronicus, i suggest seeing the julie taymor's film either after or concurrently with reading. it's very well done. in fact, i might have to suggest it for the film club at some point.

other than that i'm reading a physics book, a spanish grammar book, and lots of freud.

damnit school, gettin' in the way of all the fun!

 

[McMurphy]

I just finished reading A Wizard of Earthsea by LeGuin and have dived back into the classics with Great Expectations by Dickens. After I wrap up the Dickens read, I plan on reading Dandelion Wine.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Well, I've just finished reading Chasm City, the 2nd novel by new-ish SF author Alastair Reynolds. It was a brilliant wide-screen sf yarn. Nanotech gone wrong, a strange alien race, parallel story arcs, an amnesiac protagonist attempting to piece together his identity, a nightmarish city full of stark contrasts, insane architecture (literally- the intelligent buildings went mad during an electronic Plague that also devastated the inhabitants' nanotech-based culture), lots of cool action and a suitably mind-blowing climax. Neat stuff.

The book has the scope and sweep of the best of the old-school greats as well as the gritty realism of cyberpunk. There were shades of Philip K Dick in the layers of memories through which the protagnist has to resolve his own identity, and something of AE van Vogt in the incredibly complex and involving story-arc. There's also a noirish street-smart toughness in the narrative voice. Best of all, Reynolds is equally engaged with the cutting-edge of current tech-spec and with creating future societies that work. Next up, I have a copy of Absolution Gap to read.

OK, weaknesses. The characterisation never seemed very deep, especially the way women just seemed to fall for our hero. Everyone was more or less villainous, or at least criminally bored, and the attempts given to justify various peoples' actions didn't really work. A lot of the incidents were too fortuitous, poeple jumping in and rescuing the hero for no good reason at the right moment, that sort of thing. But there was enough mind- and eye-candy to compensate.

Paul J McAuley blurbed Reynolds' debut as 'gonzo cybergoth space opera'. That feels about right to me.

 

[Leto]

Is it a follow-up of Revelation space ? Just started this one, so far sounds good yet a bit confuse between the archeologist, the soldier in her ghost ship and the killer.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Chasm City is set inthe same universe as Revelation Space, but is not a sequel. The events in this book happened either long before or long after the events in the first one, I'm not certain which. What did you think of Singlularity Sky?

 

[Leto]

As an Hunter S Thomson fan, and a news addict, I loved it. Now if you want more straightforward SF, you may not like it.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

Just been out to the shops today. I bought Raymond E Feist's Rage of a Demon King. This is of course the third book in the Serpentwar saga, and I am looking forward to seeing how Roo and Eric develop further. I actually threw a wobbler the other night when I realised that I did not have this book. I had to wait two days before buying it.

I also bought Tyrant by Valerio Massimo Mamfredi, which is about Dionysius. I bought the graphic novel Samurai Deeper Kyo to plug a gap.

 

[polymorphikos]

Currently reading The Etched City by K J Bishop. So far it keeps reminding me of Trigun, and I hear that later-on it starts to resemble Cowboy Bebop. This is in no way a complaint.