July's Jubilant Joust At New Books

[Ursa major]

I've just finished Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. A good pacy thriller with plenty of twists and turns. It was rather too graphic for my tastes, but not enough to spoil my enjoyment. What I really liked was the balance between story and technology: I never felt that the story was there to demonstrate the technology, or that the latter was made up as the story went along to iron out plot problems.

The only evidence that this was a first (published) novel was the overuse of similes/etc. in the first few pages: after that, Morgan settled down to tell his story with a minimum of fuss.


I'll have to keep my eyes open for the Kovacs sequels and his other books.

 

[Connavar]

I can safely, and totally vouch for the first Carlucci book - Destroying Angel.

Highly recommended, especially to fans of neo-noir, Bladerunner, and Seven.

The end is especially awesome, and contains some stunning imagery and unexpected, but plausible, turn of events.

Great stuff.

I think I need a break from this world though - it is bleak.

I am going to read something else before tackling book 2.


I really want to read Ship of Fools by the same author. I hear it is pretty dang awesome.

You know as PKD fan its somewhat annoying to read Bladerunner here and there.

The book is special to me being my first PKD, hearing Bladerunner name from a fellow PKD fan is feels wrongs.

I would have expected books comparison not movies. I dont see similarities between Hollywood movies and SF books. Way too different no matter how many books they adapt.

Speaking the other books it sound promising and i have ordered it.

If you like that kind of SF you have to read Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. I had read PKD and Do Androids dreams days before it and saw the similarities . The world is of AC is bleak,dark too.

 

[elvet]

Almost through Gordath Wood by Patrice Sarath.

Something strange is happening in Gordath Wood, the old woods surrounding a training stable called Hunter’s Chase. The police think Lynn Romano and Kate Mossland have been murdered, but what actually occurred is much stranger. They’ve gone through a hole between worlds, into a medieval society at war. In a world that doesn’t ordinarily have use for women, the danger is great—good thing Lynn and Kate aren’t your ordinary women.

It sounds a bit cheesy, but so far it's more mystery than romance.

 

[GOLLUM]

That sounds really interesting.

It's excellent, highly recommended. I'm only surprised Mr Ravenus didn't get to it sooner...

 

[ravenus]

Blame that on the hard-to-get-ness of interesting Fantasy in India. Thank goodness I got my CA Smith MW book when I did, or now I would have to go scouring through blood-drenched charnel houses

 

[GOLLUM]

Blame that on the hard-to-get-ness of interesting Fantasy in India. Thank goodness I got my CA Smith MW book when I did, or now I would have to go scouring through blood-drenched charnel houses

Too true....

So it really is hard to find decent fantasy in India. Hmm.. I didn't know that, hopefully forums like this one help in keeping you abreast of the good stuff.

Cheers...

 

[GOLLUM]

OK back on track I'm currently revisiting Gene Wolfe's excellent short story collection Storeys From The Old Hotel. I never got around to reading all the stories so I'm making up for lost time.

Next up will be Jeff and Ann Vandemeer's Steampunk anthology. Looking forward to this one.

 

[Hypnos164]

Finished Steven Brust's Sethra Lavode - which wraps up the Paarfi histories for now

Also finished Rob Thurman's Madhouse - 3rd of the Cal Leandros series of engaging urban fantasy

Tanya Huff's Long Hot Summoning next

All part of an effort to actually finish/get up to date with some of the dozens of series that i have in progress atm.

 

[Razorback]

I finally finished The Martians, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s a collection of short stories from his Mars trilogy, and a few miscellaneous poems from when he wrote the trilogy. I loved the Mars trilogy, but this one didn’t do much for me. I’m not much of a short story reader anyway. It had a few good moments, but I found it rather dull for the most part. It took forever for me to finish. I only rate this a 4 out of 10. I expect I would have appreciated it a bit more if I had read the Mars books more recently.

 

[Nesacat]

Finished over the weekend the following Clark Ashton Smith books...

Other Dimensions - Volume 1
Other Dimensions - Volume 2
Tales of Science & Sorcery

All very good even if I have been not sleeping as a result of promising to stop after the next tale, and the next, and the next

Am now taking a break from Ashton Smith and reading Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling, translated by John Minford

 

[Talysia]

Following up Feist's Magician with Silverthorn.

 

[Nikitta]

I'm now done with The God Delusion and have started in on Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis. It's the kind of book that I normally can't stand, but trying to tell myself to put it down is no use.

Internal dialogue:
- "Put down that book! You don't *like* that kind of thing!"
- "Just a few more pages and I will! Promise!"

 

[murphy]

I'm now done with The God Delusion and have started in on Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis. It's the kind of book that I normally can't stand, but trying to tell myself to put it down is no use.

Internal dialogue:
- "Put down that book! You don't *like* that kind of thing!"
- "Just a few more pages and I will! Promise!"

You mean you lie to yourself?

 

[ravenus]

I'm now done with The God Delusion

I am now 2/3rds through this book. It's one of the most rousing and engrossing non-fiction works I've read and although I have a lot more skeptical attitude towards whether atheism will ever count as a significant force among people, it just makes me angry to think that religion can in the real world make people do sometimes such outright inhuman deeds. I tend to drift towards his viewpoint that we would be overall a better world without religions, at least the ones that encourage public displays of faith.

 

[Harpo]

Just started Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep - I like it so far.
I also have a pile of non-fiction waiting to be read.

 

[Nikitta]

You mean you lie to yourself?

Are you trying to tell me that you've managed to convince yourself that you never lie to yourself, or is it just me you're trying to convince?

 

[Nikitta]

I am now 2/3rds through this book. It's one of the most rousing and engrossing non-fiction works I've read and although I have a lot more skeptical attitude towards whether atheism will ever count as a significant force among people, it just makes me angry to think that religion can in the real world make people do sometimes such outright inhuman deeds. I tend to drift towards his viewpoint that we would be overall a better world without religions, at least the ones that encourage public displays of faith.

Yeah; religion has done a lot of damage. Let's not start discussing that here, though. Have you read any other of his books? I really enjoyed both The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker as good popular science, explaining the theory of evolution in a very, very good and detailed way without it going over my head. I also have Unweaving the Rainbow waiting to be read, but I like to alternate between fiction and non-fiction.

 

[D_Davis]

I've got The God Delusion on my "to read" shelf, looking forward to it.

I am going to read it in tandem with Allister McGrath's Dawkins' God as part of my ongoing theological study. But first I need to read McGrath's The Twilight of Atheism and then Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh. My theology/spirituality pile of books to read is getting big, and it takes me awhile to get through them.

The only one I've ever read quickly because I couldn't put it down was Father Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain which is an incredibly autobiography of a truly great man.

I recently started Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which does a mind-blowing job at reaffirming my beliefs that good and wonderful things can come from religion and a life full of positive spiritual faith.

 

[Hypnos164]

Finished - Long Hot Summoning (Tanya Huff) - lighthearted fluff and last in series, probably best as the jokes were showing a few thin patches. TH's other stuff is better IMO

Started - Permenance - Karl Schroeder - Had it on the to be read pile for ages and was in the mood for some regular SF after a line of fantasy and urban fantasies. Seems interesting enough so far

 

[ravenus]

@Nikkita: Yea, I've read both of those, and The Selfish Gene is one of my all-time fav NF books. While the original ideas may have been developed elsewhere Dawkins has done a tremendous job of expressing them in a manner accessible to a non-technical person.