December's Delights in Reading

[elvet]

I started Gene Wolfe's the Knight/Wizard books. His style was a bit of a shock - I was expecting a more traditional fantasy epic - but I'm growing to like it. I can't wait to get back to the story tonight.

 

[GOLLUM]

I started Gene Wolfe's the Knight/Wizard books. His style was a bit of a shock - I was expecting a more traditional fantasy epic - but I'm growing to like it. I can't wait to get back to the story tonight.

His stories are anything but traditional with their multi-layered meanings. You'll find you need to read his work more than once to fully appreciate/understand it.

 

[ratsy]

finished mistborn and have moved on to The Well of Ascension by Sanderson

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I found my copy of Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson and so I'm right back into that (giving Weis & Hickman and Lieber a rest).

 

[Tansy]

I'm finding Lieber slow going but interesting

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Are you reading Lieber's Lankhmar with the white cover, Tansy?

 

[Connavar]

I'm finding Lieber slow going but interesting

Which story of Lieber ?

If it is his classic S&S hang tough. His style takes time to get use to if you havent read many classic Sword and Sorcery.

If you dont dislike S&S/Heroic Fantasy you will like it.

 

[Lioness]

Currently reading a book my dance partner got me for Christmas - Dracula. I could go check which version but It'll take too long...I'm feeling lazy.
So far it's pretty good, some very nice descriptions at points.

 

[Kettricken]

Finished 'On Stranger Tides', which was a great adventure novel, with pirates, voodoo, etc. Tim Powers knows how to tell stories!

Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity' wasn't really the right book at the right time. Really liked other books by him (How to be good, About a boy, The long way down,...), somehow this one didn't 'click'. Will try it another time, though.

I'm going to continue in Robin Hobb's 'Renegade's Magic' and Brent Weeks' 'Way of the Shadows'.

 

[HoopyFrood]

The Subtle Knife down, onto The Amber Spyglass.

 

[GOLLUM]

Finished 'On Stranger Tides', which was a great adventure novel, with pirates, voodoo, etc. Tim Powers knows how to tell stories!

Good, may be getting that one for Christmas so thanks for the vote of confidence....

 

[Pyan]

Just finished Victory of Eagles, by Naomi Novik..now onto The Science of Middle-earth, by Henry Gee.

 

[GOLLUM]

Just finished Victory of Eagles, by Naomi Novik...

Getting that early in the New Year. How does it stack up against her earlier books in the series?

 

[Talysia]

Just picked up Terry Pratchett's Nation.

 

[Connavar]

The Killings of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen.

The second Jack Taylor book and the only fault of the book is that you get so wholly absorbed that you finish the 300 odd pages of the regular crime book length in less than a day. That truly sucks.

 

[Nikitta]

I just started in on Blindsight by Peter Watts, but find myself unable to get into it - too much technical information and seemingly random hopping in time and space and hardly any dialogue so far, but I'm less than 50 pages in and the idea behind the story seems good enough. I will try for a few more pages and see if it gets better - if not, I'll give it to a second hand shop or something.

 

[Tillane]

*Tosses Locke Lamora to one side*

Right, bored with that. Just started Nick Cave's And The Ass Saw The Angel.

 

[j d worthington]

Been reading mostly critical work this week, but have managed a few short stories as well. Most are rereads of Lovecraft, etc., but two others are "Fungus Isle", by Phillip A. Fisher and "The Intarsia Box", by Henry S. Whitehead.

The latter, while not yet moving into the fantastic realms of his later work, nonetheless shares much of their atmosphere, and is in several ways the original version of a tale which he would rewrite twice more, the final version being "Seven Turns of a Hangman's Rope", one of his best. This one has a somewhat trite "message" to deliver, but the tale is very well, even elegantly if quietly, told, and well worth reading for anyone who enjoys Whitehead's work.

"Fungus Isle" might be called the pulp version of "The Voice in the Night", though it's questionable if Fisher ever had a chance to read Hodgson's tale, as most of his work was already rather obscure by the point Fisher's own was published (I have no idea when it was written). If he didn't, it bears an uncanny resemblance not only in theme, or even incident, but often in general handling of incident and the emotions he attempts (not always successfully) to evoke. Though not a bad tale, it is very much the pulp rather than the literary tradition evident here, in that things are bluntly stated rather than carefully developed, and this results in much less complexity as well as power in the emotional impact. For example, at one point we are given figures who have already suffered the fate the island offers, with the design that they are both horrific and to be pitied... yet it doesn't quite come off; whereas in Hodgson's tale (which is much shorter), the plight of the narrator and his lady do strongly evoke these emotions, by touches both very simple and very human.... Certainly worth reading for the person who enjoys good pulp tales, and it does have some merit of its own as well; but it would never have held a high position in the history of the weird tale even had it not been for its notable predecessor....

 

[Connavar]

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

 

[Pyan]

Getting that early in the New Year. How does it stack up against her earlier books in the series?

Good development of themes already in place, Gollum, and some nice use of real figures from the era. Thought it sagged a wee bit in the middle, but recovered to a rousing, if maybe just a little hasty, end.
Recommended.