How can it be July already? What we're reading this month...

[j d worthington]

J.D.- I am unsure that I would enjoy his work overall as much . I remember this one story which some people could find.....positively disgusting -

I'm not certain, from the above, but -- are you talking about Maupassant? Yes, I don't think most of his work would appeal to you, being more of the "realist" school (though a great deal of it is pungently cynical in its view of humanity and especially human hypocrisy). I haven't run across anything of the sort you mention above, though some are less tasteful than others.

Still, he is definitely a master of the shorter forms, and well worthy of study by anyone who wishes to learn good writing techniques....

 

[ratsy]

I finished Silverthorn by Feist and am going to move on to Darkness at Sethanon by Feist

 

[AE35Unit]

Sounds good, I'll add that to my ever growing list! I already have Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ubik in my pile.

Don't forget Flow My Tears the Policeman Said ,one of the best reads this year for me!

 

[Lobolover]

I'm not certain, from the above, but -- are you talking about Maupassant? Yes, I don't think most of his work would appeal to you, being more of the "realist" school (though a great deal of it is pungently cynical in its view of humanity and especially human hypocrisy). I haven't run across anything of the sort you mention above, though some are less tasteful than others.

Still, he is definitely a master of the shorter forms, and well worthy of study by anyone who wishes to learn good writing techniques....

I once read a story from him which has a workman feed on a woman's breast milk during a train ride .

 

[dask]

Now reading 3 TO THE HIGHEST POWER edited by William F. Nolan. Three novelettes: "The Lost City Of Mars" by Ray Bradbury; "One Foot And The Grave" by Theodore Sturgeon; "The Marginal Man" by Chad Oliver. The Bradbury, "a new Martian Chronicle", is more creepy than I would have expected.

 

[AE35Unit]

Dask,is that Martian Chronicle story a new piece by Bradbury?

 

[Pyar]

Finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. It was interesting, very good prose. But seriously I felt like I was on acid or something the whole time lol! I could never tell what was reality and what was hallucination in the book. And Dick left the story open ended too just like in The Man in the High Castle, I hope he doesn't do that every time.

 

[Fried Egg]

Finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. It was interesting, very good prose. But seriously I felt like I was on acid or something the whole time lol! I could never tell what was reality and what was hallucination in the book. And Dick left the story open ended too just like in The Man in the High Castle, I hope he doesn't do that every time.

That one's on my re-read list because it's just so difficult to take in first time. I say that anyone who thinks they understood it on first reading probably didn't read it properly!

 

[Connavar]

I read slowly when its writers like PKD. I didnt get everything but what "being" they were dealing with,the end. Of course it was wierd even by PKD standards.


Anyway I have started reading Northwest of Earth by C.L Moore.

It was a hard choice choosing that book over my other new books by authors like
Vance,Dunsany,Hammett,Jack Williamson but it was a new author and a short story collection which is better to read when i work as a summer temp.

I cant read a book once every few days.

 

[AE35Unit]

I think if you have to read a book twice to understand whats going on then
1 the book is taking the enjoyment out of reading and
2 the author has failed in his job! Of course in PKD's case he was probably too stoned to care!

 

[Ursa major]

The other day I finished Hammerfall by C.J.Cherryh.

First line of Chapter One (not counting a quotation - of almost a page - from "The Book of the the Landing"): Distance deceived the eye in the Lakht, that wide, red land of the First Descended, where legend said the ships had come down.

I have to say that I did not really enjoy this book. Without giving too much away, I found the repetitive nature of the story rather irksome; it would not have been so bad if there wasn't repetition within repetition. First the endless journeying; then the endless scribing - with phrases along the lines of "The au'it solemnly wrote her account...." occuring about a thousand times too often - and then the interminable bleating of the main character's inner voice "Marak, Marak, Marak!" or "East, east, east!"

And while it interesting to see someone with little or no knowledge of anything remotely modern trying to describe futuristic technologies, it has severe limitations, which is perhaps why the reader is led to believe that there are plot holes through which a drunken anaconda could steer a rudderless oil tanker using only a broken joystick. (I'm still not sure whether the main plot of the book makes any sense at all.)

(And the proofreading of the edition I read - hardback - left something to be desired.)

I think I will try something more mainstream when I next read this author.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I finished The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan. I thought it was actually pretty good. I did start to notice all the hair pulling, and some of the interactions between the characters still bother me once in awhile, but overall I liked it.

Now I'm reading The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory.

 

[Ursa major]

I wonder how many people have that exact problem? I know Chopper and I both did, at least. It worked for me. I still don't know that RS is the greatest ever, but - after reading GN and picking up RS again - I made it through and liked it enough to carry on. It picks up a little around p.160-180. I still like GN much more, though.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I found the early chapters of Revelation Space (the novel) hard work. Added to this is the unsympathetic nature of one of the main characters; why he is like this is explained (much) later on. I'm just glad I persisted with the book.

I can't imagine why Reynolds's publisher put RS out first rather than Chasm City; unless it was the "lure of the trilogy".

 

[murphy]

Thanks to Leigh Butler's reread column over on Tor.com, I'm doing a complete reread of The Wheel of Time. Now on book 9, Winter's Heart and still enjoying the story. The girls make me laugh, braid pulling, skirt smoothing and all.

 

[dask]

Dask,is that Martian Chronicle story a new piece by Bradbury?

Not really. The back of the book called it "new" but it was initially published in Playboy in 1967 and Nolan picked it up a year later for the first edition of 3 TO THE HIGHEST POWER (my copy is a 1970 2nd printing). It's been around a while. A "post" Martian Chronicle would be more accurate.

I think if you have to read a book twice to understand whats going on then
1 the book is taking the enjoyment out of reading and
2 the author has failed in his job! Of course in PKD's case he was probably too stoned to care!

I've never re-read a book to understand what's going on but I've re-read sections when I realized things aren't making sense. I suspect it's the way authors try not to spoon feed their audience in the manner non-fiction authors need to. Zelazny is especially aggravating. I can read parts of a chapter several times and still not know what he's talking about. Then when I read the next chapter everything falls into place. Raymond Z. Gallun, who predates Zelazny by a couple decades, has the same nasty habit.

 

[Pyan]

Time's up!

Please leave in an orderly fashion, and make your way over to the new, improved, August-themed thread at the top of the forum!

We hope you have enjoyed July, and look forward to seeing you, same time, same place, in 2010...