The All-New Singing and Dancing October Reading Thread!

[GOLLUM]

Just completed reading Noble Laureate Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle. A story set in 17th Century Constantinople about a young Italian scholar kept in custody by an apparent doppleganger. A well written tale about identity and self. Pamuk is said to write in the same vein as Borges and Nabokov and I can see the similarities. Along with Yeshar Kamal probably Turkey's best know author. Recommended.

 

[Montero]

The Fade by Chris Wooding - just finished it. The local library had a stock swap and I've got Feast of Souls by Celia Friedman and A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans on the "try it out" pile.

Well, started on the Chris Evans and not in the right mood for it - could do with something a bit homey, or cheery. Only up to page 24 but after the start where it implies the world is in danger of destruction I fancied something lighter. So thought I'd try Feast of Souls, come back to the Chris Evans another day. But the opening line in Feast of Souls is "Imnea knew when she awoke that Death was waiting for her". Not that one then. In my very quick dash through the library I picked up two other books. Stephen Baxter's Ark - and now I look again the cover says "6 billion will die, hundreds will live, Who are the lucky ones?" Right. Not cheery. Last one left - the Long Journey Home, Buzz Aldrin. All about NASA I thought. Well, yes, but the latter part is all about how he eventually beat alcoholism so the cover blurb says.

Now onto trawling the shelves for a re-read I think.

All books I will read another day, not knocking them, just amazed by the consistency of my choices.

 

[The Ace]

At the bookshop at 9am, bought and started Unseen Academicals, by Sir Terry...

Me too.

 

[Mary Hoffman]

Am reading The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco and have just finished Aravind Adiga's Between the Assassinations, which was a bit disappointing.

Also reading my own The Falconer's Knot in French, which is called "Rouge Crime"!

 

[nj1]

Finished LYONESE by JACK VANCE this week and although it started really slowly, it did pick up, in parts it was excellant, but the ending was a bit mediocre for me. 3 out of 5!

I'm about to start THE DRAGON WAITING by JOHN M. FORD, one of the fantasy masterworks series i picked up some time ago.

 

[Hypnos164]

Quite enjoyed Whole Wide World by Paul McAuley - will have to look up some of his newer work.

Currently starting The Painted (Warded) Man by Peter Brett which seems competent so far.

 

[Quokka]

Just Finished Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said which I think is edging out Ubik as my favourite PK Dick so far, I've still got A Scanner Darkly and Martian Time-Slip on the shelf but I feel like something a little more straight forward first so next up it's Arthur C Clarke's A Fall of Moondust.

 

[Fried Egg]

Finished LYONESE by JACK VANCE this week and although it started really slowly, it did pick up, in parts it was excellant, but the ending was a bit mediocre for me. 3 out of 5!

Can I ask, what didn't you like about the ending?

 

[j d worthington]

I finally had a chance to finish The Invisible Eye. Overall, I think the best of their work had been in the earlier anthology and collection I'd read, but there were still some very good things here, as well as some minor but interesting work. There is one where the attribution is frankly speculative, and I don't tend to agree with the judgment that it is theirs -- too many differences from what I've come to recognize as their style as well other things which simply don't "feel" like their hand(s) at work.

The other thing which troubles me is Hugh Lamb's "editing" (or abridgement/bowdlerization) of a couple of the tales: "The Man-Wolf" and "The Wild Huntsman". Now, I've not read the last before, so can't judge how much it was marred by this (and I use the term advisedly), but the former was, in my opinion, much more than "slightly" edited; it was changed in some very fundamental ways which completely altered the thrust of much of the tale, robbed it of some of its best atmospheric touches, and sliced out the heart of its philosophical ruminations, which often formed a very important part of presenting the world of these people and bringing the characters themselves to life. (There is also one excision which I am pretty damn' sure was for "politically correct" purposes, and I despise that sort of thing. If you're going to present older material, do NOT alter it to fit our current "pc" attitudes; present it warts and all, or you are distorting the manner in which people thought about these things at the time and therefore, in my opinion, damaging the very thing you are attempting to support: tolerance and sensitivity on these issues. Without an accurate representation of the art of the period involved -- whatever that may be -- you are falsifying the record, and that adds to this unbelievable state of amnesia we seem to be suffering from on these topics, doing nothing but laying a foundation for even further schisms rather than understanding of the issues and the need for change. Forgive the rant, but this is one of those things that really gets up my nose... badly! And, to my view, it is a practice which is beneath a person of Lamb's otherwise undoubted talents as an editor.)

However, despite my complaints, it is a very good selection of their works, and this is a writing team who should be remembered much more than they are today.

I have now moved on to Maurice Level's Tales of Mystery and Horror and, while I think there is a dash of hyperbole in the introductory material concerning Level's talents, the work itself decidedly shows his keen eye and insight into human affairs, even if some of the tales themselves are a bit contrived. (On which point, he -- like John Collier -- manages to pull such things off with considerable panache; he is very capable of making one "suspend disbelief" enough to accept his sometimes outlandish or melodramatic premise; not a small or worthless ability, by any means.) I also didn't realize the man had written so many tales -- according to the introductory material, by 1920 (he died in 1926) he had already written 700 stories....

 

[UltraCulture]

Finished Orphans of the Sky by Heinlein over the weekend, I get the impression he was given a hurry up message from someone as it all ended rather abruptly.

Now on to A Canticle for Leibowitz.

 

[nj1]

Can I ask, what didn't you like about the ending?

Its not that it was bad, the start of the story was really slow for me and i almost gave up. Then the tales about Dhrun and Aillas really improved the book, especially Dhrun's. I didn't know what would happen next, plenty of little twists and turns.
I don't want to give too much away but the end for me was too neat if you get my meaning, it all came together a bit to clean.
I know its an old-school fantasy and i know theres more to come, I may even be a bit too harsh, but didn't inspire me to read on with the series.

 

[Taltos]

Finished Stross Iron Sunrise - and I want more from him, and from this serie, but there isn't. Oh well.
Now started Ward Moore Bring the Jubilee - another book, where I feel that my knowledge about particular country and it's history is lacking to understand all that has been written. About 1/3 through the book, and so far it reads more like alternative history textbook - than a novel. Still it's interesting enough to continue.

 

[BookStop]

*Rubbing hands together in anticipation* I have a new book to add to the mix of the zillion I'm reading at the moment (may give that up thugh and go straight back to one book at a time)

I just got Christmas on Ganymede and Other Stories

I know it's a little early to begin holiday reading, but I've wanted the book for a long time and I'm reading it now!

 

[Lobolover]

I have now moved on to Maurice Level's Tales of Mystery and Horror and, while I think there is a dash of hyperbole in the introductory material concerning Level's talents, the work itself decidedly shows his keen eye and insight into human affairs, even if some of the tales themselves are a bit contrived. (On which point, he -- like John Collier -- manages to pull such things off with considerable panache; he is very capable of making one "suspend disbelief" enough to accept his sometimes outlandish or melodramatic premise; not a small or worthless ability, by any means.) I also didn't realize the man had written so many tales -- according to the introductory material, by 1920 (he died in 1926) he had already written 700 stories....

I'm almost through with that (chose to read it because you said you would) . Have just 5 stories remaining (normaly that would mean a good chunk of the book, but this one has 26, and apears to be no huge tome at that) . So far the only story where I found he was unecessarily going a litle to far was "For Nothing"

Spoiler

The part where the character takes out his own key and it just "happens" to be an exact match of that of his illegitimate fathers' mansion just like that was realy stretching it . There are ways to handle this, say that he would have been left nothing but a key by his mother and it was in truth the key he gave to her as his mistress before she died etc. or mention just taking it from the lobby convulsively while visiting him for the first time, or simply, seeing the man seemed to be very excited as it was, have him simply leave the front door open, that seems a lot more likely then these two keys just being identical .

 

[Lobolover]

Am trying to edit that post and it's fine while loading but then the whole text area goes grey and blank, though stil being able to be written into . Can someone explain that ?

And how come it doesn't happen with this post ?

 

[Lobolover]

Extremely sorry for the tripple post but it just started happening even on the preceding post . There was a case when I replied to J.D.'s message's and it forwarded only his own message and none of the text I wrote underneath . So I am extremely puzzled/annoyed by this randomness .

 

[Rosemary]

Am trying to edit that post and it's fine while loading but then the whole text area goes grey and blank, though stil being able to be written into . Can someone explain that ?

And how come it doesn't happen with this post ?

Mine was doing that a while back, going grey and then the whole of the Chronicles and even my bookmarks disappearing. I think I was advised to 'clear cache'.

 

[Lobolover]

Now only to know how to do that .

 

[Clansman]

Reading Chris Evans' Iron Elves right now. Pretty enjoyable so far. Just got an ARC from TOR for a new author, John Brown, called Servant of a Dark God. Looks interesting.

 

[j d worthington]

Lobo: Someone more knowledgeable will have to give you pointers on that, as I've only done so once, and for the life of me can't recall how to do it.

As for my statement about them being "contrived"... I was meaning more in the sense of the general situation, which often feels quite strained as far as credibility. However, he manages to make it convincing emotionally, in the main, so it is something of a minor complaint.

However, the instance you record does seem an unwarranted bit of coincidence (I've not read the story myself yet, so not sure), and fits very well the "stretching" aspect.

Did you note the (at least borderline) supernatural or weird aspects of "In the Light of the Red Lamp" and "The Test"? Each could easily be entirely naturalistic, but there is a hint that something else is going on there, especially with the latter, which (for me, at any rate), delivered a genuine chill. The other tales sometimes offer a chill, though of a different kind, as with "Extenuating Circumstances" -- that final line adding such a bitter irony to what had gone before.

Quick reads, these tales, and I'd recommend them to anyone who likes a short, sharp "sting" sort of story with a rather grim, even bitter, tone....