November Reading! Share your thoughts...

[Rothgar]

Finished reading The Gathering Storm. Also The Glory Road by Heinlein, which actually turned out to be my least favorite by him.

Now I'm working on Fantasy Masterworks- The Second Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber. It includes The Swords of Lankhmar, Swords and Ice Magic, and The Knight and Knave of Swords.

 

[Taltos]

Finished Scalzi The Ghost Brigades - it was too interesting to put down - I think the notions comparing him with Heinlein are about right - at least in the military SF portion. Really liked the humour in the book acknowledgment section
Now back to Feist and Shards - if a Feist book takes over a month to read - it says something about it - or about my changing tastes - not sure which version is right

 

[gully_foyle]

Finished my reread of Excession by Iain M Banks. It is a very dense book, there is a lot going on. And the ship names add to the chaos, I never knew who was a part of which conspiracy. Still, a great book by a great author.

Back to Cities in Flight by James Blish, up to book two.

 

[Connavar]

That's an odd one, in that it actually works (in its own odd way) as a horror tale as well. There are hints that the Big Man is something more (or less) than a living human there, and an atmosphere of otherworldly forces that Bond comes into contact with, now and again. And then there's that rather nasty bit with Felix Leiter.....

So far i like what I'm seeing with the hole voodoo,Mr. Big.

It is as you say a little different book compared to the first.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

How interesting. I've tended to dismiss the whole Bond franchise, including Fleming's original novels because I dislike the character. I have read a couple of the novels though - ages ago. Perhaps I should give them another shot.

Currently halfway through THE IMAGO SEQUENCE, a rather brilliant collection of horror short stories by Laird Barron.

 

[GOLLUM]

Well I completed Knut Hamsun's 1890 classic novel Hunger. An interesting read that can, I think, be interpreted on several different levels. Overall I found the prose to be almost wistful with an unattainable tinge of sorrow coupled with a feeling of deeper profundity. The central character (a recently unemployed writer) is certainly aware that he is starving but it is something he can actually have control over. The fact he deliberately does not due to a somewhat inflexible moral viewpoint, indicates an experimental perhaps even destructive element to his nature that is perhaps in each of us. Maybe that's why the critics labeled it as one of the most disturbing novels ever written. I also like the way the actions of the character, who is never named, at the end of the novel are not properly explained but rather left up to the reader to make their own mind up about regarding the greater mystery of life's journey. An enjoyable read but I'm not sure I could call it an out and out masterpiece. Certainly worth checking out. I'll give it 4 stars out of 5.

EDIT: A couple of other things I meant to point out.
1) Make sure you get the Lyngstad translation. Earlier translations were not particularity accurate and also left out some of the more salacious (for the time) scenes. Paul Auster also provides a very good introduction.
2) Comparisons may also be made to Kafka's short story A Hunger Artist, so if you like Kafka you may well enjoy Hamsun's interpretation.

Now on to a revisit of Vandermeer's marvelous Shriek: An Afterword before commencing to the next part of the Amebrgis Cycle in Mr. Finch.

 

[ratsy]

I finally finished Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks, the last book in the Night Angel Trilogy. It was a great series IMO.

I am now reading Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley, the second in the Godless World Trilogy.

Also, I am reading Grave Peril by Jim Butcher and With a Single Spell by Lawrence Wyatt-Evans.

I actually set down Bloodheir in search for something lighter and picked up The Kings Bucaneer by Feist

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Hunger sounds like a must-read, GOLLUM.

I'm about halfway through The Imago Sequence and nary a clunker yet. Also reading Joe Hill's Twentieth Century Ghosts, a short story collection. So far, it's a lot better than his debut novel, Heart Shaped Box - as a matter of fact it's rather excellent, with a nice Bradburyesque streak of tenderness to balance out the more horrific pieces, although one or two stories didn't work that well for me.

I'm also reading a couple of other things, as usual.

 

[Pyan]

Half-way through The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie - and on the strength of it, bought Before They Are Hanged this morning...

 

[woodsman]

Teehee. I read this on Saturday and have been champing at the proverbial bit, at my failure to buy the others...

 

[Pyan]

Hope you find it easier than I did to locate a copy, Woody - both my local bookshops had loads of TBI and Last Argument of Kings, (part three of the trilogy) - but not a single copy of BTAH to be had closer than ten miles away. Still, who needs to eat during lunchbreak?...

 

[kyektulu]

Based on Weaves recommendations, im waiting for 'Let the Right one in' and 'handling the undead'... not my usual genre but im open.

Currently reading some Dragonlance books, revisiting old favorites and some new ones too like Anvil of Time saga.

 

[woodsman]

Hope you find it easier than I did to locate a copy, Woody - both my local bookshops had loads of TBI and Last Argument of Kings, (part three of the trilogy) - but not a single copy of BTAH to be had closer than ten miles away. Still, who needs to eat during lunchbreak?...

I admire your commitment to the cause, not sure I could forego a lunch break in such fashion. I am off to shops tomorrow so hopefully all will be well...

Mr Abercrombie is a fairly talented chap when all's said and done.

 

[Tillane]

Hope you find it easier than I did to locate a copy, Woody - both my local bookshops had loads of TBI and Last Argument of Kings, (part three of the trilogy) - but not a single copy of BTAH to be had closer than ten miles away. Still, who needs to eat during lunchbreak?...

Same here, Py. Had to ask the guys at Newcastle's Waterstone's to order it in specially. Took them a fortnight, by which point I was wishing I'd just bought it online...

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

When I had a dayjob, I used to take a book with me to lunch and read while eating. I usually ate at a Subway restaurant and even now my memories of several of the books I read at the time are redolent with the tang of sweet mustard sauce, gherkins, and olives...

 

[GOLLUM]

Hunger sounds like a must-read, GOLLUM.

...Also reading Joe Hill's Twentieth Century Ghosts, a short story collection. So far, it's a lot better than his debut novel, Heart Shaped Box - as a matter of fact it's rather excellent, with a nice Bradburyesque streak of tenderness to balance out the more horrific pieces, although one or two stories didn't work that well for me.

It had better be...Heart-Shaped Box was the biggest piece of #$$%^###$# I've read in many a long day... I still won't go near that pretender until I run out of current stuff, which means a veeeery loooong time.

Hunger on the other hand, well....

 

[GOLLUM]

Half-way through The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie - and on the strength of it, bought Before They Are Hanged this morning...

HMMM...now that I've got that particular bug bear out of the system....I don't think you will regret your decision Pyan. An exccellent debut series by Mr. Abercrombie.

 

[GOLLUM]

Only 1/4 way through Vandermeer's Shriek: An Afterword and it's shaping up very nicely.

Attention folks, this guy can really write!

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

HEART SHAPED BOX had its moments, but was mostly run of the mill mainstream horror. I was pleasantly surprised by his short fiction.

 

[GOLLUM]

Yes so I gather, thanks for the PM.

I may in fairness give Mr. Hill a second chance but I won't be rushing out to get his short story collection. After all, J.V. Jones started with a bit of an average effort IMO in her Word trilogy but hit the high points in the subsequent stand-alone novel and more particularly her current Sword Of Shadows series.

Perhaps Mr. Hill will become a better short story writer than novelist...it will be interesting to see.