December's here! And you're reading....?

[Perpetual Man]

Am now reading The Hammer of Darkness by L E Modesitt jr.

 

[purple_kathryn]

Orions Hounds, which is a star trek: titan novel

 

[thepaladin]

Trying to find a place and get moved, my own library is largely packed so I'm clearing out my public library list...a lot are books that I saw rceommended here or on Good Reads.

Currently I'm reading:
Sword Edged Blonde - Alex Bledsoe
Mystic and Rider - Sharon Shinn
Hit Man -Lawrence Block

 

[Pyan]

Re-reading Memory, by Lois McM. Bujold...

 

[HoopyFrood]

At the moment I'm reading The First Psychic, by Peter Lamont, a book about a Scottish guy called Daniel Dunglas Home -- hardly known now, but one of the most famous people in the world during his time due to his paranormal displays. It's part of my own research about the Fox Sisters, some other people rather well known (and had a very interesting story) during their time.

 

[Rodders]

I've just finished Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Inferno by Troy Denning. I found it very unbelievable and was pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing. Shame.

Now on Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Revelation by Karen Traviss.

 

[AE35Unit]

Now going to read a book that's been on my shelf for years! 3 for Tomorrow, edited by Arthur C. Clarke. It contains 3 alternative versions of a technological disaster some time in the future. The 3 novellas are How it was When the Past Went Away by Robert Silverberg, The Eve of RUMOKO by Roger Zelazny and We All Die Naked by James Blish.
The Zelazny piece will be my first story by that author!

 

[Fried Egg]

Now going to read a book that's been on my shelf for years! 3 for Tomorrow, edited by Arthur C. Clarke. It contains 3 alternative versions of a technological disaster some time in the future. The 3 novellas are How it was When the Past Went Away by Robert Silverberg, The Eve of RUMOKO by Roger Zelazny and We All Die Naked by James Blish.
The Zelazny piece will be my first story by that author!

Sounds like a good collection, all good authors.

 

[AE35Unit]

Sounds like a good collection, all good authors.

Yes and Clarke's Foreword,written in 1970, is quite prophetic:
'When will some Lee Harvey Oswald assasinate a city,or a world?'
We came close to that in September 2001!

 

[CyBeR]

I've started the first book of the 'Amber' series by Roger Zelazny.
'Nine princes in Amber' is quite underwhelming from what I've read so far and it's getting harder and harder for me to keep pressing on with the book. The character is annoying me to no ends and the amnesia part of the book simply can't stir my interest in any way. I find it to be a much too simple device for explaining to us the things that happen and how they happen. It's a bit insulting actually.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've started the first book of the 'Amber' series by Roger Zelazny.
'Nine princes in Amber' is quite underwhelming from what I've read so far and it's getting harder and harder for me to keep pressing on with the book. The character is annoying me to no ends and the amnesia part of the book simply can't stir my interest in any way. I find it to be a much too simple device for explaining to us the things that happen and how they happen. It's a bit insulting actually.

Wow, if you found the opening to this book underwhelming then you'd better just throw the book down right now and not bother with the rest of the series.

I thought the way this book began was a stroke of genius and an excellent way of drawing the reader into the story and introducing a complex set of characters. I was absolutely hooked from the first page. The reader is in the dark as much as the protagonist and you discover what's going on through his eyes, as he discovers them, really helping you to empaphise with him.

I suppose it is all the rage these days to drop you right in at the deep end and let the reader sink or swim whilst they try to get to grips with a whole host of unfamiliar characters, places and concepts. Whilst this approach might be deemed less insulting to the reader's intelligence, it is definitely far less enjoyable in my opinion.

 

[Hypnos164]

Hardly read anything or posted for a while; I would curse the annoying amounts of work involved - but in the current times it seems rather ungrateful...

Anyway - reading Stamping Butterflies by Jon Courtenay Grimwood which so far is 3-4 seperate (in both time and space) threads with only hints of how they are going inter-relate.

 

[CyBeR]

Wow, if you found the opening to this book underwhelming then you'd better just throw the book down right now and not bother with the rest of the series.

I thought the way this book began was a stroke of genius and an excellent way of drawing the reader into the story and introducing a complex set of characters. I was absolutely hooked from the first page. The reader is in the dark as much as the protagonist and you discover what's going on through his eyes, as he discovers them, really helping you to empaphise with him.

I suppose it is all the rage these days to drop you right in at the deep end and let the reader sink or swim whilst they try to get to grips with a whole host of unfamiliar characters, places and concepts. Whilst this approach might be deemed less insulting to the reader's intelligence, it is definitely far less enjoyable in my opinion.

I believe the main stave in my enjoyment of 'Amber' is less the approach of how the character comes around and mostly the character. I dislike him so much it's painful and it's something about the way he presents his bouts with his brothers and sisters...something irks me about it and I can't place my finger on it.

What I've mostly been reading lately has been less modern literature and more...classic, let's name it. I enjoy the thrill of people discovering everything around them, bit by bit, in any way conceivable, same as the Savage in Huxley's 'Brave new world' and I empathize with that sense of newness, of being lost in unfamiliar land...but 'Amber'...'Amber' irks me for some reason or another. As stupid as it may sound, I think what gets to me most of all and what I'm hoping will eventually iron itself out are the annoying sequences that play out along the lines of:
"I answered him without knowing what he meant but trying to keep my cool, so as to not reveal that I was unaware of the meaning".
I like how Zelazny writes his action bits and his descriptive bits, but when his dialogue leads to this I feel like throwing away the book. Herbert and Card can do...I don't think he can. I press on with hope though...

 

[Fried Egg]

CyBeR

Well, good luck with the rest of it if you persevere. But to be honest, if Corwin annoys you that much, I'll be suprised if your opinion is turned around.

 

[Diggler]

Finished Dr Bloodmoney. I personally loved it and rate it up with PKD's best (so far). The only thing was that I despised most of the characters. Self-centered, bigoted and greedy. Though hey, that's human nature

Just started The Heavenly Host by Isaac Asimov. It's a small children's book that my wife collected from the School Library that she works at. Only 50 pages long, so I'll have that read today... Then I have the task of digging through my collection for something else to read.

 

[j d worthington]

After more than a week of virtually not having time to read anything, I'm finally able to get back to finishing off Pugmire's Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts (one more story to go). While the collection as a whole is quite impressive (even though several of the stories are revisions of pieces I read in an earlier collection, Tales of Sesqua Valley), I think the crown jewel of the book may well be "The Zanies of Sorrow", a piece which is almost the essence of his ability to blend horror, the weird, strangeness, sadness, genuine pathos, ethereal beauty, and a sharp poignancy into an almost undefinable mixture which reaches enviable heights. This man is good! And when I have my breath taken away by the beauty of a phrase -- especially when such a phrase turns out to have much to do with the denouement of the tale -- then I feel I have had a rare gift from that writer. Such a phrase as this: "The sad music, like some lonely mother's lullaby sung for a child irretrievably lost, cradled me to sleep". And when the structure of the tale is almost perfect, the tone very carefully modulated, and the final line manages to convey pain, loss, grief, compassion, wonder, and terror, bringing everything in the tale to a culmination (as the best final lines so often do -- I think, for instance, of the final line for A. E. Van Vogt's The Weapon Shops of Isher), I cannot help but feel I am seeing a major, if quiet and unobtrusive, talent here....

(Incidentally, though I noted that several of the tales in this collection are revisions of earlier tales, I must say that both versions I have read have their points, so I do not at all feel the "repetition" is a bad thing, as I have enjoyed each; I do, however, think that he improves the tales with his revisions, as they sho his growth as a writer and his increasing sureness of technique and growing mastery of his craft.)

 

[woodsman]

Finished Dr Bloodmoney. I personally loved it and rate it up with PKD's best (so far). The only thing was that I despised most of the characters. Self-centered, bigoted and greedy. Though hey, that's human nature

A lot of PKD's characters are like this, I've found. I find it brings realism to his work. I've met hardly any people who aren't selfish etc. on some level.

 

[Omphalos]

Got tired of reading a bunch of Lem Ive been powering through lately, so I picked up the Worlds of Frank Herbert.

My wife also told me that she was clueless as to what to get me for Christmas. Ive been after her for three years now to get me Westfahl's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. To make the road she must travel easier, I just ordered it for her and had it shipped to her, to give to me. Ain't I just great?

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

After more than a week of virtually not having time to read anything, I'm finally able to get back to finishing off Pugmire's Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts (one more story to go). While the collection as a whole is quite impressive (even though several of the stories are revisions of pieces I read in an earlier collection, Tales of Sesqua Valley), I think the crown jewel of the book may well be "The Zanies of Sorrow", a piece which is almost the essence of his ability to blend horror, the weird, strangeness, sadness, genuine pathos, ethereal beauty, and a sharp poignancy into an almost undefinable mixture which reaches enviable heights. This man is good! And when I have my breath taken away by the beauty of a phrase -- especially when such a phrase turns out to have much to do with the denouement of the tale -- then I feel I have had a rare gift from that writer. Such a phrase as this: "The sad music, like some lonely mother's lullaby sung for a child irretrievably lost, cradled me to sleep". And when the structure of the tale is almost perfect, the tone very carefully modulated, and the final line manages to convey pain, loss, grief, compassion, wonder, and terror, bringing everything in the tale to a culmination (as the best final lines so often do -- I think, for instance, of the final line for A. E. Van Vogt's The Weapon Shops of Isher), I cannot help but feel I am seeing a major, if quiet and unobtrusive, talent here....

(Incidentally, though I noted that several of the tales in this collection are revisions of earlier tales, I must say that both versions I have read have their points, so I do not at all feel the "repetition" is a bad thing, as I have enjoyed each; I do, however, think that he improves the tales with his revisions, as they sho his growth as a writer and his increasing sureness of technique and growing mastery of his craft.)

'The Zanies Of Sorrow', in an earlier revision, was possibly my favourite piece in Sesqua Valley And Other Haunts. You've rightly praised the ending of this story in particular. Let me also draw attention to the character of the writer-narrator as shown in the opening passages, his quest for solitude, his growing fascination for his strange, lovely neighbour - these were also depicted with a glowing vividness that forged an instant bond of empathy with this reader. I also loved the weird little sequence when the old sorcerer joins his strange conjure-figures in their bizarre dance. Pugmire's stories are chock-full of little set pieces like this, and I hope the time does not come when he feels he can dispense with them.

The story also appealed to me because the title is a quotation from Wilde's De Profundis, and aspects of the tale may be seen as a tribute to Wilde (note the yellow-bound book the old man is seen to be reading). (On a tangential note, imagine an edition of Pugmire's works illustrated by Beardsley - something we shall sadly never see).

I have not yet ordered the new Sesqua Valley collection, but I eagerly await my copy of The Fungal Stain And Other Dreams and have started reading Despair by Vladimir Nabokov.

 

[Diggler]

A lot of PKD's characters are like this, I've found. I find it brings realism to his work. I've met hardly any people who aren't selfish etc. on some level.

True. PKD does seem to bring out the worst in people, especially his leads. Most of his characters, in his earlier books, grated on me because they came across as misogynistic.The minor characters, in Dr Bloodmoney, were the ones who were decent people. It was the main characters (and there were a few) that were seriously flawed individuals.