February's Fantastic Folios and Fascinating Fables

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I have started Quarry in the Middle by Max Allan Collins.

Nice read, Quarry is as twisted,fun as usual.

I dont know how reading from first POV of a ruthless contract killer who doesnt feel anything about killing can be fun read. Its also very dark,violent.

My kind of noir. The first book was a great Hard Case Crime book.
 
Fried Egg said:
Well, maybe I will give it a try (Feist/Wurts collaboration) sometime...
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Well, if I may echo Pyan's comments to a degree, I had read everything by Feist up to about 5 years ago. I found the best 2 works by Feist to be the original novel Magician and the Daughter Of the Empire collaboration with Janny. I wouldn't say this collaboration rises well clear of your standard fantasy fare but I did find to be a better than average read. Most of Feist's work I found a bit too formulaic and eventually pedestrian for my liking. Feist is quite good at the particular style he has adopted and he's been very successful at it; it simply doesn't appeal to me anymore in the way it once did 10-15 years ago.

Wait's for Feist vanguard led by the fearless pixie one to reign down fireballs...:rolleyes:
 
Finished World War Z by Max Brooks which was suprisingly good, although by the end the "interview" format was starting to get a bit tiresome (only starting, mind - i think the overall length was well judged).

Also The Man With The Getaway Face by Richard Stark - great, gripping, ecconomical prose. Made me late for work as I just couldn't put it down in time to get enough sleep :)

Taking a look at K. J. Parker's The Company next
 
GOLLUM said:
Well, if I may echo Pyan's comments to a degree, I had read everything by Feist up to about 5 years ago. I found the best 2 works by Feist to be the original novel Magician and the Daughter Of the Empire collaboration with Janny. I wouldn't say this collaboration rises well clear of your standard fantasy fare but I did find to be a better than average read. Most of Feist's work I found a bit too formulaic and eventually pedestrian for my liking. Feist is quite good at the particular style he has adopted and he's been very successful at it; it simply doesn't appeal to me anymore in the way it once did 10-15 years ago.

Wait's for Feist vanguard led by the fearless pixie one to reign down fireballs...:rolleyes:
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Very much agree with Gollum on this - except to add that I thought Faerie Tale was pretty good too.
 
I finished reading A Face In The Dark And Other Hauntings by Ruskin Bond. Largely traditional ghost stories, drawing on the British ghost story genre and Indian folklore (although one may perhaps be at a stretch, interpreted on Lovecraftian lines), they range from the sort of yarns my old Anglo-Indian geography teacher and scout master used to tell us to a couple of surprisingly nasty tales of supernatural come-uppance meted out to representatives of a brash, new India that I'm about as wary of as Bond seems to be. Apart from a couple of tales with a surprisingly vicious bite and macabre streak, the fare is divided between some humorous tales, some heartbreaking ones, and a few fairly average pieces in between, but every story has at least one vivid image in it and seems designed to be read aloud. Bond is economical with his words, writes from the heart, and is especially good at capturing atmosphere, whether it's the atmosphere of a ruined old bungalow, a crowded, raucous bar or most of all the forests and rivers of the hills he loves. I used to take Bond rather for granted - he's such an institution in the Indian literary scene - but this volume reminds me what a great, humane storyteller he is.
 
Venturing into uncharted territory here with Kelly Mccullough's MythOS. Odd, by intriguing.

If you like fantasy and sci-fi mixed...then this is the mixed bag of completely nuts for you...maybe...:D

L8tr
 
I FINALLY finished Steig Larson's 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.' That's not necessarily a reflection on the author so much as a reflection on the fact that my new job has kind of wiped me out (and I kind of got hooked on a game or two through my playstation 3... I've not owned a video game system in years but I wanted the bluray!). It was alright, though a bit overlong and nowhere near deserving of the hype it's gotten imho.

Now I'm trying to decide between Gates of Fire and Waylander next. Both come highly recommended. I got a few chapters into the former a while back so I feel obligated to finish, but the latter really sounds more appealing right now.
 
Finished Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, which I liked quite a bit. Even at the onset, this was a series that stood out from the usual 'cozy mysteries' of its era for its wit, intelligence and sense of consequence. It's fascinating how the characters have grown over the series, and how Sayers' own growing mastery of the detective novel is paralleled in Vane's thoughts on her writing and by the plots of the stories as well as the character development.

Now reading, as far as I can tell. Tales Of Hoffmann and a collection of short stories by John Buchan called The Strange Adventures Of Mr. Andrew Hawthorn & Other Stories, both Penguin Classics which should comfort Mr. GOLLUM!
 
Yes, I've seen that John Buchan collection in the shops for a while now. I was tempted to pick it up. I look forward to reading your thoughts on this one.
 
j. d. worthington said:
Finished Macdonald's The Moving Target -- the man's prose is quite amazing at times, and the novel holds up well on rereading. Have now moved on to Before Adam, by Jack London; a book which may have influenced HPL with "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", and almost certainly influenced REH with his James Allison tales (and possibly a little something here and there with his Hyborian tales as well....)
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I thought The Moving Target was great when i read it. You made me remember i havent read book 2,book 3 despite i have them at home.

I'm reading The Drowning Pool, i was surprised by his prose.
Ross M was my first classic PI writer and maybe post Hammett i see easier the different quality prose.

I like Lew Archer better than Marlowe for example. He feels more real,likeable guy and less of a poseur.
 
Started off on The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. One of the problems with stories that were originally written as serials is that there seems to be a noticeable stretching out of scenes just so they last an episode. I guess they made more money for the author that way.
One of the reasons I'm reading this is, it was suggested as a necessary stepping stone for the best experience of Dan Simmons' Drood.

Apart from that I have been reading an omnibus of Frankenstein stories (Stephen Jones).
 
Didn't really need to whole "library book time limit" to make me read American Psycho because I couldn't put it down. Very graphic but...compelling reading, I found.

Now reading Flowers for Algernon for the umpteenth time. Just because.
 
HoopyFrood said:
Now reading Flowers for Algernon for the umpteenth time. Just because.
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You must know it word-for-word by now, I'd have thought...:)

Just started The Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko.
 
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