March's Marvellous Missals, Mammoth Manuals and Miniscule Monographs

[GOLLUM]

Reading:
- 'Australia's Best Stories 2009' edited by Delia Falconer

Is this straight literary fiction or Genre specific? I ask because you may like to post something about this on the Aussie Fiction thread once you've finished reading the anthology...

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Sorry it's actually called 'The Best Australian Stories 2009' and it's straight literary fiction.

 

[GOLLUM]

Either way, if you could post something once you're done I would appreciate it. That thread covers both Genre (SFF/Horror) and non-Genre fiction.

 

[Talysia]

Still going through my Feist reread. Next is The King's Buccaneer.

 

[Connavar]

I'm reading A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton, a small town crime book. Like the setting of northern parts of US,border to Canada on the east side.

An award winning book that im trying not there are many crime readers here who know writers like him.

 

[Diggler]

I'm reading Plague by Jonathon Black. I needed a break, and wanted to read something fast and frivolous before getting stuck in my Aussie Sci-Fi book (which I am enjoying).

This is just pulp trash about a Bubonic Plague outbreak in New York during the 70's. Surprisingly, it is quite enjoyable.

 

[ktabic]

Stephan Baxter's Ark. A book with short chapters, which I kinda find annoying. Parts of the book, mainly those involving politics, are pretty predictable. But it moves along at a fairly brisk pace, and is an easy, enjoyable read.

Now on to The City & The City.

 

[ktabic]

And a mere nine hours later China Miéville's The City & The City is done. And wow! That was great. Was impressed how easily it was to believe in a city like that.

Next up, Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

 

[Hypnos164]

And a mere nine hours later China Miéville's The City & The City is done. And wow! That was great. Was impressed how easily it was to believe in a city like that.

Next up, Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

Nice going - The City & The City is a great read ... I found that it was one of those books whose idea's and themes you can't quite leave alone for months after reading it, especially if you spend a lot of time in Cities.

Be interested in your thoughts on Yellow Blue Tibia - its on my TBR list.

Finished Imaro by Charles R. Saunders which is somewhat hampered by its uneven nature as a novel "stitched together" from several separately published short stories and novellas. The better parts have such a distinct feel with relation to place, culture and "mythic narrative" that I really do want to read more of Imaro's legend.

Next up Trade of Queens by Charles Stross long awaited conclusion to the Merchant Princes.

 

[Nesacat]

Am reading an odd little book called Living With The Dead by Darrell Schweitzer. Itś about a place called Old Corpsenberg where ships come to the harbour in the dead of night to deliver a cargo of the dead. The townspeople take the dead home and give them a place. The dead never decay. They have been doing this forever. The town is crowded with the dead and there is hardly any way for the living to live comfortably.

 

[Fried Egg]

Just finished Arther C Clarke's "The City and the Stars" which I found somewhat disappointing. Some fascinating ideas and concepts but felt rushed and virtually no narrative tension.

 

[Talysia]

The Feist reread continues (although I'm flagging a bit now) with Shadow of a Dark Queen.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Wanderers & Islanders, Steve Cockayne

 

[j d worthington]

Am reading an odd little book called Living With The Dead by Darrell Schweitzer. Itś about a place called Old Corpsenberg where ships come to the harbour in the dead of night to deliver a cargo of the dead. The townspeople take the dead home and give them a place. The dead never decay. They have been doing this forever. The town is crowded with the dead and there is hardly any way for the living to live comfortably.

I'd like to hear more about this one, Cat; I've read very little of Schweitzer's fiction (though I have read some of his nonfiction), and what I have come across is intriguing and well done... so let me know what you think of this one when you're done...

 

[Connavar]

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carrè

I see why Le Carrè is so highly rated. I'm enjoying the writing and the lead character also the real spy world of Cold War era.

 

[Lobolover]

Concerning "Living With The Dead" , the premise.....is kind of hard to somehow acept as something that could make sense .

 

[jojajihisc]

I finished Summer of the Apocalypse by James Van Pelt and I would say it is worth reading for any fans of that storyline. I'm now reading The Peace War by Vernor Vinge who I haven't read anything by except for A Fire Upon the Deep.

 

[Diggler]

Finished PLAGUE (yes that's how it was spelt). With a name like PLAGUE, and boasting an outbreak of bubonic plague in New York as "devastating", I was kind of expecting some truly biblical proportions here. Unluckily this was not to be the case.

Written in 1975, by some no-name writer (that subsequently went nowhere), the book started out quite well. A man, on a plane coming back from New Mexico, brings along his newly acquired stuffed Prairie Dog? Turns out the animal was a carrier of the bubonic plague, which in turn this man becomes a carrier. The story then follows a group of separate people who have come in direct contact with him, or others that have been near him. It also follows a hack news reporter, who is trying to track down "Patient Zero" and also the sit-in health commisioner. Overall, only some 8 or 9 people actually die from plague in the novel, which is far from the epic numbers I was expecting.

The book is essentially a B-Grade 70's novel, that plays out like a B-Grade 70's movie. I shouldn't complain too much, the pace was quick, the story was relatively enjoyable and it was an extremely easy read. I also loved the full gloss cigarette adverts half-way through the book too

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Either way, if you could post something once you're done I would appreciate it. That thread covers both Genre (SFF/Horror) and non-Genre fiction.

Will do.

Also, I like the sound of your book Diggler!

 

[Nesacat]

JD ... I am almost done with the book and it's been a fine read thus far. I'd bought it at the last Eastercon. It's one of a small print run so it's numbered and signed. Quite lovely in itself as a book. I would like to read more of him certainly. the basic premise of the book is as I have said and each chapter is from a single person's point of view. They each tell their own story about the state of affairs but each story also adds a little to the big picture. It's like making a chain link by link. I think it's well written and flows well enough to draw a reader in.

Lobo ... I don't think it has to make sense per se. It does not have to be the undecaying dead necessarily. It could be anything that we are not really comfortable or happy with but which we keep doing because it's part of an established order and we know no other. We understand that there might be other happier options but no one is brave enough to break the established, known order, however unhappy they are or however poor their quality of life may be.