April’s Audacious Attempts at Assailing Avenues of Literary Adventure.

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Finished Sheepfarmers Daughter by Elizabeth Moon - the first Paksenarrion novel. It has a nice feeling of authenticity to the soldiering (EM was a marine...) which saves it from some generic plotting and world building. I'll read the next one.

Probably not going to be able to resist picking up Kraken by China Mieville next..
 
Im reading two books at once since both are pretty short novels.

The Green Eagle Score by Richard Stark and Doc Savage: "Land of Always Night" and "Mad Mesa" by Kenneth Robeson.
 
Hi all, first post. Currently reading Jack Vance's The Green Pearl. It is Book 2 of the Lyonesse Trilogy.
 
Daisy-Boo said:
I'm currently re-reading Dan Simmons' Hyperion. I first read it years ago and wasn't particularly impressed at the time. I found it to be sterile and plodding.

What a difference a few years' perspective makes. I'm enjoying the book now. The characters are complex and intriguing and the plot makes for engrossing reading. Ill definitely buy more of Simmons' books.
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Strange how books can work like that. I wasn't very impressed by Dune when I read it last summer, but despite the fact that I've been selling a lot of my books to make moving easier, I still have my copy of Dune. While I get rid of every book I doubt I'll re-read, I hang onto that one because even though I didn't really care for it, I can't shake the feeling that it might deserve another chance...

And welcome to the party wondermutt! Careful, this place can be hard on your wallet when you start stumbling across dozens of intriguing recommendations.
 
kauldron26 said:
Hyperion is incredible. Bar none my favorite piece of fiction. And it only gets better... Rise of Endymion not only ties everything together and supersedes the greatness of Hyperion, but it will break your heart many times over.
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High praise indeed. :)

I just finished reading the part where Sol Weintraub tells his story. Oh my goodness, that was a sad story.
 
Wondermutt said:
Hi all, first post. Currently reading Jack Vance's The Green Pearl. It is Book 2 of the Lyonesse Trilogy.
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Welcome to the forums wondermutt, we can never have too many Vance fans around :)

Is it your first read of Vance series/book or are you a seasoned Jack Vance fan ?
 
Wondermutt said:
Exactly. Now i have TOO many recommendations, I don't know where to start. :)
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He He...you better get used to it here....;)

Welcome also to our neck of the woods.

You may wish to introduce yourself over at the Introductions section.

Cheers....:)
 
Taltos said:
As predicted, when there are new books ... old ones will be postponed - started with Charlie Huston Already Dead - which at first glance seems to have a lot of similarities with first Dresden book.
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Hmm, I can't say I agree with that.

Huston's and Butcher's writing styles are very different. The Joe Pitt Casebooks are darker in tone, written in a noir style (or "pulp", as Huston prefers to call it). Butcher injects a lighter humour into his writing. Dresden has a small but loyal support network and is more likely to co-operate with others because he has some kind of bond with them. Joe Pitt operates alone and apart from Evie, doesn't express much positive feelings for anyone.
 
Connavar said:
Welcome to the forums wondermutt, we can never have too many Vance fans around :)

Is it your first read of Vance series/book or are you a seasoned Jack Vance fan ?
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Thanks. I have read a couple of Vance's works like Tales of Dying Earth and The Demon Princes. I have, but not read, Araminta Station.

Going to read A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy next.
 
Daisy-Boo said:
Hmm, I can't say I agree with that.

Huston's and Butcher's writing styles are very different. The Joe Pitt Casebooks are darker in tone, written in a noir style (or "pulp", as Huston prefers to call it). Butcher injects a lighter humour into his writing. Dresden has a small but loyal support network and is more likely to co-operate with others because he has some kind of bond with them. Joe Pitt operates alone and apart from Evie, doesn't express much positive feelings for anyone.
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I had the same thought. I can see how at the very beginning you might compare the two, but Pitt and Dresden definitely have very different styles. Dresden is more an action-adventure type hero... battling lots of monsters with his pyrotechnics. Pitt is very much a hard-boiled detective type.

I FINALLY finished Waylander by David Gemmel. It's only the second book I've finished this year... this job is killing me! Anyway, don't want to blame the book for that, because it was every bit as good as the other Gemmell novels I've read. I love his style and approach to the genre... for instance, the journey he takes in about 50 pages would take 400 in most other authors' hands, which gives Gemmell a pacing that is essentially unmatched in fantasy today.

Now I'm on to some non-fiction... today I'll start Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. It's the book the film was based on and it's an account of a disastrous US military action in Somalia in the 90s. The movie was infinitely better than I'd have thought (and I hate war movies), so I'm curious to get the book experience.
 
Joe Pitt is more original in urban fantasy,vampire horror. Dresden is the more standard urban fantasy hero,series. Huston,Pitt are darker,more hardboiled.

Its refereshing reading someone who isnt a hero like Pitt in UF series.
 
i'm not that well at the moment so havent been reading the Le Guin book fior a while now-the next chapter is a long un and I just cant be bothered at the mo!
 
Finished Fables, and I'm now moving on to Jim Butcher's Cursor's Fury, book three of the Codex Alera series. Hopefully the library will have the books I've missed in stock when I go there next.
 
I finished The Fate Of The Malous by Georges Simenon this morning. Stark and powerful, like all of Simenon's novels (if you've only read his Maigret stories, excellent as those are, you must read his other novels, or romans durs post-haste! NYRB Classics reprints a couple as does No Exit press).
 
I finished Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny the other day.

I think I'll reserve judgement until I read more from the five books in the omnibus, Chronicles of Amber.
 
Good grief what is it with Le Guin? Its like listening to Yoda speak! I mean,take this example of bad writing:

"Huge over black forest and river Orion stood."

Surely it would be better to put it this way:

Orion stood huge over river and black forest.

So far both her early books are like this,not easy reading at all,quite annoying in fact,especially when you have an unshiftable headache!
 
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