It can't be July, already? Can it? Oh well, let's hear what you're reading!

[Fried Egg]

I've always maintained Veniss is Vandermeer's real masterpiece, as good as City of Saints and Madmen is....

I'm hoping that "Shriek" is going to be good; soon to be the first novel of his I will have tried...

 

[AE35Unit]

Finshed the Vance novel and started reading Dr.Bloodmoney by Philip K Dick. I have heard its a PKD masterpiece and i hope its true because i need a great PKD and not a weak one right now.

Have you not read Flow My Tears the Policeman Said? One of the best reads of 2009 for me.

 

[Fried Egg]

Have you not read Flow My Tears the Policeman Said? One of the best reads of 2009 for me.

Indeed he has but I am yet to read it myself.

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm hoping that "Shriek" is going to be good; soon to be the first novel of his I will have tried...

UM....I did a review on this but can't seem to find it now. GRRRR....

Anyway, it wasn't bad but City of Saints of Madmen is the best of what may be loosely called a trilogy of novels featuring the fabulous city of Ambergis.

It's a shame you didn't get City first as it does help if you read them in chronological order. City first, Shriek second and Finch third, although the second and third novels are more closely linked by a central character.

The reason I suggest City first is because it helps set up a lot of the backstory behind Ambergis.

City I would have rated upwards of 9 stars, Shriek probably an even 8 stars and Finch, probably the least impressive of the three novels 7.5 stars. Veniss Underground ranks 9.5 stars maybe a perfect 10 even.

I'll be interested to know your views on Shriek however, just a pity you didn't have City to read first......

 

[Fried Egg]

I'll be interested to know your views on Shriek however, just a pity you didn't have City to read first......

I'll admit that it came down to price. "City" seems to be a lot more expensive to buy (presumably because it has to be imported).

 

[GOLLUM]

I'll admit that it came down to price. "City" seems to be a lot more expensive to buy (presumably because it has to be imported).

Serious? It's available in PB and pretty cheap here, around $20 Aus.

Come to think of it, whenever I'm getting imports online (luckily not often required) I always go for US rather than UK pound as our Dollar is pretty strong against the greenback.

 

[Fried Egg]

Serious? It's available in PB and pretty cheap here, around $20 Aus.

That's what you call pretty cheap? That translates to about £11.50. I can get "City" for £9. But I got "Shriek" for £5. That's what I call pretty cheap!

 

[GOLLUM]

That's what you call pretty cheap? That translates to about £11.50. I can get "City" for £9. But I got "Shriek" for £5. That's what I call pretty cheap!

No I agree. I meant cheap in comparison with other new books often ranging from $30 upwards. Second hand books of course fetch much lower prices. I could probably get City second hand for about $5 here, which isn't too bad. I tend to buy a mix of new and second hand books myself.....

Night.

 

[Connavar]

Have you not read Flow My Tears the Policeman Said? One of the best reads of 2009 for me.

I have read that book and it was one of the best reads for me too last year. Taverner is one of my fav characters in SF. I enjoyed his story,his problems.

Dr.Bloodmoney is great too, its one of the wierdest,sickest,interesting takes on post apocalypse i have read or seen. No great main character but still a strong read.

I thought it was dated, too contemporary written in its 60s writing until the story got going.

 

[soulsinging]

Finished Retribution Falls. I enjoyed reading it and am anxious to give the next book a shot. It definitely felt a LOT like Firefly, but I love Firefly so that was ok by me. Flew by with a lot of action and a great ensemble of characters. I love that it would set up a plot point and then just be there, as opposed to the usual sci-fi fantasy style of describing in excruciatingly boring detail the entire journey from A to B for the sake of padding the work about 200 pages.

Now I'm picking up "In the Heart of the Sea." It won the National Book Award and is a non-fiction account of the sinking of a whale ship... apparently this true event was a partial inspiration for Moby Dick. I've got a few non-fiction "adventure" books lined up for this summer...

 

[AE35Unit]

Well I gave up with The Moon is Hell, sorry Mr Campbell but this one's a stinker-just so boooring-like reading someone's diary,and that someone is quite anal! Anal>Banal.
Anyhoo onto Hothouse now by Brian Aldiss,a book I read years ago and enjoyed. Lets see how I feel about it after all this time. Its science fiction but because its set so far into the future, on an Earth overtaken by plants,the Earth no longer spinning and locked to the moon by intelligent spider webs, it sounds like fantasy and got heavily criticised when originally published in 1960.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've finally gotten around to reading "Labyrinths" by Jorge Luis Borges. Will try a few stories and see how I go.

 

[Bup]

I recently finished A.E Moorat's 'Queen Victoria, Demon Hunter' as well as 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'. The first was grisly enough, the second not so much so. I do suspect Grahame-Smith made the heroine a little less cynical, though I've only read some citations of the original.

 

[AE35Unit]

I have read that book and it was one of the best reads for me too last year. Taverner is one of my fav characters in SF. I enjoyed his story,his problems.

Dr.Bloodmoney is great too, its one of the wierdest,sickest,interesting takes on post apocalypse i have read or seen. No great main character but still a strong read.

I thought it was dated, too contemporary written in its 60s writing until the story got going.

I'll have to look for some interesting and not too weird PKD on bookmooch!

 

[j d worthington]

Been concentrating on other things most of this week, but last night began a re-read of Tolkien's The Silmarillion....

 

[nomadman]

I've finally gotten around to reading "Labyrinths" by Jorge Luis Borges. Will try a few stories and see how I go.

Excellent! Please let me know what you think.

 

[jojajihisc]

Taking a brief break from the genre and reading The Beast God Forgot to Invent by Jim Harrison.

 

[citri]

I had been reading a bunch of non-sff stuff and felt like getting back to it with the malazan book of the fallen. I read gardens of the moon which was decent and then deadhouse gates which was almost a pain in the ass to finish since I had pretty much no idea what was going on, where it was all headed, etc. I lost most interest somewhere after 100-200 pages in since so much of the dialogue was kind of hard to believe and unrealistic. It also seemed a little annoying how Erikson picked some characters to be shallowly disgusting slimeballs in every single way which kind of killed the believability. I mean, it's ok for characters to be slimeballs if they're done well--they can add significantly to emotional engagement but the nobles were just disgusting in a really stupid, uninteresting way. The ending part with Aren seemed way too short, tidy, and fast. Now I'm reading Rendezvous with Rama which I started while waiting for a hold on Memories of Ice to arrive at the library. Sorry if this isn't the place for that mini-rant but I just finished it recently and felt the need to say a little about it.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I finally finished Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind which wasn't as bad as people had led me to believe, though I don't think I will read anymore Goodkind books.

Started reading Lion of Senet by Jennifer Fallon.

 

[GOLLUM]

I've finally gotten around to reading "Labyrinths" by Jorge Luis Borges. Will try a few stories and see how I go.

Excellent! Please let me know what you think.

OOOH.....Very much looking forward to FE's comments on this one. For me it's one of the great story collections of the 20th Century by the acknowledged King of Latin American literature...