December's Diabolical Deviations (what are you currently reading?)

I just bought Greg Bear's "the Forge of God." Yes, i know that i've read it before, but some recent posting has made me want to read it again. :)
 
Totally agree with you re: the attraction of the "Miles Vorkosagin" series ... it justs has more character than anything else like it.

pyan said:
Incidentally, if you buy (new) the H/B of the latest in the saga, Cryoburn, tucked away in the back is a CD-Rom containing the complete Miles Vorkosigan saga in downloadable form - not only to PC or Mac, but to Kindles, i-Pads, Reader, etc - plus reviews, interviews, bibliographies, and more - a real bargain.
Click to expand...

Oh! I never even looked at the CD ... just assumed it would be a useless gimmick ... thanks for pointing out my error there.

In other news: just started The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hacking my way through PFH's Dreaming Void, so that I can attempt Temporal Void. fairly hard going at the moment, and it shouldn't be. Hamilton needs an editor. also got Kate Elliott's Cold Magic waiting for me.
 
The High Window by Raymond Chandler is definitely a few notches below the best Marlowe novels. Still alright for a once read.
Reading Drawing of The Dark by Tim Powers now, which is like LoTR with slack removed and FUN added. I'm liking this a lot more than Powers' other novel The Anubis Gates.
 
I've finished Towers of Midnight, so I can start looking at those threads again, really enjoyed it as far as it goes.

Now about to start something that I really am not that fond of, but just can't seem to stop reading, the next Dune book by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson - Paul of Dune
 
Hypnos164 said:
Totally agree with you re: the attraction of the "Miles Vorkosagin" series ... it justs has more character than anything else like it.



Oh! I never even looked at the CD ... just assumed it would be a useless gimmick ... thanks for pointing out my error there.

In other news: just started The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Click to expand...

If you are interested I can probably post up a little glossary I put together of the Thai, Chinese and Japanese words used in that book. The lack of such a glossary annoyed my intensely (I like to understand the words I'm reading!).
 
Been reading A Feast for Crows by GRRM for the past week. Well, I can't very well stop mid-available books, can I. I'll end up forgetting stuff.
 
ravenus said:
The High Window by Raymond Chandler is definitely a few notches below the best Marlowe novels. Still alright for a once read.
Reading Drawing of The Dark by Tim Powers now, which is like LoTR with slack removed and FUN added. I'm liking this a lot more than Powers' other novel The Anubis Gates.
Click to expand...

Finnally someone who likes Drawing of the Dark more The Anubis Gates in this forum. It should be still in print in Fantasy Masterwork imo.

Its Tim Powers style almost perfected early one. Other than being fun it has his usual style of the supernatural,werid along with historical angle,secret histories.

Have you read On Stranger Tides ? Its also very fun novel of his. Much darker than Drawing of the Dark.
 
HoopyFrood said:
Been reading A Feast for Crows by GRRM for the past week. Well, I can't very well stop mid-available books, can I. I'll end up forgetting stuff.
Click to expand...

Guessing your gonna forget anyway at the rate he's going. I'm actually holding out for the HBO mini series of "A Game of Thrones" to refresh my memory.

I'm halfway though the second Titus Groan novel "Gormenghast". I'm constantly asking myself...why did you wait so long to read these books, you big dummy!!! By turns, brilliantly horrifying, utterly suspenseful, palpably claustrophobic and gut bustingly hilarious...these novels are making everything else I've read lately seem irrelevant.
 
neuroticdog said:
I'm halfway though the second Titus Groan novel "Gormenghast". I'm constantly asking myself...why did you wait so long to read these books, you big dummy!!! By turns, brilliantly horrifying, utterly suspenseful, palpably claustrophobic and gut bustingly hilarious...these novels are making everything else I've read lately seem irrelevant.
Click to expand...

It's years since I read The Titus Groan books, but I remember struggling with the first one, although at the same time really appreciating some of the characters and descriptions. It took me ages to pick up Gormenghast, but I loved every single page of it. Titus Alone, the last one, is just different.

I really should do some re-reading. :rolleyes:
 
Perpetual Man said:
Titus Alone, the last one, is just different.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a bit of a dog's dinner, Titus Alone. Peake was ill while writing it, he never got a chance to edit it and it was published posthumously after being hacked about by another editor. The later editions are better, after the full text was restored.

It wasn't meant to be the last in the series, either - MP was working on a fourth novel (and fifth part of the story, as there's a novella, Boy in Darkness, also set in the Groaniverse) to be called Titus Awakes. Unfortunately he died before even a plot outline was completed, and he left only three paragraphs and some scattered notes.
 
Yes, "Boy in Darkness" is a strange one in itself, but it shows Peake in wonderful form nonetheless, I think. I must admit that I love the Titus books, and Titus Alone, for all its faults, has much that is superb about it. Even if only for the creation of Muzzlehatch, that book had to be written!

ND: While my own reading at the moment (Poe's Eureka) hasn't had quite the same effect in specifics, it most certainly has in the "why on earth did you wait so long"? department. Challenging, most definitely. Abstruse and difficult at times. But also frequently beautiful, bordering on the sublime... and Poe's vision here is amazing! It is also quite something to see passages where he almost seems to have had intimations of some of the more radical ideas of 20th century astrophysics and cosmology. In fact, when it comes to his discussion of the radiation of the matter of the universe from an original, undifferentiated "Particle", and his handling of the idea of whether or not there even is such a thing as a central point from which the matter in the universe has been expanding (yep, Poe is talking here of an expanding universe)... these passages sound at times eerily similar to discussions on this sort of thing I see even today....
 
Finished HAWKWOOD and the KINGS which I thought was OK, parts I enjoyed but again the author doesn't make me want to go out and buy more of his work, for me it felt like the second book was mostly padding and dampened the enjoyment of the first book. Only time will tell if I return to this series but doubts are high at present.

Now reading STONEWEILDER the next installment of the excellent Malazan series. Already hooked into this one and had to fight myself to put it down to go to bed last night.
 
This month:

The Horror Horn by EF Benson.

Viking Dublin Exposed (non-fiction book about Dublin Corporation's destruction of the old Viking City so they could knock up some brutalist office blocks - shameful episode in Irish history).

Thrills, Crimes & Mysteries - short story anthology from the 1930s, with tales by Arthur Machen, MP Shiel, Frederick Carter and many others.

Hopefully that'll see me through to the New Year. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
GOLLUM December's Daring Descent into Dynamically Divergent Documents Book Discussion 99
GOLLUM December's Delirious Descent into Dittological Dissections of Documents Book Discussion 96
GOLLUM December's Deliciously Delirifacient Dabblings Into Fictional Diversions Book Discussion 135
H December's Photo Challenge Technology 59
Pyan December's here! And you're reading....? Book Discussion 241

Similar threads


Back
Top