March's Marvellous Meanderings In Melodious Manuscripts.

[J-Sun]

Oh, forgot to say what I was reading. My streak of really excellent SF ended with some pretty mediocre (at best) SF. I read van Vogt's Linn sequence of The Empire of the Atom and The Wizard of Linn. This is fairly sedate van Vogt with an odd milieu, a not very likeable or even interesting protagonist, and doesn't do anything van Vogt hadn't done before (or Leiber or Heinlein or Campbell or Asimov - and done much better). Pseudo-Roman Empire c.10,000 AD with swords and spaceships where science is treated as a religion and the mutant superhero *spoilers, technically, though not really* saves humanity from the aliens (gasp!) *end spoilers*. I'd recommend most other 40s-50s van Vogt and Leiber's Gather Darkness, Heinlein's Sixth Column, Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, and even Anderson's The High Crusade over these but they're not awful, if you're bent on reading everything van Vogt wrote in his first phase.

Now reading Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars, which I thought was the only Heinlein juvenile I hadn't read. I thought I'd started reading this before, gotten distracted, and never finished it, but I sure remember everything I've (re)read so far.

 

[neuroticdog]

I took a short detour from H.P. Lovecraft and read "Teatro Grottesco" by Thomas Ligotti. I shouldn't really say detour as Ligotti, in a way, carries the modern day muse of the old man from Providence. The theme of mechanistic materialism...mankind being nothing but a shell, a bag of bones, a vessel of wet, slimey organs with no purpose other than to serve the body they are residing in is explored vividly in his stories. (Lovecraft, being an atheist had a similar disregard for anything resembling a soul, or a god that is centered around man.) Ligotti is often (when you can find his books, they are horrendously scarce nowadays, with "Teatro Grottesco" being the only one that is currently in print)filed under Horror, and, that would be quite accurate as this was some of the most disturbing, psychologically distressing and philosophically nilhist writing I've ever read.

Stylistically, he reads quite fluidly. I'm never taken out of the story by awkward descriptions or unnecessary plot developments. Each story can be fairly easily read, and frankly should be, in one sitting and they flow right along effortlessly. His descriptions and settings are most often of the desolate, rundown ghost town variety and the souless, nameless office workspace which fit right into his theme of...humans are nothing but bodies. No soul, no personality, no sense of self, no imagination, no artistic ability whatsoever...all these thing are a, as Ligotti puts it, a circus sideshow, a swindle, a conspiracy against the human race. There is a shadow, a darkness, that serves the body, and once it's used up...well, thats all folks.

I've found that his stories are best taken in small doses. Careful reading is definitely in order, and leaving time for rumination and reflection after each piece felt necessary to even begin to get a jist of just what Ligotti is trying to say. It was during these downtimes for me, that the real horror manifested itself. There is very little, if anything that is uplifting here. So, if you are looking for a different kind of horror, one that is all encompassing and worse that the worst nightmare you could possibly imagine, seek this guy out. I'll be trying to source more of his books, but I now plan to go back to my third, and final volume of HPL fiction, the Penguin edition of "The Thing on the Doorstep and other Weird Stories"...which actually will be quite light compared to this stuff.

best
Michael

 

[Hober Mallow]

Yeah, I'd agree with that. I don't know how much Heinlein you've read but I actually wouldn't be in any hurry to read the Lazarus Long stuff, except in the initial context of the Future History stories. Long ends up sort of taking over Heinlein's later career but wasn't so significant at first. But that's just me. Some people love or hate it all and some people are 40s-60s Heinleinians (hi) and some are 60s-80s Heinleinians.

Have read Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Revolt in 2100. I am interested in reading: Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love, Friday, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and The Puppet Masters.

 

[dask]

One of Sol Cohen's reprint mags from the 70s, not generally regarded as the best the field has to offer but I had no problem with any of it. The best of the bunch is probably the Schachner. To be honest I wasn't expecting something this dark, nihilistic, and if I may be allowed one more, vile. Polished and powerful, the story left me gasping emotionally. I eventually recovered.

 

[blacknorth]

Just finished L.P Hartley's Facial Justice. Really very interesting. Much better than Brave New World, not so good as 1984 (in case you're wondering Facial Justice is also a genre blow-in by a well-regarded non-genre author).

Darling Dictator...

 

[Fried Egg]

neuroticdog

I took a short detour from H.P. Lovecraft and read "Teatro Grottesco" by Thomas Ligotti. I shouldn't really say detour as Ligotti, in a way, carries the modern day muse of the old man from Providence. The theme of mechanistic materialism...mankind being nothing but a shell, a bag of bones, a vessel of wet, slimey organs with no purpose other than to serve the body they are residing in is explored vividly in his stories. (Lovecraft, being an atheist had a similar disregard for anything resembling a soul, or a god that is centered around man.) Ligotti is often (when you can find his books, they are horrendously scarce nowadays, with "Teatro Grottesco" being the only one that is currently in print)filed under Horror, and, that would be quite accurate as this was some of the most disturbing, psychologically distressing and philosophically nilhist writing I've ever read.

Your description of Ligotti is spot on. That is a great book. In case your interested (and I assume you are), there is another short collection still in print: "My work is not yet done". This contains a novella (from which the collection takes it's name) plus two other short stories. I can recommend it.

I am taking an unplanned break from "Beauty" b Sherri S. Tepper (which I left at work over the weekend) and have started on "Conflicts", an anthology of SF stories put together by Ian Whates.

 

[digs]

I just finished Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns (brilliant) and I'm now reading The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (the 2nd book in that series - good compulsive reads, but I can't say their crazy success is justified). Looking forward to getting back into fantasy with Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged.

 

[Connavar]

I finished reading Live and Let Die the second James Bond novel which i thought was strong character wise and fun story.

Bond is more down to earth and more hardcore than the movie versions. I liked how he thinks/talks about what he dislikes like american food,cars etc

Ian Fleming has a smoot,modern prose that is very good for his kind of story. It makes Bond look more smooth,cool with his language,prose style.

 

[Hypnos164]

Having a lazy weekend of book reading - pure luxury - so far:
Mr Monster by Dan Wells
The Green Eagle Score by Richard Stark
I Don't Want to Kill you by Dan Wells

and just started

The Restoration Game by Ken Macleod

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Finished Stone's Fall which was good in parts, but partly disappointing. The last third, set in late-19th century Venice, kept reminding me of Henry James's treatment of this setting and era in The Aspern Papers and Pears' attempts suffered considerably in the comparison. The final twist also annoyed me - all those viewpoints and particularly the vast swatches of turgid musings in that fatal final act - all for a twist worthy of a short story, but ridiculously over-set-up in a novel of this girth. I think Pears tried very hard to repeat elements of the Fingerpost formula, an attempt which might have been avoided. I thought the earlier novel was worthy but a little dull, mostly notable for giving him the chance to broaden his range with really interesting and ambitious novels like The Portrait and The Dream Of Scipio, so an attempt to emulate it didn't really win me over.

 

[cornelius]

Toll the Hounds by Erikson. My reading rate dropped dramatically. I have about 6 hours of public transportation planned on wednesday, should be able to fit in a couple of pages

 

[Rodders]

I just finished Neal Asher's "The Skinner", which i thought was superb. I'm starting Brass Man, also by Neal Asher. If i can get the other two Spatterjay books (The Voyage of Sable Keech and Orbus), i'll read these instead.

 

[IainRichmond]

Just opened Alastair Reynolds, 'House of Suns.'

I also have, more for curiosity than anything else, "Auf Zwei Planeten (Two Planets)", by Kurd Lasswitz (1897) on the way.

 

[elvet]

I'm reading Look to Winward by Iain M. Banks.

 

[soulsinging]

I'm now reading The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (the 2nd book in that series - good compulsive reads, but I can't say their crazy success is justified).

Kinda the reaction I had. They were relatively entertaining thrillers in a Wilkie Collins sort of way, but I do not understand how they've exploded like they have.

I'm reading All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy on my brother's recommendation. He's a hit and miss author for me. It's also a ridiculously terrible title for such a regarded book, hehe.

 

[Connavar]

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by HP Lovecraft

Reading my third,fourth stories of him ever and trying to see if his writing,stories is to my taste and good enough horror.

 

[AE35Unit]

Having finished (and enjoyed) Aldiss's Greybeard (please see my review on here) I found another post-apo book to read from that era.
The Wind from Nowhere by J.G Ballard(1962), his debut novel. Anyone read it?

 

[GOLLUM]

The Wind from Nowhere by J.G Ballard(1962), his debut novel. Anyone read it?

No but it's interesting to note that Ballard apparently viewed this debut work as a bit of hackwork much preferring his later story Drowned World. I've read and quite enjoyed Drowned World and am interested to read your comments on this earlier work.

 

[Fried Egg]

The Wind from Nowhere by J.G Ballard(1962), his debut novel. Anyone read it?

It's the most recent Ballard novel I've read. See my review on Goodreads here if you're interested.

I thought it was quite good but not the best of his early apocalyptic novels. Note, I say apocalyptic and not post-apocalyptic as this is very much about how the disaster unfolds and not about the aftermath.

 

[AE35Unit]

It's the most recent Ballard novel I've read. See my review on Goodreads here if you're interested.

I thought it was quite good but not the best of his early apocalyptic novels. Note, I say apocalyptic and not post-apocalyptic as this is very much about how the disaster unfolds and not about the aftermath.

FE I sent you a PM about the ending of Greybeard as i didnt want to post spoilers.