May's Marvellously Mysterious Manuscript Meanderings

[purple_kathryn]

Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

 

[blackcat99]

Just finished Cat's Cradle, short but some very good points now reading Woken Furies by Richard Morgan

 

[Lord Soth]

OK well I finished Hyperion, which I thought was a bit 'meh' - so much in fact that that I doubt I'll bother with the rest of the series.

After that I devoured Abnett's Embedded in a few nights - fast paced, with action and corporate intrigue, good fun. Yes be prepared to draw parallels with Avatar a little, but recommended.

I'm thinking next on the pile will be His Majesty's Dragon by Novak, the blurb sounds interesting (i'm a sucker for dragons and British stuff, so how can this go wrong?)

 

[biodroid]

I am currently getting through The Green Mile - SK and then I must decide what to go for next. Maybe finish The First Law Trilogy finally.

 

[Vertigo]

Just finished Charles Stross' Accelerando. Somewhat mixed feelings about this one. I found the start terrible, I nearly gave up; just coudn't get into his future slang. But then it got good... I mean really good; I was staggered by his vision of runaway technology/intelligence. Fantastic! But then it just sorted of dwindled away for the last half or third of the book. Really quite disappointing in the end. That said if you are into hard SF it is worth a read just for all the ideas he has in it.

I've now moved onto a re-read of the first four of Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity books. I have the fourth but I've not read it yet and the fifth is just out. And I'm really enjoying it; I've said it before but I'm still surprised I don't see more mention of these on the chrons.

Incidenally these are the last paper books I bought and read before switching to eBooks and it feels really strange going back to them. I keep wanting to double click the page to look a word up And Nesacat's lovely bookmark is getting a rare opportunity to read a new book

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Some recent reads:

Now Wait For Last Year by Philip K Dick. Typically mind-bending stuff, and tackles some interesting ethical issues as well.

The Getaway by Jim Thompson. Gritty, nihilistic tale of thoroughly unsavoury characters double-crossing, abducting and murdering their way through a botched getaway; the ending crosses over into surreal territory that makes for an uneasy break in tone but works on its own.

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household: A gripping chase story about a big-game hunter who decides to take on a harder target - the dictator of a certain central European nation. A grueling physical and psychological odyssey ensues. Like John Buchan on steroids, but more insightful.

 

[Vertigo]

Finished re-reading Keeping It Real, the first of Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity books and thoroughly enjoyed it; not dulled at all by being a second read. For me at least she has produced the best merger of SF and Fantasy that I have read and also the most believable magic. Highly recommended!

Now moving on to the second book Selling Out.

 

[J-Sun]

Finished Cobra Bargain yesterday. I think I was mistaken and I somehow read the first and third books the first time I read some Cobra books. No wonder I didn't remember the second well. However, I didn't remember this one well, either. It just seemed more familiar. It's far better than the second, being much more focused (the focus being Jin Moreau) and with a much more interesting problem and solution regarding Qasama, but not as good as the first, still.

The thing that most bothers me is that this trilogy covers something like 80 years and the Cobra idea has its goofy aspects in the first place and it turns out there are very bad side effects and yet nothing changes technologically in the entire series. (Some features are disabled in peacetime and re-enabled at other times but nothing's added or modified.) That's like the US going in to Pakistan in biplanes or blimps or something, only worse.

Anyway, if you want to while away some time on some straightforwardly written, strangely peaceful military-like SF with aliens, politics, a dribble of starshippery, and lots of planetbound action, it's a decent read but definitely not required reading. Zahn's apparently just written yet more sequels after about a 20-year gap but I don't think I'll be looking for those.

 

[Tansy]

Just finished Desert Spear and The Waylander books by Gemmell, decided to refresh my memory on GOT by Martin since Dance is out soon

 

[blacknorth]

Just finished The Hammer by K.J. Parker.

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. It's a good read; literate and intelligent with good characterisation and some interesting guff about early technology.

It's certainly not sf, and I'd be hard-pressed to call it fantasy. It reads like a Medieval revenge fantasy with made up names, places and beasts. That's about all.

The author does interest me though, I'm not sure why. There's something faintly pleasing about her defiance. So I might try another of her novels.

 

[Hober Mallow]

OK well I finished Hyperion, which I thought was a bit 'meh' - so much in fact that that I doubt I'll bother with the rest of the series.

I loved that book but, to each his own. My favorite stories were The Priest's Tale and The Scholar's Tale.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Now reading The Gods, Themselves by Isaac Asimov.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Finished God Emperor of Didcot, which was excellent, and Into the Labyrinth. I think it's one of the weaker of the Death Gate books, the first half was a bit below par, but the second was better.

Not sure what to buy next. I need to make some headway with Gibbon, but a 60 page chapter on early Christianity is not exactly enthralling me

 

[neuroticdog]

Just finished "Rogue Moon" by Algis Budrys.

This book didn't have to be "Science Fiction" as it's really a very in depth character study. When reading this, I was reminded of "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf" in as much as the dialog between all the main players kind of fleshed out the "truth" hidden behind the character.

But, since this was written with a Science Fiction backdrop and, I think to the stories benefit...that element enabled Budrys to embark on a methodical study of lofty philosophical deep thinking such as what does it mean "to be", the nature of death and what is the driving, shaping force that leads individuals down their life's pathways.

Characterization, done exclusively though dialog is vivid. It's a short 180 page novel but the talented author packed it to the gills with details that enabled the reader to paint, in raw, high-def detail a picture of the 4 main characters (and even a couple of minor one's) that dominate this book. If that wasn't bonus enough, you also get a fairly brilliant (albiet a little dated, but this was 1960) science fiction tale that had elements of "2001" in it's Big Dumb Object on the moon concept that kills every living thing that attempted to unlock it's secrets and a very interesting deconstruction (pun intended) of the consequences of human matter transmission as in the ..."Beam me up Scotty" sort. The difference between this and the "Star Trek" kind though is the fact that the process of "beaming up" actually creates a clone of sorts of it's subject. These clones are used to explore the BDO mentioned above and are subsequently killed off creating a very interesting conundrum for the surviving original down on earth. To say any more might get me into spoiler territory but, the final ten pages or so really drives home some rather disturbing thoughts on death and the afterwards...and all dat.

The fact that very few of the characters were exactly likeable didn't preclude me from wanting to know how their individual story lines were going to end up and, to add to the strength of this novel, Budrys resolved everything that needed to be resolved. He also left some things un-resolved that I felt needed to be left that way. (You'll know what I'm talking about if you read it.) So, no spoon feeding info-dumps here, just really good food for thought.

Recommended...highly!

 

[soulsinging]

OK well I finished Hyperion, which I thought was a bit 'meh' - so much in fact that that I doubt I'll bother with the rest of the series.

I had a similar reaction. It definitely had some great moments, but overall it was kind of uneven and I didn't feel compelled to read on.

 

[Ian Whates]

Just finished "Rogue Moon" by Algis Budrys.

Recommended...highly!

One of the true classics of the genre -- a fabulous book.

 

[Connavar]

I finished yesterday The Pnume (Planet of Adventure #4) by Jack Vance.

It was wonderful SF adventure series. I felt a rare sense of loss when Adam Reith story on the alien world Tschai ended.

The old covers of the series makes it look some trashy sf series but when it comes to sheer SF world building,how to create an alien world with different human,alien cultures its unbeatable.

I thought of Dune in comparison as SF world building and frankly Herbert looked in comparison like he just borrowed many real world human cultures,religions.

 

[J-Sun]

Just finished "Rogue Moon" by Algis Budrys.

Nice review and, yeah, I agree with you and Ian Whates - a true classic.

I finished yesterday The Pnume (Planet of Adventure #4) by Jack Vance.

Cool - I have that series in the TBR and your comments make me look forward to it even more.

I started reading Tanith Lee's The Storm Lord and quit with some vigor. Took a sharp turn and started Rudy Rucker's White Light which, so far, is a set theory fantasy but is very entertaining.

 

[Fried Egg]

I'm reading "Invasion of the body snatchers" by Jack Finney, an updated edition of the original story released when the film came out in the 70's.

 

[AE35Unit]

Currently on Blind White Fish in Persia, a non-fiction travelogue from the 50s by Anthony Smith.