July's Jesuitical Journeyings Through Literary Juxtapositions

[Lady of Winterfell]

I have started and finished A Dance with Dragons by GRRM. I avoided these forums like the plague as soon as I started it, so I'm still trying to catch up. I was slightly disappointed, but still a good read. Now its back to waiting again until The Winds of Winter is released.


Now I'm reading Cold Magic by Kate Elliot. I haven't read anything by her before, and I actually didn't pick this book out. It was a Christmas gift, so I'm giving it a try.

 

[antiloquax]

Picked up a copy of Aldiss's "Non-stop" (it's been winking at me for a while) and so I am reading that on paper while also reading "The Battle of Evernight" on my device.

 

[D_Davis]

I have started and finished A Dance with Dragons by GRRM. I avoided these forums like the plague as soon as I started it, so I'm still trying to catch up. I was slightly disappointed, but still a good read. Now its back to waiting again until The Winds of Winter is released.

Man, I would hate to wait five+ years for the next book in a series only to be slightly disappointed.

How long is the wait for the next supposed to be?

 

[Connavar]

Man, I would hate to wait five+ years for the next book in a series only to be slightly disappointed.

How long is the wait for the next supposed to be?

My brother is a big fan of that series and he was so disappointed and complained to for 1 hour straight every flaw in it. I felt bad for him because he waited so long and he couldnt defend it. He started to think Martin is generic epic fantasy writer who in his own words wasted 300-400 pages in the book for nothing, overlong descriptions.

I was recommending Fevre Dream to him before for he who isnt regularly SFF reader but he doesnt respect GRRM as much anymore.

 

[slack]

About three chapters into Get Shorty, by Elmore Leonard. Good times.

 

[Ursa major]

Man, I would hate to wait five+ years for the next book in a series only to be slightly disappointed.

Yes, it's much better to be greatly disappointed.

 

[Extollager]

I really like Galactic Pot-Healer. I'd probably put it in my top 10 PKD, and definitely top-tier Dick. It's usually one of the ones I'll suggest to someone that hasn't read Dick before. I think it does a great job at encapsulating many of Dick's more important themes, while it is also one of his more humorous efforts.

Uff da! I couldn't finish it, but I have read about ten of PKD's books.

 

[D_Davis]

My brother is a big fan of that series and he was so disappointed and complained to for 1 hour straight every flaw in it. I felt bad for him because he waited so long and he couldnt defend it. He started to think Martin is generic epic fantasy writer who in his own words wasted 300-400 pages in the book for nothing, overlong descriptions.

That's why I almost always wait for a series to be finished before starting it.

 

[j d worthington]

My reading time just doesn't seem to be getting any better, so for the moment I've been concentrating on poetry. In this case, I've finished a sonnet-cycle by Ann K. Schwader, In the Yaddith Time, which is, as Wilum would say, "Lovecraftian to the core", though not without its flashes of humor -- and often very eerie and effective; also not without its beauty; and am working on her The Worms Remember, a fairly hefty selection of her other verse. On this latter, some of them lean a bit too heavily on Lovecraft at times, to the slight detriment of the poem in question, but this is seldom much of a fault; and her abilities as a poet are surprisingly good. This one also has a few with much more overt humor, and some of her lines show exactly why poetry remains a valuable medium, as it can still do things prose can never approach (and vice versa, of course).

I've also been dipping into The Last Oblivion, a selection of the weird verse of Clark Ashton Smith, and occasionally into Frank Belknap Long's In Mayan Splendor, verse written (largely) when he was quite young, and a very versatile set of verses these are, too, from the bawdy to the pensive, the eerie to the mundane, including a lovely poem on Master Francois Villon....

Among my favorites of Smith's poetry is the following, courtesy of The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/325/medusa

That line, "Time caught in meshes of Eternity", still causes me to catch my breath....

 

[Connavar]

That's why I almost always wait for a series to be finished before starting it.

I dont read series if i dont have atleast two books at once. I bought Joe Abercrombie series when all 3 books was out. Same with SF,crime series.

Few authors i look forward to ongoing series. Im not just series type reader outside my noir,hardboiled PI books.

 

[soulsinging]

My brother is a big fan of that series and he was so disappointed and complained to for 1 hour straight every flaw in it. I felt bad for him because he waited so long and he couldnt defend it. He started to think Martin is generic epic fantasy writer who in his own words wasted 300-400 pages in the book for nothing, overlong descriptions.

Glad I skipped this one then, because that's the exact reaction I had to the 4th.

 

[Connavar]

Glad I skipped this one then, because that's the exact reaction I had to the 4th.

See how long you can skip the series before you find your way back

Its not just this series but i find it very amusing people say every book of certain series is the last drop, enough but then they still read the next book.

Either you enjoy it or not.

 

[Fried Egg]

Finished Arthur C Clarke's "Rendevous With Rama" and now onto John Crowley's "Little, Big".

 

[Connavar]

A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block. Matt Scudder is such original voice that just reading about his everyday life, walking around NYC is such a pleasure.

One of those rare hardboiled series i enjoy for the writers literary strength and not for the PI story. This series is the best hardboiled PI book series there has been imo. Outside Hammett no one has written this type of story this good.

 

[antiloquax]

Interesting to read the "disappointed with ADWD" comments here and on Amazon. After "Fevre Dream" I was thinking of reading more GRRM. Now I'm not quite so sure ... Anyway, plenty other books to go at ...
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[Lady of Winterfell]

Man, I would hate to wait five+ years for the next book in a series only to be slightly disappointed.

How long is the wait for the next supposed to be?

Who knows really? Hopefully less than the wait we have had for the last couple books.

Interesting to read the "disappointed with ADWD" comments here and on Amazon. After "Fevre Dream" I was thinking of reading more GRRM. Now I'm not quite so sure ... Anyway, plenty other books to go at ...
a

I seem to be one of the few who was a bit disappointed. I think I just had such high hopes along with the long wait from the last book that perhaps my expectations were too high. It's also a bit complicated as the previous book (A Feast for Crows) was only half the characters, and ADWD is the other half. This makes it feel as though the story didn't progress as far as it might have. But I would still recommend reading more GRRM, don't let my comment of being disappointed turn you away. I was only disappointed when compared to the other books in the series, not compared to other fantasy books out there. It is still by far my favorite series out there. I haven't yet read Fevre Dream but have added it to my TBR pile after seeing how much you and others have enjoyed it.

 

[gully_foyle]

I finished number9dream by David Mitchell and was a little disappointed in the nowhere it went to. Now trying Spook Country by William Gibson, but having trouble concentrating on it.

Has anyone read Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat yet?

 

[GOLLUM]

OOPS...apologies to those who have posted anything in here for august. Just about to post the August reading thread. Please standby.

Cheers.

 

[antiloquax]

I seem to be one of the few who was a bit disappointed. I think I just had such high hopes along with the long wait from the last book that perhaps my expectations were too high. It's also a bit complicated as the previous book (A Feast for Crows) was only half the characters, and ADWD is the other half. This makes it feel as though the story didn't progress as far as it might have. But I would still recommend reading more GRRM, don't let my comment of being disappointed turn you away. I was only disappointed when compared to the other books in the series, not compared to other fantasy books out there. It is still by far my favorite series out there. I haven't yet read Fevre Dream but have added it to my TBR pile after seeing how much you and others have enjoyed it.

That's good to know!
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