July's Jesuitical Journeyings Through Literary Juxtapositions

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm continuing to read a lot of YA fiction. At the moment, I'm reading the second Relic Master book by Catherine Fisher, The Lost Heiress. I read the first book, The Dark City only a few months ago, when it first came out. They are bringing out these books very quickly, all four of them through late spring and through the summer. Definitely among her best books, I would say (I've mentioned some of those I've admired in the YA forum here), but after barely making it through the first few chapters of the first, I became sort of hooked. If this one doesn't disappoint, I'm sure I'll read the others.

I second Mr. G's recommendation of The Riddlemaster of Hed (and it's sequel). I love McKillip and in some ways I don't think she's ever matched those books. The others have some of the same excellent qualities, but not one of them has all of them in the same story.

 

[antiloquax]

Thanks Teresa. I am enjoying "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" so I am sure I will move on to Riddlemaster in due course.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Picked up and will be reading Charlie Brooker's collection of articles, neatly put together in Dawn of the Dumb. Do like Brooker's writing.

 

[Red 13]

Picked up and will be reading Charlie Brooker's collection of articles, neatly put together in Dawn of the Dumb. Do like Brooker's writing.

Charlie Brooker is awesooooome! I regularily read "The hell of it all" when i'm on the train. I just sit there cracking up and all the other passengers look at me like i'm crazy.

 

[HoopyFrood]

He is a bit of a legend. I follow him on Twitter and he is constantly a source of cynical amusement.

I remember reading his stuff back when he was one of the columnists on the back of the G2. Ah, how far he's come!

 

[Red 13]

He is a bit of a legend. I follow him on Twitter and he is constantly a source of cynical amusement.

I remember reading his stuff back when he was one of the columnists on the back of the G2. Ah, how far he's come!

You know, i seem to remember when i was a kid i would buy a video game magazine and he was one of the critics on that. It was during the megadrive and super nes time. He would do funny critics and even though i was too young to get his cynical views i still found him very funny.

 

[J-Sun]

Finished Tanith Lee's Day by Night. Not sure what to say about this one. Some of her depictions of the traumas she unleashes on her generally extremely unlikeable characters[1] were fantastically vivid and strong but I was frequently as bored as most of the rest of her aristocrats were. Sometimes I was enjoying it[2]; sometimes it was a labor to get through and I wanted to set it aside.

[1] Some are only mildly unlikeable.
[2] Well, that's not the right word - sometimes I was intrigued by it, anyway.

 

[Connavar]

Was it a fantasy novel J-Sun ?

Myself im reading Cugel's Saga by Jack Vance which i thought i had finished reading but i was not done with the collection.

I thought it was enough with new authors and more alltime favs now that i have alot free time to read.

 

[J-Sun]

Was it a fantasy novel J-Sun ?

That's a hard one to answer. It's definitely superficially SF in that it takes place on an alien world (but one like a 1940's Mercury) and has robots and various other manifestations of technology but I feel like criticizing it on science fictional grounds would be misplaced. I guess it's more of a techno-fantasy of symbolic, more than literal, intent.

Myself im reading Cugel's Saga by Jack Vance which i thought i had finished reading but i was not done with the collection.

I thought it was enough with new authors and more alltime favs now that i have alot free time to read.

I'll get to that some day - I read The Dying Earth a long time ago and bought an omnibus with the whole thing but haven't read it. Enjoying it so far?

 

[Connavar]

That's a hard one to answer. It's definitely superficially SF in that it takes place on an alien world (but one like a 1940's Mercury) and has robots and various other manifestations of technology but I feel like criticizing it on science fictional grounds would be misplaced. I guess it's more of a techno-fantasy of symbolic, more than literal, intent.



I'll get to that some day - I read The Dying Earth a long time ago and bought an omnibus with the whole thing but haven't read it. Enjoying it so far?

Enjoying ? Its the funniest literature i have ever read. Not haha funny ala Douglas Adams series but its so witty,absurd in weird,fantastic world that that is more funny than best kind stand up humor. Cugel part of Dying Earth series is why the works is legendary.

It was my first Jack Vance works years ago and im still amazed how he could have written this series in the 50s as one of his first works. Prose style wise his fantasy which i include DE is my fav prose style by far. I have read his 50s SF its pulpy, badly written compared to his later SF. He must have been naturally fantasy writer when he started.

 

[Rodders]

I just finished Neal Asher's Prador Moon. Very enjoyable but it has the feeling of an early novel.

Now on to the Gabble and other stories.

 

[Fried Egg]

Just finished "Fevre Dream". Great story!
Unsure what to read next. Toying with the idea of some fantasy - probably Erikson or McKillip. Or maybe something else ... Like Gene Wolf?
a

Didn't you say you were going to read "Inverted World"? What happened to that, or did you finish it already?

 

[antiloquax]

Didn't you say you were going to read "Inverted World"? What happened to that, or did you finish it already?

Yes, I read it! I loved the way the strangeness of the world was slowly revealed. The ending, although satisfying enough, was quite abrupt, I thought!
I will certainly read more Priest.
a

 

[purple_kathryn]

A dance with dragons

 

[Hober Mallow]

Finally finished The Handmaid's Tale. Just started The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. This will take a while because I haven't had much time for leisure reading during the past two months.

 

[antiloquax]

Finally finished The Handmaid's Tale.

That's a brilliant book. I haven't read any other Atwood, although I have heard that "Cat's Eye" is another excellen one.

Just finished "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld". I loved it! I don't usually read much fantasy, but I feel that may change ...

a

 

[Vertigo]

I just finished Neal Asher's Prador Moon. Very enjoyable but it has the feeling of an early novel.

Now on to the Gabble and other stories.

Although not a great short story reader myself, I did enjoy this collection and it certainly gave a lot of background colour to the Polity universe.

 

[antiloquax]

Well, I was planning to read "The Difference Engine", but I wasn't really in the mood for steampunk. So instead I have started "The Ill-made Mute".

 

[Rothgar]

Finished Beyond this Horizion by Heinlein and The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. I think I'll go back to Heinlein with Expanded Universe.

 

[soulsinging]

Now I'm going to take my first crack at China Mieville with 'Perdido Street Station.' I hear good things.

Call me a quitter, but I lasted no longer at Mieville than I did at Kearney. Maybe in my age I no longer have the stomach for serious SFF that I used to... the super dense writing with a million vocab words and dozens of imaginary ones just kills me interest instantly. I read to escape from work, not create more.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I have absolutely nothing on my to-read shelf. Thinking about picking up Cronin's 'The Passage.'