July's Jesuitical Journeyings Through Literary Juxtapositions

[Allegra]

Just started Iain Banks The Crow Road with his famous bang - 'It was the day my grandmother exploded.'

 

[Fried Egg]

Finished "The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson and now back to Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom" series for the third installment: "Warlords of Mars".

 

[bluespider100]

Finished reading Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear now at last reading the 3rd book Foundation's Triumph by David Brin. I was surprised that I enjoyed reading this trilogy, before I just read a few pages and put it down glad I read it after 1year though.

 

[Red 13]

Just finished "City of Ruin" by Mark Charan Newton. I've ordered the third book "The Book Of Transformations" on Amazon so 'i'm eagerly awaiting it. I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoyed China Mievilles' New Crobuzon series. Its got a similar style (maybe not quite as weird but still a little) and is an interesting mix of Fantasy and SF leaning a bit more towards fantasy.

 

[Mouse]

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.

Eek. This kinda doesn't bode well for me. I couldn't stick Kearney, and I have Mieville's 'King Rat' on my to-read pile. I don't like fussy writing either.

 

[Ursa major]

King Rat is a much shorter tale, Mouse, and I don't recall it having anything like the same feel as Perdido Street Station.

 

[Connavar]

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.'

Which Kearney did you read ?

He is the heir apparent to Gemmell but with finer prose. His action,battles is awesome.

 

[slack]

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.

I thought the same. The writing in Perdido Street Station (my only experience of this writer) was dense at times and not anything special.

Anyway, reading a couple by Denis Johnson: Angels (second tour -- wonderful little novel) and Nobody Move.

 

[Coolhand]

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.
'

I thought the same. The writing in Perdido Street Station (my only experience of this writer) was dense at times and not anything special.

See, I loved Perdido Street Station, and The Scar, but I can totally understand where you're coming from. His prose does dance on the line between crazy-cool flourishes on the one side and "dude, you're not impressing anyone with that Thesaurus" on the other. The Scar is somewhat better than PSS in terms of the prose, so maybe give that a try?

Just finished Transition by Ian Banks (should have had an M in there, it's totally not a regular fiction novel) and Rivers of London by Ben Arronovich.

Transition was a lot of cool ideas and scenes that never seemed to come together in terms of an actual compelling story (something a lot of Ian M Banks novels seem to do IMHO- DON'T KILL ME PLEASE NO NOT THE FACE!).

Rivers of London was better, but fell apart in the third act when the cheerful, relaxed, first person prose that had been fine for the first two thirds of the book became oddly inappropriate for the darker, dramatic events that took place at the end. It made the protagonist come across like a detached, uncaring jerk, which I don't think was the intention. But I enjoyed it anyhow, and am looking forward to the next book.

 

[Talysia]

After finishing The Queen of Sinister, I'm moving on to Mark Chadbourn's The Devil in Green.

 

[Red 13]

COOLHAND, i totally agree with what you said about China Mieville and his Thesaurus. I really like his books but there are times when i think "chill out and quit trying to be so intellectual with your big words"lol. I do believe he is a big fan of words though so he can't help but show off.

 

[Mouse]

King Rat is a much shorter tale, Mouse, and I don't recall it having anything like the same feel as Perdido Street Station.

Cool. That sounds better.

 

[soulsinging]

Which Kearney did you read ?

He is the heir apparent to Gemmell but with finer prose. His action,battles is awesome.

I started reading Hawkwood and the Kings of the Monarchies of God series. I didn't get very far. To me, he was nothing like Gemmell... if Gemmell is Hemingway, Kearney was Faulkner. The prose was so dense as to make even the promising parts of the book feel like a chore.

COOLHAND, i totally agree with what you said about China Mieville and his Thesaurus. I really like his books but there are times when i think "chill out and quit trying to be so intellectual with your big words"lol. I do believe he is a big fan of words though so he can't help but show off.

That was really what did it... I read an article comparing Mieville to the equivalent of prog-rock guitar solos... impressive talent, but too much of it borders on self-indulgent wankery. I don't care how smart you are, just tell your story without hammering me over the head with how much smarter you are than me. I have a love-hate relationship with Michael Chabon for the same reasons... immense talent and a great imagination, but sometimes you've got to rein it or it becomes annoying.

Anyway, I've since picked up Cronin's 'The Passage.' I love a good post-apocalyptic novel, so hopefully it will deliver.

 

[J-Sun]

I read Cherryh's Chanur's Legacy. I read the first four a long time ago but never managed to find this one until it was included in the Chanur's Endgame omnibus in 2007 and it's taken me this long to get to it. So I was thinking about re-reading them (and will some day) but, for now, decided to wing it, diving directly into this one. On the bad side, I'm not sure this was a necessary sequel and it didn't seem to me to have the strongest plotting, especially regarding the conclusion. And I don't remember her Compact slang (or hani slang, anyway) being quite so overdone in the earlier books. Here I had to start mentally substituting good ol' Anglo-Saxon profanity because it actually got to the point of annoying me. On the plus side, it had the usual great Cherryh milieu with the usual great Cherryh characters and the usual great Cherryh sociopolitical complexities and was a fun, fast read. So, basically, this one's optional but good - if for some reason someone didn't like the earlier Chanur books, they definitely won't like this one but, if someone wants just one more Chanur book, this is that.

-- Just noticed the Borders sticker on the back. Won't be seeing those on my books any more.

 

[Connavar]

I started reading Hawkwood and the Kings of the Monarchies of God series. I didn't get very far. To me, he was nothing like Gemmell... if Gemmell is Hemingway, Kearney was Faulkner. The prose was so dense as to make even the promising parts of the book feel like a chore.


.

Hawkwood series is not what he is rated for today. It was an epic series he was told to write so he could sell more like epic traditional fantasy series often does. More like Erikson than Gemmell in that series, plus a very young, weaker Kearney than his 2000s books.

His Sea Beggars, Ten Thousand series is more historical fantasy,military,battles more down to earth heroic fantasy and exactly like Gemmell. Lion of Macedon and Ten Thousand is very similar.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Tiny tangent, but vocabulary is an interesting area. I think in the notes or intro of the Gallic War Cicero has an interesting quote praising Caesar for using words that were not commonly used, but were commonly known (or something like that). Pretty good advice for an author, I think, as it makes the writing understandable but not simplistic.

 

[Tillane]

Well, I finished A Game Of Thrones. (insert slacker joke of choice here, I have now heard them all) Good. Not great, but definitely good, and I'll be reading the rest in due course. As for now, I'm onto Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl.

 

[Pyan]

Trying to get into The Magus, by John Fowles.

 

[GOLLUM]

Trying to get into The Magus, by John Fowles.

Aside from the French Lieutenant's Woman and The Collector I have his novel A Maggot, purchased on the assurance from a very knowledagble contact that it was his best work. I'm yet to read it but if you are struggling with The Magus perhaps that's another one to look out for?

 

[Fried Egg]

I've finished "The Warlord of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs and am now reading "Grey Area" by Will Self.