October's Obdurate Observations Of Outstanding Ouevres

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Rosemary said:
I am now re-reading the last book of The Tales Of The Malazans - The Crippled God.

The series was certainly easier to read, one volume after the other, helping to keep the continuity. There was much that I remembered but some parts I didn't recall :( My favourite characters were still as I imagined, as too the ones I didn't like the first time round.
It also helped to confirm my belief that Steven Erikson is a great writer.
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I'd really like to do the back to back re-read, but it seems like such a huge commitment of reading time, especially when I have so many books piled up waiting.

Just finished The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes - There is something about the series the makes me think of Erikson; perhaps its the fact that they have both studied anthropology - their Worlds histories are full of "depth" and half-remembered "facts" that turn out to be almost totally twisted away from the truth.

I am currently reading Hard Freeze by Dan Simmons - 2nd of his hard boiled Joe Kurtz PI series.
 
Sometimes I feel like I'm in the Matrix. I run into some books I have never before heard of like the Malazan series or 19Q4 and they interest me. And within just a few short days I see people talking about them...it's...uncanny. No wonder my chinchilla offers me so many moments of deja vu. I KNOW!

Anyways...got The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding in the mail yesterday. I'm gonna get right on it now as it kinda trumps most of my To Read list in sheer excitement for it.
 
CyBeR said:
Sometimes I feel like I'm in the Matrix. I run into some books I have never before heard of like the Malazan series or 19Q4 and they interest me. And within just a few short days I see people talking about them...it's...uncanny. No wonder my chinchilla offers me so many moments of deja vu. I KNOW!
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Makes sense with 1Q84 - it's kind of the "book of the moment" right now. There were book stores doing midnight sales for it; that's pretty crazy considering it's a 1,000 page, non-genre, translated work.

I love it when my tastes happen to coincide with the tastes of the zeitgeist. It rarely happens, especially with fiction. It feels neat to be part of something big that many other people are experiencing.
 
I've just finished Roger Zelazny's "The Dream Master" which was disappointing and now plan to read two Fantasy Masterworks collections side by side over the next few weeks:

"Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams" by Catherine L. Moore
"Sea Kings of Mars and Otherwordly Stories" by Leigh Brackett
 
Two more stories from Ray Bradbury's October Country -- neither of them ones I'd say are essential, but both of which have things to offer.

"There Was an Old Woman" seems to me basically a joke, but I suppose one could explore the possibility that it's about an old maid's attitude towards men. It's a male world that presses in on her and that she sets herself so stubbornly against. At the last, she's won, though the victory has (heh heh) left its mark and she makes a little admission in terms of the things that matter to her, thank you kindly.

"The Cistern" reminded me of Kate Bush's "Under Ice" from the Hounds of Love album.
 
D_Davis said:
Makes sense with 1Q84 - it's kind of the "book of the moment" right now. There were book stores doing midnight sales for it; that's pretty crazy considering it's a 1,000 page, non-genre, translated work.
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The case may be that there, but here...different story. The only book I've actually seen to get a midnight release here has been...or rather have been the last Harry Potter books.

I always seem to be completely unknowing about some TV show or book or comic or anything...and I'd discover it by sheer chance on some site or another...and next thing I know a lot of people are discussing that very same thing. Sometimes I can't help but think I live in that Matrix hehe.

Reading The iron jackal by Chris Wooding now. My preorder arrived yesterday, I've accelerated my reading of the Terry Pratchett novel I was enjoying and I've devoured some 13 chapters of this new Ketty Jay book.
It's a throughly enjoyable third romp through Vardia. The action is intense and captivating, the characters are as awesome as ever and the mood is just right. I just think that presentation for the book may have been a bit off, since the events in the blurb on the site don't exactly coincide with this book.
 
D_Davis said:
IQ84 is excellent. Slowly but surely I am beginning to understand the Pulitzer and Nobel prize rumblings. It is a character-driven work of Ballardian and Phlidickian fiction with a more romantic angle and understanding of human relationships and desires.
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You have not read 1984 thinking about the title, the most famous of dystopian novel :rolleyes:

I see you saying its a book of the moment, you mean in US ? The book havent even appeared here yet in the library and no buzz at all so far in the bookstores.

It hit me at the right moment, i have been wondering where to try this author since only japanese authors who interest me are classic ones and he is the most hailed contemporary one. Also reading the Orwell classic less than a month ago i have been thinking where is all the great dystopian books ?

I just hope the romance angle doesnt ruin the book for me.
 
Connavar said:
I just hope the romance angle doesnt ruin the book for me.
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I love a good hard-boiled noir as much as you my friend, but what's wrong with a little romance? Even the manliest of men needs to know how to please the ladies!
 
Having had nearly no time for reading this week, I've largely stuck with Bierce, in this case, reading my way (a few pages at a time) through The Devil's Dictionary. I've generally browsed through this at random before; but this time, I'm going "kiver-to-kiver" with it, and it is truly a gem of a book... and no, Bierce doesn't spare anyone....

The edition I am reading is the Dover Thrift edition, which in turn is a reproduction of the John Neal edition (overseen by Bierce) from the early years of the twentieth century....
 
Boy, I'm greatly enjoying The iron jackal. I find Wooding to be an expert at setting the pace for his novels and I just love this. There's enough action here to choke an adrenaline junkie, and the characters keep on being nicely developed along. Sure, there are some rather cliché character quirks here and there, but nothing to really drag the book down.
So far (almost at the half way point), the book was really worth the long months of waiting.
 
"Homecoming" in Bradbury's The October Country: something I wouldn't have finished if I didn't want to read the whole book. The whimsical approach to the macabre generally doesn't work for me.
The suggestion that the weird family meets less often as the years pass, that modern life is not conducive to their thriving, reminded me of Kipling's fine story about the departure of the "Pharisees," namely "Dymchurch Flit" from Puck of Pook's Hill.
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And the final October Country story, "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone," which I didn't think I would like, reminded me of G. K. Chesterton's story about Innocent Smith, Manalive, and so I end my reading of the Bradbury collection with a smile. It's taken me almost 40 years to read every story in this book! Thanks, Ray.
 
Thanks to Extollger I'm now reading Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor. This looks like it really is the complete short stories including some that were apparently not printed in book form prior to this Faber & Faber 2009 edition.

O'Connor is not just a great crafter of words but a great storyteller in equal measures dark, humurous and profound from the sample of stories I've so far read. In ways her literary voice seems to be quite unqiue to me. ... I suspect a reread of her work will become almost mandatory.
 
GOLLUM said:
Thanks to Extollger I'm now reading Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor. This looks like it really is the complete short stories including some that were apparently not printed in book form prior to this Faber & Faber 2009 edition.

O'Connor is not just a great crafter of words but a great storyteller in equal measures dark, humurous and profound from the sample of stories I've so far read. In ways her literary voice seems to be quite unqiue to me. ... I suspect a reread of her work will become almost mandatory.
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Indeed! And you probably know that her selected letters, The Habit of Being, is very highly regarded.
 
Before the movie (starring Gary Oldman, who I think is fantastic) comes out, I'm reading John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
 
soulsinging said:
I love a good hard-boiled noir as much as you my friend, but what's wrong with a little romance? Even the manliest of men needs to know how to please the ladies!
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Yeah - I love good romance in a good novel. Probably my favorite part of Lonesome Dove. I'm a total romantic at heart.
 
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