November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelistic Nexuses

[GOLLUM]

A bit of a weird title even for me...but needs must....

Please let us all know what you're reading for this month.

 

[The Judge]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

I've started Pratchett's Snuff and after 100 pages, I'm thinking that dictating a novel rather than typing it can only be successful if someone (a) is Barbara Cartland, (b) does a lot of preparatory work first or (c) has a very ruthless transcriber/editor. Unfortunately...

 

[CyBeR]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

I'm gallivanting through Swords against wizardry by Fritz Leiber, the last book in the anthology Lankhmar. Gotta say it was a wise choice for me to stop reading this when I did, last year. I'm enjoying it a whole lot more now that I've gotten some time between the books. I'm real bad when it comes to reading short stories...I tend to get bored quite fast of them. More than a couple and I'm off to Lalaland.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are great characters, though at times I really can't say what the Hell's keeping their friendship together.

 

[GOLLUM]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are great characters, though at times I really can't say what the Hell's keeping their friendship together.

I've always likened them to the 'odd couple' (of the original classic Neil Simon play, movie and subsequent TV series fame) and whoever knew what kept those two together?...

If this is your first experience with Leiber you should also try and get a copy of Our Lady Of Darkness or The Big Time. Some of his short stories are also very good. A worthy recipient of the SWFA Grand Master award.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

I am done with Prince of Thorns. Good book, a pretty solid debut from Mark Lawrence. I was a tad disappointed with the book, though; I had heard a fair bit about him and many saw him as an Abercrombie-esque author, but I can't say that was correct. Sure, his book has a lot of violence and the characters are, for the most part, b******s. But the similarities more or less end there. His style and prose isn't anything like Abercrombie's. Prince of Thorns seems to emphasize that everything is hopeless, whereas Abercrombie at least shows a glimmer of hope (before yanking it away). All in all, Abercrombie's status as my favorite author remains secure (and comfortably so).

I also felt PoT (now there's an unfortunate abbreviation) was a bit too rushed. Don't get me wrong - I don't look for Jordanesque levels of minutiae, but I do like a little detail. This was far too minimalistic for my taste. We were rushing headlong from one scene to another, without ever pausing for breath or just to take some time to reflect on and assimilate the events. For me, Abercrombie strikes the best balance between giving you enough information to feel as if you are in something big, without ever going into unnecessary level of details or 'infodumps'.

I also found Lawrence's mix-and-match style of world-building a little jarring. It is clearly a Fantasy, and yet there are plenty of tie-ins to the real world, in the form of references to Christ and Plato, as well as other references to ancient Rome and Greece. Not saying I disliked it, necessarily, just that I found it peculiar, and a little confusing. Does this mean that The Broken Empire is based in some sort of alternative Earth? Post-apocalyptic, maybe? Or is it truly a completely imaginary world, but one where Lawrence has decided, for convenience and perhaps realism, to share Earth's past with? I suppose we'll have a better idea as the series progresses.

All in all, I would say it is a very good, but not necessarily great, novel. I would still recommend it, though. Let's say a 7.5 out of 10.

And now, I shall be starting The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.

 

[biodroid]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

A bit of a weird title even for me...but needs must....

Please let us all know what you're reading for this month.

Did you eat a dictionary?

 

[biodroid]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

I might start A Clash of Kings by GRRM (almost done with AGOT) or maybe get The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, I heard good things about both novels, or I could treat myself to the new Stephen King book that has a date for a name.

 

[Adasunshine]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

Still with Kraken by China Mieville... enjoying it actually, even if it is a bit disjointed.

xx

 

[CyBeR]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

I've always likened them to the 'odd couple' (of the original classic Neil Simon play, movie and subsequent TV series fame) and whoever knew what kept those two together?...

If this is your first experience with Leiber you should also try and get a copy of Our Lady Of Darkness or The Big Time. Some of his short stories are also very good. A worthy recipient of the SWFA Grand Master award.

Someone lent me this copy of Lankhmar last year and since I was a bit slow to read it (short story syndrome as I've said), the book sat around my bed quite a bit, where my chinchilla managed to get his teeth in it. I had to buy the guy a new copy and got saddled with this one, so thought I may as well finish reading it.
Dunno if I'm extremely keen to get anything more Leiber for a while. I'll keep those recommendations in mine for when I'll be back to see what more this author has to offer.

 

[Lord Soth]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

I tried Leiber and couldn't really get on with it personally, but at least I can remove him from my TBR pile.

 

[soulsinging]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

Ross MacDonald- Black Money

My first Archer novel, I think conn is a big fan?

 

[Extollager]

At the moment, I'm reading Ray Bradbury's The Golden Apples of the Sun and the 19th-century Russian thinker Alexander Herzen's memoirs (paperbacked in two volumes by Oxford in the 1980s), among other things. "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" in the Bradbury, which I just read on my lunch break, is a Poe-esque thing that could easily have belonged in The October Country. Herzen writes excellent autobiography. He was an exact contemporary of Dickens, born in 1812 and dying in 1870, by the way. (Let me recommend also the autobiographical books of Sergei Aksakov, beginning with A Russian Gentleman.)

 

[J-Sun]

I'm (almost exactly) in the middle of reading The Worlds of Theodore Sturgeon.

 

[biodroid]

Lee Child - The Killing Floor

 

[GOLLUM]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

Did you eat a dictionary?

You can call me Obelix...

 

[GOLLUM]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

Dunno if I'm extremely keen to get anything more Leiber for a while. I'll keep those recommendations in mine for when I'll be back to see what more this author has to offer.

When you do drop me a line and I may be able to point you to some other material of his.

 

[Connavar]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

Ross MacDonald- Black Money

My first Archer novel, I think conn is a big fan?

Im a big fan despite i have already read only two first novels. Shame you didnt start with the first novel, i rate it very highly.

If i wasnt obessed with Hammett, noir writers that is Thompson,Cain type i would have read atleast 10 Archer books.

You reminded to call my book pusher and order 2-3 Archer books when my crime,classic books part of TBR pile is low.

I just remembered i have Archer book 3 at home

 

[soulsinging]

Re: November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelisitc Nexuses

Im a big fan despite i have already read only two first novels. Shame you didnt start with the first novel, i rate it very highly.

If i wasnt obessed with Hammett, noir writers that is Thompson,Cain type i would have read atleast 10 Archer books.

You reminded to call my book pusher and order 2-3 Archer books when my crime,classic books part of TBR pile is low.

I just remembered i have Archer book 3 at home

Which one is the first one? I got the impression the order wasn't all that critical for them, kind of like Chandler. I haven't really had a chance to start yet, so maybe I'll put it on hold to read them in order.

 

[blacknorth]

Next up - James P Hogan's The Genesis Machine.

 

[Spade]

I currently reading Star Trek: Typhon Pact - Paths of Disharmony by Dayton Ward when I'm out somewhere, but at home I've got House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. Mammoth book!