November's Nascent Nurturing of Novelistic Nexuses

[thatollie]

Was a bit underwhelmed by Alice, but can't win em all.

Perhaps you just knew the story too well. It is just a bit famous.

 

[Connavar]

Perhaps you just knew the story too well. It is just a bit famous.

There are many world famous books you know the story too well before you read it. 1984, The Count of Monte Cristo, A Study of Scarlet, Dracula etc

I would hope the writer/what you expect of him or her decides how you like the famous story.

I have thought that many times i know what will happen in the end but the writing, the storytelling made me get pass that. Suspense, surprise element is not that important, the writing is more important.

Otherwise it is in your view a dated, overrated classic.

 

[thatollie]

I wouldn't say that people know the story of A Study in Scarlet before they read it, unless they've seen a movie of it. They know the characters, but there's plenty to discover. The plot and characters and themes of Alice are a bit more ubiquitous than that.

 

[Connavar]

I wouldn't say that people know the story of A Study in Scarlet before they read it, unless they've seen a movie of it. They know the characters, but there's plenty to discover. The plot and characters and themes of Alice are a bit more ubiquitous than that.

I mean everyone knows Sherlock Holmes even if they have avoided making new films, tv ep of the first story. You know every side good and bad about Sherlock Holmes, the way his stories are written. Okay A Study of Scarlet was bad example but there are many versions of A Sign of Four, Hound of Baskerville that many people have seen. Jeremey Brett tv show with many of the short stories being copied word for word. You cant avoid it its on tv every week.

I had seen many of the short stories, films of Sherlock Holmes before i read the original. Sure its similar but its Doyle writing that makes you read it. Famous story or not is my point.

 

[D_Davis]

1Q84, by Haruki Murakami

Murakami is a weird author to me. When I think about his writing style and his subject matter, I feel as though I should absolutely love his books. His books are kind of weird, borderline SF, with metaphysical and religious pontification, and characters who often feel just slightly disconnected from their realities. His work is an extension of Phildickian and Balardian principles.

However, I've never truly loved a Murakami book. I've liked everyone that I've read a great deal, but I only liked them.

The thing is, when I was reading 1Q84, I greatly enjoyed almost all of what I was reading. It is interesting, and I like the simple yet elegant style. However, when I wasn't reading it I wasn't thinking about it. The book's plot and characters never gripped me in a way that made want to pick it up every single chance I had. I didn't devour it - I nibbled at it. And I wanted to devour it.

There is a point near the end of the second book that is truly incredible. It feels as though everything is building up to this point, but when that point occurs I felt as though the rest of the novel, nearly 300 pages, never quite regained that momentum. This long novel starts out quietly, near glacially-paced, builds to a frenzy, and then becomes very still and quiet again. I'm sure this was intentional, but it did become harder for me to build up the enthusiasm to finish it.

So yeah - I didn't love, but I did like it. It's a good, solid book. Perhaps it is an "important" book; I do think that Murakami is saying some interesting things here, and I'm sure that those readers who did love it will be returning to this one for repeat readings.

 

[j d worthington]

FE: Glad you're enjoying the Wilhelm. I think she writes about such things very well; quietly, with no fuss, but with considerable power....

My own reading remains at a snail's pace, I'm afraid, so I'm still not through The Letters of Ambrose Bierce, despite it being a quite short book... and one I'm very much enjoying! A definitely different side of Bierce, and I encourage anyone who sees him as "Bitter Bierce" to take a look at this one... you may have trouble recognizing it as the same person, though he himself addresses this question a bit here and there....

 

[D_Davis]

150 pages into 11/22/63, and it is fantastic. By god can King spin a yarn. I've been on a cycle lately of liking every other King book, and I was afraid of this one since Under the Dome was so good (I think it's his singular masterpiece). I also usually don't like King's more personal stories, and was a tad disappointed when I found out that this was written in first-person POV. I prefer the epic King, the one who paints with broad brushes.

However, he is totally nailing the voice here. It feels so good to be in the hands of plot's master craftsman.

This is definitely a companion piece to Under the Dome, but so far the politics here are not defined with as much bombast and hyperbole.

 

[D_Davis]

One of my favorite things about Stephen King is the way he sets stuff up and knocks 'em down; he's a master of the shotgun rule. He masterfully does this on page 150 of 11/22/63. Here the main character, a high school English teacher, says that in all of fiction and nonfiction there is only one question the reader asks, and that is "What happened?" And it is the authors job to answer that questions with "This happened. And this. And this, too." And at the end of that chapter, I was totally like "WHAT HAPPENED?" Amazing. When it comes to spinning a yarn, King is in a class by himself.

I'm also really surprised by how deftly King has introduced an element of horror to 11/2/63. I was not expecting that. The time that the main character is spending in Derry has impending sense of doom.

And he's handling the time-travel elements with more skill than just about any author I've ever read. At one point the main character asks about the grandfather paradox, what happens if I go back in time and kill my own grandfather? To which another character answers "Why the f*** would you do that?"

Man, is this novel amazing. So well written, so masterfully plotted, and expertly paced. I want to finish this NOW to see what happens.

 

[Rothgar]

Recently I read Dracula for the first time. I didn't mind story being told through journals, but there was too much standing around talking through the whole story.

Also read R. Scott Bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before. I wasn't very into the story until it was really good in the last 100 pages. So far The Warrior Prophet has been a lot more enjoyable.

 

[Culhwch]

I'm very slowly making my way through Pratchett's Snuff. Good so far - Vimes is always fun to spend time with...

 

[D_Davis]

Recently I read Dracula for the first time. I didn't mind story being told through journals, but there was too much standing around talking through the whole story.

Yeah, I hear that. That's the problem with a lot of the older genre fiction - way too much telling, and very little showing. So much of it is told in passive voice. Really don't like that style. I respect it, but I don't like it.

 

[AE35Unit]

Started The Tar-Aiym Krang by Alan Dean Foster last night, read it years ago but now I have all the first series I'm reading it again. It was Foster's first novel, despite the misleading blurb on the back, and it features Pip and Flinx as well as the insect-like Thranx.
Hoping this will help me get back on the SF horse....

 

[jojajihisc]

I don't have it yet but I've been wanting to read Foster's collection Mad Amos for a while now. He's an author I haven't read anything by in a long time. Pip and Flinx make for entertaining reads so that might be just the trick to getting back into SF for you AE.

 

[Jeni]

I started reading Neverwhere this week. I've not read it before and I'm really enjoying it.

*Spoiler Alert* (just incase there is actually someone else on the planet that hasn't read this book yet - I know it's unlikely! )

I have to say that I don't think I would be dealing with suddenly ceasing to exist in the real world quite as well as Richard seems to be...although I'm pretty sure I would have cottoned on to that fact a lot quicker!

 

[J-Sun]

Finally finished PKD's Our Friends from Frolix 8. In a world where two strains of mutant supermen have come to rule over the vast majority of "Old Men", a guy goes into space looking for an alien ringer to tip the scales. Meanwhile, on Earth, a tire regroover has wild experiences. This is one where a synopsis is almost completely misleading. Suffice to say, it's less trippindicular than some of the most extreme PKD but still very interesting. I can't decide, as the latter ninth of the book or so ends up making me feel like I'd been slightly misdirected (though not so much that I couldn't recalibrate some of what I'd read - but this is also part of the uselessness of synopsizing), so it's either a B- (maybe a B) or a re-read (one of these days) could raise it to a B+/A-.

 

[gully_foyle]

Finally finished Saturn's Children by Charles Stross, and yes, I enjoyed it though it got a bit convoluted. My reading has slowed way down with the new job, and I don't have much brain space, so I am going to start And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer. Part of me thinks it's a bit of a heresy, but the part that loves Douglas Adams expects it to be a loving homage, much like the movie version of H2G2 was.

 

[Connavar]

Im reading Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost

It is much funnier than i expected. Long time since a novel made me laugh out aloud this much. Smith is a fun hero in space adventure type story and him, Suruk are comic gold humor wise.

 

[CyBeR]

Still eating slowly at Gardens of the Moon.
I'm really enjoying it. I'm down to the last 150 pages and I've taken it slowly, so as to really get into the swing of this epic fantasy work. Not a bad start at al.

 

[Quokka]

I'm getting very little reading done as I try to stay focused on other hobbies but I did finish Cordwainer Smith's The Rediscovery of Man. I had no idea before I started that it was a collection of short stories but I'm a big fan of telling a story this way, building up the universe and overall story with little snippets and scenes from it's history worked really well for me. The main story arc was great with the individual stories a little more hit and miss and in the end I think I'd prefer to read more about the author, Cordwainer Smith (Paul M.A. Linebarger) than I would his fictional universe.

That just leaves me The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson of my current collection of SF Masterworks (ok I can not tell a lie, Shrinking Man plus the second Rodderick story and a half finished Centauri Device) I've left it to last as I've seen the movie many times and had to check Chronicles to see if maybe I had read it already but it should be a perfect read to dip in and out of without being too confused.

Either way I can now sit down, guilt free and plan my next book haul just in time for Christmas .

 

[Perpetual Man]

Finished The Dreaming Void by Peter F Hamilton, really enjoyed it (except for the huge chapters!), while being pure Hamilton it is also a little different at the same time, almost a mix of SF and Fantasy.... but separately so.

Now about to start Goblin Moon by Teresa Edgerton. The authors name seems familiar but I just can't place it.