December's Deliciously Delirifacient Dabblings Into Fictional Diversions

[Fried Egg]

I finished Ian Whates new SF anthology "Solaris Rising" yesterday and have now started on "Voice of our Shadow" by Jonathan Carroll.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I've read:

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
Never Knowing - Chevy Stevens
The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson
The Waste Lands - Stephen King

Am reading:

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Deadline - Mira Grant

Am re-reading:

Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

 

[jojajihisc]

Read The Book of Fritz Leiber. (I discuss it a little more on the short story thread but, long story short: nothing much bad; nothing much great - it can be skipped.)

Do you know if The Best of Fritz Leiber is any better?

 

[J-Sun]

Do you know if The Best of Fritz Leiber is any better?

Yep, very much so. IIRC, even it isn't solid gold, but it's absolutely worth checking out.

 

[Mouse]

I shall certainly give you my feedback O' Squeaky One!

Started it last night and so far so good, quite dark... having trouble putting it down!

xx

Excellent.

 

[jojajihisc]

Yep, very much so. IIRC, even it isn't solid gold, but it's absolutely worth checking out.

Good to hear because I have that one.

Currently flying through The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding. Moves at the same pace as the Ketty Jay books or just a bit faster. This guy writes a brand of fantasy I can get behind.

 

[soulsinging]

Finished the Galton Case and enjoyed it quite a bit. Been a while since I got to read a classic hard-boiled novel.

Now I'm checking out Every Shallow Cut based on the recommendations above.

 

[D_Davis]

Now I'm checking out Every Shallow Cut based on the recommendations above.

Yeah, it's pretty good. A quick little noir-thriller with a sinister streak.

 

[Connavar]

Im reading Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

I dont enjoy this kind of fantasy usually. Overblown,too padded usually. I only tried this book because it got voted for as group read in SFF chrons Goodreads group and i wanted to read new fantasy series.

This book is a nice surprise,impressive so far by the author is the lack of info dumps,huge world building that slows down these kind of books. The first person perspective makes seeing the world from his eyes fun read.

I have actually enjoyed this novel, the characters and look forward to the sequel as soon i finish the book.

 

[Fried Egg]

I have actually enjoyed this novel, the characters and look forward to the sequel as soon i finish the book.

You'll have a while to wait, the sequel doesn't come out until August next year.

Maybe we should nominate it for the group read when the time comes?

 

[Fried Egg]

I finished Jonathan Carroll's "Voice of Our Shadow" which I thought was very good. I'm suprised so many people here say they didn't like it. I'd be interested to hear their reasons though.

Now on to the next part of Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" series with: "The Eyes of the Overworld".

 

[Connavar]

You'll have a while to wait, the sequel doesn't come out until August next year.

Maybe we should nominate it for the group read when the time comes?

Yeah i saw the next book comes next year thats nothing compared to what i have waited for books by longtime fans.

Im like you im just not used to liking fantasy in this subgenre and was surprised that i actually looked forward to next book no matter the release date .

 

[soulsinging]

Yeah, it's pretty good. A quick little noir-thriller with a sinister streak.

Very sinister. It was an interesting experience as I don't usually go for shorter fiction. It kind of reminded me of the Ice Harvest, another dark little noir piece about a guy on his last legs.

Now I'm wrapping up the Joe Pitt series with Charlie Huston's My Dead Body. Hope I remember the key plot points from the first 4 as it's been a while.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Finished Elantris on Thursday. I felt that it was a great read, not Sanderson's best, but a solid page turner, if nothing else with an excellent climax - it is also nice to see a standalone book rather than a series.

I followed this with the excellent chapbook King Death by Paul Finch. Obviously did not take long to read being only 20 pages long, but a very, very enjoyable read anyway.

I'm now starting (at long, long last) The Runes of The Earth - the first book in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson

 

[Connavar]

Im reading The Book of Damned by Tanith Lee.

I have almost forgotten how wonderful TLs prose can be . The book reads like delioius poetic gothic novel.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'll be reading her new anthology soon. I'm really looking forward to it; you're right about her prose.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Finished Elantris on Thursday. I felt that it was a great read, not Sanderson's best, but a solid page turner, if nothing else with an excellent climax - it is also nice to see a standalone book rather than a series.

That's strange. I found the climax to be the most disappointing aspect of the book...


I've finished with The Other Lands. (Actually, I finished it over a week ago.) I liked it a lot more than The War with the Mein; where the latter started reeeeaaally slow and really only got me hooked 2/3 of the way through, I was invested in this one from much earlier on. I don't know if this was because the whole book is that much better or whether I've just become more patient?

Either way, it was a pretty good read. I still don't really feel very connected with any of the main protagonists, and I was a little perplexed with the sudden deification of Aliver Akaran. While Aliver certainly did rile up the people in the first book, I found his sudden status as the savior of mankind to be a bit random. Or perhaps I should say 'forced'. And despite the title of the book, we saw disappointingly little of the Other Lands.

The story, however, does interest me and the pacing of this novel was much better than the first. I still wouldn't call it a great book, because I've read enough books that are simply better, but it is... decent. Let's give it a 7.5 out of 10.

I am now reading a book called The Hidden Stars by a certain Madeline Howard.

 

[Ian Whates]

I'll be reading her new anthology soon. I'm really looking forward to it; you're right about her prose.

Yes, Tanith's Cold Grey Stones contains some darkly wonderful gems.

 

[dask]

Picking up on Neal Stephenson's CRYPTONOMICON from where I left off after too long an absense. Hitting me better this time around.

 

[j d worthington]

I have finished off Sterling's The Thirst of Satan, which was generally quite an excellent read; a few of the pieces were minor, but several in there are wonderful examples of fantastic verse, showing how powerful he could be; and no few were simply exquisite pieces of dream, eeriness, and those wispy, elusive moods and images which flit across the mind now and again, never to be fully recaptured.

I've also finished the first section in vol. 1 of the Complete Poetry and Translations of Clark Ashton Smith, though here I had to take things a bit more slowly... Smith's verse often has the same tendency for me as that of William Blake: if I read very much of it at one go, I get drunk as a lord, without the aid of alcohol.... I still cannot imagine a youth of 16-18 years writing some of this stuff; it is simply amazing, and at times quite literally takes one's breath away. Oh, for more poets of the fantastic of this caliber....

Am now taking a tiny bit of a break to revisit de Camp's biography of Lovecraft, combined with a reading of my facsimile edition of the first issue of Alfred Galpin's amateur journal, The Philosopher (December, 1920), which contained the original publication of Lovecraft's "Polaris", as well as much other material of interest....