February's Fabulous Feast Of Fully Formidable Fiction

[J-Sun]

The Dirdir is my fav book in the series and more quality adventure than the others.

The last book is different,darker. I thought it started slowly but it is a strong ending to the series.

Yeah, for the bulk of it, The Dirdir was definitely my favorite, too. I'm hoping The Pnume will end up being my favorite, though, just because the series as a whole needs a boost. There's so much to like in it but things keep preventing me from completely enjoying it. So far so good for The Pnume and I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I should think that, if Vance had any existing word in mind, it was "ankh."

Excellent point and, if so, it wouldn't be a silent 'h' but would be pronounced more like an inoffensive, slightly aspirated "wonk".

I feel like I'm playing innuendo bingo.

lol

 

[Grunkins]

You can't say it! It's rude.

It's 1940s British slang, apparently. Must have taken some time to cross the Atlantic. (Perhaps because the seamen were otherwise engaged.)

He was actually unaware of the term and he was just making up a name. When, later, he was clued into it's more vulgar association he wanted to go back and change the name (and I think in later publications Wankh was in fact changed to another name, can't recall what though).

edit: Here we are, from the Wiki

The editors of the Vance Integral Edition restored the author's preferred title for the first book: The Chasch. They also altered the second to The Wannek and replaced 'Wankh' with 'Wannek' throughout the text. Vance was convinced to change the name after being informed of the meaning of the word 'wank' in British and Commonwealth slang.

2nd edit: BTW, I finished A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay, and loved it. Gorgeous novel. And I'm starting Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[dask]

I kinda like the new term.

 

[Diggler]

He was actually unaware of the term and he was just making up a name. When, later, he was clued into it's more vulgar association he wanted to go back and change the name (and I think in later publications Wankh was in fact changed to another name, can't recall what though).

That's a shame, I found it quite novel, especially seeing I come from a country where the term is used both as an insult and a compliment

I have bought The Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. I have been informed it is quite a good series of novella's, and at $5 for the Ebook, well I just had to have it.

I also got The Survivors: Book 1 (Life After War) by Angela White. I have read that the grammar is terrible, but hey, my grammar is terrible also. Plus it cost a whole lot of nothing to get the ebook off Amazon.

 

[J-Sun]

The Dirdir is my fav book in the series and more quality adventure than the others.

The last book is different,darker. I thought it started slowly but it is a strong ending to the series.

Now that I've finished the whole set with The Pnume, I completely agree - The Dirdir was the most exhilarating, thrilling, etc. The Pnume is much more claustrophobic, unsurprisingly, but really intense and, yeah, it ends it all well. Like I say, I found the series a bumpy ride but, having finished it and looking back over it, while I still think my complaints along the way are valid, they seem less important. The rough patches get smoothed over in the long run. Good stuff.

edit: Here we are, from the Wiki

That may have been what I was thinking of.

I kinda like the new term.

Wannek? Mmm, it has two syllables (which an article also points out) and isn't as exotic. Wenkh or Nankh or something would be enough, I'd think. But I also agree with the article on the point that Vance is an American and not responsible for how UK folks might take it - some of his words may be outright profanity in, e.g., Basque but he can't be expected to take it and every other language and dialect in the world into account. Corporations often do that sort of thing for multi-million dollar products and, if the publisher wanted to, I guess they could, but Vance shouldn't be expected to.

 

[Diggler]

That's a shame, I found it quite novel, especially seeing I come from a country where the term is used both as an insult and a compliment

I have bought The Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. I have been informed it is quite a good series of novella's, and at $5 for the Ebook, well I just had to have it.

I also got The Survivors: Book 1 (Life After War) by Angela White. I have read that the grammar is terrible, but hey, my grammar is terrible also. Plus it cost a whole lot of nothing to get the ebook off Amazon.

Skip the bottom part, i just realised I put that in the wrong section *DUH*

 

[Lord Soth]

He was actually unaware of the term and he was just making up a name. When, later, he was clued into it's more vulgar association he wanted to go back and change the name (and I think in later publications Wankh was in fact changed to another name, can't recall what though).

edit: Here we are, from the Wiki


2nd edit: BTW, I finished A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay, and loved it. Gorgeous novel. And I'm starting Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds.

I personally wasn't too impressed with Pushing Ice, a little too slow for me with a confused ending. I do have a bit of a marmite relationship with Alastair Reynolds.

After a couple of false starts on novels I just couldn't get into, I'm currently reading Tai Pan by James Clavell. Still early days yet, it doesn't quite hold as much promise as Shogun but I like it. I do love the oriental settings in these books though.

 

[CyBeR]

Just put down Mark Hodder's The strange affair of Spring-Heeled Jack. Quite good for a debut novel and a real pleasant surprise. After my foray into cyberpunk proved to be mostly frustrating for me, I find great pleasure in discovering that steampunk does not disappoint me. Strange...I would have expected things to be the other way around...and it's still too early for me to say that I've given up on cyberpunk (after just a few novels...maybe I've yet to hit the right note).
Nonetheless, Mark Hodder's book felt fresh, interesting and had a great cast of characters (most of which I ended up researching for my own private interests)...plus a ending to which I did not agree. And to feel a bit like Swinburne: that felt great.

Now, while I surveyed my bookshelves to see what I move my bookmark to (I have 3 bookmarks...it's become a bit of a ritual to move one from a read book to the next). I hovered a bit over Red seas under red skies from Scott Lynch...but thought better of it. The prospect of the next book in the series still so damn far away makes me want to avoid reading this until there's at least a definitive date for Republic of thieves.

So I moved to my shadowed shelf, the 'Why-did-I-buy-these-and-where-the-heck-do-they-fit-into-this-blasted-bookcase?' shelf and pulled out something random. As it happens it's Friedrich Nietzsche's The twilight of idols that I'll be reading and I must say I'm not exactly enthusiastic about it. Me and philosophy have a weird relationship, mostly consisting of me feeling like feeding the book to Eddy the chinchilla.
We'll see how this one does and if I'll throw it into the donations pile afterwards -I hate selling books...it feels somewhat wrong to discard them as such, bad decision in buying them or not...I prefer to donate the books that I do not wish to keep, or those that I wish to replace with new edition (and, to extend this already extended side-note and avoid sounding like a complete ass, I'll mention that most of my books are kept in tip-top shape as I read them and require anyone that I lend them out to to care just as much for them) -.

I do apologize for the long post that said basically nothing, but for some reason I'm in a writing mood today.

 

[Vertigo]

Finished Neal Asher's The Skinner. Brilliant! Loved this I think it is probably my favourtie of the Polity books so far. Sniper was such an excellent character! It started a little slowly and I was a little worried I would be disappointed but the pace built steadily throughout the book (how does he do that so smoothly?) and my final reading session was... well let's just say I'm a little short on sleep this today!

Also My first Asher book, borrowed from the library some years back, was The Voyage of the Sable Keech. I was unaware at the time that it was in a (loose) series and was probably not the best of places to start in Asher's world. As a result I was somewhat confused over some details though still enjoyed it overall. So finally it all should make sense now - though I suspect I shall probably re-read TVoftSK for my next Polity book.

I'm thoroughly enjoying reading Burroughs' A Princess of Mars right now. Such nostalgic guilty pleasures!

Also about half way through Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw's The Quantum Universe. Not exactly tearing through this but it is pretty heavy going at times despite the enjoyable way it is written.

 

[Parson]

I'm flying through "Catching Fire" the second book of the Hunger Games Trilogy and I am enjoying it a bit more than the first which is always a good thing in a series.

 

[Connavar]

I'm using The Way Some People Die by Ross Macdonald in Lew Archer series as a reboot, cleanse my reading funk before next weeks novels i have to read for lit class.

A smart,calm well written hardboiled PI is exactly what i want before i have to read YA fantasy books.

 

[Grunkins]

I'm using The Way Some People Die by Ross Macdonald in Lew Archer series as a reboot, cleanse my reading funk before next weeks novels i have to read for lit class.

A smart,calm well written hardboiled PI is exactly what i want before i have to read YA fantasy books.

Nice. I read The Underground Man a while ago. Love Lew. (Although he's no Travis McGee.)

 

[purple_kathryn]

Finished Rage of Demon King - I wondered if the Warcraft creators had taken stuff from it because of the demony things reminded me very much of WoW.

Now on the Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan. I really loved the Black Magician trilogy but wasn't so keen on the Age of Five. So I'll see how it goes

 

[Connavar]

Nice. I read The Underground Man a while ago. Love Lew. (Although he's no Travis McGee.)

Actually i finished the novel today, the calm manners of Lew made him soar in my fav PI heroes list. He feels like more down to earth,realistic version of the early, middle PI heroes.

Im no fan of Travis McGee, i have read only the first novel and i dont remember much about him. Other being like 60s,70s bum version of the type of character.

I will have to read much more of Lew Archer before i give other series a chance.

 

[Hypnos164]

Recently:

Planesrunner - Ian McDonald : OK YA stuff with airships, not a patch on his regular work
Teranesia - Greg Egan : OK story but the SF elements seemed largely superfluous

Currently - Into the Darkness by Harry Turtledove - how many 6 book alternate WWII epics can one man write?

 

[Grunkins]

Finished Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds last night. Fantastic book on the whole (some crap dialogue in the catfight scenes, and the beginning was a little slow, but the Big Ideas were just great).

Started rereading Neuromancer by the man, William Gibson today. Haven't read it since '94ish. Amazing book. I didn't think it would hold up as well as it did.

 

[Vertigo]

Finished Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. Required just a little more suspension of disbelief than I am accustomed to of late but, oh, what fun Originally published in 1917, the style and language (and attitudes) can be a little jarring at times, far more so, I found, than, for example, Conan Doyle writing 30 years earlier. However I quickly became accustomed to that though there was one sentence that stopped me short: "On the second night both we and our animals were completely fagged..." A quick dictionary check confirmed that this is a valid word and not the slang I had always thought it

 

[J-Sun]

1912, I think. But "fagged" doesn't seem as discordant as "fag" because "fagged" (AFAIK) only refers to being tired. But when a guy "wants a fag" it sounds really weird. I think it's British for "cigarette" but maybe it's more or less spatially general or even a temporal thing. "Bum a fag, mate?" just can't get much weirder. But, yep, a fun book. I really like the Pellucidar books, too - they're sort of underrated.

BTW, I read Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Visions (detailed in the short story thread) but forgot to mention it here.

 

[Vertigo]

Yes fag is or was slang for a cigarette over here. Back when I was a kid you would say fagged out meaning tired out, only I had always thought it was slang rather than correct English!

Re the date: I think you are right; Wiki agrees with you. I got it from Fantastic fiction and their publications dates often seem to be a bit dodgy.

Oh and another use of fag over here (now died out) was the name for a junior school boy at a public school who had to perform menial valet-like duties for the seniors (as in Tom Brown''s School Days).

 

[Diggler]

I'm around half-way through The Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howley. What can I say? I feel this is destined to become a classic in years to come! The story is so full of realistic characters, believable setting and intriguing plot twists that you can't help but go back to find out what is going to happen next in this sprawling 142 level city under the wastelands.