September's Stemalogical Study of Stupendously Serpentine and Sonorous Prose

[elvet]

I'm halfway through The Temporal Void by Peter Hamilton. After thoroughly enjoying the Commonwealth saga, I continued on with the Void books. I am really glad that I can read them all back to back since I'm sure a lot of the detail would fade with time.

 

[ratsy]

Well, I finished book 9 of the WOT series, Winters Heart last night. Most of the critics are right when they say the story slows at this time but I am plowing through them and still managing to turn pages.

I am planning on reading the Crossroads of Twilight next but have Brent Weeks new one en route to my house this week so I may put the WOT on pause.

Also I am in the middle of the Bone complete collection, graphic novel. I remember reading my brothers first few issues when I was a kid and loving it. I never made it very far back then to see the scope of the series. It is fantastic for any fantasy fan. Good stuff

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm reading Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers.

So far very promising.

 

[Grunkins]

I'm reading Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers.

So far very promising.

Haven't read any Tim Powers yet. I have Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides in my TBR. I'm definitely interested. One of these days I'll pull the trigger.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Currently reading How To Think Like A Neandertal, by Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge, two professors at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. One is an anthropologist and the other is a neuropsychologist, and both of them have been studying the evolution of cognition for a while. It was recommended to me by a friend who is currently finishing up her BA in anthropology at UC Berkeley and is reading it for a class. So far, it is very good.

 

[Mark_Lawrence]

Haven't yet got my copy of "King of Thorns" by Mark Lawrence so am reading "Gloriana" by Michael Moorcock instead...

One of the small(ish) number of Moorcock books I've yet to read & have intended to pick up for years. A more literary effort isn't it? How are you finding it?

 

[Grunkins]

I just finished David Weber's The Honor of the Queen. It was lots of fun. Great entertainment.

Now I'll get a bit heavier and start Jack Vance's Tales of a Dying Earth omnibus. Very excited to read it.

 

[Juliana]

I picked up Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole over the weekend - I'd read some great reviews and it sounded interesting. I loved the way he inserted magic into our reality - the whole theme of magic controlled by the military, as well as the actual use of magical powers, was very interesting, if not downright cool. But I have to confess that the protagonist really irritated me... so am in two minds about the book. His next book comes out in January; maybe the characters will have picked up a little by then.

 

[Lord Soth]

Still on my Malazan re-read, half way through Reapers Gale at the moment - to date my least favourite book, although it may just be I need a break from Malazan!

 

[Connavar]

Yesterday was a rare wonderful reading day, i had actual free time to read and finished The Ginger Star a Eric John Stark sword and planet book by the great Leigh Brackett.

Now i have not much left of The Simulacra by Philip K Dick. Its a really wacky PKD, many ideas and fun/damaged characters. Although PKD is tiring me alittle with his very unlikeable women. Too much Strindberg "hate" for the other gender in many of his books. It piles on after awhile.....

 

[Allegra]

Currently reading How To Think Like A Neandertal, by Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge, two professors at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. One is an anthropologist and the other is a neuropsychologist, and both of them have been studying the evolution of cognition for a while. It was recommended to me by a friend who is currently finishing up her BA in anthropology at UC Berkeley and is reading it for a class. So far, it is very good.

Looked it up on amazon, sounds like a true fantasy. Maybe I should add it in my to-buy list.

Now reading Bill Bryson's Shakespeare. Just love the way he writes, no matter what he writes.

 

[Connavar]

I'm reading finally The Hound of Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of course. I have been reading the stories in publishing order and I have been spoiled by the last two short story collections so this novel has a lot to live up too.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I've gone a fair chunk through Clive Barker's Coldheart Canyon. I find his writing really easy to race through and having read Weaveworld a while back, he does seem to be interested in world's within images.

Also reading 2001: A Space Odyssey because I fancied a break from the above and No One wouldn't let me read anything else but this.

 

[Grunkins]

Taking a break from Jack Vance's Tales of a Dying Earth to let the first book digest. On a lark picked up Lois McMaster Bujold's omnibus Young Miles and pounded through it (I had previously started it and got only 100+ pages in). Highly enjoyable.
Now I'm starting Robbin Hobb's final book of her Liveship Traders trilogy, Ship of Destiny.

 

[thatollie]

The Empty Space Trilogy by M. John Harrison. Just about to start on a reread of Nova Swing.

 

[Connavar]

The Hound of Baskervilles lived up really well to my high expectations. Now Im reading The King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Somewhat of literary shock going from the honest, good man of his times that is Dr Watson to the twisted mind, POV of Jorg heh!

 

[Rosemary]

Finished re-reading The Malazan Tales so that I could make a start on Forge of Darkness by the great Steven Erikson.

Finished it already, a great read with a few well known characters. Looking forward to the next two books!

 

[Juliana]

Just finished Tigana, by the way, thank you to all those who recomended it!

The end was especially beautiful, and I loved the way the book leaves you with lots of issues to mull over - its not a cut-and-dried good versus bad story. Its nice now and then to have a bit of a grey area to get the old brain thinking!

 

[littlemissattitude]

Looked it up on amazon, sounds like a true fantasy. Maybe I should add it in my to-buy list.

I finished reading How to Think Like a Neandertal, and it's a great book. Just exactly what science writing should be. Scientifically accurate and not dumbed down in any way, but still written with wit and clarity and accessible to the layperson. The authors use pop culture references on occasion, and they do so without them seeming forced. There's even, near the end of the book, a Doctor Who reference. It did amuse me that, having put that reference in, they felt that they had to have an entry on who Doctor Who is in the glossary.

Trying out a couple of other books now, but I'm nost sure I'll read either one of them.

 

[Randy M.]

The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore (first published in 1933, reissued in hard cover this year by Pegasus Crime)

I read this so long ago that I'd forgotten most of it. And I am struck how it could fall out of print so often and for so long; it's at least as good as Dracula.

Bertrand, whose mother was raped by a priest one of whose ancestors had been degraded and tortured into a bestial madman, finds himself the victim of unconquerable urges. Aymar, his adopted uncle, struggles between helping him and revealing his secret.

Taking place just before and during the time of the Paris Commune, Endore contrasts the behavior and deeds of one luckless man against the brutality and cruelty of a social structure. This is horror as social satire, Endore neither sacrificing the horror story to the needs of the satire nor skimping on the build up of the horror story. Further, this is horror in the post-"Turn of the Screw" mold, where the supernatural is alluded to but not necessarily shown clearly enough to say Bertrand is a real werewolf. And yet ...

Terrific novel on multiple levels.


Randy M.