March's Metaphorical Meanderings Metamorphosing Into Magical Manuscripts

[Lady of Winterfell]

not so! try dragon keeper and dragon haven, not as brilliant as liveship traders, but pretty good and all set in same world, with some of the same characters too.

(more aimed at YA i think)

I will look into those, thanks! For some reason I thought they had different characters in those books.

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

Started reading Forge Of Darkness by Steven Erikson, Put this one off for too long, 160 pages in and I'm really enjoying this. The writing in this is some of the best I've ever read.

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

I agree. Anyone looking for a series to get lost in should give it a shot. Liveship Traders is about as engrossing a series as I've ever read.

I have the Tawny Man trilogy ready to go. Think I'll save it for this summer.

What would you suggest is the best start off point to her work? I've been meaning to read her stuff for ages and have never got around to it.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

What would you suggest is the best start off point to her work? I've been meaning to read her stuff for ages and have never got around to it.

I know you were asking Grunkins, but I thought I would throw in my two cents. I have only read the Farseer Trilogy and the Liveship Trader trilogies, but you really can't go wrong with either. They take place in the same world, but can stand independently from each other. The Farseer Trilogy comes first chronologically, and starts with Assassins Apprentice. I enjoyed both, but liked the Liveship Trilogy as a whole a bit better. I'm sure you will enjoy either though.

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

I know you were asking Grunkins, but I thought I would throw in my two cents. I have only read the Farseer Trilogy and the Liveship Trader trilogies, but you really can't go wrong with either. They take place in the same world, but can stand independently from each other. The Farseer Trilogy comes first chronologically, and starts with Assassins Apprentice. I enjoyed both, but liked the Liveship Trilogy as a whole a bit better. I'm sure you will enjoy either though.

Cheers! I'll be ordering Assassins Apprentice tomorrow then.

 

[ratsy]

Robin Hobb is one of the best in the business IMO. I have her newest on preorder.

I have just finished Towers of Midnight in the Wheel of Time world and have moved on to the final installment, Memory of Light. As much as I have loved reading them all, with the end so near I can't wait to see what happens then move on to other things again.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

Cheers! I'll be ordering Assassins Apprentice tomorrow then.

Excellent! Be sure to let us know what you think.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I've just completed Bane of Souls by Thaddeus White - as part of my Chrons reading project the review is at the bottom of the page Here

Next up is Echoes of War by Steven Poore

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I finished Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds. I liked the stories, and they satisfied my appetite for more Revelation Space information. But I have become aware that I prefer novels to short stories. I plan on picking up more of his books in the future.

Now I am doing a re-read of The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey.

 

[Grunkins]

Finished Chris Wooding's second Ketty Jay book, The Black Lung Captain. It fulfilled it's promise of a fun, light, adventure romp, though some of the plot really strained my ability to suspend my disbelief.

As it didn't fully hold my interest while reading it, I concurrently read Jerry Coyne's popular science book Why Evolution is True. I found the subject matter thrilling, and it prompted me to start Stephen Baxter's novel Evolution.

This is my second Baxter novel (I've previously read his Timelike Infinity) and I'm really enjoying his work.

 

[Southern Geologist]

The beast is slain! I've finished Moby Dick. It took longer than expected due to the essay sections being a bit of a drag at times, but when Melville is writing as a novelist (or a playwright) his prose is brilliant. I detected what I thought was a Shakespeare influence--some quick Googling confirmed that I was correct, which left me proud of my ability to detect that influence because I'm not particularly well-versed in Shakespeare--and this lead me to start on Shakespeare. I read A Midsummer Night's Dream and then decided that I should go further back down the chain of literary influences and do a full read-through of The Bible. I selected the ESV on the grounds of it being free on Kindle and (allegedly) aiming for a literal, accurate translation. Walt Whitman wedged himself in there somehow or another so I'm also working on Leaves of Grass. I will also be restarting 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea soon.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I just finished Samuel R. Delany's novel The Mad Man. It would be difficult for me to describe in any detail without violating the rules of this, or just about any other, forum, since it is not only extremely sexually explicit, but that its long, detailed, vividly depicted sex scenes involve practices which are very far outside the mainstream. (I'm not talking about the fact that it's entirely males involved, but that it involves many practices that most people would not even want to imagine, let alone read about.) Suffice to say that the plot involves a philosophy student trying to find out what happened to a brilliant young philosopher who was murdered in a bar. The "mystery" aspect of the story is minimal, and it seems to me that Delany is mostly trying to explore the nature of humanity's "intellectual" and "animal" natures. (There's a recurring image of a monstrous half-human half-animal creature, although the book is not fantasy at all.)

Next up:

Several familiar classics here from folks like Lovecraft and Poe, along with stories reprinted from the editor's periodical Whispers and a few other sources.

 

[Mangara]

Still plodding through ringworld as are the "characters". Great concept, good imagination but the people/aliens in the story are poorly imagined, irritating or just feel so dated.

 

[Randy M.]

[...]
Next up:

Several familiar classics here from folks like Lovecraft and Poe, along with stories reprinted from the editor's periodical Whispers and a few other sources.

Checked the table of contents at ISFDB and that looks like fun.

Just an FYI: John Joseph Adams just put out an anthology titled, The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination. I doubt it'll be quite as much fun, but thought it might interest you.

For myself, currently reading Adam Nevill's The Ritual. I'm enjoying it, but I'm short on reading time so my reading has been a bit disjointed.


Randy M.

 

[The Judge]

Two books last week: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick, which I found easier than Ubik (which I couldn't finish) but still not something I could say I enjoyed, and The City & The City by China Mieville which I did enjoy (much more so than Kraken) and I particularly liked the first person narrator, but I'm far from convinced it deserved all the accolades thrown at it.

 

[Vertigo]

Well I actually finished this Sunday so I guess it still goes here and since there's no April thread yet...

William Gibson's Neuromancer. Simply a brilliant book. Fast paced, in your face cyberpunk, with an excellent plot and believable characters. Due to other commitments I took rather a long time reading it which was a shame as I feel it should be read fast in the same spirit as the writing. My further thoughts here: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/vertigo/1740-neuromancer-by-william-gibson.html

 

[Mangara]

Ringworld

MEH! Honestly gutted it didn't live up to the hype

Ringworld is a mighty concept, and one which is an impressive creation. A (man?) made circular matter of ribbon six hundred miles long and 90 million miles in radius. As for a setting for a novel it takes some beating, and leaves many questions for the reader. Who put it there? Why? What will our heroes find on it? How will they escape?

The novel shines in the SF elements; the setting is fantastic, imaginative with much scope for a promising novel. His implementation of scientific theory into the novel works well to re-enforce his created concepts and gives credibility to his creations. The aliens themselves are suitably non-human in appearance and behaviour, which can be a concern in a novel set in a futuristic space environment.

Sadly a novel has to be more than an idea, and Ringworld suffers from dated attitudes and distinctly unlikeable characters. Niven’s portrayal of women is uncomfortable reading, and makes several aspects of the novel hard to like. Teela’s presence is wasted on some exceptionally awkward sex scenes and a disappointing story arc. I found the pacing of the novel to be an issue also with things slowing considerably once our cast land on the ring.

Despite all this it is probably still worth a read, though it is the first SF Masterwork I’ve been disappointed with. The worldbuilding and setting alone is something to respect, but its age is showing through in its sexist overtones and disappointing characters.

Onto The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin. Should read well with my non fiction 1812 by Adam Zamoyski.

 

[Juliana]

Robin Hobb is one of the best in the business IMO. I have her newest on preorder.

Reading her Rain Wilds books now, in prep for the new one. Really enjoyed the first two, am on to the third now. I waited until I was close to the publication date for the last on purpose; once you start one of her trilogies, its almost impossible to stop reading!

 

[GOLLUM]

Apologies I've been offline and away, standby for the April thread.