April's Atypical Advances Into Amazingly Alluring and Action-packed Fictions

[Mangara]

Finished Dune, absolutely stunning book.

Currently reading The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. Its got a style like no other book I've read. Its great!

 

[ratsy]

I finished Memory of Light by Brandon Sanderson. Great ending to a great series.

After a year of Wheel of Time books....I move on to Robin Hobbs last in her series Blood of Dragons which I am very much looking forward to. It is the start of a large to be read pile in my house.

 

[Vertigo]

Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars: well that took a long time to read! And sadly it was also a major effort. I really should have loved this book; I love hard SF and long books and this ticked both of those boxes. Sadly that's as far as it went. The writing and characters were clumsy and the story plodded along at a snails pace. Ultimately, despite the excellent and fascinating hard science aspects, this book disappointed. More here.

 

[Lobolover]

Continuing the Geoffrey book, suddenly the oddly modernist witty tone is giving place to a realy old fashioned Christianity-is-salvation-pray-to-the-lord type of writing at places and I'm afraid it might turn out to be a dissapointment once we get to the cultist bits, but I hope not.

 

[Connavar]

Just finished Majestrum by Matthew Hughes. Pleased to find it more than just a Vance pastiche.

I also scored this beauty:

One of the few Vance novellas left on my to read list (still trying to find an affordable copy of Vandals of the Void.) Not bad but nowhere near his best, and quite obscure. What I hadn't realised was that this is an Ace Double, with several interesting Vance short stories on the reverse side, including The Moon Moth, which I had not previously read.

I have read the novellas that is collected in Monsters in Orbit in the last two years they have been collected in fine hardcovers by subterranean press with other early Jack Vance stories in Early Jack Vance Volume 1 and Volume 2. Why i havent missed many of Vance novellas,short stories in the many new collections of the last decade.

They have one of his few SF female leads in Jean Parlier that is very interesting, very Vancean competent hero character. The first story Abercrombie Station is much less convincing than the weird,fun mystery that is Cholwell's Chickens

 

[HoopyFrood]

Ploughed through Jordan's Eye of the World the past few days. It's helped build up the old reading momentum that I used to have and so -- and wanting something different -- I've gone straight onto Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory.

 

[Vertigo]

"different" is a bit of an understatement there! Hope you like it, I thought it was brilliant!

 

[HoopyFrood]

Er...I don't quite know what to make of it really. Well written indeed, but don't think I much enjoyed it.

Anyway, all finished and now starting a book I bought years ago because someone was looking for it here and it sounded interesting. So onto Inherit the Stars by James P Hogan.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Nobody else reading anything?

Inherit the Stars done. Really enjoyed that! It was really one long investigation and it was thoroughly intriguing. I especially liked when they first started putting together all that they knew about Charlie the moon body. I shouldn't leave such long periods between reading science fiction.

Anyway, considering my reading pattern, I decided not to leave horror out. So now The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley.

 

[Mouse]

How are you reading so quickly?!

I'm still reading Alchemist of Souls.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I'm taking a break from speculative fiction and reading some mid-20th century history. (I've actually got a few books on my list that fit into this category; a book on Sixties rock, one on the year 1968, one on the year 1972, and one reprinting pages from Vanity Fair magazine from the Twenties and Thirties.)

This book is interesting because it's from way back in 1965, just after American involvement in Vietnam increased greatly.

 

[The Judge]

I thoroughly enjoyed Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White at the beginning of the month. Doppelgangers, a madwoman, intrigues, secret societies, a super-intelligent unscrupulous Italian aristocrat -- what's not to like! (Well, the depiction of women for one thing, but it's a product of its time.) And still with Victoriana, I've also read Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra which was entertaining enough, though a bit too sacchariney/chocolate-boxy for my taste.

I've started two books which I'm having troubles with -- The Technician by Neil Asher, and The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. It remains to be seen whether I'll be able to finish either of them.

 

[HoopyFrood]

How are you reading so quickly?!

I am rather a speed reader when I build up the momentum, though it hasn't been like this for quite some time -- making up for it in full style, it seems! Don't want it to stop too soon, so I'm making sure I pick up a new book straightaway.

 

[GOLLUM]

I am rather a speed reader when I build up the momentum, though it hasn't been like this for quite some time -- making up for it in full style, it seems!

Mind if I borrow your eyes for a while?...

I don't seem to be getting much reading at all done lately, although there has been some extenuating circumstances...but still.

 

[ratsy]

I finished Blood of Dragons by Hobb. It was...unsatisfying. I am not sure where I am going now. Probably Blackveil by Kristen Britain.

 

[Mangara]

Finished The Sheep Look Up it was brilliant!Onto A Storm of Swords: Part 2 Blood and Gold hopefully I can remember what is going on.

 

[Vertigo]

I've started two books which I'm having troubles with -- The Technician by Neil Asher, and The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. It remains to be seen whether I'll be able to finish either of them.

I hesitate to mention this TJ, but presumably you have read the earlier books that give the back story to The Technician, particularly The Line of Polity but also any of the Dragon books? Also I seem to recall it does get better once it gets swinging.

 

[Ice fyre]

I am reading (just about finished) Embasytown by China Meilvile, its a hard read, interesting but a bit long winded in places. Got A Robin Hobb to read City of Dragons looking forward to it.

 

[Randy M.]

THE RITUAL by Adam Nevill. Just finished this, a solid horror/fantasy set in the old growth forest in Sweden and bordering Norway. Four English friends go hiking only to get lost. First they stumble over a fresh kill hanging from high in the trees, then they find the remnants of an ancient settlement and attract the attention of something that lives in the woods. Apparently the settlers were aware of the thing and offered it sacrifices. When Luke is separated from the others, he comes across some living people who want to return to the old ways, placating the thing.

Unfortunately, any plot summary sounds hokey but Nevill writes with conviction and some flair, his story evoking the gist of Arthur Machen ("the Novel of the Black Seal"; "The Great God Pan") and Algernon Blackwood ("The Willows"; "The Wendigo") and also James Dickey (Deliverance), so that the novel, while occasionally grueling (in fairness, the cold I had while reading this might also account for my sluggish reading pace), also has a certain gravity. Nevill's use of the supernatural is intrinsic to his exploration of what a man believes and how he will act in extremis.



Randy M.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I am rather a speed reader when I build up the momentum, though it hasn't been like this for quite some time -- making up for it in full style, it seems! Don't want it to stop too soon, so I'm making sure I pick up a new book straightaway.

I'm jealous. I am always wishing I could read faster.

I finished Blood of Dragons by Hobb. It was...unsatisfying. I am not sure where I am going now. Probably Blackveil by Kristen Britain.

That's too bad. I still need to read Tawny Man, but was looking forward to Hobb's new books. Would you still recommend them, even though this one wasn't as good?