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

[Vertigo]

I thought this was a very over-rated book, so I'm glad to see your review. (Some time ago the city of Chattanooga had a "One City, One Book" promotion where folks were supposed to read a certain book and discuss it in groups. This novel was chosen for one of these events. With the over-explaining you note, perhaps this is a better book for non-SF fans to read than many other works of SF, which might be difficult to follow for a general audience.)

Yes you're probably right, Victoria, there's certainly not a lot of hard, geeky, techie stuff in it, so likely much more accessible to a non-SF audience.

 

[Connavar]

I started reading Doomsday Book today but it was so weak first 20-30 pages that i changed my mind and started reading my current Arabic novel by Himmich....

 

[Vertigo]

Ooo that doesn't sound good Conn!* I must admit it wasn't one of those books that really grabs you and drags you along with it from the first page but, in fairness to it, once it gets going the story does move along pretty well.


*Edit: that could read wrong! I mean your feelings about Doomsday Book not your feelings about the Arabic novel! )

 

[J-Sun]

I started reading Doomsday Book today but it was so weak first 20-30 pages that i changed my mind and started reading my current Arabic novel by Himmich....

Yeah, I'll pile on and say that I read this back when I was trying to read all the Hugo/Nebula winners (before the increasing awfulness of the relatively recent awards put an end to that) and I can't remember if I finished it or not - I know I read at least a lot of it and would have been better off quitting early like you did. I don't recall it being exactly awful or - other than being an unjustifiable award-tie-er - a hate-inducing book but it was strongly "meh".

 

[Fried Egg]

I started reading Doomsday Book today but it was so weak first 20-30 pages that i changed my mind and started reading my current Arabic novel by Himmich....

Oh dear...do you think you'll go back to it?

Myself, I've just finished Rudyard Kipling's "The Mark of the Beast and other horror stories" and have now started John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids". Long overdue reading this; I have read many of his other books but for some reason, not this one.

 

[Extollager]

Well, so: Kipling comments?

 

[Connavar]

Oh dear...do you think you'll go back to it?

Myself, I've just finished Rudyard Kipling's "The Mark of the Beast and other horror stories" and have now started John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids". Long overdue reading this; I have read many of his other books but for some reason, not this one.

I will go back for it because Willis is seen as important SF author and i dropped only temporary to read next after my Arabic novel. I dont have much time to read right now and Himmich's book is a brilliant prose,smart novel about culture,history of Arabic Spain. Sort of real historical version of Thousand and one nights.

I didnt drop Willis book because it was so weak more like oh this book will take longer to get going and not enough for my interest right now.

 

[Fried Egg]

Well, so: Kipling comments?

Here were my thoughts:

If you're like me then you wouldn't have realised that this famous classic author had ever written in the horror field. I hadn't actually read any of his work before and so it was high time I read something by him, this looked like a good place to start.

The stories are presented in chronological order and hence there's a definite sense of change and progression reading through them in order. In my opinion, we see the Kipling developing his skills as a writer and the stories generally improve as they go on. Also, later on there is a definite shift away from India as the setting, I suppose reflecting the fact that he moved away from India later on in life.

Some stories definitely left a stronger impression than others. Besides the unquestionably excellent title story, I loved "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes" in which an English officer accidentally falls into a sand trap in the desert and finds a community of scavengers living in it with apparently no way out. An interesting examination of human nature.

"The Wandering Jew" was a haunting tale of someone who is driven to try and gain extra days of life my travelling constantly eastwards around the world.

In "They" the protagonist, lost while driving, encounters a blind lady living in a house with mysteriously shy children. He eventually discovers they are not quite what they seem.

And in "The House Surgeon" we see a house haunted, not by the dead, by by the grief of the a living, tortured soul.

All in all, a pleasing collection in which the stories can be read back to back as they vary considerably and served up with an informative introduction by S. T. Joshi.

 

[Ice fyre]

Well, so: Kipling comments?

He does make exceptionally good cakes?

Sorry had to do that one!

Just finished "City of Dragons" by Robin Hobb, quite enjoyed it, I look forward to the fourth in the series, if I can get it here in Scotland.

Reading an odd one, it's by Julian May, Jack the bodiless, the general premise is that Human evolution is producing phycic talents, these allow us to be accepted into an alien galactic civilisation. So far so good.

 

[Grunkins]

Finished Steven Erikson's Reaper's Gale, book 7 of MBotF. Great book. I thought it started a little slow as new characters were introduced in Lether, but once it picked up it was as engrossing and compelling as any of the books. I only have three books left in the series, and I want to read them all right now but I don't ever want to find myself without another MBotF book to read.

I can put off reading the next Malazan book for a couple days, though. While sitting and staring at my awesome TBR stacks ("awesome" used connotatively and denotatively), I noticed Tricked by Kevin Hearne toward the bottom of one of the stacks. Somehow I had forgotten to read that before now. Started it last night. These books are great fun, and a perfect light weight diversion from MBotF.

 

[Randy M.]

Currently reading The Sinful Ones by Fritz Leiber after conversation on another thread prompted me to extricate it from Mount TBR.


Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

Here were my thoughts:

If you're like me then you wouldn't have realised that this famous classic author had ever written in the horror field. I hadn't actually read any of his work before and so it was high time I read something by him, this looked like a good place to start.

The stories are presented in chronological order and hence there's a definite sense of change and progression reading through them in order. In my opinion, we see the Kipling developing his skills as a writer and the stories generally improve as they go on. Also, later on there is a definite shift away from India as the setting, I suppose reflecting the fact that he moved away from India later on in life.

Not to disparage the Indian stories, I trust! What about "At the End of the Passage"? What an atmosphere of oppression that one conjures.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I finished A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. Not exactly what I was expecting, but since it was written well before the wreckage of the Titanic was found, there were only so many facts that were known at the time. The book mainly focuses on the passengers and their experiences. He did write another book called The Night Lives On which I may pick up at some point.

Now I have decided to pick up a classic which I have never read...A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

 

[GOLLUM]

Standby folks..about to post the MAY reading thread.