July's Jaw-dropping, occasionally Jargonistic and often Jubilant Stories

I've been reading Our Final Century by Martin Rees. It's about 10 years old now, but it's interesting. He refers frequently to SF writers (eg. Benford, Vernor Vinge, H. G. Wells).

Nanotech, AI, post-human evolution, colonisation of space etc. all come in for consideration.
 
The Hounds of Skaith by Leigh Brackett

I'm liking the world she creates for this series but I miss the sword and sorcery weird element of the first Stark books. Stark is better against supernatural foes.
 
Right at the moment I'm re-reading the Samurai Unofficial Manual. I really like the series (others being Legionary, Knight, Gladiator and Viking) which are very informative as well as being fun and easy to read.

The last new book I read was Daimones by Massimo Marino (sci-fi/apocalypse). I enjoyed it quite a lot.
 
Finished Gateway by Frederik Pohl and was about to start a recent PKD acquistion, but decided for a third reading of The Algebraist by Iain M Banks since it got me back into scifi and it is fitting for me to mark his passing somehow.
 
The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus. I wouldn't advise anyone to start this on a full stomach. Marcus has written a book about the toxicity of language, and shortly before the second chapter I had reached my saturation point for words related to sickness. I put the book aside but I couldn't stop thinking about it. So two days later I did a search for reviews of it and for interviews with the author. I think I was looking for some kind of innoculation to prepare me for re-entering his nightmare. Well, I've finished it. I'd be interested to hear if anyone managed this in one sitting, or if they had the same aversion to picking it up once they had taken a breather.
 
Now reading Heinlein's "Double Star". Very entertaining read. I'm also reading some Arthur C. Clarke short stories from the collection "Reach for Tomorrow", as the Heinlein is contained in my LoA hardback and not suitable for the bus into work.

gully_foyle: You enjoy Gateway? I though it was excellent.
 
finished rereading Use Of Weapons by Iain M Banks, and I have to say I enjoyed it - and understood it - more the second time round, and have decided exactly what it was that baffled me so much the first time... It's how Banks tells you about Zakalwe's past. You've got the storyline of him going to find Beychae to prevent a war, but every chapter you're given another story of another place he's been and what he did there. What baffled me is that his past experiences seem put in in a random order, and I had trouble working out in which order he'd done them. And so, as I was trying to put together his experiences and work out what made him go to the different places, I just got confused! If his past had been put in time order I would have had a much better idea and spent a whole lot less time being baffled =)

reading a bit of Anne McCaffrey now, nothing like a nice dose of dragons every now and then =)
 
ok rereading my post, I'm not very good at explaining, but I hope you get the idea =P
 
Well, I gave up on The Casual Vacancy. It just wasn't going anywhere...I found it boring and never wanted to read because of it.

I have instead picked up Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I have heard such wonderful things about this book, but so far it isn't living up to them. I'm about halfway through, and the writing is hard to follow at times. I wish she would just call him Cromwell, instead of always saying 'He'.
 
Lady of Winterfell said:
I have instead picked up Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I have heard such wonderful things about this book, but so far it isn't living up to them. I'm about halfway through, and the writing is hard to follow at times. I wish she would just call him Cromwell, instead of always saying 'He'.
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Very interested to hear this. I have seen it often enough and wondered about reading it. Will be very interested to see if you think it gets better or not. A mark out of 10 would help!
 
Bick said:
Very interested to hear this. I have seen it often enough and wondered about reading it. Will be very interested to see if you think it gets better or not. A mark out of 10 would help!
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For the record I gave Wolf Hall a mark of 9 out of 10. A really good read for me. Very well researched, very well written IMO.

I also have the sequel Bring Up The Bodies but am yet to read it.

For an ealrier work try Beyond Black, it will do your head in. A distrubingly compulsive read....:)

Will be interestiong to see Lady of Winterfell's final mark and thoughts.
 
sassy1 said:
finished rereading Use Of Weapons by Iain M Banks, and I have to say I enjoyed it - and understood it - more the second time round, and have decided exactly what it was that baffled me so much the first time... It's how Banks tells you about Zakalwe's past. You've got the storyline of him going to find Beychae to prevent a war, but every chapter you're given another story of another place he's been and what he did there. What baffled me is that his past experiences seem put in in a random order, and I had trouble working out in which order he'd done them. And so, as I was trying to put together his experiences and work out what made him go to the different places, I just got confused! If his past had been put in time order I would have had a much better idea and spent a whole lot less time being baffled =)
Click to expand...

But then it wouldn't have been as arty. :) I actually thought the second timeline was told in reverse chronological order rather than random, but I did notice what I thought to be a flaw (or some randomness) somewhere late (early) in that timeline. I didn't love the book but it had some good aspects and I was going to re-read for much the reason you mention - I was going to read it in "order" and see if it made it any better or worse to me and to see if what I thought was an error was an actual one.

Still, it's at least an interesting book.
 
Well, I finally got around to reading "Dune" by Frank Herbert. A lot better than I thought it would be.
 
Dune is a great book! The series can be a bit weaker later on but the opening book is great

And as for myself this month - Hunters Moon; A Story of Foxes by Garry Kilworth. A random find in a second hand book shop and a neat tale of the world of foxes in a changing world of the countryside - battling dogs and hunts and the mysterious ways of people.
 
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, the 2011 World Fantasy winner.

The heroine of the novel is a girl named Onyensonwu, which means Who fears death, must be the best meaning behind a name i have seen. I dont know much about the SFF West African setting,story yet but the writing has so much calm quality, the characters feels very real.

Reminds me of the writing,themes of Toni Morrison novels i have read like A Mercy.
 
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