September's Sojourn through Seismic Scripts and Scelestic Characters

[AE35Unit]

Currently reading The Tar-Aiym Krang. Alan Dean Foster's first novel and chronologically the sceond Pip & Flinx book.

 

[alchemist]

Round about chapter five of Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon, and I have to say I'm distinctly underwhelmed.

 

[Vertigo]

Please post what you are reading in the month of September...

@Vertigo: I like Cormac McCarthy's The Road a lot. I also have his Borders trilogy, which consists of All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. Having said that although opinions on this work can vary wildly I would strongly recommend Blood Meridian to you. It's something of a cult classic and probably my favourite work by McCarthy.

You're definitely on good form, A Canticle for Leibowitz is a great book.

Cheers.

I had picked up on the Borders trilogy as a possible future read but not Blood Meridian. Both now added to my wish list, thank you!

Finished Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. Interesting book to read back to back with McCarthy's The Road and, in my opinion, a rather better (if somewhat more dated) view of a post-apocalyptic future. More here.

Also finished Doyle's The Sign of Four. I do love Doyles's writing and thoroughly enjoyed this book though I didn't find it quite as good as A Study in Scarlet. More here.

Now reading (almost finished) Iain Banks' The State of the Art. Sadly I'm a little underwhlemed by this. I don't think the short wtory is (was) Banks' natural format, he is much better at big sweeping stories with complex convoluted plots.

Off to New York for a week (work) in half an hour so should get some reading done on the flights!

 

[Grunkins]

I just finished Erikson's The Crippled God and with that the Malazan Book of the Fallen. It's hard to say much about the happenings in the book without giving massive spoilers. He managed to some how sew it all up pretty tightly. Throughout the series, every book had me wondering how on earth he was going to bring that particular book to a coherent, satisfying ending. Even down to the last hundred pages or so in each book I couldn't see how it was possible. And each book he managed it. That was how I felt in reading The Crippled God. As the page count was dwindling I couldn't see how he was going to bring this whole huge story to a conclusion. But he did. Many people have said the series redefined the word epic for them, and it has for me as well. It's unlike any other series I've read in so many ways, from the writing style, to the huge-beyond-huge cast, to the ephemeral nature of the world and rules governing that world. There is a lot still to think about. I might say more about the series in the future. Bravo, Steven Erikson.

 

[Lord Soth]

I just finished Erikson's The Crippled God and with that the Malazan Book of the Fallen. It's hard to say much about the happenings in the book without giving massive spoilers. He managed to some how sew it all up pretty tightly. Throughout the series, every book had me wondering how on earth he was going to bring that particular book to a coherent, satisfying ending. Even down to the last hundred pages or so in each book I couldn't see how it was possible. And each book he managed it. That was how I felt in reading The Crippled God. As the page count was dwindling I couldn't see how he was going to bring this whole huge story to a conclusion. But he did. Many people have said the series redefined the word epic for them, and it has for me as well. It's unlike any other series I've read in so many ways, from the writing style, to the huge-beyond-huge cast, to the ephemeral nature of the world and rules governing that world. There is a lot still to think about. I might say more about the series in the future. Bravo, Steven Erikson.

Yes he is something special, and it gets better (for us) as he is so prolific! That said, personally I wasn't too impressed with Forge of Darkness which is probably going to the next Erikson you pick up, it will be interesting to hear your thoughts on it.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Just started The Shadow People by Margaret St. Clair. I don't know much about it, but I know that St. Clair wrote many fine stories in the 1950's and 1960's.

 

[dask]

Really like to know what you think of it. My copy with a great Jeff Jones cover has been sitting on my shelf catching my eye for a very long time. Don't have a good or logical for not reading it yet.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Really like to know what you think of it. My copy with a great Jeff Jones cover has been sitting on my shelf catching my eye for a very long time. Don't have a good or logical for not reading it yet.

It's an unusual blend of fantasy and very near future science fiction. The protagonist goes to an underground world inhabited by "elves" (sinister creatures, nothing at all like Tolkien's elves) in search of his missing lover. When he emerges after three years, the USA has been transformed from the hippie days (the book was published in 1969) to a high security, paranoid society. Definitely worth a look.

 

[Randy M.]

Rereading Arthur Machen's collection, Tales of Horror and the Supernatural. As in the past, "The Novel of the Black Seal," "The Novel of the White Powder" and especially "The Great God Pan" were compelling reads. "The White People" less so, but "The Inmost Light" and "The Shining Pyramid" great fun.

Onward ...


Randy M.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I was looking through a box for something else, I know not what, and ran across A Tale of Two Cities, so I'm reading that again. I would have said it's been twenty years + since I read it last time, but it's oddly more familiar than that, so it's possible I read it in the last few years and forgot about that.

 

[dask]

It's an unusual blend of fantasy and very near future science fiction. The protagonist goes to an underground world inhabited by "elves" (sinister creatures, nothing at all like Tolkien's elves) in search of his missing lover. When he emerges after three years, the USA has been transformed from the hippie days (the book was published in 1969) to a high security, paranoid society. Definitely worth a look.

Sounds interesting. Will probably fast-track it in November after I wrap up my Halloween reads. THE SIGN OF THE LABRYS (right next to it on my bookshelf) also looks worth checking out. Wonder if I should treat them as an Ace Double and read both back to back? I've read the occasional short story by her so I know she's good.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Finished THe Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (A Chrons member don'tcha know) and really enjoyed it. A lot.

The review is up here:

The Blade Itself Review

 

[Perpetual Man]

And will now be moving on to Undercurrents by Tom Grimes.

 

[Grunkins]

I finished David Weber and John Ringo's March Upcountry last night. It was a lighthearted, fluffy military SF with shades of a Planet of Adventure style adventure novel. Stranded space marines, a pampered royal fop, vicious alien fauna, and hordes of violent horned indigenous barbarians. And that's pretty much the whole novel in a single dependent clause. It was an enjoyable read, but I won't be rushing out for the next book in the series.

 

[Vertigo]

I finished David Weber and John Ringo's March Upcountry last night. It was a lighthearted, fluffy military SF with shades of a Planet of Adventure style adventure novel. Stranded space marines, a pampered royal fop, vicious alien fauna, and hordes of violent horned indigenous barbarians. And that's pretty much the whole novel in a single dependent clause. It was an enjoyable read, but I won't be rushing out for the next book in the series.

I seem to recall being a little more acerbic in my description, but light and fluffy cover it pretty well. I too am in no hurry to follow up. Just a bit too full of cliches and over-worn tropes for me.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Lewis Dartnell's guide to astrobiology.

 

[Fried Egg]

Finished "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson and on to "Intrusion" by Ken Mcleod. Hoping to get that finished before the end of the month so I can devote next month to...horror!

 

[Grunkins]

Last night I finished Joe McKinney's Apocalypse of the Dead. Zombies! This book took me by surprise. I had read his first book in the series and wasn't expecting all that much out of this one, but I had recently watched World War Z and was so disappointed by it I had to put some decent zombie material into my braaaaaaainsss.

Apocalypse of the Dead was a very impressive book. Not just impressive for a zombie novel. The writers powers had grown tremendously between book 1 and this second book in the series. The editing was fantastic. This was just a good read, for a zombie novel, for an apocalyptic novel, for a post-apocalyptic novel..etc. It was a well written, highly readable story about people dealing with difficult circumstances. Yes, the basis for nearly all good fiction.

This was the best zombie book I've yet read, and a very satisfying, fun read regardless of genre. I will definitely be buying the next in the series. In fact I ordered it last night minutes after finishing the book.

 

[Vertigo]

Finished:

The State of the Art by Iain M Banks. I found this rather disappointing. I don't think the short story is really suited to Banks' style. He needs room to stretch in his stories.

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. Loved this book. Lovecraft meets Len Deighton (Harry Palmer) meets geeks anonymous (the latter only a little ). For the H P Lovecraft scholars around here there is an essay at the end - The Fear Factory - which is worth a reed if only to see Lovercraft described as a writer of espionage and Len Deighton as a writer of horror! (I already had my opening sentence figured before I read the essay by the way ). I shall certainly be reading more of these Laundry books (even if I can't decide quite what genre they are). More here

The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz. I don't read poetry but I loved this collection of short stories which are really more poetry than narration. Beautiful, beautiful prose and somewhat surrealistic content. I shall certainly be reading the second of the sadly only two collections of his work. More here

Having had a bit of a rummage in my wish list (rather than my tbr pile) I have come up with three books that have been languishing there for far too long. So I've just been shopping and my next reads will be a rather eclectic mix: The Eyre Affair from Jasper Fforde, Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon (I'm wondering how similar that last is going to be to Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark).

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

About halfway through Hospital of the Transfiguration by Stanislaw Lem. It's his first novel, long before he became famous for his SF, and it's mainstream. The story takes place in a Polish mental hospital just after the Germans have invaded.