February's Fastidious Foraging For Fabulous Fiction

[J-Sun]

I've been reading some Cordwainer Smith. I finished "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" last night. The writing style is unlike anything else, and the imagination on show is impressive. He doesn't explain much, just expects you to try and keep up. It's probably too 'flight of fantasy' to really be my cup of tea, but it's written so bloomin' well and with such originality that I think I'm a fan.

That's pretty much exactly how I feel.

 

[FeedMeTV]

Just finished Master of War by David Gilman. It was a good solid read and I liked it a lot. Though I hadn't paid too much attention when I picked it up and didn't spot it was just the first in a series. I'd quite fancied reading a standalone and now feel a bit sucked into an epic against my will...

 

[JoanDrake]

The Life and Times of Grigorii Rasputin (1982) by Alex de Jonge.

I'm about one quarter of the way through this book, and so far it's mostly "times" and not very much "life." This is probably inevitable, since so much about Rasputin is shrouded in myth. It's certainly a fascinating portrait of pre-Revolutionary Russia.

Also because the story of Rasputin would be nearly impossible anywhere else and they have to make sure you understand just what a strange place Russia had become, especially in regard to the odd cults that sprung up on the great steppes. It's a wonder to me that someone hasn't yet done some sort of fantasy epic based on the weird tales that came out of that time and place.


Or have they, and I've just never heard of it.

 

[J-Sun]

The closest thing I know of (and I haven't read them) are Cherryh's Rusalka trilogy but they're medieval-based. About six billion books have been written on Rasputin and the revolution and a good portion of them must be fantasy, though.

 

[ratsy]

I finished The Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan and loved it, good start to a series. Highly recommend.

Picked up Carrie on the weekend and stared it on a plane ride home but have set it aside so I can do a reread of The Way of Kings by Sanderson before the new one comes out next month...wow that is a big book to reread but I have to do it!!

 

[biodroid]

Makin progress in Doctor Sleep which is very good so far.

 

[Lord Soth]

Currently just over half way through The Red Knight by Miles Cameron. This is a doorstep of a book but im flying through it. Starts slowly and he brings in a lot of characters in very small chunks which was a little confusing to follow at first but now he has hit his pace and its great. Great characters, great story - definitely a must read author for me.

In comparison, im struggling with my audiobook of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. He has some great idea's and the portrayal of magic is unique to my knowledge, but the characters are unlikable and the story poor with too may plot mistakes. Oh and the narrator is awful - sounds like it's being read by a teenage American (they have their place i'm sure, but narrating a fantasy novel is not it).

 

[Connavar]

Left Hand of Darkness by Ursual Le Guin

As a big fan of serious SF i find it to be a literary offense that i havent read Le Guin before now....

 

[Fried Egg]

Having recently finished Evangeline Walton's bleak fantasy story "The Children of Llyr", I am now reading John Wyndham's "The Seeds of Time" collection.

 

[ratsy]

Makin progress in Doctor Sleep which is very good so far.

Did you like Promise of Blood? I thought it was quite well done. Oddly enough I just read Doctor Sleep before that and enjoyed it a lot.

Are you stealing my TBR pile?

 

[Ogma]

I finished the Mars Trilogy. Started Doomsday Book.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Omni Interviews (1984) edited by Pamela Weintraub

This is a bunch of interviews with science-type folks from Omni magazine. Pretty much of historical interest nowadays. (Anybody remember Gerard K. O'Neill's proposed space colonies?) The people interviewed vary from world-famous to unknown to me. The stuff discussed ranges from hardcore science to borderline wackiness. Best predictions: John McCarthy (AI guy) pretty much describes the Internet, and O'Neill pretty much describes GPS systems.

 

[kythe]

I finished the Mars Trilogy. Started Doomsday Book.

I really enjoyed Doomsday Book. Its a unique yet believable story intertwining a horrible period in the past with the future.

 

[HareBrain]

Finished Toby Frost's Space Captain Smith. Jolly good fun, with many laugh-out-loud moments and some lovely absurdities.

Also finished Phil Rickman's Candlenight. Suffered from a weak ending, sadly, compared with his slightly later Curfew. But it was still very much my kind of thing, and since I haven't come across anyone else writing anything similar, I've no doubt I'll hunt out Rickman's other early novels at some point.

Meanwhile, I'm about to start Curious Warnings, a collection of M.R. James ghost stories that I found in the local library.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I have now finished Chronicles own Stephen Palmer's Urbis Morpheos, which I really enjoyed

Review Here

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I finished To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I read it years ago in school, but didn't really appreciate it then. I do now, and think it was wonderful.


I currently have 2 books I'm waiting for people to return to the library so I can check them out. While I'm waiting for whichever becomes available first, I am reading through some Edgar Allan Poe.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The frumious Bandersnatch first appear in Lewis Carol's Through the Looking-Glass and The Hunting of the Snark. Neither work describes the beasty in any detail. Apparently Roger Zelazny used the name in the Chronicles of Amber books too.

And here's one in 'Space Western Comics' a 195x comic book featuring 'Spurs Jackson and his Space Vigilantes'. (They don't write them like that any more.)

Digital Comic Museum Comic Viewer: Space Western 044 (INC) - Space Western Comics 044 (1952)/SWEST44-301.jpg

Which, to drag the thread back on topic, is where I have been doing most of my fiction reading the last few nights. Dear Gods! there is some awful stuff in there. Compulsively addictive awful stuff...

I can particularly recommend the episode where they 'Meet the Menace of Comet X' in which SPOILER! >>>>> our hero defeats the enemies by releasing a valve with his whip, thus flooding the comet's control room (sic) with hydrogen gas (which is purple). Obviously, when enough of the hydrogen gas has been released it explodes because, as every fool knows, once enough hydrogen accumulates it blows 'like an H-bomb'.

The baddies door keys are also made of plutonium ('the indestructible metal') which is why they are immune to disintegrator pistols that look like colt 45s with a shark's fin on the top.

Personally I can't get enough of this stuff.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Rather than jump straight into the next book, I'm going to spend a few days catching up on a few comics.

Then it will be The Empress Graves by E J Tett

 

[Allegra]

Started P. G. Wodehouse's short story collection The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories and just finished the 2nd story Extricating Young Gussie, which is the introduction of Jeeves, Bertie and aunt Agatha. I am still laughing. It is more hilarious than any of other Bertie/Jeeves stories I've read so far. Wodehouse is pure genius. His writing is timeless.

 

[hitmouse]

Just finished re-reading Night Lamp by Jack Vance. One of his later books, and one of the less-mentioned. All the usual Vancean tropes. A delight.