It's October. What are you reading?

[GOLLUM]

Hi everyone,

Please let us know what you are reading for the month of October...

 

[ratsy]

I miss the fun alliteration titles!

(still reading Brent Weeks)

 

[Randy M.]

Currently reading Haunted Castles by Ray Russell. The first three stories, "Sardonicus," "Sagittarius," "Sanguinarius" are excellent. The short stories following are, perhaps, slighter, but still gorgeously written and involving.

Randy M.

 

[The Judge]

A problem with the alliterative titles -- which I also thought were great fun -- is that newbies to the site didn't always realise what the threads were about. Not only does that potentially exclude newcomers to the Chrons, which is the opposite of what we should be doing, it also led to some newbies opening threads of the-what-are-reading kind that then had to be dealt with. Which meant some mods had to break off eating the chocolate hob-nobs to do some work. Faced with that terrible option, there was no contest. Alliteration altogether and absolutely annihiliated.


(As for me, not much reading done the last week, and I'm still on The Briar King by Greg Keyes and The Spirit of Venice by Paul Strathern)

 

[The Bluestocking]

Now reading:

• The second book in Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters YA trilogy.
• The fourth book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.
  
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
• Smart Swarm (nonfiction) by Peter Miller

 

[Grunkins]

Reading Broken Angels by Richard K Morgan. It's his second Kovacs book, and where the first was very noir/cyberpunk, this one (thus far) is very military SF/space opera. Fun stuff. I wish he wrote more of these.

 

[Vince W]

To rid my mind of the book I just quit, Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Parson]

Just finished Impact (Ell Donsaii #12). This was a good but unspectacular read. The first 11 were very good in my estimation. It seems to me that Laurence Dahners is going to let this set for a while, maybe a long while, so that he can write some other stuff. I'm one chapter short of finishing Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster will finish that on my drive to the hospital this afternoon. (Making a hospital call, nothing for myself.) I have Hidden by Kendra Elliot cued up for the next listen to novel. Not sure what S.F. comes next. I'm thinking David Weber and Timothy Zahn in A Call to Duty, but $10 price tag is causing me some hesitation. I've gotten very used to paying less than $5 for my books, even with narration.

 

[Juliana]

Finally finished the third in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy; I stalled for a good while as I got a bit annoyed that Lyra Silvertongue, who started out in the first book as such a strong character, suddenly went all wishy-washy towards the end of the trilogy. I understand that she's growing up, etc, etc. But she was such a fiery, feisty little thing in the beginning, and he slowly drained that from the character. I wasn't very happy about that.

 

[HareBrain]

I was really disappointed with the third of Pullman's trilogy. A complete mess as far as I was concerned.

I've been reading, for some reason, Difficulties With Girls by Kingsley Amis. An exuberantly written exploration of the lives of domestically dissatisfied people in sixties London, with some laugh-out-loud wit.

I've also read the graphic novel The Filth by Grant Morrison. Very ... interesting. If you ever feel the hankering to see what dolphins would look like with WWII German aircraft markings, this is the book for you.

 

[Juliana]

I was really disappointed with the third of Pullman's trilogy. A complete mess as far as I was concerned.

And the first started so promisingly! Ah well.

 

[The Judge]

I was really disappointed with the third of Pullman's trilogy. A complete mess as far as I was concerned.

Ditto. Book one was brilliant, book two was fine, and then it completely nose-dived.

As an aside, for years afterwards I thought of writing to him quoting from a couple of lines from George Herbert's Love which I'm astounded he didn't use himself in the books, since they fitted perfectly: "yet my soul drew back, Guilty of dust and sin."

 

[Foxbat]

I'm currently reading our own Teresa Edgerton's Goblin Moon and enjoying it
After that, it'll be Simon Sebag Montefiore's Prince Of Princes: The Life Of Potemkin

 

[dask]

Almost finished with:

Super good so far. Couldn't ask for a better read whether for Halloween or not.

 

[Extollager]

Staring Simak's Ring Around the Sun. I was going to read another Asimov oldie after finishing Simak's Time and Again, but decided to stick with this enjoyable author.

 

[kythe]

I'm sorry to hear about this too. I read the first book years ago and recently picked up the entire trilogy. One of these days I will read all three. But I do really like Lyra as a character and I don't want to see her change.

 

[Bick]

Glad to hear that, Extollager. The amazing thing is that, considering of all the Simak books being read by other Chrons members at the moment, there is almost no overlap with my reading! I've haven't got or read, Ring Around the Sun, or Time and Again, or Project Pope, etc.

I've just started Simak's "Why Call them Back from Heaven?", which must take some sort of prize for finest SF title of all time.

 

[J-Sun]

A problem with the alliterative titles -- which I also thought were great fun -- is that newbies to the site didn't always realise what the threads were about. Not only does that potentially exclude newcomers to the Chrons, which is the opposite of what we should be doing, it also led to some newbies opening threads of the-what-are-reading kind that then had to be dealt with. Which meant some mods had to break off eating the chocolate hob-nobs to do some work. Faced with that terrible option, there was no contest. Alliteration altogether and absolutely annihiliated.

An amazingly apposite assessment.

Also made the old threads impossible to search for. I'd even prefer a robotic "What Are You Reading? (2014-10)" or something. Better, just a single megathread like the Now Playing and other threads.

 

[Hex]

I stayed up all night(*) finishing Chime. It was funny and dark and beautiful. I'd really recommend it.

Next, the last of Daniel Abraham's Coin and Dagger books (Widow's House) because my sister needs it back so she can finish it, and then I'll be reading Goblin Moon.

@TJ I tried to read The Briar King a few months ago, but it had too many intestines and I gave up. I'll be interested to hear what you thought of it.

(*) poetic license, but I did stay up much too late.

 

[The Judge]

@TJ I tried to read The Briar King a few months ago, but it had too many intestines and I gave up. I'll be interested to hear what you thought of it.

The intestines aren't worrying me, oddly enough since I'm terribly squeamish. I don't know if you saw my replies to ratsy about it last month

I got off to a bad start with it, I have to say, with the rather boring and repetitious "Prelude" which is set hundreds of years in the past, so has nothing to do with the characters of the main story but seems shoved in there simply to start the book with lots of fighting, then the "Prologue" with the young girls which could be omitted without any loss at all, then the first five chapters with four different POV characters, none of whom are connected, and which includes a dream sequence, of all things, solely designed to get in fighting which isn't otherwise there. And don't get me started on rebellious, feisty, teenage Princesses...

and

To be fair to him, I can see (now I've got further into the book) that he is reaching past the cliché to show character development which will presumably take place in the next book. And Aspar is better drawn, and I am enjoying Stephen's storyline. There's just not quite enough there for me, though.

As I'm nearing the end I'm looking a little more favourably on it, as the plot has come together, and not all the characters are still completely one-note ciphers even if they started out like that. But for my money if he'd written the book just about Aspar and Stephen and dumped everyone else it would have been a lot stronger and less throw-it-across-the-room-ish. As to his writing, it's not awful but again it's not good enough to bring everything alive for me.