December 2015: What Are you Reading?

[GOLLUM]

Hi everyone.

Please post here what you are reading in the final month of 2015.

I am currently reading Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. It's excellent so far and I can see why it's held is such high esteem by readers. The book is generally viewed as Stegner's masterpiece. To date I thought Crossing to Safety was his best work.

I still have the Spectator Bird, recently released in a Penguin black edition to read. Big Rock Candy Mountain is another book worth pursuing as are his short stories.

 

[LittleStar]

I'm about half way through The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I'm enjoying it for the most part. I do find it the prose quite functional more than anything else, I like a bit of colour. Still trying to work out if I like the magic systems info dumped so completely; it certainly let's me know the limitations, but leaves less room for surprises.

I've not read any Sanderson before, and I don't have the others in the series, but I think ill probably pick them up at some point down the line, to see how things end up, it's a good world and interesting story... I've a large stack of books that are already waiting to be read first though!

 

[biodroid]

Just finished 'salem's Lot by Stephen King, it was good, long winded a lot of the time, a semi decent ending. Continuing with Elfstones of Shannara. So far it is quite enjoyable, at the part with the Rover's.

 

[tobl]

into the darkness from weil lost fleet series and the weak and the innoccent from ryk brown series. there's a new tomclancy novel in my next list

 

[Foxbat]

Just started Innish Carraig and I'm deeply intrigued

 

[ratsy]

@LittleStar I love those books. Especially the first one. (but I am biased. I love all Sanderson)
@biodroid Salem's lot was great. Reminded me why I love King, and found it hard to believe it was from the mid-70's. Have you seen the trailer for the Shannara tv show? Looks so good
@Foxbat It's a great book isn't it?

I'm reading Legends and Liars by Julia Knight, the second book in her new series. I am really enjoying these books.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Just started Innish Carraig and I'm deeply intrigued

Ooooh, that's a good thing. (And you lovely Scots can follow the lingo )

 

[Foxbat]

Ooooh, that's a good thing. (And you lovely Scots can follow the lingo )

It flows well and is very easy to read so that's a good thing even if you have no Scots or Irish blood

 

[Chabvis]

I am currently reading my first Kim Stanley Robinson book, 2312. I am about 2/3 of the way through it and have to say that I am not loving it at the moment. He seems to have a very descriptive writing style that doesn't seem like it is up my alley. I also find myself really disliking the main character. I am not exactly sure why. She seems very naive, preachy, sentimental all at the same time and it really bothers me at times.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started The Dolphins of Altair (1967) by Margaret St. Clair. So far it's about how three human beings are "called" (in a sense) to help the dolphins against the people who are using them in military experiments. It seems that in ancient times there was a covenant between the "sea people" (dolphins) and "splits" (humans) and now it has been broken by the way humans treat dolphins. It's pretty obvious that the dolphins are the good guys and the humans are the bad guys (except for the three who are helping the sea people.)

 

[biodroid]

@ratsy - It was good, he just took his time with the story pace in the middle, I prefer The Shining and Pet Sematary. The Shannara tv show looks good, seems like it could have a decent budget for the visuals, hope the story is good.

Uuuggh! Terry Brooks is annoying, I stopped Elfstones and I think it will be the last time I attempt to read him again. I am thinking of delving into Dean Koontz's Innocence. Hopefully it's a good one, has anyone read it yet? What did you think of it?

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Started Andy Weir's The Martian - somewhat late to the party on this one, but I can see why it's been such a hit. It's a great story, well told, and delivered with a good dose of humour.

It's pretty obvious that the dolphins are the good guys

Yeah, that's what they want to us to think. One day the truth will come out...

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Started Andy Weir's The Martian - somewhat late to the party on this one, but I can see why it's been such a hit. It's a great story, well told, and delivered with a good dose of humour.

It's pretty obvious that the dolphins are the good guys

Yeah, that's what they want to us to think. One day the truth will come out...

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Apologies for the double post - internet just went screwy
Unless it was the dolphins...

 

[james lanfear]

Apologies for the double post - internet just went screwy
Unless it was the dolphins...

I expect it was the dolphins. Now you're in for it 'cos they're watching..
I really liked The Martian (& the film wasn't a bad effort).
I am reading nothing right now (writing instead). However, I have been given a big list of new authors/esses to try out, when I asked for some suggestions on another thread. So, looking forward to it, dark evenings & all.

 

[tobl]

Started Andy Weir's The Martian - somewhat late to the party on this one, but I can see why it's been such a hit. It's a great story, well told, and delivered with a good dose of humour.

Yeah, that's what they want to us to think. One day the truth will come out...

goodbye and thank you for all the fish

 

[Bick]

Just started Transit by Edmund Cooper. I think there are a few Cooper fans here? Looking forward to this (Cooper's rather sexist views notwithstanding).

 

[Randy M.]

Just finished Wilkie Collins' The Haunted Hotel. I went in with moderate to low expectations -- haven't read anything by him except "A Terribly Strange Bed," Victorian writers tend to prolixity, haven't really heard much about this novel except it's one of his later books, when illness and addiction were beginning to have an effect on his writing. But THH seemed like a good starting point before going on to the longer works like The Moonstone, to get a feel of how Collins wrote; and it's a ghost story, which always seems appropriate this time of year.

The main protagonist, Agnes, is of her time, but Collins doesn't make her a shrinking violet and allows her a fair intelligence; she is not like another Victorian Agnes I've read about, the Agnes of Dicken's David Copperfield who struck me as idealized to the point of being so perfect you'd dread spending time with her.

Her antagonist, the Countess Narona, is a more extravagant creation, self-absorbed and aware of impending doom. There's a quote on the Dover edition from T. S. Elliot which I'd summarize as saying she is melodramatic, but since the melodrama is internal to her, the rest of the novel is not melodramatic but true drama.

I wouldn't put this on the top tier of ghost stories I've read (not on par with something like Oliver Onions' "The Beckoning Fair One" or Robert Hichen's "How Love Came to Professor Guildea," for instance) but it is well-written and entertaining and worth seeking out for those who enjoy Victorian ghost stories.


Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

To date I thought Crossing to Safety was his best work.

I did buy a copy of that book, per your recommendation (or someone's!), last June... maybe I will get to it this June.

 

[Travis Woodward]

Caliban's War by James S A Corey. I read Leviathan Wakes a month or so ago but decided to alternate between Iain M Banks' Culture series (which I've never read previously) and the Expanse series. After plodding through Player of Games, Caliban's War is a nice change in pace.