December 2015: What Are you Reading?

[millymollymo]

A little bit of research for 2016 means I am currently reading Invasion of the Overworld - An unofficial Minecrafter's Adventure.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Still on Three Kingdoms, (hit page 2,000 the other day) but should finish it this month, likewise The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England.

And then I've got a biography of William Marshall to read. Huzzah!

 

[Hex]

Just read Did I Mention I Love You? by Estelle Maskame. Not sff (but after I read The Healer's Apprentice, which seems like pretty straightforward historical romance, I'm going to read Queen of Shadows by Sarah Maas, which is sff. I don't think I've read that one yet -- the titles and covers are all fairly similar).

What was interesting about DIMILY was the way the author kept presenting questions, and wanting to find the answers drew you through the story. [this isn't really spoilery because it all happens in the first 10 pages or so] There's a very bad boy(!) who does drugs and drinks too much and misbehaves, and the mc is trying to work out what broke him. There are interesting hints that he's not really so evil, and more, about what happened to make him behave so badly. It's not great literature but it's nicely done and gripping.

 

[Boreas]

I am now on the second novella in The King's Justice: Two Novellas by Stephen R. Donaldson. Really enjoyed the first, titular story in spite of it being written in the omniscient present tense, not a perspective I easily gel with. It was an old-school mystery set in a secondary world that wouldn't have been out of place with Howard's stories in Weird Tales.

Also starting Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald, which I hope will give me my hard sf fix.

 

[Boreas]

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.

I also read 2312 a little over a month ago and I was actually very impressed with it, overall. You're right, though, the main character seemed like quite an unstable, overly wilful and capricious character, but I chalk that up to (in part) her having ingested that bacteria from one of Saturn's moons, which might have exaggerated the peculiarities of her character. I really liked the much more stable and measured Wahram with his search for the perfect pseudoiterative. They complemented each other with their completely opposite psyches.

Otherwise, I loved all the fabulous descriptions (almost poetic at times with its mix of scientific and figurative language) and various interludes - except for the 'lists', which seemed an indulgent affectation, though they did end up having a little relevance, and the 'quantum walks', which...were just headache inducing.

I was quite stunned by the vision in the work - the potential of man's achievements in the solar system whilst being aware of the ineluctable ties to the home planet and the need for a solution/compromise to the factious nature of communities on Earth, if whatever aggregate progress that has been achieved in space is not only to be maintained, but to be truly taken to the next level. It leaves no doubt that the idea of various human societies continuing independently once they've left the sad situation on Earth is fanciful and not at all viable. The problems on Earth affect all of humanity, no matter how far removed and independent they might think they are (even with the establishment of distinctly separate forms of government and other kinds of market systems). It's the aggregate consciousness of humanity that must find some measure of peace and harmony for everyone to move forward. KSR's attempt to look at this problem from multiple angles was admirable in what I thought was quite a humane book.

Not an action-packed work at all (although one longer chapter - of only two long chapters - towards the end is quite tense), but I still liked the book's pace and I absolutely loved how KSR included a strong musical motif as allegory, especially to Beethoven's various works.

I had read KSR's Icehenge and his novella Green Mars in 1997/1998, and for some reason never picked him up again although I do remember enjoying those works. I've forgotten almost everything about them, so reading 2312 almost felt like reading KSR for the first time. I'll definitely be picking up his other works soon. I've got my eye on The Years of Rice and Salt (an alternative history) and his most recent release this year, Aurora, which should be his take on extra-solar possibilities.

 

[mosaix]

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

The Reader's Group at my local library has been complaining about the quality of the books offered for some time. The Friends Of The Library have a lot of people from the Reader's Group as members so we decided to take things into our own hands and buy a set of books that weren't on the library's list. Suggestions went into a hat and out came Midwich Cuckoos.

There are lots of reader's groups in Shropshire but, seeing as how we bought the set (20 books in all) we got first go.

I'd forgotten (I originally read it nearly fifty years ago) just what a good book it is - a great opening paragraph.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started The Glass Harmonica (2000) by Louise Marley. I picked it up at a used book store because it sounded interesting; because the glass harmonica (no relation to what we normally call a harmonica; this is a device which produces music through the touching of spinning disks of glass) is a fascinating instrument; and because I fell in love with the cover art. The blurb doesn't give away too much of the story, thank goodness, but it appears to be a blend of science fiction and fantasy, with some kind of connection between a young girl who is a street musician in London in 1761 and a woman who is a professional musician in Seattle in 2018.

 

[HareBrain]

I finished Erikson's Midnight Tides (Malazan book 5) a couple of days ago. That's half the series done, woot! I thought I'd have a bit of a break before moving onto The Bonehunters, but things didn't quite turn out that way and somehow I've started it already. In between, I fitted in the beginning of The Greatest Knight, by Thomas Asbridge, a history of William Marshall, which I'm looking forward to resuming at some point.

 

[JonLaidlow]

Dave Hutchinson's excellent Europe at Midnight. Its predecessor was, for me, the pick of the last Arthur C. Clarke shortlist, and this one is even better.

After that: I've got some of Gary's Ticketyboo titles from the recent 99p sale, and the latest Tad Williams "Bobby Dollar" trilogy.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Currently between books but have a few lined up, I just haven't decided which I'm in the mood for.

the latest Tad Williams "Bobby Dollar"

I read the first one, and haven't quite decided whether to read the second. How was it?

 

[tobl]

Currently between books but have a few lined up, I just haven't decided which I'm in the mood for.

I read the first one, and haven't quite decided whether to read the second. How was it?

they are not bad... currently read commnder in chief from tomclçancy and now John conroe series. quite amusing actually

 

[JonLaidlow]

the Tad Williams trio were all 99p on the UK kindle store yesterday which is why I snapped them up.

 

[Randy M.]

Mistletoe & Mayhem ed. Richard Dalby

An anthology of ghost stories set on and around Christmas. The first stories are warm ups, not great, not awful: W. W. Jacobs, “Jerry Bundler”; Sabine Baring-Gould, “Mustapha”; F. S. Smythe, “The Sinister Inn”; Hugh Walpole, “Tarnhelm”. Marjorie Bowen's "The Crown Derby Plate" is rather better.

Anyway, so far a decent read while I try to decide what to read next.


Randy M.

 

[dask]

Promoted this from the nightstand where I'd read a page or two before turning out the lights to my major full-time read:


Super so far.

 

[The Bluestocking]

Just finished reading book 1 in Hollly Black and Cassandra Clare's MAGISTERIUM series. Not bad for an MG book - fast-paced, great worldbuilding. However, it's lacking a little something - would've loved it if the authors went a little more in-depth in the story.

Now reading:

• Zoe Marriott's YA Urban Fantasy THE NIGHT ITSELF.
  
• Melissa Marr's Paranormal Fantasy GRAVEMINDER.
  
• The first book in Lee Child's JACK REACHER series - KILLING FLOOR.

So far, so good re all of the above.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I have just started The Glass Harmonica (2000) by Louise Marley.

I read that when it first came out. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it is a very good book.

 

[Bick]

Promoted this from the nightstand where I'd read a page or two before turning out the lights to my major full-time read... Super so far.

That looks fantastic, Dask. Could you provide some of the contents?

 

[Allegra]

Promoted this from the nightstand where I'd read a page or two before turning out the lights to my major full-time read:


Super so far.

The book cover seems vintage, is that Michael Cox the Michael Cox who wrote The Meaning of Night and The Glass of Time (I enjoyed both)? Yes more details please.

I am on the last couple of stories of The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes so to close the chapter of reading/rereading all the Sherlock short stories. I wish they'd never end.

 

[Randy M.]

Allegra, yes. Cox wrote those novels toward the end of his life. Prior to that he edited several books, including at least two books of ghost stories for Oxford.


Randy M.

 

[Allegra]

Thank you, Randy M. I didn't even know Michael Cox passed away, was wondering why there weren't more books followed. Just looked up, when he got cancer he decided to write The Meaning of Night which he had been contemplating for over thirty years. I'm glad he did.