December 2017: Reading thread

[Hugh]

I’ve read through another two volumes of the Baen collected works of James Schmitz: “Agent of Vega”, which I’m afraid I found fairly tedious though two or three of the stories made it worthwhile, and “The Hub, Dangerous Territory” which I liked much more, but then it includes several of my favourites.

In between I’ve been on something of a Jack Vance binge courtesy of the local charity and second-hand stores: “The Houses of Iszm”, “The Languages of Pao”, “The Gray Prince”, “Marune: Alastor 993”, “The Palace of Love”, and “The Book of Dreams”. None of these exceptional for me, but pleasant reading, and will continue now with “Lyonesse”.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Finished the comics and have started what will probably be my last book of the year, The City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

 

[hitmouse]

I’ve read through another two volumes of the Baen collected works of James Schmitz: “Agent of Vega”, which I’m afraid I found fairly tedious though two or three of the stories made it worthwhile, and “The Hub, Dangerous Territory” which I liked much more, but then it includes several of my favourites.

In between I’ve been on something of a Jack Vance binge courtesy of the local charity and second-hand stores: “The Houses of Iszm”, “The Languages of Pao”, “The Gray Prince”, “Marune: Alastor 993”, “The Palace of Love”, and “The Book of Dreams”. None of these exceptional for me, but pleasant reading, and will continue now with “Lyonesse”.

I am particularly fond of Marune for some reason. I also like Languages of Pao. The Grey Prince is a bit of a problem.

 

[janeoreilly]

I have moved on to The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter. Reading this purely because the title is so fantastic.

 

[Hugh]

I am particularly fond of Marune for some reason. I also like Languages of Pao. The Grey Prince is a bit of a problem.

“Marune”was the first one I read in this Vance reading flurry, and I liked it enough to go out and buy a pile more. Of those few I’ve read so far, I thought the “Gray Prince” the weakest, and I also found “The Palace of Love” disappointing, but then I’m not reading in sequence.

I may be fortunate in that I’ve read very little Vance recently, other than some short stories such as “The Last Castle”, “The Gift of Gab”, “Moon Moth”, all of which I really liked, so I’m looking forward to more. Way back when I read “The Dragon Masters” and “The Dying Earth/ Eyes of the Overworld”, but I can’t remember others. “The Dragon Masters” was a brain changer for my ten year old self (1962?): because of my interest in dinosaurs my father gave it to me to read in the Galaxy pulp edition with all the dinosaur-like illustrations, and I was completely enthralled.

 

[biodroid]

53% into American Assassin by the late Vince Flynn. Really good so far, with unexpected twists here and there, very good writing. He is comparable to Tom Clancy but not on the door stopper novel scale. What I like is he doesn't do much filler but does do the odd info dump here and there.

 

[Glen]

I finally finished Arundhati Roy's Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Had a quick start with this while on holiday in Vietnam, but slowed right down when I got back to Sydney. The book changes direction and pov considerably but all comes together at the end. Five Stars.

Thought I'd try some Iain M Banks. I used to read a lot of his Iain Banks 'non sci-fi'. Feersum Endjinn has a very structured approach to relating the stories of four main characters. Nicely brought together at the end, but I found it a tough read. Felt 20% could have been trimmed for a leaner book. Loved the way the character Bascule's narration is written. I think some of the Asura character made its way into my 75wd comp entry this month. Four Stars.

I found a Mike Oldfield album called Songs of Distant Earth, which was based on an Arthur Clarke book, strangely also called Songs of Distant Earth. I ordered it and it landed from the UK. Much quicker read than either of the first two books. I used to love this guy's books when I was a pre or early teen, This was back on the eighteenth century, but grew out of him. Well, it seems I've grown back in because this was a lot of fun. I would still say the writing is staid, a bit twee, but I was engaged, if not emotionally affected, all the way through. Well, I lie, because I've still got a few pages to go. Five Stars.

Next - dunno if I'm game to read Iain M Banks Consider Phlebas - I was going to work my way through the whole Culture series, but Feersum Endjinn has me thinking twice. More likely some non-fiction.

 

[Vertigo]

I finally finished Arundhati Roy's Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Had a quick start with this while on holiday in Vietnam, but slowed right down when I got back to Sydney. The book changes direction and pov considerably but all comes together at the end. Five Stars.

Thought I'd try some Iain M Banks. I used to read a lot of his Iain Banks 'non sci-fi'. Feersum Endjinn has a very structured approach to relating the stories of four main characters. Nicely brought together at the end, but I found it a tough read. Felt 20% could have been trimmed for a leaner book. Loved the way the character Bascule's narration is written. I think some of the Asura character made its way into my 75wd comp entry this month. Four Stars.

I found a Mike Oldfield album called Songs of Distant Earth, which was based on an Arthur Clarke book, strangely also called Songs of Distant Earth. I ordered it and it landed from the UK. Much quicker read than either of the first two books. I used to love this guy's books when I was a pre or early teen, This was back on the eighteenth century, but grew out of him. Well, it seems I've grown back in because this was a lot of fun. I would still say the writing is staid, a bit twee, but I was engaged, if not emotionally affected, all the way through. Well, I lie, because I've still got a few pages to go. Five Stars.

Next - dunno if I'm game to read Iain M Banks Consider Phlebas - I was going to work my way through the whole Culture series, but Feersum Endjinn has me thinking twice. More likely some non-fiction.

Wow Feersum Endjinn is a tough first Banks SF book to tackle. I'd say his Culture books are generally speaking easier reads and not nearly as weird. Also, although Consider Phlebas was the first published Culture book, I think Id recommend something different for a first Culture read - Player of Games maybe - Consider Phlebas is not the easiest of the Culture books to get into.

 

[vanye]

Yes, I concur with @Vertigo. I still have Feersum Endjinn on my to read shelf but have enjoyed all the culture novels. And Player of Games is a great read imho.

 

[williamjm]

I finished Ian Esslemont's Deadhouse Landing. I enjoyed it, although I think I probably slightly preferred the previous book Dancer's Lament - maybe because the story was slightly less familiar in that one. It's unusually concise for a Malazan novel at less than 400 pages but still managed to pack quite a lot in and despite knowing how things were going to unfold in the long run it was still interesting to see the details of how they occurred.

Wow Feersum Endjinn is a tough first Banks SF book to tackle. I'd say his Culture books are generally speaking easier reads and not nearly as weird. Also, although Consider Phlebas was the first published Culture book, I think Id recommend something different for a first Culture read - Player of Games maybe - Consider Phlebas is not the easiest of the Culture books to get into.

I really liked Feersum Endjinn, but it's not really all that representative of his other work. I agree The Player of Games is an ideal first Culture book.

 

[Glen]

...Player of Games maybe - Consider Phlebas is not the easiest of the Culture books to get into.

Yes, I concur with @Vertigo...Player of Games is a great read imho.

...I agree The Player of Games is an ideal first Culture book.

Uh oh, Consider Phlebas is the one I bought though, so it's going to be first. Thanks for the recommendations all the same. Do they not need to be read in order of writing? I read one or two years back, but I can't even remember which ones. I do remember the person who loaned them to me. He once individually wrapped humbug sweets, put a tiny sticker saying "Bah!" on each one, and left one sweet on every colleagues desk at around this time of the year.

 

[J-Sun]

Consider Phlebas is the one I bought though, so it's going to be first. Thanks for the recommendations all the same. Do they not need to be read in order of writing? I

FWIW, I read Consider Phlebas first and liked it a great deal (mostly) and haven't really liked any others (especially not Player of Games). But it's true that they're all pretty stand-alone and can be read in any order. Still, my very much minority report is that you'll be fine going ahead with CP.

 

[Fedos]

I just finished The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton, a whopper of a book of which I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, I'd go so far as to say from what I've read of The Night's Dawn Trilogy that Hamilton is swiftly becoming one of my favorite modern science fiction authors, though to be fair I haven't explored the genre exhaustively as have some others on this site. Now I'm on to reading The Naked God, the last in the trilogy.

 

[Vertigo]

Uh oh, Consider Phlebas is the one I bought though, so it's going to be first. Thanks for the recommendations all the same. Do they not need to be read in order of writing? I read one or two years back, but I can't even remember which ones. I do remember the person who loaned them to me. He once individually wrapped humbug sweets, put a tiny sticker saying "Bah!" on each one, and left one sweet on every colleagues desk at around this time of the year.

I finished Ian Esslemont's Deadhouse Landing. I enjoyed it, although I think I probably slightly preferred the previous book Dancer's Lament - maybe because the story was slightly less familiar in that one. It's unusually concise for a Malazan novel at less than 400 pages but still managed to pack quite a lot in and despite knowing how things were going to unfold in the long run it was still interesting to see the details of how they occurred.

I really liked Feersum Endjinn, but it's not really all that representative of his other work. I agree The Player of Games is an ideal first Culture book.

Let me stress that I also loved Feersum Endjinn but I do know there are many who don't.

FWIW, I read Consider Phlebas first and liked it a great deal (mostly) and haven't really liked any others (especially not Player of Games). But it's true that they're all pretty stand-alone and can be read in any order. Still, my very much minority report is that you'll be fine going ahead with CP.

I also loved Consider Phlebas but again know many didn't. The order as @J-Sun says is generally not critical; most are stand alone but there are a few that do continue the stories of one or two characters from previous books. I definitely read at least my first seven or eight in a pretty random order but then finished in publication order. I keep planning to do a complete re-read in publication order one of these days. But I'd suggest that if you have already got Consider Phlebas then you'd be as well to start there and, assuming you choose to continue, do so in publication order.

I am also currently engaged in working through his extraordinarily diverse collection of non-SF books; I think I have about three left to go.

 

[hitmouse]

I started with Consider Phlebas (when it was published) and thought it was great.
Feersum Endjin. Is one if my favourites. The spelling stops being a problem quite quickly I find. It probably helps if you are familiar with Glaswegian and have also read the Molesworth books.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started The Businessman: A Tale of Terror by Thomas M. Disch (1984), which would seem to make use of the modern urban horror novel as a setting for his particular mordant wit and literary style.

 

[Fedos]

I have just finished The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker, book one of The Prince of Nothing trilogy. This is my third time reading the book in an effort to read through the works in Bakker's Second Apocalypse. I very much enjoyed the reread, and was particularly smitten with Bakker's use of various competing and interwoven factions represented throughout the world. I am now starting the next book, The Warrior Prophet, a book that I have never read before.

 

[Hugh]

I’ve just finished Jack Vance’s “Lyonesse”. It’s very rare for me to not finish a book that I’ve started, but I was sorely tempted for the first hundred pages which I found dull dull dull. I haven’t read that much of Vance, but what I have read has impressed me and I couldn’t believe that he could write so tediously. Then for the last three hundred I became totally gripped. The change came for me at the point when the worlds of fairy and magic start to feature more strongly in the storyline. I’m glad I do not have the second volume to hand as it’s good to reconnect with the world around me and manage to speak to people once more. In fact the only reservation I have about the book now, other than the first hundred pages, is that I find it uncomfortable to be so gripped by a book that I lose interest in the world around me. It also feels a little over-frenetic to be skipping ahead to see what happens then backtracking because I’ve read too quickly etc etc. It’s for this reason I’ve tended to avoid longer books. For example, years ago I read Hobbs' “Liveship Traders” trilogy (?over 2500 pages) and for the duration had little focus on my commitments in the external world, and (please note that I have the greatest respect for Hobb and her many wonderful readers) at the end I realised that if I had a choice I would rather have that time back than the memories of the books, that while the story was completely gripping, the world of the trilogy was essentially deeply unpleasant (as far as I was concerned) and not one that I either felt nourished by or would want to spend any time in. In contrast Lyonesse is only a little over four hundred pages and as such time lost to it is relatively little, and what passes for my mind is still buzzing interestingly with varied images richocheting around my unconscious.

 

[Glen]

Almost halfway through Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures). Three people and their involvement with each other and UN operations. It's all true!

 

[Glen]

Feersum Endjin. Is one if my favourites. The spelling stops being a problem quite quickly I find. It probably helps if you are familiar with Glaswegian...

I reckon you're right - I didn't mind Bascule's language at all. He was by far the funniest part of the book, laugh out loud at times. Great character.