February 2018 reading thread

[Toby Frost]

I've finished A Rage in Harlem, which was absolutely crazy towards the end. It's one part social commentary to two parts berserk action, with some bits of black humour thrown in. I get the feeling that it isn't meant to be a "serious" novel but the sense of living under and around the white community is powerfully done. Some of the dialogue is brilliant and the scene with the runaway hearse is one of the wildest things I've read for years.

I went out and bought Cotton Comes To Harlem at once. "That's some strong writing there," said the man behind the counter.

 

[The Judge]

I finally finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's Guns at Dawn, and I've mixed feelings about it. I like his writing, his battle scenes are good, and despite a very slow first third, it speeds up well towards the end. But... overall, nowhere near the standard of his Shadows of the Apt books, and I sincerely hope he doesn't intend to make a woman his only POV character again since to my mind the characterisation was a failure.

From slow, rather waffling, fantasy I went straight to hard-boiled laconic PI-noir in the form of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. A strange beast, rather as if someone has taken a film and just copied out what's seen by the camera -- despite the fact we're apparently in Sam Spade's POV, not once do we get any thought or emotion, but on the other hand we get plenty of description of his face and eyes, which obviously he can't see, but the camera can. Strong, often terse prose, with a labyrinthine plot. Well worth a read, but the film's probably better.

After that, a canter through Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat Returns. It's the first of the SSR books I've read, and although it was a fast, easy, lightweight read, I shan't be rushing to find more. The humour did nothing for me, the characters were ciphers, and the plot a collection of daft incidents with some serious issues thrown in that only served to highlight the unevenness of the story.

I've also finished the collection of Rumpole stories by John Mortimer I started last month, which were a delight, and though I've still got Carol Berg's Dust and Light on the bedside table as I'm relishing it slowly, I've gone for another fantasy as my main read, David Gemmell's Legend, which I've started in the dim and distant past but couldn't get far into, so I'm having another attempt at it.

 

[Vince W]

I've also finished the collection of Rumpole stories by John Mortimer I started last month, which were a delight

The Rumpole stories are indeed a treat. Witty, acerbic, and complete absorbing.

 

[J-Sun]

After that, a canter through Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat Returns. It's the first of the SSR books I've read, and although it was a fast, easy, lightweight read, I shan't be rushing to find more.

That's the 11th and last one from 2010! Maybe it's as good as the early ones and he just doesn't hit your funny bone but I can't imagine he could keep it going for 11 volumes and 53 years (from the first story) or that it's the best place to start, either way. The early ones are (IMO) classic and I'd really recommend giving the first one a try. (I mean in written order: The Stainless Steel Rat (1961), not in internal order, which is 1985's A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born.)

 

[Toby Frost]

From slow, rather waffling, fantasy I went straight to hard-boiled laconic PI-noir in the form of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. A strange beast, rather as if someone has taken a film and just copied out what's seen by the camera -- despite the fact we're apparently in Sam Spade's POV, not once do we get any thought or emotion, but on the other hand we get plenty of description of his face and eyes, which obviously he can't see, but the camera can. Strong, often terse prose, with a labyrinthine plot. Well worth a read, but the film's probably better.

Yes, I was rather unimpressed with it, especially compared to Chandler. It felt a bit primitive.

 

[The Judge]

The Rumpole stories are indeed a treat. Witty, acerbic, and complete absorbing.

Yep, I love his voice, and the little touches of legal terminology thrown in unexpectedly, such as Rumpole in conversation with She requiring "further and better particulars" of his offence. But at the same time, no matter how silly the characters, they're all very real, and you share his outrage at coppers fitting people up and judges acting as executioners.

That's the 11th and last one from 2010! Maybe it's as good as the early ones and he just doesn't hit your funny bone but I can't imagine he could keep it going for 11 volumes and 53 years (from the first story) or that it's the best place to start, either way. The early ones are (IMO) classic and I'd really recommend giving the first one a try.

I wouldn't have started there deliberately, but I picked the book up for less than half-price in a remainder shop, so thought it was worth a punt. One of my most vivid book memories from my teens is The Technicolor Time Machine (though I'd forgotten HH was the author until Chris p answered a Book Search question a few years back) so I was expecting the SSR to be as funny as that, which is perhaps why it disappointed me so much. So either his writing has dropped off, or my sense of humour has changed over the decades.

Yes, I was rather unimpressed with it, especially compared to Chandler. It felt a bit primitive.

I found it very odd, not least as I thoroughly enjoyed The Big Knockover, a collection of short stories about an operative working for a Pinkerton type agency. The writing in that was very good, still very film-noirish, but with more of a heart to it. I can understand why in TMF he had to restrict the internal thoughts, since Spade guesses who killed his partner very early on but we can't be let into the secret until the denouement, but it was still odd reading it, especially with all the advice we give in Critiques about how necessary it is to show emotion and inner debates etc.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Voyage of the Star Wolf (1990) by David Gerrold. So far it's military SF/space opera, with an unsurprising touch of Star Trek.

 

[Parson]

Here is my Amazon Review of Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time." Perhaps it's a bit surprising having just what @The Judge wrote just up thread about him. I gave a very rare, for me, 5 stars to this book.

Children of Time is a classic. It is smart far future and Hard Science Fiction at it's best. Adrian Tchaikovsky who is best known for his Fantasy series "Apt," has made a stunning entry into the Science Fiction field. He has taken the idea of "Uplift" from David Brin and spun a first class yarn. The story is actually the story of the life and intersection of the survivors of an unlivable earth and the accidental recipients of an "Uplift." I was captivated by both story lines and didn't know what I hoped for or what to expect at the conclusion of the story.

I found the writing engaging, the characters highly believable, the situation understandable, and the science given enough time nearly inevitable. Highly recommended. This is likely the best S.F. story you'll read this year.

 

[Bick]

Started The Stone of Farewell, by Tad Williams. I enjoyed the first volume in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and this, the second volume, is also shaping up to be an entertaining read.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

For The Common Good, Herman Daly & John Cobb.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Finished Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman last night. If I could tell a story half as well as Neil Gaiman I'd be happy.

I liked that one even more than A.G.

 

[janeoreilly]

Slow start this month. Spent a week ploughing through A woman of substance by barbara taylor bradford. Now reading Behind the Throne by KB Wagers.

 

[Hugh]

I’ve been continuing reading stuff around the surrealist painter and writer Leonora Carrington. While I don’t connect with all of her paintings or stories, I find her such an independent and unusual figure that I’ve just wanted to know more about her. Down Below is her account of her compulsory admission to a Spanish psychiatric hospital in 1940 aged 23, where she was treated with cardiazol, a drug that induces epileptic fits which was the psychiatric treatment of choice until replaced by ECT. She certainly seems to have been in a psychotic state at the time of her admission, but I find it heart-warming indeed that she subsequently lived a full and creative life well into her nineties without recurrence of these difficulties.

This led me to re-read Leonora Carrington, Surrealism, Alchemy and Art by Susan L. Alberth, a comprehensive survey of her life and work with many excellent illustrations, and then revisited one of my very favourite books The Hearing Trumpet. It may well be my own advancing age, but I find this account of a ninety year old woman with hearing difficulties and beard getting packed off to an old folks home then becoming an initiate of certain sacred mysteries, both hilarious and joyful. I found the collection of her short stories The Debutante and Other Stories, less interesting but truly bizarre.

I then went on to James Stephens’ The Crock of Gold because this was first read to Leonora as a small girl and she read it and re-read it throughout her long life, regularly recommending it to others. This is a rather wonderful deeply Irish tale involving philosophers, leprechauns, sexuality, and the Gods of old Eire, all woven together within a fabric of magical realism. Sadly I found it too long-winded for my taste to really savour, despite some good moments, but I wished I’d looked out a traditionally illustrated copy rather than the straight print one I’d bought on Amazon.

Finally, I’ve started reading Aldous Huxley’s Eyeless in Gaza, in part because I’ve always meant to read it, but mainly because in 1935 the 18 year old Leonora managed to horrify her parents, when accompanying them as guests in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, by conspicuously sitting in a corner and reading the (then) scandalous “Eyeless in Gaza” for all to see.

I’ve also just finished Earthman, Come Home by James Blish, the third of the four Cities in Flight series. I haven’t read the others in the series, so I may have missed something here. I found it full of interesting ideas, but disappointing as a book. However, if I come across one of the other books of the series in a charity store, I’m sure I’ll pick it up.

 

[Randy M.]

From slow, rather waffling, fantasy I went straight to hard-boiled laconic PI-noir in the form of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. A strange beast, rather as if someone has taken a film and just copied out what's seen by the camera -- despite the fact we're apparently in Sam Spade's POV, not once do we get any thought or emotion, but on the other hand we get plenty of description of his face and eyes, which obviously he can't see, but the camera can. Strong, often terse prose, with a labyrinthine plot. Well worth a read, but the film's probably better.

Hammett, like Hemingway, was a minimalist. A little description went a long way, the behavior of the characters, how they acted and reacted was more important.

Anyway, just a slight rebuttal: The Maltese Falcon is one of my favorite novels from that time period (say, mid-1920s to mid-1930s). The 1941 movie (I believe it was the 3rd adaptation to film) stays pretty close, only cutting away a couple of scenes (one of which involved nudity, so...) and refocusing the ending on a theme that's in the book but not as prominent. I think the ending in the movie is just fine, and leaves us with one of the best closing lines in 1940s film, but the last chapter of the novel has struck me as brilliant since I first read it. What had been an intricate adventure/murder mystery is set on its ear by Effie Perrine, Spade's secretary and the only person in the book whose opinion he seems to value. Her reaction to his actions moves the book from detective novel to novel, showing there was more at stake in Spade's actions than just a valuable antique and a fortune in gems.

About Chandler: He admired Hammett but felt him limited. He took what Hammett established and spun the hell out of it, transforming the P.I. into a White Knight who down those mean streets must walk. Most readers of hard-boiled and noir like both writers for their different strengths, but I can see some readers preferring the Romanticized detective story of Chandler. What Hammett brought to the tale, though, was experience as a Pinkerton operative; I think that comes across more fully in the short work, though.


And, to bring it back to topic, unable to get traction in a novel I started (not the novel's fault; stupid cold dulled my enthusiasm for reading) I've started Ursula Le Guin's A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, one of her later story collections.

Randy M.

 

[Garfunkel]

I finished Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb and have moved on to Assassin's Quest, the final book in the trilogy. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything pans out, but I'll be a bit sad to finish the trilogy, as it's really gotten me back into reading.

 

[Parson]

The Olympics are cutting into my reading time, so making very slow progress on Gorig Cross by our own Stuart Orford. I have finished listening to Dead Stop by Barbara Nickless a very moody detective novel with a main character who is so broken as to be nearly unbelievable as a high functioning detective. Speaking of a character that I'm really having trouble appreciating, Darren Street in my new listen in Justice Lost has reached a new low in the third novel in this series. Murder might just be beyond the pale for me but I have kept slogging on but I have begun to root for justice rather than Darren.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Started Ken Follet's A Column of Fire, which follow on from Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. This may take me some time ...

 

[Danny McG]

Started Ken Follet's A Column of Fire, which follow on from Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. This may take me some time ...

I read them years ago but found they started to drag a bit as the series continued...
"Look! Just build the cathedral, yeah?"

 

[tobl]

I read them years ago but found they started to drag a bit as the series continued...
"Look! Just build the cathedral, yeah?"

i found some people that thought he was a new author, didn't knew about the other books he had written before.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Glory Season by David Brin (1993), an 800-page epic (but at least it's not part of a series.) So far all I know is that it takes place on a planet where some children (all girls) are born via parthenogenesis and some children (girls and boys) are born in the more familiar way.