February 2018 reading thread

[soulsinging]

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

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.

I don't know if current events have overwhelmed me, but I feel much the same as Parson. I used to love a good hard-boiled detective, but it's lost some of its luster to me. I just reread Hammett's The Thin Man, and the hysterical women and bullet-absorbing tough guys just don't do it for me like they once did. I followed that up with a dip into a Chandler book, and while the writing is evocative, the tough guy posturing just seems tiresome to me anymore. And those authors are pretty restrained compared to modern noir novels, who in turn pale in comparison to the cavalcade of horrors I routinely see on the evening news.

Bloodshed and stylized violence just aren't as interesting to me as I get older. I often say I'm a Superman guy in a Batman culture/era. I'm much more interested in reading about what it takes to be a hero when it would be easier to be selfish than I am in borderline psychopathic vigilantes taking "justice" into their own hands. Give me Tolkien, Gemmell, the above-mentioned Tad Williams, or even the Dragonlance Chronicles over GRRM, Abercrombie and the Machiavellian Thorns trilogy. Give me Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes or Father Brown over Jack Taylor, Charlie Huston or Richard Stark. I once loved Chandler but as I reread that novel I realized I couldn't remember a single thing about any of his plots or characters, just a general tone of tough guy cleverness.

 

[Randy M.]

I once loved Chandler but as I reread that novel I realized I couldn't remember a single thing about any of his plots or characters, just a general tone of tough guy cleverness.

Started reading some of Chandler's short stories a month or so ago and had a similar reaction. I still enjoy the tough guy cleverness, but I think his novels represent him better and even so there are limitations to the voice and, frankly, to the writer's world view that come across, including casual sexism and homophobia. Ditto Hammett. I like noir as a form as divorced from reality as opera, but it's best taken as a flavoring, not as a diet.

I'm not sure I could go back to Miss Marple, though. Poirot, maybe.


Randy M.

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't really find that, but I do think that the kinder and more thoughtful Chandler gets, the better he gets: perhaps because he's more appealing morally, but also because he has more to say and less posturing to do. I should add that I think The Big Sleep is somewhat overrated and not a great beginning to the series. It's not that great a story and there seems to be an awful lot of slightly neurotic stuff about "pansies". I would say that Chandler is by a very long way the best noir writer I've read. My favourites are probably The Lady in the Lake, and then Farewell My Lovely.

 

[Randy M.]

I like both of those Chandler's, too, and at his best I think he was a great writer, not just a good one. I'm not sure he wrote anything better than The Long Goodbye, which comes very near being over-ripe, with a Marlowe appreciably different from the earlier books. For me it's on a par with Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, Ross Macdonald's The Underground Man, Black Money and The Goodbye Look and James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss, which are the best hard-boiled detective novels I've read.


Randy M.

 

[soulsinging]

I like both of those Chandler's, too, and at his best I think he was a great writer, not just a good one. I'm not sure he wrote anything better than The Long Goodbye, which comes very near being over-ripe, with a Marlowe appreciably different from the earlier books. For me it's on a par with Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, Ross Macdonald's The Underground Man, Black Money and The Goodbye Look and James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss, which are the best hard-boiled detective novels I've read.


Randy M.

I agree that The Long Goodbye was his best, but also interestingly I thought the next best were Farewell My Lovely and Lady in the Lake which were both just mentioned. The other 3 were less impressive. I've heard he admitted later in life that one of the murders in The Big Sleep has no real culprit, because he felt it was unimportant. It was Lady in the Lake I was recently rereading, and while I enjoyed the writing, the plot wasn't the least bit familiar to me despite it being one of my "favorites" by him and Marlowe felt a little cartoonish. Honestly, I have the same issue with Cormac McCarthy, who is highly praised, but to me his books seem to have plenty of stylistic prose but middling substance outside glorifying stoic, and often violent, manly men.

That's a pretty great list though... Black Money and Last Good Kiss are particular standouts. I echo others in here in saying Maltese underwhelmed for me. Hammett may have had the firsthand PI experience, but his writing is so stripped down that I think it benefits from actors bringing some depth to it (kind of the opposite of Chandler, with precision plotting but no stylistic flourishes... it's no surprise Hammett was a highly respected screenwriter). I also kind of hope Red Harvest wasn't the result of his direct experience, because that would make him a probable murderer and psychopath!

 

[darster]

Today I'm making a start on The Breach Trilogy by Patrick Lee.
I started one last year but then realised I had book two, waited until I got the others (one is a paperback and the other an ebook) and started all over again

Book 2 was my favorite, but the whole series is amazing.
(Good Omens has been patiently waiting for me in my TBR pile.)

I recently finished Bird Box by Josh Malerman. It was better than I expected and I would recommend it. Turns out they are making it into a movie soon.

 

[Toby Frost]

Give me Tolkien, Gemmell, the above-mentioned Tad Williams, or even the Dragonlance Chronicles over GRRM, Abercrombie and the Machiavellian Thorns trilogy.

I'm not sure if discussing books in any detail is derailing the thread, so apologies if so. For me, what Williams (and perhaps, albeit to a lesser extent, Dragonlance) bring is the sense of the struggle for morality. The characters are good people in a world that is either immoral or lawless, and not cardboard "good guys" and chosen ones who never have to deal with responsibility. The sense isn't "good guys finish last", which strikes me as immature, but the more grown up concept of the difficulty of doing good in a bad world. There are even points in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn where they ponder how God can allow evil to happen, which feels pretty deep for what some grimdark fans would probably regard as a light, superficial read.

 

[vanye]

Give me Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes or Father Brown over Jack Taylor, Charlie Huston or Richard Stark.

What about Spenser? Always seemed to me that he strikes a good balance between tough guy, good ole sleuthing and, most of all, wit and repartee. And oh so vulnerable when it comes to romance.

I have continued with Kent‘s Bolitho series and am in the middle of Form Line of Battle. This series is good, but it could be so much better if the main character had not this unfortunate predilection for other men‘s wives. But maybe I‘m just being an old prude ...

Over the weekend I visited my mom and the long trainride there and back again afforded me the time to take a break from sailing ships and hearts of oak and have some science fiction again for a change. So I read the third book in Anne Aguirre‘s Dred Chronicles, Breakout. I‘d classify it as adventure and it‘s pretty much perfect for long train rides. Sure, it has plenty of imperfections and some (well, make that most) of the romance is cringeworthy, but all in all it is solid and a satisfying read. Let‘s call it three stars, if you care about such things.

I also had time for a short novella by Alastair Reynolds, The Iron Tactician. Usually, I am not one for short fiction but I loved this one and I would not mind reading more about Merlin. Very little action in this story, but great storytelling. Seems that short fiction is Reynolds‘ forte. I remember I already liked Diamond Dogs.

 

[J-Sun]

I also had time for a short novella by Alastair Reynolds, The Iron Tactician. Usually, I am not one for short fiction but I loved this one and I would not mind reading more about Merlin. Very little action in this story, but great storytelling. Seems that short fiction is Reynolds‘ forte. I remember I already liked Diamond Dogs.

Then Zima Blue is the collection for you, as it has the other three Merlin tales. (I think "Merlin's Gun" is particularly fantastic.) I haven't been as thrilled with the last few stories of Reynolds I've read (not bad, just not like they were) but I love my Diamond Dogs, Galactic North, and Zima Blue collections. I don't know if you meant to go so far, but I prefer his short fiction to his novels. More focused, more explosive, really lets him shine with stories that are conceptually often as vast as any multi-volume epic, but which get the job done with characters and actions you can easily see all of at once and which all contribute to the effect.

 

[vanye]

Then Zima Blue is the collection for you, as it has the other three Merlin tales. (I think "Merlin's Gun" is particularly fantastic.) I haven't been as thrilled with the last few stories of Reynolds I've read (not bad, just not like they were) but I love my Diamond Dogs, Galactic North, and Zima Blue collections. I don't know if you meant to go so far, but I prefer his short fiction to his novels. More focused, more explosive, really lets him shine with stories that are conceptually often as vast as any multi-volume epic, but which get the job done with characters and actions you can easily see all of at once and which all contribute to the effect.

OK, confession time. I have already read those collections (just checked the bookkshelf to make sure) but even now I can‘t remember the stories. Now you‘ve got me worried. Or should I just be glad I can revisit them and enjoy them a second time, for the price of one? Are these the joys of advancing age?

I also confess that I really love Reynold‘s stuff, so I have read all his SF. He has some very strong long works (Chasm City being my favorite), but there sure is some chaff there. Seems to me the usual pressure to output that successful authors suffer.

 

[Glen]

A Half Life, VS Naipaul. It seems half a book, without conclusion, unresolved. I like it more for that. It stayed with me after I closed it. Why was the story framed that way? Why is it called A Half Life?

Close Quarters, William Golding. Rich, deep, jolly, aching. I saw it was a sequel, and then realised I had read the first book many years ago. It's still on my shelves, as Golding is one of the few authors that survive my increasingly savage book culls.

And a few stories from The New Space Opera, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. Stories by Gwyneth Jones, Ian MacDonald, Robert Reed, Paul J McAuley. I learned that short stories good enough to be selected for an anthology are not as short as I'd like them to be.

 

[janeoreilly]

Finished Angelmaker (which I would argue isn't scifi) and now reading Star Trek Discovery: Desperate Hours which is much more my speed.

 

[Extollager]

A Half Life, VS Naipaul. It seems half a book, without conclusion, unresolved. I like it more for that. It stayed with me after I closed it. Why was the story framed that way? Why is it called A Half Life?

Close Quarters, William Golding. Rich, deep, jolly, aching. I saw it was a sequel, and then realised I had read the first book many years ago. It's still on my shelves, as Golding is one of the few authors that survive my increasingly savage book culls.

And a few stories from The New Space Opera, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. Stories by Gwyneth Jones, Ian MacDonald, Robert Reed, Paul J McAuley. I learned that short stories good enough to be selected for an anthology are not as short as I'd like them to be.

I think there is a sequel to Half a Life called Magic Seeds.

Care to say more about those savage book culls? Your remark prompted me to start this new thread:

Tales of Book Purges, Culls, Weeding, etc.

 

[The Judge]

I've finished the Gemmell Legend, though I rather skim-read the battle scenes, ie most of it. I can understand why he has a following as it's certainly pacy and exciting if you like a lot of fighting and men thinking and talking about fighting, but for me that wasn't enough to compensate for its failures, particularly in characterisation.

I've also finished Carol Berg's Dust and Light which I loved as much on a second re-read as the first time I picked it up thanks to a great plot, wonderful description and brilliantly written characters. From that I went straight on to its sequel Ash and Silver which I actually didn't like when I first read it -- while as well written as her other books, and admiring its strengths, the final quarter rubbed me up the wrong way. On a re-read I realised that notwithstanding some reservations I loved the first three-quarters, but there's still something about the denouement of the plot which makes me bristle.

Sticking with fantasy, I've now picked up The Summer Tree, book one of the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. This is one I started last year but couldn't get on with -- I got to about page 50 (of 400) and gave up. I'm not at all sanguine that I'll get much further this time around since the this-world characters are annoying me already.

 

[Parson]

I'm really in a funk right now. I'm having a hard time with any book. I so want characters with moral backbone, with gifts and talent that they selflessly use for others. I've read so many anti-hero types lately it's just making me sick. Maybe I'll go back and read the early Honor Harrington books. On Basilisk Station and For the Honor of the Queen might be just what I need.