June 2018: Reading Thread

[tobl]

this month read the demon accords volume 1 and 2, which was fun. the new jack ryan jr. is okay but night fall by simon green, the last secret histories book was bad. actually the last few books from him with a new character are really not to my liking. hoping for the new david golemon

 

[dask]

I guessed the first to be EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt not sure about the second though.

Looks like a misspelled word.

 

[williamjm]

FYI, Victoria: George Clooney made a movie of that. I haven't seen it but with Sam Rockwell playing Barris it could be very entertaining.

I saw the film a few years ago, it was entertaining and Sam Rockwell was good in the lead role, although I think I was probably missing something by not knowing who Barris was before seeing the film.

 

[nixie]

The Long War; Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

I did enjoy the Long Earth and was surprised with the ending, I'll read the rest of the series but I feel I'll need a break between books. The concept is good, I'm fascinated and intrigued with the multiple earths but I'm not enamoured by any the characters.

 

[Fedos]

I started reading The Sword of Shannara Trilogy omnibus in a quest to tackle all of the books by Terry Brooks in the Shannara universe. I had previously read this series years ago (like in my twenties) and really enjoyed it, but stopped after reading the first book in the second trilogy. From what I have read thus far, it is holding up well (lots of tense moments to start with, a smattering of world building done by the Druid Allanon) and I am enjoying myself having left off at page fifty.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I am about to start Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (1996) by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. The authors were producers of the original series, and their book looks to be full of detailed behind-the-scenes information.

 

[Garfunkel]

Making my way through William Gibson's Neuromancer. I'm not entirely sure what's going on in some sections, but I like it.

 

[HareBrain]

Finished Sphinx by David Lindsay. Completely different to A Voyage to Arcturus, being almost wholly concerned with the relationships within a group of middle-class people in 1920s Hampshire. There is one supernatural element, a device for recording dreams, but this is underused, though it does lead to the only couple of pages that evoke Arcturus's strangeness and brilliance. It did hold my interest, but more as a curiosity than anything.

 

[Hugh]

I’ve just finished Tom Shippey’s “J.R.R.Tolkien, Author of the Century” and “The Road to Middle Earth”. I enjoyed both of these, despite some overlapping. I was excited to find that the author had the same extensive background in philology as Tolkien, and had even, many years later, held the same post at the University of Leeds (the Chair of English Language and Medieval Literature). I found the discussions of Tolkien’s interest in philology truly fascinating, but at times I kind of glazed over and spaced out; this was particularly true in the relatively short sections concerning the Silmarillion. I’m very glad to have read these books, even if I have not taken them in completely.
One curiosity, probably already well known to others: the LOTR was reviewed favourably on 7th December 1974 in the “Bath and West Evening Chronicle” by a certain Terry Pratchett (“What is outstanding, though, is the scenery”).

I’ve also read three more Jack Vance: “Maske: Thaery”, “Slaves of the Klau”, “To Live Forever”. All immediately recognisable as Jack Vance, and pleasant reads.
I found the following in “Maske” very reminiscent of life today, despite a publication date of 1976: Tourist Board Official: “We may not suggest specific hotels. However, here is a graded list of accommodations, and you may take it for granted that those marked with five golden smiles are of superb quality.”

In addition I’ve tried a few stories at random from Aleister Crowley’s “The Drug and Other Stories”, purchased some years ago from a sale bin, and probably now heading for my recycling bin. Unfortunately I feel such dislike for the author that it gets in the way of the reading. I must be getting old.

 

[AE35Unit]

Just finished Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies
Next up Maskerade which continues the story of the witches.

 

[HareBrain]

n addition I’ve tried a few stories at random from Aleister Crowley’s “The Drug and Other Stories”, purchased some years ago from a sale bin, and probably now heading for my recycling bin. Unfortunately I feel such dislike for the author that it gets in the way of the reading. I must be getting old.

I think Crowley is a decent writer, but lacks any self-critical faculty. I waded through his Confessions in my youth, and found it a compelling read, though I don't think I'd bother to revisit it. I read most of The Drug ... a few years ago, and ended up treating it as research for my own writing (and my own career in untrammelled evil).

If Crowley interests you as a character, I'd recommend Somerset Maugham's The Magician, which is based on him (and qualifies as fantasy, especially towards the end). I like Maugham's take on the real Crowley: "A fake, but not entirely a fake".

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm just about to start Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. I tried the Iron Druid (Kevin Hearne) but it wasn't for me. Epic fans would like it a lot, though, I think.

 

[Vince W]

Making my way through William Gibson's Neuromancer. I'm not entirely sure what's going on in some sections, but I like it.

Gibson does not hold your hand. His work is jargon laced and it really sucks you into his world. Go over sections if you need to. It's well worth it.

 

[Hugh]

I think Crowley is a decent writer, but lacks any self-critical faculty. I waded through his Confessions in my youth, and found it a compelling read, though I don't think I'd bother to revisit it. I read most of The Drug ... a few years ago, and ended up treating it as research for my own writing (and my own career in untrammelled evil).

If Crowley interests you as a character, I'd recommend Somerset Maugham's The Magician, which is based on him (and qualifies as fantasy, especially towards the end). I like Maugham's take on the real Crowley: "A fake, but not entirely a fake".

Yes, I’ve read The Magician and was particularly interested in Maugham’s introduction, which, if I remember right, gave a sense of how Crowley was perceived by contemporaries on the scene. Strangely, I am quite well read around Crowley, though very much as a tourist, not a practitioner (I cannot stress this enough). It’s a long time ago now, but I was touched by Israel Regardie’s biography of him which (memory may be faulty) emphasised the spiritual seeker side of him (you may know this: Regardie was briefly his secretary as a 17 year old), and I continued to buy the biographies as they came out every few years, in an attempt to understand what was going on, and generally read around him and his peers, up until Lawrence Sutin’s biography (Sutin also wrote the biography of Philip K. Dick), at which point I decided I’d had more than enough and sold the various stuff I’d accumulated. I never read The Equinox or Magick in Theory & Practice (tedious writing). Like you, I did struggle through the Confessions.

I still have a lot of respect (perhaps misplaced) for Regardie who ended up as a successful Reichian therapist in California. I regularly buy the more anecdotal (less technical) books of Lon Milo Duquette, as they get published, as I find them a surprisingly good read, describing how he incorporates Crowley’s magick into his life. Sadly he has probably run out of suitable memories to print by now.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've just finished Ben Mackintyre's WW2 history SAS: Rogue Heroes, which is a tale of mind-boggling toughness, starting with surprisingly civilised warfare in the desert and ending with the defeat of huge numbers of fanatical Nazis in Germany itself. The cover has a great image of a rather eccentric-looking bunch of men drinking mugs of tea.

I'm now re-reading The Doll Who Ate His Mother by Ramsay Campbell. This is quite an early book by Campbell, and is both rather lurid (it's about a hunt for a cannibal) and drab (most of it is set in 1970s Liverpool, which seems very bleak). I'm struck by the skill of the writing: almost every page contains some strange and brilliant image. It really is very good indeed.

 

[HareBrain]

very much as a tourist, not a practitioner (I cannot stress this enough).

Oh, I'm with you there. In my mid-twenties I happened upon an old school classmate who looked in a bad way, and who said he'd got interested in Crowleyan magick and turned himself into a goat. I was too keen on escape to ask for details, but he told me, in all apparent seriousness, that he'd been able to feel his spine crack and change shape. His obvious belief in this scared me more than if he'd drawn a magic circle on the floor and tried to invoke something.

I've never read Crowley's magick books, as they look tedious to someone not interested in practice. But I'm always drawn back to the possibility that he was "not entirely a fake".

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The Rise & Fall Of The Dinosaurs, Steve Brusatte.

 

[Hugh]

. In my mid-twenties I happened upon an old school classmate who looked in a bad way, and who said he'd got interested in Crowleyan magick and turned himself into a goat. I was too keen on escape to ask for details,
.

Aargh! Madness!

Now if it'd been something like an ent, or even a benign dragon...

There's a small bookshop in Brighton (Kensington Gardens) that still sells interesting remaindered books, and I usually make it there every year or two. Years ago, there was a Crowley biography in the window that had come out fairly recently. I looked all over the shop and couldn't find it. Finally I asked the owner, sat by the till. He promptly showed me a pile underneath his chair. When I'd bought a copy I asked him why he kept them there. He said that there was no way he could display them in the shop as they'd just get stolen. He said that books to do with Crowley only appeal to academic types or the most bizarrely disreputable. (I can't remember his exact words). I hoped he was being a generous to me in saying this.

 

[LordOfWizards]

... I read John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation, which I really liked. ... he’s a smart author and writes well.

I enjoyed that too a few years back. I still remember the story. He was a creative consultant on the Stargate Universe series which was really the only Stargate production I liked other than the original Movie.

Anyway, just finishing up Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds. It was quite good overall, maybe a little slow in the middle. Then possibly starting Fear the Sky: The Fear Saga, Book 1 - Stephen Moss or The Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. Not sure which way to go yet. Any suggestions?

 

[Parson]

The Mote in God's Eye is in my opinion a truly classic work of S.F. Not to be missed.