June 2018: Reading Thread

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Seconded. I will warn you that the sequel -- The Gripping Hand -- was not very good at all.

 

[Bick]

Thirded

 

[Vertigo]

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?

I read Fuzzy Nation back to back with the original Little Fuzzies by H Beam Piper and I have to say I preferred Scalzi's more modern version.

Funnily enough I'm currently half way through Pushing Ice now and, yes, it is getting a little slow at the moment!

I fourth(?) @Parson's endorsement of Mote. One of the best though I wasn't so keen on the sequel(s).

 

[Danny McG]

Late to the chat about Mote in God's Eye.... I "5th" it

 

[Titus Groan]

Halfway through the infamous, lauded, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - absolutely adoring it. Trying to garner craft lessons from it but can't take myself out of the moment to analyse anything. Love the weaving storylines and the abundance of detail.

Finished The Book of the Damned by Tanith Lee, which has three stories in it: Malice in Saffron, Stained With Crimson and Empires of Azure. More Gothic than a Robert Smith fan about to sack Rome. Vampires and nun-thieves (Thats nuns who happen to be thieves, thank you very much) and LOADS of omens. Loved it!!

 

[HareBrain]

Ahhh, Mary Renault. I found The Last of the Wine in the library yesterday, and it's a read to savour. I love her ancient Greece, it's my favourite "fantasy" world, its people both more alien than most made-up ones, but also more familiar.

 

[Randy M.]

Hope it's the Ambler.

It is. Every once in a while I read a novel and imagine its scenes as if filmed in black and white. This is one. Intricate story as a writer follows the path of a dead criminal around Greece and Turkey pre-WWII, Ambler sets his scenes well and has the story-teller voice down pat. I've never read Ambler before, but this is taking me back to my teens when I read international thrillers by Helen Macinnes and Alistair MacLean. About a third in and having a lot of fun.


randy M.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater(2000) by Sheldon Patinkin, which looks to be very informative about the group which launched the careers of so many actors and comedians.

 

[Vertigo]

Dragon’s Egg by Robert L Forward - brilliant hard SF, if you're not daunted by a bit of heavy physics I highly recommend this one. Thanks to @Spade for recommending this. More here.
All These Worlds by Dennis E Taylor - this final book in @Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse trilogy I still found very good but was rather unsatisfied by the ending. More here.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel - a very good debut but with quite a few plot holes that gave me some difficulty. Still a new author for me to watch. Thanks to @anno for this recommendation. More here.

 

[Danny McG]

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

I've had this and book 2 for a few months now (ebooks) and never made a start on them.
Thanks to your link I am now aware there's a 3rd in the series so I've ordered it......i must make for time for reading

 

[Parson]

Speaking of The Sleeping Giants I'm reminded of The Sleeping Gods books by our own Ralph Kern. I've finished Erebus and I must say that although I liked Endeavour, I liked Erebus better. As I ponder this I think it's because I find in Erebus more conflict and more of the big life questions that I like very much to think about. It is my opinion that both remaining crews of Erebus and Endeavour will play a part in the conclusion of this series. But I hasten to add that Ralph has disclosed nothing of this to me.

If you like "hardish" S.F. combined with an engaging story you won't go wrong in reading in The Sleeping Gods universe.

(Even if those across the pond can not spell endeavor. --- It is not pronounced "endeav-our," it is pronounced "endeav- or.")

 

[Anthoney]

I started Doctor Sleep. I had been holding off on it so I could reread the Shinning. I finally decided to go for it.

 

[Extollager]

I’ve just finished Tom Shippey’s “J.R.R.Tolkien, Author of the Century” and “The Road to Middle Earth”.

That Road is one of the very top books on Tolkien -- the other also, I suppose, but I might need to look it over again before saying so. His third book on Tolkien, Roots and Branches, is a good essay collection. I'd say Road, Garth's book on Tolkien and the Great War, and Carpenter's biography might be the three essential books on Tolkien, but there are other very good ones too. Raymond Edwards' biography of Tolkien is often overlooked, but was, I thought, really good, particularly about Tolkien's professional milieu.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/071980986X/?tag=id2100-20

 

[Extollager]

Current reading includes L. T. C. Rolt's Narrow Boat and Traherne's Centuries, the latter just a page or two at a time. I dip into Walter de la Mare's poetry from time to time. Recently I ran across the poem below, whose final stanza gave me something very good for a story I am writing.

THE BUCKLE

I had a silver buckle,
I sewed it on my shoe,
And 'neath a sprig of mistletoe
I danced the evening through!

I had a bunch of cowslips,
I hid 'em in a grot,
In case the elves should come by night
And me remember not.

I had a yellow riband,
I tied it in my hair,
That, walking in the garden,
The birds might see it there.

I had a secret laughter,
I laughed it near the wall:
Only the ivy and the wind
May tell of it at all.

 

[Danny McG]

Speaking of The Sleeping Giants I'm reminded of The Sleeping Gods books by our own Ralph Kern. I've finished Erebus and I must say that although I liked Endeavour, I liked Erebus better. As I ponder this I think it's because I find in Erebus more conflict and more of the big life questions that I like very much to think about. It is my opinion that both remaining crews of Erebus and Endeavour will play a part in the conclusion of this series. But I hasten to add that Ralph has disclosed nothing of this to me.

If you like "hardish" S.F. combined with an engaging story you won't go wrong in reading in The Sleeping Gods universe.

(Even if those across the pond can not spell endeavor. --- It is not pronounced "endeav-our," it is pronounced "endeav- or.")

I've got both of those books, I didn't realise until reading your commentary that the author had an association with this site.
As you said, they're good "hardish Sci fi" books.
(Please don't start another discussion on Americans dumbing down spelling )

 

[Rodders]

I just finished Neal Asher's Dark Intelligence, which I found gripping. An excellent read.

Now on to War Factory (Book two in the Transformation series).

 

[janeoreilly]

Reading Before Mars by Emma Newman. It's an interesting book, but I haven't quite decided yet how I feel about it. She writes brilliantly and raises some interesting questions but I don't think the mystery element is working quite as well as it did in After Atlas (though that's more murder mystery and this is more psych thriller).

 

[Vertigo]

I just finished Neal Asher's Dark Intelligence, which I found gripping. An excellent read.

Now on to War Factory (Book two in the Transformation series).

Sadly I found the War factory the weakest of the three with a very inconclusive ending, however the third book, Infinity Engine more than made up for it and was my favourite.

 

[LordOfWizards]

I read Fuzzy Nation back to back with the original Little Fuzzies by H Beam Piper and I have to say I preferred Scalzi's more modern version.

Funnily enough I'm currently half way through Pushing Ice now and, yes, it is getting a little slow at the moment!

I fourth(?) @Parson's endorsement of Mote.{/QUOTE]

Don't worry - Pushing Ice picks up steam again, and has some interesting plot variations toward the end.

 

[Hugh]

That Road is one of the very top books on Tolkien -- the other also, I suppose, but I might need to look it over again before saying so. His third book on Tolkien, Roots and Branches, is a good essay collection. I'd say Road, Garth's book on Tolkien and the Great War, and Carpenter's biography might be the three essential books on Tolkien, but there are other very good ones too. Raymond Edwards' biography of Tolkien is often overlooked, but was, I thought, really good, particularly about Tolkien's professional milieu.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/071980986X/?tag=id2100-20

This is helpful. Many thanks. I had already marked down the Garth book for my next wave of Tolkien reading, but I was unaware of the Edwards' biography and Shippey's essay collection. I have added the Edwards to the next wave, and the Shippey collection will follow in due course. Currently reading Carpenter's Inklings.