September 2018: Reading Thread

[The Big Peat]

Thanks @Vertigo - I took a kindle sample

For now I'm trying to progress my reading of Godblind, which is a nice book apart from its oversized cast and use of idiot plot.

Finished this - rushed the end in order to finish it - and found it a very frustrating book. Its enjoyable when I'm not shouting at the characters, but I was doing that all too often. I don't think Stephens really explained things well enough for me to agree with their actions, with the result that the good guys look like fools, the bad guys look like geniuses, and they are good guys and bad guys rather than one side and the other.

Also, I'm scratching my head at the old grimdark label again.

 

[Bick]

I finished my re-read of Dune. Fantastic, and I’m pretty sure I will read further (I read all 6 ‘proper’ Dune books previously) and I will read the next couple for sure at some point.

I’ve gotten a bit into a habit of alternating a SFF book and a non-genre novel, and sticking with this methodology, I’ve now started another Penelope Fitzgerald (I’m reading her novels in order): Offshore. This won the Booker Prize, in about 1980 I think. So far, so good.

 

[HareBrain]

finished my re-read of Dune. Fantastic

I'm struggling at the 2/3 mark, mostly because I don't feel any connection with or liking for the characters, but also because although the world is interesting, nothing much seems to be happening. It also looks like there's too little book left for a decent resolution. Does it ramp up towards the end?

 

[Bick]

I'm struggling at the 2/3 mark, mostly because I don't feel any connection with or liking for the characters, but also because although the world is interesting, nothing much seems to be happening. It also looks like there's too little book left for a decent resolution. Does it ramp up towards the end?

The short answer is yes, in my opinion. But at no point did I think that nothing much was happening and I like all the characters, so you perhaps shouldn’t take my word for it! If you feel not enough happens in Dune, definitely don’t try the sequels, as Dune is action packed (certainly in comparison).

 

[nixie]

I can't believe how quickly this year is passing.

I'm still reading Anthony Ryan's The Waking Fire.

 

[Extollager]

Tom Shippey's Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings, J. R. R. and C. J. R. Tolkien's The Fall of Gondolin, Walter de la Mare's monograph/anthology Early One Morning in the Spring (a multi-angled contemplation of childhood), & Hawthorne's Italian Notebooks.

 

[Anthoney]

I'm reading Tales of Anyar by Olan Thorensen. This is an anthology from his Destiny's Crucible series. I never read anthologies. I've really enjoyed this series so far.

 

[Danny McG]

An indie sci fi
Freefall (Earths last gambit)
book one by Felix R Savage.

So far it's the standard
"out by Jupiter an alien spacecraft has been spotted" story -
we shall see...

 

[Foxbat]

Picked up a book on Scottish genealogy from my local library. It wasn't quite what I'd expected but was a detailed guide on how to use records, the law, and genetics to accurately trace lineage. I still found it thoroughly fascinating and learned a lot about Scottish law (I even know the difference now between common and statute law ).

The genetics part was also highly educational but I found it ironic that - given that it's about Scottishness - one of the sections covered was on Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (or SNP for short)

 

[Paul_C]

Just finished Roadside Picnic, which makes a change recently

Very good in a curiously self-contained (that's how it felt to me) way, and for a change the ending didn't happen all in a rush.

Spoiler:
It ends abruptly with no resolution, which I liked.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I'm currently reading The Empyreus Proof by Bryan Wigmore, a unique combination of Victoriana and shamanism. I love the way he uses magic in this - so complex, yet so simple. and the plot is truly intricate. If there was any complaint it's that there were a lot of characters to get used to and quickly. However, am just over halfway through and thoroughly enjoying it. @HareBrain - I love the way you structured chapter 23.

 

[HareBrain]

I love the way you structured chapter 23.

Thank you! I have to say, I was pretty happy with that one.

 

[hitmouse]

Finished Gnomon by Nick Harkaway

I discovered Harkaway earlier this year and devoured his first 3 books which are a varied mix: Angelmaker is a wierd London espionage thriller; The Gone Away World is a fairly straight-up post apocalypse reconstruction SF, and and Tiger Man, which starts out very Ballardian and ends up a bit Last Action Hero. All clever, witty, and refreshing.

Gnomon is a bit more heavyweight. This is a a near future psychological SF thriller. The main character is a sort of investigator for a central agency which maintains security and personal freedoms in a UK where these are preserved at the expense of privacy. All of this starts to unravel after someone dies during a police interrogation.
This is a really gripping book. It can be quite demanding due to multiple parallel plot strands and an occasional tendency towards philosophising. It pleasingly takes a number of well-worn SF tropes (computers and the security state, memory implants, virtual reality, government by universal consensus) and does something interesting and new. Without being overtly political, the author is clearly having a gentle dig at fake news and the current political climate.

 

[hitmouse]

Finished A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon

I hadn't read anything by Noon since his novels starting with Vurt and up to Automated Alice. 10-15 years probably. I thought Vurt was brilliant.

This is a good wierd detective novel set in some unspecified middle European city which is half always daylight and half always in the dark. The environment is well-described and compelling. I suppose the closest parallel would be China Mieville's The City and The City though that does not quite describe what is going on here (this is a lot more odd, and without any obvious attempt at political allegory.)

 

[soulsinging]

Finished Mother Night by Vonnegut and rather enjoyed it. More straightforward than any other novel of his I've read, with some very interesting passages. Still, it lacked that zany Vonnegut flair.

Now I'm tackling The Dispossessed by Urusula Le Guin. It's interesting so far, but parts of it remind me of a lot of traits of serious books of the '70s that I find a bit goofy.

 

[Vertigo]

Now I'm tackling The Dispossessed by Urusula Le Guin. It's interesting so far, but parts of it remind me of a lot of traits of serious books of the '70s that I find a bit goofy.

Yeah I re-read this one recently and, whilst still good, it did feel very dated especially many of the more 'radical' political ideas.

 

[Randy M.]

Tom Shippey's Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings, J. R. R. and C. J. R. Tolkien's The Fall of Gondolin, Walter de la Mare's monograph/anthology Early One Morning in the Spring (a multi-angled contemplation of childhood), & Hawthorne's Italian Notebooks.

Extollager, at any point do you find yourself contemplating the Viking Spring or the Fall of Notebooks?

Anyway, I should finish Rogue Moon in a day or so, but I've already dipped into my next read, Black Spirits and White, a collection of ghost stories by Ralph Adams Cram, one part of The Collected Supernatural & Weird Fiction of E. G. Swain and Ralph Adams Cram. I haven't decided if I'll read the Swain just yet, though.


Randy M.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I am about to start Ballad of the Stars (1982), a collection of stories from 1958 to 1971 by Valentina Zhuravlyova and Genrikh Altov, translated from the Russian by Roger DeGaris. The two authors were married, and the book contains three stories by each and one written in collaboration. The Soviet equivalent of C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner?

 

[Anthoney]

Moving on to something non fiction which is rare. The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Delta Force Commander.

 

[Parson]

Well I've continued my run through the Ell Donsaii books by Laurence E. Dahmers. Finished #10 Wanted, #11 Rescue, #12 Impact, #13 DNA, and now on the last one #14 Bioterror. These are all good 50's SF (although they were written in the last decade) Good story, a hero you can root for, interesting science, and all accomplished in under 300 pages. It's easy to read one a night. What's not to like?