December 2018 reading thread

[biodroid]

So I tried to read Odd Hours by Dean Koontz but I just can't get into it. It seems like he is rehashing plot lines for each book and it's getting boring. Going to stop reading this one, and some other time will finish it. My taste seems to have changed as I am now preferring to read slower and more complex books that are more thoughtful to the characters and plot. I just need to find one. I saw Aurora Rising by Alastair Reynolds, about a detective in the future AKA The Prefect. Was wondering if it is any good?

 

[thaddeus6th]

Finished Gilgamesh. Finished the main story a while ago, been reading the variant tablets and extra, less complete, stories since. Fitting that perhaps the oldest story we possess is about the fear of inevitable death. Resonates as well now as then.

 

[Hugh]

Finished Gilgamesh. Finished the main story a while ago, been reading the variant tablets and extra, less complete, stories since. Fitting that perhaps the oldest story we possess is about the fear of inevitable death. Resonates as well now as then.

I have no idea why, but I've always found the Epic of G incredibly powerful. I've only read the penguin translation.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Well, the themes are pretty universal (fear of death, good friends are great to have and terrible to lose, the way to tempt a wild man is to hire a prostitute etc).

 

[Randy M.]

The Lady In The Lake by Raymond Chandler. Finished The Long Goodbye. Towards the end of that Chandler really opened up the throttle, including a couple of rants by the characters about early 1950s life. He particularly disliked the growing tendency of TV commercials that used men in white coats to sell anything.

Set aside The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson for now and just started The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny, the third in her series of mysteries. These are re-imaginings of the situations found in Golden Age mysteries (roughly the 1900s through the 1930s): The setting is a secluded village, Three Pines, in Quebec, where mysteries apparently come to rest just as they did in Miss Marple's St. Mary's Mead. The first two were much more psychologically astute, though, and far more realistic in the depiction of the consequences of murder and mayhem, and yet still somehow charming. It's a rare talent Penny has.

Also just starting to explore The Annotated The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. The introduction and early annotations are intriguing.

Randy M.

 

[Parson]

I am making steady progress in Outlander by Dianah Gabaldon. It is heavy on the romantic thriller side of things, but as long as it continues to feature people being honest with one another and striving to see the other's side I will continue to read. I like the insights given to 18th century Scotland. I am also listening to The Frame Up (The Golden Arrow Mysteries Book 1) by Meghan Scott Molin. So far it has been a mystery seen through the eyes of a comic book writer and all sorts of nerdy insights with (sigh) a healthy dash of romantic tension stirred in.

 

[Vince W]

I have no idea why, but I've always found the Epic of G incredibly powerful. I've only read the penguin translation.

You speak penguin? Incredible.

 

[Paul_C]

The Obelisk Gate finished. I liked it a lot and it fairly whooshed by, which is always nice

Next I think I'll try the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War - though it's been so long since I read the first one, I'm half-tempted to read that first.

 

[Paul_C]

So I tried to read Odd Hours by Dean Koontz but I just can't get into it. It seems like he is rehashing plot lines for each book and it's getting boring. Going to stop reading this one, and some other time will finish it. My taste seems to have changed as I am now preferring to read slower and more complex books that are more thoughtful to the characters and plot. I just need to find one. I saw Aurora Rising by Alastair Reynolds, about a detective in the future AKA The Prefect. Was wondering if it is any good?

I like it, but then I like most of his books, especially the ones set in Revelation Space.

 

[Hugh]

You speak penguin? Incredible.

The "High Penguin" as spoken by the King and Emperor Penguins is not too bad, but I find some of the weirder dialects, particularly those of the Rockhopper and the Macaroni totally incomprehensible.

 

[janeoreilly]

Finished the Poisonwood Bible which was absolutely superb, now reading jaine fenn hidden sun

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Finished Lady In The Lake, that was like unraveling a mummy following the abundance of clues, never did guess how it all went down. I got a collection of Chandler's Pulp Stories and Early Novels for the pulp stories. He used to write a pulp story and then later might cannibalize some of it, as he described the process, into one of his novels. Different results but almost word for word in other ways. In the start of some of the pulp stories it is hard to tell who the protagonist is going to be.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I just finished reading Circe, an admirable work and powerful in its way, but now that I am looking for something to read next I think I want something more emotionally involving.

 

[biodroid]

Half a War by Joe Abercrombie.

 

[Hugh]

Jack Vance's "Tales of the Dying Earth". The Fantasy Masterworks edition comprising The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga, Rhialto the Marvellous.
Excellent value.

 

[hitmouse]

Jack Vance's "Tales of the Dying Earth". The Fantasy Masterworks edition comprising The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga, Rhialto the Marvellous.
Excellent value.

Arguably one of the core texts in f&sf.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Currently reading The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken. Great hard SF space opera debut by this Canadian author.

 

[vanye]

(...) I saw Aurora Rising by Alastair Reynolds, about a detective in the future AKA The Prefect. Was wondering if it is any good?

It is indeed a good‘un. However, if this is going to be your first dive into Reynolds, I‘d recommend Chasm City.

 

[ChrisVH]

Minds of Empire its rather good

 

[dwndrgn]

I just finished reading Circe, an admirable work and powerful in its way, but now that I am looking for something to read next I think I want something more emotionally involving.

I don't know if this is your thing but I just finished Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and it broke my heart, made me cry and then ended with happy tears.