January 2019 Reading Thread

[ChrisVH]

The Grey Bastards its very good

 

[The Big Peat]

Slowly getting into the rhythm of Forge of Darkness. Once things start happening and we're not treated to long philosophical discourses in overwrought language with a million characters, it might actually be quite good.

 

[Hugh]

Aldous Huxley: "Antic Hay". I'm afraid I found this a bit long-winded and dull. It was Huxley's second novel, and came out in 1923. The underlying theme seems to be the aimlessness of those who survived the Great War. It probably hit a provocative chord at the time, but I find Evelyn Waugh (who may have followed in his footsteps) much better.

 

[Brian G Turner]

The Grey Bastards its very good

Finished that recently and very much enjoyed it.
Review: The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm reading The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, edited by David A. Goodman. I've watched every episode of of Star Trek the Next Generation, and was a very inspirational captain.

 

[Av Demeisen]

I have been reading Isaac Deutscher's The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky on the side for the last couple of weeks. Rightly praised as a great biography.

 

[janeoreilly]

@janeoreilly it was a strange book, the magic dog is always popular with Dean Koontz. I didn't really like it because at the time of reading it my brother-in-law got exactly the same brain tumor as what the main character got. Sadly no magic dog in that scenario.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I didn't like the wished herself better approach that the book took either, it seemed very distasteful.

Currently reading Assassination Classroom no. 5 and daughters of castle deverill by santa montefiore

 

[Bick]

I enjoyed Edmund Cooper’s The Uncertain Midnight. I think it’s pretty good. It’s a little old fashioned now in some ways, but in others it’s a well-written and timeless SF classic.

I’m now reading The Earth Book of Stormgate 1, by Poul Anderson. This is a re-read, but it’s one of those ‘I don’t remember it all re-reads’, so it’s like a first read . First read 30 years ago I think. It’s a collection of short stories of the early year’s of Anderson’s Polesotechnic League series, and includes several van Rijn stories.

 

[Parson]

I've finished Forerunner by Isaac Hooke. This is a S.F. book whose set up reminds me a bit of our own Dennis E. Trylor's Bobiverse novels, but not as entertaining. We have people who have become the "computers" without bodies for military star ships. So it's a bit of a change over the regular Military SF novel. When book 2 comes out I may give it a look.

I've also finished Ask No Mercy by Martin Osterdahl. This is a spy novel which I found very enjoyable. It looks at what was going on in Russia before Putin came to power. It hard for me to parse fact from fiction in this story, but I suppose that speaks to the realism in the book. It was interesting to read a spy novel with a Swedish?! "spy." I recommend this one.

Thinking about the Bobiverse I went to see what Dennis has been up to and came back with a copy of The Singularity Trap. --- High on my to be read pile.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm just about a third of the way through the first one, having started it this morning and am enjoying it so far.

Best Wishes,
David

After a bit of spending (I got the domestic nagging for it this soon after Christmas!) I've now got half a dozen
Slough House novels and short stories....
A reading binge has me into the last book London Rules and the enjoyable standard has kept up

 

[saulfan]

After a bit of spending (I got the domestic nagging for it this soon after Christmas!) I've now got half a dozen
Slough House novels and short stories....
A reading binge has me into the last book London Rules and the enjoyable standard has kept up

I finished the first one yesterday evening and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the final chapter was superbly controlled writing. I'm very much looking forward to continuing the series.

Have moved on now to the first in a series of books by Torquil MacLeod, titled 'Meet Me in Malmo'.

Impressed so far.

Best Wishes,
David

 

[Parson]

I've finished The Singularity Trap which should tell you something about how good I found it. Could hardly set it aside. I believe this could be one of the best S.F. books I'll read this year, and it's written by someone we call our own Dennis E. Taylor.

Here's my reviewReview: The Singularity Trap by Dennis E. Taylor

 

[Danny McG]

I'm making a start on "Angels in the moonlight" (the prequel to the Dublin Trilogy) by Caimh McDonnell.
Soon to be followed by the trilogy itself.

High Jinks and lots of funny one liners in what appears, so far, to be a Garda version of The Sweeney.

 

[williamjm]

I just finished Ursula Le Guin's Planet of Exile. The story is based around a fairly common SF trope of people from two different civilisations having to work together to survive against a common enemy. In this case, the descendants of interstellar colonists (long cut off from their home planet) have to co-operate with the local nomadic tribes to survive the twin threats of invasion and winter. The world has a very long orbit around its sun which means winter lasts for thousands of days, nobody quite says 'Winter is Coming' but they're certainly thinking it. Overall, I liked the story but thought it wasn't as good as it could have been. Out of the three protagonists, I liked the old chief Wold and his rebellious daughter Rolery, but felt they maybe got sidelined a bit towards the end of the story in favour of Jakob, the leader of the colonists. I'm not sure I really understood some of Jakob's motivations or why the others all follow him despite him not seeming to be a good leader (he also seems confused about this). There's also an under-written romance which also didn't seem very believable. It's not a bad book, but not one of Le Guin's best.

Next up is Le Guin's City of Illusion, which I think is meant to be a loose sequel to Planet of Exile.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm making a start on "Angels in the moonlight" (the prequel to the Dublin Trilogy) by Caimh McDonnell.
Soon to be followed by the trilogy itself.

High Jinks and lots of funny one liners in what appears, so far, to be a Garda version of The Sweeney.

I finished the ebook prequel and there was an author link on the last page for a free novella that ties in to the entire series.
Awesome surprise, now downloaded and saved!

 

[Bick]

I'm now about to start a book I've been meaning to read for some time: Laurus, by Eugene Vodolazkin. This has been warmly recommended by Extollager and the thread he started has a fair bit of interesting discussion already. I shall contribute my thoughts to that thread in due course.

 

[Bick]

Hmm, okay, unfortunately, I didn't get on so well with Laurus - only my personal opinion (and this may be a translation issue) but the sentences are consistently shorter and more abrupt than is ideal for me style-wise, making the book seem like a stoccato set of rapid fire prose statements as opposed to a flowing narrative. I really didn't find it very readable to be honest. Also, the characters are held up at arms length, which doesn't allow us to care much about the protagonist. This results in the impression, so far, that nothing much has happened, as no importance is ascribed to anything - its all such distant third person. Having said all that, I only made it about 35 pages in, so I may try it again, as so many say its wonderful. Perhaps I may just not be in the right frame of mind for it currently.

In the meantime, I think I'll read some light SF, so I've turned to the second volume in Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series, Moving Target. I enjoyed the first one, Trading in Danger, and I did say I'd continue and try to finish series that I'd started, before I start new series.

 

[HareBrain]

Halfway through le Carre's The Looking Glass War. Much more similar to Tinker Tailor than he first two; in fact the jump from A Murder of Quality is quite remarkable (though there was The Spy Who Came In From the Cold in between).

 

[Parson]

Tried and failed to read Devastator by Isaac Hooke. Not entirely sure why, the characters seemed a bit divorced from the action and the actions of at least one of the enemy made no sense whatever -- An A.I. with no self presentation instinct selling out others out of fear. And then being willing to negotiate until the last possible second. I just couldn't buy it. Not sure where I'm going next.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

At moment I'm reading The Teardrop Method, by Simon Avery. It is a novella about a musician who writes music around people who die. It is not my normal type of read, yet I'm enjoying this book.