March 2019: Reading Thread

[Bick]

The Eternal Champion is one of those concepts which can come across as a bit of a clumsy attempt to loosely bring an artist’s body of work under some supposed grand design. A bit like most rock concept albums. That would be a cynical way of looking at it, but the Erekose books express the tragedy in the idea, and through the consistent subtleties threading through the whole mythos I’ve come to enjoy exploring MM’s multiverse.

Coming back to Elric and the Eternal Champion - I do have the book, The Eternal Champion, featuring Erekosë, and I was wondering if I should read this before progressing to the second Elric book I also have on the shelf (The Sailor on the Seas of Fate), as Sailor has Erekosë in it (and Corum!), and the first Erekosë book was written before Sailor, I think? Thoughts from those in the know would be appreciated - does it matter?

 

[dwndrgn]

I'm currently enjoying Vurt - Jeff Noon.

I was amused to discover that my first impression was wrong (I thought it was going to be rubbish), along with the setting (I thought it was the US, it's the UK) and the gender of the narrator (it turned out to be a he, not a she as I'd thought).

Now I've settled in I'm having fun, fingers crossed it continues like that to the end.

I picked that one up by accident a long while back, it isn't my normal type of read but I still really enjoyed it.

 

[dwndrgn]

I'm currently reading Her Royal Spyness but I'm not quite sure why. It was recommended to me but I'm kind of bored though I just started it. I'm also re-listening to Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold because Miles makes my commute 100% better.

 

[Danny McG]

Having finished a Merrily Watkins book I need a bit of sci fi to get back into my thang.....

I'm starting one right now.
Uncommon Purpose:
Book one of the Hope Island Chronicles by errr, P J Strebor

@Droflet

 

[nixie]

I've just started Theft of Swords; Michael J Sullivan, only read the first few chapters and so far it's ticking the boxes.

 

[vanye]

I can sympathise with this. The amount of errant chapters read away after stumbling in late at night makes it hard to remember well the few books I read during my heavy drinking years.

If the sun wasn't up when you came home, the partying doesn't count as a success. But I'd better not talk about what we used for sustenance back then. I'm just glad I made it through those times without any major damage and can now look back with older - and if not wiser, at least mellower - eyes. Age does offer compensations.

 

[hitmouse]

Coming back to Elric and the Eternal Champion - I do have the book, The Eternal Champion, featuring Erekosë, and I was wondering if I should read this before progressing to the second Elric book I also have on the shelf (The Sailor on the Seas of Fate), as Sailor has Erekosë in it (and Corum!), and the first Erekosë book was written before Sailor, I think? Thoughts from those in the know would be appreciated - does it matter?

Just get on with SOTSOF. The order of reading Elric with the Corum/Erekose/Hawkmoon books is not that important for the most part. After Sailor, Elric is mostly short stories or standalone novels. Corum and Hawkmoon are more linear narratives. All intersect at various points.

 

[williamjm]

Roger Zelazny: "This Immortal" ( aka "....And Call Me Conrad")
I really enjoyed this. I can see how it tied for the 1966 Hugo Best Novel with "Dune" despite being much much shorter. Most impressive for a first book. I was particularly taken with how little background information/world building there is. You learn nothing other than what comes up as the plot develops, and that really works. This could so easily be turned into a 500 page doorstop.
A while back I got rather tired of the Zelazny heroic alpha-male, but, perhaps because I haven't read him in a while, I was very much intrigued by the main character.
I was also somewhat mortified to find that, despite having read and very much liking "...And Call Me Conrad" around ten years ago, I remembered absolutely nothing of the story or plot-line other than recognising, when it appeared briefly, a certain mutated animal that lives in the Nile.

I liked This Immortal, but I think maybe knowing that it tied with Dune maybe built my expectations up a bit too much. I think I was expecting something comparable to Lord of Light, and while it was good it's not that good.

 

[Parson]

I finished Ace by "Colonel Jonathan P. Brazee, usmc retired." This was probably the weakest book of the three in this series so far. But it still has a good vibe for me. I like the no nonsense story. The sense of duty and family. And an alien menace which is worthy of the name and filled with mystery. I will for # 4 when (if?) it comes out.

I can't figure out what to read next. I have a couple in my To be read pile. But they are not lighting my fire at present.

 

[Danny McG]

I can't figure out what to read next. I have a couple in my To be read pile. But they are not lighting my fire at present

A frequent feeling that I also get ... Sometimes I speed- read to finish a book because a new one is screaming for attention from my bookshelf. At other times I've a choice of four or five and it's "hmmmm, I don't know which one I fancy"

 

[reiver33]

I can’t remember the last book I actually sat down to read, other than those inconsequential titles lurking in the loo. At one point I tried compiling a ‘to read’ list, but gave up on it pending the advent of immortality...

If anything, I’d tackle the complete set of Swallows & Amazons that my mother gave me shortly before she died.

 

[Bick]

I can’t remember the last book I actually sat down to read, other than those inconsequential titles lurking in the loo. At one point I tried compiling a ‘to read’ list, but gave up on it pending the advent of immortality...

If anything, I’d tackle the complete set of Swallows & Amazons that my mother gave me shortly before she died.

This doesn’t sound like the forum for you then - did you get lost?

 

[Hugh]

I liked This Immortal, but I think maybe knowing that it tied with Dune maybe built my expectations up a bit too much. I think I was expecting something comparable to Lord of Light, and while it was good it's not that good.

Yes agreed, Zelazny's This Immortal is good, but is it that good today?

I nearly qualified my comments re the voting tie with Dune, but was concerned about wittering on too much.
I mean what book could tie with Dune?
What I would have gone on to say when I wrote "I can see how it tied for the 1966 Hugo Best Novel with "Dune" " was that this had to be appreciated in the context of the times.
(1) Zelazny's short stories had burst on the scene and had become very very popular very quickly. This was his first attempt at a novella/book.
(2) Dune was something new (so new that just about every publisher had rejected it despite some serialisation in Analog).
(3) Despite their prestige, Hugos were/are only voted on by a small in-group, those who attended/attend the annual conference, and that year clearly included a large number of young Zelazny fans.

 

[Hugh]

And I've just finished the first two Amber books: Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon.
When I first read these in the early 1970s I thought they were truly brilliant and I still like them very much.
What I particularly admire is Zelazny's originality (as far as I'm aware) in:
(1) describing the means of moving through the various shadow realms by using the creative imagination (or similar).
(2) the use of the family Tarot cards for communication and transportation.
(3) the whole concept of the Pattern that can be walked
(4) and really the whole shebang.
However I don't intend to read further in the series for a while at least. I remember these first two as very much my favourites and that I got a little tired over the course of the later volumes.

One point interests me: it has been pointed out (in The Collected Stories) that the Lord of Light and Nine Princes in Amber were written back to back in 1966-67 while Roger, age 29/30, was still working full-time in the Social Security Administration. In other words both his (arguably) best novel and the first novel of the series that assured him financial success and best-seller status were written in the evenings and at weekends just a few years into his writing career. For me there's something here about how in some people the pressure of a mundane work life can stimulate intense creativity outside of work.

 

[tachyon]

I'm re-reading the first three books in the "Fractured Europe Sequence", by Dave Hutchinson in preparation for starting the 4th book which was published late last year.

Near-future espionage sci-fi set in balkanized Europe, with trains, politics, subterfuge, angry chefs, and a pretty crazy twist revealed at the end of book 1.

Finished re-reading books 1 and 2 and am getting started on 3. Eager to dig into the fourth.

Europe in Autumn
Europe at Midnight
Europe in Winter
Europe at Dawn

 

[Simbelmynë]

Coming back to Elric and the Eternal Champion - I do have the book, The Eternal Champion, featuring Erekosë, and I was wondering if I should read this before progressing to the second Elric book I also have on the shelf (The Sailor on the Seas of Fate), as Sailor has Erekosë in it (and Corum!), and the first Erekosë book was written before Sailor, I think? Thoughts from those in the know would be appreciated - does it matter?

I'd say that the non-linear nature of the chronology of Moorcock's multiverse allows you to pick it up at the place that interests you most, and not to worry too much about the order. With Elric, the books are mostly stand alone stories, so I don't think reading them in chronological order matters much at all.

But if you're looking for some kind of an official sequence - as I'm sure many of us SF and F fans secretly long for structure (and lists, beautiful lists...) - The Eternal Champion omnibuses (Orion Books in UK, White Wolf in US) are as good an order as any to read them in.

If the sun wasn't up when you came home, the partying doesn't count as a success. But I'd better not talk about what we used for sustenance back then. I'm just glad I made it through those times without any major damage and can now look back with older - and if not wiser, at least mellower - eyes. Age does offer compensations.

All I know is coming around perched on a bin at a bus stop with a comedown and no money is the kind of experience I'm glad to leave safely in my twenties.

A frequent feeling that I also get ... Sometimes I speed- read to finish a book because a new one is screaming for attention from my bookshelf. At other times I've a choice of four or five and it's "hmmmm, I don't know which one I fancy"

I annoy myself with this habit. Why can't I just patiently enjoy each book as I read them rather than being too eager for what's next?

And I've just finished the first two Amber books: Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon.
When I first read these in the early 1970s I thought they were truly brilliant and I still like them very much.
What I particularly admire is Zelazny's originality (as far as I'm aware) in:
(1) describing the means of moving through the various shadow realms by using the creative imagination (or similar).
(2) the use of the family Tarot cards for communication and transportation.
(3) the whole concept of the Pattern that can be walked
(4) and really the whole shebang.
However I don't intend to read further in the series for a while at least. I remember these first two as very much my favourites and that I got a little tired over the course of the later volumes.

One point interests me: it has been pointed out (in The Collected Stories) that the Lord of Light and Nine Princes in Amber were written back to back in 1966-67 while Roger, age 29/30, was still working full-time in the Social Security Administration. In other words both his (arguably) best novel and the first novel of the series that assured him financial success and best-seller status were written in the evenings and at weekends just a few years into his writing career. For me there's something here about how in some people the pressure of a mundane work life can stimulate intense creativity outside of work.

I've been considering reading Zelazny so these insights are useful, thanks for sharing. And I agree that the pressure to prove oneself, and to escape the daily grind is a significant motivator for many writers. I've noticed the same is often true for bands.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started The British Horror Film: From the Silent to the Multiplex (2017) by Ian Fryer. Seems to be an informal, possibly superficial look at its subject.

 

[Danny McG]

For today's entertainment I'm re-reading one I last looked at approx 25 years ago.
The legacy of Heorot, I'd forgotten just how good this book is

 

[HareBrain]

Seem to have started another three books without finishing others:

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Raptor: A Journey Through Birds by James MacDonald Lockhart
A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved our Lives by David Hepworth

The first two are for dipping into. The third seems to have become my main reading. It's brilliantly written.

 

[dask]

A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved our Lives by David Hepworth

Cool. If this is as good as it sounds I'm going to have to check this one out.