October 2019 reading thread

[hitmouse]

@Parson Hope you enjoy these. Not my usual cup of tea and a bit odd really in a very benign way, but I surprised myself by reading through the whole series.

 

[tobl]

I picked up what I believe to be Jack McDevitt's first series (Alex Benedict) A Talent for War. I had believed that I had read all of MeDevitt's books but in the find a book thread, a book in this series was mentioned as a possibility and I was going to post that I'd read all of his books and that the poster could not be right. But (as I've learned to my frustration) I didn't just trust my memory, and found a whole series I hadn't read. About a third into it, and I believe that I can see both the strengths and weaknesses of a "first' novel. What I've read I've liked well enough.

the only series from him ilike

 

[Parson]

@Parson Hope you enjoy these. Not my usual cup of tea and a bit odd really in a very benign way, but I surprised myself by reading through the whole series.

That's encouraging!

the only series from him ilike

That's also encouraging in a left handed kind of way.

 

[Danny McG]

Now I've started the original 1974 publication of Jaws.
I don't need to expound further.

 

[Bick]

After I read 1632 by Eric Flint, despite enjoying it, I thought I’d be unlikely to read more Ring of Fire books, simply because there were so many of them and I’m not by nature a great series reader. However I was wondering what to read next, and looking back on 1632 I realised I really enjoyed it a good deal and was quite keen to revisit this world again. And so I’m now just tucking into 1633, by David Weber and Eric Flint. It’s a big book, so hopefully it will be as pacy as the first novel.

 

[hitmouse]

@dannymcg Is that the novel of the Julio Iglesias song or the one about a big fish?

 

[Danny McG]

@dannymcg Is that the novel of the Julio Iglesias song or the one about a big fish?

 

[Hugh]

"Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming" by Roger Zelazny & Robert Sheckley
A comic caper in which a demon and various associates engage in various schemes @1000AD to win a contest with the Forces of Good. Unfortunately I experienced this pretty much as the book equivalent of the kind of muzak you hear in malls and supermarkets. That said, both Zelazny and Sheckley are such good writers that occasional paragraphs are a lot of fun. There are two sequels. but I can't see myself reading them.
Apparently Zelazny and Sheckley fell out over the course of the three books, and their accounts of the writing process differ somewhat. In this first book it seems that Zelazny constructed a detailed outline and Sheckley then wrote the first draft which Zelazny rewrote to some extent.