December Reading Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
I really, really tried with Hyperion but couldn't finish the book. Maybe it was Dan Simmons' awful writing style, or the boring and excruciatingly slow Detective and Consult stories that did me in. I know, I know. This book is considered one of the GOAT. But it didn't stick with me. I dropped the book, read the Cliff's Notes for it and Fall of Hyperion and am glad I did. Now, for a palette cleaner, I'm reading Rules of Capture by Christopher Brown. After, I'm thinking about jumping into The Expanse or The Kingkiller Chronicles. I've read good things about the former, but has anyone liked the ladder?
 
Wyrmlord said:
I really, really tried with Hyperion but couldn't finish the book. Maybe it was Dan Simmons' awful writing style, or the boring and excruciatingly slow Detective and Consult stories that did me in. I know, I know. This book is considered one of the GOAT. But it didn't stick with me. I dropped the book, read the Cliff's Notes for it and Fall of Hyperion and am glad I did. Now, for a palette cleaner, I'm reading Rules of Capture by Christopher Brown. After, I'm thinking about jumping into The Expanse or The Kingkiller Chronicles. I've read good things about the former, but has anyone liked the ladder?
Click to expand...
I really like the Kingkiller Chronicles, but be aware that only the first two books and a little (but magically wonderful) in-between have been published so far and it has been a long wait with no end in sight.

The Expanse is not my favourite series. The first two books were really good I thought, but the next two didn't really lift my skirt, so I stopped reading. Have started the TV-series on DVD, but still not really convinced.
 
I read Stuart Turton's The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I thought it was a very cleverly plotted murder mystery. It's taking the classic set-up of a big country house filled with dysfunctional people all with their own dark secrets, the twist here is that the protagonist who is trying to solve the murder is reliving the same day over and over again. Eight times through the book he wakes up, each time in the body of a different one of the guests, each of whom has their own abilities and limitations and whose own personalities shape his approach to solving the murder. In case it wasn't complex enough already someone seems to be trying to kill off his hosts to stop him solving the murder, and he has another potential ally/rival who he is not sure whether he can trust.

It is intricately plotted, as well as the murder mystery itself (and a number of other mysterious subplots) there are also the movements of the eight hosts as they try to collectively track down the clues under a tight time limit while trying to protect themselves. I thought the solution to the murder was one of those where I think it makes perfect sense in retrospect and there were enough clues for the reader to work out most of it, even if it would be tricky to do so. I was a bit less convinced by the explanation for why the protagonist was in this time loop situation in the first place, it did feel like the author maybe came up with the murder plot and the timeloop concept first and then had to come up with some way to make it seem vaguely plausible.
 
Bick said:
Thanks Danny, yep I have The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People lined up, on the shelf, ready to go.

I find it hard to imagine a Le Carre novel that doesn't feature Smiley, Guillam, Leamas et al., and the apparatus of the 'Circus'. For those who have read a lot of Le Carre, are his non-Circus novels as good? i.e. The Russia House, or The Little Drummer Girl. etc.? How would you rank Le Carre novels overall?
Click to expand...
To begin with, everything from before 1963 or after 1990 goes to the bottom of the pile. At the very top for me is A Perfect Spy, his most literary/experimental novel. Then the Karla trilogy, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, Little Drummer Girl, and maybe The Secret Pilgrim.
 
vanye said:
I really like the Kingkiller Chronicles, but be aware that only the first two books and a little (but magically wonderful) in-between have been published so far and it has been a long wait with no end in sight.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight. I don't have a problem with the unfinished series. I know we'd all like to read a complete series, but at least there's time for me to catch up, and I don't feel overwhelmed jumping into a series with a ton of books.
 
Mike Resnick "New Dreams For Old". Collection of 20 short stories ranging from 1988 - 2005.
I read it because one of the stories, "Robots Don't Cry", was recommended by @Ravensquawk as reminiscent of Simak - and indeed it is. Good, varied, collection.
 
Just finished rereading Vance’s The Dying Earth, previously read in 1973, and (most of) Carter’s anthology The Young Magicians, which I must’ve read when it came out in 1969. Vance’s manner bowled me over (also in The Eyes of the Overworld, read at the same time) back then, and I read some more of his work then, and imitated him in a story I wrote. But his work didn’t have staying power. The Carter anthology is an odd thing, the cover design and some of the editorial content presenting it as relating to the tradition of “ Tolkienian” fantasy, when really a lot of it is just sword and sorcery or Dunsany and imitation Dunsany — Dunsany, with his dream-world thing being so very different from Tolkien with his gravity, depth, warmth, and quickened awareness. And some of the anthology is even kind of fanfic — Carter’s own stuff, and a kind of sophomoric verse parody by Carter’s friend and collaborator de Camp. I confess I didn’t force myself to reread the material from Carter’s projected Khymyrium, which would have been half a million words of tedium, I suspect, if he’d ever finished it. Nor did I force myself to read Cabell’s “The Way of Ecben.” Does anyone read this once-fashionable author now?
 
But what a lot of happy hunting was started by Carter’s bibliography for further reading, etc.!
 
Extollager said:
Just finished rereading Vance’s The Dying Earth, previously read in 1973, and (most of) Carter’s anthology The Young Magicians, which I must’ve read when it came out in 1969. Vance’s manner bowled me over (also in The Eyes of the Overworld, read at the same time) back then, and I read some more of his work then, and imitated him in a story I wrote. But his work didn’t have staying power.
Click to expand...
.....didn’t have staying power. My experience also. That’s not meant as a criticism. A year or two ago I did a read through of all Vance SFF, and while readable/enjoyable at the time, none of it stayed with me, other than those old favourites that I had already read many years before - The Dragon Masters, and The Dying Earth. Of the later works, I found the first Lyonesse a pleasant surprise. Still, I enjoyed them at the time and that’s pretty much my purpose in reading SFF.
 
Last edited:
Stephen Palmer said:
Of the many Jack Vance novels I've read, the ones which stayed with me are, above all, Lyonesse; but then the Demon Kings series (especially The Face) and the Big Planet series. He was an extraordinary author.
Click to expand...
Agree with those, and I would add the Alastor books and Araminta Station.

@Extollager: are you referring to James Branch Cabell? I quite like Jurgen but have never persevered with any of his other stuff. I think he was very popular early C20th, but quite neglected now. I think that one of pur erstwhile members, Owlcroft, wrote a detailed Cabell analysis. I will see if I can find the link.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
The Judge December Reading Thread Book Discussion 126
The Judge December Reading Thread Book Discussion 203
The Judge December 2022 Reading Thread Book Discussion 218
The Judge December 2021 Reading Thread Book Discussion 239
Parson December 2020 Reading Thread Book Discussion 203

Similar threads


Back
Top