April Reading Thread

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Wrapped up these two:
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and have gotten back into this:
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I suppose a few words should be said for one of the stories in this collection
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The story is the mysteriously titled "Gleepsite" by Joanna Russ, mysterious because nowhere in the story is there a hint at what the title alludes to. Mysterious also is exactly what genre does the story fall into. Actually, it could be any of weird fiction's trinity of thrills: sf, fantasy, or horror, or any shuffling of the three. It all depends on how you wish to interpret the bizarre environment.

And a short story it clearly is, only 6 pages long, but reads like an extract from a novel that was unfortunately never written but should have been. The story isn't complicated, almost trite in a way, but it's the background, the apparently post-apocalyptic world Ms. Russ has thrust us into that deserves attention. And it is the star of the show in the same way the forbidding hostel was in the movie of the same name and the entirely alien No Man's Land was in 1917.

If I haven't gotten things messed up, "Gleepsite" first appeared in Damon Knight's Orbit 9, was selected for his Best Of Orbit 1 -10, and via the great Donald A. wollheim, has settled down here to unsettle our nerves. Check it out if you can. Please. It won't take much time to haunt you forever.
 
So downloaded Toby Frost's giveaway of Up to the Throne. Enjoyed it - I don't normally read at the darker end of fantasy these days, but it isn't that grim dark - as in there are some cheerful people in the book. Particularly liked Marcellus from the University. The main character starts the book obsessed with revenge - but it isn't to the exclusion of all else. In some books of that type, you get a main character who'll sacrifice friends and allies to their obsession - she doesn't. So it's a well rounded book - characters, world building and plot - and the ending is not predictable from the start. I'll probably read the sequel at some point but currently reading some not sff.
 
I've started reading Raymond Carver, and I am in love. Which is apt, as the collection I've just bought is called What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. His stories are so understated, blunt and ****ing brilliant.


V
 
dask said:
I suppose a few words should be said for one of the stories in this collection
View attachment 62601
The story is the mysteriously titled "Gleepsite" by Joanna Russ, mysterious because nowhere in the story is there a hint at what the title alludes to. Mysterious also is exactly what genre does the story fall into. Actually, it could be any of weird fiction's trinity of thrills: sf, fantasy, or horror, or any shuffling of the three. It all depends on how you wish to interpret the bizarre environment.

And a short story it clearly is, only 6 pages long, but reads like an extract from a novel that was unfortunately never written but should have been. The story isn't complicated, almost trite in a way, but it's the background, the apparently post-apocalyptic world Ms. Russ has thrust us into that deserves attention. And it is the star of the show in the same way the forbidding hostel was in the movie of the same name and the entirely alien No Man's Land was in 1917.

If I haven't gotten things messed up, "Gleepsite" first appeared in Damon Knight's Orbit 9, was selected for his Best Of Orbit 1 -10, and via the great Donald A. wollheim, has settled down here to unsettle our nerves. Check it out if you can. Please. It won't take much time to haunt you forever.
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Was that the weird story in an office block? Twin sisters being tempted by like a devil entity IIRC
 
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After a completely indulgent 12 hour day of reading, I have finished Dust of Dreams and started the last Erikson Malazan Book of the Fallen--
The Crippled God. I am not in any way ready to leave this universe, so I am grateful for Esslemont's books (Blood and Bone, Assail), Bauchelain and Korbal Broach tales, and the first two books of Karkanas series waiting in the wings.
 
Well I started (see above for tbr pile) with Star Force by Jyr, Are-ki. The 25 book series, well yeah, 25 books but the 25 books are more like those in the category of "Amazon Singles" about 100 pages --- novella? --- But they are "sold" (Kindle Unlimited for me) as multiples, 4 books to a pack usually. My book included the first four in the series. Actually they are pretty good. I am tempted to compare them to "pulp" fiction. But at least for me that indicates a bit "trashy" in character and they are not. These first 4? 1? books remind me a bit of Ender's Battle School. Not that its anywhere near as good as that, the character development is minimal, but the ideas are pretty good. I'll roll the dice and get "book 2" and see how that goes. But maybe not right away. Hm, ani, mene, mini, moe...
 
dask said:
I suppose a few words should be said for one of the stories in this collection
View attachment 62601
The story is the mysteriously titled "Gleepsite" by Joanna Russ, mysterious because nowhere in the story is there a hint at what the title alludes to. Mysterious also is exactly what genre does the story fall into. Actually, it could be any of weird fiction's trinity of thrills: sf, fantasy, or horror, or any shuffling of the three. It all depends on how you wish to interpret the bizarre environment.

And a short story it clearly is, only 6 pages long, but reads like an extract from a novel that was unfortunately never written but should have been. The story isn't complicated, almost trite in a way, but it's the background, the apparently post-apocalyptic world Ms. Russ has thrust us into that deserves attention. And it is the star of the show in the same way the forbidding hostel was in the movie of the same name and the entirely alien No Man's Land was in 1917.

If I haven't gotten things messed up, "Gleepsite" first appeared in Damon Knight's Orbit 9, was selected for his Best Of Orbit 1 -10, and via the great Donald A. wollheim, has settled down here to unsettle our nerves. Check it out if you can. Please. It won't take much time to haunt you forever.
Click to expand...
For me, this series of late 60s/early 70s Wollheim anthologies are up there with the best.
 
dannymcg said:
Another sci fi military book

The sixteenth watch by Myke Cole
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I read a few chapters of this but it was a bit too much naval slang and terminology for me to enjoy. If I'd had a few years working on boats then maybe I'd have understood it a bit better.

Also the world building was a touch overcomplicated and the early action scenes were, IMO, ridiculous.

DNF but maybe one day I'll return to it...
 
Finished False Value by Ben Aaronovitch yesterday. As all his River of London books an entertaining read.

And now on to... eeni, meeni, mini mo... I'll let you know.
 
Continuing my marathon of Edgar Allan Poe, I read "The Assignation," "MS. Found in a Bottle," and "William Wilson." Then I had to set Poe aside for a while because I agreed to beta read someone's manuscript.

I think it's a sign of the times that when I got to the part in "William Wilson" where the titular character is at a masquerade party wearing a black silk mask that covers his entire face, my thoughts were "I wonder if that would be a sufficient mask to wear for leaving the house right now."
 
Parson said:
Care to share your impression of it?
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I enjoyed it mostly, but the whole 8 year old on the road by herself giving a story to the newspaper is a bit unrealistic to me. There seemed to be a lot of build up to this epic climax I was waiting for but it was OK, just seemed to fizzle out and then accept it. Oh well.
 
biodroid said:
I enjoyed it mostly, but the whole 8 year old on the road by herself giving a story to the newspaper is a bit unrealistic to me. There seemed to be a lot of build up to this epic climax I was waiting for but it was OK, just seemed to fizzle out and then accept it. Oh well.
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I gobsmacked by the ending. I couldn't imagine what she could do to keep the powers which be at a distance and being a straight laced person myself her choice of journals hit me upside the head. (She was 8? It's been decades since I've read it. If you would have asked me to guess I would have said 12 or so.)
 
Oscar Parland's The Year of the Bull. I wasn't sure right at first if I was going to like this rereading after almost 20 years as much as I'd like to. But now I like it very much, about halfway through.

Prize-winning author Parland narrates events of a tumultuous 1918, between WWI and the Russian Revolution, from the viewpoint of six-year-old Riki in this strong intensely imaginative novel. Barricaded on a Finnish farm in a lovely, ghost-haunted countryside, along with parents, aunts, uncles and godlike Grandmother - whose thundered warnings from vengeful biblical texts create a frightening childhood mythology - Riki confuses Baal, devourer of children, with Bull, the lordly animal who bellows and rampages in a nearby field. Parland suggests the wartime brutality through Bull and the deaths of helpless creatures. - Publishers Weekly.
 
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