June 2020 Reading Thread

[Danny McG]

I'm really struggling to find S.F. books which appeal to me, lately. It seems that lately the books which sound at first blush to be interesting, are all cookie cutters of one or another successful formula

This.
I couldn't agree more, I don't know if it's algorithms on what kind of SF sells well but they all seem to be formulaistic of late.
It feels like you could delete an author's name and insert another and nobody would be any the wiser

 

[tobl]

This.
I couldn't agree more, I don't know if it's algorithms on what kind of SF sells well but they all seem to be formulaistic of late.
It feels like you could delete an author's name and insert another and nobody would be any the wiser

i guess it all depend on your tastes. there are always new writers out there and even in the same genre there are big differences between writers. As an example i'm really not a fan of isaac asimov for instance, i'm an heinlein man lolo i can always give suggestions of writers... i read a lot and maybe i read something you haven't and vice verse.
As for new writers ... i tried to read the gathering by brian g. turner and... couldn't get into it. On the other hand i read the inffinity affliction by evan currie and kept hoping for the continuation.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm reading Alien caller.
It's the 2013 Smashwords edition, written by some NZ bloke named Greg Curtis.

Interesting so far @psychotick

Now the protagonist and the female furry alien are having an 'adult relationship', a very strange book!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Well, I finished Lonesome Dove. While it had a good atmosphere, and some interesting characters and events, it never really developed any kind of plot. The result is that the same dozen people kept bumping into each other, as if there was no one else living between the 3,000+ miles between Texas and Montana, and the story was more a series of vignettes about them.

I did like the first third and really thought it was going to build into an interesting plot - but in the end, there was no plot, no one changed, and there was no conclusion. Overall, that left me feeling disappointed.

 

[Hugh]

Isaac Asimov "In Memory Yet Green"
I'm pleased I've read this, but I'm also delighted to have finished it. I shy away from longer volumes (this one's just over 700 pages) as I really dislike being stuck in somebody else's mind for that length of time. My reason for buying it was that it was heavily used as source material in Alec Nevada-Lee's "Astounding", but I hadn't expected such a lengthy volume. However, very readable, even if I found the first half much the more interesting. I was very touched by his account of his parents, particularly his relationship with his father (and subsequently with John W Campbell). I also find it remarkable that he wrote "Nightfall" and the first "Foundation" story at the age of 21. Although he does make some concession to a "warts and all" style of autobiography, he skates rather uneasily over what others kindly termed his eccentricities. He does quote Judith Merril though - Asimov was known in those days to various women, as "the man with a hundred hands". yuck.

 

[Ambrose]

Asimov's In Memory Yet Green covers 1920 to 1954. In Joy Still Felt takes him from 1954 to 1978 and is even longer. running to 798. It ends "TO BE CONTINUED EVENTUALLY', but 'eventually did not come. It is some years since I read it, and I am not going to pick it up again very soon. However, just flicking through it to wrote this note I was reminded of a rather interminable set of what seems like diary entries, or memories from that. His voting in the elections is intriguing. Makes you wonder what he'd do now . . .

 

[Hugh]

Asimov's In Memory Yet Green covers 1920 to 1954. In Joy Still Felt takes him from 1954 to 1978 and is even longer. running to 798. It ends "TO BE CONTINUED EVENTUALLY', but 'eventually did not come. It is some years since I read it, and I am not going to pick it up again very soon. However, just flicking through it to wrote this note I was reminded of a rather interminable set of what seems like diary entries, or memories from that. His voting in the elections is intriguing. Makes you wonder what he'd do now . . .

I'm sure I'll read "In Joy Still Felt" at some point in the future, but probably not for a year or two. I'm not sure I look forward to it at this point in time. He can be very readable, but there's something to be said for being more concise.
A question: did he continue to vote democrat?

 

[Ambrose]

I suspect he remained a democrat, but maybe someone else knows.

 

[Extollager]

Finished a rereading of Asimov's Mysteries (skipping a couple of the stories). I don't suppose anyone would say any of these stories is among Asimov's very best. I also reread, after perhaps 52 years, Lester del Rey's Outpost of Jupiter. It was pretty good, better than a couple of other del Reys I reread after half a century (The Runaway Robot and Siege Perilous). Happily, this Outpost book was free of del Rey's emotional robots.

Question: Has anyone here read the Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant? I have had the impression that this book (written with some help from Mark Twain) is really great. Anyone agree with that?

(Thanks for catching the typo, Danny.)

 

[Danny McG]

This morning I'm trying a book by an Italian writer Sandrone Dazieri (new to me)
It's a crime thriller, Kill the Father, this is the first in a trilogy - all titled Kill the whatever

 

[soulsinging]

Turns out maturity has not made me appreciate Walden more, and it still bores me to tears. If Thoreau lived today, this would have been some hippy dippy blog about self-actualizing I'd wager.

On to a true classic I've somehow never read, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I've never read anything from this Nobel Prize-winner and while the story is not exactly inspiring so far (no surprise for anyone that knows what it's about), she can definitely write.

Also interspersing that with stories from James Baldwin's collection Going to Meet the Man. As someone that's lost more than one friend to heroin, Sonny's Blues is a devastating read.

 

[Randy M.]

Turns out maturity has not made me appreciate Walden more, and it still bores me to tears. If Thoreau lived today, this would have been some hippy dippy blog about self-actualizing I'd wager.

That's why '60s youth read him, I think. The perspective he espoused was in sync with the perspective they craved, for a time.

Randy M.

 

[Randy M.]

Finished a rereading of Asimov's Mysteries (skipping a couple of the stories). I don't suppose anyone would say any of these stories is among Asimov's very best.

I read a few when they first appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in the late '60s or early '70s. They were fun little puzzlers made in the "Golden Age" mold of puzzle first, all else (characterization, setting, etc.) second.

Randy M.

 

[Parson]

On to a true classic I've somehow never read, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I've never read anything from this Nobel Prize-winner and while the story is not exactly inspiring so far (no surprise for anyone that knows what it's about), she can definitely write.

Seems pretty timely, with a lot to say, but I'd have to be in a "mood" to read it with enjoyment.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I am well into Iron Angels (2017) by Eric Flint and Alistair Kimble. Best described as an FBI procedural with extradimensional monsters. To make sure you get it, the characters compare their encounters with The X-Files more than once.

 

[Paul_C]

I've paused How Long 'til Black Future Month? not because I'm not enjoying it, but because the sequel to Darkwood, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch was released yesterday.

It's called Such Big Teeth and is currently available on (grr) Amazon for £2.48.

 

[tobl]

I've paused How Long 'til Black Future Month? not because I'm not enjoying it, but because the sequel to Darkwood, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch was released yesterday.

It's called Such Big Teeth and is currently available on (grr) Amazon for £2.48.

Such big teeth on grr amazon.... i didn't knew Winnie the pooh was in business. His partner must be the big bad wolf

 

[Dave]

I've been reading The Sword of Kings by Bernard Cornwell, 12th book in the Last Kingdom series and continues to follow the fortunes of the fictional Uhtred of Bebbanburg. It isn't the best of the series, but amazing he can still find something different to write about. I do feel the series has become a little like the Flashman books of George MacDonald Fraser, in the respect that no single person could possibly find themselves involved in every historical event of the time. In this book he becomes involved in the succession struggle between Edward's sons.

Now, I'm reading A Man Called Ove by by Fredrik Backman, which is quite different. The humour is very dark but my wife has told me that it does get lighter, with some redemption, and not quite so depressing, if I read more.

 

[Parson]

I finished The Martian Wind by Rosie Oliver otherwise known as our own @Serendipity .... This novella was a breath of fresh air. I said up thread and @dannymcg agreed that so much of SF seems derivative. It's just another version of one of the same few stories. The Martian Wind is NOT like that at all. This is hard S.F. at its best. Interesting tech and a captivating story line. Here's my Amazon Review and I gave it one of my very rare 5 star ratings.

In a day when much science fiction seems to be one clone of one series or another. This novella is a breath of fresh air. The technology is believable, and the story is eminently readable. I don't know of any story that is very much like this and for me that's a very good thing. I am looking forward to another one of these "archer" stories. Or pretty much or anything else Rosie Oliver decides to write. Highly recommended.

 

[Extollager]

Starting a (re)reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander.