September Reading Thread

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I stumbled across "Anathem" by Neil Stephenson in my library e-reader app, I haven't read much Stephenson but I decided to give it a try.

I've seen reviews that this is an intimidating or difficult book but I am finding it enjoyable and absorbing, perhaps the problem is the length of it (which I don't have such a visceral sense of in ebook form.) The only other Stephenson I've read is "Snow Crash" which I didn't feel lived up to the hype, so I'm pleasantly surprised.
 
tachyon said:
I stumbled across "Anathem" by Neil Stephenson in my library e-reader app, I haven't read much Stephenson but I decided to give it a try.

I've seen reviews that this is an intimidating or difficult book but I am finding it enjoyable and absorbing, perhaps the problem is the length of it (which I don't have such a visceral sense of in ebook form.) The only other Stephenson I've read is "Snow Crash" which I didn't feel lived up to the hype, so I'm pleasantly surprised.
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try Cryptonomicon
 
Danny McG said:
Good story, book one of an unfinished trilogy

Moonlight Bay Trilogy - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
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I've given up Moonlight Bay as abandoned. If he ever writes another, I'll read it, but I'm no longer expecting it, or looking forward to it. Fortunately, the second book, while leaving some threads dangling, doesn't really leave any major story arcs hanging.

He did tease us when Odd Thomas showed up on the abandoned base, but that went nowhere.
 
I'm putting aside Mordew by Alex Pheby, at 21%. It has some neat ideas, but it seems to be a case of throwing phantasmagorical, cod-Dickensian **** at a wall and seeing what sticks. The MC being devoid of any personality doesn't help. From checking out reviews, it appears to be a first fantasy by a writer who's only done experimental lit-fic before.

I'm now starting a reread of Number9Dream by David Mitchell (another literary writer who would have done better to steer clear of fantasy, in my opinion). From my memory of it after almost two decades, it's my favourite of his books. We'll see how it stands up, but promising so far.
 
Juliet McKenna, The Green Man's Silence. Third book in the series. Up to standard. The series is first person, centred on Daniel Mackmain who is half dryad, resulting in him being long lived and recovering faster from injury and able to see supernatural creatures. He also has an affinity for wood and trees and by profession is a carpenter and wood carver. Each book is about a supernatural problem and is a mystery thriller type. Book 3 is set in the fens. Each book has a good dollop of English folklore - from each region - and the one in the fens brings in all sorts of creatures like hobs I'd not heard of. Very good sense of place to each book, it really is like going on a trip to visit the place.
 
Sounds interesting. I’ve not heard of Juliet McKenna before.
 
She's been around for a while. Her earlier books are fairly classic fantasy - roughly 17th century - thieves, journeys, several sorts of magic, war. I enjoyed her first two series and wasn't keen on the third as I plain didn't like a couple of the major characters. She is an historian by training and is superb at the world building and has some innovative ideas.
Last couple of years moved to what is classified as urban fantasy but is rural contemporary fantasy and I love her new series.
 
Montero said:
Last couple of years moved to what is classified as urban fantasy but is rural contemporary fantasy and I love her new series.
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I've seen them mentioned, but for some reason I got the feeling they were a bit quiet and gentle. If they are more thrillers (with exciting bits) then they could be right up my street. Are there folk horror elements too?
 
Reading Alexander McCall Smith's Von Igelfeld books - nice gentle humour after the emotional turmoil of The Chronicles of St Mary’s books by Jodi Taylor.
Incidentally, the latter is (IIRC) the only series that I've stopped before the end due to the reviews on Goodreads about the next in the series, specifically number eight, And the Rest is History.
 
HareBrain said:
I've seen them mentioned, but for some reason I got the feeling they were a bit quiet and gentle. If they are more thrillers (with exciting bits) then they could be right up my street. Are there folk horror elements too?
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Um. Thriller and horror is quite subjective.
I would definitely say they had a dark side - the first book is a murder and the MC is "liked" by the police as a suspect.
There is some violence - and McKenna is actually a black belt in something I've forgotten at this particular moment.
The folklore is warts, treachery and all - as in be careful what you promise it may well come back to bite you - or the creature you promised to will. The supernatural creatures can be right pains in the arse and there is no glitter in sight.
 
I finished David Craig's Lord of the Hunt. I liked the Victorian Glasgow urban fantasy setting of the first book and this one expanded it to include a plotline in the Scottish Highlands which I thought brought some interesting new aspects to the story. The plot gets more complex as we learn more about the different factions in the 'Sooty Feathers' society with the antagonists often being more focused on their own power struggles than on dealing with the heroes of the story, who are themselves a bit divided in terms of their motivations. I thought the plot twist at the very end of the previous book about a particular characters had brought an intriguing subplot to the story and we got quite a lot more character development for them in this book. I did enjoy reading it and I'm looking forward to the concluding novel in the trilogy.

I'm now most of the way through Martha Wells' Network Effect. I thought the previous four novellas in the Murderbot series was very entertaining and I'm enjoying the first novel about the character as well. It's not doing anything radically different to the previous stories and there's still a lot of focus on the title character but the increased page count does give some opportunity for the supporting cast to get a bit more character development.
 
Finished reading The Truth by Terry Pratchett. Like Small Gods it sagged in the second half with too much chatter, though not as much. Even still, these books seemed more juvenile this time around and neither as funny nor as intelligent as I remembered. And yet it was light-hearted and entertaining enough that I'm happy to start another Pratchett.
 
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Just finished Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. Excellent, but I still prefer The Fault in Our Stars. Now I'm starting Freeks.
 
I’ve now started God Emperor of Didcot, by Toby Frost. Excellent so far (just started). Being English helps to get all the jokes. It reminds me in some ways of Robert Rankin, but space opera, where Rankin is urban fantasy. Similar quality, though jokes perhaps come along a little more frequently from Frost.
 
The Treason of Isengard by Tolkien and Tolkien, The Red Prussian (life of Karl Marx) by Leopold Schwarzschild, In My Father's Court by Isaac Bashevis Singer (2nd reading), Campo Santo by W. G. Sebald, Popular Tales from the Norse by George Webbe Dasent, and Crime and Punishment in Oliver Ready's new translation.
 
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