October Reading Thread

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williamjm said:
As the book goes on it also gradually fills in the backstory to explain how the lead character came to be there, it quickly becomes apparent that there are many things he is ignorant of.
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Did you see a reason for the amnesia the House induces, apart from a device to allow the story to happen? There might be a subtle thematic tie-in with the way the House "remembers" the real world, but I couldn't satisfyingly make it work, which was my only real problem with the story (but since the whole thing hinges on his amnesia, it's quite a big one).
 
Currently alternating between Nasomi's Quest, an occult adventure by Enock I. Simbaya who's from Zambia, and The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Nasomi's Quest is full of atmosphere and dramatic scenes but it lacks narrative momentum for me.

The Curse of Chalion by contrast has a real pull there, and fantastic voice.
 
Hugh said:
There's one rather wonderful anomaly:
"The intercom brought clicking noises. C.E. must be using his Naqsan equivalent of a slide rule....."
....... slide rules being used in interstellar travel!
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I remember being amused by a similar bit in James Blish's Cities in Flight where the person in charge of a city flying between stars was worrying about the youth of the city becoming too dependent on slide rules to do arithmetic.

HareBrain said:
Did you see a reason for the amnesia the House induces, apart from a device to allow the story to happen? There might be a subtle thematic tie-in with the way the House "remembers" the real world, but I couldn't satisfyingly make it work, which was my only real problem with the story (but since the whole thing hinges on his amnesia, it's quite a big one).
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That's a good question, it's not something that's really explained. When we meet the 'Prophet' he does mention that he knows about the amnesia but doesn't say whether he has any theory about its cause. He does mention that Ketterley is a fool for thinking the 'Great and Secret Knowledge' that formed the world would still be present because it would have dispersed, maybe there's an analogy between this knowledge fading away and memories fading away.
 
Not reading any novels at the moment - am inside reading through The Living Countryside magazine series that was published in the 80's. I got the series off ebay a few months back in PDF format. Nice relaxing evening reading about the natural world. :)
 
After a run of books ranging from poor to very good but not brilliant it's nice to have three 5 star books in succession! :D

Salvation Lost by Peter F Hamilton - absolutely Hamilton at his best. I'm loving this trilogy!. More here.
The Warship by Neal Asher - and this is Asher at his best. Action packed from start to finish. More here.
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - and this is Marquez at his best. Exquisitely beautiful and deeply disturbing. More here.
 
I have finished Curse of Chalion and have a mini review

Pros: Its perfect

Cons: There are two. One, it may not be as perfect to someone else. I have sorrow for those people.
Two, this is a book I have long wanted to write, and someone else has gone and done it first and far better than I could hope to. Which is frankly just rude and, when I come to power, shall be a crime leading to a long prison stay.

That is all.
 
williamjm said:
I'm now reading Lois McMaster Bujold's Masquerade in Lodi, the latest of her Penric and Desdemona novellas (although it's set some years before several of the previous novellas). I always enjoy these stories and this one is no exception even if it does have a slightly more low-key plot than some of the others.
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I read that last week. And then, because I wanted something upbeat to read, I read it again this week.
 
I read quite a bit in the two anthologies I started at the beginning of the month, but I'm not likely to finish either any time soon. Instead, I started A Nest of Nightmares by Lisa Tuttle, a 1980's story collection recently published by Valancourt Books, part of the group of books they're reissuing associated with Paperbacks from Hell. This is the first American edition of the collection; it was originally published in England, where Tuttle settled in the '80s. It should have been published in the U.S., too. The stories in this remind me less of '80s Stephen King, than of Twilight Zone and even more of the kind of stories in Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, an anthology of crime stories by women from the1940s through the 1970s, emphasizing domestic suspense. Tuttle isn't a flashy stylist, she just puts together solid sentences leading one to another with a cumulative effect equivalent to any of the better known ghost/horror stories I've read from the period. I have two stories left to read, and so far it's been a stellar collection.

Randy M.
 
si, i read that raymond l weil died suddenly.... damn, like we haven't lost a lot of godd writers lately... i gave my condolenses of course in the faceboook and hope to read his last works
 
I'm thinking of reading the second King and Maxwell book - Hour Game by David Baldacci, it looks like a larger page count than the first book, hopefully it is good.
 
I'm currently reading The Aston Martin, by Ben Collins. A superb history of the Aston Martin from the beginning.

Bentley was involved in production near the beginning.
 
Finished Legends Awake by Alex Stiles I found this to be a very accessible and entertaining Fantasy novel. And for a non-fantasy reader like me that's saying something. Alex Stiles is our own @Plucky Novice. Here's the Review I left on Amazon.

Alex Stiles has written a wonderful first novel. Legends Awake is a story that brings the reader into a story of new places, new adventures and revealed abilities. I believe in avoids almost all of the normal fantasy tropes. This is an enjoyable read and when you read it you will find that you are looking forward to the second book in this series. I know that I am.

I'm now reading a story I found by an author that was mentioned in the Christian Speculative Fictions? thread. Crystal Witness by Kathy Tyers. First, it is not a "Fantasy" work it is (or at least to this point) has been a solid S.F. book with a very likeable hero, a solid plot, and writing that keeps me turning pages. I am much impressed. More later.
 
I'm reading the classic Dracula by Bram Stoker and listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear.
 
Parson said:
Finished Legends Awake by Alex Stiles I found this to be a very accessible and entertaining Fantasy novel. And for a non-fantasy reader like me that's saying something. Alex Stiles is our own @Plucky Novice. Here's the Review I left on Amazon.

Alex Stiles has written a wonderful first novel. Legends Awake is a story that brings the reader into a story of new places, new adventures and revealed abilities. I believe in avoids almost all of the normal fantasy tropes. This is an enjoyable read and when you read it you will find that you are looking forward to the second book in this series. I know that I am.

I'm now reading a story I found by an author that was mentioned in the Christian Speculative Fictions? thread. Crystal Witness by Kathy Tyers. First, it is not a "Fantasy" work it is (or at least to this point) has been a solid S.F. book with a very likeable hero, a solid plot, and writing that keeps me turning pages. I am much impressed. More later.
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Thanks for the review and your kind words @Parson
 
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