January 2022 Reading Thread.

[Foxbat]

Finished the Hawkwind book. I was right - I rapidly lost interest beyond the early eighties. Even tried listening to some of their later stuff to gee up my enthusiasm but I can only describe later Hawkwind as a ‘racket’ (not in the sense of a con but in the sense of a noise, din or cacophony….common usage in Scotland)

I’m staying on the musical theme with my next book on one of my favourite yet tragically flawed guitar players Tommy Bolin: in and out of Deep Purple

 

[Danny McG]

This morning I'm reading The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstoya.

THE SLYNX | Kirkus Reviews

A strikingly imagined first novel (after stories: On the Golden Porch, 1989; Sleepwalker in a Fog, 1992) skillfully creates a frightening and perversely funny postnuclear world.

www.kirkusreviews.com

 

[HareBrain]

Purgatory Mount sounds great, but I was really displeased with the only Roberts book I've read, The Thing Itself. I should give him another chance with something more traditional.

Edit: Looking at some reviews, it looks like the same problems I have with The Thing Itself. It starts off great and then pivots to something else that's not nearly as interesting before limping to the finish line.

I follow Adam Roberts on Twitter and he's staggeringly intelligent and often funny (his reviews of the Wheel of Time book series are legendary, though sadly no longer available online). But the only novel I've read by him -- On -- had exactly the same issues you and @Danny McG describe, some very good ideas but the plot wanders all over the place and ends weakly.

 

[Randy M.]

Finished Something More than Night by Kim Newman. Fun 1940s Hollywood romp featuring Raymond Chandler (the narrator), Boris Karloff and the template for Philip Marlowe (Newman's version, not the real thing) versus a studio head, a mad scientist and his even smarter engineer, killer clowns, revivification, kinda zombies, studio back lot shenanigans and intelligent and intriguing merging of Frankenstein the book, Frankenstein the Karloff movie, and Chandler's The Big Sleep.

Now, for a time, dipping into Collected Stories by Raymond Chandler, because Newman gets the Chandler tone mostly right and so it tickled an urge to reread some of Chandler's work.

 

[tachyon]

Finished Finder by Suzanne Palmer, SF, space habitats, FTL, aliens, AI. Very happy with it, straightforward but not too predictable, fast paced, well structured, good worldbuilding, a proper SF adventure story. I immediately bought the sequel Driving the Deep.

 

[worldofmutes]

This morning I'm reading The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstoya.

THE SLYNX | Kirkus Reviews

A strikingly imagined first novel (after stories: On the Golden Porch, 1989; Sleepwalker in a Fog, 1992) skillfully creates a frightening and perversely funny postnuclear world.

www.kirkusreviews.com

You have such good taste Danny McG.
I gave this book to my sister for Christmas

 

[worldofmutes]

I’m picking up David Brin’s Existence (2012) at this moment.

 

[stevejk]

Welcome to the forums, @stevejk!

What did you think of MHI? I know J-Sun read this a while back and thought it was fun, albeit daft popcorn (my precis). I've idly wondered whether to give it a go sometime. In the same way I should try Ringo's Black Tide Rising series. They sort of package together in my mind as both being modern, ongoing, rather pulpy fun.

Thanks! Looking forward to contributing to the forms when I can.
It was a fun read, plus having experience/knowledge with a number of the "weapons" the author uses in the story made it even more fun. And yes, it is a roller coaster campy popcorn book of monster fighting excitement with a nice amount of supernatural conflict as a twist to balance it out.

 

[Bick]

The first of several issues of an old magazine called Short Story International. As the name implies, it collected fiction from around the world. It was published, apparently somewhat irregularly, from 1963 to at least 1990 and maybe beyond. Copies of this would show up in used book stores from time to time, and we finally ordered as long of a continuous run from the early 1960's as we could.

Is this non-genre, Victoria?

 

[saulfan]

Finished the Hawkwind book. I was right - I rapidly lost interest beyond the early eighties. Even tried listening to some of their later stuff to gee up my enthusiasm but I can only describe later Hawkwind as a ‘racket’ (not in the sense of a con but in the sense of a noise, din or cacophony….common usage in Scotland)

I’m staying on the musical theme with my next book on one of my favourite yet tragically flawed guitar players Tommy Bolin: in and out of Deep Purple

OT - I recall - at the age of 14 - seeing Hawkwind live before even 'Silver Machine', was a hit, back in the days when Stacia was a regular on-stage dancer. Now that was a fearsome sight - took me some time to recover!

I won't post a link because most are NSFW, but for the intrigued (or nostalgic), a simple Google search should satisfy your curiosity.

David

 

[saulfan]

Have just finished a re-read of 'A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet' and enjoyed it even more than first time round.

David

 

[Dave Vicks]

A book about The Coen Brothers.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Is this non-genre, Victoria?

For the most part, yes, although a fantasy or science fiction story sneaks into the pages. One issue has Arthur C. Clarke's famous story "The Star" for example.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'm halfway through Dragons of Winter Night and it's like reading a fantasy novel at twice normal speed, that randomly skips chunks of plot. The story has cut to some characters who have stormed a castle and stolen a shamelessly palantir-type magical orb. In passing, someone mentions that they had a huge battle with "the evil walrus-men", who don't even appear in the story. Now some elves are being stupid and arrogant. I hope the evil walrus-men return, or show up at all.

 

[Danny McG]

A military sci-fi tonight.
Tyger burning by TC McCarthy

I haven't (so far) read enough of it to form an opinion, I'd never heard of it until some random browsing five minutes ago.

 

[Danny McG]

A military sci-fi tonight.
Tyger burning by TC McCarthy

It was a bit meh for me, too much Russian folklore/mythology mixed in with the story DNF.

Now I'm trying this mil SF...

 

[Hugh]

Ray Bradbury: “The Silver Locusts” (aka The Martian Chronicles, but this is a 1956 Corgi edition)
This was my first read and a very pleasant surprise - I'd expected to find I'd already read most of the stories in various anthologies over the years, but in fact I'd only read the one, the marvellous "The Fire Balloons".

 

[Rodders]

Danny, have you read T. C. McCarthy’s Subterrene trilogy? (Germ Line, Exogene and Chimera) I found them to be very good. Harsh, but good.

 

[svalbard]

The Last Viking by Don Hollway.

A tremendous biography of Harald Hardrada.

 

[AE35Unit]

Next up Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (Death #3)