September 2022 Reading Thread.

[HareBrain]

Finished The Silmarillion. I know some of the stories have been very much expanded in other books (such as The Children of Hurin) but for me they work best at this length.

Started Dynasty by Tom Holland, a history of the Roman Julio-Claudian dynasty.

 

[Elentarri]

Finished The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

This is an entertaining, interesting, fast-paced, science-fiction story. This is a very busy story where things aren't always what they seem, and someone is out to make trouble. Some bright spark decided to turn a time-portal into a tourist attraction, with attached hotel. There is a murder victim in one of the rooms but only January (hotel security and Travel Enforcement Agent) can see him. And there are some other odd things going on (ghosts, sun setting too early, dinner cooking too fast etc). Just to make January's day worse, an important meeting with 4 trillionaires (plus minions) has been moved up to tomorrow. January is Unstuck in time (hazards of too much time travel), so her past, present and future get rather muddled. I love how Hart manages to convey how confusing and mind-bending this is to the main character. This is a story where the time travel technology/portal features heavily, but where no time travel actually occurs as part of the novel (except for the pesky velociraptors). The plot is deliciously complex. The characters are delightful (even the annoying characters are delightfully annoying) and the interactions between the characters believable. I especially love the snarky interactions between obnoxious January and her drone (she stuck googly eyes on it). There is a lot going on, but this was a fun reading experience with an interesting concept and characters I cared about.​

 

[Danny McG]

Finished The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

This is an entertaining, interesting, fast-paced, science-fiction story​

I had a try at it recently but it didn't platt my twishers, DNF for me

 

[Elentarri]

I had a try at it recently but it didn't platt my twishers, DNF for me

That's too bad. I rather liked this one. It was fun!

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin. It's the first book in The Broken Earth trilogy, and winner of the Hugo Award. I'm enjoying the read very much.

 

[Parson]

Some light(er) reading for me: An Ace and a Pair by Blake Banner. This is a criminal mystery. A pair of New York detectives are assigned to cold cases as a type of punishment. The story has a Sam Spade meets Emma Peele vibe going. He sorta respects her, more as the story goes on, but he's a dinosaur in his methods, she is not. I liked the byplay of the two, and I didn't solve the mystery until the reveal. It has a nice twist at the end. Average 4 stars for me, I did load up volume two Two Bare Arms, but have no intention of reading it next.

Next up: Into a Blood Red Sky by our own @Jo Zebedee.

 

[dask]

Up next, YA perhaps, doesn’t matter:

 

[Extollager]

A study, Deeper Heaven, by Christiana Hale of Lewis's cosmic trilogy; Bujold's Cetaganda. I mean to read some H. G. Wells stories that I don't seem to have read before. T'other day I read "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes," which was a well-imagined story in which a young man is temporarily able to see what's happening on the other side of the world thanks to a lab accident. Takes a few minutes to read. I fear writers today would spin it out into a trilogy or even an abussology --

Yes, you are present at the birth of a new word. It refers to a never-ending sequence of stories or books (e.g. Perry Rhodan). The word is from ἄβυσσος, abussos, a Greek adjective meaning bottomless or boundless.

 

[Randy M.]

While I disagree with your remarks about Stephen King in another thread (I doubt that's a surprise ), with this,

I read "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes," which was a well-imagined story in which a young man is temporarily able to see what's happening on the other side of the world thanks to a lab accident. Takes a few minutes to read. I fear writers today would spin it out into a trilogy or even an abussology --

Yes, you are present at the birth of a new word. It refers to a never-ending sequence of stories or books (e.g. Perry Rhodan). The word is from ἄβυσσος, abussos, a Greek adjective meaning bottomless or boundless.

Oh, yes. Absolutely.

 

[dask]

Evidently the Well's story was adapted into an episode of this series which I'm not sure I was ever aware of:

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide (2021) by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras. This is a big, thick book full of brief articles, arranged geographically, about culinary oddities around the world. Everything from underwater restaurants to the ubiquitous fish sauce of ancient Rome to a tea shop at the top of a long, difficult, and dangerous climb up a mountain to cheese that is ready to eat when the center is filled with living maggots. Kind of a "Believe It Or Not" of food.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin. It's the first book in The Broken Earth trilogy, and winner of the Hugo Award. I'm enjoying the read very much.

After 200 pages I gave up. Just too dense for me. A dnf.

 

[Bick]

After 200 pages I gave up. Just too dense for me. A dnf.

Good to know. I've heard so many mixed opinions about these books that I now have little interest in trying them.

 

[Bick]

I’m now starting Flinx’s Folly, by Alan Dean Foster. I seem to be more or less alternating Haldeman and Foster books. Which is nice. The Accidental Time Machine, by Haldeman, which I just read, was very enjoyable and well written (of course).

 

[The Judge]

Good to know. I've heard so many mixed opinions about these books that I now have little interest in trying them.

It took me two goes to get into it, as the second person POV of the beginning coupled with the narrator's supercilious tone rather put my back up. There is some intriguing world-building -- I thought the idea of orogenes able to manipulate the Earth's crust was brilliant -- but I never bought into the social, technological and political arrangements of the world, and I found the structure of the three POVs and their female characters underwheming (the link between them is meant to be a great reveal, but I'd guessed it very early on) and the vast majority of the characters wholly unsympathetic if not actively unpleasant. Overall, it was interesting, but I shan't be reading any more of the series.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading a very interesting book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, by Robert A. Heinlein.

 

[Danny McG]

View attachment 92849
Starting it now

This was ok(ish) but not one of SKs better books.
I think he made it a bit too much YA with his 17 year old protagonist doing first person all the way and it started to jar with me

 

[Danny McG]

One last gasp by Andrew C Piazza.
A WW2 horror story.

A company of American soldiers are cut off in the forests during the Battle of the Bulge, they soon realise that the SS section they're up against has a supernatural element

 

[dask]

One last gasp by Andrew C Piazza.
A WW2 horror story.

A company of American soldiers are cut off in the forests during the Battle of the Bulge, they soon realise that the SS section they're up against has a supernatural element

Fair number of 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon. This brief quip sold it for me.

Gonna be on the lookout for this one.

 

[HareBrain]

This was ok(ish) but not one of SKs better books.
I think he made it a bit too much YA with his 17 year old protagonist doing first person all the way and it started to jar with me

I thought I might be in the mood for Fairy Tale the day it came out, so looked at it in Waterstone's. I was hoping for something like Black House, but the first-person put me off (I've nothing against it as such, but I much prefer King in third). It also seemed kind of waffly in the beginning. Did you find that?