December 2022 Reading Thread

[AE35Unit]

He doesn't seem to have done anything new for about 4 years....has he stopped writing?

Not sure. But the humour in this one is very coarse, about as subtle as a brick

 

[HareBrain]

poorly developed social skills

Well-developed surely? You get a keen sense of when it's deemed acceptable to just whack someone.

 

[Dan Jones]

I'm re-reading Volume 1 of Sandman ahead of a podcast episode we're recording next month, and am also reading John Langan's The Fisherman, which is a remarkable horror story, starting off ostensibly as a ghost story about a bereaved widower, and metastasising into something altogether more cosmic and terrifying.

 

[Danny McG]

Julie E Czerneda :-
To each this world

I don't think I've read anything of hers before, I'm hoping this isn't yet another starship pilot romance

 

[Parson]

@Danny McG .... I read A Thousand Words for Stranger, her debut novel and that at least was seriously good. The following two were not as good, but I wouldn't be afraid to read something else from her.

 

[Rodders]

I finished Judge Dredd: The Final Cut.

A Wally Squad operative and Judge Dredd break a torture-murder gang. Enjoyable, but very adult and dark in both the subject matter and the tone.

Now on to Judge Dredd: Swine Fever.



This looks like it could be hilarious. "When super intelligent pigs embark on a crazed revenge scheme for all those pork chops and rashers of bacon, Dredd has to get to the bottom of this insanity before his new partner is turned into sausages."

 

[HareBrain]

Finished Tolkien's letters, now onto Humphrey Carpenter's biography of him.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Perry Rhodan 26: The Title of Which I Have Forgotten Already - even for a Perry Rhodan book this was pretty poor. Several pages resisted any kind of comprehension. Even after several re-readings in an attempt to make out what was going on some scenes just remained confusing jumbles of word salad sandwich with too many 'characters' doing inexplicable things for no apparent reason.

At one point the parallel plotting totally broke down. One bunch of characters manfully zooming about barking orders at one another (while actually doing nothing but getting themselves in a position to do some rescuing in the next book) noting a sudden burst of radioactivity from the planets surface several chapters before the simultaneous alternating storyline got round to setting off the nuclear device they'd detected.

Mind you the delay was, in part, caused by the character who set off the atom bomb being unable to find 'a fuse' for it for a few paragraphs and then pausing to make sure the fuse was ticking properly before jaunting away to safety. Gods, that was a painful experience.

 

[Parson]

I have finished Crossover by Joel Shepherd the first of the Cassandra KIresnov series. This book slots a bit strangely for me. It is a book which might fit in the Super Hero category. The hero/leading character of the book is Cassandra Kresnov. She is an "artificial person," which something like an android. These were created to be soldiers. They are constructed similarly but their template is a human one, so human? but without a human body? Cassandra (Sandy{ is at the experimental apex of this technology, the ones who've come before are also much stronger, faster, and deadlier than a normal human, even an "enhanced" one. But their straight ahead reasoning leaves them less mentally flexible and adaptable than many humans.

Sandy has proven to be the best of the best. But as she matures she is beginning to wonder if all this war/killing makes sense. So she leaves to try to carve out a "civilian" life for herself.

On the plus side of this book. It poses some seriously delicious sociological and governmental questions. (Is she human? Can she be accepted for what she is? Is she just the best machine ever? What about her need to be loved and a part of a community? etc.) This book is well thought out and deep like a very, very good military S.F. book.

On the negative side this book is likely self edited. I'm not a cracker jack proof reader but I noticed that there were a couple of truly glaring typos. (One of the worst was "storyes" instead of "stories." Shepherd is an Aussie, so might be an Aussie English thing?

I have grown increasingly frustrated with the star system of rating books. I'm going to try my own. I'll highlight where the book falls for me.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- good --- Recommended --- Shouldn't be Missed

**Aspiring authors might be interested in knowing that Joel Shepherd had some, but little success being published the traditional way. His self publishing has been much more satisfying. He says something like: "It has enabled me to make a living which was impossible with traditionally published work."

@Danny McG .... So far no romance.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Knight's Castle (1956) by Edward Eager, one of seven dryly humorous children's fantasies, the best known of which is Half Magic (1954.) We've got the five others at home, too, so I'll be making my way through them. The author acknowledges the influence of E. Nesbit (author of Five Children and It [1902] and other children's fantasies), often making direct reference to her works in the text. The basic plot is a toy knight comes to life and takes the kids into an adventure. For adults, the author's subtle wit and wry account of knightly clichés is the main appeal.

I have just started Magic by the Lake (1957) by the same author, same kind of book. The previous one was quite funny, and wilder than I expected; it added giant living dolls, baseball, and flying saucers to the mix.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I discovered Eager when I was in High School. I did enjoy the humor very much, but also reading about children who were just the sort of people I would have loved to have as friends when I was half-a-dozen years younger.

It was references in his books that led me to E. Nesbit (although I later realized that I had read some of the Bastable stories when I was much younger), and she also became a great favorite.

 

[Danny McG]

I have finished Crossover by Joel Shepherd the first of the Cassandra KIresnov series

I think I've read a couple of the series, but way out of sequence.
(IIRC they were from my local library and like desperate grabs of anything SF they had available)
They weren't too bad at all, and now I have a name etc I may start from book one to get all the backstory
Cheers

 

[AE35Unit]

I'm afraid Apocalypso is gonna be a DNF. Awful

 

[AE35Unit]

Gonna read The Secret of Kralitz by Henry Kuttner on my Kobo

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Magic by the Lake (1957) by the same author, same kind of book. The previous one was quite funny, and wilder than I expected; it added giant living dolls, baseball, and flying saucers to the mix.

Moving on to The Time Garden (1958) in the same series. It's interesting how these books interweave with each other in an unusual way. Half Magic and Magic by the Lake feature the same set of kids in the 1920's. Knight's Castle features kids in the 1950's who have an aunt who was one of the kids in the 1920's. It also seems as if the kids in The Time Garden show up late in Magic by the Lake. Since Magic by the Lake came out a year before The Time Garden, this must have been confusing at the time. The time-traveling kids, whom the reader could not have encountered before, show up out of nowhere as a sort of deus ex machina.

 

[Extollager]

Just finished Ben Abelow's little book with a provocative political title. I reread a couple of short Arthur Machen biographies. Now I'm reading some of Machen's essays. I read Peter Levi's Tennyson up to the chapter titled "In Memoriam"; I wanted to reread a good handful of his verse from before that point in his life, i.e. up through "Locksley Hall" or so. He's a good 'un. My next poet-emphasis will probably be Walter de la Mare. Current novel is Robert Harris's Act of Oblivion. A few years ago I launched a personal project of delving into the 17th century. This novel is about the flight of two of the regicides and their pursuit to America. My wife and I are big fans of the 1960s TV series The Fugitive and I keep seeing and hearing the chief pursuer, Nayler, as Inspector Gerard. I'm past the halfway point and much pleased by this as a page-turner.

 

[AE35Unit]

So,...the Secret of Kralitz is a slightly creepy Chthulu story! I was expecting sf lol

 

[Toby Frost]

Robert Harris has done some good books: he's able to write exciting thrillers that feel well-researched.

For the first time in years I'm reading a Terry Pratchett book. This one is Night Watch, which is apparently one of the best. When I started writing comedy, I deliberately avoided Pratchett and Douglas Adams for fear that their styles would influence my own: I think I'm safe now. These days, a lot of the talk I see about Pratchett is very serious: I hadn't quite expected his writing to be quite so silly, full of daft puns and ridiculous characters. It's pretty good so far, but I wonder whether it will stay good for 500 pages.

 

[AE35Unit]

Robert Harris has done some good books: he's able to write exciting thrillers that feel well-researched.

For the first time in years I'm reading a Terry Pratchett book. This one is Night Watch, which is apparently one of the best. When I started writing comedy, I deliberately avoided Pratchett and Douglas Adams for fear that their styles would influence my own: I think I'm safe now. These days, a lot of the talk I see about Pratchett is very serious: I hadn't quite expected his writing to be quite so silly, full of daft puns and ridiculous characters. It's pretty good so far, but I wonder whether it will stay good for 500 pages.

That particular series begins with Guards! Guards!, tho you don't have to read them in order

 

[Rodders]

Must jave been quite difficult to stay away, Toby given how highly regarded they both are.