February Reading Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
I tried Alan Garner's Red Shift but (not for the first time) bounced right off the character of Tom, possibly the best/worst portrayal of an over-emoting smart-arse ever committed to type. Why Jan doesn't push him off the motorway bridge into the traffic is as great a mystery to me as the nature of the coded letter reproduced on the endpapers.

So I started The Owl Service by the same author, which I've read several times before and is brilliant, if sometimes needlessly unclear.

(I remember when I first came across the book I thought the title must refer to owls carrying messages or even people. I was somewhat disappointed when I found it referred to plates.)
 
Still reading Mr. Palmer's 'Beautiful Intelligence.' Halfway through and hope to finish it this month. (Always a lot going on here!)
I'm hoping on starting on @Bowler1 'The Many' by the end of the month also.
 
HareBrain said:
I remember when I first came across the book I thought the title must refer to owls carrying messages or even people. I was somewhat disappointed when I found it referred to plates.
Click to expand...
I was an altar boy when I first got the book, I thought it was going to be about some kind of late night church service!
 
Finished Tchaikovsky's Elder Race. Another enjoyable short story.

Now on to Neal Asher's Jack Four.

Jack Four.jpg
 
Earlier,on a Reading thread, I commented on enjoying p. Djeli Clark's Locus/Nebula award winning novel, A Master of Djinn. I tracked down a previous novella also published by Tor, set in the same universe, The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Also quite enjoyable.
It's light in plot (a 140 page novella) but acquires depth by it's treatment of a multi-ethnic Cairo where magic has been unleashed and entanglements ensue.
The Cairo is one where British dominance has been overturned by development of an human alliance with djinn and other nonhuman creatures. The real enjoyment that I took both from this book and from Master, is the creation of a dense multi-ethnic metropolis which has attracted people of varying ethnicities and religions, (some unhuman) developing along lines that diverge from our history. Characters are vivid and the action, particularly in the novel, fast paced. Although it was written before Master, I would suggest picking this one up only if you enjoyed the creativity of the novel. It doesn't quite stand on its own.
 
Finished Human for Hire by TR Harris. This was a real light weight story. The basis of it was that in the far future humans are going to be very rare in terms of numbers, they've almost been wiped out. And very rare in terms of ability because they come from a "heavy" world. All of the other aliens are taller, thinner, and weaker because they live on planets with less gravity than earth. By the time I finished reading the book I had discerned that the author had brought back a main character from another extensive series and had given him an exceptionally effective rejuvenation treatment. So although this was said to be the first in the series, that statement is stretching the truth a bit.

Overall, the action scenes were not half bad. The Main Character has advantages, but they are far from unbeatable, and so there is a bit of realism. But on the whole the book suffered from being too unrealistic for me. One thing that really irked me was at one point of the book the author refers to himself as one of greatest of earth's authors, one that's still being read (by aliens, no less!) thousands of years from now.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed

Finished book 3 of the Rachel Hatch series by L.T. Ryan, Fever Burn. This continues in the same pattern as the first two books of this series. Rachel Hatch angry at how she was treated by the Army Rangers, is struggling as a civilian, and now for the third time she dispenses vigilante justice, this time in Africa. Rachel Hatch is an interesting anti-hero type. She is a vigilante and is willing to torture to get information and to plan and carry out a kill the evil leaders of in this case a terrorist group (the villains in these stories are not merely bad they are portrayed as warped horribly, evil in an almost spiritual sense). The sub-plot for these first three novels (there are 10 in print presently) is that she's trying to find out who killed her Dad, and to administer "justice." This thread running through these three stories is completed. Wisely because I felt that the thread was wearing thin.

I will read the fourth installment, and hope for a little less of the anti-hero vibe. We'll see.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed

Next up Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh.
 
All Quiet on the Western Front

A second catch up after years away as there is a new movie out soon. Not that the original black and white isn't good, it's very good in my view, so I hope the new movie version doesn't ruin it for me.

Anyway a good read. A little wordy in stages with the style showing its age at times, but it still draws me in. Brutal, with no glamour of war and is filled with simple soldiers more worried about food when life is quiet. A classic I highly recommend.
 
pogopossum said:
Earlier,on a Reading thread, I commented on enjoying p. Djeli Clark's Locus/Nebula award winning novel, A Master of Djinn. I tracked down a previous novella also published by Tor, set in the same universe, The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Also quite enjoyable.
It's light in plot (a 140 page novella) but acquires depth by it's treatment of a multi-ethnic Cairo where magic has been unleashed and entanglements ensue.
The Cairo is one where British dominance has been overturned by development of an human alliance with djinn and other nonhuman creatures. The real enjoyment that I took both from this book and from Master, is the creation of a dense multi-ethnic metropolis which has attracted people of varying ethnicities and religions, (some unhuman) developing along lines that diverge from our history. Characters are vivid and the action, particularly in the novel, fast paced. Although it was written before Master, I would suggest picking this one up only if you enjoyed the creativity of the novel. It doesn't quite stand on its own.
Click to expand...
There's also A Dead Djinn In Cairo, which I think was the first story published in the setting and provides some backstory for the characters in A Master of Djinn.
 
Just begun Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. Excited to read in her intro that Odysseus’ hanging of the traitorous maids at the end of the Odyssey was a scene she could never forget - I have never forgotten it either.
 
williamjm said:
There's also A Dead Djinn In Cairo, which I think was the first story published in the setting and provides some backstory for the characters in A Master of Djinn.
Click to expand...
Thanks williamjm, I had spotted it previously. It is available in full text online from TOR.
Here's the LINK
I haven't read it due to my dislike for extensive reading online, Sigh.
I'll probably bite the bullet and read it soon.
 
Finished Blue Light by Walter Mosley. A thought provoking work that was well worth the read in my opinion. Some heavy graphic sex and violence though, but if you've read any Mosley that's not unexpected. That did get a bit much for me in parts, like extra gratuitous acts just thrown in places where it seemed unnecessary.

It's a book in three parts, and the first part reminded me of Vonnegut as far as style and structure, lost of different POVS, and a bit of an absurdist feel. Then the middle seemed more pure Mosley to me. That part is focused on a detective character trying to hunt down a supernatural killer. Then the final part it's almost like Mosley is channeling fellow Californian Starhawk in a kind of forest commune--yet in a way that still makes sense with everything that came before.
 
Anyway, I need to read an excellent book or three to cure my sourness, and Penric and the Fox by Lois McMaster Bujold has been nominated as first into the breach with supporting fire from a group reread of Kushiel's Avatar by Jaccqueline Carey. I'll be using David Gemmell's Sword in the Storm as a reserve/exploitation force.
 
Today I'm reading The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie - I think it'll be a DNF - he's trying too hard to do witty dialogue but it's not working for me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
The Judge February Reading Thread Book Discussion 199
The Judge February 2022 Reading Thread Book Discussion 219
D February 2021 Reading Thread. Book Discussion 179
The Judge February 2020 Reading Thread Book Discussion 245
nixie February 2019: Reading thread Book Discussion 170

Similar threads


Back
Top