August Reading Thread

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading Lady Susan, by Jane Austen.

 

[Elentarri]

I'm currently reading Lady Susan, by Jane Austen.

My favourite Jane Austin "novel".

 

[The Judge]

If you enjoy Lady Susan, try and get hold of the film Love and Friendship which (despite its title) is based on the novel, and is very true to the characters and plot. Teresa gave a mini-review here when it came out in 2016 Jane Austen and there's a post from me about it just below hers.

 

[Danny McG]

I've put my Potter head back on, I'm starting a reread from book one, as well as various SF short stories

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

After a couple of breaks, I've finally finished Burying the Shadow by Storm Constantine, her 1992 gothic fantasy combining the myths of the vampire with the fallen angel, ... The worldbuilding is excellent and the anthropological elements very well thought out. Dialogue and description are both good. But it's long and heavy (and lush and heady), characters aren't particularly distinctive, and it's a bit light on action. Still, a solid 4/5, and I think anyone who likes Tanith Lee should give it a go.

I did try reading it, based on your earlier post, but the first few pages bored me, so I abandoned it. Now based on your recent post, maybe I should give it another chance at some point. (Because I'm definitely one of those anyones who like Tanith Lee. Although usually not her vampire novels, come to think of it.)

As for Lady Susan, it is not your typical Jane Austen plot or characters, though the humor is certainly hers.

 

[HareBrain]

I did try reading it, based on your earlier post, but the first few pages bored me, so I abandoned it.

Yes, I don't think it's a great start. I read the first few chapters about four years ago, then dropped it. When I went back to it this time, I tried starting from the beginning, but it didn't grab me, so I tried starting from where I'd left off, which I just about managed to do, and it picked up from there.

Did you get as far as the first section from the soulscaper Rayojini's POV? She's by far the more interesting.

 

[AE35Unit]

Next up, King's Ransom by Ed McBain, in which a child is kidnapped for a $500,000 ransom, but all is not as it seems.

 

[Dave]

I read Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and not sure whether I’d recommend it. Many people give raving reviews of it and it’s a bestseller., now with a couple of sequels. It concerns a group of pensioners in a retirement village that solve old murders but get excited when they have a real case much closer to home. Even though it’s meant to be a comedy in the Whodunnit style I didn’t find some of the characters convincing and others were stereotypes. I wouldn’t wish to spoil it but by the end there are four murders and three suicides which seemed rather unlikely and at least one of the suspects goes free.

Next I’m reading Stephen King”s Mr Mercedes

 

[Elentarri]

Finished: The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia A. McKillip.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Did you get as far as the first section from the soulscaper Rayojini's POV? She's by far the more interesting.

No, I only read the first section of the first canto.

Finished: The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia A. McKillip.

McKillip has written some of my very favorite books. I wouldn't rate this one nearly as high as those, but I liked it well enough. What did you think of it?

 

[Elentarri]

McKillip has written some of my very favorite books. I wouldn't rate this one nearly as high as those, but I liked it well enough. What did you think of it?

I liked it, but as you say, it's not the best and tends to repeat themes found in some of her other novels. My favourite McKillip is the Riddle Master Trilogy, my least favourite is Kingfisher, but then again I have yet to come across a Fisher King story I actually like.

 

[Elentarri]

I forgot to mention: I DNF Newton's Wake by Ken MacLeod at 33%.

Some random person on the internet mentioned that this novel had combat archaeologists. Sounded exciting and different, so I got the book.

I only managed to read a third of this novel before deciding that I simply was not interested - in either the one dimensional, uninteresting characters; the confusing, disjointed and unengaging narrative; the gibberish technobabble; and the spelled out Glaswegian accent making the dialogue a chore to decipher and this reader wanting to get the red pen out to fix all the spelling mistakes. Also, in the third of the novel I read, the "combat archaeologist" does no archaeology and might as well be labelled an adventurer, lackey, diplomat or anything else, but archaeologist. Disappointing.​

 

[AE35Unit]

I read Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and not sure whether I’d recommend it. Many people give raving reviews of it and it’s a bestseller., now with a couple of sequels. It concerns a group of pensioners in a retirement village that solve old murders but get excited when they have a real case much closer to home. Even though it’s meant to be a comedy in the Whodunnit style I didn’t find some of the characters convincing and others were stereotypes. I wouldn’t wish to spoil it but by the end there are four murders and three suicides which seemed rather unlikely and at least one of the suspects goes free.

Next I’m reading Stephen King”s Mr Mercedes

I picked that one up at a charity shop the other week, will give it a read sometime

 

[Dave]

I picked that one up at a charity shop the other week, will give it a read sometime

My copy was also second hand and it is very easy to read. Just right for travelling.

 

[Ubergeek]

I picked that one up at a charity shop the other week, will give it a read

My copy was also second hand and it is very easy to read. Just right for travelling.

I'm packing that and Bob Mortimer's Satsuma Complex for my few days away late August.

 

[Ubergeek]

I'm packing Thursday Murder Club and Bob Mortimer's The Satsuma Complex for my few days away late August.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Finally made my way through the Ambergris trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Literary, experimental, all kinds of writing styles and genres, and very weird. The third book is really, really violent.


I have just started what will certainly prove to be a much more traditional SF trilogy. Homecoming: Harmony by Orson Scott Card consists of the three novels The Memory of Earth ((1992), The Call of Earth (1993), and The Ships of Earth (1994.) Set many millions of years from now, it's already clear that it will involve the aging computer in control of a human colony world. The kind of trilogy with maps and family trees included.

 

[Orcadian]

Larry Niven "The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton"
Three stories from Niven's "Tales of Known Space" universe detailing the adventures of global policeman/detective Gil Hamilton and his 'imaginary arm'.
...

Does anyone know which Niven book or short story collection has a crew finding a Tnuctipun (?) vessel or stasis box that contains fabulous artefacts?

 

[Orcadian]

Currently ploughing valiantly through Starship Seasons by Eric Brown. It's an audiobook and I keep falling aleep! But I keep hoping we shall get past unlikely and irrelevant human relationships into interesting happenings. After all, the story starts with the main character buying (and then living in) a battered, secondhand spaceship of unknown provenance... What could be more promising?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Does anyone know which Niven book or short story collection has a crew finding a Tnuctipun (?) vessel or stasis box that contains fabulous artefacts?

Such a stasis box is the main plot element in Niven's story "The Soft Weapon" (adapted by the author into the animated Star Trek episode "The Slaver Weapon.")