October Reading Thread

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Dave Vicks said:
Thinking about trying CITY OF GOLDEN SHADOWS. Any good?
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Give it a try, but the whole quartet is set up slowly, so don't expect fast pacing. I also recommend having all the books on hand, since the quartet makes a complete story (i.e. NOT 4 standalone novels that have an overarching plot)
 
Read Children of Men by PD James. I am glad I read it, but found it disappointing in the end.

Author sets up an interesting premise; the human race becomes unable to procreate, suddenly and planet-wide. And the first half of the book is really an exploration of the impact this would have on human society and psychology. She builds us an England populated by the old and hopeless, told from the point of view of a misanthropic 50 year old historian. Interestingly, the author herself telegraphs in one scene that she is writing a main character she does not like, or maybe that she wants us to think so. It is a book that gets you thinking.

All in all, though it felt like an unfinished work, a beta read, if you will. It was published in 1992 and set in 2021, but read like it was written decades earlier (e.g no reference to technologies that were common by early 90s), like maybe author started the book much earlier but never updated it. And although story is told from a single viewpoint character, some chapters are first person and others third without much reason. In the last third or so, the book changes from meditative to more of an action-chase political thriller (this is the part which the Cuaron movie of same name was loosely based on). The end section did not really resonate with me, though b/c a lot of the actions and choices by the characters did not seem to make much sense. I do think that the author had a message in mind for the ending, but I did not really get it.
 
Finished an anthology and a short lecture series.

The Black Death: New Lessons from Resent Research by Dorsey Armstrong. This was interesting, if a bit repetitive. Also short.
The-Black-Death-Dorsey-Armstrong.jpg


Ecotones: Ecological Stories from the Border Between Fantasy and Science Fiction
I enjoyed all the stories. There wasn't a bad egg in the lot!
Ecotones-Anthology.jpg
 
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. Science fiction. A spaceship crew of six clones wake up to a massacre and have to figure out which one of them did it. The last third was much better than the first two-thirds of the novel, which dragged.
 
Ghosts of Engines Past by Sean McMullen. This was almost a DNF for me. A collection of 12 short stories; I thought the first four were - at best - mediocre but the book had been a gift from my daughter, so I persevered. The fifth story Voice of Steel was excellent, so again I persevered. One further story 'Ninety Thousand Horses' raised itself slightly above the anodyne and uninspiring writing. Overall I was very unimpressed. A further distraction was the amount of typesetting/proofreading errors (or whatever people do these days), which marred the reading experience.

The Enemy - Lee Child A quick reread of a 'guilty pleasure' which I enjoyed.

Mr Midshipman Hornblower - C. S. Forester Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Will continue with the series

Poseidon's Arrow - Clive Cussler (and Dirk Cussler) My first Cussler, primarily to see what all the fuss is about. An enjoyable enough read and I wouldn't be averse to reading others, but not strong enough to join the group of authors I consider to be 'guilty pleasures'

The Sinking Admiral by Members of The Detection Club. An homage to the original Detection Club's The Floating Admiral of 1931, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read.The 'collaboration team of 14 authors in 1931 included Agatha Christie, GK Chesterton and Dorothy L Sayers. In 2015, 14 (then current) members of the Detection Club collaborated to write a chapter each of a murder mystery set in the seaside village of Crabwell. Some of the authors I am familiar with, others not at all. It was great fun trying to identify who had contributed which chapter from their writing styles. I don't know the original 1931 novel, so will try to seek that out now.
 
I finished Sicily '43 by James Holland. A recent historical subject can be tackled in pretty much whatever level of detail the author chooses, and in this case he went too detailed for my taste (probably to reach his standard book length) and I got a bit bored by the end. But I'd already ordered his Normandy '44 from the library by then, so started it. It looks to be a larger and more varied story in the same length, so should work better for me.

Also began the Providence Compendium, a graphic novel (but with lots of plain text pages) by Alan Moore, drawn by Jacen Burrows. I'd never even heard of this until a couple of days ago. So far, it seems to be up there with the best of Moore's work.
 
CRITICAL MASS, by Sara Paretsky, 2013.
Great Classic Horror Stories, various Authors.
 
saulfan said:
Mr Midshipman Hornblower - C. S. Forester Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Will continue with the series

The Sinking Admiral by Members of The Detection Club. An homage to the original Detection Club's The Floating Admiral of 1931, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read.The 'collaboration team of 14 authors in 1931 included Agatha Christie, GK Chesterton and Dorothy L Sayers. In 2015, 14 (then current) members of the Detection Club collaborated to write a chapter each of a murder mystery set in the seaside village of Crabwell. Some of the authors I am familiar with, others not at all. It was great fun trying to identify who had contributed which chapter from their writing styles. I don't know the original 1931 novel, so will try to seek that out now.
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Also like Hornblower. The TV series with Iuan Griffiths is an excellent adaptation of the first few books btw
Not heard of The Sinking Admiral, must go find that.

Just read T Kingfisher's The House with Good Bones which was worth reading. Set in a little housing estate in the American south, with creepiness from the past reappearing. Stars an archeaological entomologist, and some excellent supporting performances by some black vultures. Yup, real ones. They're rather fun and friendly it turns out. Though having a dozen staring at your house would be freaky.
 
A crime thriller by David J Lyons - "Whatever happened to Betsy Blake?"
 
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Outlaw World by Edmond Hamilton A Captain Future novel . :)
 
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes.
Serial murder mystery with a twist.
 
dask said:
Don’t remember anything about it other than I enjoyed it.
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Ive read two others things by Edmond Hamilton The Earth Brain which is short story and a horror story and, a pretty good read . Doomstar which is one his later novels was also quite good. Ive never read any of his Captain Future stories until now though. I did read Avengers of the Moon by Alan Steele which an origin story for Curt Newton( Captain Future) . I very highly recommend Alan Steele's book . :cool:

Ive read few pages of Outlaw World and so far, It's a fun read .:cool:
 
BAYLOR said:
Ive read two others things by Edmond Hamilton The Earth Brain which is short story and a horror story and, a pretty good read . Doomstar which is one his later novels was also quite good. Ive never read any of his Captain Future stories until now though. I did read Avengers of the Moon by Alan Steele which an origin story for Curt Newton( Captain Future) . I very highly recommend Alan Steele's book . :cool:

Ive read few pages of Outlaw World and so far, It's a fun read .:cool:
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Think I have an Alan Steele short story collection somewhere but no novels. Will look for this one. I do like Captain Future.
 
I'm now moving on to The X Factor (1965) by Andre Norton, which is set in the same universe as The Sioux Spaceman, I think (not certain about that, to be honest). These are 'juveniles' I think, in a similar vein to Heinlein's earlier work I'd say. Which basically translates as 'no sex', but otherwise could be adult novels. The Sioux Spaceman reminded my of Harrison's Deathworld series of books in truth. This one has started in a slightly choppy manner, but I expect it will settle down as we get into it.
 
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