March Reading Thread

[Teresa Edgerton]

I have recently rereading Idylls of the Queen, by Phyllis Ann Karr, which is an Arthurian murder mystery, based on an incident in Malory. I suspect more Arthurian rereads may be ahead.

Actually, I finished it about a week ago, but I have been too sick with a particularly nasty cold/flu/respiratory virus/thing to be able to focus on describing it or reviewing it. (Not sure I'm quite coherent even now—if not, blame it on the fever.) Anyway, my description of the book turns out to be too long for this thread, so it can be found in the review section here: Idylls of the Queen, by Phyllis Ann Karr.

 

[Chris von shannow]

I have recently rereading Idylls of the Queen, by Phyllis Ann Karr, which is an Arthurian murder mystery, based on an incident in Malory. I suspect more Arthurian rereads may be ahead.

Actually, I finished it about a week ago, but I have been too sick with a particularly nasty cold/flu/respiratory virus/thing to be able to focus on describing it or reviewing it. (Not sure I'm quite coherent even now—if not, blame it on the fever.) Anyway, my description of the book turns out to be too long for this thread, so it can be found in the review section here: Idylls of the Queen, by Phyllis Ann Karr.

I hope you feel better soon

 

[AE35Unit]

Get well soon

 

[michellechastaine]

Finished Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's cozy academia fantasy (not a thing before, but I think this book may make it a thing), written in first person POV in a journal style. Waiting on the sequel to show up.

I hope you feel better soon, Teresa!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Thank you, Chris, AE35, and Michelle. I am a little better, but it shows no signs of going away anytime soon. Others in the family have it, so I am gauging my future progress by theirs, which in all cases has been very slow.


I've been tempted by the Emily Wilde book, and will probably give in at some point.

 

[Dave Vicks]

THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY, by Daniel L. Breo and William J.Martin.
True crime.About Richard Speck.

 

[Elentarri]

Finished Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's cozy academia fantasy (not a thing before, but I think this book may make it a thing), written in first person POV in a journal style. Waiting on the sequel to show up.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands was published January 2024. The third volume (didn't know there was one!) Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales is scheduled to be published January 2025.

 

[alexvss]

Finished Terms of Enlistment (Marko Kloos, 2013) and started On Basilisk Station (David Weber, 1993) right away.

They’re totally different books, on opposite sides of the prose spectrum. Terms of Enlistment reads like a screenplay, and there’s not much of a philosophy behind it: it’s just action and Rule of Cool. On Basilisk Station, on the other hand, is written in a way that people call “purple prose”: for a character to perform a simple task, like petting a cat, it takes at least three full pages of inner thoughts and worldbuilding.

Both are great books (from what I could read from the latter so far), but I’m enjoying On Basilisk Station a little bit more, even if it’s a little tiresome to read. Oh, and there’s talking alien cats in it .

 

[Pyan]

Welcome to the rollercoaster Worlds of Honor Harrington, @alexvss! There's about forty books set in this universe, so happy reading!

 

[Elentarri]

Last night I finished a John Brunner Gateway omnibus that included: The Sheep Look Up, The Shockwave Rider, and The Traveller in Black.

The Sheep Look Up is a dystopian, science fiction novel first published in 1972, that deals with the horrendous environmental deterioration occurring as a result of rampant consumerism and pollution.

The Shockwave Rider is a prescient, dystopian science fiction novel originally published in 1975, and is also one of the precursors of the cyberpunk genre. The world Brunner created in The Shockwave Rider is rather disturbingly familiar - it is a world immersed in e-communication, prolific surveillance, where control of information and data is important, and essential, to controlling people and societies. Interesting, but flawed. Also, numerous ideas in the novel are no longer science-fiction.

The Traveler in Black is a collection of fantasy short stories published in 1971. The stories included in this omnibus are: Imprint of Chaos; Break the Door of Hell; The Wager Lost by Winning; and Dread Empire. These stories have a similar flavour or style to the 20th century Sword & Sorcery novels written by Michael Moorcock, Jack Vance, Robert E. Howard, and Fritz Leiber. The writing style is sparse but descriptive. Some of the vignettes are decidedly fable-like. I did find the repetitive nature (bad things happen to bad people; be careful what you wish for, you might get it - and it will bite you in bum) of all four stories a bit tedious, especially since I read this part of the omnibus in one sitting. I was also a bit disappointed that whatever is representing Chaos doesn't really seem to be putting much effort into this battle. I'm also not sure I'm 100% on board with the 100% no magic and no Chaos world. All law/order/logic is very dull and stultifying. I wonder if that ever occurred to Brunner?​

 

[Chris von shannow]

Could not get into my last read so had to give up

Trying Stranger of tempest by Tom Lloyd now so far so good

Absolute waste of time

 

[Rodders]

Finished listening to the audiobook of Iain M. Bank's The Hydrogen Sonata. Wonderful!

Now on to the audio book of Against A Dark Background, read by Peter Kenny.



I tried to read this when it first came out and i struggled with it. A DNF for me. I think more to do with the impatience of youth and i struggled with it not being a Culture book. Hopefully i'll finish it, this time around.

 

[Bick]

On Basilisk Station, on the other hand, is written in… “purple prose”… Both are great books

Can it be both written in purple prose and be great? Purple prose is a pejorative term.

I read a few Harrington books, but gave them up after about 4 books. I don’t think they’re anything special, and the lead character is mostly just irritating (imho).

 

[alexvss]

Can it be both written in purple prose and be great? Purple prose is a pejorative term.

I read a few Harrington books, but gave them up after about 4 books. I don’t think they’re anything special, and the lead character is mostly just irritating (imho).

I didn't mean it in a pejorative conotation. I meant it as a lot of text vs quasi-screenplay, for a lack of a better term.

 

[Pyan]

Weber writes a lot of dialogue and exposition in his books - sometimes he goes several pages without anything actually happening. There's a famous/notorious parody on the subject.

How David Weber orders a pizza

 

[Brian G Turner]

Can it be both written in purple prose and be great? Purple prose is a pejorative term.

I read a few Harrington books, but gave them up after about 4 books. I don’t think they’re anything special, and the lead character is mostly just irritating (imho).

I didn't mean it in a pejorative conotation. I meant it as a lot of text vs quasi-screenplay, for a lack of a better term.

I don't think it suffers from purple prose as much as extraneous prose - the opening chapter is about tree cats, which play no real part in the story; after that there's a full chapter description about an orbital gun platform and how it works, even though it plays no part in the story. The rest of the book read to me like it was trying to be an episode of ST:NG, but not one of the thoughtful ones.

In the meantime I fancied some gentle, easy reading and picked up The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I do like it, but it really underlines that Neil Gaiman's novels are really just collections of short stories that happen to connect. And each short story usually involve the main character not doing much while other people say interesting things to them.

 

[Randy M.]

In the meantime I fancied some gentle, easy reading and picked up The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I do like it, but it really underlines that Neil Gaiman's novels are really just collections of short stories that happen to connect. And each short story usually involve the main character not doing much while other people say interesting things to them.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[AE35Unit]

Last night I finished a John Brunner Gateway omnibus that included: The Sheep Look Up, The Shockwave Rider, and The Traveller in Black.

The Sheep Look Up is a dystopian, science fiction novel first published in 1972, that deals with the horrendous environmental deterioration occurring as a result of rampant consumerism and pollution.

The Shockwave Rider is a prescient, dystopian science fiction novel originally published in 1975, and is also one of the precursors of the cyberpunk genre. The world Brunner created in The Shockwave Rider is rather disturbingly familiar - it is a world immersed in e-communication, prolific surveillance, where control of information and data is important, and essential, to controlling people and societies. Interesting, but flawed. Also, numerous ideas in the novel are no longer science-fiction.

The Traveler in Black is a collection of fantasy short stories published in 1971. The stories included in this omnibus are: Imprint of Chaos; Break the Door of Hell; The Wager Lost by Winning; and Dread Empire. These stories have a similar flavour or style to the 20th century Sword & Sorcery novels written by Michael Moorcock, Jack Vance, Robert E. Howard, and Fritz Leiber. The writing style is sparse but descriptive. Some of the vignettes are decidedly fable-like. I did find the repetitive nature (bad things happen to bad people; be careful what you wish for, you might get it - and it will bite you in bum) of all four stories a bit tedious, especially since I read this part of the omnibus in one sitting. I was also a bit disappointed that whatever is representing Chaos doesn't really seem to be putting much effort into this battle. I'm also not sure I'm 100% on board with the 100% no magic and no Chaos world. All law/order/logic is very dull and stultifying. I wonder if that ever occurred to Brunner?​

I need to read those Brunner books. I've only tried a couple of his books and I wasn't impressed but they are minor efforts. I had a copy of Stand on Zanzibar but it went missing in the move

 

[Elentarri]

I need to read those Brunner books. I've only tried a couple of his books and I wasn't impressed but they are minor efforts. I had a copy of Stand on Zanzibar but it went missing in the move

I found that I don't really like Brunner's writing style. It's too disjointed for my taste. Brunner's "big ideas" novels are Stand on Zanzibar (overpopulation), The Sheep Look Up (rampant consumerism and pollution), Shockwave Rider (technology), and The Jagged Orbit (racial tension and violence). However, I think the novels probably had more impact when they were first written about 40 years ago. Most of the ideas in them are now old news and stuff we are currently living with. At this stage, Brunner's "Club of Rome Quartet" of novels is basically preaching to the choir.​

 

[Dave Vicks]

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS. JK Rowling.1998.
Fantasy.

The Vault of Horror. EC horror comics
Hardcover reprints.Bill Gains & Al
Feldstein.2007