July Reading Thread

Done a speed run through the Belgariad.

It's such a weird read for me now, over 20 yards and gods knows how many rereads later. It's no longer some fresh tale of adventure and growing up - although maybe in some ways it works better at that for me now - but there's still a bunch of interesting stuff below the surface.

It a book that is at once snuggling up incredibly close to fantasy's stereotypes and is very skeptical of them. Take the way Belgarath is a dead ringer for the Gandalf-esque mentor but also a seedy disreputable tramp. The way Eddings plays with the concept of free will is fascinating. At times it makes the idea of the story seem utterly risible because why bother getting excited or tense over what's going to happen when destiny takes a very active hand? Other times it makes the mental pressures on the characters so much more interesting.

Throw in the Eddings' history and I think it's a very rich work to critique. It's still remarkably enjoyable because of its strange mix of fresh-faced enthusiasm and sly comments.

And yet I would still regularly stop to think "my gods, this is the most stereotypical hack work ever". It's not often one has the pleasure of both really liking and utterly disdaining a work at the same time.
 
The Big Peat said:
Done a speed run through the Belgariad.
....
And yet I would still regularly stop to think "my gods, this is the most stereotypical hack work ever". It's not often one has the pleasure of both really liking and utterly disdaining a work at the same time.
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Literary roughage.jpg
 
I'm currently reading Battleborn by Richard Fox.
A military SF about cyborg reanimated soldiers.
It's ok but, like many books nowadays, shows signs of never having had a proper proof reading.

Examples:-
"He was puzzled to feel slightly guilty and then worried that he might be growing a conscious"

Later we have someone displaying a flare for violence.

These would pass spell checking but you can't beat a critical eye.
 
Are they professionally published?

I gave up on The Eyre Affair, which was just odd. I couldn't get into the world and story enough, and the jokes didn't feel strong enough to compensate. I am about to start It Couldn't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, which is obviously a fantasy novel because it couldn't, ever, honestly, really happen here, surely, right?
 
Lady Vernon and Her Daughter by Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
A retelling-extension of Jane Austen's epistolary novella Lady Susan. Quite amusing.
 
The Big Peat said:
Done a speed run through the Belgariad.

It's such a weird read for me now, over 20 yards and gods knows how many rereads later. It's no longer some fresh tale of adventure and growing up - although maybe in some ways it works better at that for me now - but there's still a bunch of interesting stuff below the surface.

It a book that is at once snuggling up incredibly close to fantasy's stereotypes and is very skeptical of them. Take the way Belgarath is a dead ringer for the Gandalf-esque mentor but also a seedy disreputable tramp. The way Eddings plays with the concept of free will is fascinating. At times it makes the idea of the story seem utterly risible because why bother getting excited or tense over what's going to happen when destiny takes a very active hand? Other times it makes the mental pressures on the characters so much more interesting.

Throw in the Eddings' history and I think it's a very rich work to critique. It's still remarkably enjoyable because of its strange mix of fresh-faced enthusiasm and sly comments.

And yet I would still regularly stop to think "my gods, this is the most stereotypical hack work ever". It's not often one has the pleasure of both really liking and utterly disdaining a work at the same time.
Click to expand...
Great review, makes me want to go and re-read them again, it's been over 20 years! Some things I read at that time, like Terry Brooks' Shannara, I'm sure wouldn't have aged well in my eyes :LOL:
 
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing.
Got put on to reading this by my German partner - a bestseller apparently from the mid 00s, perhaps just in Germany? She said everyone there seemed to have read it. It's fun, in a way (the seas rise up against humanity), and weirdly prescient considering the Orca's attacking boats that started a few years back. But in general, it really drags! Long slow over-explanations of scientific stuff, that are randomly interesting at times but cut the narrative, too many characters with over-explained back stories and motivations, heaps of cheese, etc etc. It feels very dated. I'm still reading it with her though...
 
otaylor said:
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing.
Got put on to reading this by my German partner - a bestseller apparently from the mid 00s, perhaps just in Germany? She said everyone there seemed to have read it. It's fun, in a way (the seas rise up against humanity), and weirdly prescient considering the Orca's attacking boats that started a few years back. But in general, it really drags! Long slow over-explanations of scientific stuff, that are randomly interesting at times but cut the narrative, too many characters with over-explained back stories and motivations, heaps of cheese, etc etc. It feels very dated. I'm still reading it with her though...
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Everything you say about this book is true. It does drag. It's slow, too much info dumping. But I liked it despite that. And then several years after I read it, there were stories about Orcas, whales and dolphins attacking boats.... * insert Jaws theme here *
 
otaylor said:
Great review, makes me want to go and re-read them again, it's been over 20 years! Some things I read at that time, like Terry Brooks' Shannara, I'm sure wouldn't have aged well in my eyes :LOL:
Click to expand...

I tried to do redo Brooks semi-recently but couldn't get on with his prose. Prose I can bounce through makes a big difference with these old books.
 
The Big Peat said:
I tried to do redo Brooks semi-recently but couldn't get on with his prose. Prose I can bounce through makes a big difference with these old books.
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I know what you mean. Although sometimes if I've had a long break from a genre or an author, it can feel weird and stilted coming back. I did that last year coming back to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I'd read a lot of literary fiction type stuff, and when I came to the first book I was very put off by the prose. But then got into it and the world took over and 14 (or however many) books later... :LOL: I don't think I'll do that with Brooks though ;)
 
C.G.Jung "Answer to Job"
76 year old Jung explains his belief in and perspective on Christianity, largely referencing the books of Job and Revelation.
The book itself is only some 108 (dense) pages long, but is at times hard to follow even with some familiarity with Jung's work.
However, impressively erudite.
 
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Junkyard Roadhouse by Faith Hunter:
A short, fast-paced and entertaining installment to a post-apocalypse/alien invasion/science fiction novella series.
 
I've finished the book on the de Haviland Mosquito and learned a lot from it - particularly the part they played in supporting the Danish resistance movement and Special Operations Executive.

Now I'm hoping to learn even more with Gates Of Europe: A History Of Ukraine by Plokhi Serhii
 
Reading Alfred Wainwright's The Outlying Fells of Lakeland - a companion book to his epic Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, but written for those of us that really can't tackle the high fells any more.
 
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