July, you said you read that already!

[littlemissattitude]

Finished reading "The Rule of Four". Not a bad book. Rather clever solution for the riddle the protagonists were trying to solve, but a slightly strange ending...but that's all I'll say about that. Don't want to reveal any spoilers.

It was interesting that some of the blurbs (there's two or three pages of them at the beginning of the book) at the beginning of the book compare it to Eco's "Focault's Pendulum" and Donna Tartt's "The Secret History". I've read both those books, and liked them, and this one reminds me a lot more of Tartt's book than Eco's.

Now I've got to decide whether to go back to Berg's "Revelation" or start something else. I'm not seeming to be able to get past around page 300 in that one. I really enjoyed the beginning, but it's turning into a bit of a slog.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

That book kinda stumped me at one point too - although I'd enjoyed the previous book by Berg fairly well.

What is Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History' about? I've seen it in the shelves but never imagined it had anything in common with Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, despite the sugestive title.

 

[polymorphikos]

I just read through 'The Monkey's Mask', and I'm about to go on and read Hesse's 'The Glass Bead Game', although I should probably be reading Shark Net or The Picture of Dorian Gray in preperation for school.

'The Monkey's Mask' was an excellent book. It's set in Sydney, and a crime-thriller, but it's also a collection of short poems, a study of gender roles (especially femenine homosexuality), and a review of society and sexuality in general. The book is self-conscious, in that it is a series of poems about a dead poetess, and all the poets around her who may have had a hand (told from the viewpoint of an ex-cop PI named Jill). It becomes a study of poetry itself at times, a critique of the Sydney scene in the mid-nineties, and also makes subtle asides about how it is ostensibly detective fiction, and all the assumptions therein.

There's actually very little detection, but it's a damn fine read, and the conclusion has some effect.

 

[littlemissattitude]

What is Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History' about? I've seen it in the shelves but never imagined it had anything in common with Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, despite the sugestive title.

"The Secret History" is essentially a murder mystery. I think the place where it intersects with "The Rule of Four" is that it concerns a group of college friends (Classics majors all) who get caught up in murder and deception. It was probably brought up in connection with "The Rule of Four" because that book also revolves around a group of college roommates, this time seniors about to graduate from Princeton. One of those students is writing his senior thesis about the "Hypnertomachia Poliphili" (a real Renaissance text, incidentally) that is purported to hide secret knowledge - which is, I suppose, where the comparison to "Focault's Pendulum" comes in, although the conspiracy supposedly hidden in the text's pages is not nearly so worldwide as that in Eco's book.

 

[dwndrgn]

Since you guys are talking about The Rule of Four, I found this website that is about the manuscript that is at the center of the story:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/HP/

Just so I haven't derailed the thread , I'm currently reading both The Annals of The Black Company and Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician. Both are good reads, I'm only reading both at the same time as the Black Company book is a library copy and is large so harder to drag along with me to work and other places.

 

[Mark Robson]

Finally got a bit of reading time and raced through The Queen's Necklace by Teresa Edgerton. I'll review it shortly, but suffice it to say that once again I thoroughly enjoyed her work. I also polished off a book called Rutland's Curse, but as it's more of a Bernard Cornwall, Sharpe style novel, it's not really appropriate to review it here. I enjoyed this too, but it suffered a couple of major flaws which spoilt my enjoyment of the author's obvious knowledge of 19th century warfare.

Am now reading an unpublished thriller called Best Eaten Cold by another author in the making. So far so good.

 

[Leto]

Currently reading Inside outside by Philip J Farmer and The right to be lazy by Paul Lafargue

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Sounds like a good read Mark, I will look into those books.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Now reading Tony Ballantyne's "Recursion".
Really good so far. Anyone else read it?

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Nope. Do tell.


I've just finished David Brin's Startide Rising. Solid SF adventure, which enough mind-candy as well. The multiple viewpoints actually helped in creating a vivid, exciting picture of the story (rather than descending into the head-hopping tedium too many authors from the fantasy side of the tracks use, presumably to reduce their readers into a mesmeric stupor and keep them hooked) and the plot was absolutely gripping, with all manner of vast revelations being delivered, or at least hinted at, and many a twist and turn right up to the very end. The succesor to this novel, The Uplift Wars is definitely on my seek-and-acquire list now.

Nearly done with Clive Barker's WeaveWorld, and planning to start out on Robert J Sawyer's Calculating God.

 

[ravenus]

Wormed my way through 2 pretty decent horror tomes on a recent short trip:

OUR LADY OF DARKNESS - Fritz Lieber

Horror writer esconced in a flat in San Francisco stumbles into mysterious circumstances where he finds that an apparently long deceased psycho philospher-guru has made arrangements for his death using elements of the 'city' itself to aid his diabolical ends.
Lieber's short novel does a decent modern day take on some of H.P. Lovecraft's trademark elements of an unknown long-standing evil that inhabits colossal environments, building the fear atmosphere steadily and he consructs some pretty imaginative and scary scenes...like the part where the writer's bookish "mistress" comes alive. But the novel also has a few rough spots like some contrived and baaad-sounding dialog in the initial parts and a resolution to the evil that begs a retching bag. I personally would have liked a more impersonal nature of evil than an old loony's revenge. Still rather worth the read.


GHOST STORY - Peter Straub

My first full-length Straub book (by remarkable coincidence, another book that has a horror writer as one of the protagonists) and I'm VERY impressed. Although his plot won't win too many accolades for novelty of concepts it's constructed with a wonderful tautness and manages to for 500+ pages hold your attention with rarely a drop. A group of oldies in the laid-back small town of Milburn who regularly get together and tell each other horror stories find themselves having identical nightmares and things let rip as they begin to realize that the horror's not just in their heads. They must find their way through snowblinds and hellfire if they have to keep the souls of the town safe.

Straub has the same gift for lucid prose and recognizable characters that King shows in his better works and he assuredly guides us through this epic thrill-packed pulp journey which can IMO be seen as an alternate take on 'Dracula' with elements of 'Nightmare on Elm Street'. Definitely recommended as a fun read for all horror afficionodos.

 

[Leto]

Finished Inside Outside by Philip José Farmer, now re-reading a classical Zelazny : The Isle of Dead.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Finished Robert J Sawyer's Calculating God, a very talky but still gripping sf book which touches upon some pretty core topics, such as the possible existence of a creator. An interesting read which made me re-examine the basis of my own atheism and come away with my lack of faith re-affirmed, although the book itself ends with god actually actively intervening - not a god that followers of the Big 3 Monotheisms, or any other existing religion, would recognise, though.

Still reading BArker's Weaveworld - I'm a bit stalled because, 500 pages in, so much has happened that it's almost exhausting. There's obviously an epic final confrontation building up, and I'll tackle it after taking a short break.

Just started reading Poul Anderson's The Boat of a Million Years.

How is Inside Outside? I have a copy of it, haven't read it yet.

 

[Leto]

Very interesting, I've read it years ago as a teen and wasn't so impressed. Now that I'm much older I really appreciate the twisted version of Hell he's offering. It's a kind of prologue to the River world, even if the stories are not linked.

 

[Brys]

Just started reading Iron Council by China Mieville.

 

[rune]

I gave in trying to read Shadowmarch


Will read The Riddle by Alison Croggon next

 

[polymorphikos]

I finally got a hold of Invisible Cities, so all else goes on the back-burner for a time. I also got the name of a weird-fiction specialist shop in Melbourne, which can only be good news.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Calvino's Invisible Cities? Excellent.

 

[Leto]

Indulging a few re-read in my Hellblazer TPB : From Dangerous habit to Rake at the gates of Hell

 

[GOLLUM]

I finally got a hold of Invisible Cities, so all else goes on the back-burner for a time. I also got the name of a weird-fiction specialist shop in Melbourne, which can only be good news.

Polymorphikos can you let me know the name of this shop please??

I don't know if it's Minitoaurs book shop which is basically the main Fantasy/Sci fi bookshop we have along with Slow Glass bookshop although they closed their doors some time back, know the owner Justin great Guy!!.... or was it another one mate????....