July, you said you read that already!

[Taltos]

Was away on a little vacation, no cable TV and a lot of time to read

Finished Brin-s Second Uplift Trilogy "Brightness Reef" "Infinity's Shoe" and "Haven's Reach" - it took me 3 or 4 years to start with these and now it took 2 weeks to finish Pretty good reading, once you get used to the constantly jumping viewpoint and the 20+ main characters ... although I still think that the first trilogy was better

Also read Brust-s "Dragon", "Jhereg" and "Teckla" ... first 2 were good, but "Teckla" should not have been started (ok, maybe there is a person who likes to read about revolutioniary movement in fantasy world, but thats not me )

Also finished Brunner-s "Stand on Zanzibar" (did I mention that I had a lot of free tim on my hands ) - also good, but a little bit slow at the start, it takes about 150 pages to even find out, who are tha main characters

Ok, this much about recently read books ... no back to Reynolds "Chasm City"

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I'm still in Brin's first Uplift 'trology' - have to read The Uplift War next. A lot of people seem to think the first three books were better - what was lacking in the later trilogy?


'Stand on Zanzibar' nearly defeated me, but is so manically well written! Chasm City's a fun, gritty sf adventure - no great shakes intellectually, but good pulpy action. Should be fun!

 

[Taltos]

I'm still in Brin's first Uplift 'trology' - have to read The Uplift War next. A lot of people seem to think the first three books were better - what was lacking in the later trilogy?

Spoilers ahead
Actually the "Uplift war" is a side story, the second trilogy is somewhat connected to the "startide rising", actually "startide" is a requisite to understand the second trilogy.

Whats lacking? It's a bit too long ... 3 novels ... 1800 pages. some of what may be dropped. Too many characters and this constitutes in a bit of jumpiness in the story. First novels were more compact. Also the third book i.e. "ending" was IMHO weaker than the build up.

'Stand on Zanzibar' nearly defeated me, but is so manically well written!

It is good, although a bit chaotic for my taste. Also the ending left me puzzled for a while.

 

[Leto]

That's Brunner style for you. And believe me, you'll get caught puzzling of this ending still long after reading (and maybe re-reading) the book.

 

[Taltos]

That's Brunner style for you. And believe me, you'll get caught puzzling of this ending still long after reading (and maybe re-reading) the book.

I've read Brunners earlier works, and they wre not so puzzling, but from what i've heard/read about him, his later books were more experimental.

 

[Leto]

Yes, The Shockwave Rider is another good example.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Philip K Dick's VALIS was incredible. Knowing that this was a book that dealt directly with Dick's famous 'pink light' epiphany, I was half-prepared for a cranky, rambling tale, like some of Heinlein's later stuff. Instead, I found a taut, fast-moving and intellectually challenging exploration of reality, divinity and more by a writer at the peak of his abilities. Dick may have gone close to the brink of complete craziness at one point, but as Kim Stanley Robinson says, this book is a testament by a mind that has pulled itself back from the brink.

Ultimately, Dick leaves you to make what you will of his exegesis and the often very esoteric, Gnostic spiritual ideas therein. He makes no claims for its objective truth, and in the end, suggests that, above all, the important thing is to keep our eyes open, to never cease observing the world around and trying to understand it. There are no final conclusions here, rather a variety of more or less oddball starting points for interesting ideas and speculations.

An interesting sidenote: the characters Kevin and David are supposed to be portraits of two of Dick's friends - KW Jeter and Tim Powers. In a way, I can trace the 'secret history' approach of many of Powers' own books to some of the ideas in this novel.

 

[littlemissattitude]

An interesting sidenote: the characters Kevin and David are supposed to be portraits of two of Dick's friends - KW Jeter and Tim Powers. In a way, I can trace the 'secret history' approach of many of Powers' own books to some of the ideas in this novel.

I didn't know that, JP. Another good reason to find that and read it.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a break from science fiction and fantasy and reading a mystery called "Mesozoic Murder", by Christina Gentry. Pretty straight-ahead murder mystery so far. Takes place in Montana among fossil hunters. How could I possibly resist a book with the word "mesozoic" in the title?

 

[polymorphikos]

I'm two thirds of the way through Invisible Cities, and whilst I'm really enjoying it, it is the kind of book that I've found myself reading in stages, due to its gazeteer style. I did this with Marco Polo, too, so it's no surprise. So I'm intercutting it with The Name of the Rose, which I bought because if it were a library book I'd never finish it.

My favourite city so far is Zobeide.

 

[Mark Robson]

How could I possibly resist a book with the word "mesozoic" in the title?

An interesting observation LMA. I was just asking about the influence of title as a motivation to buying a book - please see the Elizabeth Moon thread.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Reading Calvino and Eco in parallel - now there's an abundance of riches for you. Foucault's Pendulum is the best book of its kind I have ever read.

I'm currently reading something called The Haunted Mind, by a person called Nandor Fodor who was a bit of leading figure in early 20th-century occult studies. He tries to bring the principles of psychoanalysis to bear in analysing phenomena like ghosts, poltergeists and so on. An interesting mix of wide-eyed credulity, and a real attempt to find fresh explanations for genuinely strange occurences.

 

[Jay]

Literally just when I was catching up with my reviews I get this in the mail today :

Checked my mail today and got a good bunlde;

-ARC of Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright
-ARC of The Foreigner by Robert J. Sawyer
-TPB of Someplace to be Flying by Charles De Lint
-ARC of Melusine by Sarah Monette
-ARC of Princess of Roumani by Paul Park
-ARC of The Divided Crown by Isabel Glass

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell is amusing, if a trifle dilatory, so far.

 

[kaneda]

Well i got the waterborn by greg keyes in the post today (won on ebay for a bargain price on £1.50 including p&p), so I'm going to begin reading that today. I'm going to put aside prince of dogs by kate elliot for another time (sorry to alia and other k.e. fans, its just no gripping enough!)

 

[Aliena]

I'm currently reading Soul of Fire, Terry Goodkind's 5th Sword of Truth book, and am enjoying it. I've loved every book in this series so far, so I'm anxious to see how this one pans out. Everyone tells me that around books 4 or 5, they start not being as good, but we'll see...I'm about 130 pages in so far.

 

[dwndrgn]

still (!!!) reading The Annals of the Black Company...I'm also reading Skybowl which is the last in the series of Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince series as well as The Destruction of the Books by Mel Odom which is a sequel to The Rover which I quite enjoyed but this one so far isn't as engaging.

On the coffee table waiting list are The Queen's Necklace by Teresa Edgerton, Time Travelers Strictly Cash by Spider Robinson and a reread of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I've reached the last 200 pages of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. While I'd hesitate to call this a great novel, it is a great entertainment, and an admirable achievement in many ways. The story doesn't bear much conceptual or thematic weight, but it is set in a marvellously well-realised early-19th century world, and written in brilliantly sustained Regency prose. The style invites comparisons to Jane Austen, but really, this is more fun than anything Ms Austen ever wrote.


I'm also halfway through The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh. The plot is moving along nicely, with mysterious references to a secretive counter-scientific society, strange rituals in deserted buildings in Calcutta and more.

 

[Leto]

Sounds intruiguing, who is the publisher of it ?

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

The UK publisher was Perennial. It certainly is worth a read. Ravenus is a huge fan of this book, btw.

 

[Leto]

I'll check it on Amazon then. Seems like a good book to read on the beach.
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