December fades, but the flames of literacy still burn

[Jay]

Finished R. Scott Bakker's TheThousandfold Thought - powerful, the best completed epic sequences in at least 25 years IMHO.

 

[dwndrgn]

I am finally back in books - for a while I couldn't go to the library. I was going a little crazy with it. However, now I'm better (mostly ) and I am reading Kostova's The Historian on the weight of several people's opinions that said it's a good book. It hasn't truly grabbed me yet but I'm only a short way in so far so we'll see how it goes.

 

[ravenus]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman, about a man caught in an epic war between gods of the older and newer ages. I'd recommend it very strongly to anybody into fantasy litt and wants something other than ho-hum medieval quest stories...this is a quest story as well but owes more to Bradbury than to Tolkien.

Also finished John Banville's Book of evidence. The narrative is from the point of view of Freddy Mongomery, a man accused of robbery and murder, trying to come up with some sort of explanataion to himself and to the court about how he came to commit the crime by recounting his entire life up to and a bit beyond that point. Banville's lucid and expressive prose goes a long way in building and retaining one's interest in the series of circumstances that the absurd and hopeless protagonist finds himself in and how he reacts to them. This book is the first of what is called the Frames trilogy and now I'm onto the second book Ghosts, which a 100 pages in seems a pretty darn interesting and unconventional follow-up.
People who like Camus and Sartre will certainly find interest in Banville.
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]
I'm also going through Cronenberg on Cronenberg where this brilliant film-maker (The Brood, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Scanners) talks in detail aout his films (all individually examined in chronological order) and the experience of working on them.[/FONT]

 

[dwndrgn]

ravenus - American Gods is a book club selection. You may want to wander over to that portion of the forum to enter your two cents' worth about the book.

 

[GOLLUM]

Finished R. Scott Bakker's TheThousandfold Thought - powerful, the best completed epic sequences in at least 25 years IMHO.

So can I kill you now or later?...

Looks like I'm going to have to order from Amazon rather than wait for the more conventional means of the book arriving on our sunburnt shores...

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I finished the Cagliostro book - it was absolutely brilliant, gripping and vivid. All history books should be written like this!

Now reading:

The SHadow at the bottom of the world by Thomas Ligotti, a modern horror master who is often said to be the most significant voice in the genre since Poe and Lovecraft. Even more remarkable, pal Ravenus thinks he's good too!

Hyperion by Dan SImmons.

The Robert Sheckley Omnibus. RIP.

 

[Jay]

Crytsal Rain by Tobias Buckell a forthcoming debut,and Summer Isle by Ian R. Macleod, Macleod's expansion on one of his short stories.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I dipped into a couple of things by Arthur Machen, but found them not to my taste. Now attempting historical novels by John Masefield. He wrote one of my favorite children's books The Box of Delights -- besides, of course, being the poet laureate and getting constantly misquoted and/or misattributed in movies and on tv -- so I thought I'd see if I enjoyed some of his other fiction.

First up: Jim Davis, apparently a sea-going yarn, set in the early 1800s.

 

[dwndrgn]

Still working on The Historian, the slow going now is not due to the book as the action has picked up and become much more interesting. Since you were interested, JP, I definitely think you'll like it if you can (like me) get over the slow start. Not only dealing with legendary horror themes but the trappings of universities, historians, linquists and other academic pursuits is fascinating to follow as well as a little bit of politics, intrigue and the obligatory romantic angle.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I just printed up from a digital text The Ward of King Canute by Ottilie A. Liljencrantz. This is a romantic historical novel written in 1903, which I read and loved as a teenager, so I was quite pleased to find it again. Now I'll see how the book holds up after all these years.

 

[Thadlerian]

Finally picked up and plowed through The Da Vnci Code by Dan Brown. I found it to contain a lot of interesting ideas, but story-wise it was nothing at all special.

Now I'm about to lay my hands on a treasure I've had for six months without reading: The Beginning Place by my favourite writer, Ursula Le Guin. You may ask why I've postponed it this long; the reason is my near-lethal overdose of Le Guin writings this summer; I consumed something around 10 of her novels and just as many short stories in three weeks. But now I believe I'm ready again...

 

[Culhwch]

I am motoring through 'The Eyre Affair' by Jasper Fforde, and thoroughly enjoying it. It's pulled me out of my reading slump, thankfully....

 

[Jay]

As I'm making my way through Tobias Buckell's forthcoming Crystal Rain, I just received another book that on my 2006 most wanted list, Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer, the first book in The Long Price Quartet - really been looking forward to this seies.

GRRM had great thing to say about it from the blurbage:

"he tells their stories in an elegant style that reminded me by turns of Gene Wolf, Jack Vance and M. John Harrison"
-GRRM

One cannot invoke MJH and Wolfe without creating huge expectation. Those are two of the greatest who have ever written Fantasic Fiction.​

 

[GOLLUM]

I just received another book that on my 2006 most wanted list, Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer, the first book in The Long Price Quartet - really been looking forward to this seies.

One cannot invoke MJH and Wolfe without creating huge expectation. Those are two of the greatest who have ever written Fantasic Fiction.
​

Well Yes if it's anything like the quality of those 2 writers I'll be eagerly awaiting its release.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Continuing to delve into the nihilistic nightmares of Thomas Ligotti. This man is the best horror writer since HP Lovecraft. He now forms the third of an unholy trinity of horror including HPL and Poe, in the black altar of terror that lies somewhere in the caverns beneath a haunted monastery somewhere in my dream scape.

Also reading Black Brillion by Matthew Hughes. The author is an avowed devotee of Jack Vance, and this novel has more than a trace of Vance's elegant prose, intricate social systems and cantankerous characters. It also has some of the wit and social whimsy of PG Wodehouse, as well as a rather Jungian strain of thought. All good stuff.

Also also reading a book about the Voynich manuscript. I've decided to make sure to read at least one non-fiction work each month. The last was a biography of Cagliostro. The next will either be a biography of Catherine Di Medici or something by Jared Diamond.

 

[GOLLUM]

Continuing to delve into the nihilistic nightmares of Thomas Ligotti. This man is the best horror writer since HP Lovecraft. He now forms the third of an unholy trinity of horror including HPL and Poe, in the black altar of terror that lies somewhere in the caverns beneath a haunted monastery somewhere in my dream scape.

Well you've very much piqued my interest in this author. I'm yet to read a single thing by Ligotti but I will soon be receiving a copy of short stories entitled The Nightmare Factory. Have you read this collection yet by any chance?

Also he appears to have written primarily short stories rather than novellas or novel length stories. Do you know of any he has written? The following is a link to a Ligotti forum which appears to be quite well organised, although I've not had time to properly peruse it. Thought it might be of some interest to you though..

http://www.ligotti.net/

I also have a collection of Locus Award winners over 30 years including a stroy by Ted Chiang called Hell Is The Absence Of God. I've only just started it but am enjoying it immensely.

All the best for the New Year...

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

GOLLUM: that's an excellent, near-definitive collection!

Ligotti does not choose to work in the longer format. He directly says so in some interviews. He prefers the concetrated effect of shorter pieces.

A very happy new year and merry Xmas to you too!

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks, I'll be sure to post my thoughts on it once I receive the book...

 

[Thadlerian]

Working my way through King of the City by Michael Moorcock. I found it in the speculative fiction section of the library, marked "Science Fiction", but as far as I have read, it seems more like realism. A paparazzo photojournalist in the 1997 UK looks back on the last 30 years. Quite hard to follow, rich on digressions, but very rewarding if you can maintain your attention.

 

[Jay]

Working my way through King of the City by Michael Moorcock. I found it in the speculative fiction section of the library, marked "Science Fiction", but as far as I have read, it seems more like realism. A paparazzo photojournalist in the 1997 UK looks back on the last 30 years. Quite hard to follow, rich on digressions, but very rewarding if you can maintain your attention.

That's the semi-sequel to what is IMHO Moorcock's magnum opus , Mother London. These are two examples that just epitmize Moorcock IMHO. I think Mother London especially, is astounding