September's Indulgences...

[dwndrgn]

What are you reading this September? Good, bad, ugly? Do tell!!

I just finished a very nice page-turner. Nothing to get excited about but it had me drawn in from the first. Even though I knew basically how the story was going to end, who the killer was (although I was two thirds through before I discovered that) etc. I enjoyed it very much. Popcorn reading at its best

Next up is Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Night Blooming. I'm reading her St. Germain series all out of order, but it isn't bothering me. Usually I'd be up in arms about it but this series doesn't rely heavily on past stories. I think I'll try to stop by the (other) library tomorrow to stock up for when Frances hits us. It's looking inevitable now...sigh. I was hoping she'd get tired and just leave us alone.

Anyhoo, what are you reading this month?

 

[littlemissattitude]

I'm still working my way through "Outlander", now only about 200 pages from the end (well, it is over 800 pages, after all). Trying to finish it up before I start anything else. During reading this one I've also completed re-reading the book about the two guys looking for the real Mount Sinai (mentioned over when we were talking about the historicity of Moses on the History board).

 

[brightcrow]

I think Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's going to be at the World Fantasy Con too...she's a vampire writer? What type? Good luck, dawn, I understand you folks almost wish Frances would just come already and stop taking its time.

As for reading, I keep 'shoulding' myself to read for the con. And the independent reader inside who usually wins, insisting on a book to suit my current mood, says Ender's Game or Neuromancer. While my two halves are fighting it out, I post too much here. Sorry 'bout that. We'll see what I end up reading tomorrow.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Ender's Game or Neuromancer...oh, my. If I had to make a choice like that I'd just sit down and weep.


I just finished Adam Roberts' Polystom. It was utterly brilliant, which seems to be par for Adam Roberts. It takes a big, big concept (a real concept, not the jumped up engineering spec that passes as such sometimes in hard sf), one that should be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in sf, and plays it out in a very specific, well realised scenario. Added to this are stimulating philosophical and cosmological mind-kicks and a real human story as well. It's definitely on the cerebral side, but I think the characters work well. As usual, Roberts avoids a tidy conclusion, leaving you with an intriguing conundrum to puzzle over. This is the sort of book that convinces me that sf is alive, well and going where no fiction has gone before. Roberts has a new one just out, or out soon, and I'm going to be lining up for that one, too.

Also, still on David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Steph Swainston's The Year of Our War.

 

[polymorphikos]

Just finished At the Earth's Core, finding it much better after taking a break halfway. I got Lin Carter's first two Callisto books out, and have started reading the first. It looks genuinely good, but I'm not sure if I will read it, because I plan to buy Tarnsmen of Gor tomorrow.

Choices, choices...

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Tarnsman of Gor is pretty iffy sub-Burroughs fare, but at least Norman was still trying to write an adventure yarn rather than soft porn.

 

[polymorphikos]

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll handle it with care. It isn't too expensive, but I may have to wait another week to get that copy of The Scar.

How do you mean, anyway? Burroughs was pretty iffy himself, when it came to plot. Lots of contrivance and such, and he clearly didn't put much thought into it before hand, but then he makes up for it with some excellent imagining and prose that, when it breaks out of certain molds, can convey some sheer brilliance of excitement. For me, the thing that heart the Mars books most was John Carter, not because of the character but because of his voice. I especially thought this when I tentatively began I Am A Barbarian and realised that Burroughs writing the way he did was purely choice, and he had a hell of a lot more in him than would first seem.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Well, his plotting is probably no better nor worse than Burroughs, but he doesn't make up for it with you aptly described as 'some excellent imagining and prose that, when it breaks out of certain molds, can convey some sheer brilliance of excitement'. Norman's prose is mostly mediocre, and later installments of Gor are merely a vehicle for bondage scenarios. You see, women on Gor can only be slaves and Norman has built up a whole wish-fulfillment fantasy around this that I'm distressed to see has adherents among people who aren't still 13, at least physically.

 

[polymorphikos]

I'll see. If it's really crap, I shall cast it into my pit of lost literature (aka the little shelf with my magazines on it) and never touch the man again. I'm trying to stop off-hand condemnations, because I have a real problem with that. No doubt I shall agree with you, though.

EDIT: Hang on a minute, "later volumes"? You've read into these volumes. I shall laugh at every scantily-clad woman and the heated fantasies of a teenage JP.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

oops...my little secret is out.


I've only read about 4 of things actually. The last one was a real effort. Promise.

 

[Foxbat]

Currently reading Moorcock's 'Dancers At The End Of Time' (again )

 

[brightcrow]

Enders Game it is .

 

[littlemissattitude]

Good choice, brightcrow. "Ender's Game" is a good book.

Well, I said I wasn't going to start anything new until I finished "Outlander", but I find myself reading something called "Sleeping With the Devil" by the same ex-CIA man who wrote "See No Evil", which I read a little while ago.

 

[Princess Ivy]

The scar, whatever takes my fancy off my shelves and anything good in the local library.

 

[littlemissattitude]

I've started "The Scar" for the book club, but only barely. Quite interesting so far.

 

[Sirathiel]

I'm through with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Interesting read, but after having read Angels and Demons, it was not THE hit. Still, I enjoyed it during the hot hours of the day.

Now I'm on to Tad Williams' The War of the Flowers. I'm having a few problems with all the flower names and stuff. These are things they don't teach in English classes. Well, not in detail anyway. And since my Oxford is parked in France, I have to rely on Internet dictionaries. Or give a crap and read on (I have come to prefer the second choice, it doesn't disrupt the flow of reading...) So far it's quite interesting and even a bit shocking. I never imagined fairies cursing... but I'm only 150 or so into the book... So far, I love it.

 

[dwndrgn]

I've been quite down recently and the second hurricane hasn't done a thing to improve my mood so I just majorly indulged...I had $66 US in credit to use at amazon.com and boy did I have fun! I had no idea that with that much money to spend I would have difficulty choosing books! In any case, I got lots and will share what I got and how I enjoy them with you here as they arrive and I read them.

 

[mzarynn]

I'm currently deep into the second book of the Outlander series, Dragonfly and Amber. My friend and I joke about picking up the accents of the books we are reading. I find myself thinking or nearly speaking Scottish slang right after reading this book. But it's just a testament to how much I am enjoying it.

 

[The Master™]

(Just a quick mention, I see that Terry Pratchett has a new book out - Going Postal - anyone read it???)

I've just finished Grass by Sheri S Tepper; and got The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin, Exile's Return by Raymond E Feist and Man Kzin Wars (first book) by Larry Niven on the go...

 

[Lacedaemonian]

I am reading Memoirs of a Madman by Charles Bukowski for the third time. I plan to buy Exiles Return tomorrow if I have time. How Ma' Ster got a hold of copy so soon, I do not know.