The August What-Are-You-Reading-This-Month-Thread....

[J-Sun]

I'm quite curious about this author too. There's a 'classic' of his that I'd like to track down and read-Fire In the Sky I think its called.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) - A Deepness in the Sky (1999) is the prequel. But practically everything he's written is a classic, IMO.

 

[Tillane]

Just spent a nice day reading Haruki Murakami's fabulous Norwegian Wood, and now trying to decide what to move onto next. Might stick with Murakami: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has been on my TBR pile for a bit, but has been pushed back a few times. Then again, I might go for Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings, or perhaps Morgan's Woken Furies.

Oh, decisions, decisions.

 

[chopper]

i have too many to choose from. - and too many on the go at the moment! still wading verbosely through Ships of Merior, while looking longingly at Persian Fire (Tom Holland) and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Penguin Red edition). both charity shop acquisitions.

 

[nj1]

i have too many to choose from. - and too many on the go at the moment! still wading verbosely through Ships of Merior, while looking longingly at Persian Fire (Tom Holland) and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Penguin Red edition). both charity shop acquisitions.

Mmmmm, Persian Fire!!!

 

[AE35Unit]

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) - A Deepness in the Sky (1999) is the prequel. But practically everything he's written is a classic, IMO.

Ah thanks for the correction Jason. Funny thing is Fire Upon the Deep came into my head but it sounded too biblical so I thought it can't be that,lol

 

[Connavar]

Adventures of Gerard by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I put my Vernor Vinge book on hold because of this short novel by Doyle and because i felt for a historical novel.

 

[thesoothsayer]

Reading "Lions of Al-Rassan" (home) and "The Blade Itself" (lab).

Just finished "Elantris" last night. Was an interesting yarn, but I thought the tone of the book was a bit strange especially the conversations. Seemed a bit too light-hearted to me. Some events also didn't seem to make sense to me near the end. I guess I don't rate it as highly as many people here since I bought it after reading so many favourable mentions of it.

 

[blacknorth]

I just read Salt by Adam Roberts.

The ending left me confused but strangely happy. It ends on a grain of hopeful deception. At least, that's how I took it, but I can see how some might feel cheated. Roberts does treat his readers intelligently - I'd be happy to read more by him.

 

[murphy]

Reading "Lions of Al-Rassan" (home) and "The Blade Itself" (lab).

Just finished "Elantris" last night. Was an interesting yarn, but I thought the tone of the book was a bit strange especially the conversations. Seemed a bit too light-hearted to me. Some events also didn't seem to make sense to me near the end. I guess I don't rate it as highly as many people here since I bought it after reading so many favourable mentions of it.

Sanderson does get better with his later books.

Now starting my reread of the Malazan books by Steven Erikson.

 

[clovis-man]

Reading some short stories contained in a 1983 publication, Aliens from Analog. Two of them are by one of my favorite old time authors, Eric Frank Russell. "Hobbyist" was written in 1947 and, despite the intervening years, is a gem. Imbued with much of Russell's ubiquitous humor, it still manages to touch upon more profound existential issues. A real joy.

 

[AE35Unit]

I just read Salt by Adam Roberts.

The ending left me confused but strangely happy. It ends on a grain of hopeful deception. At least, that's how I took it, but I can see how some might feel cheated. Roberts does treat his readers intelligently - I'd be happy to read more by him.

I didn't like that book. Just something about it didn't quite sit right with me.

 

[haylesthompson]

Currently reading Melissa Marr's Fragile Enternity.
Love her books!

 

[j d worthington]

Have finally had a chance to finish off that large selection of Maupassant's fiction (211 out of 311 stories written in his 15-year!!! career). An interesting experience, and certainly gives me a much more rounded view of his work. I am even more impressed with his abilities, though I can't say I found some of these tales to my taste. Others, however, are pure gems, whether of the fantastic or not....

And have now begun on The Dark Side, a collection of (supposedly) all of his horror and suspense tales, in new translations. Having read only "The Horla", I can already see the difference in translation, and I'd say this is a bit closer to Maupassant's reputation as a very lean, in many ways very modern, writer with a gift for le mot juste. This gives the story mentioned even more of an immediacy and eerie effect than other translations I've read before. If anything, I'm even more in agreement that this is one of the jewels in the crown of the weird tale....

(As indicated, this is not truly "all" of his weird and suspense work, as the translator says: "There are others, too -- some so unsavoury, or so grim and obsessive -- that we lose nothing by excluding them". I beg to disagree. I'm one of those people who likes to decide such things for myself, and would much prefer to even have the worst of a writer's work represented in a "complete" selection of any type of tale he or she has done. But this is a minor carp, as this still has 31 tales of the darker side of Maupassant's genius... and that's a considerable amount of peering into the abyss....)

 

[Lobolover]

You think the "grim and obsesive" tales they excluded may have come from the period in his life before he went bonkers ?

Have finished a czech book , "A domino brick" by František Pilař, will tell you something about it J.D.

 

[ratsy]

I had to set aside Sword of Shannara...I read it when I was a teenager and am having a hard time getting into this time. I have read so much more at this point and find the story lacking in a lot of areas.

I did pick up The Long Walk by Stephen King and have read more than half in one sitting...

 

[j d worthington]

You think the "grim and obsesive" tales they excluded may have come from the period in his life before he went bonkers ?

Have finished a czech book , "A domino brick" by František Pilař, will tell you something about it J.D.

Thanks. I've seen the PM, but not yet had a chance to read it. I'll go through it later, following my second shift at work.

On the Maupassant... from my understanding, none of his tales was written after the onset of the tertiary stage of syphilis, as they continue to show very careful structure, planning, and writing throughout. It was only with his failed suicide attempt that the first real signs of the illness appeared; and following that, he only survived a matter of months in the asylum.

 

[Iorek444]

Confession: I'm actually reading the Harry Potter series for the first time now, currently on book five. I'm really enjoying it - I'm ashamed to admit that I have been doing very little reading for the past few years up until now - it's been a busy time, and I actually chose Harry Potter because being a 'young adult' series (not that it matters much where it's categorized) I figured it would be a good way to ease myself back into reading.

I'd forgotten how it can be to really get into a book and respond to it emotionally. Maybe a little too much, the first few books had quite a fun feeling to them, but book five has been causing this lurking feeling of dread in me all day - though that's a good thing really.

 

[Ian Whates]

Picking up on a discussion by jd and Gollum from earlier in the thread, Glory Road was one of the first Heinlein's I ever read (I think it was actually the third, after Revolt in 2100 and Starship Troopers). This would have been some 35 years ago, and, I must admit, I instantly thought of it as 'Fantasy' rather than SF, which I'd classed the previous two as.

Loved it, by the way.

 

[UltraCulture]

Keeping with my Appocolypse fix I've just started Dust by Charles Pellegrino.

Not one for people with a creepy crawly phobia.

 

[ktabic]

Finally finished The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, took longer than expected but only because I've had so much to do this month. A fine book, that nicely sorts itself out by the end, although I figured out the Ashbless thing kind of early.

Now onto Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley.