Maybe time for May reading thread ...

[Diggler]

Finished Cat's Cradle. What a great, though utterly whacked book.

Have just started on A Wrinkle In the Skin by John Christopher.

 

[Ian Whates]

Currently reading The Grand Conjunction by Sean Williams -- final volume of his 'Astropolis' trilogy. Two thirds of the way through and thoroughly enjoying it so far.

 

[j d worthington]

I seem to be truly in a heavily Moorcockian phase... after re-reading The Land Leviathan, I have now moved on to the third Oswald Bastable tale, The Steel Tsar....

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I must fit some Moorcock into my reading this year, maybe a re-read of the Jerry Cornelius books.

Still reading Buddenbrooks which is building into quite an awe-inspiring chronicle of a pivotal era seen through the fortunes of a single family - which is the single most cliched idea for a panoramic historical novel, except when it's done by a real master of the novel like Mann. Wonderful World by Javier Calvo is zipping along nicely and has a tongue-in-cheek mock-ironic tone of voice that I find quite unique and engaging. I'm also reading a novel by a local writer, Perfect Eight by Reema Moudgil, which alternates between passages of rare lyricism and moments of treacly over-saturation.

 

[Grimward]

Now started on Legends Of The Dragonrealm by Richard A. Knaak. It has three stories in it Firedrake, Ice Dragon & Wolfhelm.

I agree with Taltos, Rosie. Knaak made a decent name for himself with the Huma stories in Dragonlance Legends (at least, I think so, and was very much interested in finding other work by him at the time). So I was keenly interested in these when I learned he'd be releasing them. They were a good read, but hardly groundbreaking. Then again, there's a lot to be said for a good read...

Finishing up Shadowrise, myself, then it's on to the final book in the Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny...

 

[ValerieJLong]

Teresa, will you smoothly lead us to the June reading thread?

 

[Ursa major]

I know it is June here as I write, but as it's still May somewhere on this planet and I finished reading the book yesterday, I'll post my comments here. The book was The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.

I've already posted the first words of the book in a post on another thread (Re:_A_Possible_Prologue_Post#5 - the quote is near the end of the post), so I'll get on with giving my impressions of the book.

At first, I did not find the main character (whose POV takes up the vast majority of the book) particularly sympathetic. Neither did the theme - the story of someone whose life is dominated by playing games - seem attractive. Unless I was fooling myself, something else must have been pulling me into the book. And pull me it did, and at speed. I found it hard to put the book down. Apart from one short section (where the POV character is taking part on one conversation while listening to another), I've rarely read anything so easy to read.

And as I was drawn in, the characters became more sympathetic (even those with which we weren't really meant to sympathise) and what looked as if it could be a very silly plot blossomed into a really good tale: well plotted with plenty of excitement.

I'm not sure whether this is the authors best book (if only because I haven't read them all), but it ought to be a contender. It's certainly an excellent introduction to the author's Culture books.

Highly Recommended.

 

[Pyan]

Well, May's now officially past, and June is bustin' out all over...

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