January's Joyous Journeying Between Jacketcovers

[GOLLUM]

Happy 2011.

Let us know what you are reading to kickstart the New Year.

I'll keep the December thread active for any stragglers over the next 24hours or so.

Cheers.

 

[dask]

Still working my way through LITERATURE OF THE OCCULT edited by Peter B. Messent. Right now Rudolf Otto's ideogram "mysterium tremendum et fascinosum" no make-um much sense-um.

 

[clovis-man]

Just finished Probability Moon by Nancy Kress. Now I've done it. I'll have to read the next two in the series. As usual, a good story with good characters.

 

[Lord Soth]

Happy New Year everyone!

Have just finished the Bengal Station Trilogy by Eric Brown, a solid yet uninspiring sci-fi detective action romp (with a few plot holes and some annoyingly repetitive proclamations of love for his wife by the main character...)

Anyway.... I think next up I will try Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion series for a change of scenery. A friend of mine bought me The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky, but I can't bring myself to even attempt that yet!

 

[alchemist]

Have finally started The Evolutionary Void by Peter F Hamilton, after it sitting on the bookshelf for four months. It ticks all the PFH boxes and is an enjoyable read, but, in time, I feel it won't be regarded as his best series.

 

[neuroticdog]

Reading Algernon Blackwoods "Incredible Adventures". Almost done with the first novella "The Regeneration of Lord Ernie" and really enjoying it. Blackwood is doing a real job at whipping things up into a real frenzy.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Just finished my first read of the year - Uncle Montague's Tales Of Terror by Chris Priestley. I like to read classic ghost stories and creepy tales around this time of the year, and this book hits the spot wonderfully well. A sort of homage to the original Uncle Montague (Rhodes James) with nods to Poe and Wilkie Collins, it consists of a set of deliciously creepy tales narrated to a young boy by his strange old uncle, all of which build to a chilling finale. Priestley does a good job of evoking the Victorian tale of terror while creating tales that are both original and creepy - stunningly so considering that this is meant to be a children's book! The illustrations by David Roberts, who has a nice line in the Gorey-esque macabre add a lot to the overall effect. Highly recommended to devotees of horror in the classic vein.

 

[Talysia]

I'm starting my new year with some short stories. First up is E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops.

 

[The Judge]

I had Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself and Before They are Hanged for Christmas. I started TBI Christmas Day, but then got stalled a little. I'm about half-way though now, and hoping to goodness that he soon introduces a character I actually might care about.

 

[sloweye]

started reading Emperor The field of swords by Conn Iggulden. only 100 pages in, but it good so far.

 

[Spade]

Happy New Year!

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

 

[Fried Egg]

Finished "Damnation Alley" by Roger Zelazny and onto "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card.

 

[murphy]

I'm reading House Name by Michelle West. Third book in the House War series and it's good so far.

 

[dask]

The next essay in LITERATURE OF THE OCCULT, "The Beating of Black Wings: Supernatural Horror in Literature and the Fiction Of Edgar Allan Poe" by H.P. Lovecraft; excerpt from HPL's SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE. I don't know if Lovecraft spent a scholarly amount of time researching this or just sat down in front of his typewriter, organized his thoughts and went at it, but in terms of clarity of language and general flow of words, arrangement of ideas and their presentation, this is without doubt the best essay thus far. Did Lovecraft know he was ten times better than just about everybody else? Satisfactory sense of time well spent very strong here.

Started this as my primary read; the several books I have going are what I consider peripheral reads. A physicist and psychologist get together and attempt to hammer out the kinks in the edifice of reality. See what happens.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Wow the picture on that cover looks a lot like Gollum's avatar.

 

[thatollie]

I think I'm going to go on a Van Vogt spree read.

- The Darkness on Diamondia
- Slan
- Mission to the Stars
- The Silkie

 

[littlemissattitude]

A physicist and psychologist get together and attempt to hammer out the kinks in the edifice of reality. See what happens.

That sounds like a very interesting read, dask. I'm always up for books written by authors from different backgrounds, personally and educationally. My favorite book in the world was written by a philosophy professor and an advertising excecutive...about exploring caves.

Right now, I'm reading what is probably a completely different sort of fiction, although it is published as non-fiction: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura. While I don't generally believe conspiracy theories, I find them endlessly fascinating. It's part of my interest in belief systems in general.

 

[CyBeR]

Well, I've passed into 2011 with 4 books left over from last year: Haruki Murakami's 'Blind willow, sleeping woman', Fritz Lieber's 'Lankhmar' anthology, John Kazembach's 'Hart's war' and Andrzej Sapkowski's 'Blood of elves'.
All of them great reads, just never had the time in December to get through them.

 

[GOLLUM]

Well, I've passed into 2011 with 4 books left over from last year: Haruki Murakami's 'Blind willow, sleeping woman', Fritz Lieber's 'Lankhmar' anthology, John Kazembach's 'Hart's war' and Andrzej Sapkowski's 'Blood of elves'.
All of them great reads, just never had the time in December to get through them.

Agreed on the Murakami and the Lieber, flicked through the Sapkowski en route to someone else and it looked quite good but Hart's War I've no familiarity with. What is this about?

Cheers.

 

[GOLLUM]

Just finished my first read of the year - Uncle Montague's Tales Of Terror by Chris Priestley. I like to read classic ghost stories and creepy tales around this time of the year, and this book hits the spot wonderfully well. A sort of homage to the original Uncle Montague (Rhodes James) with nods to Poe and Wilkie Collins, it consists of a set of deliciously creepy tales narrated to a young boy by his strange old uncle, all of which build to a chilling finale. Priestley does a good job of evoking the Victorian tale of terror while creating tales that are both original and creepy - stunningly so considering that this is meant to be a children's book! The illustrations by David Roberts, who has a nice line in the Gorey-esque macabre add a lot to the overall effect. Highly recommended to devotees of horror in the classic vein.

Reading your review makes me want to rush out right now and buy a copy! Apparently Priestley has written a couple of other collections of macabre tales entitled Tales of Terror from the Black Ship and Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth.....