October Reading Thread

[Bick]

Poul Anderson "Twilight World" (1961)
Hmm... wonder if Stan Lee and Jack Kirby read this when planning X-Men

I really enjoyed that book - I read it some years back but it struck a chord with me. A bit mad ultimately, but fun.

 

[Bick]

I’m now starting the third Herries chronicle, The Fortress, by Sir Hugh Walpole. I absolutely loved the first two, Rogue Herries and Judith Paris. By general consensus, they don’t go downhill at all, with many considering the fourth book, Vanessa, the finest of them all. Looking forward to this, I have the hardback Macmillan first editions of each of the first three books, with the map frontispiece and fold out family tree bound into the back.

 

[Danny McG]

Dean Koontz new book.
Elsewhere

So far he's hitting all the usual Koontz buttons.
We've got:
*A cute kid
*A lonely man
*A woman in peril
*A merciless hunter
*A deformed beast/hybrid that hates what has been done to it so therefore hates mankind
*A friendly and clever animal (much smaller than the usual doggie, this time it's a mouse)

 

[Hugh]

I really enjoyed that book - I read it some years back but it struck a chord with me. A bit mad ultimately, but fun.

Yes, a good read.
I very much liked his stance of equality for all.
The reason for my X-Men comment: the first X-Men comic came out in 1963 and this book came out in 1961. Poul Anderson has a super-powered mutant team: inventor/strategist, runner, strong-man, telescopic vision, super-hearing, super sensitive hands, perfect balance, super-fast reactor. Of course Poul may not have been the first to come up with a mutant team of super-powers. And there was the Justice League of America in 1960....

 

[Extollager]

I read Abrecht Goes's novella The Burnt Offering, which seemed to me a very fine work. It deals with the Nazi era.

I've begun the third Aubrey-Maturin novel, H. M. S. Surprise.

The current entry in my 17th-century reading project is the Rev. Isaac Ambrose's War with Devils, an exposition of traditional Biblical understanding of temptation, etc.

I'm still reading Schwarzschild's The Red Prussian: The Life and Legend of Karl Marx. I discovered an article on the link between Marx and Hitler that was clarifying:

Hitler and the socialist dream

He declared that 'national socialism was based on Marx' Socialists have always disowned him. But a new book insists that he was, at heart, a left-winger

www.independent.co.uk

And I'm plugging away at J. R. R. and Christopher Tolkien's The War of the Ring, which at the moment is expounding JRRT's writing of the Passage of the Dead Marshes, etc.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading A Legacy of Spies, by John le Carre.

 

[elvet]

I was away for two weeks holiday up north. Very little WiFi access and crappy weather meant spending most of the time in our cosy cabin with the wood fire--still ideal for reading. I finished up Assail, Esslemont's finale, and enjoyed Erikson's Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light prequels.
Having finished all my Malazan books, I needed something completely different, so I started a reread of Iain Bank's Culture novels. I am currently working through Excession. The grand concepts, humour and action are a perfect foil to the heavyness and introspection of the Erikson Dark/Light origin books, though there are some hard to read torture passages that I had to gloss over. (Thankfully not many).

 

[AE35Unit]

Next up a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury called The October Country

 

[Parson]

Finished Interference by Brad Parks. Interesting read and pretty well done. But it is hard to characterize. The main character is the wife of a physicist working at the cutting edge of quantum mechanics, who might be kidnapped and the story is more about the search for him, but the Physics are never far from the central plot line. So ...... I suppose S.F. .... and certainly Mystery. All in all worth the read.

 

[dask]

Next up a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury called The October Country

Read that a few years ago for Halloween. Didn’t care too much for the story about being stuck in Mexico (nothing to with Mexico by the way) but enjoyed all the others.

 

[kythe]

I just finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. It's been a long time since I've been so glued to a high fantasy that I haven't been able to put it down until I finished it.

It occurred to me that ever since I discovered Tolkien, I've had a certain disdain for other high fantasy because I tend to think it is all an imitation. I have read and re-read the History of Middle Earth, and went from loving Middle Earth to feeling "stuck" there. So I've leaned more toward sci-fi, horror, and urban fantasy. But this book isn't remotely like LOTR, and was extremely captivating. I think it's about time I got out of the mindset that there is something wrong about high fantasy.

 

[hitmouse]

I just finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. It's been a long time since I've been so glued to a high fantasy that I haven't been able to put it down until I finished it.

It occurred to me that ever since I discovered Tolkien, I've had a certain disdain for other high fantasy because I tend to think it is all an imitation. I have read and re-read the History of Middle Earth, and went from loving Middle Earth to feeling "stuck" there. So I've leaned more toward sci-fi, horror, and urban fantasy. But this book isn't remotely like LOTR, and was extremely captivating. I think it's about time I got out of the mindset that there is something wrong about high fantasy.

There isnt anything wrong with high fantasy. The problem is picking the occasional good stuff out from the vast mountains of derivative dross.

 

[AE35Unit]

Well so far the cover of this book is the best part. The first story,The Dwarf,was ok, kind of Tales of the Unexpected like. But the second story, the Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse was utter drivel. I wonder if Bradbury ever got high...

 

[HareBrain]

Started a reread of The Magus by John Fowles, after talking about it with a friend.

 

[biodroid]

So far he's hitting all the usual Koontz buttons.
We've got:
*A cute kid
*A lonely man
*A woman in peril
*A merciless hunter
*A deformed beast/hybrid that hates what has been done to it so therefore hates mankind
*A friendly and clever animal (much smaller than the usual doggie, this time it's a mouse)

So Watchers ?

 

[AE35Unit]

So far he's hitting all the usual Koontz buttons.
We've got:
*A cute kid
*A lonely man
*A woman in peril
*A merciless hunter
*A deformed beast/hybrid that hates what has been done to it so therefore hates mankind
*A friendly and clever animal (much smaller than the usual doggie, this time it's a mouse)

He does seem quite formulaic!

 

[Celionswi]

Almost done with The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback

 

[tobl]

Almost done with The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback

and the right season for grapes too

 

[HareBrain]

and the right season for grapes too

Also seems to be a fair amount of wrath around at the moment.

 

[Hugh]

Also seems to be a fair amount of wrath around at the moment.

I'm told the "angry raisins" story is urban myth.