February: what are you reading?

Victoria Silverwolf said:
About to start Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp (1941; originally published in a shorter form in Unknown, December 1939.)
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Great story, one of those you remember forever. Makes history more interesting than history teachers.

psik
 
Paul_C said:
has he written any short books ?

I'm only about a third of the way through The Reality Dysfunction (gave up ages ago) so something shorter my be more to my taste.
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There's Watching Trees Grow. Can't say anything about it, though. It's still on TBR shelf.
 
Paul_C said:
has he written any short books ?

I'm only about a third of the way through The Reality Dysfunction (gave up ages ago) so something shorter my be more to my taste.
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The only official novel of Hamilton's I've read was the singleton, Fallen Dragon. It was okay given its length but I realized I'd never even want to read it again and that I'd almost certainly feel that way about all his novels. And the idea of reading three Fallen Dragon's for any other story of his is also a complete non-starter. The three early Greg Mandel novels are about as long together as any single novel he's done since which still ain't short, but is reasonable. They didn't sound especially interesting to me but might to you or others. Interestingly, for such a doorstop bugcrusher guy, he can write short fiction pretty well (though even that tends to be long for short fiction). A Second Chance at Eden is a collection of Confederation stories and the title story is probably technically a novel - either a very long novella or a very short novel. I enjoyed that collection so much I bought Manhattan in Reverse, though I haven't read that one yet.

tl;dr: all I know is A Second Chance at Eden and the Greg Mandel trilogy.
 
J-Sun said:
The three early Greg Mandel novels are about as long together as any single novel he's done since which still ain't short, but is reasonable.
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Actually these 3 are my favorite Hamilton Stories. The others are for me too long, too convoluted, and too over the top. ---- What does that say for me in that I read so many of them?
 
Parson said:
Actually these 3 are my favorite Hamilton Stories. The others are for me too long, too convoluted, and too over the top. ---- What does that say for me in that I read so many of them?
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I liked the Greg Mandel, too. But I don't remember them as being all that short. Been some time ago, though, so my memory might be doing me a disservice.
 
Phyllis Paul's The Lion of Cooling Bay, a mysterious and eerie novel by the author of Twice Lost.
 
Finished Heart Blade by our own Juliana and it's a cracking good read. I've also just purchased Explorations: First Contact. I do not ordinarily read compilations, but with our Chrons part in it and the First Contact stuff which I love I've decided to give it a go.
 
I recently read New York Deep by Andrew J Morgan. It's a short book and felt a little like an expanded short story, but overall I really enjoyed it. It took the story to some out there places, and reminded me a bit of Blake Crouch. Great bargain for a 0.99 ebook

I also just finished Bayonet Dawn by Scott Moon and really enjoyed his new series debut.

Now I've moved to the Hyperion sequel with The Fall of Hyperion. I found the first book was a masterful read, so I'm curious to see how this plays out in the next installment.

I'm also reading Write. Publish. Repeat which was just recommended to me by an author friend, and I've been asked to do a blurb for a new collection coming out soon by another author, so I've been working through her book and really finding the stories quite beautiful, and horrifying at the same time.
 
Just finished Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Velitt Boe. I enjoyed the main character: an older woman, once a far traveler, now a professor, who sets off on a quest to retrieve a student gone astray. And I applaud the ending. But overall I felt somewhat disengaged, probably because I've not read The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.
 
Stable said:
Worthwhile?
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I think so. A bunch of my writer buddies have read and said great things. Then someone I know started posting about some crazy word counts lately. I asked him what was going on and he told.me I needed to read this book now! So I am half done. I think there is a lot in there for the average self published or any author. Lots of what I call gems or nuggets in it.
 
Finally slogged through to the end of the Birthgrave trilogy by Tanith Lee: The Quest for the White Witch. These definitely weren't my favourite Lees.
 
I thought that the middle section of The Quest for the White Witch was the best part of the trilogy. It was like she caught on to something and then lost it. Fortunately, whatever that was I found it in some of her other books.
 
Reading Tanya Huff's An Ancient Peace. I am always comforted by the family of friends / teammates that Huff's characters often build.
 
pambaddeley said:
Finally slogged through to the end of the Birthgrave trilogy by Tanith Lee: The Quest for the White Witch. These definitely weren't my favourite Lees.
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I don't understand why people finish stuff they don't like. I give up by page 50 if it isn't good enough. That is why $8 that aren't good enough piss me off.

psik
 
Since I have time on my hands now, I can finally read again. A couple of days ago, when this occurred to me, I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Tuesdays with Morrie, and now I'm working on a lovely Christmas present, Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island.

I may dig into the SF closet and boxes soon. I have so many books that I've never read.
 
Currently working my way through The War Of The Spanish Succession 1701-1714 by James Falkner. It might sound like a dry subject but so far it's been a very interesting and educational read:)
 
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