Jolly good July reading...

[elvet]

I have just started Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave.

Oh, I really liked that series. Next to high fantasy, I love a good Arthurian tale.

 

[dwndrgn]

I'm reading Throne of Jade, the sequel to Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon. She's got some very interesting subtexts going on in this one.

 

[murphy]

On the much lighter side, reading Janet Evanovich's 12 Sharp. It's the 12th book in her Stephanie Plum series and very, very funny.

 

[nixie]

Harp of Winds, Maggie Furey

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Finished Monette's Melusine, and am now rereading The Queen of Spells by Dahlov Ipcar.

 

[iansales]

Read Foundation and Empire and... thought it was worse than Foundation. The faux-posh-accent dialogue annoyed, and the entire plot was little more than a shaggy dog story. Let's hope Second Foundation at least stands up up memory.

I've now started Justina Robson's Living Next Door to the God of Love. Six chapters in and I still haven't worked out what's going on

 

[GOLLUM]

Halfway through The Poe Shadow. Quite liking it so far, the prose as far as recent reads go reminds me a little of that very "English" novel Susanna Clarke's Johnathon Strange and Mr. Norrell but perhaps not quite in the same class. I'm enjoying Dupin's appearance but I think our lawyer friend's obsession with Poe seems a tad overstated plus I'm unclear whether the Baron and Bonjour are more hindering rather than augmenting the plotline. Still, overall an ejoyable read and worth a look for Poe enthusiasts.

 

[Nesacat]

@Gollum ... this means I might just be able to start breathing again. It's always such a chance telling someone else about a book you like and then wondering, wondering what they'll think of it and if they'll like it at all or if they'll hate it and it's the straw that breaks the camel's back and they stop reading forever.

Ummm ... I think that sentence was quite long enough and I shall just stop now and curl up quietly in the corner.

 

[murphy]

Three quarters of the way through Sharon Shinn's The Thirteenth House. As always from Ms. Shinn, a very enjoyable read.

 

[j d worthington]

Ummm ... I think that sentence was quite long enough and I shall just stop now and curl up quietly in the corner.

Will not take the Cat off sugar; but will maybe cut it back a little?

 

[GOLLUM]

@Gollum ... this means I might just be able to start breathing again. It's always such a chance telling someone else about a book you like and then wondering, wondering what they'll think of it and if they'll like it at all or if they'll hate it and it's the straw that breaks the camel's back and they stop reading forever.

Well I noticed previously from your variuos posts that we appeared to have quite a similar taste or at least interest in authors of the past and therefore I was pretty confident of liking the book.

Juat a couple of other points. I've noticed that the dialogue and prose between Dupin (the apparent genuine article to date) and our lawyer friend is very remnisicent of Poe's writings on Dupin whereas the interactions between the Baron, Bonjour and Clark have more of a modern feel to the prose and remind me more of a boy's own adventure. Did you notice this at all?

To qualify another comment when I suggested the baron and his sidekick didn't add so much to the plot this was more from the perspective that I felt they didn't pull me into Poe's world of 1840s America in the same way that Dupin and Clark did and they also don't seem to be very well developed characters in the way Dupin and Clark are.

 

[Rosemary]

See, I bought that but had enormous trouble getting into it. Let me know if it's worth the effort...

I have just started Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave.

Up to Chapter 10...this seems rather strange Culhwch Compared with Erikson or even GRRM it is such easy reading. I am wondering if it will be too tame for you? Still I suppose as it's the start of a trilogy, it might become more involved ...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've started The Hunter's Moon, by O. R. Melling.

(Pretty sure there was a thread on this author in the YA forum a while back. Maybe I should sift through the old threads and ... )

 

[Adasunshine]

Finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Now reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and it's rather good so far...

xx

 

[Dianora]

Neverwhere is good, isn't it? Just recently finished it myself...

I'm getting ready to read Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire... read Wicked last year and loved it.

 

[dwndrgn]

Finished Throne of Jade and the third book, Black Powder War to find that apparently what I thought was a trilogy is now at least a series of four books and number four isn't published yet . I hate when that happens!

Anyway, so I moved on to Gabaldon's Drums of Autumn. Despite the fact that I'm now looking in every corner of the book for sadism and/or masochistic tendencies (thanks Kelpie - still haven't found any), I'm enjoying the heck out of it. Today's lesson: slavery is evil, every decision you make may or may not have a drastic effect on your later life, thoughts of the dead, the dying, passed loved ones and ghosts and ghoulies happen to everyone, everywhere, and last but not least, hernia surgery can be described in a very humorous manner.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well, Drums of Autumn hadn't been written or conceived of at the time of the discussion I was talking about -- Outlander was the only Gabaldon book under the microscope. And since the author herself didn't dispute what people said about the relationship between the main characters, just tried to rationalize it (men were like that then, and anyway the heroine had it coming, is what I remember her saying), I'm still not tempted to pick up the book.

Note that I've never said that anyone else wouldn't or shouldn't like the book; just that it doesn't seem like the kind of book I would enjoy. (You did ask if I'd read the book, and seemed to think that I should. I said I hadn't and would rather not, although people keep urging me.)

 

[dwndrgn]

Well, Drums of Autumn hadn't been written or conceived of at the time of the discussion I was talking about -- Outlander was the only Gabaldon book under the microscope. And since the author herself didn't dispute what people said about the relationship between the main characters, just tried to rationalize it (men were like that then, and anyway the heroine had it coming, is what I remember her saying), I'm still not tempted to pick up the book.

I was really just teasing, sorry if I sounded like a nag. Although what I said was true, I now am analizing everything as I read in light of your comments - not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Lunatic]

Started readind John Gardner's Grendel, and expect to finish it fairly soon, since it's short. Then I'm going to start on The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Finished Catharine Asaro's Schism. I enjoy the way that this first book in an intended trilogy is fleshing out backstory only mentioned in her other, previous books about the Skolian universe. But I felt at times that certain passages repeated information that other passages had already delivered (like info about how the Jags operate). Nonetheless, as usual, Asaro's characters are engaging, and the young Soz is a real hoot. Asaro writes space opera with a heart: a strong emphasis on the importance of family, and a sprinkling of romance.

Am now reading Laura Anne Gilman's Bring It On, the third in the Retrievers series.