What We're Reading in September!

[AE35Unit]

Next to read, Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett Putnamm Serviss (1898), with ilustrations (e-book)

Hmmm or maybe I should read Well's War of the Worlds first-the Serviss book being hailed as a sequel!

 

[Hypnos164]

Finally making real inroads into Learning the World by Ken Macleod after a bit of a break from reading to watch all 5 series of The Wire back to back.

Enjoying it so much I might finish it today

I did !

On to John Christopher's The Death of Grass for the chrons group read over on Goodreads

 

[j d worthington]

Nice to see Serviss's name being mentioned. He is a sadly-forgotten figure....

originally posted by AE35Unit:

Hmm, apparently The Purple Cloud was filmed many moons ago, with Paul Robeson as the lead part, but the film is lost!

It was also refilmed in 1959 as The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, with Harry Belafonte in the lead role. It has been about 30+ years since I last saw it, but as I recall, a flawed but very good film....

Not been doing much reading of late, circumstances having been completely haywire, but I have been dipping into The Eerie Book, an anthology which Nesa sent me some time ago, and which is made up of several short stories, some legends, folktales, and excerpts from novels (G. W. M. Reynolds' Faust, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Thomas De Quincey's Klosterheim), with some lovely art-nouveau illustrations by W. B. MacDougall....

For those interested, and who don't mind reading online, here is a link to an edition of the book at Horror Masters (excluding the adaptation/excerpts from Frankenstein):

http://www.horrormasters.com/Collections/SS_Col_Armovr.htm

 

[Vertigo]

I've just finished Absolution Gap - not as good as the earlier books I felt, in the first half the three storylines felt very disjointed. However it did improve significantly later. Now just have The Prefect to complete all the Revelation Space books, which as I understand it stands pretty much alone like Chasm City.

I'm now reading Galactic North by AR. will start reading later.

BS: I recommend you leave the final story in that book (also called Galactic North) until after you have read Absolution Gap. Galactic North spans the entire time period of the Revelation Space series and goes way beyond. After finishing the main three linked books Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap, I immediately read Galactic North and it somehow brought the whole thing together beautifully. At the same time it also revealed stuff which, whilst not actually spoilers, I think I'm glad I didn't know whilst reading those other books.

Moving on to Neal Asher's Shadow of the Scorpion next.

 

[purple_kathryn]

Joe Haldemans Peace & War. I've actually already read the first book the Forever War (albeit a couple of years ago).

 

[Esioul]

The Way of all Flesh and Diplomacy of Wolves. I like to read several things at once

 

[Redthing]

Several things at once is awesome! I just arrived at work and started The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by we-all-know-who. I also brought a book that I need to finish, The Astronomy Cafe by Sten Odenwald.

 

[Boneman]

Black Prism, by Brent Weekes. Hard not to be disappointed after the The Night Angel Trilogy, especially by the pov changes and incredible confusion over names... I am looking forward to starting Dwarves, though.

 

[Montero]

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison. Only a fewpages in and loving it.

Love that series too. Haven't read in a few years now, must hunt out where it has got to and re-read.

 

[CptShadow]

"Europa" by J.A. Sanderlin a interesting story that I can't put down

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'm still reading The New Space Opera and Swords & Dark Magic.

It's been a busy month, with various things to be done (not least of all since I'm changing careers) and haven't really been able to read as much as I would have liked.

So far, though, both anthologies are quite good.

 

[Lobolover]

Just finished Zastrozzi (1810) by Percy Bysshe Shelley , not only one of the authors absolute worst works by all acounts , but one of the worst - if not the worst - gothic novel ever penned .

For all the (to me at least) hilarious redundancies and lapses of logic I found throughout the first half of the novel as well as for an overall review , you can go here .

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/528727-the-worst-of-bysshe-shelley-zastrozzi-or-my.html

 

[Pyan]

The Early History of Rome, by Titus Livius (Livy), trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt, 1960.

 

[Nesacat]

All the books have finally been shelved and I seem to actually have floors

Am currently reading a collection edited by Ellen Datlow titled Inferno, having just finished another collection called Hellbound Hearts edited by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan.

Next up is probably going to be, among others, Built of Books: How reading defined the life of Oscar Wilde.

It's good to see the books all shelved again, though it's also clear I need more shelves but I have no idea where I could put them. Now I can try to catch up on my to-read pile.

 

[K. Riehl]

Reading Saltation by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee, next will be The Mile Long Spaceship by Wilhelm followed by Grand Central Arena by Ryk E. Spoor

 

[K. Riehl]

Good News! I read on Lois Bujold's MySpace posting that the new Vorkosigan title "Cryoburn" has had it's release date moved up to October 19th from it's former November release.

 

[manephelien]

Elizabeth Kerner's Lanen Kaelar of Kolmar series: Song in the Silence, The Lesser Kindred, Redeeming the Lost.

 

[gully_foyle]

Finished China Mieville's Iron Council. A challenging read that I found got quite muddied towards the end. Too much going on and not enough clear prose to adequately describe it. Sorry China, still think you're pretty cool though.

Now reading The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. Chandler meets PKD, who could want anything more? Only three chapters in and hooked.

 

[Allanon]

I'm reading Rides A Dread Legion by Feist and my 6 year old son is reading The Colour Of Magic by Pratchett

 

[soulsinging]

I have only read his Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins
series and found his prose,his story too crude and over the top in language,style.

How is LA Confidential in comparison ? I like the movie, is the book better ? I plan on giving him a last tryout and try a book that are seen as him in top.

I'd never heard of the Hopkins books, and reading about them on amazon, they don't sound anything like the books I've read by him. His other novels are different... they tend to span years or even decades. They move at a good pace and while they can be pretty gritty, I don't think it goes over the top or anything. LA Confidential is a great novel, but the plot is pretty different from the movie. It takes place over several years and the characters' stories take some strikingly different turns. I thought it was a great novel though... the only hard-boiled detective novel I've read that seems to have an epic sweep.

I'm almost done with it!