December's Diabolical Deviations (what are you currently reading?)

[Fried Egg]

Hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by creating this thread?

I just rounded up last month's reading devoted solely to S.F. Masterworks with "VALIS" by Philip K. Dick and have begun my December's reading with "Forests of the Night" by Tanith Lee.

I did intend to start with "Mythago Wood" by Robert Holdstock but I must have mislaid it somewhere and couldn't find it...

 

[digs]

I'm in the middle of Walter Moers' Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures and I've just started Joan Didion's collection of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Dan Simmons' Endymion and Jonathan Franzen's Freedom have also just arrived, so I'm really looking forward to reading those.

 

[gully_foyle]

I finished Breakfast of Champions and one wonders if it has kind of lost favour in today's PC world. Am now reading Martian Time Slip by PKD.

 

[GOLLUM]

Hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by creating this thread?

Well it's generally a job performed by the Moderators but as you've now posted a thread I'll treat it as the official one for December. If non-Moderators could refrain from posting future monthly reading threads however it would be the preferred option.....

Cheers.

 

[Kyndylan]

I'm currently in the middle of Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham, and I'm still reading Europe by Norman Davies...I've been stuck somewhere in the 19th Century for a while now, so I really need to get on and finish it.

Also eagerly awaiting The Evolutionary Void by Peter Hamilton; it's still on request at my local library

After that? *shrug* I'll see what comes my way...

 

[Fried Egg]

If non-Moderators could refrain from posting future monthly reading threads however it would be the preferred option.....

My appologies. I will refrain in future.

 

[AE35Unit]

Hmm as soon as I finish this story in a 2007 issue of Asimov`s I'll read Cemetery World by Clifford Simak next i think-read it a few years ago but can't remember if I liked it.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Finished Erikson's Gardens of the Moon last night, will be starting Deadhouse Gates tonight

 

[ravenus]

@Nesa:
Finally done with the Penguin Classics translated edition of Banabhatta's Kadambari. It was quite good for around a third and I enjoyed the sensuous lyrical writing style, but Increasingly diminishing returns thereon. VERY repetitive prose (I think I must have gone through some 50 descriptions of sunrises and sunsets), too much Mills & Boon, too little fantasy/adventure.

 

[bluespider100]

I've just finished Quarantine, now on to MANIFOLD TIME by Stephen Baxter... it's on to a great start! looking forward to finishing up the book.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I'm reading The Boarding House by William Trevor. It's a novel about the people whom a mid-50s British boarding house owner has assembled as his 'memorial', and their fates after his death. gets off to a slow start, becomes increasingly interesting.

Also dipping into collections of poetry by Richard Wilbur, Paul Celan and others.

 

[j d worthington]

Due to numerous starts and stops for varying reasons, I am finally nearing the end of my reading of Poe. I'm beginning the works he wrote in 1848, the year before he died... which will bring me this evening (finally!) to Eureka, one of those pieces with a rather odd reputation, and one I've been intending to read for decades but only recently got hold of. I will continue with his own writings and then tackle one of the volumes of Griswold's edition of Poe, which also has some other material, including Griswold's infamous memoir of Poe -- which was the origin of so much of the common idea of what Poe was like... the result of a personal vendetta on Griswold's part and the reason why his own name has been forever tarnished....

 

[ravenus]

Did I also tell you that I read The Thirty-Three Teeth, the second novel in the Siri Paliboun series by Colin Cotterill. This one was decent, even if the plot very slight (and the resolution ass) because I like the recurring characters and the writing retains a comfortable breezy tone. Should perhaps look at getting Disco for The Departed.

 

[biodroid]

Still ploughing my way through Before they are hanged then maybe go into a Jeffery Deaver thriller just to add variety. I like mixing it up so that I don't get bogged down with one genre.

 

[GOLLUM]

My appologies. I will refrain in future.

No problem.

So, did you find your copy of Mythago Wood yet? It's a real classic. I enjoyed it a great deal when I first read it. In fact I have the first 3 books in the series and would like to return to them soon, not having even read Books 2 and 3 yet.

 

[Fried Egg]

So, did you find your copy of Mythago Wood yet? It's a real classic. I enjoyed it a great deal when I first read it. In fact I have the first 3 books in the series and would like to return to them soon, not having even read Books 2 and 3 yet.

Yes, I've found it now; I left it in my desk draw at work.

I will wait until I've finished the Tanth lee collection now (which is turning out very good so far).

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm reading The Boarding House by William Trevor. It's a novel about the people whom a mid-50s British boarding house owner has assembled as his 'memorial', and their fates after his death. gets off to a slow start, becomes increasingly interesting.

Oh Yes, Trevor is a wonderful novelist but you also need to read his short stories, which is his greatest strength. I purchased a collection of his short fiction and so far I have found it to be just great....

I don't know how much Trevor you have read, so this may or may not be of interest to you...

The Greatest Literature of All Time - William Trevor

Cheers.

 

[Pyan]

Gah - off work, with a throat infection and flu-ey symptoms - made the mistake of idly picking up Shards of Honour , by Lois McMaster Bujold...in two days, I've careered through that one, Barryar, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Komarr, A Civil Campaign and halfway through Diplomatic Immunity...

 

[Connavar]

Gah - off work, with a throat infection and flu-ey symptoms - made the mistake of idly picking up Shards of Honour , by Lois McMaster Bujold...in two days, I've careered through that one, Barryar, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Komarr, A Civil Campaign and halfway through Diplomatic Immunity...

What did you think is so good about that series ? I tried Shards of Honour didnt know if it was worth read more of the novel despite all i heard about that series,author SF. SF,romance stuff i heard put me off.

I was hoping for CJ Cherryh like SF ability.

 

[Pyan]

I think it's the overall combination that I like, Conn - it's a combination of comedy, tragedy, romance, suspense and biography, all wrapped up in an SF skin. There are no absolute villains, and no absolute heroes, and the main character and POV, Miles Vorkosigan, is more interesting and complex than just about any other character I've ever found in SF.

Shards and Barryar are almost prequels to the main storyline, BTW - try The Warrior's Apprentice, the first of the series with Miles Vorkosigan as the chief protagonist.

The Warrior's Apprentice / Lois McMaster Bujold (No spoilers)


Incidentally, if you buy (new) the H/B of the latest in the saga, Cryoburn, tucked away in the back is a CD-Rom containing the complete Miles Vorkosigan saga in downloadable form - not only to PC or Mac, but to Kindles, i-Pads, Reader, etc - plus reviews, interviews, bibliographies, and more - a real bargain.