September 2017: reading thread

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Caliban said:
Can I ask how you find audiobooks and any advice. I read a lot - obviously being on this forum - but I have an eyesight problem which is only going to get worse so I may have to prepare myself for a switch to audiobooks fairly soon.

Sorry this is a bit off topic. Feel free to delete the post mods.
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My go to for audio books is to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited (You can barrow as many books in a month as you want, but can only have 10 of them at one time). I get an Unlimited book with an Audible version. Sometimes you can borrow the Audible verison for free as well, and almost always you can then get the Audible version for a much reduced price, usually between $.99 and $2.99.

I just finished L.J. Ross' High Force. I really like these D.C.I. Ryan mysteries.
 
Brian, sounds like an interesting bio, especially given the Thracian shepherd was not exactly conducive to imperial stability.
 
Extollager said:
I've thought of this as a very rare instance in which the television miniseries was better than the book.
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I've always thought the TV series excellent, but on both occasions it lost me somewhat. Obviously with a book you're able to pause and think, skip back to remind yourself who someone is, etc. But now I've got the plot straight in my head, I plan to watch the series again (and Smiley's People) after finishing the book series, and enjoy it without having to keep track so much.
 
Vince W said:
I was going to read this again, but someone has nicked my copy yet again. I read it once long ago, but have bought three copies since. I really do need to vet my friends better I think. :rolleyes:
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I just had a stray thought. "Hm, what do vets do to cats to keep them from proliferating? And what then does it mean to "vet my friends better?"
 
Finished Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -- excellent.

Started the next one, The Honourable Schoolboy. Oh God, what's happened? Le Carre seems to have become convinced that his readers are enemy agents, who he must baffle by throwing a blizzard of irrelevant detail at them so they give up in confusion before the actual plot is revealed. Not sure whether to carry on with it or skip straight to Smiley's People.
 
I finished Cibola Burn, the fourth book in the James S. A. Corey 'Expanse' series, and also read the short story The Butcher of Anderson Station. They were both okay, but I think I like the tv show more than the books.

I'm now halfway through The Mechanical, which is the first book in Ian Tregillis's 'Alchemy Wars' trilogy. I loved his 'Milkweed Triptych' (The Coldest War being one of my favourite reads of recent years) but have held off on 'Alchemy Wars' until now. I'm finding it thrilling so far.
 
I've purchased and am about to start reading our own Ralph Kern's "Endeavour." I am listening Close to Home by Robert Dugoni. One of the Tracy Crosswhite mysteries. (It's a literary series with background settings drawn from situation of the main characters in the last book. The Audible narrator is doing a very wonderful job.
 
HareBrain said:
Finished Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -- excellent.

Started the next one, The Honourable Schoolboy. Oh God, what's happened? Le Carre seems to have become convinced that his readers are enemy agents, who he must baffle by throwing a blizzard of irrelevant detail at them so they give up in confusion before the actual plot is revealed. Not sure whether to carry on with it or skip straight to Smiley's People.
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I had the same thought when I first read the trio.
I persevered out of stubbornness and ended up really enjoying H S .
I could see why the BBC left it out back in the 1970's - not a lot to bring to the main story. However there are a few allusions in book three that will mystify if you don't read it. :)
 
dannymcg said:
I persevered out of stubbornness and ended up really enjoying H S .
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I think I'm going to be the same. I went back to it this morning, thinking to give it another chance, and got on with it fine, perhaps because the overnight break had allowed me to adjust to the change in style from TTSS.
 
Bugg said:
I finished Cibola Burn, the fourth book in the James S. A. Corey 'Expanse' series, and also read the short story The Butcher of Anderson Station. They were both okay, but I think I like the tv show more than the books.

I'm now halfway through The Mechanical, which is the first book in Ian Tregillis's 'Alchemy Wars' trilogy. I loved his 'Milkweed Triptych' (The Coldest War being one of my favourite reads of recent years) but have held off on 'Alchemy Wars' until now. I'm finding it thrilling so far.
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ian tregillis is not really my cup of tea lol not bad just not conected enough
 
I read Max Gladstone's Full Fathom Five. I felt it was a little bit slow to start off with compared to the previous two books, but the second half was much better, and it had a good ending. The Hawaii-inspired setting was also a nice novelty for a fantasy story, and I liked the idea of an offshore worship haven where people can draw power from Gods without having to do any of the inconvenient sacrificing they had to do on the mainland.

Now I'm reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's second book of short stories set in the Shadows of the Apt Universe, A Time For Grief.
 
I just finished “The Magic Goes Away Collection”, containing the original novella/book and the two subsequent volumes of stories “The Magic May Return” and “More Magic”. These two volumes include stories by other authors including Roger Zelazny, Fred Saberhagen and Bob Shaw.

I’m afraid I found it disappointing as I had enjoyed “The Magic Goes Away” many years ago, and had hoped for more of the same. Also, sadly, this omnibus edition does not contain the earlier “What Good is a Glass Dagger?”, one of my very favourite stories. Although I liked the one other story involving the original characters (“Not Long Before the End”), I found the later stories readable but unexceptional, lacking the lightness of touch and occasional unexpected subtlety of the earlier ones.
 
I just finished The Night Circus. I'm still trying to decide how much I like the book. It feels very unusual for today in that its got a slow, panoramic, understated and impersonal style. It feels a lot closer to some 80s Epic in that sense than it does to anything modern, which is usually all about getting ultra-close. Which is great for telling a lengthy and sprawling tale about a wondrous thing of magic, but less so for telling the tale of two people going through a lengthy and traumatic coming of age. And there's the rub, for the Night Circus is both. I'm not sure where I am as a result on it. But it was definitely worth reading.

I will now return to my daily scheduled activities of trying to cough up my rib cage and leaking snot everywhere.
 
Just started Antony Beevor's The Battle For Spain. For any that have read his 1982 published Spanish Civil War, this is a re-write, which takes into consideration new evidence and historical records uncovered since the earliest version of this account.

So far, it's a thoroughly fascinating look at this conflict - a conflict, I might add, that has provided the backdrop for a few fantasy/horror movies in recent years.
 
Foxbat said:
Just started Antony Beevor's The Battle For Spain. For any that have read his 1982 published Spanish Civil War, this is a re-write, which takes into consideration new evidence and historical records uncovered since the earliest version of this account.

So far, it's a thoroughly fascinating look at this conflict - a conflict, I might add, that has provided the backdrop for a few fantasy/horror movies in recent years.
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The Spanish Civil War is also background for Christopher Fowler's Nyctophobia.

Randy M.
(and the background to a little known novel by some slouch named Hemingway)
 
I've just finished The Fourth Reich: The Head of the Snake by Gary Compton.

Gary has put so much time and effort into Tickety Boo Press, and championed writers from the Chrons, to the extent that he has held his own work back in favour of others (and to make sure he got it right). It deserves to be read just for that reason, but the fact that it is actually different and very good gives you another two reasons!

Review here


Next up: Another round with those bloody comics ;)
 
Finished The Mechanical, the first book in Ian Tregillis's 'Alchemy Wars' trilogy. I don't usually read two books on the trot from the same series or author, but I enjoyed it so much I've dived straight into book 2, The Rising.
 
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