May 2018 reading thread

[Harpo]

What are we reading this month?

 

[Av Demeisen]

I am answering a question from the now locked April 2018 reading thread.

Did you prefer Seven Surrenders to the first book? The ebook of TLtL had the first few chapters of SS at the end. Not grabbed...

Seven Surrenders feels like the second half of a single book. Crudely speaking, TLtL was set-up, SS is payoff. There is a sense of closure and clarity at the end, but developments have been set in motion, so the story continues. Society is changing, underlying tensions have come to the fore.

 

[The Judge]

I am answering a question from the now locked April 2018 reading thread.

Sorry! It's always a bit of a gamble when it comes to shutting down the monthly reading threads -- running the risk of cutting conversations in half -v- having someone posting about something new in a thread that's now defunct. With Harpo starting this one so promptly, I erred on the side of what would mean less work for mods shunting posts from one thread to another!


Anyway, while I'm here, continuing my last post back in April, I sped through The Woman in White, and again thoroughly enjoyed it, which is more than I can say for the second episode of the current BBC adaptation which has the magnificent, grossly fat, aristocratic and mesmeric 60 year old Count Fosco played as a slim man half that age who looks and talks like a stereotypical Sicilian peasant mafioso.

Also sped through Early Eighteenth Century Britain by Lorna Coventry, a shire publication that was crammed full of facts and information, and better than many a full length book in both content and illustration.

And I'm now reverting to a novel I started a few weeks ago but which got sidelined by other things, King of Foxes by Raymond E Feist. I've only read The Magician of his, which I thought was awful, but this was going cheap at a charity stall so I thought I'd give him another chance. A definite improvement in both writing, characterisation and plot, and I'll stick with it to see how it ends, but he's not a writer I'm going to fall over myself to read again.

 

[Harpo]

I started promptly to minimise April's thread stretching into May.

Meanwhile, my stack of Discworld books is slowly being dealt with (what's the hurry) and next up will be Sourcery.

 

[HareBrain]

I've started a Tim Powers book I've never heard of before, Three Days to Never, which I spotted in a secondhand book shop in an American edition. It's possible it was never released in the UK (I haven't checked as I don't want to know anything about it before I've read it). So far it's living up to the promise of its blurb, which features Mossad and and ancient European cabal of occultists.

 

[Extollager]

Current reading includes Marissen's Bach and God, a study of how Bach's Lutheran faith was integral even to his "abstract" or "pure" compositions; Graham's A Vagabond in the Caucasus; Turgenev's Sketches from a Hunter's Album; and Bradbury's Illustrated Man. I took out the Turgenev to reread a story, "Living Relic," and saw that there are two or three stories in this Penguin Classic that I don't seem ever to have read, though I read a lot of the book in Dec. 1996. Time to finish this book, I guess, and to post something about it at this thread:

From Way, Way Back in Your Book Backlog

 

[Vertigo]

So I am still alive and finally back after over 3 months away. During that time I've been so busy, mostly having fun but also working, that I've not visited here once and have managed remarkably little reading! But for what it's worth here's what I have read with just a few comments (also no time had for reviewing).

Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian - another excellent volume in this massive series made even better by reading it whilst sailing on the Lord Nelson a square rigged barque!!
Distress by Greg Egan - An interesting idea and reasonably well executed but I'm afraid I just couldn't buy into the fundamental TOE (Theory Of Everything) that underpins the entire book. Probably the first time I've had such a problem with any of Egan's hard science ideas.
Choky by John Wyndham - A really very disturbing story using an SF premise to rail at so many of the less appealing side of humanity. Actually rather sad; published the year before Wyndham's death it feels like a rather bitter look at the world he would shortly be leaving behind.
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling - Only my second Bruce Sterling and, after a disappointing Difference Machine (with Gibson), I'm pleased to say how much I enjoyed this early piece of cyberpunk. It has little of the frenetic grim/dark feel that this sub genre is so often filled with and does not suffer from its lack. My only complaint is that it felt very episodic; more like a collection of short stories with the same set of characters. Any recommendations for my next Sterling would be most gratefully received!
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon He Lee - I could have liked this more but, whilst I do like fantasy that has elements of science fiction, I've never really got on with science fiction that has elements of fantasy. I think my problem is that I'm prepared, indeed required really, to lift my level of suspension of disbelief more in fantasy than science fiction; after all acceptance of magic requires a pretty big hike in that level right away. And whilst Ninefox Gambit is a very well executed piece of space opera, the whole numerical/calendrical science thing was, for me, pure magic. I don't require all my SF to be hard SF, though I do love that sub genre, but I do require it to feel plausible to me and this sadly didn't. That said this is fun space opera and I may read further in the series, if only because the ending was very unsatisfying; the end of part of a bigger book rather than the end of a book. Something that seems to be becoming annoyingly more and more common these days.
R.U.R. by Karel Capek - Being the originator of the word 'robot' this short little play has significant historical interest. Other than that I'm afraid it felt horribly dated in both style and execution, which isn't too surprising given its age, but it rather suppressed my reading enjoyment.

 

[Randy M.]

R.U.R. by Karel Capek - Being the originator of the word 'robot' this short little play has significant historical interest. Other than that I'm afraid it felt horribly dated in both style and execution, which isn't too surprising given its age, but it rather suppressed my reading enjoyment.

So I found it, too. On the other hand, I went on to read his novel, War with the Newts and suffered no ill-effects at all! It is one of the best books I've read in this still new century. I found I had to stick with it a little while to give Capek time to establish his premise, but then I was completely immersed.


As for my reading, last night I finished Shock I by Richard Matheson, an old collection of his short stories. As with most old collections, some worked better for me than others: "Lemmings," "Children of Noah," "Long Distance Call," "Death Ship" and "The Distributor" were all good, that last an especially sharp horror story, and "Dance of the Dead" was odd and disturbing in a good way; the others ranged from all right to filler. "The Creeping Terror" was an interesting satire, starting off well but ending a bit ham-handedly.


Randy M.

 

[The Judge]

Welcome back, Vertigo! I hope you find time at some point to tell us all about your adventures on the barque!

R.U.R. by Karel Capek - Being the originator of the word 'robot' this short little play has significant historical interest. Other than that I'm afraid it felt horribly dated in both style and execution, which isn't too surprising given its age, but it rather suppressed my reading enjoyment.

I read it about four years ago, as it was one of the SF Masterwork series packaged up with War with the Newts, and I had exactly the same reaction. Unlike Randy, though, I couldn't get on with WWTN either, though from his comments it's possible I gave up before it got more enthralling.

 

[Vertigo]

Welcome back, Vertigo! I hope you find time at some point to tell us all about your adventures on the barque!

I read it about four years ago, as it was one of the SF Masterwork series packaged up with War with the Newts, and I had exactly the same reaction. Unlike Randy, though, I couldn't get on with WWTN either, though from his comments it's possible I gave up before it got more enthralling.

I shall try and find the time! I should have thought of you when I was doing volunteer maintenance work on her in Southampton a couple of weeks back... oh well!

 

[The Judge]

Yes, you should! Next time don't forget!

 

[tobl]

I've started a Tim Powers book I've never heard of before, Three Days to Never, which I spotted in a secondhand book shop in an American edition. It's possible it was never released in the UK (I haven't checked as I don't want to know anything about it before I've read it). So far it's living up to the promise of its blurb, which features Mossad and and ancient European cabal of occultists.

check here: Tim Powers

 

[Harpo]

Today I picked up "The Curse Of The Mistwraith" by Janny Wurts. I've never read anything by her, dunno if it'll be amazing or what. Should I dive in and postpone my Discworld pile?

 

[unbusy thing]

I am answering a question from the now locked April 2018 reading thread.

Seven Surrenders feels like the second half of a single book. Crudely speaking, TLtL was set-up, SS is payoff. There is a sense of closure and clarity at the end, but developments have been set in motion, so the story continues. Society is changing, underlying tensions have come to the fore.

That's exactly what SS is. Ada Palmer wrote one big book that was cut in half, and I think it shows. But would I have stuck with a massive uncut tome of 700+ pages? I don't honestly know. I tend to keep notes of books I've read, so if I ever do go back to the series, maybe when it's finished, I'll be able to get myself up to speed.

 

[unbusy thing]

Anyway, while I'm here, continuing my last post back in April, I sped through The Woman in White, and again thoroughly enjoyed it, which is more than I can say for the second episode of the current BBC adaptation which has the magnificent, grossly fat, aristocratic and mesmeric 60 year old Count Fosco played as a slim man half that age who looks and talks like a stereotypical Sicilian peasant mafioso.

Yes, but does he have white mice? I took one look at the BBC adaptation and went Nope.

And I was also less than impressed with Feist's Magician. Didn't read the rest.

Reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben and enjoying it. Already familiar with Suzanne Simard's work, which this references.

 

[Randy M.]

Welcome back, Vertigo! I hope you find time at some point to tell us all about your adventures on the barque!

I read it about four years ago, as it was one of the SF Masterwork series packaged up with War with the Newts, and I had exactly the same reaction. Unlike Randy, though, I couldn't get on with WWTN either, though from his comments it's possible I gave up before it got more enthralling.

As I recall, the narrative tone is somewhat divorced from the action, the novel sounding like reportage from a tranquil future of events in the perhaps distant and certainly chaotic past. It's satire of the variety that isn't necessarily funny in a voice that's at least amused and possibly bemused. I found the ending chilling, though, and felt the novel as a whole presaged the coming war.


Randy M.

 

[hitmouse]

Just finished reading, with my 11 year old son, all 5 books in Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, which I havent read since I was his age. They are very good and he really liked them.

 

[RJM Corbet]

I got lucky: 50p each from a charity shop. I may have read one or two already but there'll still be a couple of unread master page-turners there, and most deserve a second reading anyway

 

[Extollager]

John Buchan's John Macnab, holiday fiction in more than one sense. A pleasure to read a new (to me) tale by this author, whose books I've enjoyed for 40 years.

 

[Bick]

I finished Simak's Ring around the Sun a few days back and will comment on it on the Simak thread when I get the time to do that properly.

I'm now reading The Last Wish, by Andrzej Sapkowski. So far, so good. It seems very well done and I like the style. This is a translation of the Polish fantasy writer's initial short stories on Geralt the Witcher, fixed up into a cohesive collection, and precedes his novels centered on the same central character (Geralt). I have the first of these novels on the shelf to read also (Blood of Elves). The world of the witcher is akin to epic fantasy in many ways, but it is different and has more in common with fairy tales and old-school fantasy, like Poul Anderson's classic works like The Broken Sword. More commentary is I read more...