October 2021 Reading Discussion

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Any good? I don't think I've even heard of this, but I'd be interested as an example of invented folklore.

It seems to be much lighter and simpler in style than Watership Down, perhaps intended for younger readers. The created mythology of the rabbit folk hero El-ahrairah ("The Prince with a Thousand Enemies" in the rabbit language) is interesting.

 

[Danny McG]

This afternoon I'm starting The all consuming world by Cassandra Khaw

The blurb:-

A diverse team of broken, diminished former criminals get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade... but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir.
The highly-evolved AI of the universe have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humans from ever controlling the universe again.
This band of dangerous women, half-clone and half-machine, must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them dead, in order to settle their affairs once and for all.

I've got this downstairs to go on with, upstairs I've began a re-read of The Sirens of Titan

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Just downlanded 'Beneath a Gibbous Moon' by James Allen, and already it has lawn bowling, a mysterious supernatural force, and meat free sausage rolls -pure madness is afoot!

 

[Provincial]

It seems to be much lighter and simpler in style than Watership Down, perhaps intended for younger readers. The created mythology of the rabbit folk hero El-ahrairah ("The Prince with a Thousand Enemies" in the rabbit language) is interesting.

Fairy tales are usually told in a direct and simple way I think, so perhaps that explains the change in style - the author was being true to the genre...?

 

[Danny McG]

Three books on the go now, I couldn't resist it this morning when I spotted an old favourite on the bookshelf..

That's the all consuming world half way read, the sirens of titan maybe a quarter read, and freshly began, a re-read of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading A Perfect Spy, by John le Carre.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Just finished 'Beneath a GIbbous Moon' by James Allen. Think it's a great little book. The protagonist is instantly likeable, however James did it -and from then on it was a bittersweet journey. The shifts into the supernatural parts of the story felt seamless too. I saw that the author contributes here, so if you see this post @IntoTheBlack , fair play, thanks for the story.

 

[Hugh]

Theodore Sturgeon “Starshine” (1966)

A typically varied Theodore Sturgeon collection: six stories covering the traditional, the sensitive, and the outrageous. I enjoyed it very much.

 

[AE35Unit]

Theodore Sturgeon “Starshine” (1966)

A typically varied Theodore Sturgeon collection: six stories covering the traditional, the sensitive, and the outrageous. I enjoyed it very much.

Does it contain Killdozer?

 

[Hugh]

Does it contain Killdozer?

No.

Cut and pasted from Amazon review:

(1) “Derm” (1940)
Myra is about to visit and bits of me keep coming off’

(2) “The Haunt” (1941)
Bill is exasperated because Miriam Jensen avoids answering his marriage proposal, so he decides to scare her “off her high horse”.

(3) “Artnan Process” (1941)
Slimmy Cob pulls a gun on Bel Bellew while on the planet below three leather-skinned Martians listen in on their conversation.

(4) “The World Well Lost” (1953)
First lines: “All the world knew them as loverbirds, though they were certainly not birds but humans. Well, say humanoids. Featherless bipeds.”

(5) “The Pod and the Barrier” (1957)
Four unappetising “experts” are being taken in a small spaceship to try their theories out in an attempt to breach the Luanae Barrier.

(6) “How to Kill Aunty” (1961)
A bed-bound old woman muses on those things she detests. Top of the list is Hubert, her nephew.

 

[AE35Unit]

Hmm interesting. Killdozer is, as far as I can remember, the only Sturgeon I've read.

 

[hitmouse]

Galactic Empires 1&2 (1976) ed Brian Aldiss. Satisfying collection of old-school SF short stories. I’ve been aware of these for 40 years, and was finally inspired to get them after a discussion on Chrons. Dead cheap on eBay. Recommended.

 

[The Big Peat]

Three books on the go now, I couldn't resist it this morning when I spotted an old favourite on the bookshelf..

That's the all consuming world half way read, the sirens of titan maybe a quarter read, and freshly began, a re-read of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

How you finding The All Consuming World? I got gifted a copy by a friend, and am not sure what I think after the first few pages, other than some tyrant needs to pass laws against present tense as the default in stories.



Finished The Dragon Waiting. Great prose. Interesting ideas. Memorable scenes. But it jumps and skips on the internal logic of cause and effect/characters so much that the story's only good, not great.


Not sure what's next for me. I feel like I want something very specific, but don't know what it is.

 

[Extollager]

Reading an interlibrary loan collection of Fafhrd & Mouser stories published by Gnome Press, Two Sought Adventure. I liked these stories more as a youngster than I do now. Rereading C. P. Snow's novel The Masters.

 

[Rodders]

I finished Miles Cameron’s ”Artifact Space” and really enjoyed it. Elements on both Honor Harrington and Jack Campbell's "Lost Fleet". Great fun and I’ll definitely be reading the sequel.

Now on to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Walking to Aldebaran”. I’ve only read two of his books and bloody loved them so I’m delving a little deeper with a couple of his novellas.

 

[Danny McG]

How you finding The All Consuming World? I got gifted a copy by a friend, and am not sure what I think after the first few pages, other than some tyrant needs to pass laws against present tense as the default in stories

@The Big Peat
I finished it eventually, once I got used to the different styles of writing used for different characters.

It was okay-ish as a SF story but IMO a bit repetitive in dialogue, and we then had the obligatory abrupt ending to make way for a sequel, very common nowadays....writers could at least finish one story and then have the characters begin a new adventure!

 

[Bick]

I’m now reading Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin. Good so far. I’m not really interested in vampire books, as a sub-genre, but there’s enough here I think about steamboats and the real history and geography of Mississippi steamboat life, along with a storyline that accurately captures southern slavery and so on, that it will be okay. Martin writes better than most genre writers, which helps.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'm not into vampire novels either, but I thought that Fevre Dream was a good book. That and Salem's Lot are the best that I've read. I'm currently reading Tuf Voyaging, also by Martin, and finding it fine, but not brilliant.

 

[hitmouse]

I'm not into vampire novels either, but I thought that Fevre Dream was a good book. That and Salem's Lot are the best that I've read. I'm currently reading Tuf Voyaging, also by Martin, and finding it fine, but not brilliant.

I thought the first couple of stories in Tuf Voyaging were good and it slightly ran out of steam thereafter.

 

[Toby Frost]

Yes, it does a bit. The thing I find most interesting is the time and point it was written. The setting is quite interesting and there are ecological themes and rounded women characters, but there are made-up swear words and it feels a bit like the "problem stories" of earlier times, where each story has a new problem for the hero to solve.