May Reading Thread

[Toby Frost]

The Compleat Traveller in Black by John Brunner. Not really sure why I picked this one up: I think I probably saw it referenced in some reviews. Slightly offbeat fantasy ss/novella collection. Not my usual cup of tea but I am enjoying it.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It's genuinely weird, and while it seems to be largely set in a fantasy world, it isn't doing the usual sub-Tolkien thing. It's more like a Hieronymus Bosch painting in a novel. A strange mix of amusing and unsettling.

 

[Danny McG]

Just downloaded the new book by Christopher Paolini - Fractal Noise. (The second book in his 'Fractalverse' series)
I was going to get into my front garden and cut the grass but I can't now, can I?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I really enjoyed Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay, so I might give this a try.

I've read two or three of the Ketty Jay books, and a few of his YA fantasies, and while I liked the former well enough, I liked the YA fantasies quite a bit more. In other words, they don't have a great deal in common. So you might like Storm Thief, but if you do it's unlikely to be for the same reasons you like the Ketty Jay series.

 

[Bick]

Now for some vintage Dickens. His first novel, the Pickwick Papers to give it its short title. Today we might call it a fix up.

Terrific book, i enjoyed it a good deal. However, re: it being a fix-up - it’s not. He planned and wrote it all as is, to stand on its own as an episodic novel. A fix up in the SF sense is a book that comes about by tying together multiple separate stories that were not originally designed to be part of a single larger work, such as Foundation, or Voyage of the Space Beagle.

 

[Danny McG]

Just downloaded the new book by Christopher Paolini - Fractal Noise. (The second book in his 'Fractalverse' series)
I was going to get into my front garden and cut the grass but I can't now, can I?

It's turned out to be a prequel!

 

[Hugh]

It's turned out to be a prequel!

Isn't it "No mow May?" You can safely justify not cutting your grass until June.

 

[AE35Unit]

Terrific book, i enjoyed it a good deal. However, re: it being a fix-up - it’s not. He planned and wrote it all as is, to stand on its own as an episodic novel. A fix up in the SF sense is a book that comes about by tying together multiple separate stories that were not originally designed to be part of a single larger work, such as Foundation, or Voyage of the Space Beagle.

I thought a fix up could also be said to be made up of episodes published as a serial, as this certainly was

 

[pogopossum]

Reading Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne. I am sure that it has been mentioned here but I had missed it. Norse inspired fantasy. Very Gridmarky in its violence, atmosphere and characterisation of genuine bloodthirst.
I had decided to avoid Gridmark after working my way through Joe Abercrombie's First Law. Not pleasant worlds to be in.
Well, I liked the idea of re-working Norse style myth. Like many early readers, worked my way through Norse & Greek fantasy as a kid.
The strong reccs. that I read elsewhere won me over.
It is grabby enough that I actually brought it downstairs to read somewhat during the day, when I have better things to do.
Ordered Vol 2: Hunger of the Gods, which comes as strongly recommended
I may require a dose of Animaniacs before going to sleep each night to improve my mood..

 

[hitmouse]

I enjoyed this book a lot. It's genuinely weird, and while it seems to be largely set in a fantasy world, it isn't doing the usual sub-Tolkien thing. It's more like a Hieronymus Bosch painting in a novel. A strange mix of amusing and unsettling.

I think you put your finger on it. Bosch is a good comparison.

 

[Bick]

I thought a fix up could also be said to be made up of episodes published as a serial, as this certainly was

No, I don’t think so, and if that were the case most of Dicken’s great novels would be ‘fix-ups’. Great Expectations is surely not a fix-up. The nature of a fix-up is that the original material was not originally written and conceived as one work.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I'm about to begin A. N. Wilson's The Mystery of Charles Dickens.

 

[AE35Unit]

Pickwick Papers is a strange one indeed, but quite accessible so far.

 

[Foxbat]

Just finished Harrier: How To Be A Fighter Pilot
I found it quite enlightening. It’s definitely not a job for me but it’s given me some measure of understanding of those that do take to the skies in anger.

Now starting The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. It will be my first ever reading of a translation of a Chinese science fiction novel. It has received mixed reviews but experience has taught me that, in these circumstances, it can sometimes be the result of a bad translation rather than a bad book.

I’m not sure how I’ll get on with it but you can but try

 

[Toby Frost]

I finished The Shrinking Man. It was excellent and I would strongly recommend it.

 

[Bick]

I finished The Shrinking Man. It was excellent and I would strongly recommend it.

True - I read this a couple of years ago. It is indeed excellent.

 

[Foxbat]

I finished The Shrinking Man. It was excellent and I would strongly recommend it.

I loved this book. I'd recommend following it up with the Body Snatchers for a good old classic SF fix

 

[Toby Frost]

The Body Snatchers is a great novel. The first two film adaptations are good too.

 

[Rodders]

Still not seen them.

 

[Randy M.]

The Body Snatchers is a great novel. The first two film adaptations are good too.

Even the third one, with Gabrielle Anwar and Forest Whittaker is pretty good.

Just finished a reread of The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle. I think I appreciate it more this time than last. While I don't see the kind of cosmic horror Lovecraft could conjure, it's about 100% less racist, and he does create a few striking scenes, both supernatural and not, that alter the original story ("The Horror at Red Hook") in smart and thoughtful ways.

Next up: Richard Chizmar's Chasing the Boogeyman, which is fascinating so far in a Stephen-King-meets-true-crime-but-still-fiction kind of way.

 

[HareBrain]

The Bloater, by largely forgotten poet Rosemary Tonks, recently republished after 50-odd years with an intro by Stewart Lee (whose name is what got me to pull it off the shelf at the library). A short novel about 60s London life and relationships: good company but with a rather slight plot. SFF connection: the narrator has a job at a renamed BBC Radiophonics Workshop and is friends with a renamed Delia Derbyshire (whom Tonks knew), creator of the Doctor Who theme.

Also read the first half of The Horse and his Boy by CS Lewis.