April Reading Thread

[BAYLOR]

Ptath by A E Van Vogt
Dark than You Think by Jack Williamson
The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerine J R
The Night Land A Story Retold By William Hope Hodgson and James Stoddard
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

 

[Foxbat]

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

I read this one a few months ago. I enjoyed it

 

[BAYLOR]

I read this one a few months ago. I enjoyed it

I couldn't put it down.

 

[Chris von shannow]

The Gallant by J J Green

 

[Pyan]

Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog), by Jerome K Jerome.

 

[kythe]

Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog), by Jerome K Jerome.

I had never heard of this book until I read Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, which seems to rely heavily on it. I need to find a copy because it sounds like a fun adventure.

 

[HareBrain]

Maybe I should try reading The Owl Service again sometimes and see if I understand it better than before.

Teresa is right that it might help to know the legend of Blodeuwedd. It might also help to know something about the tensions, both historical and more recent, between the Welsh and English (which you perhaps already do of course, depending on where you're from). It's also the case that Garner makes the reader work much harder here than in something like Weirdstone. The book is very powerful, but much of it is just below the surface, in things that aren't said. The writing is sometimes very spare and it's easy to miss what's important. But Gwyn is probably my favourite adolescent character in anything I've read.

I've started some of Garner's other books, and for some reason they didn't work for me at all.

I've been meaning to try Red Shift again, but memories of last time's struggle are a bit off-putting. I recall admiring it rather than liking it, whereas with Owl Service I do both equally.

 

[Pyan]

I tried to read The Owl Service and Red Shift, but just couldn't get into them. Possibly I was expecting something more on the lines of Weirdstone and Gomrath, more conventional fantasy. I do remember that I was enthusing about the latter two at school, and a passing 6th-former overheard, suggested I tried LotR, and that was it, half a century of reading set off by one casual remark...

 

[Danny McG]

Danny, be sure and say what you think of it. She does make the reader pay attention more than some authors do. I've found it helpful to keep brief notes. But in the case of this one, my notes are posted here if you don't want to keep notes yourself but might find them useful.

Dale

I'm learning lots of new words like bibelot and pleached!

 

[Chris von shannow]

Anyone like this author just read a sample on Kindle found itr a bit slow and wordy does it get better ?

Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

[Elentarri]

Anyone like this author just read a sample on Kindle found itr a bit slow and wordy does it get better ?

Adrian Tchaikovsky

I've read his space spider trilogy and a time travel novella (the one with the dinosaur on the cover). In my very-opinionated-opinion, the concepts are better than the execution. Tchaikovsky does tend to take a while to get to the point (even in the novella!) and his people-characters are a bit flat. If you do have the urge to pick up one of his books to see what the fuss is about, I suggest one of the stand-alone novellas. I don't think it matters which one.

 

[Montero]

Lots of people love Tchaikovsky's work, I don't get on with it. Not engaging for me. I think it is a bit lacking in warmth as in the little touches about people. Also slow and wordy as you say.

Currently on Ursula Le Guin Threshold, which is a portal fantasy. Been on the shelf a long time unread. I adored the Wizard of Earthsea books a long time back, think I've read a couple more of hers, or tried to. This one is very well done, but I am struggling to like it. Neither main character has a happy life, and they dislike each other on meeting and yet they have to work together. So it is alternating between their interaction through the threshold, with their separate rather miserable lives back in our world. I am working on finishing it, but am unlikely to ever re-read. It is a shorter, 1980s book. If it was a modern megalith, I'd quit.

 

[Vertigo]

Anyone like this author just read a sample on Kindle found itr a bit slow and wordy does it get better ?

Adrian Tchaikovsky

I'm a great fan and have read most of his SF work (a little behind at the moment). It does tend to be hard SF and frequently quite science heavy with it; both physics and biology (which I believe is his personal field). And that works for me. Can also be a bit slow, largely due to the science detail, but again I'm happy with that. Some aren't.

 

[Parson]

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerine J R

What did you think of this one? I read it because it was one of those books that people in my field "should read." I thought it was okayish, but didn't grab me in the way I think Wangerine wanted it to. I liked The Ragamuffin Gospel a bit better.

 

[ablackenedrose]

Finished The Day of the Triffids today and I must say, the entire zombie apocalypse genre needs to see me after class, because it's clearly been copying much of this book's homework.

Next on my gigantic list is Between Two Fires, a story that apparently heard about people believing that the Black Death was the apocalypse and went "What if it actually was?" and went from there. (I don't actually know for sure yet, as I have not, as mentioned, actually read it yet, but that's the impression I got from the summary on the back.)

 

[BAYLOR]

What did you think of this one? I read it because it was one of those books that people in my field "should read." I thought it was okayish, but didn't grab me in the way I think Wangerine wanted it to. I liked The Ragamuffin Gospel a bit better.

A religious allegory , a bit heavy handed at times but, I did like it .

 

[Danny McG]

I'm learning lots of new words like bibelot and pleached!

I'm finding it hard to relate to any of the people in Twice Lost, the writer must have had a cold view of humanity.
I'm putting it to one side to keep 'dipping' back to the story now and then, I feel if I actually read it all at once I'd turn into a proper sociopath

 

[Parson]

I'm finding it hard to relate to any of the people in Twice Lost, the writer must have had a cold view of humanity.
I'm putting it to one side to keep 'dipping' back to the story now and then, I feel if I actually read it all at once I'd turn into a proper sociopath

Please don't read it too fast!

 

[Rodders]

I've been travelling and was able to finish Necropolis by Dan Abnett. I didn't have the Saint omnibus downloaded, so i've been reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's One Day All This Will Be Yours.

 

[Danny McG]

Hadan's Reach by Richard Swan - the prequel to his Art of War military sci-fi trilogy