April Reading Thread

[dask]

A friend of mine is a big fan of these two authors, so when I found the first title of their thriller series at a book sale for only a buck I thought I’d give it a try. Not quite a hundred pages into it I’m now setting it aside for the “foreseeable future.” While attention to detail is laudable, most would even agree necessary for the efficient telling of a good story, pathological obsession with the minutiae of the mundane is a real drag. It’s the same old sad song: the malady is the melody and the tune is “The Clunker Prose Blues.”

 

[BAYLOR]

The War Against The Rull by A. E Van Vogt

 

[Danny McG]

Could not get on with the Follett book so moved on to The Firelighters by Chris Nutall

You can't beat a Christopher Nuttall book for a good bit of blood and thunder amongst the stars!
Plus he's very happy to offer free downloads of his older stories

Free Books!

 

[Danny McG]

I'm now reading The Best Revenge, one of the Jonas Merrick spy thrillers, written by Gerald Seymour.

 

[Steve Harrison]

I finished Neil Oliver's Hauntings: A Book of Ghosts and Where to Find Them Across 25 Eerie British Locations.
It is a beautifully written book which I found almost poetic in the way Oliver muses about life, death, memories and the human condition in general. Not at all the book the title would suggest, although it also has its fair share of supernatural events. Very highly recommended.

A change of pace now, with The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith (found in the free book library at a local Sydney Ferry stop!)

 

[REBerg]

Leviathan Wakes James S.A. Corey
As I expected, the excellence of The Expanse television series is exceeded by that of the written source.
Upon finishing the books, I plan to rewatch the show in anticipation of an enhanced viewing experience.

 

[Randy M.]

Over the weekend I finished, My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones, an excellent slasher movie-inspired coming-of-age-novel. Gory in spots, but also funny.

Chainsaw is the first of a trilogy, so I'm now on to the second book, Don't Fear the Reaper.

 

[Vertigo]

I've started back into reading again; I've hardly read anything since mid January as whilst in Chamonix I've been trying to squeeze in skiing, working, playing my bass and reading. And there's simply not enough hours in the day. So I'm afraid reading is the one that suffered. So I got back in with a cracker:

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
The more of Mandel's work I read the greater my respect for her writing grows. I wouldn't really call her a science fiction author but rather an author that includes some science fiction elements in her work along with some fantastical elements. In this case that is some elements of time travel. Maybe, or maybe it's something else. And actually it doesn't really matter as it's far more about the characters and their relationships and interactions which she does so very skilfully. If you've read The Glass Hotel there is a slight connection with a couple of characters from that book reappearing here but there's certainly no requirement to have read it first; the story connection is tenuous and everything the reader needs to know is covered. Overall a complex plot put together very skilfully and with considerable sensitivity. Whilst I still have a couple of her older books to read, I am looking forward to see what she produces in the future.

 

[dask]

Next:

 

[Danny McG]

I'm now reading The Best Revenge, one of the Jonas Merrick spy thrillers, written by Gerald Seymour.

Crummy ending to a decent spy yarn - he's waiting for the verdict on his actions by a review committee.

*Spoiler*

The chairman looks up at him and he thinks "never in doubt"

That's it! It finishes like that, so annoying.

 

[Danny McG]

Kings of a dead world by Jamie Mollard

The blurb:-
The Earth's resources are dwindling. The solution is the Sleep.
Inside a hibernating city, Ben struggles with his limited waking time and the disease stealing his wife from him. Watching over the sleepers, lonely Peruzzi craves the family he never knew.
Everywhere, dissatisfaction is growing.

The city is about to wake!

 

[Ubergeek]

Over the weekend I finished, My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones, an excellent slasher movie-inspired coming-of-age-novel. Gory in spots, but also funny.

Chainsaw is the first of a trilogy, so I'm now on to the second book, Don't Fear the Reaper.

@Randy M. I noticed in the movies thread you liked Stephen Volk . I read his novel " Whitstable " and really enjoyed it . ( Incidentally , it's a small town on the Kent coast UK where Peter Cushing lived for a while . Being a fan , I made the pilgrimage south from Central Scotland a few years ago ! )

 

[BAYLOR]

Tarzan at the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs . If can you can accept the datedness of this book suspend a fair amount of disbelief of improbabilities and sheer silliness like a Stegosaurus gliding though the air , this book is entertaining .

 

[BAYLOR]

@Randy M. I noticed in the movies thread you liked Stephen Volk . I read his novel " Whitstable " and really enjoyed it . ( Incidentally , it's a small town on the Kent coast UK where Peter Cushing lived for a while . Being a fan , I made the pilgrimage south from Central Scotland a few years ago ! )

Night Has A Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich . This is a book you find of Interest

 

[Raphael01]

I finished another two books at the end of March, Slow Bullets by Alistair Reynolds – an SF novella where a convict ship wakes from hibo sleep thousands of years after it set off and discovers aliens have destroyed civilisation everywhere (interesting characters and thought-provoking as to atonement and starting again, though I couldn’t buy in to the first person narration) and Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, the first in a fantasy series about a girl who is half-human, half-dragon (very enjoyable, and I’ll try and write up a full review at some point).

I’m starting April with two novels on the go – another historical murder mystery, An Honourable Thief by Douglas Skelton (Scotland in 1715 and the stirrings of the first Jacobite rising) and another fantasy, The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow (a young girl finds doors leading to adventure) – as well as a collection of SF short stories, Sideways in Time by Murray Leinster.

What are you reading this month?

Do you have a website?

 

[Randy M.]

@Randy M. I noticed in the movies thread you liked Stephen Volk . I read his novel " Whitstable " and really enjoyed it . ( Incidentally , it's a small town on the Kent coast UK where Peter Cushing lived for a while . Being a fan , I made the pilgrimage south from Central Scotland a few years ago ! )

Thanks, Ubergeek. I read a novella version of that in one of Stephen Jones' best horror anthologies and enjoyed it quite a lot, but Volk isn't well represented in the States. I see Tartarus released a paperback collection of short stories last December. I may get that.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading Corduroy Mansions, by Alexander McCall Smith.

 

[Orcadian]

FINISHED The Raj Quartet at long last! And over the past few weekends partner and I watched what we could find of the 1984 TV mini-series, The Jewel in the Crown. I was very glad I'd read the books, as the series is rather soap-opera-y and omits almost all of the politics, people and machinations of Indian Independence and Partition. It has, however, left a vivid impression of the claustrophobic, artificial and incestuous (with a small i) character of the British Raj.

Earlier this month I wrote that my choices for next read were: Aurora (Kim S. Robinson); Cibola Burn (J. Corey); Non-Stop (B. Aldiss) or the Xenogenesis trilogy (O. Butler). Well, good. In fact I seem to have started on Beginning Operations the first omnibus in James White's Sector General series! It comprises Hospital Station, Star Surgeon and Major Operation. I'm intrigued by the writer's reputation for being able to create dramatic tension without resorting to violence.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've finished reading two mystery novels with 19th century settings over the last week or so, each in a series I've been following for several years now. What Cannot Be Said (Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries Book 19), by C. S. Harris, and Pride & Pestilence (The Victorian Detectives Book 11), by Carol Hedges. I was determined to keep my descriptions brief and post them in this thread, but alas, once I got going . . .

If interested, you can find them here in the Reviews section: Two Historical Mysteries, by C. S. Harris, and Carol Hedges .

 

[Toby Frost]

I finished Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks, which I first read a very long time ago. Overall, it's an excellent space opera, which blends character and tech in just the right way. There are a couple of issues - the episode with the Eater cult is an unnecessary sidetrack into full-on horror, and there's never much explanation of why Horza, the hero, is so opposed to the Culture - but the characters and setting are well-developed and interesting. It's ultimately a thoughtful, slightly sad book, but it delivers lots of high adventure, with laser guns and enormous objects exploding. Strongly recommended, but you probably want to skip the Eater bit (I gather that Banks himself wasn't happy with it).