What are you reading now - SFF or Non ?

I am reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins for a RL mystery book group.

I am not fond of older works, so this is a bit of a chore. I have been reading it for 3 or 4 days and I am still under page 100. I find it very easy to put down, and hard to pick back up.

Just when I think I will give it up, I hit an interesting patch. The writing is OK in terms of flowing and the story is mildly interesting (I am still at the start), but its sooooo slow. The description and the amount of words used to get anywhere are just mind boggling. I realize it was written for a different time and sensibility, but I don't know if I will ever get to the end.

Non:

I was reading SF -Star Surgeon but it seemed a little tediously pedestrian and formulaic, and I put it down for an impulse read -Nest in a Falling Tree, a novel by a New Zealand author (who seems mostly to write children's books) about an older woman - younger man romance. Why am I reading something like this? Because Roald Dahl optioned this novel and wrote a screenplay as a vehicle for his then wife Paricia Neal, and it was filmed back in the early 70s as The NightDigger , a curious, understated psychological character study with sinister underpinnings. I remember seeing this film on television years ago, and how startlingly odd I thought it was- almost like Night Must Fall as a straight romance, if you can imagine that. It does not appear that those aspects of the story appear in the novel , but it's a well written character study nonetheless. So far, so good.

I have read the omnibus edition called Beginning Operations. It contains books 1, Hospital Station 2, Star Surgeon and 4, Major Operation. When you read them all together what you get is more of a synopsis of the social setting of the times. You can see the change in the status of women, and the change in our society from a 50s primness to a laid-back 70s, as reflected in the stories.

The story itself seems to get better as the Omnibus moves on. I think the writing and the details and the author's comfort increased. but all 3 are definitely standard old school SF. Still I enjoyed them, and have many of the rest of the series. I haven't read them all yet.

Haven't seen the movie in the 70s, sounds like something I would avoid like the plague. I am not a fan of nasty movies. I go to the movies to escape the reality of everyday.

Never heard of Night Must Fall.

I looked at the listing on Amazon for Nest in a Falling Tree. It appears to be from the 60s. I shudder to think of the book's take on an older woman-younger man affair, given the attitudes towards women's sexuality in the past. But I suppose as a look at the mores of the past it could be interesting.

It's a legitimate character study by a woman author, and so far it's fairly realistic. It is a story of a spinsterish woman trapped by the care of her invalid mother, so, maybe that's already too much of a downer for some.

Night Must Fall was a famous play on both the British stage and Broadway from the 30's. It was made into a movie twice -with Robert Montgomery in 1937, and with Albert Finney in 1964. The earlier version is shown on TCM, but I've yet to see the Albert Finney version since I was a teenager.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029310/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058401/

My point is that the novel does not seem to have any of the stuff that's in the movie, so the reading is interesting in that I'm curious to figure out what Dahl saw in this story that would make him take it to the next level. Other than he had a personal inclination to go in that direction. He has written some nasty stuff. ;)

"I go to the movies to escape the reality of everyday."
I have a lower threshold for horror films which I used to watch a great deal when I was younger, and less patience for standard fare escapist movies. If I sit down to watch a film it's usually an art film or at least something challenging or transgressive on some level.

I just started And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees by Michael Bishop

Great title!

It's a quote from an Archibald MacLeish poem:

http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/796/

It's a far-future, post-human novel. Pretty good so far, even if the prose is a bit mannered.

Even Joy Cowley's books for children deal with serious, sometimes mystical, themes. She's one of NZ's premier writers actually, a position not undeserved. But then, NZ is a teeny-tiny country! :)

I'm reading 'The Swordsman's Oath' - nice, generic fantasy. I have too many 'to-reads' for my liking so I have myself a little reading plan - one fantasy, one lit fiction etc etc. It works, and keeps me interested. Have approximately the same numbers of each too. Doing a 75 books in a year challenge here too. Seem to be reasonably on track for that.

Then, I don't know if you've read it, Severn, but that Joy Cowley novel was an excellent book -an exceptionally honest character study,brutally so, albeit beautifully written.
Availability was limited here in the States as it was OOP, I was lucky to get my copy, but if she is as famous as you say she is in NZ it's well worth hunting down and reading if it's the kind of thing you'd entertain reading. I'll probably write a review on this one...

I wanted to fit in at least one creepy, atmospheric book this month, but I don't have much time for reading this week (have to get the house clean and spiffy for a Halloween party this weekend, for one thing -- the kids DEMANDED it!). So... I'm readng Sarah Monette's story collection, The Bone Key. Thought the first story was just okay, but it's progressing nicely the further into I get. Next, will be Holdstock's The Hollowing because it's been calling me.

Re actress Patricia Neal, didn't she star in several films as the older woman (at least during her middle/latter years)? I seem to remember seeing a few of these (or maybe I'm just thinking of Hud?).

I will have a look out for it! Be interested in your review too...

I avoided Neal like the plague too. My image is of a lot of cigarette smoke, the gravelly voice, a black & white movie, and a dark or night setting. Ugh!

The only thing she did I liked was a WWII movie with John Wayne. She was a nurse and was his GF. He was in the Navy and got shipped to the south pacific and so did she. Had a cast of thousands I think.

Still reading The Woman in White but am past page 400. The story is told by different narrators, and I don't like the main one, because he seems wordiest and slowest. Just reached a point where the book should naturally end, but oh no, they keep going for about another 200 pages. The slow narrator has come back and I just want it to end.

"Re actress Patricia Neal, didn't she star in several films as the older woman (at least during her middle/latter years)? I seem to remember seeing a few of these (or maybe I'm just thinking of Hud?)."

I think you're right. She probably played a lot of those kinds of characters after winning the best actress Oscar for Hud.
But oddly, I think she is most well known now for being in This Island Earth.

As for what I'm reading I'm back on Star Surgeon again, so -SF.
I seem to be bouncing back and forth between books in the process of winding up the year's reading...

I started Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.

I finally finished The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, thank heavens.

I am now reading The Ladies From St. Petersburg by Nina Berberova, translated by Marian Schwartz.

This book is also a RL book group read: Arm Chair Travelers. We read books set in different countries. Can be fiction or non-fiction, and by a person from the country or an ex-pat.

This is a book of 3 novellas set around the Russian Revolution. The first is at the start, the second is during the Revolution and the third is after. Although it is fiction, the Foreword says the events mirror Berberova's experiences.

Non.
Just not getting into Star Surgeon right now. I find myself doing anything, even cleaning out the refrigerator instead of reading it, so I put it down again. I'll get it done because it's so short, but it sure isn't compelling me to read it.
I've moved on to the crime drama The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

I finished The Ladies from St. Petersburg by Nina Berberova.

Very underwhelmed. Much too short for any real background,or story development. Mostly flat characters. The last story was the best.

I am just not a fan of the shorter forms, but this was for a RL book group.

Not sure what I am going to read next.

I am reading The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill.

It is a mystery set in Laos after the Communist takeover in 1976. It follows Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72 year old retired doctor who didn't flee, and as a result has been drafted to be the national coroner.

I'm now about a quarter of the way through Vineland. It feels quite a bit more ambitious than The Crying of Lot 49, my only other Pynchon to date (I found it wonderfully absurd, but the ending a confusing letdown). Vineland seems to have something to say about what happened to the world those who came of age in the 60s thought they were going to inhabit.

Non.
I finished Eddie Coyle -excellent, modest, still modern, crime drama, and now I'm with Kerouac in his final days, going nuts in a cabin in the woods at Big Sur.

Oh, on a related earlier note, they showed A Face in the Crowd the other night on TCM, starring Andy Griffith and...Patricia Neal. That's a good one.

I finished The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill.

It was wonderful. Very good setting, the writing flows, the characters are great, and it is so droll. The mysteries are good too. I have ordered the second book in the series (already have the 3rd & 4th), and will read it when it comes in.

Now reading Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myers
Mystery set during the Baroque period in Venice, the main characters are castratti.

"Now reading Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myers
Mystery set during the Baroque period in Venice, the main characters are castratti."

That sounds potentially interesting...

Interrupted Aria

So far it is. The story is interesting, the characters so far seem good, and the setting is well done.

The main character is from Venice, and a well to do family. There is a mystery about how/why his father offered him up to become a castrato. He was sent off to Naples to study singing, and has now returned as a young man. He is engaged to a wealthy noble family who own an opera house, and he is required to sing and bring in the patrons. He is expected to work off the debt incurred by the house in Naples who trained him. So while he isn't a slave, he isn't free either.

There are issues at the opera house and among the characters, and I expect they will have mayhem and murder and more mystery soon.

But the Coroner's Lunch was very good also. Not quite what the blurb on the back said. Siri the main character is an actual communist, but more of a tired, and unenthusiastic one. He runs up against the rules and the officious busybodies who want to be correct in thought and deed. There are Laotians and a few Vietnamese, and a group of H'Mong villagers in the story. Very interesting setting.

Siri has the minor ability to see the spirits of the dead, at the start, but once he spends time with the H'Mong, he becomes a stronger actor in the spiritual world. It is a bit of magical realism, and very well done.

Really loved the characters too.

SF. Involution Ocean

Having rolled through three non SF books -The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Big Sur and the Fight Club -liked all three - I impulse whipped this one off the TBR pile. So far so good. Like I said above or elsewhere, the book has got to do all the work now to get me to my desired reading goal for finishing up the year. If it requires any indulgence on my part, I immediately put it down and look for something else.
I'll go back to patience and heavy lifting next year. And I am entertaining tackling some challenging reads next year.

Have read the first few stories in Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver and it's just so apparent how much of an influence he's been on Murakami. This guy is insanely addictive.

Carver was a great short story writer. I guess that's another reason for me to eventually investigate Murakami.

I finished Robert Holdstock's The Hollowing which is part of his Mythago Wood cycle. I still like Lavondyss the best out of this series but will probably eventually try to read them all as I find them. The Hollowing, in which Jason and his Argonauts make an appearance, actually prompted me to pick up one of my very old books, Robert Graves' Hercules, My Shipmate, which has been collecting dust in an old cabinet of ours. I didn't realize until I started it how much of his White Goddess scholarship is in this one. It's as much about the culture clash between the newer Patriarchal gods of the Achaeans displacing the old Triple Goddess religion as it is about Jason and his quest. I recommend it to anyone who likes Mary Renault's books.

Oooh thanks. I love Mary Renault's books.

Now I just have to figure out how to get it since none of the books stores near me has it. I used to be able to order it from my local Borders store on-line, but now they have done away with it, in an attempt to for you to use Borders.com.

25> "Have read the first few stories in Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver and it's just so apparent how much of an influence he's been on Murakami. This guy is insanely addictive."

I only know Carver from the Altman movie "Short Cuts" but will try to check out some stories based on your enthusiastic endorsement.

Yes, Arthur, give him a go! :D

I finally finished Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myles. An historical mystery set in Venice in the 1730s, with a castrato as the main character.

I really wanted to like it, but it reminded me of a badly done YA book. The writing was OK, but the story wasn't very interesting until the end, and the characters were poorly done. The good characters were too good, the rest were wildly emotional or bland. Even the baddies were bland. They were uninteresting, cliched and lacking depth or shades of grey or motivation. Everything was pretty much stock for historical fiction set in Venice, nothing new or interesting, not the castrato, his family life, or the behind the scenes at the opera. The setting meant lots of canals and gondoliers, and I suppose the irrational emotions (Italians), but thats about it for 'Venice'.

It wasn't actually terrible, it just didn't engage me and was a disappointment. It was her first book, so I may try the second one, just not for a while.

I am now starting non-fiction Truman Capote a biography by George Plimpton

"I am now starting non-fiction Truman Capote a biography by George Plimpton"

That should be good, Capote was a fascinating character. The recent film "Capote" was just brilliant. Flawless, in fact. Did you see it?

I did, but there is a better one, and it came out a little after it. It is called Infamous. The book I am reading now was the basis for the movie, Infamous.

It was what got me interested in him (Infamous, not the other one). I am reading this because there is also a new fiction book which I have

Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story by Kim Powers

It is about the time Capote and Harper Lee spent in Kansas. Apparently there are rumors that he actually wrote To kill a Mocking Bird and this book deals with that rumor and their relationship. I guess Capote didn't deny it when asked and it estranged them.

I thought I should read something about his life before I started the book about his time in Kansas.

So far it is very interesting. I am over half way through. Plimpton does something called oral biography. He has those who knew Capote talking about him and his life, and their interactions with him, and impressions. Its very gripping.

"Apparently there are rumors that he actually wrote To kill a Mocking Bird and this book deals with that rumor and their relationship. I guess Capote didn't deny it when asked and it estranged them."

First I've heard of that rumor. Surely it's not taken seriously? All sounds interesting though. I've heard of Infamous but assumed that it couldn't top Capote...

Its better than Capote. Sandra Bullock plays Harper Lee, and the guy who plays Capote is even better than the guy in Capote.

No that rumor has been around for a while, and yes it is taken semi-seriously because Lee never wrote anything else in her life.

double post see below

34> "No that rumor has been around for a while, and yes it is taken semi-seriously because Lee never wrote anything else in her life."

Huh.
Having never settled down to reading any bio of Capote, I had never heard that rumor before, but I see it's discussed at some length on the wikipedia page for To Kill a Mockingbird:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

On a side note, just this past year, another exceptional read I had was The Complete Stories of Truman Capote, and most notably the short story A Christmas Memory, which is an astoundingly beautiful story, that I heartily recommend reading for the upcoming holiday to anyone who hasn't read it already.
I think you can actually find that story online to read, if you look around...

I finally finished Vineland, which left me with mxed feelings (see my review for more details), but ready to add Gravity's Rainbow to the wishlist.

Haven't posted here in a while.

I finished the Capte Biography Truman Capote by George Plimpton. It was very gripping, and quite interesting. I have started to dip into The Complete Stories of Truman Capote by Truman Capote. It is my reading in another room, and will take me a while to finish.

I read Ascendancy of Blood by Eugie Foster. A short chapbook with a twisted retelling of the the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty with vampires and a modern twist. It was OK, but too short.

I read The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh. Supposed to be black comedy, not very funny, rather heavy handed, not well written, poor story, poor characters, Meh.

I just finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Non-fiction about a regular person who takes action to help a poor hamlet in rural, mountainous Pakistan. His actions snowball into a very effective foundation to build schools for children (boys and girls) for non-extremist education.

Very moving, and telling about the real way to win the war on terror. Some issues with the writing, and the portrayal of Mortenson as able to walk on water. But still very good.

Although Mortenson is listed as the author the person who actually wrote it is David Oliver Relin.

Not sure what to read next, maybe Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey ?

Started Sturgeon Is Alive and Well..., Sturgeon is one of my favorite authors, although the first story I read in the collection, the Hugo and Nebula winner "Slow Sculpture," didn't do a whole lot for me.

I finished Robert Graves' Hercules, My Shipmate and really enjoyed it. It's a shame that it's out of print. I am continuing with Graves and am in the middle of I, Claudius and have ordered Claudius, the God from a swap site, so hopefully I can read these two back-to-back.

I finished Grendel by John Gardner. Didn't care for the writing or how the story was told. It started interesting, but didn't keep it up for the whole book.

I am now reading Murder in the Marais by Cara Black, the first book in the Aimee Leduc series. So far it seems good. Well written and interesting.

Ludmilla, I love Robert Graves' books. Thanks for the heads up on 'Hercules', I will have to look for it. I am pretty sure its oop here.

On a SF run: I just finished Planet Run- a short collaborative effort by Keith Laumer and Gordon R Dickson. A manly SF yarn, but nicely done and both authors bring good things to the table.
By way of contrast, I am now on to the YA novel The Keeper of the Isis Light which I first found out about on the SFF forum, actually.

I finished Sturgeon Is Alive and Well, and liked almost everything in it more than "Slow Sculpture."

Next was Give 'Em the Ax, another of the Donald Lam/Bertha Cool detective stories written by Erle Stanley Gardner under the pseudonym A.A. Fair. I had read all of these 30 years ago and loved them, and I've been revisiting them summer. This wasn't among the best in the series but it was still a fun, quick read.

And I just finished Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse, which was often laugh-out-loud funny, but left me a bit disappointed by the ending.

Now I'm trying Forbidden Planets, a 2006 anthology of new novellas edited by Marvin Gaye. The first three (by Alan Dean Foster, Allen Steele, and Nancy Kress) have ranged from disappointing to awful. At least it only cost me $0.25!

I read Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter, which left me thinking that Sayers is more effective as a novelist than as an author of short fiction (although I enjoyed a couple of stories with echoes of Poe more than the rest).

Now I've started Dress Her in Indigo by John D. MacDonald. So far the sex and violence is a bit too fast and easy. But I can see how anyone who ever wanted to beat up a hippie would get some pleasure out of this one.

Non.
I'm back to finally finishing comedian Robert Klein's memoir of his prefame youth- The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue.
I put it down on my night table a couple of months ago, and never seemed to be in the mood to pick it up again. It's part of the year's "unfinished business" pile.

I finished Murder in the Marais by Cara Black..
I thought the writing was good, but the technical part of telling a story is a bit beyond her. Its a first book and a bit of a train wreck, but I enjoyed it anyway and will keep on reading the series, and hope she gets better.

Then I read Tengu by John Donohue , an LT Early Review book.
I loved it. It was the 3rd book in the series. The stories are a mixture of thriller/mystery with Asian overtones, and a mixture of martial arts, and Japanese history and culture. Love the recurring characters.

Next was White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
It was OK. Well written, funny in a black way, but noy great. It is about a poor man and how his struggle for a decent life against the rich and the power structure and tradition in India, impact him. Not sure it corrupts him, because he seems questionable to start with. It won the Booker Price. I thought the blurb on the back was more interesting than the long recitation of his life.

I then read True Confessions of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
I got it through Book Mooch to complete the Adrian Mole series. I loved the first 2 books. This is book 3. The stories are a series of letters and diary entries by Adrian, dealing with his teenage angst. He is less funny in his 20s. This book has 3 entries, all very short. Adrian, the Author, and Margaret Thatcher as a (cold and scary) child. Pretty much a waste of time and space. The Thatcher part was the only interesting one.

My only SFF read recently is The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
It is for a RL book group. The book is the start of his YA Discworld series . It is a twist on the Pied Piper myth with a talking cat and a pack of rats. It was cute, and fun, but rather ho-hum.

Then another RL book group read The Shack by William P. young
It was very good, and quite searing. It is about the question many have, if there is a god dedicated to goodness, why do bad things happen to good/innocent (6 year old child murder) people. Also the nature of god, and the relationship between god and religion. It is a thought-provoking book, that brings up a lot of questions. Not for the theologically rigid.

After that I read An Imaginary Life by David Malouf
It is about the banishment from Rome of the poet Ovid by Augustus in the first century AD. He was sent to a barbarian village on the edge of the steppes and the shore of the Black Sea. It was more philosophical than a standard historical fiction book. I just finished it, and am still mulling.

I have just started Ovid by David Wishart
It is an historical mystery, and the start of the Marcus Corvinus series. Corvinus has been asked to get permission to return the ashes of Ovid to Rome so his family can inter him. There is a mystery about his crime, and even though there is a new emperor, Tiberius, permission is denied. So far it seems very anachronistic. The main character is very modern, and calls people 'sunshine' when he is pissed off.

I finished Ovid by David Wishart.
The first book in the Marcus Corvinus mystery series set in ancient imperial Rome.

The premise is the request by the relatives of Ovid to get permission to return his ashes to Rome. He was exiled by Augustus, who has died. Tiberius is now the emperor and refuses permission. Marcus starts investigating why Ovid is still so hated; his exile was for unspecified crimes. The Ovid angle leads to the mysteries of the fate of the Julian line of the imperial family (Posthumous, 2 Julias) and the loss of the 3 legions in the German forest by Varus.

In other words Wishart is covering the same ground as I, Claudius by Robert Graves It is all very disjointed in terms of plot, trying to connect everything. The writing is good, the characters and the setting are good, with one exception. Wishart makes Marcus talk and act like a modern person. Its quite annoying, and I am not sure I will continue with the series.

Then I read Ronnie by Ronnie Wood
An autobiography by Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. In fact, I read it in one sitting, and was up all night.

I enjoyed it, the writing was good, and the story was interesting. My only quibble would be there is a lot of name dropping, and some items seem to be missing or painted with a suspiciously rosy glow. But it deals with Wood's life before the Stones, as well as his time with them, so its not just a biography, but also rock history.

Then I read Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
It is the story of a Red Lobster that is closing due to poor sales. It is located in a dying mall in a working class Connecticut town. The story revolves around the manager and the working stiffs who are losing their jobs. It is just before Christmas and there is a snow storm raging.

Its sad, and the setting, writing and characters are done well, but the story is rather aimless. I am sure the author wanted to depict real life rather than a 'story'. So at the end they all just leave, fading into the storm

I have started Casual Rex by Eric Garcia
it is a prequel to Anonymous Rex, a series about dinosaurs who wear latex human suits, and live among us. It is a noir-ish mystery series set in LA. Very funny and satirical.

Currently reading Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. I've read and loved all her other books, so wanted to read this one to be caught up before her next book comes out in the late spring of 2009.

Other recent reads have included:
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. More meditation than straight-forward novel. Makes an interesting glimpse into the character of Hadrian, but its meandering style might put off readers. Guess it all depends on how heavy you like your introspective philosophy. I'm now curious about some of Yourcenar's other books.

Also read YA adventure/fantasy Flora's Dare which is the 2nd of an ongoing series. Great fun! One of my favorite fantasies of the year.

Finishing the year off with a bit of both:

Phillip K Dick's The Crack in Space and an anthology of Collected Short Stories Huxley by Aldous Huxley.

I've started C.M. Kornbluth's The Syndic

oops, wrong thread.

I recently finished Casual Rex by Eric Garcia

It was OK, but not as magical as the first one. It was a mystery with the premise that dinos are among us. They wear latex human suits, and pass as human.

Not sure what I will read next.

I tried a couple of books, not sure what I really want to read.

I ended up with Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
SF book about a Jump Pilot (ability tied to genes) in a corporate future trying to break free.

Now I'm trying After Dark by Haruki Murakami

I finished Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
a SF book about a navigator (not the pilot as I thought when I started) who has a special gene that allows her to find her way through grimspace, where ships go when they jump for FTL travel. She is looking for beacons that have been left by an older race that was there first, but no longer seems to be around. The beacons are marking points to go into and out of jump, so you arrive where you expect.

There is a quasi military-corporate entity that controls the training of jumpers, and through that all legitimate space flight. The main character runs afoul of them, and rather than let them destroy her she joins the rebels who are trying to break the monopoly on jumping.

The writing was not bad, the characters were good, and the story was OK, if a little too haphazard in terms of setting things up to make one exciting scene after another. Definitely an adventure story with a very predictable stand-offish (I hate you, I want you, go away, come here) romance included.

I am now reading the second book in the series Wanderlust. The characters from the first book are off on a diplomatic mission to an insectoid world, to try to convince them to join the new political entity taking the place of the one brought down in book 1.

I finished Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre.
Sequel to Grimspace. A light quick SF adventure book. One of those that does a bait and switch. Story says its about a diplomatic mission on the blurb on the back. Actually about the journey to get there. Book ends at arrival. Could be the end of the series, her next book is about another character, though there are hooks for the series to continue also. Same characters with a couple of new ones. Pretty good, Though there is the standard split/reunion of the romantic couple, very cliched.

I read Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
A novel about the experience of a child soldier in an unnamed West African nation.

It is written in a child's voice, and in pidgin English. It might as well be in gibberish. On top of that in the middle of the mayhem, the POV goes off telling local myths and legends, so the narrative is practically incoherent.It is probably a coping mechanism for the child, but it makes for boring reading.

The author is an American born here but with relatives and cultural ties to Nigeria, not one of the many reformed survivors who at one time was a child soldier. Nasty, Brutish, and mercifully Short.

Read On Beauty by Zadie Smith
It was an OK read. I was interested in the lives of the characters, but didn't actually care about them. I thought the ending was a fizzle. I thought the writing was awkward and stiff, and the attempt to create American characters and dialog, didn't quite make it. Also the depiction of the inner life of an American college was not what I would consider accurate. Still it was interesting, but I am glad its over, and have no real interest in anything else by Smith.

I read a short chapbook The Poison in the Blood by Tom Holland
It is supposedly about the death of Paris at Troy, but really is about Hercules. Good, short, light read about the Greek Gods and myths.

I am still reading Justinian's Flea by William Rosen
Not too happy. Its not badly written and it is interesting, but at 129 pages has yet to touch on the topic of the Black Plague in 542 AD.

The book is only 324 pages, and the plague doesn't make an entrance until page 169 ! I looked ahead. Until then he is writing a short history of the Imperial portion of the Roman Empire, a history of the barbarians' migrations, a history of Justinian, a history of Hagia Sophia, and just now a history of Roman Law.

His premise is that the plague killed off the sickly Roman Empire, and birthed Medieval Europe. Unfortunately the book I have talks about the plague on the cover (Justinian's Flea: The first Great Plague and the end of the Roman Empire), which interests me more than the birth of Europe.

I feel this is a bait and switch. Perhaps he was only using the 'Plague' for something exciting to get people to buy the book, or there wasn't enough material just about the plague, or he got carried away with providing context, who knows ? In any case I am not a happy reader in terms of this book.

I also re-read Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
I was watching the movie made from the book, on DVD, and realized I had forgotten a lot of the story line. I didn't remember so much of the Tooth Fairy business. Turns out there was more of it in the movie, than the book, but the movie was actually very close to the book. And who doesn't just love DEATH ? Anyway it was a wonderful read, and I enjoyed it very much.

I also wanted something fun to read so I read The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo. It struck me as the male version of all the recent urban fantasy that has paranormal romance in it (female POV). Also a bit like the dinosaur-among-the-humans book I just read.

The main character is a PI, and he is a vampire. Before that he was a soldier in the war in Iraq where he was turned into a blood sucker. The case takes him to the nuclear facility at Rocky Flats to investigate an out-break of nymphomania among the government workers there. Besides this mystery there are vampire hunters, rogue government agents, and aliens.

The book has funny moments and a few crude ones. The writing is good and the characters are OK. He doesn't do anything really new with the vampire, though they aren't beautiful. He has short, pot-bellied vamps, so that is a bit of a relief. It is the start of the Felix Gomez series and I am nowl reading the next one XRated Bloodsuckers .

I'm about 40 pages into James Blish's novel The Triumph of Time (aka A Clash of Cymbals). So far it's almost comically bad (highlighted by a "Oh, you manly man, I want to have your baby" scene). Can anyone here tell me whether it's worth reading the rest?

Sorry, I don't have any experience with the book, but if its really bad I would give it up.

Cities in Flight is rough going in general, to be honest -The Triumph of Time being the last novel in that four novel series. If you don't want to be able to make the claim of having read it, I suggest you put it down.I don't think your life would be the worse for it. Early Blish can sometimes be one of the absolute worst when it comes clunky, pulpy writing, and nerdy, embarrassing, leering, sexist attitudes towards women.
For an overview of all four books check out my review on the above link, if you so desire, as I go into things in some depth.
Blish's early work can be so annoyingly awful sometimes, it can be hard to take his empyrean critical standards about SF seriously.
Thankfully, he did become a much better writer than this series would indicate.

Thanks, arthurfrayn... I wasn't quite as harsh as you on Earthman, Come Home (to which I gave 2.5 stars), but I can't really disagree with anything you say about it.

It's hard to believe that the last quarter of Earthman, Come Home was honored with the novelette retro-Hugo in 2004.

Well, now I'd say -if you made it though Earthman, Come Home, you might as well finish the whole thing for whatever that's worth. I don't think The Triumph of Time is as bad as that one. At least The Triumph of Time has a big SF concept.
So, do it -finish it. What the heck.

Auuugh ! I didn't realize you were talking about Cities in Flight. I have a reprinted version published all in one. Perhaps it will stay on MT TBR forever.

Ficus, having seen what you like and dislike over the years, I just don't see you enjoying any aspect of Cities in Flight. The sexist nerd/creep factor in the third novel is just too prominent, and the whole thing is really hokey by today's standards.

I'm reading Stories of Your Life and Others, but I'm having a hard time reading right now; I guess I must have a lot of things going on. I haven't even been on line that much lately...

Thanks again, arthurfrayn. Given your assurance that The Triumph of Time is an improvement over Earthman, Come Home, I think I'll try to stick it out for the last 100 pages.

I'd be interested if you don't agree, because in some of the reviews here people think it's a dud.
I thought it was somewhat far out...

BTW, did you read the first two?

Thanks Arthur. I am not a real fan of older stuff, but got sucked into the whole 'SF Classic' thing. I will not be in any rush to read it, but some day I may give it a go.

Its so nice to have fellow readers on-line who can say they have years of experience with what I like and dislike. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy.

I am sorry to hear you have been having a bumpy time. I hope everything works out for you and you can get back to reading and posting.

I have read the first three novels now, and I thought the first one (especially the Jupiter sequence) was the best of the bunch. Not that it offered a particularly compelling story, but at least it had some ideas worth thinking about.

67>"I have read the first three novels now, and I thought the first one (especially the Jupiter sequence) was the best of the bunch."
I agree, it's kind of an interesting book- I just thought the whole ice bridge on Jupiter was fairly fascinating, in a way that the whole series never equaled. The first two novels are so clearly better executed than the last two. I don't know why he attempted a fixup, without a major rewrite of the last two novels.

66>"Its so nice to have fellow readers on-line who can say they have years of experience with what I like and dislike. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy."

It happens, doesn't it? Whether or not you read the same things as other people you come to know, you develop some understanding of where they're at, and you can steer them clear in good faith, of some likely wastes of time. The only reason I can see you reading that thing is to say you read it, which, to be honest, is pretty much all there is for me.

66>"I am sorry to hear you have been having a bumpy time. I hope everything works out for you and you can get back to reading and posting."

It's not a big deal - I've been here before -the trick is to reconcile myself to the fact that I might only read 20 or so things this year and to forgive myself. Life happens.

OK, I finished The Triumph of Time, and I guess I'm glad I did, so that I could rate and review the omnibus (which I have now done). There were a few intriguing concepts, but they could probably have been better explored outside of the "okie" universe.

I've now moved on to C.M. Kornbluth's The Marching Morons, the first story of which was, oh, about a million times better than anything in Cities in Flight.

I finished The Marching Morons, which wasn't particularly stunning , but at least Kornbluth's characters think and act like real people.

I've now started Way Station, which seems pretty good so far.

Recently finished Venus Plus X which I liked a lot, and The Practice Effect which had a cool concept but wasn't really in the same class as Brin's best, and I have now started Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Glad to hear you liked Venus, clong -usually when people talk about that book they go -"eh..."

I thought it was quite clever. I liked it a lot as well.

I have Godbody lined up when I get back to reading some fiction.

I finished Wyrmhole by Jay Caselberg. SF book first in the Jack Stein, Psychic Investigator series. It was good.

The author has created an organic city, based on gated communities. Everything is self-contained, like the cities in Chung Kuo , but smaller and mobile. The city moves across the landscape. It is separated into New, Mid, Old. Old is the part that is the oldest, with everything breaking down, and about to be re-absorbed and recycled.

The book is a mystery about miners who have disappeared but there is a bunch of mysticism and higher-level math and geometry - though it doesn't overwhelm.

I am now reading The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason. Very cool, imaginary historical fiction. Purports to be the lost parts of Homer's Odyssey. A series of short stories, all so far have a twist/zinger, and the writing is enchanting.

I'm in the midst of C): All of the above.

Most of the time I've been reading the Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years-Mr Palin is a chummy, good natured, narrator/companion to spend reading time with. I suspect I'll miss this book when I finish it.
When I need a little SF fiction, I've been reading Stories of Your Life and Others of which the title story so far has most impressed me.
I've drifted over to rereading Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, which I read as a teenager, and having just completed it, realize there are whole aspects of that novella, which sailed way above my head when I read it then, and are not touched upon at all, in the film adaptation.
I've never read the other stories in this collection, so I look forward to reading them.

I just finished The Prophet Murders by Mehmet Murat Somer.

It is a mystery set in modern day Istanbul, Turkey and is about transvestites who are being killed and one who has to investigate the crimes because the police don't care. Very interesting, odd, and edgy. Not for the faint of heart though. Not without issues, but worthwhile. Will read the 2nd book in the series.

Now reading Flashforward by Robert Sawyer for a RL book group.

I just started Noon: 22nd Century, which I've had sitting in my toberead stack for a long time (2 years maybe?). I've yet to read anything by the Brothers Strugatsky that I didn't like.

just starting The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip--she is a mistress of fantasy.

I finished Flashforward by Robert Sawyer. On the Sawyer scale it was pretty good. I find he has bland characters, and even if he starts well the story falls apart about 2/3 of the way through and ends with a fizzle.

This book had a killer opening, literally. They run an experiment on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and all over earth human consciousness jumps 21 years into the future and everyone has a vision. The vision turns out to be the same day, except for those dreaming or dead in the future. They return to the modern day after a short time, but the result is death and destruction. People who were driving cars, flying planes, and walking have been killed or killed others. No one was prepared and everyone fainted.

I believe that to be Sawyer's dig at the 'Rapture' that some religious people believe in. They always talk of being beamed away, and don't care what happens to those left behind. Sawyer has a real bone to pick with organized religion.

Anyway the rest of the book is about trying to find out what happened, how and why. Also the debate between free will and predetermination. The bland characters also engage in soap-opera-ish behavior. The ending is a fizzle.

But over all it was better than usual.

I then read an LT ER book The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato. It was a story split between 1681 and the modern day. Story of a bland woman, Leonora, whose life collapses. She moves from London to the city where she was born, Venice, to pursue a career in glassblowing.

Turns out she is the descendant of their most famous glassblower. We get his story in the past thread, and hers in the modern. There is a scandal about him, and it taints her. She has to find the truth of the mystery. Book is the story of her move/life/search for the truth, and attempt to find/keep her new lover and oh yes, she gets pregnant too.

The writing was good, the structure was a bit odd: there would be a paragraph of description, narration and dialog but set apart would be the internal thoughts or reflection of the character who was the POV for it.

The book was presented as historical fiction, but it was more focused on the modern day story. The issues of Leonora were more in the romance category, but it was not a cheesy one. Interesting information about Venice, history and glassblowing, but entry level. I already knew most of it. Story told more as a summary than with a lot of detail or showing.

All in all I did enjoy it, and found it moving.

I can't remember enough to summarize everything since I've posted, but I'll summarize some main ones:

Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes -- liked the intro but became disenchanted the further it went along; eventually felt like too much narrative cheatery was involved and it fell apart in the last 1/3 of the book.

Loved Jules Watson's latest, The Swan Maiden about the tragedy of Deirdre and the sons of Usnech from the Ulster cycle. Also read her Dalriada trilogy which was good but I thought that it strained under the weight of the larger than life love story..., but was still a very historically immersive tale that kept me completely engrossed throughout the cycle.

Also read the classic fantasy by Hope Mirleees Lud-in-the-Mist and Marguerite Yourcenar's passionate vignettes of classical voices such as Sappho, Achilles and Mary of Magdalene, in her novel Fires.... which I thought was consuming (in the best sense of the word)... Lastly, read the final conclusion of Sarah Monette's tetralogy, Corambis, which ends in a satisfactory way, and the first two books of Joan Vinge's Cat series, Psion and Catspaw about disaffected young adult with psionic powers, which was a fun read.

Ludmilla

Thanks for the bit about Corambis. I have been collecting the books in the series and thought it was a trilogy. Now I will seek out the last book.

Just finished The Complete Roderick which left me laughing and frustrated at the same time. One of those books that is almost a masterpiece, but doesn't quite come together.

Other than that, I've been alternating less familiar Shakespeare with Harry Potter (I seem to be one of the few people on earth who hasn't read Rowling yet).

No. I have only read book 1 of HP. I have them all - got the last one when it went into paper recently. Now of course, they are scattered all over the apartment, so I have to find them in order to read them :)

I am reading Vicious Circle by Mike Carey. Urban fantasy set in London. Exorcist with control problems and a succubus stalker. It is book 2 in the Felix Castor series. I am enjoying it, but he is a bit wordy.

I haven't read the Harry Potter books. I think I own the first three, plan on getting the others at some point and reading them (maybe with the kids, when they are ready). We have seen the movies (except for the latest that just came out). I guess I'm not in a hurry to get to these. Some day...

I'm reading Julie E. Czerneda's Trade Pact trilogy at the moment. Fun, romantic space opera with lots of adventure. I read the prequel to this, Stratification, and really liked it, so decided to backtrack and read the Trade Pact trilogy.

I read the Trade Pact trilogy and enjoyed it. Liked the writing and the characters. Didn't realize Stratification trilogy was a prequel. I saw that it was about the disbanded group, but thought it was what happened after Trade Pact. I haven't started reading Stratification series yet. I am waiting for them to go into paper.

I only saw the first HP movie, don't want to see them until I read the books.

Yeah, the 3rd book in the Stratification trilogy just came out in hardcover, so it will probably be another year before it is out as MMP. The main character in Trade Pact is the great grandchild of the characters in Stratification, which explains how (and why) some members of the Clan left their home world to live offworld. I really liked Stratification (perhaps better) because it was more focused on the anthropological/ecological elements of the Clan's home world. The Trade Pact trilogy is fun, but the romantic adventure elements are much more integral to the plot than in Stratification where the ecological and social worldbuilding is driving most of what's happening. If you liked Trade Pact, I think you'll enjoy the story of the Clan's past in Stratification. There's an author note in the 3rd Stratification book that reveals Czerneda is working on a sequel to Trade Pact. She states rather enthusiastically, "you ain't seen nothing yet," so she apparently has great plans for the Clan Chronicles going forward.

Thanks, and cool about the follow up to Trade Pact series. I did enjoy them.

I've just finished a re-read of most of the Liaden Universe series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I managed to avoid rereading the original trilogy, but read all the prequels (4) as well as Plan B and I Dare. They are just so much fun.

I've now read seven of the Liaden Universe books. I expected them to be a bit too romancy to be my cup of tea, but I found them to range from quite good to exceptional.

I am currently slowly making my way through Gravity's Rainbow, which is pretty darn good but takes me about five minutes a page (and even then sometimes I have to go back and reread extended passages to figure out what is going on).

And I'm about 170 pages into Toll the Hounds, book 8 of what I am ready to call the greatest fantasy series ever written (much to the consternation of my Tolkienophile bookfriends).

Recent reads which I particularly enjoyed included The City and The City and Greybeard.

Happy Holidays, all!

I am reading a non-SF book now, though it has Middle Eastern magical realism, The Last of the Angels by Fadhil al-Azzawi set in 1950s Iraq.

The last genre book I read was The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan. Very dark, violent fantasy. Really loved it, and can't wait for the next one.

Happy Holidays too !

Happy Holidays to everyone!

I haven't read that much SF/F lately. I did recently read Carol Berg's Lighthouse Duet which won this year's Mythopoeic award and enjoyed it. This has been the first I've read of her books, and hopefully I'll get a chance to read more of hers next year. One of my other favorite reads this quarter was Jane Smiley's The Greenlanders. It probably helped that I've read a number of the Icelandic sagas and am used to the spare style. It's a haunting evocation of the long, slow decline of the settlement over the course of 60 or 70 years.

Happy Holidays to you ludmillatoria and to everyone here as well! Haven't been around much, haven't gotten to read much this year. Remind me to never make a long list of reading prospects for the year ever again. Can't help but feeling I put the whammy on myself. ;)

Anyway, right now I'm reading SF - Venusia by Mark Von Schlegell.
Kind of trippy, retro 70's new wave SF. Just my kind of thing. Hopefully I will have it done before the year ends, but you never know with the way I've been reading for the past year...

Happy Holidays to all and its good to see you around Arthur.

I just finished City of God by Cecelia Holland, a HF set in 16th C Rome about the Borgias, during the reign of Pope Alexander.

I am now starting a historical mystery, set in Turkey and the dying Ottoman empire in 1888 called The Winter Thief by Jenny White. It is book 3 in the Kamil Pasha series. It was also a book I won through LT Early Reviewers.

Happy New Year all!

Starting the new year off reading both:

To Die in Italbar -Roger Zelazny
and
Eyeless in Gaza -Aldous Huxley

Since I last posted I read

The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato (ARC), Historical Puzzler, Really Good, December 2009
Lost in Translation by Edward Willett, SF - Not Bad, December 2009
Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller, Memoir, Ambivalent, Jan 2010
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich, Humor-Mystery, Loved it, December 2009
City of Thieves by David Benioff, Historical, Really Good, *, Jan 2010
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman, SF, Slog, *, Jan 2010
Real Murders by Charlaine Harris, Mystery -Cozy, Very Weak, *, Jan 2010

Just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, *, Jan 2010

* RL Book group reads

I am still rereading Triplanetary by E.E. 'Doc' Smith for Group Read of the Lensman series on LT. Its a slog at the start, and I had to put it aside to read my RL book group reads. Hope the rest will be easier.

I am also reading The Histories by Herodotus for a LT book group read. We are doing a chapter a month.

Hi all! Figured I'd drop in and put in a comment.
I'm reading some SFF.
I've continued on something of a Zelazny jag just finished Damnation Alley, and I'm about to read Creatures of Light and Darkness.

Hey Arthur, nice to see you around. Hope you enjoy the Zelazny.

Work and trying to get stuff done at home have been stressful... haven't had much of a mental attention span, so have been reading a lot of YA books. Started collecting and reading Rosemary Sutcliff's YA/historicals, a lot of which are set in Britain during the Roman Empire days and shortly thereafter. She's definitely a favorite author now. Don't know how I missed her when I was growing up.

Hi ludmillalotaria!
I am enjoying Zelazny enormously, and now I say to enthusiasts such as yourself that it is likely that I'll be reading the Amber series sooner than later now -I see you gave that 4 stars.
I look forward!

I'm sympathetic to the loss of attention when preoccupied with life thing- last year for me was a horrible reading year -I practically read nothing. Certainly not much fiction.
YA books are fun to read when you don't want to do what you think might be heavy lifting, and I say it that way because a well written YA book can be as much food for thought as anything else. I read a bunch the year before last and enjoyed them a great deal.
In a real way, the best of the YA lot read like good writing without showing off.

Hello Hello!

The SF year has started off badly for me as I tried again to read Fire Upon the Deep. This time I got half way through before the preposterous aliens vs. descriptions of how many GBs of intergalactic bandwidth were being sapped began to grate and I threw in the towel.

Thankfully I have found solace in some old favourites - Iris Murdoch (A Word Child) and Richard Adams (The Plague Dogs - I even bought the 1980s animated film too).

The last good SF I read was Solaris back in Sept 2009, though I have fairly high hopes for Charles Stross' Glasshouse which is next on my SF TBR pile.

Nice to see some familiar names here :)

Welcome to LT, Ropie. Glad to see you over here. I tried Fire Upon the Deep several years ago, didn't get past the first chapter. It was me, though, not the book, and I'm sure one day I'll find my way back to it. (FYI: I am Raule over at SFFWorld).

Hi Raule! Glad I'm not the only one who has yet to get through FUTD. I also may pick it up again and read from where I left off but I will need to be in a serious state of suspending my disbelief. To be fair, I tend to have a hard time with the details of space operas in general, which is why I usually avoid them. In any case, I did enjoy the first quarter of the book, so that's something.

I have actually been on LT since 2006 but used it once and then never again until now.

It's nice to reconnect with a fellow Lem fan here, Ropie. I also had a hard time getting into aFUtD, but I stuck it out and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Which is not to deny that it does require quite a bit of willing suspension of disbelief.

Speaking of Vinge, I am now about halfway through Rainbows End, and not yet finding myself particularly excited.

You too, clong. I read a couple of my first Lem books on the back of your reviews over on IBList.

I just picked up Keith Laumer's Worlds of the Imperium. He was an unknown to me but it's a really good book, a bit stiff but fun.

Hey Ropie, nice to see you drop by this little neck of the woods! By way of coincidence I'm currently starting The Invincible, and look forward to that.
The Laumer books by and large that I have read have all been fun. They all have that shotgun detective story type prose Dinosaur Beach I thought was nothing short of delightful. Check out some of my reviews for other recommends.

That's it exactly, Arthur - shotgun detective story prose. Some fairly big ideas were being thrown around but with minimal description or prose (example - the description of the inter-dimensional transport used by the protagonist read like a bumpy ride on the no.73 bus). I did enjoy it though and will look out for a copy of Dinosaur Beach.

In the mean time I read The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri Tepper, which was certainly not as good as Grass but still had something of her magic touch with a genetic story.

I have been given a copy of The Algebraist by Iain M Banks and will start this tonight.

Check out online, Ropie. Dinosaur Beach might be a Baen freebie-I forget now. But they had a lot of his stuff up at their site as free downloads.

I finished The Invincible and thought it was terrific. Now it looks like I might read Barefoot in the Head.

Glad you enjoyed Invincible, Arthur. My copy has the skull in a space helmet on the front - one of my favourite SF covers.

I'm slowly picking my way through The Algebraist - has lukewarm reviews generally but I am actually enjoying it as much as anything I've read by Banks.

I am about a quarter of the way through Passage by Connie Willis and finding it pretty flat so far. Uninteresting and unconvincing characters, and no real effort to sell the basic premise.

I read Passage and didn't think it worked at all.

I just now finished The Shadow Pavilion by Liz Williams. Book 4 in the Detective Inspector Chen series. Very good.

Hi clong, I read Passage about 10 years ago and I hadn't read any SF for a few years. I read it in about 3 days as I found it so exciting - I just couldn't put it down. But I'll admit to the fact that it is overly long and could have easily lost one third in the editing. My girlfriend didn't like it either but I have good memories of it. The ending is really quite good too, I thought.

I just finished Things Unborn by Eugene Byrne. Very good. It is oop, but I got it used. After an atomic war, the the past dead return to life. Fun, interesting and well done.

I felt guilty about leaving Fire Upon the Deep unfinished for the second time so I am finishing it off. It's a duty rather than a pleasure but I'll get through it ;)

Also, just read my first Heinlein novel: The Tunnel in the Sky. I really enjoyed this one. I picked it up on a whim at my girlfriend's mother's house and was instantly hooked. What a great little tale, maybe a little too heavy on preaching the importance of political system, but I already knew to expect that from Heinlein. I'll certainly be reading more of his YA fiction.

SFF.
Stuck in the middle of Barefoot in the Head. It's an interesting exercise, but it's something of a real slog. Taking a break to finally reread Son of Man again. I used to read it every 5 years, but it's closer to 10 this time around.

Fire Upon the Deep finally finished.

In one sense I am pleased that I didn't leave it unfinished. In another, I am pretty annoyed that I had to force myself to waste many hours of my life reading it. What a stupid, confusing, preposterous tale. The worst thing was those ridiculous Tine creatures; each one of them in eight places at once and with several different names, it required a calculator and a sketch-map just to keep track of who was who, let alone to sift through the tedious pages of Shakespeare-style war mongering that dragged on and on, to the detriment of the rest of the plot that was, to be fair, in places comparatively exciting. I skim read the final 80 pages and the ending was a damp squibb.

That's better :D

I am reading Michaelmas, only my second book by Algis Budrys. It's got pretty lousy ratings so far here but I like it quite a bit 50 pages in, especially the descriptive writing and some interesting, gritty, eccentric and yet reasonably convincing characters. As with Rogue Moon, I can't help but think that, if Raymond Chandler had written science fiction, it would have come out something like this.

Let us know if you think it's better than Rogue Moon, when you finish.

I finished The Algebraist by Iain Banks.

Horribly overwritten, purple prose and an excess of adjectives and descriptive phrases, too long, repetitive, preposterous time frame (billions and billions), non-alien aliens, rotten naming conventions: names, titles, historical and species. With a really poor non-conclusion ending.

And yet.... there were spots that grabbed me.

115> finished it last night. In the end the plot was a bit hokey, but it did have some interesting (for 1977) predictions about how media markets might evolve, and I stand by my earlier positive comments about characterization and descriptive prose. I will plan to look for another Budrys title or two to add to the tbr stack. I gave it the same 3.5/5 rating as I had given to Rogue Moon.

Thanks. While Rogue Moon was slightly unusual, I was not a fan, so I'm thinking Michealmas will remain at the bottom of the pile for me.

I remember I was so pleased when we got Rogue Moon for the book club at sffworld! Turned out it was a bit of an old dog of a book but I've always meant to go on and read more by Budrys as he is a bit different to the norm.

I agree with you, more-or-less, about The Algebraist Arthur but I actually quite liked it. I have to stop reading these space operas as I almost always end up hating them as much as I love them but I find even third-rate Banks is pretty palatable.

Next on the list this month is some spaced-out, philosphical, 1970s goodness, in the form of Ian Watson's The Jonah Kit. The ideas are big and the hyperbole in the blurb is even bigger!

No that was Ficus Fan, ropie. Haven't read The Algebraist yet. Next Banks coming up in the batter's box is one of the first Consider Phlebas. That and a couple of the crime dramas by the Banks without the M.
Actually right now trying to finish up a collection of George Orwell essays left lingering on the pile by the bed. I have 2 left.
So, at the moment -non.

Whoops, sorry Arthur and Ficus. I haven't quite got used to the closely-packed thread layout here.

Forgot to mention that in addition to the above I am reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. Not sf but a fascinating pictorial essay nonetheless.

Yep a seminal text in analysis of comics. Don't think I knew you were a fan, ropie. I'm sure if you've checked out some of my library you know my cup runneth over. ;)

Back on trying to finish Barefoot in the Head...so, SFF.

I'm not a big comic reader, Arthur, but I was toying with the idea of buying one of those Marvel collected classic Avengers series the other day (I used to buy the individual issues when I was young). But then I saw the Scott McCloud and thought I'd prefer that.

Any recommendations as to your favourites?

I'd be more inclined to recommend something like Daniel Clowes' Ghost World than anything mainstream, so...

Mmm, I enjoyed the film of Ghost World but the comic book is shaded in vile green for some reason, which put me off buying it on the day.

I picked up a copy of volume five of the collected short stories of Philip K Dick instead: We Can Remember it for you Wholesale.

I absolutely loved the Philip K Dick collection (above) and will probably try and track down Vol. 4 next. There really was not a duff story in it; even the seemingly silly tales (there's one about a male beaver who has an affair with a lady beaver down the river, for example) had interesting psychological and philosophical aspects to them.

Have been reading Helliconia Spring since my last post. It wanders between very good and a bit dull and it's pretty long so it will take me ages. I am as yet undecided whether or not to carry on and read the next in the trilogy straight after (Helliconia Summer, which is on the shelf waiting).

Michael Swanwick's Bones of the Earth. This is an author whose short fiction I have found consistently impressive, but so far this "thinking person's Jurassic Park" isn't doing much for me.

I have been in yet another period of prolonged non-reading, but that ended tonight with the finishing of a periodic rereading of Robert Silverberg's Son of Man.
Surprisingly, it took longer to read than previous ( I used to tear through this). In many ways it was as if I've never read it before, which is always a wild sensation with a book you've read more than once,. In the middle I began thinking it was a young man's novel, but having finished it, it remains a novel of great personal importance -it continues to be one of my favorite fantasy novels on a very,very short list -real nourishment of the soul for this "son of man". There is a uniqueness in this novel about how much sexuality is an important part of who we all are in the great scheme of things. I don't mean this in anything like a perv way -it's just that the novel considers the fact that we all approach our existence in this world/universe as sexual beings -that we really have no choice - like it or not, unless denial is an option.

On to trying to finish the more difficult and less obviously rewarding Barefoot in the Head.

So, the short answer is -SF.

I left my copy of Heliconia on the train (in a bag) a week ago, so in the meantime I bought a second hand copy of Marrow by Robert Reed. I got my bag and Heliconia back 2 days ago so now I'm reading the two concurrently.

The thing is, they are both books I'd wanted to read for years, so why do I now find myself stuck with two books I really wish I hadn't started but feel obliged to finish? Neither book is close to what I was expecting :( It's either SF burnout or I need to get back to some of those 200 page books waiting on the shelf and leave the 500+ page books alone for a while.

Just finished Algis Budrys' The Unexpected Dimension, a collection of seven early short stories, which generally offered everything I liked about the two novels I have read to date (as discussed above), without the weaknesses. Neither the characters nor the dilemmas they face are remotely simple in these stories. I particularly enjoyed a pair of melancholy and ambiguous tales, "The End of Summer" a 1954 novelette, and "Go and Behold Them" {aka “The End of Winter”}, a 1958 short story.

Non.
In the middle of a Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) fest, reading the Parker novels -all recently reprinted. Westlake's one of my fav crime fiction guys. Just finished the second Parker novel The Man With the Getaway Face and am now on to The Outfit.
Awesome stuff. :D

Ropie -I agree put 'em down until you're ready, it doesn't matter at all. Either you'll pick up where you left off, or you'll start over. Either way it doesn't ultimately matter. I have a pile now of about 10+ books that will be finished...someday.
Or not.
I think at a certain point you become like a literary Mr Creosote. What you you can start, you start. What you finish, you finish. What stays in, stays in.

Aye - you're right Arthur. No point reading something for fun if you're not enjoying it! I'll have a look at my shelves tonight, pick something else and let the guilt go :D

Non.
Reread A Farewell to Arms which was terrific, then back on the Parker novels -finishing The Outfit and now moving on to The Mourner.
Having a blast with these!

I have left the SF behind for a while and picked up a recommendation from a book seller: The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It's set in a college environment, which is always one of my favourite settings for a novel, and I am revelling in the wonderful writing and characterisation.

A non SF crime fiction, Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark) reading streak continues - just finished The Score and The Jugger, and now I'm talking a Parker break and rereading a Westlake novel featuring his other famous crook character- Dortmunder in The Hot Rock.

SF -
I do have a Bond novel I'm rereading for the utter hell of it, but have put that down to read some Stanislaw Lem -finished the excellent Chain of Chance, and am now about a third of the way through The Investigation. Really enjoying him right now, might run it though 2 more if this finishes as good as Chain of Chance.

Two of my favourite Lems those, Arthur. Not really SF but certainly contain some science and speculation. The atmosphere created throughout The Investigation is particularly good. Another good 'Eastern Bloc' whodunnit is The Strugatskys' 'The Final Circle of Paradise' - very odd.

I'm currently very much enjoying 'salem's Lot by Stephen King. Very easy reading and a steady pace to the build up of tension.

SF

Finally finished The Investigation -excellent, and will continue on the Lem ride with The Futurological Congress.
Finally getting these read. They've been sitting so long on my shelves the pages are practically orange.

SF

Lem continues -The Futurological Congress was great, on to Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

How did you find 'Memoirs Found in a Bathtub' Arthur?

I read Glasshouse by Charles Stross while I was on holiday and really enjoyed it. Its twisting and playing with reality through the use of distorted memory reminded me of many authors but Stross has a way with technology and ideas that singles his work out. Very well written, if not for the character prose, which was pretty hammy.

I'm currently reading Beyond the Great Indoors by Ingvar Ambørnsen, which my gf describes as her favourite book. OK, it's not as good as The Affirmation (my own favourite book ;) ) but it is very strange and very, very amusing.

I confess, I liked it least of the 3 or 4 novels I just read of his. Feels a little dated -and not nearly as inventive as his other novels. It only picks up for me at the drunken party with the incognito scientists. That's almost 4/5's of the way through the novel.
I may have been more sympathetic towards the novel if I hadn't read The Futurological Congress directly before. That's a truly funny and diabolical piece of satire that still works, even though he visits scenarios and themes that other authors have covered as well.
I understand that communist censorship probably compromised his ability to explore this material to the fullest in Memoirs, so there it is.

Non
-will probably read Fiasco when I get it in the mail, but right now I'm reading Phillip Roth's Sabbath's Theater.

Fiasco is my personal favorite of the eleven Lem books I've read to date. With The Cyberiad a close second.

I am reading Look to Winward.

SF
-finished Sabbath's Theater which was excellent but certainly not for everyone, and am now back reading Lem with Fiasco

It's seems to be a fav of a lot of Lem fans, clong.
Picked up some non SF Lem as well, which I might roll into depending on how I feel after this one...

I enjoyed the sense of the surreal and the absurd in Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. It's a story that goes nowhere and the enveloping plot of a paper-virus is virtually redundant other than setting the scene, but I actually found it quite gripping as a short novel. I liked your comparisons with other books and films though, Arthur - you clearly understand a novel's historical context.

I enjoyed Fiasco too but as a study of the unknowable-ness of alien beings and cultures, a favourite subject of Lem's, I preferred Eden.

Some more sideways reading (ie: laterally out from SF but on the same level) - Someone Like You by Roald Dahl. A collection of his short stories.

I am reading Space Opera by Jack Vance, and I cannot stop laughing. I may quite possibly be uniquely susceptible to the comedic genius of this book.

SF-
Finished Fiasco which was indeed excellent, and now I'm on to OTHER EARTHS, part of the collected works of Stanley G Weinbaum, featuring Dawn of Flame and The Black Flame a post apocolypse fantasy series. Weinbaum even at this early stage is a good enough writer so this is not tedious, but it's fairly vapid golden age pulp fantasy, and something of a come down after finishing something as epic as Fiasco.

Back to my favourite writer this month - Iris Murdoch; her first novel, under the net. Not SF though.

Both, but...

After the straight streak of Lem reading, the Bond novel and the Weinbaum fantasy stuff seem terribly light in the behind and I find it difficult to focus on them -they seem like the merest of snack foods. Things might turn out all right, or my mood might change, but in the meantime I've turned back to reading Lem with Eden.

Just finished Eden -great stuff.
I've got to keep going on Lem -I've got the bug.
This one is not SF though- Hospital of the Transfiguration.
So -Non.

Glad you enjoyed Eden, Arthur. It was the first Lem I read (though I had seen Solaris years earlier) and as such holds a special place for me. Philosophically it is simple but effective but primarily it is an adventure story, and a great one - that's what I remember after 5 years anyway!

I'm still on Iris Murdoch but took a break from Under the Net to read A Severed Head whilst on holiday - what a fantastic book; a crazy farce of incestuous relationships but a tighter plot you couldn't find anywhere. Continuing with Under the Net now.

Yes I liked Eden a great deal ropie! A little disappointed when the aliens actually appear at the end of the book, but still, another top drawer Lem read! Great character stuff with the crew in this one!
I HIGHLY recommend Hospital of the Transfiguration. Great war novel.
I continue with Lem and in the NON category with a memoir of his childhood years -Highcastle:A Remembrance

I've been on a streak lately. Read Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis, Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, and Pegasus by Robin McKinley, all very good stories. Also a re-read of The Puppet Masters by Heinlein--definitely has aged poorly.

Hospital of the Transfiguration sounds excellent - I am buying it.

Ronin, I'd not even heard of Blackout and All Clear - I'm buying those too as I'm a big fan of Willis.

Currently reading Tuf Voyaging which I picked off my girlfriend's bookshelf last night and have barely been able to put down since.

Non

Hey Ropie ,Highcastle:A Remembrance also worth a read -excellent unsentimental, memoir of his childhood.
Now reading Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon. Sort of my Halloween read, but I couldn't get it done on the day and haven't picked it up since. Finish maybe today, but I don't want to jinx it...

BTW A Severed Head -great name for a novel. Terrific for a train read. ;)

I have read Tuf Voyaging (excellent) and The Lathe of Heaven (pretty good) since I last posted. Post-Christmas, I have picked up the 900-page Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson; 150 pages in and it is shaping up to be a fantastic thriller.

I am a fan of all three book you mention, ropie.

I have been slogging my way through The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica which is proving to be a bit of a slow go, but an interesting apocolyptic mix of politics, religion, philosophy and Norse mythology.

I am reading Songs of the Dying Earth which so far is not meeting my perhaps unrealistic expectations.

Next I need to reread The Curse of Chalion for an upcoming bookclub discussion.

I seem to remember Arthur had a love/hate relationship with Songs of the Dying Earth, Curt. More hate than love perhaps :/

I haven't picked up Cryptonomicon for a few weeks having just finished the (overlong but very good-at-the-beginning) Stranger in a Strange Land. I have a large pile of other old SF to get to at some point due to recent acquisitions, finds and purchases. I'm likely to go for Cyteen - anyone here read it?

I just finished Life of Pi after it was recommended to me by a friend. At first I was suspicious of its easy philosophy and 'parablistic' nature. However, as the book progressed I became increasingly drawn in and when the adventure started I could hardly put it down. It also, surprisingly, has elements of fantasy or speculation that put me in mind of some of my favourite SF authors and is written with charm.

Supposed to be good- so your thumbs up is another endorsement- it's on my list and it's in the house...

Not reading a lot right now -stuck in 2 or 3 of books that I've been reading for a while.

Reading a lot of non fiction not for fun (computer stuff etc), but my train read is SF -My Name is Legion. A fix up - not a standout so far, but the last novella is supposed to be the keeper. We'll see. Disappointing so far.

re: My Name is Legion - I liked one review I saw here:

"the crazy title of the second probably dooms it to never be mentioned (’Kjwalll’kje’k’koothaïlll’kje’k)"

:)

Me, I'm *still* reading Cryptonomicon. Admittedly there have been protracted breaks between reading bouts, including finishing Connie Willis' excellent Blackout for the sffworld bookclub. Cryptonomicon is an impressive book but it's long and requires quite a bit of concentration, and I have been distracted by quite a few other reading 'needs'.

I have been reading some computer books too, Arthur, probably a bit more fun than yours though (histories of computer gaming).

Re ’Kjwalll’kje’k’koothaïlll’kje’k in My Name is Legion -would that the story lived up to the exotic nature of the title, but alas, it's a fart in a wind tunnel.
Hoping that the novella at the end saves the day.
So far, a surprisingly iron poor outing for the usually (for me) entertaining Zelazny...

Short story summer for me:

Read an inspiring Arthur Clarke collection a few weeks back - The Other Side of the Sky. Followed this with a short novel, The Death of Grass by John Christopher - absolutely amazing, the best SF novel I've read for quite a while. Now I'm restarting where I left off, about 6 stories in to the complete short fiction of Cordwainer Smith, the NESFA version, entitled The Rediscovery of Man.

Have that Cordwainer Smith volume still to read...

Just finished Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

I'm now reading Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts. I have often seen Roberts' books on the library shelves and larger book stores here but have never quite been tempted enough to pick one up. All I can say now is that I'm glad I decided on whim to order this one online, as the concept seemed intriguing (Russian SF authors from WW2 come up with a scenario for an alien invasion story that begins to come true around the time of the Chernobyl disaster). What I was not expecting was the sheer technical brilliance of the author's writing and characterization. And the deadpan humour works so well - this book is absolutely hilarious!

Sounds interesting, ropie. I have added it to my wish list.

I am currently reading Pearls from Peoria, which so far isn't doing much for me, and In the Ocean of Night, which so far I am liking more than I expected.

Hi Clong, yes - one of the finest bits of SF writing I've seen for quite a while. I know you like Lem and you should see quite a few parallels with his style, intentional I'm sure. The ending was intriguing but somehow didn't suit the tone of the rest of the book so didn't convince me as much as the rest of it did. Still an extremely good read, IMO.

Just ran through another Bayley - The Grand Wheel. I really love that guy and his ideas :)

I am reading Love in the Time of Cholera (after not having been particularly wowed by One Hundred Years of Solitude). Next up is The Long Run by Daniel Keys Moran, part of Tales of the Continuing Time, a series which seems have a small but extremely devoted audience.

I'm reading Mastiff by Tamora Pierce.

The Calculus Affair :)

Glad you got a kick out of The Grand Wheel , ropie. The most PKD -like book by Bayley, by his own admission!
I'm in the middle of a number of a number of things forever, but the one which will be done sooner than later is The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark aka Donald Westlake. The Parker crime novels continue to be an absolute blast!

So -non.

A couple of re-reads for me recently.

Just finished:

1984 by Orwell. Still a satisfying read 20 years on (since I last read it) if pretty bleak.

And just starting:

The Left Hand of Darkness by LeGuin. It's been about 6 years since I read this and I have such fond memories of it I'm a bit cautious to approach it again. We'll see..

..and the good news is that it was as good if not even better than I remembered. Although they're both old books now, along with John Christopher's Death of Grass this was my favourite read of the year.

Back to reading some fiction- SFF- Frankenstein on my iPhone. Interesting reading experience...

It is an interesting reading experience. I'm the kind of person who only uses cell phones for emergencies (never to really talk to anyone), but when my husband got me an iPhone 3 when he ugraded his, I found I quite like reading on it. The backlight bothers me on an iPad, but not so much on the iPhone. It's very convenient to be able to sync between Kindle and iPhone. In fact, so far I've only used the iPhone for reading books, checking traffic on the map, and carrying my shopping list.

Ropie, I've been wanting to re-read "The Left Hand of Darkness". Maybe I'll get around to it this year.

What I like about it, ludmillalotaria, is if I find myself somewhere where I didn't bring a read, like the dentist's office, or waiting somewhere for my wife, or if it's too crowded to hold a book on the train, I have something decent to read. That's huge as far as I'm concerned!

ludmillalotaria, LHOD is definitely a winter book (the clue is in the name of the planet it's set on!) so I recommend saving it for when there's some snow around ;) Depending where you are I suppose it could be winter quite soon..?

arthur, nice to read you again. I have toyed with the idea of a Kindle (or similar). I had use of an ipad on holiday this Christmas and didn't really get on with it. It's clever but I have no need for mobile internet at present and the thing was greasy as anything after just a few mins in my hands!

Currently reading non SF - The Bell by Iris Murdoch. It's the first time I've read it since first reading it almost 20 years ago at school. It moves me, although it might be a bit too English for some. It has a great plot. Last SF read was The Islanders by Christopher Priest, which considering I had been waiting for it for almost 2 years, was pretty good. Quite different to his last 3 or 4 books - less puzzling; more atmosphere and building up a bigger picture of mysterious events through what was, basically, a collection of short stories interspersed with rather dry information on the titular Islands of the Dream Archipelago. Prior reading of associated stories (such as The Affirmation' and 'The Dream Archipelago') certainly helped sustain my interest in this new book.

Non

-finishing up Kerouac's The Dharma Bums.

I've seen people reading Kindles on the train and the text looks very good -the overall feel is quite a convincing facsimile of the printed page.

Non

Finished The Dharma Bums -epic -now on to finishing Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza.

Non.
FINALLY finished Eyeless in Gaza -one of my longest running reads in recent memory -2 years to complete -and now on to The Sheltering Sky.

2 years?? Sounds like my attempt to get through Cryptonomicon (yawn) :D

I recently finished By Light Alone by Adam Roberts and very much enjoyed it, although it felt a bit padded. The last chapter was the best, reading a bit like a cross between Gene Wolfe and JG Ballard.

Currently I'm reading More Than Human, the first Theodore Sturgeon I've ever read and it's exactly the kind of 'pastoral' SF that I love. If I thought the Roberts was beautifully written, Sturgeon is somehow even more so.

It wasn't that I was bored or anything like that, Ropie. I actually liked the book a great deal. It's just that in general fiction did not feel like it was what I really needed to read at the time...
More Than Human a good one. I like Sturgeon.

I can understand as I go through periods where only reading old magazines will do! Generally I read more novels in summer though for some reason. More daylight probably.

I enjoyed More Than Human a lot - the first chapter was my favourite with the Lone character taking the lead role. Probably close to a 5 star book for me, maybe 4.5 stars. The writing reminded me a bit of Bradbury; I wonder who influenced who?

There's a lot of talk of KSR's new novel, 2312 on SFFworld so I picked up a copy for myself. So far I'm enjoying it in the way I did Red Mars.

Both.
Read a bunch of things by French decadent writer Jori Karl Huysmans :
Marthe, En Rade, and the Parisian Sketches, and then finished the Alastor series of SF author Jack Vance -Wyst, and Marune. Nice to be reading many things. It's been a while.
Haven't decided where to next; maybe more Vance -he is a lot of fun.

Doing the apocalyptic reading right now for my summer including Swan Song, Wastelands (anthology) and re-reading Lucifer's Hammer. Must be the mood I'm in.

Just finished World Without End for an online reading group. I enjoyed the history lesson, but found the characters either boring or completely anachronistic.

Now starting The Wanderer.

SF -and definitely in a Jack Vance groove. Just finished Emphyrio, and now I'm reading all the stuff I haven't read yet in the Jack Vance Treasury. Might finish all the Vance stuff I have in the house in this run -we'll see.

Curious how The Wanderer works out for you, clong. Of all the Hugo winners that seems the one that gets some of the most mixed responses. Never read it myself.

I loved Emphyrio. I am on the look out for the complete Planet of Adventure series by Vance.

Just read Vurt by Jeff Noon - a cyberpunk-ish tale with definite influences from acid house. Actually quite enjoyable although I wouldn't want to read it again for quite a while.

Currently on Chocky by John Wyndham - great stuff :)

I also loved Emphyrio.

The Wanderer was ok. Not as bad as I had feared (given various reviews and commentary), but not really in the same class as Leiber's best. It seems to have defined a narrative format for this subgenre.

Just finished Anathem. Loved the first half; found the second half slightly unsatisfying (but less so than some of Stephenson's novels).

Liked Vurt as well! Have a couple of other things by him in the TBR pile...
I reiterate checking out Venusia by Mark Von Schlegell if you liked Vurt...

Re: Anathem, Curt. I have toyed with the idea of starting it a few times but have never dared - I've read quite a few passages from it now though, and it does seem penetrable at least.

Re: Vurt, I'll check out Venusia. Do you remember we read Only Forward for the book club a few years back? I thought Vurt was similar to that too - I might re-read O.F. on the back of enjoying Vurt more than I expected.

Read 'The Ballad of Lost C'Mell' from Re-Discovery of Man last night. Cordwainer Smith is like Shakespeare compared to Jeff Noon :)

Chocky was a great read too. I can recommend the 1980's UK TV series of it (available on Youtube) which I vaguely remembered from when I was young. It still holds up well today and follows the book closely. Matthew and his dad, in particular, are perfect (and Doctor Landis is played by Jeremy Bulloch, who wore the Bobba Fett suit in the first 3 Star Wars movies!)

Ropie: "Cordwainer Smith is like Shakespeare compared to Jeff Noon :)" In a class by himself, as far as I am concerned...

Started The Nine Tailors for a change of pace. Lots of English bell ringing arcana.

Read Norstrilla and thought it was very good. Haven't gotten around to reading my Rediscovery of Man volume yet, although this is feeling like the year it might happen along with my Kuttner/Moore anthology...
Vurt much,MUCH better than Only Forward without even thinking about it.
Just sayin' ;)

I am happy to report that I thought The Nine Tailors was perhaps the best Peter Wimsey novel I have read to date.

I just finished Building Harlequin's Moon, which had been sitting in my "to be read" pile for a long time. As an exercise in storytelling it was better than I had expected, reminding me of Beowulf's Children (which I seem to have liked more than most readers). Niven is not an author you go to for particularly convincing characters but he usually makes up for it with more compelling ideas than offered here.

And now I have started The End of the Affair. Impressively compelling so far, despite tackling an inherently challenging topic.

I read Brighton Rock as a teenager but didn't particularly enjoy it.

Currently reading Michaela Roessner's Vanishing Point, a post apocalyptic novel. The characters are rather stereotyped, the (frankly ridiculous) setting keeps reminding me of Mad Max - although it's the US - and the writing quality is variable, but it's still really drawn me in. I think this could turn out to be a favourite.

I read The Heart of the Matter a number of years ago, and found it fairly interesting. I have A Burnt Out Case somewhere in the TBR pile.

The End of the Affair proved well written, with strong characters and (for me anyway) a rather surprising conclusion. But more interesting than enjoyable. The Heart of the Matter is also sitting in my toberead stack and I will likely move it near the top.

I am now reading Slaughterhouse-Five which I have somehow managed to avoid up to now.

I loved SH5 when I read it years and years ago, but was not really moved by a recent reading of Cats Cradle.

Just finished Vanishing Point and loved it. If I read a book I enjoy more this year I'll be very pleased indeed.

I'm taking a bit of break from SF this month (my last non-genre novel was February) reading an intriguing novel called The Underground Man.

Arthur, I was thinking I might like to try some more Van Vogt as it's been a long time. I know you're an authority, and I really liked Space Beagle. Any others I should look out for?

My Vogt list, and it's not that long:
>His short stories collected in Transfinite
>The War Against the Rull
The Clane Saga -Empire of the Atom and Wizard of Linn, which are collected in the Transgalactic omnibus
> The Book of Ptath
>The Silkie
The House That Stood Still
and
>The Battle of Forever
After that, diminishing returns.

Thanks, Mr Arthur. I shall seek some of those out at the second hand stores soon.

Just picked up The Rod of Light by Bayley. It's great to be reading about Jasperodus again, even if he does seem to have grown up and become rather stern. So far it's pretty light going but I expect it to improve as Bayley always impresses in the end.

I know it's going to turn out that you're disappointed, but I love that book. One of my fav of Bayley's.
BTW, if you're going the second hand route, Away and Beyond and Destination: Universe! were my first exposure to the short fiction of Vogt, so that's what you can buy instead to get the stuff in Transfinite. Actually, that's what blew my mind about him, those two collections. His short fiction I recommend highly. One of the guys who invented the original formulas, I now know.

Forgot to add to the discussion -I still like Vonnegut's approach and still like all those books from years ago.
If you've missed it, as I did, it's not SF but read Mother Night. One of his absolute best, IMO.

I have enjoyed everything I've read by Vonnegut (perhaps influenced in part by my recollection that he had been a resident of the same dormitory that I lived in at University of Chicago--although he doesn't have particularly positive things to say about U of C in Slaughterhouse-Five). Contrary to ropie, I loved Cat's Cradle when I read it 15 years ago or so.

I am slowly making my way through this omnibus edition:

http://www.librarything.com/work/566259

which I picked up cheap at a used book store. Mother Night is the finale.

Recent reads have included Cryoburn, Echo, and Close to Critical, all of which left me a little disappointed, and the second book of Brandon Mull's Beyonder series, which I am reading with my kids and have to say is pretty darn good, for what it is.

Finishing up a fairly long Vance run, so SF
Just completed Planet of Adventure -definitely an entertaining read, probably a seminal genre work. I thought I was going to power into the Demon Princes saga also by Vance, but I feel like I need a break.
I'll take a look at the book pile by my bed to see if there's anything there I feel like finishing right now. Maybe something like a bio is in order.

Non
Finished up A Grand Guy- a bio on writer Terry Southern (he wrote the screenplays for Dr Strangelove and Easy Rider, most notably), -a book on my unfinished pile for a century. At least.
Now probably on to another bio...

Feels like I haven't been here for ages but I just haven't read any fiction most of the summer. Instead I have read the brilliant Understanding Exposure and Beyond Portraiture by Bryan Peterson. About to start some Roald Dahl shorts tonight, so hello again :)

Arthur - I read the City of the Chasch years ago and really enjoyed it. I'm afraid you were right, I gave up on Rod of Light after a few chapters; just wasn't in the mood.

I'm most of the way through The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. It was recommended to me by a friend as I stood in the shop with a Murakami book in my hand - he said, "Get this one; it's similar to M but much better." I can't say if it is better than M, but it's definitely one of the best books I've read this year, a noir but with twisted realities and uncertain characters.

I am trying to finish off The Ascent of Wonder, which had been sitting in my "to be read" stack for a long time. It's a solid collection, more satisfying to my taste than the same editors' The Space Opera Renaissance (which had left me more confused than otherwise as to what they think "space opera" is). Then I want to finish off The Heart of the Matter which I started a few months back but lost interest in. Then I want to get another Vonnegut novel in before the end of the year.

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

I'm starting Sirens of Titan tonight, so I'll be with you on the Vonnegut, Curt ;)

Happy Christmas!

Now on Preludes and Nocturnes Vol 1 of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Stirring stuff.

I just read Blindsight by Peter Watts. Impressive, if not extremely enjoyable, packed full of research and one or two wayward ideas about vampires(?). Altogether, not bad, and though I found the aliens a little bland they were certainly believable and their 'modus-operandi' sparked a very interesting discussion.

I restarted the The Rod of Light once again and am back in Bayley mode now, really enjoying it :) Similar thematically to Blindsight, but lovingly told using clunky old robots, rather than fired at your brain in the way Watts does it.

Finished The Rod of Light and loved every page. Bayley is up there with the best ever IMO.

I am reading Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, a new collection of previously unpublished stories that are so far proving more entertaining than ambitious. Next up, The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard.

Nice to see you again, Curt :)

I decided to have a stab at The Illuminatus! Trilogy. I'm about 100 pages in and just about keeping up with it. I'm not finding it as difficult to follow as many people make out it is but maybe that's because I've been hardened on the likes of Stand on Zanzibar and Focault's Pendulum!

See Ropie -re Rod of Light? Told you that was a good one!! Guess you just had to be in the right mood. One of my fav Bayleys.

Yeah, loved Rod of Light - fun, action packed, memorable, and some of the best 'what is consciousness?' musings this side of Descartes!

Since reading that I've struggled through Illuminatus! (hard work but interesting), raced through Christopher Priest's The Space Machine (good stuff) and very much enjoyed The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.

Concurrently reading Dead Water by Simon Ings (tough, dark, disordered) and The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M Robinson (highly enjoyable so far).

On a related note, I was on a long car journey this weekend and listened to the entire first series of the original radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (on cassette) - much better than reading the book; hilarious and highly recommended.

Non:
Currently reading Jeter's Kim Oh books on my phone. This series is essentially Jeter's post "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" take on hit man chicks. I'm into the second one, and they are diabolically dark, but fun. That's the Jeter alchemy. Good character drama.
For those that are interested -the novels function almost as serials, so you will have to purchase the second to find out what happens. There are 4 of them now; don't know how far that goes in terms of completing a story arc I'm in right now.
Kim Oh 1: Real Dangerous Girl
Kim Oh 2
Oh, and I recently read Gordon R Dickson's Wolfling. Very entertaining early effort -harder to not read than read. Liked it a lot.
Courtroom drama business at the end feels like it's tacked on as length padding for PB release, though.

Recently read The Adjacent by Christopher Priest and Jack Glass by Adam Roberts and was fairly disappointed by both of them, although each had its good moments.

I couldn't finish Dead Water by Simon Ings - I really disliked this book in many ways (rare for me to say that).

Dance Dance Dance by Murakami is entertaining me quite a bit currently.

Dance Dance Dance is tied for my favorite Murakami to date.

Just starting The Crucible of Time by John Brunner.

Curious to know how Crucible of Time is, clong if you would do a follow up when finished. I have it, but Brunner can be terribly inconsistent, and I've stayed away from him for quite a while now. Love him when he's good or great, but he isn't always.
Finished In the Bone: The Best Science Fiction of Gordon R Dickson, a somewhat dated short story compilation. Couple of the stories were good, but overall a disappointing collection.

The Crucible of Time is pretty good. Interesting aliens, interesting take on gender issues, and opportunities to think about a person's role in society/duty to future generations. This felt very old school compared to The Tides of Time, Brunner's subsequent novel which I had just read about a month ago. Tides is an ambitious but flawed new wave exercise in storytelling without much content; Crucible is a novel of ideas.

Thanks, clong! Last thing I read by him was The Sheep Look Up which is nightmarishly haunting at it's best, and awkwardly structured at it's worst. It suffers from Brunner's biggest flaw, which is the inability to draw a novel to it's logical conclusion.

I never tried any Brunner past Stand on Zanzibar, enjoyed that one though.

I loved Dance Dance Dance, and also Iris Murdoch's The Sandcastle which I just read, so that's two brilliant books in November thus far.

Non.
In a lit thing - For Whom the Bell Tolls and Ethan Frome

I am reading Starwater Strains, and finding it surprisingly unimpressive through the first 8 stories.

December is short story month: Store of the Worlds a Sheckley collection, and now the Dangerous Visions collection. Great stuff in both of them, though a few pages into Farmer's 'Riders of the Purple Wage' I decided to skip over it for now, sorry!

Non.
Finished the 2 above. Sort of in a Hemingway thing-reading The Green Hills of Africa, but it's a decrepid PB of my fathers that's shaling away -page by page as I read it, so it's not a train read.
For Whom the Bell Tolls not as focused a read as A Farewell to Arms, but still pretty great stuff. Some amazing characters (Pilar for example ) in that one.
Ethan Frome. Huh. What an odd little novella. The end's a little startling in it's wryly ironic brusqueness. Really startling. When I finished it I went "Really?! -Wow!" The central protagonist is such a pimple brain -and deliberately so. I'm thinking Flaubert is an influence. Don't get why it's a HS literature curicula read, exactly. Way too adult complicated for adolescents.

Just starting The Fall of Chronopolis by Barrington Bayley

Fall of Chronopolis is cool. Not my fav Bayley, but a good read. Collision Course is a more offbeat (eccentric, even) time travel offering from Bayley.
If you finish this and are still in a time travel mode, read Harness' Krono- IMO, an even better take on the same vibe. I thought that was the the damndest thing.
Non.
Finished Death in the Afternoon, the Hem train continues with A Movable Feast

Non.
Finished the above Hemingway Paris memoir which I thought was wonderful, and now should finish the Vonnegut anthology Look at the Birdie and/or move on to Across the River and Into the Trees

I just read a Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan - but I didn't get a lot of enjoyment from it in the way I have others of his. The humor was fine; the epithets of wisdom were charming but the story was cold for me, and not in a good way.

Still getting through the Bayley, Arthur? ;) The Rod of Light was just about the best thing I read last year. I have FOC and CC here too - I'm saving them.

Just finished I Am Legend and was amazed by the pure genius of Matheson's storytelling.

Now on to something I picked up on a whim yesterday - No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop. The premise is fascinating and I'm expecting something like 'Connie Willis in Africa', but we'll see...!

I've just read the first part of the Tales of the Dying Earth omnibus. I don't usually consider myself a 'fantasy guy' but I have to say this was some of the most pleasurable reading I've ever had. Vance is an absolute master story teller, and up there with the best I've ever read. Just about to start The Eyes of the Overworld, and I'm hoping it's as good. I remember you trudging your way through Cugel's Saga, Arthur, a few years back :D

Hey Ropie -like I said Rod of Light one of my Bayley faves when all is said and done, and apart from one or two short stories that weren't in his 2 collections, I've read , all of Bayley. But I am getting a hankering to reread Pillars of Eternity again. ;)
Matheson is great. I Am Legend is really good. A true master of genre fiction. I have a couple of short story anthologies by him on the TBR pile...
Yeah, I like all of TotDE except Cugel's Saga which I'm afraid, I hated.
If you like this, do get a hold of the Jack Vance Treasury, that has some wonderful stuff in it.

And right now I'm reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, finally, so, non.

TAAOKAC - I read that back when I was living in Italy and it was one of the few English language books I could find. As it turned out, it was a cracker though, and quite a bit more memorable than the Nebula/Hugo(?) winning Yiddish Policeman's Union. Hope you enjoyed it too.

Just coming to the end of Cugel's Saga. I'm going out on a limb here, Arthur, but The Dying Earth is, so far, one of the best books I've ever read, and Cugel's Saga has only reinforced that feeling :D Yes, the adventures are a bit silly, but they are endlessly inventive and amusing. I get that it's two separate Cugel books that are exactly the same basic plot, back-to-back, but for me that's no problem. Vance's writing is so good and the prose is so tight that I could read it forever. The last time I was this into a character it was probably Jasperodus, or that guy from Wolfe's Book of the New Sun! I'm really looking forward to Rhialto..

I did enjoy, it. As a comic fan, it's kind of a slam dunk. Very entertaining narrative.
Just finished The Elementary Particles which is one of the most confrontational pieces of fiction I may have ever read. Well done, but not something I'd easily recommend to anyone, just like Something Happened which I read just prior to Kavalier and Clay.

I reiterate re Vance -do read The Miracle Workers, The Last Castle and The Dragon Masters - they are all in The Jack Vance Treasury -they are absolutely outstanding.

Thanks, Arthur, I'll look out for them. I did pick up some second hand Vance in a second hand shop the other day, but those weren't amongst them. I think the ones I got were in the Demon Princes series.

I just read a collection of Joanna Russ short stories: Extra(ordinary) People. The first story, Souls, was exceptional; the other 4 ranged from interesting to near unreadable for my tastes. Too much disembodied discussion of gender issues, I suspect it would have been more interesting to me if it hadn't been presented in that impenetrable new wave style. I still have a lot of respect for her work and will seek out more in time.

Finishing up The Shining, which I have been really enjoying as a summer read, and will follow up with an interesting sounding new work, The Way Inn by Will Wiles.

Happy summers! :)

I am currently reading Helliconia Spring which somehow I've never gotten around to before. Recent reads have included more misses than hits, with Haze, Worlds of the Imperium, and Preferred Risk all being disappointing. I enjoyed the Leviathan series, which I got hooked on as a book on tape that I listened to with my kids on a long road trip, and Amnesia Moon, which I seemed to have enjoyed more than most. And I finally finished up the Black Company series, which despite a few duds I've generally found amusing and entertaining.

Hey Clong. I could never get into Helliconia, unfortunately. It always struck me as being a bit bloated and with a bland set of fantasy-'caveman' characters. I didn't get beyond Spring.

Agree on Worlds of the Imperium - I read this a few years back and it's definitely 'of its time'.

SF. Just finished Jennifer Government an amusing an effective satire/thriller about a completly privatized future world. Very, wry and nicely plotted.
Might read the new Tennesee Williams bio next, not sure...
Oh, prior to that I read Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. That turns out to be a great late term novel by him. A lot about art in that one. Highly recommended.

I am adding Bluebeard to my wishlist.

I am currently taking a break from Mason & Dixon to read The Computer Connection for my small but diligent ibdof reading group.

Bluebeard really good, clong. Be surprised if you're disappointed. Nice to see he could still write a good one late in the game!

Thought I'd chime in on our 3-man reading thread :D

This year I've read, and very much enjoyed, The Silent Land by Graham Joyce and Fire Brand - the Best of Connie Willis. I started Station Eleven by Emily Mandel, but couldn't get into it and put it down after a few chapters.

Just last night I picked up something I've been saving for a while - Alpha Flight Classic Volume 1 by John Byrne. I read a few of the Alpha Flight comics in the 1980s when I was reading Marvel, but they weren't really common in the UK. Last year, I found a few old original single issues in a charity shop, and then sought out a copy of the collected early issues - although it's now OOP and hard to get for sensible money. It's absolutely wonderful stuff, though! Volume 2 is much easier to come by so I'll pick that up soon too.

Thanks for the update, ropie.

Sorry to report that The Computer Connection left me utterly underwhelmed. Unique characters about whom I couldn't care less.

I've worked a bit more on Mason & Dixon but now moved on to Dr. Bloodmoney, which so far seems pretty promising. Other than The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon always leaves me a bit overwhelmed and needing to come up for air regularly, even if in the end the book proves to be massively impressive.

I remember liking Fire Watch and the eponymous collection quite a bit, but the more recent Willis I have read hasn't particularly impressed (I hated Passage).

Hi Curt, what is it about Pynchon that gets people so excited? I imagine a more literary Kurt Vonnegut - am I far off? Maybe I should just read one!

Just picked up the first four books in the Riverworld saga, used but mint, for £1 each :) I've been meaning to read these for years.

Only tackled 2 Pychon things -Gravity's Rainbow I could never get through, and V which I found a novel of interest. My main prob is that I don't care for his sense of humor. I don't think his jokes are funny. But V is pretty fascinating.

Non.
Reading some of the 33 1/3 books I have. Just finished the one on Low and one on Trout Mask Replica. Fun reading on music that mattered -at least to me.

Mason and Dixon is my fourth novel by Pynchon.

My reaction to both The Crying of Lot 49 and Vineland was mixed. In the end I found Gravity's Rainbow to be pretty darn impressive. The Crying of Lot 49 was a fairly quick read; the other two were massively complex novels with layer upon layer of narrative. All three of them had their fair share of dazzlingly creative ideas.

Pynchon is like nobody else I have read...my review of Gravity's Rainbow concludes with the observation: "Think Catch 22 meets Ulysses meets Justine meets The Sound of Music, and you’ll have some idea of what Gravity’s Rainbow is all about. Like Ulysses, I imagine this is a book that would get better each time you read it. And I will plan to reread it, but not for a few years."

I got the TV series of The Crow Road by Iain Banks (great stuff) for my birthday recently, so I picked up Canal Dreams which I've had for a year or so. It's a slow start but is apparently 'unputdownable' (surely 'undown-putable'), so we'll see.

Now reading the light but charming First Frost by Sarah Allen

Hi nrmay,
Have you read any Graham Joyce? I really like his take on 'magical realism'.
I've been wading through some of my older Iris Murdoch novels and have yet to start anything new this month. Exciting times :)

SF.

Right now reading The Best of CL Moore of Kutner and Moore fame. Effective post Lovecraft /Weird Tales SF Fantasy. Very atmospheric.

Several great stories in that collection, as I remember it!

Having recently read and liked Concrete Island, I have now ventured into Crash, which feels like an over the top further exploration of similar themes.

Very much so. Ballard often overlaps thematically sometimes structurally in his books. Liked both of those.

Both.

Just finished The Best of CL Moore, Great short story collection. I heard of "Shambleau", but not the novellas "No Women Born" and "The Vintage Season". Turns out both are regarded as genre gold standards and deservedly so. In general, a good prose stylist, and thoughtful memorable SFF tales.

So I'll finally open the Kuttner/Moore anthology Two-Handed Engine The Selected Short Stories of Henry Kuttner and C.L.Moore I purchased quite a while ago, and I'll probably concurrently read And So It Goes Kurt Vonnegut: A Life

SF.

Just finished a novelization of The Prisoner by Thomas Disch, and am on to a Vance effort To Live Forever...

I spent this past week down at the beach (spring break for my kids), and made it through The Radioactive Redhead (funny but I am guessing the first two books in the series must have been better), The Long Tomorrow (had potential but I hated the ending), and The Super Barbarians (one of Brunner's "entertaining but not really anything to say about anything" offerings).

Unusually for me, I have mainly been doing a lot of re-reading recently (currently halfway through the massive Malazan Book of the Fallen series).

Pretty early Brunner offering. Those things can be very hit and miss...

SF.
Still in the middle of To Live Forever by Jack Vance and taking forever to read this slim volume. I've become such a horrible reader, but it doesn't matter. Better some than none. In the middle of a multitude of books which I'll mention when I get serious about them.
Early effort, a little uneven, and seems influenced by Van Vogt, if that's possible. I'll do the homework on that when I finish it, if it's worth it.
Interesting though.
Disch Prisoner novelization, very unusual, BTW. Worth a look if one's a fan.

SF.

Finished To Live Forever and might have gotten back onto the Vance Express. Finally going to try and do the The Demon Princes

SF

That's what I'm doing. I'm up to the third novel of The Demon Princes - The Palace of Love

SF

This series upgrades from novel to novel -two thirds of the way through the fourth Demon Princes novel - The Face.
It's been a blast so far, but it just slowed down for some price haggling and bargaining between characters - not one of my favorite Vance obsessions.

I enjoyed the Demon Princes series, although The Palace of Love really didn't work for me.

Re-Palace of Love -I liked the oddness of it, although I could see why other people would not. It's ultimately, a fairly weird read. There are a lot of moments of weird in the series.

Well, I'll give it a shot even though it looks like this is officially a ghost town. Happy New Year!

SFF
Stuck on starting the last Demon Princes novel. A number of Vance quirks in the fourth novel put a bad taste in my mouth, so now I'm reading the Harry Potter books instead. Which I never did before. Currently on Goblet of Fire.

Cheers!

I came to the Harry Potter books late, and enjoyed them (especially Goblet of Fire).

I seem to have been encountering more misses than hits in new-to-me books recently (I especially disliked the First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant). So I've been supplementing new-to-me books with more rereading than usual. Bridge of Birds was perhaps a bit less magical second time around, but Titus Groan was not. I made it eight and half books through the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, but could not face rereading the short but horrific Hetan rape scene.

in non-SFF fare, I bought a bunch of cheap Carl Hiaasen books at a used book store, and recently read the last of them. Funny and entertaining, if a bit inconsistent.

Hi clong! Just finished the Potter books - thought they were great fun as well. She meandered a bit in Half Blood Prince and in the last one, but always managed to get back on point. I was ulitmately impressed. The series really picks up steam as a whole with Goblet of Fire on. In her case, larger novels work to her advantage.
Still haven't read the last Vance Demon Princes novel. I confess, this series is not turning out to be a favorite. For things of his that everyone loves, I'm thinking I like the Tschai series better.

I'll probably read Max Barry's Lexicon next. So SFF

I agree that the Tschai series is much more consistent. I liked the first two Demon Princes novels, but found it a pretty mixed bag after that.

I am now re-reading Gormenghast and, after redeeming a Christmas used-bookstore gift certificate this morning, thinking I might tackle Zenna Henderson's The Anything Box next.

Never heard of her, but she wrote - The People: No Different Flesh I remember the TV movie with Kim Darby and the Shat!
Curious to know how this short story collection turns out...

Hey!

Sorry for the long absence, no real excuse, although my reading rate seems to have suffered markedly since I got a phone with a larger screen that I can watch Youtube on in bed.... :(

At the beginning of the year I had a spate of flu that meant I read about 4 novels in a week, which must be a record for me. Included in them were Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer. This was a re read, last read around 1986 and one of the first SF books I bought for myself. Pleased to say I loved it - it's silly as heck but really well constructed and almost convincing in places.

Since then not much of note, but have started an old Iain M Banks, Against A Dark Background, which I'm enjoying. It also occurred to me that the UK Salowski covers for Iain M Banks books are amongst my favourites of all time. The combination of black and one strong colour, together with the large typography, really work for me!

I see there's been a bit of Vance reading going on above of late. I had 2 of the Demon Princes books on my shelves for a while but they went in a recent clear out as they were non-consecutive and a bit tatty and I thought I probably wouldn't get round to them for years.

How did you get on with Gormenghast, Curt? I have good memories of it, especially the setting and the part the building played in the plot. Titus Groan was similarly strong, though I have yet to try Titus Alone.

Good to hear from you, ropie!

I enjoyed my re-read of Gormenghast, although some of the magic was missing second time around. I still think the Prunesquallors' soiree and subsequent love scene in the garden is one of the funniest scenes ever.

I am currently reading Sky Coyote by Kage Baker.

'..the Prunesquallors' soiree and subsequent love scene in the garden..'
I had forgotten about that - it's very funny, very well written :)

I'm reading Chris Priest's latest, The Gradual. It's really good but the Dream Archipelago is losing a little of its magic with each new reveal. I think he should move away from the setting for the next one.

Recently finished re-reading the Hyperion Cantos and loved them just as much the second time around.

Other recent reads have been duds: All Flesh Is Grass was a far cry from Simak's best, Willful Child had a great beginning but deteriorated into Captain Underpants joins Starfleet, and The Five Gold Bands has got to be the worst book Jack Vance ever wrote.

I liked the Hyperion Cantos a great deal, especially Fall of the Hyperion. I have the Olympos books but have yet to tackle them...
I'm reading Arthur C Clarke's Earthlight right now, but never truly have the time to get into it. I like the setup a lot!

The only SF I've read since the above is Death's End and Nova Swing. Loved the former; couldn't really get into the latter.

Both

Non
In the middle of Len Deighton's Bomber Len Deighton which is a WW2 novel about British and German Bomber squads. This is something I started as a kid and never finished...

SF
I'm finally reading that last Demon Princes novel The Book of Dreams. Just found it last night. I've developed this skill for hiding things that I'm in the middle of reading. I've become quite accomplished at it...

Well, after all this time I galloped through -The Book of Dreams! I enjoyed it greatly -it's got a lot of the stuff I read Vance for. The break may have been just what I needed to put me in a receptive mood. Good conclusion to the Demon Princes novels. Of course, one Vance novel leads to another so...
SF
I'm picking up Houses of Iszm to have a look and Son of the Tree which is the flip novel on this old ace book...

I thought those were great! Son of the Tree a little pulpier than Houses of Iszm, but both good stuff.. Planet espionage with ancient religious castes controlling a tree thing in both books -the novels are not related though...

on to more Vance so

SF

Brains of Earth which is backed with The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph which is another another Ace Double collection...
already read at few of those, but let see what's here...

Glad you're enjoying the Vance binge, Arthur. You've convinced me that a re-read of the Demon Princes series might be in order. After I finish Tower of Glass, which I picked up at the local used book store after ropie's recent mention.

Yes! I'm beginning to think he's not a writer to read his series books in sequence, one after the other. I put Demon Princes down for at least a year, and enjoyed the last novel a lot more, probably for that reason. But I always like his stand alone work the best. I would recommend Houses of Iszm -it's kind of that economic espionage thing on a planet scale he does as in Emphyrio...
Son of the Tree has a multi passenger spaceship voyage that's very similar to the caravan transport in Cugel's Saga. I like it in this book better...I'm sure it will appear in others as well. He must have taken a passenger cruise ship or train voyage like that at one point. The texture of it feels like a real thing...

Finished Brains of Earth and Magnus Ridolph. I feel like I've just read possibly the earliest material he ever wrote, regardless of what the publication dates are. Might write a review here. Mixed bag stuff -some of the writing is incredibly crude -some fun ideas though.
On to Showboat World

Showboat World got put down (too much Vance in a row), and I've been on a kid's book run. Just read Book of Three and Children of the Green Knowe. Now going through a reread of the Narnia books which I haven't looked at since I was a kid. Happy Holiday and New Years!

>290 arthurfrayn:

And you will have to read all the sequels to both Book of three and
Greene Knowe!

nrmay -yes! Going to start with the Book of Three books.
Right now just finished Dawn Treader in the Narnia series! Great reread -did not remember it well from childhood but thought it was a wonderful fantasy book -have to check out the film!

I reread all the Narnia books with my kids (now teanagers)...I enjoyed the first several, especially Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair, but found The Last Battle to be truly horrible.

>> Children of the Green Knowe

I remember that being a children's TV series on the BBC when I was young.

I'm reading The Left Hand of Darkness for the 500th time (OK, the 5th time)!

Before that I read Time and Again by Jack Finney, which was pretty good fun, if badly dated (especially compared to TLHOD). I know we shouldn't always expect Germaine Greer when we read 70's SF but in what is usually a reasonably progressive genre, Finney really pushed out the chauvinism boat quite a long way.

Happy Holidays, guys!

Just finished Dawn Treader - it did not ring a bell - I might not have read as a kid, but I enjoyed reading it now a great deal!!! On to The Silver Chair -I remember the Owls, so I read this one, but lets see what else pops up I remember...
Nobody seems to like The Last Battle so that's something to look forward to . I don't remember having that strong a reaction, so that's either another one I didn't read, or it left no lasting impression. There's a diminishing return as Lewis goes on in a series. He gets crankier and weirder.That Hideous Strength was a truly odd conclusion to the Space trilogy...loved Out of the Silent Planet, liked Perelandra, didn't quite know what to make of That Hideous Strength.
Did you see the Dawn Treader film? I liked the first movie but did not see the other two...
Yes, I read that CotGK was a TV series -if I like the books enough I'll try to hunt it down. First one was a very unusual piece of YA fiction...

I loved TLHOD, but have only read it once (checked from the library).

Other than the Narnia books, the only CS Lewis I've read are Mere Christianity (for a Philosophy in High School) and The Screwtape Letters, the latter of which really didn't do much for me.

I've been on a mystery binge, making my way through a trove of A.A. Fair (pseudonym of Erle Stanley Gardner), Raymond Chandler and Dorothy Sayers books recently picked up at my new favorite used book store.

Happy holidays, all!

As fans of TLHOD, I don't know if you gentlemen know that there's an episode of Star Trek NG that deals with the themes of that book...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708815/

So yeah, like That Hideous Strength ended the Science Fiction Chronicles badly, The Last Battle ends the Narnia Chronicles badly. He did it again. I could perhaps work on an understanding of the orientalist tendencies in The Horse and His Boy, but it's flat out racism in this book. And there's his problem with women who wear makeup like Susan, and cats too, apparently. Nothing nutritious for a modern reader. The actual story about the Aslan deception by the Ape and Donkey characters is kind of crap. That's apart from the darkness of the novel, which probably has a lot to do with his wife dying of cancer around the time of the writing . And no, I did not read this one when I was young. I would have had a very different take on these books if I did. I was actually a lot less forgiving as a kid.
Anyway, on to The Princess Bride . Never read it!!

>> there's an episode of Star Trek NG that deals with the themes of that book...

I don't think I got quite as far as that episode in my rewatch of the whole series when I had Netflix (which I no longer subscribe to).

2019 has been a very slow year so far for me in books, maybe the slowest I can remember. I have only completed one book, Nina Allan's The Rift, which I really enjoyed as it had an air of subtle mystery, in spite of the far-fetched plot, and some great characters. Since then I've been slowly going through Hugh Howey's Wool, which is also pretty great.

Thought I would mention that I have stopped buying physical novels this year, to lighten my collection of stuff. From now on most purchases will be through Kindle (on my phone). That said, it's my birthday tomorrow and one of my (few) presents is distinctly book shaped... :D

Happy early Birthday, ropie!

I am off to a bit of a slow start myself, this year. But not that slow! Best book I've read so far this year was probably Who? by Algis Budrys. Currently making my way through Cycle of Fire by Hal Clement.

What did you think of The Princess Bride, arthurfrayn? I would say it is one of the few cases where I preferred the movie to the book.

Just finished the Irish fantasy, the storm keeper's island by Catherine Doyle.

About to start the sci fi novel, grass by Sheri Tepper

Happy belated B-day, Ropie! Hope you had a great one!

"I don't think I got quite as far as that episode in my rewatch of the whole series when I had Netflix (which I no longer subscribe to)."

Worth catching somewhere. The actress who plays the anomalous alien is very good in the role.

"Currently making my way through Cycle of Fire by Hal Clement."

I liked that one a lot. I think I wrote a review here of it. Hal Clement always entertains me.

"What did you think of The Princess Bride, arthurfrayn? I would say it is one of the few cases where I preferred the movie to the book."

I'm still in the middle of it. Not as hilarious as advertised.

Non
-shift in priorities...

On a lit tear recently. Read The Magic Mountain, Across the River and Into the Trees, Tender is the Night and Go Tell it On the Mountain. Right now in the middle of Empire of the Sun

Hello, all. Just checking in to see how everyone is doing. Of late I've mainly been re-reading, particularly A.A. Fair, Jack Vance, Heather Gladney, and Glen Cook.

Hi Clong -nice to see you! Not reading a lot of SF- the James Tiptree anthology is out,as is the Zelazny Amber doorstop. Hopefully I'll read those before the end of the year. Maybe Vance's Lyonesse saga, if the stars line up. Right now I'm flirting with Infinite Jest. 50 or so pages in, and I'm liking his narrative voice. Not dense or unintelligible at all. Wry sense of humor...
So -Non...
Edit: re- Infinite Jest-actually I spoke too soon. It is dense reading in the way Pynchon and Vollman can be. The novel also seems to have some quasi SF overtones, and is using those made up compound words - things like "teleputer". It's an intriguing read so far, but the road ahead is awfully long. We'll see if I maintain the patience to continue in earnest...

As interesting as Infinite Jest is, a rumination on being a bi-polar, substance abusing tennis player, punctuated with an accompanying pharmaceutical logorrhea, seems out of step with the immediate gestalt. I've picked up The Great Influenza...
So -non. Hope everyone is staying well!!

I recently finished Curious Toys and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, neither of which I enjoyed as much as I had expected.

Does anyone else feel like we're living in a JG Ballard novel? I was struck by this idea a couple of days ago and can't get it out of my head.

Hi Clong! Hope and yours are staying well!
Yes, very much like a Ballard novel I've said this to a couple of people online -very definitely social media has allowed our collective pathological impulses to manifest. :(
Similarly, I had binge watched Mr Robot and it was really creepy how much that show applied to the current state of affairs as well. Catch if you have the time, if you haven't already.
Sorry you disliked Flow My Tears -I remember liking that one. Curious Toys sounds familiar -I'll read up on that. I made "all gone" on The Great Influenza and Infinite Jest - put up short reviews on both...
By way of coincidence after that heavy reading, I'm cooling down with some PKD as well -pulled out the whole pile of what I got left -let's see how far I get. First up is The Broken Bubble...

Hello, all. Hope everyone is surviving the challenges of the pandemic in reasonably good shape! I've been reading about a book a week, largely driven by whatever looks interesting at either of the two local used book stores I frequent. Recently that's primarily been alternating between John Wyndam and Lin Carter, which feels a bit schizophrenic. I just finished The Best of C.M. Kornbluth, an author I generally enjoy quite a bit... but only two stories in the collection proved to be new to me, and one of them "Two Dooms," felt appallingly racist.

I am not familiar with Mr. Robot, but it looks like something I should check out!

Hello guys! I really enjoy our rare meet ups here! Yes, very Ballardian thse times - good call Clong. Fortunately here (in Berlin) things seem to be more or less under control for now, but that can only last so long I suppose before people get together for festive season indoors. Hopefully it will not lead to a huge spike. Hope you are all doing well.

Re: Grass - yes, one of my early favourite reads. I'm not sure what I would think of it these days but I remember it had a certain magic that was new to me at the time, although I can't see myself re reading it anytime soon. She was a very good writer, I also enjoyed The Gate to Women's Country.

Re: Mr Robot - yes, I saw that a few years ago. I'm not usually a 'series' type of guy as I usually find they tend to go on for far too long and I'm always seeing ways they could have condensed the story into a 2 hour film instead of 12 x 1 hour episodes! But I enjoyed the first season of that one.

Speaking of films - I saw Frances Ha recently. Although not SF, it is definitely the best film I've seen all year. Happy and bittersweet, Greta Gerwig is so brilliant in it. I did see a really good SF film too - Predestination. I had never heard of it before but it has a superb plot. Highly recommended.

Bookwise, it was a much better year for me but limited on the SF front. So far my SF book of the year would be An American Story by Christ Priest, and I still have his The Evidence here on the shelf. I just finished Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and thought it was pretty good, prescient and interesting, if a bit overblown by the end. I did get a Barrington Bayley in there too earlier this year - Collision Course, which had been on my to read pile for probably a decade. I have to be honest that it wasn't really worth waiting for.

And thanks for the happy birthday wishes from last year - I had another since then (and received a number of books in the form of an Amazon voucher which I am still spending over half a year later) :D

>310 ropie: I concur re Frances Ha. Greta Gerwig is a marvel as Frances struggles with losing her emotional moorings and learning to move on. It's a fine movie.

Hi clong and all!
Hanging tough on the pandemic. Not in a reading groove at the moment -life happens. Stopped in the middle of Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion. Good stuff, but not a page turner. Read a bunch of stuff -non SF -some reviews here. Have read some PKD stuff -mostly dregs. Reviews on that stuff up here. Pattern Recognition Gibson is very good. Have my eyes on some old school SF that's long overdue -( Man Plus, City, When Harlie Was One -maybe some Abraham Merritt or Kuttner/Moore) -just snarf a bunch until I get literary acid reflux . After the Kesey. Getting around time to reread Son of Man Silverberg, or other 70s titles of his I like as much
Will check in before or at Xmas. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi clong and all -just checking in to say Hi for the Holidays. Haven't been big reading - and not along the trajectory I had imagined. Been too busy. I picked up an old Doc Savage novel of all things The Annihilist. I was looking for something else and it popped up. I read a handful of these when I was a kid, but never really gravitated to any dedicated pulp reading. Crudely written to be damn sure. The thing that's weird is the almost worshipful depictions of the Man of Bronze.
It does have a truly beautiful cover by artist James Bama, and this ancient PB is in pristine condition!
A very comic book reading experience -sort of fun.
Anyway have a safe Holiday, and Happy New Year!!

Thanks for checking in, arthurfrayn. I've never read any Doc Savage books. But I have been contemplating trying to run down some of the Barsoom books as a change of pace.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. I didn't receive any books this year, but I did give my son a couple of Jack Vance collections. Cheers!

Hello all. Hope everyone is doing well and seeing some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.

I recently read a new-to-me Ballard novel, The Day of Creation, which felt like a throwback to some of his earliest novels but was not his best. Other than that I've mainly been alternating between Vorkosigan and The Stormlight Archives rereads to refresh my memory before delving into new-to-me books in each series. Also I am enrolled in a leadership and coaching certificate program at the U of R Warner School of Education so I'll be reading more non-fiction than usual over the next five months.

I've been binge-watching a couple of scifi series on tv: Stargate SG1 which is quite campy (hard to believe this is the second longest running scifi series in history after Dr. Who), and The Expanse which is fantastic.

Hey Clong: Yes waiting for normal to prevail. Waiting...waiting...
Too bad about NF "gotta" reading, but, it is what it is. A number of years ago I spent all my time reading software tomes...

Day of Creation is one of his I haven't gotten to. The last thing I read by him was Empire of the Sun which was not what I thought it would be. That's pretty amazing. Very unnerving, and completely within the context of his mad shaman sub themes. One of his best!
Never saw the film - shoulda oughta now...

Never could get on the wavelength with Stargate. I do want to catch the Expanse! Raised By Wolves looked cool as well!

Good morrow to you all! I just read Neal Stephenson's Fall or Dodge in Hell. Partly great exploration of possible digital heaven for uploaded/scanned humans; the upshot of which seemed to be living an eternal online fantasy RPG. In the end I was pretty disappointed by it. I'd like to get back into some of the classics this year too - some 80s Silverberg or Ballard sounds good..

Hello, all! I hope everyone is doing well. I've been reading almost exclusively used book store finds of late, including several fantastic books picked up at Green Hand Bookshop in Portland, Maine during a recent family trip. I just finished Trouble with Lichen which proved my least favorite Wyndham novel to date, and before that I had read three short Barrington Bayley novels--I generally find his stories to be entertaining and quite different from anything else. Other recent reads included The Three Electroknights by one of my favorite authors Stanislaw Lem, Some of Your Blood by another of my favorite authors Theodore Sturgeon, and solid out of genre story Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. Cheers!

Hey Clong -nice to hear from you! Lem reading, Bayley reading -always good times. Sad that I'm just about finished reading their work, but maybe time for a select reread. Some of Your Blood -a truly odd business, ultimately. One of the great writers of character driven genre fiction, maybe -Sturgeon. I started Godbody a while ago, but just wasn't in a receptive place to engage with the darkness of his characters and their inner world. Maybe before the end of the year, now that you've reminded me!
In the middle of The World Jones Made, off to a not bad start. I hit a few bad apples last year in PKD reading and that put me off finishing what I have left of his work, so, relieved to find a potential goodie...

A happy new year to Clong and Arthur. I am posting this as the crazy night of Silvester (German new year) carries on outside - basically an excuse for people to waste a lot of money on fireworks IMHO :)

Anyway, I just now finished reading Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock, a very nicely written fantasy-esque novel about ancient myths and the human psyche. The sequel is apparently equally good so I may try that soon.

Seconded (or thirded) on Lem and Bayley, Clong! Luckily for me I still have a few more of their books left to read, but was already considering a re-read of The Cyberiad.

I haven't read any PKD for a few years. I think I lost interest after The Man in the High Castle, which I found really really dull. I just can't get past the anachronisms and prose somehow.

BTW, the best book I read in 2021 was probably Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. That one really worked for me; rarely have I read a book that so perfectly captured the atmosphere of a 'real' place. And it would be closely followed by Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, another impressive sprawling adventure. I hardly read any SF this year, although I suppose Cloud Atlas would just about fit that genre.

Looking back through some of our older posts, I think I'm going to seek out a copy of 'V' by Pynchon to start the new year. Tally Ho!

HNY, Ropie/Clong!

There were some fireworks around me as well. Don't remember any from years past...

I like Dan Simmons -I liked the Hyperion books. I have the whole Illium/Olympos series on shelf, and no time to get near it.
I liked V. I thought it was kind of odd/fascinating. Never made it through Gravity's Rainbow.

Yeah, if you've been reading good prose stylists, PKD isn't really one. Having said that I just read The World Jones Made and I thought that was really good! Haven't written a review for that yet. The one I read before by him Our Friends From Frolix 8 was terrible!! So far the worst thing I've ever read by him.
Right now I'm non SF -trying to finish up Sometimes a Great Notion which I put down a long time ago and never picked up again. I like it, but it was work at a time when I didn't have time. I have a (huge) pile of bios I need to snarf, as well. Nathaniel West, Phillip Roth, Samuel Beckett, Richard Thompson, John Lithgow, Patti Smith, Viv Stanshal...blah blah blah. They don't take long, but bios become tedious read one after the other for me, so I don't know how far I'll get with that pile.
Wife got Beatles reading for me for Xmas as well...

Happy New Year!!

I can't believe almost another year has slid past since my last past, it really doesn't seem that long ago!

I didn't yet make roads into finding a copy of 'V', in fact I haven't read much all year due to moving around a lot and not particularly being in the mood for much 'literature' outside of podcasts - I did make it through the entire back-catalogue of excellent Infocom-play-throughs called 'Eaten By A Grue'!

I have never been a bio-reader, although I am a Patti Smith fan and can imagine hers is pretty good (if it's an auto-). I didn't enjoy Bob's first autobiography when I read it.

The best of my few reads of the year so far was probably a re-read of Red Mars, I really love the mix of science and character in that one. I have yet to read any of the sequels but for me it stands on its own. I also enjoyed After the Flood by PC Jerslid - definitely one to try if you like post-apocalypse stories - and Where the Time Winds Blow by Robert Holdstock.

Great to hear from you, ropie, and similarly surprised that it has been so long since I posted here. I am also a big fan of Red Mars; I found the second book also quite strong but the third a bit of a let-down.

My reading this year has included revisiting old favorites by Niven and Vance, most of The Expanse series, and several of the Murderbot novellas. Also recently read the much recommended Project Hail Mary and thought it was pretty good but not great.

Hi guys. Hope you are well. Totally flatlined reading wise this year. I hope to get the Ken Kesey book done by EOY. Scarey. As a lifelong reader I don't know if I've ever not read something during the course of a year. Especially as an older person, as my reading days are numbered. Hope to have a better report next year.
Anyway, best in New Year!

>323 clong: You too, Clong. Funny and touching how the three of us have kept this simple thread going for well over a decade now despite not really knowing each other. Must be an internet thang :)

I too enjoyed Project Hail Mary whilst reading it but forgot about it almost as soon as I put it down. I've also been intrigued by what I've heard of the Murderbot novels over the years but have never quite been able to fork out the asking price, which always seemed too high to me.

>324 arthurfrayn: I hear you about flatlining, Arthur, although this year I have done quite a bit better than 2019 when I read 4 and a half books, and pretty much hated most of them. That just wasn't a good year for me. I think if you are not in the mood for reading you shouldn't worry too much about it. Podcasts and audiobooks, whilst not quite the same, can be a good alternative sometimes.

My most recent read was Faserland by Christian Kracht - a German travelogue and very funny.

Hello, ropie and arthurfrayn and anyone else who may still be paying attention to this thread. Hope everyone is having a good year so far both reading-wise and in general!

My reading this year started with Radio Free Albemuth which was quite disappointing and then Red Iron Nights, one of the few "Garrett P.I." novels I hadn't yet read, which was reasonably entertaining. Since then I've been rereading the Wheel of Time series... now on the fourteenth and final book.

Next up in my "to be read" stack is The Lost Metal (fourth and I think final book of the second Mistborn series) and Children of Time.

Cheers!

Hi clong! Nice to hear from you! Haven't been reading a lot, lot of things going on...I do check in here from time to time. Not so much at SFFWorld.
Yeahhhhh, Radio Free Albemuth....
Don't get why it's popular. My guess is always: if it's the first thing people read by him, whatever it is, even if it's not good, he can get people going. Every bad book he wrote, has a fan. But RFA is not a good thing. And it's crazy that he spun it around and got Valis out of it!!!!
The last one I read by him that was good, was The World Jones Made. Our Friends From Frolix 8 is the worst thing I've read by him so far...
Best in the year!

Hi again! Actually I've been doing audiobooks. I used to hate them, although I'm not sure why now. They're fine, and get the reading done. Listened to a couple of those...Reread Three Men in a Boat, and tackled The Cathedral. In the middle of The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost. I take those in increments...
Actually did a number of chapters audiobook of Titus Groan, and got further than I ever got reading it. I get why people might find it engaging. I can handle purple prose and even enjoy it, but this is next level. It's possible I might finish it though. Unlikely I do the other two. Viv Stanshall (of Bonzo Dog Band fame) sounds like he was a fan, what with Sir Henry at Rawlinson End...very similar flavor. *EDIT sure enough -online reading reveals that he and Steve Winwood had collaborated on a potential soundtrack for a film version of Gormenghast.*
Breezed along with an audio of Ulysses -I've read that multiple times and listening is a different experience!

Hello again. Titus Groan is a truly unique book. At times quite slow paced, but I loved it. I found the second book much more conventional and the third quite strange.

I was disappointed by The fourth and final (presumably) book of Sanderson's Mistborn Era II series, and I have been struggling to get into the much praised Children of Time. So I am going to take a break and reread a few pulpy AA Fair Cool & Lam mysteries instead. Cheers!

Hi Clong! Yes, it is truly unique! I did finish the first novel. Glad I did. There's a lot of truly odd stuff in it. Keda the wet nurse's saga is a rather fascinating side interlude. Very Vanceian. There are parts of that story that are hallucinatory, verging on madness
When Peake is in the zone, I like how the chapters are little set pieces of varying shape and dimension. They are like visual presentations in a way...
Some SFF stuff:
I read Lexicon by Max Barry which is sort of a cyber punkinsh novel about people using words as neurolinguistic control devices and weapons. By the guy who wrote Jennifer Government. Well done -violent though, like many cyberpunk novels.
And I read Nine Princes in Amber which was okay, but I wasn't jazzed as much by it as I was by Lord of Light or Creatures of Light and Darkness. So I'm not in a hurry to read the rest of the Amber books.
One more thing:
Just listened my way through Tristram Shandy which is quite an endurance test, but there's this redundant description of a character falling off a horse into the mud, that reminds me very much of the same kind of descriptions (the tile cleaners lying on the kitchen floor, for example) in Titus Groan. So I'm inclined to think the book was an influence on Peake

Hello, all. I finally finished Children of Time...an ambitious book. I had a hard time getting into it at first, but found most of the middle of the book to be quite good, but then the end left me disappointed. A bleak vision for humanity. Then I moved on to The Blade Itself which I thought was fantastic, and now I am about 200 pages into Babel by R.F. Kuang, which offers an intriguing setup but feels very heavy-handed so far.

Hey clong -nice to hear what you've been reading. Thanks for sharing, as always.
Between listening to audiobooks and actual eyeball reading I've actually clocked in a ton of books. Quite the rainy season for me. SF wise (sort of SF) I'd recommend Max Barry's Company. Keep away from Van Vogt's The Anarchistic Colossus. Early fantasy work Phantastes -very evocative and influential. Vignettes, essentially. Idoru also good, but not as good as the later Pattern Recognition.Somewhat dated now. I read because of current AI concerns.
A number of reviews of books up past what I just talked about...
Happy Halloween season to you and ropie!

I'm sure I posted a reply last autumn (fall) but it seems to have gone missing :/

Oh well, I can't remember what I wrote then but in the mean time I have read a couple of Chris Priest novels (RIP) and something new called Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh - ultimately a forgettable space opera with some good moments. I am intrigued by Max Barry's Company but having just watched the TV version of the Elizabeth Holmes story - The Dropout - I feel I am OK for corporate America for the time being :)

Happy Easter!

Oh yes - I tried to read Gene Wolfe's The Urth of the New Sun last month but it just ended up irritating me so I gave up halfway through. It started weirdly, then improved and actually became intelligible for a few chapters, before quickly descending into totally incomprehensible nonsense written in a finger-pointingly verbose style, I really didn't enjoy it.

Happy Easter, Ropie. Hope you are having a great day!

I’m currently listening to a history book about The First Barbary War and trying to decide what to read next from my SFF TBR pile.

I remember trying that Wolfe series and didn’t get past 50 pages in. I’ve been meaning to try Priest. Maybe I’ll get around to it this year! I’ve got some Poul Anderson fantasies in my TBR that I want to read this year, too.

Thank you, Ludmilla! Good to hear from you again! Let us know what SF or F you decide to go for. I've never read any Poul Anderson - any recommendations for a beginner to his work?

I forgot to add before, I have been working up to continuing with an AS Byatt book, Virgin in the Garden, I started on the train a few weeks ago, but found completely impenetrable. Hopefully if I continue with it in a home environment I'll be able to get into it more. I actually came back here to check out some reviews of it....

Thanks for the updates, ropie and Ludmilla. I am reading quite a bit this year, in part due to a couple of weeks at home recovering from surgery back in January. I read Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy (which I thought started strong but disappointed in the end) and a full read through of Martha Wells shortish and generally delighful Murderbot stories. Plus, my wife had gotten me a gift certificate from a nice local used book store that has zero sci fi/fantasy so I've also been sprinkling in a few books by John Mortimer and Patrick O'Brien--quite the change of pace.

I ended up giving up on Babel. Fantastic premise, but unlikable characters doing boring things while the author repeatedly hits the reader over the head with an anti-colonialism two-by-four got old fast. Not that I am pro colonialism.

Think I mentioned I iisten to a lot of audio books and not so much SF. A lot of Miss Marple books, which are actually pretty odd popular entertainment. I've found them engaging. Less interested in the "solve the murder" puzzle game aspect of things, because I've always thought that was crap that never really worked without contrivance, so less interested in Poirot, especially when that Aridne Oliver character shows up. She's gd annoying. I've listened to a handful of them, but might run through a few of them again on any given night. They are intrinsically less engaging to me at this point in time. The Marple books, for one, are consistently about the challenges of getting old! Who writes about that in popular entertainment?
Anyway here's SF that's worth mentioning-been listening to The Star Diaries and getting a big kick out of them. Features the character in The Futurological Congress which I liked a great deal. Fun ideas speeding by. I wish Stross' Atrocity Archives had this kind of buzz as opposed to putting me to sleep. Dated as this Lem stuff is, it's still a wild blur of crazy and funny ideas. I don't know if I have this in book form -and I dread going through the piles on a wild goose chase so it may just stay audiobook consumption.
Ha- I did dig. S'no gots. I did find the Alistair MacClean stash I had. I just listened to The Satan Bug a while ago, and thought that was pretty entertaining. And I found The Simple Art of Murder which had been MIA for a long time. You never find what you're looking for at the moment; you always find the stuff you were looking for the last time.
.
Happy summer!

Lem is one of my favorites. I especially love his ability to move seemlessly from hilarious absurdity to poetic sensibility to biting social commentary. I've had Highcastle sitting in my TBR pile for awhile... I should move it to the top.

Recent reads for me have included following up on Patrick O'Brian (which proved to be a slog,) with a few Honor Harrington re-reads (which quickly started to feel formulaic), Iceworld by Hal Clement (conceptually a delicious variation on his typical theme, but not a great book), Galaxies by Barry Malzberg (a funny meta-textual anti-novel) and Just One Damned Thing after Another by Jodi Taylor (entertaining and funny as long as you don't stop to think about it).

Hey clong! Hope you're all recovered from your surgery a few months back. I thought Highcastle was terrific. Great insights about being a kid. His nonSF stuff turns out to be as interesting as his SF. The wiki bio is of interest, if you haven't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem

Iceworld is in the TBR pile.
I have a ton of Clement to catch up on. That's one. Almost always enjoy his stuff.
Also pulled out a few Octavia Butler novels in today's TBR exacavation that are overdue...but I think I'm going to look at that Chandler anthology first...haven't read that stuff in years...
Since I've been reading so much Christie, I want to see what he had to say about her again...

Arthur and Clong, hope you're both well.

Lem is also one of my favourites, especially the semi-noir mystery ones like Chain of Chance and The Investigation. Ijon Tichy from The Star Diaries & The Futurological Congress also features in Memoirs of a Space Traveller, which I own but have yet to read. We discussed Lem briefly over at sffworld recently - I always put the popularity of Solaris down to the films which are quite accessible, unlike the book which is odd and actually pretty dull. I think Futurological Congress & The Cyberiad are far finer SF novels of his. Got to admit I loved Stross' The Atrocity Archives back when I read it, though ;) I'll have to look up Highcastle too...

Miss Marple always makes me think of the hugely popular TV shows here in the UK. My sister attended the same school as Joan Hickson (the definitive Marple actress) and she went in to talk to them about a career in acting in the early 90s.

I haven't done very well with SF so far this year, and have even had a couple of books I gave up on. I finished Green Mars (after having already read the prequel twice) but found it a slog and I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as the first book. Mostly, there was way too much going on off-the-page and it was tough to maintain interest in all those reported events. I have bought a few second hand "genre" books recently: Vance's Lyonesse and Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu, and a couple I had already read many years ago but didn't have copies of: Noon's Vurt and Clarke's Rama.

Non SF: I've taken solace in some Iain Banks non-SF, The Business, which is an easy read. I also re-bought the Collected Short Fiction of Gerald Murnane - for anyone interested in how literature is constructed I highly recommend his work. I had already read this book cover to cover although some of the longer stories can be hard going. I actually like to just open it at random and read a few pages now and again to remind me how writing works. It's a bit like looking through to the reality of what underpins most conventional literature, in the way that Ijon Tichy sees through to the fabric of reality in Futurological Congress -- in fact, I really want to re-read that one now too!

Good to hear from you, ropie. Solaris was the first Lem I read; I bought it in an airport bookstore as I was about to get on a plane. I agree it is not particularly one of his best. The Cyberiad and Fiasco are my favorites to to date.

I am currently reading The Vintage Bradbury, a collection of some the author's personal favorites. Most are new to me.

Cheers!

Hey guys.
For what’s it’s worth, with regard to my two cents: my evaluation of Lem’s work is up here on LT . You or anyone, would see that very high marks are evenly distributed.
I wouldn’t know about the “popularity” of Solaris. My personal experience is: if people have read any book by Lem at all, it’s likely to be Solaris. If your theory is they haven’t even done that, you may very well be right. Like yourselves I’m an overall big fan of Lem's work. I confess - having read Solaris at least 3 times, that’s still for me, his most original work. But I like it all. I don’t know if I have a recommend for anyone who’s never read him anymore. The Invincible ? I think that’s a creepy, poetic work. It’s short and it has a lot of the vibe that Solaris has. Or Eden. Unfortunately, it’s harder to get a hold of a copy of The Invincible than his other books.
I’ve seen both movies. The Tarkovsky is genius, the Soderbergh…not so much. I like the casting on that though. Except for Jeremy Davies. Don’t like anything about that character direction.

I’m reading Clifford D Simak’s City right now. The verdict is out. Old school SF weirdness…

Just on a level of irony: there's a parallel discussion/dispute about Tarkovsky's best film, In that instance, I don't think it's Solaris. I think it's Andrei Rublev...
Although Solaris is the first movie I saw by him.

EDIT: Re-Bradbury - I really like him. He gets to his own place. I love listening to audio versions of his stories. They can be really other worldly. I think the last listen I made was stories from The October Country. Really creepy, evocative stuff...

Thanks for sharing your perspective, arthurfrayn. Maybe I should give Solaris another try! I haven't actually seen either movie. I have had The Invincible on my wishlist for some time but have yet to run across it in any of the many used book stores that I browse at from time to time. So I just searched for it on abebooks.com and found a copy in "good" condition for $4.63 and bought it!

I think I have a new favorite Bradbury short story: "Kaleidoscope."

Cheers!

So City is pretty awful. WTF bad. Another "classic" bites the dust.

Not SF but you know what's worth checking out in some context if you get a chance> Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Mr Quin stories. Some truly weird stuff at times. She apparently wrote ghost stories before she started writing mysteries, so this is some in between work? Worth checking out for the odd factor - I know both of you are familar with her work on other levels,,,

I finished The Invincible and I liked it, especially the surreal last chapter. Definitely one of those books which extrapolates from a core concept to its ultimate implications. Too bad the blurb on the back of the book was a bit of a spoiler.

Now I am on to An Obvious Fact the twelfth book of Craig Johnson's Longmire series.

>345 clong: Glad you got a kick out The Invincible! I've read nonplussed reviews here and elsewhere. I liked it a great deal.

HNY, guys! Hope that the new year turns out to be good stuff for you on a personal and reading level...

Happy new year and good reading, arthur and ropie and anyone else who's still paying attention!

Re: Solaris - Arthur, what is it you found so original about it? I will also give it another read some time when I am in the same country as my books; I can't imagine reading a Lem book in anything other than paper format! Clong, glad you enjoyed Invincible too. My cover of that one is particularly good (the skull in the space helmet). And Bradbury - yes, it's been years since I read anything by him and it's long overdue. The short stories are completely spellbinding.

I've read a bit of SF this year, nothing particularly memorable except for I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, which is a unique and fairly bleak take on the post apocalyptic genre. I also have Alien Clay by Tchaikovsky waiting in the wings but I am not in a hurry to get to it whilst I'm in a bit of a non-genre mood (reading The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks, and NP by Banana Yoshimoto).

Oh, shhh - I know we're not supposed to talk about films and tv here but the first season of Severance is just about the best SF I've seen committed to tape. Really, really worth watching if you can IMHO.

Good to read you guys!

Hi ropie!

The notion of an ocean being a sentient being, seemed pretty mind blowing, when I saw the movie when I was a kid, and then read the novel. In any case, The Solaris ocean is generally regarded as one of the most, if not the most non humanoid sentient being in SF Fiction, and one that best furthers Lem’s notion that communication with other life forms would be unlikely if not impossible. He returns to this theme in The Invincible, and Fiasco.
Solaris was written in 1961, Ego the Living Planet, appears later on in American comics- Thor #132 (and his human visage is played by Kurt Russell most currently in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy2) was written in 1966; it’s likely Jacky Kirby got the idea from Solaris. These are the only 2 pieces of fiction with this kind of life form that I know about.

The encyclopedic format of at least a third of the book might not be the fastest page turner, but I find the catalogued manifestations that appear on the ocean surface fascinating. Writing a SF journal of observed phenomena is not unusual - Tarkovsky’s Roadside Picnic spends a great deal of time describing various phenomena in “The Zone”. And someone like Lovecraft will do that as well -At the Mountains of Madness is pretty much field journal describing the various creatures that are observed in murals of the lost city of the Elder Things. I like reading works of fictions like that. The idea is that you’re reading a report or a journal of a scientist doing research.
For the same reason, I like the essays in Moby Dick, and they drive a lot of people who have read, or have attempted to read that book, nuts.

I read a lot in 2023, I’ve since dropped off. The last SF I read was City by Clifford D Simak, and that was a bust. I’m in the middle of Musil’s The Man Without Qualities: A Sort of Introduction; Pseudo Reality Prevails which is fascinating, but a doorstop, so I’m not getting through it so fast. I still listen to audiobooks, but less so.

Nice to hear from you
Thanks for the recommend on Severance!

Good to hear from you, ropie and Arthur. I am currently slogging through The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian. I had enjoyed Master and Commander when I read it 15 years or so ago, so I picked up four additional O'Brian novels at a used book store some 18 months ago. I struggled to find much enthusiasm for the first two, but this one seems a bit more promising.

So far this year I've read 22 books, including several of the Dresden books by Jim Butcher (which I find inconsistent--some quite good but others disappointing), several by Brandon Sanderson (in anticipation of reading Wind and Truth, which is sitting in my to-be-read pile), and almost everything else non sff (including classics by James Cain, Dashiell Hammett, and Maurice Leblanc all of which I enjoyed).