What are you reading April 2009?

Shadow of the Scorpion (B+).

Evil Genius - most fun I have had reading for a long, long time.

Finished The Tar-Aiym Krang by Alan Dean Foster and wrote this about it. Now reading On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I went off McEwan after Saturday, but this one is shaping up quite well.

Just finished Duplicate Effort, the most recent book in the Retrieval Artist series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Heading back to finish Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh.

I'm finally starting Red Mars. I found the whole trilogy at a used bookstore.

#3 I too have the Tar-Aiym Krang boxed away somewhere and have not read it since the early 70's. I really doubt I'd ever re-read it and seem to remember liking Orphan Star better. Perusing your review I fear the worst. Perhaps when found I should put them straightaway into the giveaway bag. I have a handful of James Shmitz novels from a similar period in my life with very fond memories of some like The Witches of Karres and have five of them including The Demon Breed sitting on my TBR shelves. I'm almost afraid to have a re-read.

Currently am reading Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and finding it rather good for historical (non-SF) fiction even if it does have a sorta witch.

>6 RBeffa: I think you'll find that The Demon Breed still holds up very well today, and most of the others do pretty well too. I reread TDB every 4 or 5 years just for enjoyment.

I'm 50 pages into First and Last Men for the group read. 196 pages to go. I can see why this was a classic, but oh, so dry prose! All history and no story.

Time Spike Although I just realized this is linked to the 1632 series that I have not read.

Just finished Death's Head: Maximum Offense by David Gunn. Pretty fun read. Just started The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Fredrick Pohl. Lets see how this one goes.

>4 okeres:
I just finished Downbelow Station and really found it a struggle. How are you finding it?

>10 Goran: -
Much the same. I put it down unfinished awhile ago, and am trying to get back into it. It's partly the settings - a bit too claustrophobic-making. lol If I can't get into it this time around, I'll just skip it and head for Merchanter's Luck.

I loved Downbelow Station , but then I think I have pretty much enjoyed everything she has done (OK less fond of Morgain saga and Hammerfall).

I have a Robert Sawyer book to read for a RL book group later this month.

>10 Goran:, 11

The thing that really annoyed me about Downbelow Station is that nearly every character in the story seems to be an utter nervous wreck, all suffering from the shakes......or nausea......or claustraphobia......or a combination of many of them. I simply couldn't understand how a story full of people just falling apart could realistically get anything done. I don't know. Descriptions of how a characters stomach was knotted was repeated so many times that I started to get that knotting feeling too.

Just started Rudy Rucker's Postsingular. It looks to be his usual edgy romp.

The Dreaming Void, by Peter F. Hamilton. I may be tied up with this doorstop for a while! (Although I liked Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.)

Just finished Downbelow Station - liked it better on the second attempt. Or perhaps it was just getting past book one that did the trick. I've read Cherryh before and have always liked her books, so I was determined to give Downbelow Station another try. Next up is more Cherryh books: Merchanter's Luck, Cyteen, Forty Thousand in Gehenna.

Also, read Metaplanetary by Tony Daniel, which I quite enjoyed - planning to read the sequel, Superluminal.

> #15

drmamm, I'm interested to hear what you think of The Dreaming Void! I spent a good two months with Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, and although they bogged me down at times, they've also both stuck with me in interesting ways. I've been trying to decide whether I have the patience for the next one...

I like the Downbelow Station discussion going on here. I've read it at least twice, possibly three times and thought of it as one of my favorites. The reason, not so much for the actual writing, but the concept of a station. Life aboard a big station. We see a similar device of a station above the world that has some sentient life form, in On Basilisk Station which has tons of fans as that is the first Honor Harrington. I think Cherryh handled things better. With the controversy, I guess it is time for a reread.

Walter Jon Williams' "Dread Empire's Fall" trilogy. Excellent military SF.

#15, #17

The problem with The Dreaming Void it is basically just setting up the stage for book 2 and 3 of the trilogy. Quite a bit of it is set in an old-style planet & sword style setting - so is pretty different from a lot of his previous work - although there is still plenty set in his Commonwealth. I found the second book (Temporal Void to be better.

Just gave up on Foucault's Pendulum (although I might pick it up again later, we'll see - any suggestions either way?) in favor of zombies in Patient Zero.

>18 DWWilkin:

I certainly agree the concept of an entire life about a station is intruiging; the station having its own upper class areas, ghetto's etc. On the other hand, I couldn't understand why anyone would have wanted to live on Pell station or apparently any station in that universe voluntarily when they're constanting surrounded by misery and nervous wrecks. I suppose I couldn't really get into the story because I simply could not see myself voluntarily living a place like that.

Completed in April: Genesis by Bernard Beckett

Commenced in April: Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer

Bob Shaw's Who Goes Here? Pulp SF at it's most dubious - riddled with cliches, coincidences, and logical problems. It's occasionally humorous, certainly (I love the training they undergo) but the humour is sparse and seldom; it isn't enough to save this one.

I am now reading Flashforward by Robert Sawyer for a RL book group.

#24 - Perhaps reading Bob Shaw's original Light of Other Days short story will save his good name? ;)

http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/shaw/shaw1.html

Haven't picked up a new book in awhile as I am currently re-reading my library as I enter it on the site - Started to reread Heart of the Comet by Brin/Benford.

Just finished The Last Theorem by Clarke and Pohl. Pretty interest novel, very good by any standard but certainly not either of their best. Kinda felt rushed at the end though since so much and such a long period if time was covered in only the few last pages.

Now I'm going to be starting The Martian Chronicles. I have never read them before, or anything by Ray Bradbury (though my copy is even signed by him from Easton Press) so we'll see how this one goes.

I've got The Temporal Void in the mail coming (also signed, first edition by not Easton Press) from the UK so that one will probably be for the June form because apparently things take six weeks to cross a little pond. Ah well.

#26

I'm not giving up on Shaw because of one bad book - I might have picked a dud book.

I've finally got the James Morrow "Godhead" trilogy from the library, and Dorris Lessing's Shikasta. Both look quite interesting.

If you have trouble with Le Guin, you're not going to like Lessing. If Le Guin's agenda is sometimes a little too obvious, Lessing beats you about the head with it.

#31

Le Guin is quite a variable author for me. The Dispossessed and Lathe of Heaven are among my favourite SF novels, but Left Hand of Darkness... It's currently one of the top ten recommended novels in the "newcomer to SF list", but I cannot see why at all - the three gender idea was okay, but not really enough to maintain interest over an entire novel, the relationship between the two characters bored me, and even a cursory examination of the plot revealed some large plot holes in the story - they don't have a set procedure for re-establishing contact after having done so for eighty previous planets, as one major example.

Oh, finished Towing Jehovah. A two-mile long body is found floating in the ocean - presumedly God, and he is dead. One of the best satires I have ever read. Well-written, intelligent, incisive, and quite humorous without being preposterously silly.

#32 I've read Shikasta, and found it a hard book to like. It was all a bit too hippyish. Of course, I have all five books of the Canopus in Argos: Archives - signed first editions too - so I intend to read the lot.

32: The humans in The Left Hand of Darkness don't have three genders, they have one gender.

21 - I love Foucault's Pendulum. I did have a couple of false starts with it though - it just wasn't a good choice for me to start reading on the bus after a long night shift. The third time I picked up it, girded with sleep, I seldom put it down again until the last page - and resented all interruptions. lol

Focault's Pendulum is loaded with interesting ideas, but Eco just can't get out of his own way. To me, he's one of those erudite writers who waves it in your face - to the point where the writing itself is obtuse, etc. Of course, my distaste for the book might have been magnified by the fact that I read Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh right beforehand - Rushdie being an erudite writer who uses his gifts beautifully and humbly...

I passed by Focault's Pendulum and in the meantime finished Patient Zero, which was tons of fun, and picked up Starship Troopers, which I am having a hard time believing has a original copyright date of 1959 (I'm quite liking it!).

For those of you who've read Pendulum, is there a point at which it picks up? I'm at about 120 now - if I persist, is there hope of it grabbing my interest at some point, or does it continue much the way it started?

Oh Oh, Aerrin, you know it is very controversial to like Starship Troopers... Well it is one of my favorites too. I have reread it at least three times. And there are similarities to this and the Chotrr work of David Gerrold... But won't say more. Lets see what you think when you are finished with Rico and the Roughnecks (and if you like this or the movie better.)

I finished Flashforward . It was OK, if a bit fluffy. Sawyer is often hit or miss for me. This one was more of a hit, but not hugely appealing or interesting.

> 39 I am happy (and not the least bit ashamed!) to announce that I very much liked Starship Troopers and have slid it back onto the shelf to start City of Ember, which I have been looking forward to for ages.

As for the book and the movie, I've got to say that they're pretty close to apples and oranges. Outside of the general war premise and the names-- uh. Well. You know! I like them both? The book has a bit less cheese? The movie has more nekkidness?

>42I thought the nekkidness was to push the plot forward and for artistic expression........was I wrong?......

#43

I thought nekkidness was there for the presumed adolescent male audience.

I was older than an adolescent when I saw it. It was still good clean (Er they were in the shower) fun.

The Descent by Jeff Long (2nd time)

I have no comment on nekkidness. However, I can report that City of Ember is quite delightful for YA Sci Fi. Hooray!

42:Breasts.....in....space... Sorry it's been a long day.

eye to eye by catherine jinks. YA sci-fi, not quite as good as her Pagan series, but the first person narration by an AI was impressive.

>42 Aerrin99:
That isn't anything like Monkey's in Space is it?

Or Pigs in Space?

Speaking of space, just finished Ender in Exile (not a fan) and am starting in on The Adoration of Jenna Fox.

I just finished an ARC of The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald, the third in a series featuring Australians and aborigines in space and time travel. Original (see my review).

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks, and I had better finish it this weekend!

Hi new to LT and this group too! Reading Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin but I am having trouble getting into it as it is slow moving. So.....just started Bones of the Dragon by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman first of a new series by these authors.

I finally decided to read some oldies, so I started Foundation by Asimov yesterday. I'll read that series and hopefully pick up a copy of Rocannon's World by Le Guin this month too!

I've just finished The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. First time i've ever read anything by this author, but I can honestly say I understand why he's considered a grand master. The Martian Chronicles is probably the best science fiction story (or set of stories) i've ever read. Incredible how the man can write to make you feel really there, especially the last story with the family coming to Mars. This one really stuck with me. Disregarding the specifics of the stories (rockets, atomic radios etc) the stories themselfs are just incredible. I would absolutely put Bradbury's Martian Chronicles over other greats like Asimov and Heinlein and even Clarke (he was my favour old school science fiction writer until about 10 minutes ago).

Now I begin The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton. I hope its as good as the Dreaming Void, but damn is it ever big!

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, early juvenile Heinlein.

Gray Apocalypse - ER copy.

Just finished Dauntless (C); an honest effort to write an intelligent military procedural undercut by too many cardboard characters and a cardboard society.

2666 by Roberto Bolano

2666 is one of those books that you become so involved in that you think about the characters, what they are doing, how they are living........
Wonderful!!!

Shrike, don't go any further with the series. By books three and four, the author just keeps repeating his plot device. What should have been a simple three book tale, grew to six for no appearant reason.

64: I think I'll take the hint.

#65 I read Dauntless and thought it wa Yet Another Jingoistic Gung-Ho Juvenile Military SF series.

66: I thought the main character was interesting, but that's about it. It's one of the reasons I almost always prefer to read real military history.

It could have been a contender...

But as I mentioned, the plot keeps repeating. Over and over. Interesting take on cold sleep and perpetual war losing its way, but the character development isn't.

There is a bunch of old cliches and how many times do you want to get hit and then find your reading the same thing again, fleet goes to point A. Enemy at Point A, lets try this manuever, it worked before. Now we go to point B. Oh, there they are again. Lets try it once again, shall we. Same dissent from same characters as before, yes.

And now, for something completely different! I just finished up Majestrum (A), which was a joy to read.

I'm reading The Unincorporated Man.

Antares Dawn and Footfall. Also a couple of pages into City at the End of Time. Is it any good?

> 28:

"I've got The Temporal Void in the mail coming..."

Goran, I hope the mailman doesn't struggle with it too much on your driveway, or that your mailbox is big enough! ;-)