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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Another month,another intriguing pile of books to read!Tell us what you have in store. | |
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Location: near Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK. | Something of a nostalgia trip this month with two boyhood favourites:
'The Giant under the Snow' by John Gordon and 'Tom`s Midnight Garden' by Phillipa Pearce. | |
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Uber User
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Location: Sacramento, California | After I finish Icerigger, by Alan Dean Foster, next up will probably be Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman. | |
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Location: UK | Just started Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance for the GMRC. My other GMRC pick for this month is likely to be Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman, which will catch me up to 1 a month.
In between those, I'm not sure. Probably at least one more golden age crime novel, by Margery Allingham or Ngaio Marsh (just finished a Dorothy L. Sayers). I guess I'd better check what the Outside the Norm book for September is, too. | |
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland | Got a lot of reading to get through this month. Still reading Hyperion and also Childhood's End by Sir Arthur C. Clarke | |
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| Finished The Vor Game and The Claw of the Conciliator over the weekend.
Started The Peace War by Vernor Vinge and Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Others I have lined up are: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Windup Girl, The Boat of a Million Years, Blackout, Rainbows End, and The Forever Peace. I should be able to sneak in another GMRC. | |
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Uber User
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Location: Gunnison, Colorado | Just finished up a bunch of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, which were more interesting than I'd expected. A blog post could be forthcoming. Also, finished the second issue of Arc, the new SF fact/fiction magazine. The first issue was good, and the second one, subtitled "Posthuman Conditions" was better. I especially liked the stories by Paul McAuley and Jeff VanderMeer, and an article on Soviet filmmaker Pavel Klushantsev. The magazine is meant to be read electronically, and includes hyperlinks (for instance, to YouTube clips of Klushantsev's films), and some nice artwork with the fiction. It's good to see a magazine devoted to science fiction specifically oriented toward futurism, especially with amidst all the gloomy talk of SF's decline. Catching up on comics at the moment, then...?
It looks like everyone here has lots of good stuff going at the moment. @deven: Alan Dean Foster's '70s novels were a youthful favorite. I'd be curious how something like Icerigger holds up... | |
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Location: Sacramento, California | Scott Laz - 2012-09-11 10:07 PM
@deven: Alan Dean Foster's '70s novels were a youthful favorite. I'd be curious how something like Icerigger holds up...
I've now finished Icerigger. I liked it quite a bit, actually. It was good fun, as many of ADF's books are. I think he's underrated as an author. I suspect that his novelizations hurt his reputation, but many of his originals are fast, fun reads. His book Jed the Dead was really good. I read that some years ago, now.
I've now moved on to Camouflage, as promised, but while I'm reading that, I'm also listening to the audiobook of Ready Player One, written by Ernest Cline, and read by Wil Wheaton. I'm really liking both, so far. | |
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| Go For Launch - An Illustrated History of Cape Canaveral... | |
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Uber User
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Location: Grootfontein, Namibia | I've gone onto Ballard's "Empire of the Sun" after finished "The Drowned World."
Add Ballard to favorite authors. Check. | |
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Location: The Netherlands | Almost done with a reread of The Limbreth Gate by Megan LIndholm. Not sure what is up next. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Hi everyone! My computer has been giving me hell for nearlytwo months,then of course there was my eye op and recovery time,so I havent been on here,which was very frustrating.So just a few comments on what you have posted here this month;
@ fantasy bear.I just reread Tom's Midnight Garden last month,and enjoyed it so much.I fear for these older children's classics.The pace is often slower than today's,th style more complex,the books more subtle and demanding.I just finished Mary Norton's The Borrowers the other day.I remember reading it with fascination as a child,loving the contrivances the little people made from our cast off objects to have a cozy life under the kitchen floor.This reread showed a much darker tone,as lot of anxiety,frustration and fear.It made for an interesting read.
I have had a thread in my 12x12 reading challenge this year for junior classics (read 12 books each in 12 genres over the year) and the junior thread has been one of my most enjoyable and rewarding.Here are the 12 in that thread
1 R,M,Ballantine - The Coral Island✔
2 Frances Hodge Burnett - The Little Princess ✔
3 Frank L Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ✔
4 Laura Ingalls wilder - The Little House on the Prairie
5 Hugh Lofting - Dr Doolittle ✔
6 Antoine de Saint -Exupery - The Little Prince ✔
7 Astrid Lindgren - Pippi Longstocking ✔
8 Elisabeth Goudge - The Little White Horse ✔
9 Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
10 Mary Norton - The Borrowers ✔
11 Nina Bawden - Carrie's War
12 Philippa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden✔
loved Pippi Longstocking and The Little White Horse.
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | @ SwittersI am a Miles Vorkosigan fan,of many years.I enjoyed the Vor Game,but my favourites come later in the series - Memory,Komarr,A Civil Campaign are all many -times- read favourites.As for Gene Wolfe,I have been hesitant to try him for a long time.I have Forever Peace sitting on my shelf to read,but it may be late in the year,or next,since I still have over 40 books to complete in various reading challenges.Definitely I will be reading more SF next year
@Scott Laz - Somehow I never read any Conan stories.Possibly when I was young I was being a bit of a snob,too often people sneered at this sort of thing as pulp rubbish!.Should I try some?
Edited by dustydigger 2012-09-16 2:41 AM
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | @ Dr.Nefario.I really must make an effort (next year ! fully booked now!) to read Jack Vance.I know someone who is a major fan of his,has well over 70 of his books on his shelf.I suppose they are more fantasy? I am going to make an effort next year to read some classic fantasy.That Mythopoeic Award list looks to be a useful jumping off point.Last week I reread Nine Princes in Amber,and The Hand of Oberon,but apart from that the only fantasy I have read this year was YA,Maria V Snyder's Poison Study,and Kristin Cashore's Graceling.I dont really know why I am so chary about fantasy.Possibly because most of the books are HUGE,and in long long series? Cant bring myself to invest time and effort in Jordan or G R R Martin!
I have just finished Margery Allingham's Look to the Lady,I am rereading the Albert Campion books in order,that was book three.I am doing a thread of golden age/vintage crime this year in my 12 x12 Challenge.I wonder if you have read some of these?1 Margery Allingham - Crime at Black Dudley ✔
2 Margery Allingham - Mystery Mile✔
3 Margery allingham - Look to the Lady ✔
4 John Dickson Carr - The Hollow Man ✔
5 S.S.Van dine - Bishop Murder Case
6 S.S.Van Dine - The Benson Murder Case
7 E.W.Hornung - Raffles,the Amateur Cracksman ✔
8 G K Chesterton - Innocence of Father Brown✔
9 R.Austin Freeman - The Cases of John Thorndyke ✔
10Mary Roberts Rinehart - The Circular Staircase ✔
11 Broness Orczy - The Old Man in the Corner ✔
12 Ernest Bramah - Max Carrados ✔
One problem for me,as with SF,is finding the old books in the library system.I was delighted recently to locate S.S.Van Dine books free online.So far I cant get hold of any Rex Stout Nero Wolfe books,and there isnt one Ellery Queen to be found in the whole 39 libraries.Very annoying.I have my own copies of Christie,Sayers and Marsh thank goodness.The library these days ruthlessly chuck out anything more than about 5 years old
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Location: near Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK. | dustydigger, I reread 'Winter Holiday' by Arthur Ransome a few years ago (my favourite of his) and was similarly struck by a strong undertone of fear and anxiety I had missed previously (my age?); of children being left to their own devices to the point of abandonment and the possible fate that could befall.
I`m also going to have to reread 'The Eagle of the Ninth' by Rosemary Sutcliffe sometime, a book I loved as a boy. It`s been brought back to mind now that a movie has been made of it (2010?) | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | I loved Eagle of the Ninth when I was a kid,as well as The Siver Branch.Sutcliffe of course was a magnificent historical writer.I believe Eagle was on a list of 100 best historical novels recently,If you want to know about the end of the Roman Empire,at the edge of the then civilised world,that book brings it all alive.
I havent read that particular Ransome ,but I adored Swallows and Amazons.The crew of the Swallow,seemed very steady,especially the eldest boy,but those two girls on the Amazon,creeping out of the house and sailing in darkness miles across a lake gave me quite a shudder when I reread it a few years ago! .Oh well,it is a fantasy,I suppose,and kids back then in the 30s were much more free and adventurous than today
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New User
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| Just finished Gene Wolfe The Shadow of the Torturer and William Goldman The Princess Bride. Next up is Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness. | |
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Uber User
Posts: 263
Location: Gunnison, Colorado | @dusty: I had pretty much the same idea about Conan going in, but was swayed by the fact that both Pringle and Cawthorn/Moorcock included Hour of the Dragon (Conan the Conqueror) in their 100 best fantasy novel guides. It's certainly pulpy, but if you enjoy Burroughs, you should be open to Howard as well, and Howard tends to avoid the sort of plot absurdities that are common in Burroughs. It might come down to how you feel about the character. As with John Carter, there's lots of swordplay and carnage from a character that seems unbeatable most of the time, and one adventure after another, but Conan is more of a mercenary character, without the ties to family and civilization that Carter has, making his morality a little more problematic and potentially interesting. I'm working on a blog post reviewing the stories I read (for the most part, I preferred his shorter works to the novel), that hopefully I'll finish soon. I thought I'd get to it this weekend, but I started reading Ring Around the Sun by Clifford Simak for the GMRC on Friday, and got sucked into that... | |
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Uber User
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Location: UK | dustydigger - 2012-09-16 9:12 AM
@ Dr.Nefario.I really must make an effort (next year ! fully booked now!) to read Jack Vance.I know someone who is a major fan of his,has well over 70 of his books on his shelf.I suppose they are more fantasy? I am going to make an effort next year to read some classic fantasy.That Mythopoeic Award list looks to be a useful jumping off point.Last week I reread Nine Princes in Amber,and The Hand of Oberon,but apart from that the only fantasy I have read this year was YA,Maria V Snyder's Poison Study,and Kristin Cashore's Graceling.I dont really know why I am so chary about fantasy.Possibly because most of the books are HUGE,and in long long series? Cant bring myself to invest time and effort in Jordan or G R R Martin!
Lyonesse is fantasy, yes, but it's not really in the same tone as normal modern fantasy. It reads a bit like a folk-tale. There are fairies, and trolls who live under bridges, and that kind of thing.
I kind of liked it, but it took me a while to get through, so I decided to move straight on to Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman, also for the GMRC, instead of reading the golden-age crime in between. I don't like to read two books from the same genre back-to-back, but with Lyonesse being fantasy and Forever Peace being SF, I'm not doing that anyway.
I have just finished Margery Allingham's Look to the Lady,I am rereading the Albert Campion books in order,that was book three.I am doing a thread of golden age/vintage crime this year in my 12 x12 Challenge.I wonder if you have read some of these?1 Margery Allingham - Crime at Black Dudley ✔
2 Margery Allingham - Mystery Mile✔
3 Margery allingham - Look to the Lady ✔
4 John Dickson Carr - The Hollow Man ✔
5 S.S.Van dine - Bishop Murder Case
6 S.S.Van Dine - The Benson Murder Case
7 E.W.Hornung - Raffles,the Amateur Cracksman ✔
8 G K Chesterton - Innocence of Father Brown✔
9 R.Austin Freeman - The Cases of John Thorndyke ✔
10Mary Roberts Rinehart - The Circular Staircase ✔
11 Broness Orczy - The Old Man in the Corner ✔
12 Ernest Bramah - Max Carrados ✔
One problem for me,as with SF,is finding the old books in the library system.I was delighted recently to locate S.S.Van Dine books free online.So far I cant get hold of any Rex Stout Nero Wolfe books,and there isnt one Ellery Queen to be found in the whole 39 libraries.Very annoying.I have my own copies of Christie,Sayers and Marsh thank goodness.The library these days ruthlessly chuck out anything more than about 5 years old
I've been very unimpressed by the price and selection of ebooks from Christie, Marsh etc, and have instead been picking them up from charity shops and second-hand shops in bits and pieces. It's fairly easy to find Agatha Christie, but the rest are a little trickier. In fact I went for a new paperback omnibus of the first 3 Alleyn books, which came in at around half the price of the ebooks (not dissimilar to the Joe Haldeman, in fact. I'm reading the somewhat unwieldy Peace & War omnibus, which is much cheaper in paperback than buying the separate ebooks, although when I bought it the ebooks didn't actually exist.) I did manage to pick up 3 Allingham books locally, but I have to admit I've just ordered an old omnibus from Abebooks containing the first three Campion novels. I decided I couldn't start anywhere but the beginning. And Crime at Black Dudley seems to be out of print. I guess it's not counted as a real Campion.
I haven't in fact read any of that list, yet, but I have several of them waiting. | |
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| @dustydigger I've been really enjoying the Miles Vorkosigan books. I picked up Cryoburn in hardcover to get the CD packaged with it that has all of the previous ebooks except Memory, really a good deal if you can still find it. Working on Falling Free right now. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Switters,I have all the books,but in paperback.Not fond of ebooks at all - Dusty the Dinosaur,thats me..what do you think of Falling Free.I was doubtful about reading it,because the idea of extra hands creeped me out a bit in ...was it Diplomatic Immunity? But I read it in the end.Have you read many of the series?.
Edited by dustydigger 2012-09-17 1:40 PM
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Location: near Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK. | dustydigger, I`m glad you liked 'The Coral Island' by R.M. Ballantyne as it`s another of my favourites. It has sentimental value, too, as he `s a distant ancestor of mine. | |
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Member
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| I've only read up to The Vor Game. I've heard that they get better as you go.
I rarely pickup a physical book to read anymore. Ebooks and Audio almost 100% of the time. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | @ Fantasy bear - how interesting about you being related to Ballantyne!.I have been filling the gaps this year in chldren's classics that I somehow missed in the past,and it has been so very enjoyable.I had read Robinson Crusoe,and Swiss Family Robinson,and dont know how I missed Coral Island.It was a fascinating book,starting off so idyllic as they settled into the island life.So it was a bit disconcerting when it then covered piracy,cannibalism and general mayhem - including a great description of a tidal wave,which was so pointed after the Boxing Day 2004 disaster when the whole world watched in horror.Ballantyne certainly knew his stuff! | |
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Location: near Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK. | @dustydigger-R.M. Ballantyne always prided himself on knowing of what he wrote, but I think he still used his imagination liberally. 'The Coral Island' reads rather slow and ponderously compared to modern novels, but like all stories, it is of its time, and still has a place in children`s literature and that which informs science fiction and fantasy. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | This is what I have read so far this month;
1. Pauline Ashwell - Unwillingly to School - SF
2 Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes were Watching God - general fiction
3 Margery Allingham- Look to the Lady - vintage crime
4 Jaye Wells - Blue Blooded Vamp - urban fantasy
5 Nora Roberts - Born in Ice - romance
6 Roger Zelazny - Nine Princes in Amber - fantasy
7 Roger Zelazny - The Hand of Oberon - fantasy
8 Mary Norton - The Borrowers - junior classic
9 Eloisa James - A kiss at Midnight - historical romance
10 Dodoie Smith - I Capture the Castle - general fiction
11 Stephen Leather - Nightmare - horror
12 Katie fforde - Restoring Grace - women's fiction
13 Keri Arthur - Darkness Unbound - urban fantasy
14 Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - junior classic
15 Laura Ingalls Wilder - The Little House in the Big Woods - junior classic
Oh dear,all these books and only Ashwell and Zelazny qualify for this site.Anyway,I am already happily sorting out my SF reads for next year,hopefully about one a week.That will help pad out my woefully inadequate shelf!
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Uber User
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Location: Gunnison, Colorado | <p>Finished Ring Around the Sun by Clifford Simak (review forthcoming), and the November 1952 issue of Galaxy. I've been reading through issues of Galaxy from the beginning of the magazine in late 1950, and this may be the best issue so far. Two stories that are still considered classics: "The Martian Way" by Asimov, which combines a cool hard SF scenario (bringing a giant chunk of ice from Saturn's rings back to Mars to provide water to colonists) with a pretty contemporary-seeming political scenario, in which an Earth politician exaggerates the cost to Earth of the relatively miniscule amount of water being taken off-planet by the Martian colonists, in order to create outraged resentment and drum up votes. The combined plotlines makes for a very satisfying ending. In contrast to Asimov's upbeat novella is Walter M. Miller, Jr.' s "Command Performance," which looks at the dark side of telepathy. Telepathic contact is seen as analogous to rape, in a story that leads up to an actual (potential) attempted rape by a disturbed young telepath who becomes convinced of the need to propogate the new telepathic mutation in humanity, upon discovering that a beautiful socialite shares his mental powers, and that they are in contact telepathically. She is just beginning to face the reality of her powers, and ends up using them to manipulate the man into a situation that ends in his death. If you know for certain that someone is going to assault you, but it hasn't happened yet, do you have the right to stop that person by any means necessary, in order to prevent it? Another standout in this issue is "The Altar at Midnight" by C. M. Kornbluth, which looks at a near-future scenario in which, due to the physical hardships of working in space, the labor force that takes on these tasks is subject to exploitation, and asks the question of to what extent the inventor of an otherwise useful technology is responsible for the hardships imposed on those who do the work needed to maintain it. Also, humorous stories from early in the careers of Robert Sheckley, Reginald Bretnor, and James Gunn. The sexism of the Bretnor story--"Sugar Plum"--is hard to take, but it's well done if that can be overlooked, while the Gunn story--"The Misogynist"--is either one of the most sexist stories ever (women are literally aliens, justifying men's complaints about the "quirks" of the opposite sex) or a brilliant satire on those male attitudes. I think it's the latter, but these stories, and others in earlier issues, indicate that editor H. L. Gold liked to extend his magazine's focus on social and satirical SF (as opposed to hard SF) into stories that take on the "battle of the sexes" in society, and these can be a weak point for the magazine when read now.
I ran out of time for the "Outside the Norm" book last month, but am getting started on Saramago's "Blindness," which is fascinating so far. We'll see if he was worthy of that Nobel Prize!
Edited by Scott Laz 2012-09-21 3:44 PM
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What are you reading in September?