The Book Thread - December 2009

Thanks for the clarification. I’ll definitely check Shriek out!

I finished “More Than Human” and found it to be a good book, another one that was written ages ago but could still be applicable today. It’s very low-key, and is more “Psycological Science Fiction” than anything else, but it had some very interesting ideas.

Now I’m off to read something trashy – Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the Lucasarts classic game … “The Dig”!

Child 44 is AMAZING. I’m in the home stretch and when I hit page 393, I kind of didn’t want to get off the train and go to work. I just wanted to see if I could barrel on to the end.

I’m almost finished with The Red Wolf Conspiracy and am enjoying it muchly but it’s got a few two many coincidences for my liking: OhNoes! This character(s) is in diabolical trouble! No, they’re okay, a pal was close by. OhNoes! These characters are lost and far away from their friends and purpose! No, they’re okay, a pal was close by. However, the world building and fantasy details are awesome. I love the woken animals.

Next up is… I dunno. Maybe Richard Morgan’s Black Man or Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley.

Yep, that was pretty much my only criticism of the book. Starting about halfway through he forces the plot way, way too much. I’ve read that he improved on that aspect in the sequel. I’m just about to do a re-read of Red Wolf (I’ve forgotten quite a bit) and then I’ll be moving on to The Rats and the Ruling Sea.

Just finished Olympos by Dan Simmons this morning after going on a 250 page bender since 8 PM last night (yes I’m a slow reader and yes I did get some sleep). I read Illium in November and I’m not going to lie, a lot of the literary stuff went over my head but I was locked in right from the beginning. It’s been a long time since I devoured a story like this.

Tried to get into The Player Of Games by Iain M Banks, but just couldn’t find anything remotely likeable about any of the characters or the setting. Disappointed, since Banks came highly recommended - are any of his other novels more accessible?

Trash reading: Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell. Very much like Flashman updated for the WH40K universe, which is to say it completely takes the piss out of a self-important wanky setting (the 40K universe v. the British Empire).

Repeated reading: The Sunrise Lands by SM Stirling. A lot better on a second read-through, being more familiar with the post-apocalyptic worldbuilding that Stirling throws out like rose petals on humanity’s Via Dolorosa.

that’s probably the most accessible of his works

try Use of Weapons maybe?

I just finished Child 44. It was totally awesome. I’ll probably pick up the second book today at the library.

Apart from his straight fiction (which bores me to tears, except for The Wasp Factory) The Player of Games is one of Banks’ most mainstream novels.

When I’m introducing him to a new reader I give them either Player or Inversions. If you couldn’t get into The Player of Games then I doubt anything else will be to your taste.

I didn’t like Player that much but I like Use of Weapons, the book I read next.

I’m almost finished with it, and it strikes me as a darker version of Harry Potter (so far). When Kuothe does things wrong, he doesn’t have a reputation as “The Boy Who Lived” to fall back on, so he gets punished, and sometimes punished really badly.

I was hoping this was a one-shot, but based on where I am in the book (about 100 pages to go) and where we are in the story (Kuothe is still about 15) we’ve got 2 or 3 more books to go.

I believe it’s intended to be a trilogy.

Finished the last of the Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes. This is a beautiful hardcover edition with the original illustrations that accompanied the first publications, recommended for any Sherlock Holmes fan.

i’m now reading Best Served Cold.

I checked it out last week, but didn’t start it thanks to Wolf Hall, One Rainy Night, and Child 44

I got Abnett’s latest. It’s called “Triumff” and it’s an original book set in an alternate present day where magick exists and the Elizabethan era never ended. I was excited enough to order it from the UK, but it turns out it’s Abnett setting out to do Discworld, annotations and all, and it just doesn’t work.

I’m willing to give the book a chance, but the Nanny Ogg analog just showed up and I’m really not sure how much more I can take.

I got Abnett’s latest. It’s called “Triumff” and it’s an original book set in an alternate present day where magick exists and the Elizabethan era never ended. I was excited enough to order it from the UK, but it turns out it’s Abnett setting out to do Discworld, annotations and all, and it just doesn’t work.

I’m willing to give the book a chance, but the Nanny Ogg analog just showed up and I’m really not sure how much more I can take.

Gene Wolfe’s An Evil Guest. Strange and interesting, not his best, but still worthwhile.

Main character is a sort of caricature of femininity. This is possibly because at the beginning of the book she is “enhanced” to be more attractive and charismatic, possibly some other conventionally feminine characteristics are meant to be excessively enhanced as well, or perhaps Wolfe just thinks of these features as being ideally feminine, not quite sure.

The book is vaguely Lovecraftian, starting in Kingsport and including a Miskatonic university among other of the less subtle references. It also mixes in other genres. Really, it’s hard to describe the general ambiance. The ostensible bad guy is not, really, and the ostensible good guy just doesn’t do that much in the story; and in fact they seem to be echoes of one another in a number of ways. The meaning of the story is still unclear to me, such as it may be.

I’d be interested in hearing other opinions of this book. Its superficially disjointed and confusing nature is not, I think, a reflection of the author being confused, but then again…

Here’s a random review which echoes my confusion. I don’t really agree with the reviewer’s opinion, but I don’t entirely disagree either.

ANd as was linked in a previous thread about blogging authors, Rothfuss is having a difficult time in writing the book he wants to write. He appears to be agonizing over the next one. Maybe all authors are that way and generally do not blog about it.

Just finished True Grit by Charles Portis. Very much like the movie except it continues for a bit after Mattie Ross is saved. A good read.

Before that I read The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. I don’t read much fantasy anymore as the books that I have tried were overly formulaic. This was a fun read and intend to finish the series. Thanks to those on this forum who recommended this series.

The Cohen brothers are remaking this maybe the extra bit will be in there.

— Alan