*February Reading Thread*

[RaceBannon42]

My other beef with Bakker is his treatment of female characters, or more the extreme abscence of them. The very few we see are mad and powerhungry or prostitutes. While I understand the reasoning behind it, I still think the abscence of women within the Schools and the religious institutions are a bit unessecary. That said, there are parts where a more modern view of women certainly shines through, maybe as the author's "real" views, but it's still a bit irksome that the role of woman is 100% limited to wife, concubine, prostitute or slave.

This issue came up a lot in the PON threads. My view is that while his portrayal of women isnt flattering, its pretty realistic for the setting. Even if she is a whore, Esme is a very strong character.

[Agulla]

Two more books read the last days of January:

Saffron and Brimstone, by Elizabeth Hand. Three years ago Elizabeth Hand's Bibliomancy was published by PS Publishing. It was a great collection of four novellas or novelletes (not sure how the page count goes). This book was quite expensive, as most of the books of this excellent publisher (the paperbacks are cheaper though but this book had no paperback edition), now three of her stories, Cleopatra Brimstone, A Pavane for a Prince of the Air and The Least of Trumps, appear again in this new collection (You can read the missing oneChip Crockett's Christmass Carol), with some new stories, among them I have to recommend Echo and The Saffron Gatherers. It's a very good book by a great author.

Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman. I'm not a great fan of vampire stories, I do not dislike them but I've never been a follower of this particular horror genre. This might change with novels like this one. What I like about Anno Dracula is how Kim Newman manages to weave this tale in which the historical late Victorian London and its literary counterpart blend so perfectly in this well paced novel.

[Yana]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Apparently this book is extremely popular and I still can't see why. It's a good read but not really my cup of tea. Perhaps it changes for the better towards the end.

[TheHoundRules]

The Virtues of War by Pressfield. I am enjoying it at this time. Well written. Battle scenes are good.

[Virtua Icon]

I just finished The Lies of Locke Lamora last night. Perhaps you've heard of it? It was... very entertaining. Not the best fantasy novel of last year, but certainly in the running for best debut. I wasn't really enthralled until that whole Grey King angle started, which really carried the book. Characters really weren't that great, and neither was the writing, but entertaining nonetheless.

I'm well into Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I've been savouring it like... well... like something you savour. A Murakami book, maybe.

Wait. That's not how similies work.

Anywho, it is fantastic. Murakami has an amazing ability to flat out write. If there's nothing going on, I'm captivated. If he hits me with some surrealism, I'm captivated. If he's delving into his, obviously, profuse knowledge of literature / pop-culture, I'm captivated. Until I started to read his books, I didn't have a favourite author. Not someone I'd feel comfortable calling my favourite author, anyway. Sure, I loves me some Wodehouse, Pratchett, Vonnegut, Eco, Atwood, Gaiman, and Khadra, but only Khadra is someone I could, maybe, *possibly*, but ahead of all others. Not now. Murakami, I love you.

Oh, yeah, there was that Russian Vampire novel last month: Night Watch. Interesting concept, poorly written. Well, maybe poorly translated. It could be beautiful in his mother tongue, but the English reads like bad pulp fantasy.

[Lord Dracarys]

Soul Drinkers Omnibus...what?!

Also re-reading world war Z and the Horus Heresy series later on this month. Other than that not sure. Maybe Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs.

[MeanMrMustard]

Fuck Law and Economics.

I'm all about Law and Physics: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0017-811X...%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D

[RedEyedGhost]

Finished The Praxis by Walter Jon Williams, and it was very enjoyable. It has some cool space battles, and the characters have a good amount of life to them - especially Martinez. He can be an arrogant self-aggrandizing prick, but he has cause for it. Sula seemed a little cliched, but she was flushed out thoroughly. I'm looking forward to reading more about Severin in the next book.

7/10

Up next is the next book, The Sundering.

[Knight of Ashes]

1602 by Gaiman. Dunno whether to be disappointed or impressed.

[RedEyedGhost]

1602 by Gaiman. Dunno whether to be disappointed or impressed.

disappointed, very disappointed.

[Uther Doul]

Just ordered Ink and the Afghan Campaign by Pressfield from Amazon. Can't wait.

Beowulf by Seamus Hearney

Some talk of Alexander by Frederic Raphael. Stunning look at contribution of ancient greeks to our culture. Amazing

Sailing to Sarantium by GGK. It's quite good, better than Ysabel anyway

Pies and Prejudice. Wry look at the North of England and how it has been snobbily treated by the South

Trawl and Albert Angelo by B.S Johnson. Amazing avant-garde literature that is insightful and humourous and everything in between

The history of Rome by Livy, the aeneid by Virgil and The annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus.... in Latin

Hellenica by Xenophon, the Oristeia trilogy by Aeschylusn and Wasps by Aristophanes... in Ancient Greek (!)

The above lot are for my Classics part of my international baccalaureate course.... getting to Oxford is going to be one hell of a bitch

[Gildor]

I'm well into Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I've been savouring it like... well... like something you savour. A Murakami book, maybe.

It's a simply gorgeous book, I loved evey page. I think this could well be a book I go back and revisist, after I finished I had that feeling, of .. well not wanting to leave.

That was my first Murakami as well, anyone got any suggestions for what I should read next by him? maybe Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World? that one caught my eye.

I just finished Cathynne Valentes In the Night Garden, and it was a stunningly good yarn. The book is one of many fairy tales, woven within other fairy tales. The content isvery lyrical and wry and well epic in some cases and otehr times quite quaint and furtive. Needless to say I enjoyed every page, whether I was reading about Dog Monks, Necromancers, Leviathans, Withcraft, Griffins .. I was captivated throughout.

After that I jumped into Jack Williamsons Darker than You Think, which was an enjoyable tale, good dashings of archaeoology, metamorphisms, horror and fantasy. The plot was a bit predictable and the writing wasn't the best in parts, no real tension too, plus the scientific melding into the plot wasn't that convincing. And again i'm not too sure of this books place in the Gollanz fantasy masterwork series. It was enjoyable though, in the ample genre splicing it offered.

[Bellis]

I just read Scar Night by Alan Campbell. I was really looking forward to this. And in fact, it is a fast, mostly fun read, but empty. Suspiciously like a video game (Campbell designs them) and not like the dark urban new weird item I wanted it to be. My copy came with glowing recs by Hal Duncan and Scott Lynch. Don't be fooled - those guys' 2006 debuts are much much better than this, pick them up first!!

Recent thread on Dan Simmons new release/interview reminded me that I never did finish Hyperion Cantos. And while I have no intention of reading his more recent stuff, I will be working through Endymion and Fall of Endymion next week.

[blankmon]

I just finished Lois McMaster Bujold's "Paladin of Souls", and am in the middle of Hardy's "Tess of D'Urbervilles". Paladin of Souls was great, loved Ista and the careful unfolding of each mystery in the narrative, and Tess is ok so far. Brooks "World War Z" is next on my list.

[Sword of Funny]

I finally started Erickson's Malazan series. I'm about 3/4 through Gardens of the Moon. Pretty cheesy so far.

[Virtua Icon]

That was my first Murakami as well, anyone got any suggestions for what I should read next by him? maybe Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World? that one caught my eye.

That would be the perfect place to go. Both are considered his best, it seems, although I seem to prefer Norweigan Wood. I'm not normally for love stories, but when I get hooked, I really get hooked. Hardboiled is similar in that it alters perspectives every other chapter between the protagonist and... er, the other force, I guess I could call it. Bit of a mind-fuck, too, which is always nice.

[Mr. X]

Currently, I am about 100 pages into Last Call by Tim Powers. It's excellent. Now I understand why Stego had such a fanboy moment when meeting Powers at WorldCon last summer.

I did read the English translation by Rabossa and while it is good, there is a magic in the Spanish original that just cannot be captured in English.

Yes, I imagined this to be the case. Also, I have been told (by a friend of mine who is fluent in Spanish, but knows it more as a result of growing up in the South Bronx rather than studying it formally) that Marquez can be challenging to read because a lot of the language in the book is Columbian expressions and slang.

Having had only one semester of Spanish, I don't imagine I'll be tackling any untranslated works any time soon. However, I am certainly due for a reread.

[Larry.]

I had quite a few Colombian students when I taught in Florida and picked up some of their slang by listening when they didn't think I was But I should note that I have an annotated edition of the book, so that helps quite a bit in understanding the Colombianisms in the story. But even if the story might lose a little bit in translation, it is still powerful enough to read in any translation, I would imagine. The English one is good, thankfully.

[Stubby]

I have just finished Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris.

It was a bit disappointing actually. Shorter than Silence of the Lambs and without the genuinely scary moments therein, it felt a bit like a draft of a script. While it was cool to see how Harris devloped the bases for Lecter's evil, Hannibal almost became an object of sympathy. This next comment may be a bit of a spoiler:

SPOILER: spoiler

He has also clearly left open another peiod of Lecter's life for perhaps another instalment.

[Isis]

Two more books read the last days of January:

Saffron and Brimstone, by Elizabeth Hand. Three years ago Elizabeth Hand's Bibliomancy was published by PS Publishing. It was a great collection of four novellas or novelletes (not sure how the page count goes). This book was quite expensive, as most of the books of this excellent publisher (the paperbacks are cheaper though but this book had no paperback edition), now three of her stories, Cleopatra Brimstone, A Pavane for a Prince of the Air and The Least of Trumps, appear again in this new collection (You can read the missing oneChip Crockett's Christmass Carol), with some new stories, among them I have to recommend Echo and The Saffron Gatherers. It's a very good book by a great author.

Bibliomancy is the only thing Hand has published that I haven't bought. I couldn't find it for less than £50. WTF? No way was I paying that much on principle of not getting ripped off. As soon as I start buying books again Saffron and Brimstone will be top of the list.

I just finished Accelerandro last week. It was a struggle at times. I just found myself getting very bored with the characters and not really caring what happened to them or what happened to human civilisation. It had some entertaining parts especially back at the start but the majority of it was hard going for me.

I'm now whipping through Something Wicked This Way Comes which is a hell of a lot easier to read. I feel as if I am safe in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing now.

And because I didn't comment on them in last month's thread: I read Mieville's Looking for Jake... and Harrison's Things that Never Happen. This was a good pair of books to get into at the same time as they both had quite a few stories set in London which was nice for continuity and for recognising specific places that were being described. Quality collections, both of them.