March Reads

[SilentRoamer]

Im just going through re-read of Bakkers TSA. Then its either:

Then continuing on my mission to read all top 100 Sci Fi novels (differs based on source but mostly the same 100)

A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge

or

Left Hand of Darkness - Urula K Le Guin

Anyone recommend either of the above?

[UndergroundMan]

Recently finished Swamplandia by Karen Russell, The Human Stain by Phillip Roth, and Runaway by Alice Munro. Human Stain was amazing; best book I have read for awhile. It really encouraged me to try to read all of Roth's stuff as the eight or so books I have read of his have all been awesome. With so many solid books, he may be my second favorite living writer after Salman Rushdie.

Runaway was definitley impressive, and I can see why Munro deserved a Pulitizer.

I enjoyed the setting of Swamplandia, but the characters not as much.

Just started Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian and The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King. Not terribly impressed with either, so far. Although it is nice to slip back into the world of the Dark Tower series.

[Peadar]

A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge

or

Left Hand of Darkness - Urula K Le Guin

Anyone recommend either of the above?

I love them both, but they are very different from each other.

A Fire Upon the Deep is full of absolutely cool SF ideas and has a thrilling plot.

Left Hand of Darkness is full of absolutely cool SF ideas and has a quiet contemplative feeling about it.

[Starkess]

I finished Dust today. It was a very odd book. It was quick to read, but kind of confusing at times. The characterization was strange and seemed very fast. I got the impression the entire book encompassed maybe 2 days, which isn't exactly the time frame of true love IMO. But I did like the way the angels were set up and subverted, to the point that I am still not sure how I feel about the resolution and the various fates.

I started on Chill, the second book in the trilogy, and so far it is very interesting. I like exploring the spaceship and the world and I like the genre mixing so far.

Oh, one more thing: I noticed that you mentioned a tendency toward very rushed endings in the Atevi books [which I haven't read yet]. I personally often find that Bear's writing has issues with these too, and Dust -- and certainly its sequels -- is one of the places I remember thinking that was the case. Endings that blitz their way through important stuff tend not to match my personal taste, so while she's probably one of my favourite writers currently working in sff the ending thing is a notable bummer.

There was definitely a ton of resolution packed into the last 10% of the book, btu I didn't feel like it was too rushed because the whole book was such a quick read. That might partly be due as well to the fact that I had a lot of time to read so I finished it in like 2 days, and if I had spread it out more I would have found it more frustrating.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Started The Barrow by Mark Smylie yesterday night ,only read 2 chapters so far,has not really pulled me in yet but it's too early to tell if i'll end up liking it or not.

The torches and braziers in the temple chamber started to flicker and go out as Guilford sensed rather than saw something big and dark with glistening spikes and horns slowly squeeze its way through the arches into the room. A smell hit them all then, the smell of a thousand rotting corpses, boiling sulfur, and buckets filled with fresh shit and stale semen.

She stared at the phallic spear. She couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be suspended spread-eagled in the air and lowered onto that evil-looking tip. Which hole would they use as their entry point? Would it feel good at first, then turn to pain?

I think Bakker fans might enjoy this book. :lol:

:leaving:

[Darth Richard II]

O.o

[HexMachina]

Started The Barrow by Mark Smylie yesterday night ,only read 2 chapters so far,has not really pulled me in yet but it's too early to tell if i'll end up liking it or not.

I think Bakker fans might enjoy this book. :lol:

:leaving:

:lol: I dont know whether to be disturbed or amused...

[Alytha]

Tairy fans, too, I'd think...keep us updated on that one, it seems to be quite popular at the moment.

[SkynJay]

Tairy fans, too, I'd think...keep us updated on that one, it seems to be quite popular at the moment.

It is disturbingly sexual, hedonistic, and will piss off just as many people as those who like it. He uses sex as a theme, other times as a herring. I have already picked the brain of someone who gave up in disgust and can't/won't argue with her reasoning for dropping it. But this is much more Bakker than Goodkind; for better or worse he is trying to do something with his use of sexuality, not just dropping in a rape because he needs to show someone is a bad guy or hasn't had a show of evil for a few pages.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

Work has been really cutting into my reading time, but I did finish The Skien of Lament by Chris Wooding. It was good, but I'm finding that books with alot of violence and grim scenes I really need scenes of humour (see A Song of Ice and Fire or Joe Abercrombie) for balance for to me really enjoy it. This was a good book, but bleak. Onto the final book of the series, The Ascendancy Veil.

[lokisnow]

I discovered the public domain section of the amazon kindle store and just read for the first time Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Damn, Carroll was high as a kite when he wrote most of that.

I also started one of the most downloaded PD kindle titles, the Memoirs of Fanny Hill, which is rather more ribald and frank and amusing than I expected from a seventeenth century erotica. :D

[HexMachina]

I discovered the public domain section of the amazon kindle store and just read for the first time Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Damn, Carroll was high as a kite when he wrote most of that.

I also started one of the most downloaded PD kindle titles, the Memoirs of Fanny Hill, which is rather more ribald and frank and amusing than I expected from a seventeenth century erotica. :D

Have you read things like Dracula and the Phantom of the Opera etc? they are in public domain too

[Bolivar]

A lot of GRRM's recommendations on his historical fiction/Accursed Kings blog post is also in the Public Domain.

Kinda crazy how instantaneous and free e- readers make things.

[saltovergray]

I finished The Great Hunt, and I started The Dragon Reborn this morning. Was able to read the prologue and first chapter in between classes today.

[williamjm]

I love them both, but they are very different from each other.

A Fire Upon the Deep is full of absolutely cool SF ideas and has a thrilling plot.

Left Hand of Darkness is full of absolutely cool SF ideas and has a quiet contemplative feeling about it.

That's a good summary of the two of them. I'd say I found TLHOD to be more thought-provoking but enjoyed AFUTD more.

Work has been really cutting into my reading time, but I did finish The Skien of Lament by Chris Wooding. It was good, but I'm finding that books with alot of violence and grim scenes I really need scenes of humour (see A Song of Ice and Fire or Joe Abercrombie) for balance for to me really enjoy it. This was a good book, but bleak. Onto the final book of the series, The Ascendancy Veil.

I'm afraid it's going to get even bleaker in the last book, but you might have figured that out already.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm afraid it's going to get even bleaker in the last book, but you might have figured that out already.

Thank you for the warning!

[RedEyedGhost]

Work has been really cutting into my reading time, but I did finish The Skien of Lament by Chris Wooding. It was good, but I'm finding that books with alot of violence and grim scenes I really need scenes of humour (see A Song of Ice and Fire or Joe Abercrombie) for balance for to me really enjoy it. This was a good book, but bleak. Onto the final book of the series, The Ascendancy Veil.

I think that's the biggest thing separating these from his Ketty Jay books. I don't remember the third book being much bleaker or darker than the first two, the battle

in the Fault

was in book two right?

[deleted01]

Finished Affinity by Sarah Waters this morning. It was good, written in a pretty strange way, and I definitely didn't see the twist coming. I picked it up mainly because it's set in Millbank prison in the late 1800's, but the other dynamics of the story were just as interesting. Gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

I just bought a load of new books, as a reward for handing in a few essays early, so I'm currently spoilt for choice. King of Thorns is now on the pile, after getting it a good deal on it, as well as Jamaica Inn and The White Princess, which I'd been after for a while but refused to pay £12 for.

[Ormond]

I read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. It was interesting because of its religious speculation but to me showed its age (copyright 1964) because of its sexism. Parts of it were hard to follow, but that was actually related to the story as having the characters trying to figure out what part of their experience was real and what part drug-induced was often one of the points of the plot.

I've now started In Full Bloom by Caroline Hwang, a non-genre comic novel focusing on a Korean-American woman's dealing with an immigrant mother who's constantly trying to fix her up with a Korean husband she doesn't want. There are some good one-liners and nice description of the cultural conflict between immigrants and their assimilated children.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I think that's the biggest thing separating these from his Ketty Jay books. I don't remember the third book being much bleaker or darker than the first two, the battle

in the Fault

was in book two right?

Yeah, that battle was in book two. I liked the Ketty Jay books much more, just the humour offset the violence and i had a blast reading them.