PhelanArcetus Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Finished off Tales from the Dying Earth by Jack Vance a couple of days ago. Took me forever to read, and it didn't impress me a lot. Basically a lot of connected shorts. Highly doubt that I'd read it again. I don't know, it wasn't bad, it just didn't really grab my interest; I finished it almost because I wanted to finish the book before putting it aside, more than because I wanted to read all of it for its own sake. Tore through Gaiman's Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, the compilation of the first Sandman storyline. Was interesting, definitely. Not sure if I'll pick up more of these graphic novels or not. I can't even remember what I stuck in my bag for today. Hopefully it's good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Dying Earth is great. The first and fourth books are a bit weak but the Cugel storyline is hilarious! Started Banks' Look to Windward today. A good couple of opening chapters. Hopefully should be able to fit in the next Flashman book before going on holiday with Strange & Norrell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gylfie Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Like many others I'm reading Dread Empire's Fall. It's been years since I read a good space opera and I'm enjoying it. I should finish The Praxis in a day or two, I'll have to pick up the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yakman Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 The Scramble for Africa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight of Ashes Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Nearly all of the Sandman trade paperbacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakkon Blackblade Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfella Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Just finished "Right as Rain" by George Pelecanos. Good crime novel. He does some of the writing on The Wire. Thinking of starting Titus Groan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore I really enjoyed Kafka on the Shore when I read a few months ago. There's a review on the blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valyriansword4sale Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 The Thursday Next series by Jaspar FForde. Have to slow myself down, they are so well paced and clever that I am devouring them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
direwolf Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 Memory, Sorrow, Thorn.... wont last long though, going back to nursing school in three days, then i'll be reading Medical Surgical Nursing, which is quite possibly the worst book ever written. Im only on the Dragonbone Chair, and Nursing school is so f**cking time consuming that i probably wont finish To Green Angel Tower until next summer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 Wrong thread people. Moved the last three posts into this month's WAWR thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Barry Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian It is as well that the characters in the Aubrey/Maturin series are so interesting because the 3 page long descriptions of rigging set ups and the other nautical terms are mind-numbing. Added together with the difficult phrases everyone uses and the jumps in location/time which are mid-conversation (although perversely I am beginning to enjoy them) and rarely explained it is almost enough to put me off reading anymore. The fantastically vivid action scenes, the developing plotlines, the mountains of truly enlightening information and the need to see what happens next to the characters I have grown to care about means that I have just ordered HMS Surprise from Amazon. I just need to give it a while before I contemplate more reading about hawsers. (I did cheer for Maturin when he told Aubrey to sod off about the silver plate edging btw if anyone can remember that.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakin Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Finished Eragon of C.Paolini and now I'm reading Eldest the 2nd book of the Trilogy. I'm waiting for the movie to come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 I just finished The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams. It's quite good. The review is on the blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summer Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 Currently reading the second volume of Napoleon by Max Gallo (in French). In English, I'm reading Rose Tremain's "Music & Silence" and I've just been handed Augusten Burroughs' "Running with Scissors". Anyone familiar with the latter? I'm a 100 or so pages in "Music & Silence" and so far I'm finding it very well written and particularly interesting. I like setting a lot (Denmark XVII) as well as the way in which the characters are introduced - in a somewhat similar way to GRRM in ASoIaF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yakman Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian It is as well that the characters in the Aubrey/Maturin series are so interesting because the 3 page long descriptions of rigging set ups and the other nautical terms are mind-numbing. Added together with the difficult phrases everyone uses and the jumps in location/time which are mid-conversation (although perversely I am beginning to enjoy them) and rarely explained it is almost enough to put me off reading anymore. The fantastically vivid action scenes, the developing plotlines, the mountains of truly enlightening information and the need to see what happens next to the characters I have grown to care about means that I have just ordered HMS Surprise from Amazon. I just need to give it a while before I contemplate more reading about hawsers. (I did cheer for Maturin when he told Aubrey to sod off about the silver plate edging btw if anyone can remember that.) O'Brian rocks. He's also funny as heck. One thing i HATE about him is how he introduces cool characters and then kills them. Like the cool Irish lieutenant in the first book. He ROCKED. and then he died. P Just as a warning, Post Captain has a LOT of talking. It's a Jane Austen book, basically. The series definitely picks up later though--right now I'm on The Surgeon's Mate. My favorite so far is Desolation Island. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellis Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 I realize I 've been a bit grumpy about my reads lately (Bakkar, Murakami) so I'm pleased to report that, rounding out August, I have discovered 3 very excellent novels. All very different, but all have much to recommend them. Vellum Hal Duncan. Take a generous helping of ideas from the Neals Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicron) and Gaiman (American Gods) and several others, with a strong dollop of HP Lovecraft, and filter through the prose stylings reminiscent of at times, Thomas Pynchon and James Joyce. It may not work for you, you may hate it... I found it strangely compelling and was absolutely fascinated to the end. I hope Ink does not disappoint and brings together a coherent ending. At the top of my re-read list! Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque Jeffrey Ford. Essentially a fairly conventional period mystery, plot-wise, but stands out because of its flawless pacing and strong prose. Can easily be read in one sitting. I tried but couldn't really find anything wrong with it! Will be reading more Ford. Strongly recoomended for airplane/bus/travel reading. Spin Robert Charles Wilson. Happy to hear that it won the Hugo! I haven't read much recent hard sci-fi (e.g. last 10 years), this novel made me want to give this sub-genre another look. A little slow in the middle, but, assuming you avoid the spoilers in the inside jacket, lots of unexpected twists (i found myself going oh! and wow! out loud several times). The ultimate answer to the mystery didn't make me groan, but was actually pretty cool, though I can't answer to whether it was original or not, not having read much work in this genre. The strongest aspect was, as with all good SF, the focus on the characters and the societal ramifications for the "common folk". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLU-RAY Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 I'm very interested to try out Kafka on the Shore, one of my friends swears by it. This month so far I've read Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (excellent), Herbert's Dune and Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. All pretty good. I also just started The Lies of Locke Lamora. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazzlebane Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 Knife of Dreams. Yeah, I know. I finished Lies of Locke Lamora first. That, of course, was excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alytha Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 I'm reading "The Lazarus Child" at work at the moment. Unfortunately the library of this school isn't really well-stocked in english lit, except if you feel like reading "Brave New World" in simplified english... Anyway, Lazarus Child is seriously underwhelming so far. Cheesy characters, cheesy, forseeable plot, bad writing style... And I don't really know if a novel about comatose kids needs gratuitous sex scenes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.