diabloblanco18 Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Just polished off David Feintuch's The Still, which was quite good despite the extremely unlikeable protagonist. Am now working on Fiona Patton's The Stone Prince, which is decent so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Joe Hill must have learned from the best: Stephen King is his dad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Barry Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Perfume by Patrick Suskind. The story of a child abandoned at birth who grows up with an extraordinary sense of smell and a very skewed psyche. An intensely strange book which keeps your attention via the quality of the writing, in less skilled hands this really could have been dire. It kept me fixated probably as much for the strangeness as despite it. I wanted to see whether the premise could be held throughout the book or whether it would come crashing down. It held, mostly. Probably the best book which focuses on the smells all around us I have read, it is a very small field of contenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteQueen Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. It's anecdotal and trivial, but fun to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfella Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Joe Hill must have learned from the best: Stephen King is his dad. Yep. I'd wanted to read his collection even before I heard that. I'm only three stories in, but they're all winners so far, and all very different from each other. "Best New Horror" was particularly creepy, "20th Century Ghost" was a sweet, sentimental ghost story, and "Pop Art" was an odd but entertaining story about an inflatable boy. He has a novel coming out this year. I can't wait to see what he can do with the longer format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multaniette Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Barry, my reaction to Perfume was pretty similiar. I'll be interested in knowing whether the prose is as excellent in the german edition as it is in the english translation. Finished Pankaj Mishra's The Romantics (7/10) and Ursula Le Guin's Rocannon's World. (5/10) The Romantics was a book that just went continuously downhill after an extremely promising start. The setting was amazing, and it paints a rather depressing picture of middle-class lives and aspirations in rural central India. The protagonist read like he was autistic, at places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isis Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Perfume by Patrick Suskind. The story of a child abandoned at birth who grows up with an extraordinary sense of smell and a very skewed psyche. An intensely strange book which keeps your attention via the quality of the writing, in less skilled hands this really could have been dire. It kept me fixated probably as much for the strangeness as despite it. I wanted to see whether the premise could be held throughout the book or whether it would come crashing down. It held, mostly. Probably the best book which focuses on the smells all around us I have read, it is a very small field of contenders.Last night I had a ruthless clear out of novels I don't plan on reading again (I got rid of about 8 books ). I almost binned Perfume. I remember thinking it was quite cool when I read it a few years back but I don't recall anything that actually happened in the story except for some vague stuff about him mixing different perfumes. So I thought I'd better give it a speed-read before I see the film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luzifer's right hand Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Traitor to the Blood by Barb and J.C. Hendee. I started to read the series some time ago and thinks it's rather entertaining. A hot half-vampiress and cool fight scenes. What else can you want? Menschen wie Götter(orig: Люди как Боги) by Sergei Snegow. I have read it before many years ago and recently found out that there is a reprint out. A cool SF tale. Grundkurs Philosophie des Geistes - Band 1: Phänomenales Bewusstsein: Some funky book about consciousness by Thomas Metzinger. An interesting read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relic Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 im reading Pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham which is pretty good so far. next up is Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are by Joseph LeDoux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob B Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Yep. I'd wanted to read his collection even before I heard that. I'm only three stories in, but they're all winners so far, and all very different from each other. "Best New Horror" was particularly creepy, "20th Century Ghost" was a sweet, sentimental ghost story, and "Pop Art" was an odd but entertaining story about an inflatable boy. He has a novel coming out this year. I can't wait to see what he can do with the longer format. I finished up the collection a couple of weeks ago and liked it very much, only one story out of the bunch didn't agree with me. As for his debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, Neil Gaiman said it was the most impressive Horror debut since Clive Barker. This month, I'm reading Mike Resnick's Starship: Pirate and Glen Cook's A Cruel Wind. I'm only a bit into each, but I'm really enjoying both. I also dipped into the Silmarillion today, since it was JRRT's birthday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 ...Neil Gaiman said it was the most impressive Horror debut since Clive Barker. I love Neil Gaiman, but I'm starting to think he'll put a positive quote on anything. He's had a quote on the last two books I read (of course they were both great) and those books were: Perdido Street Station This was very impressive. I finished this up at the end of december. The imagery was spectacular, the characterization was better than I was lead to believe it would be, and the plot was OK. Of course, I do enjoy a good monster hunt. I've be longing for some Mark Helprin like imagery, and I think this satisfied that need (although this was much, much darker). 9/10 Lord of Light Great book, great concept, great execution. I don't think anything else needs to be said. 9/10 And I'm now about a 100 pages into Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. At this point I'm liking it quite a bit, but I've been craving some epic fantasy so I might be biased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynon Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Legacies by L.E. Modesitt. I've read two-thirds of it so far and it seems to follow a pretty standard forumla, but it's an easy read and I'm enjoying it. He doesn't waste time describing every little thing or event. His characters seems to be a bit dull, and the story is predictable, but it's still early so I hope it will improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I've also just started The Blade Itself and am enjoying it a lot - the barbarian and noble characters are a bit weak, but the torturer guy is very well written, you can feel his bitterness oozing out of the page. Had a big book-shopping spree last night so also on the stack I have... Altered Carbon - Morgan The Darkness That Comes Before - Bakker The Anubis Gates - Powers The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror (19th ed) Villians Victorious (anthology) The Devil Wears Prada (not sure if I'll like this but fancied something a bit different) A Carl Hiaasen omnibus (his first 3 novels I believe) In The Wake Of The Plague (history) Devil's Advocate by John Humphrys (political commentary) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHoundRules Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I finished The Alienist by Caleb Carr last night. It was a good historical history thriller. It was well written and you got a good sense of how New York was in 1895. I think it was a bit drawn out at times, but overall a solid book. I decided to change directions again and picked up Honor Bound by W.E.B. Griffin. This is the first book of his I have read, and I am looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfella Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 As for his debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, Neil Gaiman said it was the most impressive Horror debut since Clive Barker. He must not have read House of Leaves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I'm just finishing up The Scar by China Mieville, then I'll adopt a twin-track strategy. My less flippant side will be attampting to tackle the north face of The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, Vol II: 1649-1815 by N.A.M. Rodger. The vast majority of me will be starting a reread of Julian May's Metapsychic Rebellion series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walpurgisborn Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I just stopped reading Altered Carbon, after being so thoroughly disappointed, I was tempted to become an author, since lack of talent is obviously no obstacle. The last time I felt this way was reading Goodkind for crissakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanna Stark Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Half-way through "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and loving it. I usually sleep on the train on my way to work (sucky commute of doom) but today I couldn't stop myself from reading. I just HAD to! It was a long time since I felt this compelled to just totally indulge in reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrddin Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte I saw the film that was loosely based on this a while back (Ninth Gate) and like the premise, if it felt incomplete. So, I'm looking forward to diving into this. The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre by H.P. Lovecraft I've never read him, but since I hear so many references to his work, I figured I'd better educate myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Sun Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Barry, my reaction to Perfume was pretty similiar. I'll be interested in knowing whether the prose is as excellent in the german edition as it is in the english translation. It's been a while since I have read the book in German, but I found the prose excellent. I really like Süskind's style. Right now, I'm re-reading Lion Feuchtwanger, Der Jüdische Krieg (The Jewish War), the first volume of a trilogy about the life of the Jewish writer Flavius Josephus. So far it's good, but I had forgotten how much of an annoying prick the hero was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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