October Reading Thread

[Deornoth]

Just finished reading 'School's Out' (Scott Andrews), the latest in Abaddon Books' 'Afterblight Chronicles' series. It follows the story of what happens to the survivors of a boarding school after the plague has come and gone, like 'Mad Max' but set in the Home Counties...

It's a decent read if you've got an hour to kill but there's a little too much filler if you're after something more heavy. A book this length should really have more going on in it than lots of sentences beginning with "Things were to stay like this for months..." My full review is Here.

I'm still reading Tobias Buckell's 'Crystal Rain' and I'm looking at John Lawson's 'Witch Ember' as well...

[RedEyedGhost]

Damn, I can't believe it's already October :/ Although, that does mean ski season is nearly here

Still working on The Bonehunters by Erikson, should be done with it sometime this week. Much, much more enjoyable for me than Midnight Tides.

[Happy Ent]

Started Winterbirth because MinDonner seems to have enjoyed it. No sentient trees so far, though.

[Peadar]

Read "The Silk Palace" by Colin Harvey and am in the middle of Choices, an anthology edited by Chris Teague. I can't believe I've nearly reached the end of my fantasycon goodies! Also reading and really enjoying a work in progress that somebody sent me from the con.

[Damaen]

finished mistborn2 and orc king for september, so you know what that leaves for october reading?

THE FINAL GEMMELL.

Fall of kings, i think? should be good.

[Talyn]

While my internet connection was down I read Winterbirth (which was great ) and Blood Engines by TA Pratt.

I don't know what I am reading next.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

Talyn, how was Blood Engines?

I gave into temptation and picked up the first Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus, from Dan Abnett. After several years of abstention, I'm trying tie-in fiction again. God help me. Modestly entertaining so far, but I doubt I'll pick up the next omnibus.

[Rimmer]

I've been on a Jack Vance binge for a couple of months now and have loved every word. Everybody must check him out, if only for the fact that he's GRRM's favourite fantasy author too. If you don't usually like science fiction: neither do I, read them anyway. His focus is on quirky characters, bizarre societies, interesting situations and amazing, hilarious dialogue.

I've devoured just about all of what's being sold new from Amazon: Demon Princes, Dying Earth, Lyonesse, Planet of Adventure, and Alastor Cluster. I've still got Emphyrio and most of the Vance Treasury to go, then I'll start slowly building up the rest of his good stuff second-hand.

[Larry.]

To Finish Reading:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince (French); A Kis Herceg (Hungarian)

Jeff VanderMeer and Forrest Aguirre (eds.), Leviathan Three

Jorge C. Oliva Espinosa, El tiempo que nos tocó vivir

Mother Teresa, Come be My Light

M. Rickert, Map of Dreams

To Read:

Edward Whittemore, Nile Shadows; Jericho Mosaic

Charles de Lint, The Ivory and the Horn (story collection; review copy)

Italo Calvino, Difficult Loves

Rafael Ãbalos, Grimpow: The Invisible Road

Jack Vance, Lyonesse (trilogy)

Woodrow Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys; Where the Red Fern Grows

Jorge Luis Borges, Prologo con un prologo de prologos

Réne Guillot, The Wild White Stallion

Ernesto Sabato, Abaddon; La resistencia

Zoran Zivkovic, Impossible Stories

Susanna Clarke, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (story collection)

John Crowley, The Solitudes

Banana Yoshimoto, Asleep; Kitchen

Rikki Ducornet, The Fountains of Neptune

And doubtless many others that I've yet to order or buy. Last month I read less than half of the list, but almost double the books listed, so it'll likely be the same here.

[Budgie]

I am about half way through Fall of Kings, its not to bad so far. It is sad to think that this is the last David Gemmell book :cry:

In the to read pile i have Godslayer and Sword in the Storm.

[Astra]

1/3 into Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

[Werthead]

Read CS Friedman's Black Sun Rising. Good ideas, nice writing, slightly cheesy plot, cliched ending. Fuller review forthcoming.

Now re-reading Greg Bear's brilliant Blood Music. It's even better than I remembered.

[Bellis]

Aaak - we've started October already. Nice and sunny here still

Took a break from the emo classics, and picked up She by Haggard, on a whim. It's one of those 19th century "lost world" novels, about Victorian intellectuals going to the deepest depths of, say, Africa, and finding the most horrifying barbarian civilization. This one is led by a woman. But She's not just any woman, She epitomizes the dangerous irresistable beautiful eternal feminine. Anyway, it's actually not as sexist or racist as I expected. More of a hoot in fact. Total camp, intentional or not.

As well, the members of the tribe, cannibals natch, kill their victims by overturning a boiling pot on their heads. Sound familiar? Perhaps GRRM might have done his own homage to Haggard.

For something completely different, I also read Desperately Seeking Paradise, Ziauddin Sardar. The author is a British Muslim writer who comments on Islam, science, cultural theory and modernity. This book is his memoir of his own spiritual quest, route to paradise as it were. The time period is the early 1970s through 2000s. We go with him from Britain, to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, China, Iran, Satanic Verses, Islamophobia and 9/11. We get a good insider's view of the various groups that have risen and fallen in the Muslim world, both secular and theocratic, political and apolitical. While consistently identifying as Muslim, he has a very dry British wit which is at times pretty irreverent. Each "adventure" starts with him meeting a couple acquaintances who lead him on an idealistic quest to "fix" the Muslim world, and end with him discovering that the group is batshit insane and an often comic escape (including the Chinese Muslim chick who wouldn't take "I have a wife" for an answer). If you have an interest in a frank open discussion from an insider's perspective, give this a try. It gets pretty cynical and down by the end though. It also requires at least a rudimentary background on the period and groups it covers -- unfortunately, it conspicuously lacks a Suggested Readings section.

[Datepalm]

I'm finishing "Age of Extremes - 1914-1991" (Eric Hobsbawm) which is interesting, even though (satisfactorily to my young vanity) thateres not a lot that I didn't fasctually know, the putting together of it is interesting.

The I'll get back to Lies of Locke Lamora, due to massive board pimpage - it's nice, but I seem to be in the minority in that I don't think it's hugely breathtaking - It's not that witty, honestly, the characters are a bit flat, worldbuilding is basically minimal, and the plot, while good enough, just isn't really getting me. A solid B, at the moment (admittedly i'm only halfway through, holding my breath).

To read that I put down Inside the Third Reich (Albert Speer) Which is fascinating and much more readable than I expected, though i'm only about 150 pages in.

And to read that I put down City of Saint and Madmen (Jeff Vandermeer) which took me ages to get into, but I finally did, and it's nice, but more entertaining than engaging, somehow. Maybe the next stories will be meatier.

And tor ead that I put down 1610:Sundial in A grave (Mary Gentle) Which I was really loving. I can't remeber what got me distracted from it really, but it was months ago now.

I think i'll get back to each where I left off at this point, they're still all solidly in my mind. It's all a bit odd - I usually read a few books at a time, but not in a matrioshka like fashion like this.

[Herbie of High Heart]

I'm finishing Novik's Temeraire series. I should get Black Powder War in the mail in the next day or so.

After that I'm looking forward to Rainbow's End

[Amras]

Finished "The Well of Ascension" by Brandon Sanderson yesterday evening. Those of you who read my review of "Mistborn" will know that I wasn't in flames about that particular novel, just like I'm even less impressed by the next installment. Everything I found irritating about "Mistborn", namely the weak, unlikable characters, the way he drives forward his narrative with endless chit-chat and his infuriating way of beating you over the head with everyones emotions - are still there, and his strong points, namely the action sequences and dialog, isn't as intriguing or fun anymore. No, I wouldn't recommend this at all, but I'll still be buying the last book in the trilogy to complete my collection.

I've also managed to tear through Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's graphic novel "Black Orchid". This is one of my first forays into this particular genre, so I can't really tell whether it was as cool and original as I thought. Either way, it served nicely as an appetizer for when those two Absolute Sandman volumes arrive.

Next up: Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita", which supposedly is an old favourite of Neil Gaiman. Should be good, right?

[LacyinTX]

Right now I am reading Storm Front (the first of the Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher. Thanks to Mandy for the rec.

Next up: I am waiting on a shipment from Amazon.. so maybe Thirteen when it gets here. Or if it takes to long to get here, I may start the Novik books. His Majesty's Dragon is on the shelf staring at me right now. (The book, not the actual dragon.. but that would be really cool!)

[lessthanluke]

I've just started the 7th and last book in the Dark Tower series.

[Greyweather]

I've been on a Jack Vance binge for a couple of months now and have loved every word. Everybody must check him out, if only for the fact that he's GRRM's favourite fantasy author too. If you don't usually like science fiction: neither do I, read them anyway. His focus is on quirky characters, bizarre societies, interesting situations and amazing, hilarious dialogue.

I've devoured just about all of what's being sold new from Amazon: Demon Princes, Dying Earth, Lyonesse....

Seeing as you've read so much of Vance's work, I hope you won't mind a question. I have thus far only read one of his books, The Star King. To be blunt, I rather disliked it. The hero was so damn smart/skilled that I never felt the story had even an ounce of dramatic tension. So my question is this: are all the Demon Princes books like the first one?

Now, so I'm not completely off-topic, I am currently reading Xenocide by Orson Scott Card.

[Thrashalla]

Started Hobb's Liveship Traders this weekend...I want to have this and Tawny Man done by the end of the month. No clue where I'll go from there, I'm thinking Abraham or Bakker.