April 2012 Reads

[Myshkin]

I just picked up TMAM not to long ago. Not sure which translation though.

Been meaning to read more Russian Lit. Read Laughter in the Dark and was hooked.

And as long as I have you, what do you think are the best translations for Crime and Punishment and War and Peace? I see that one due mentioned a lot.

I could elaborate but I'm tired I'll strat a thread tomorrows.

For C&P either the Magarshak translation or the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. For W&P I like the Dunnigan translation, but again the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation is also good. Whatever you do though, DO NOT get the Constance Garnett translation of anything.

[williamjm]

I read Peter F. Hamilton's Manhattan In Reverse short story collection. For an author with a reputation for writing very long novels it is maybe appropriate that the two longest stories were the best in it. Watching Trees Grow (which I'd read before many years ago) packs a lot of world-building into 80-odd pages and has an interesting premise (a murder investigation taking centuries with the investigator using newly invented technologies to go back to look at the case), although the characterisation was a bit flat and some aspects of the world-building were a bit under-explained. Another SF detective story, The Demon Trap, was probably the best story in the collection, re-using some characters from Hamilton's Commonwealth books probably helped with the characterisation compared to Watching Trees Grow and it was probably the most interesting story in terms of the SF elements. The other two Commonwealth-set stories were also reasonably good with some nice cameos for characters from the novels, although the title story did feel a bit contrived in its attempt to shoe-horn Paula Myo into a plot that shouldn't really have had anything to do with her.

The remaining stories weren't anything special, If At First in particular was both dull and silly.