July's Jubilant Joust At New Books

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by UltraCulture

I'm sticking with my sf masterworks collection at the moment, finished Grass now moving on to The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman.

What kind of SFF writer is Ryman ? I have stories of him in my Mammoth book of Best fantasy. The guy is in great company with REH,Vance,Leiber,Meritt,George Macdonald etc

I also saw a book of his in Fantasy Masterworks.

[AE35Unit]

I've read a few Ryman in various anthologies and possibly Interzone,not bad. Gonna check on the Fantastic Fiction site

[UltraCulture]

Dont know much about him to be honest, I picked up this book as I'm enjoying the series so much(and it was cheap), all I can give you is the blurb on the back of the book.

London's semi-tropical climate means that it is now surrounded by paddy fields. Londeners, like plants feed off the sun. The young, raised in Child Gardens, are educated by viruses: information, culture, law and polotics are biological functions. The Consensus oversees the country, 'treating' non-confrmism. But Milena is different: she is resistant to the viruses - and she is capable of changing the world.

You now know as much as me.

edit

He also wrote in a collection of stories called Cities along with Paul Di Filippo, Mieville and Moorcock so he's in good company there.

[Connavar]

Interesting share your thoughts about his stories when you are done.


I have moved Cowl by Neal Asher. Wanted to read new SF novel among reading many short stories.

I like the writing and the world so far. Hopefully the main character grows from her "life" early in the story.....

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Interesting share your thoughts about his stories when you are done.


I have moved Cowl by Neal Asher. Wanted to read new SF novel among reading many short stories.

I like the writing and the world so far. Hopefully the main character grows from her "life" early in the story.....

Aren't those books about a detective but in the future?

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Aren't those books about a detective but in the future?

Nah this is another and a stand alone book.

Agent Cormac is the one you are talking about. He has his own series.

Not that i know much about Neal Asher books just reading my first work of him. Didnt read too much of the book, i wanted to be fresh and open minded to the book when i read it.

[AE35Unit]

Ah i was thinking of a totally different author,Jeffrey Thomas. There's a advertisement for his new book Deadstock on the back of a collection i have. My collection contains his story In His Sights. And also there's a Neal Asher story called Bioship.

[hammerhead]

Night of Knives = Ian C. Esslemont
Hell Hath No Fury = David Weber & Linda Evans
Beyond the Dark Portal = Aaron Rosenburg & Christie Golden
ShadowPlay= Tad Willams

[AE35Unit]

Well i finished Way Station,and yes it was miles better that The Visitors,tho you can tell its the same author. Full of purple prose about the countryside which was ok cos i like the countryside.(he is known as a pastoralist)
Did Simak ever write anything approaching space opera or even not involving Earth? I did once have a collection called Off Planet come to think of it.
Next i want some space based stuff,something like 2001 but i don't have any,hmmm. Could re read the Alan Dean Foster's Thranx books...

[AE35Unit]

Well as I've been on about it all day I'm gonna read Where Time Winds Blow by Robert Holdstock next.
And I emailed Fantastic Fiction concerning their erroneous listing.

[elvet]

Just started book 1 of Mordant's Need (Donaldson). I'm not sure how this one passed under my radar, but I found out about it via a friend who loaned me the books. So far it's right up my alley. I love the 'modern person transported to fantasy land' plots.

[Switchback]

well, decided on the williams re-read. and devil in the white city by larson. fascinating stuff already, and reads like a novel. comfortably situated within the truth is stranger than fiction department...

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by elvet

Just started book 1 of Mordant's Need (Donaldson). I'm not sure how this one passed under my radar, but I found out about it via a friend who loaned me the books. So far it's right up my alley. I love the 'modern person transported to fantasy land' plots.

Hmmm that sounds good to me actually. Makes me think of the fantasy duo by Greg Bear,The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage,magical stories that i MUST re visit some day

[Culhwch]

I finished Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and now I have nothing at hand to read!

[ravenus]

I read Clive Barker's Coldheart Canyon, which is a kind of Dracula meets Dorian Gray in Hollywood, mixed with Barker's now-patented brand of "orgies and S&M as indications of diabolism". The major characters are quite cliched and, at nearly 700 pages and stretched out with extended climaxes and unreasonable epilogues, it wasn't exactly pithy but all the same entertaining enough to justify reading through, and Barker quite shines in parts here. This was a much better Horror in Hollywood book than Ramsey Campbell's Hungry Moon.


Also read Making Money by Pratchett which is another efficiently funny installment to the now teetering Discworld pile.