May's Magical Meditations on Masterfully Manafactured Manuscripts

[GOLLUM]

Ok, most of you will be familiar with the drill by now.

What have you been reading at the beginning of and throughout the merry month of May?...

For my sins, I've made a start on 2 books.

1. Pickwick Papers -Charles Dickens *As I attempt to play catch up for the Dickens reading club. I'm enjoying the premise so far and the 'symbiotic' relationship between the text and marvellous accompanying illustrations.

2. The Following Story - Cees Noteboom *From one of Holland and Europe's greatest living writers of short fiction comes a story about a man's final moments of life as he goes to sleep in Amsterdam and 'awakes' in Lisbon. Go figure?

[gully_foyle]

Crikey! May already? Still on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. The story of two young (and fictional) comic book pioneers. A good read. I've lined up The Penultimate Truth by PKD for my next delve.

[j. d. worthington]

In the April thread, F.E. said:

As for Jonathan Thomas' collection, I've only read two stories so far but both very interesting and original. Indeed he is one of those most worth keeping track of in the genre right now. A genre that is burgeoning with talent and really thriving in my opinion.

I agree with that assessment. While the "horror boom" of the 80s produced some notable talent, it also produced a fair amount of mediocre or low-pulp-level talent, much of which disappeared within a relatively short period. The writing was simply not on a level to allow this to be more than "reading matter" to pass the time. What we're seeing now, though, is a growing group of literate, thoughtful, writers who have a touch of the poetic to their prose, who write prose that is itself worth reading, not simply to get to the story, but for its own sake. That, I think (based on my own observations, as well as those of others, on what it takes to last) is what makes this current crop of writers much more notable as a whole....

[Hypnos164]

Currently reading Fade Out by Rachel Caine - from the guilty pleasures section of the TBR pile...

[J-Sun]

Finished Joe Haldeman's Starbound, yesterday. This is a tricky book. I really enjoyed Marsbound but the big problems with that one were a preposterous "villain" (even for a pseudo-semi-YA) and (no spoilers) a very logically problematic conclusion which exposed problems with the whole underpinning. Probably the best things about it were the wonderful protagonist, the great Mars setting, and the imaginatively conceived aliens. The sequel doesn't have a preposterous villain and manages to keep most of the underpinnings, well, "under". So those problems are gone or reduced. Unfortunately, we also lose the Mars setting and have a much more muted and off-center protagonist, so lose a lot of the strength. Still, I was finding it even better than the first installment in many ways but (again, no spoilers) the conclusion made me pretty angry and I can only hope it gets "fixed" in the finale.

I don't know how much I can say about it because, while much wouldn't be spoilery for it, it would be spoilery for Marsbound. But I can keep to general and technical things. We recently had a thread about long time jumps between volumes in a series and this does seem to jump about a decade. Where she was our great narrator, full of attitude and humor, in the first volume, she's only one of three narrators in a difficult multi-first-person technique and, perhaps because she's older and/or off-center, she seems to have lost much of her sense of humor and become less interesting. And, technically, I find either I have a tin ear or Haldeman's technique didn't come off. One of the narrators is Carmen, a c.30 year old woman who came to Mars as a c.20 year old and literally fell into becoming a xenobiologist. Another is a c.50 year old Israeli spy who has suffered and done horrible things. Another is an alien. While I could almost always tell which parts were the alien's (and he takes Carmen's place for most of the delight in narration in this one because he's so askew), I had a hard time telling the two very different humans apart until I got some explicit reference that made it obvious which was narrating. Namir does have a stiffer syntax and a slightly different sense of humor from what Carmen had but, as I say, she's been muted to where her sense of humor isn't as definite as it was. I dunno - it just seems like (unless the point is that "we're not so different after all" - and it doesn't seem to be) one ought to be able to tell an older male spook of horrific experience from a younger female xenobiologist of fascinating experience. And then, as I say, there's the ending which sort of messed up the second volume for me and made me worried about the nature of the third.

And, thematically - time, memory, power, etc. - I had a hard time getting the parts to add up.

If you've read and liked Marsbound and want to follow along, I can recommend Starbound but that's about it at this point. This series is going to depend on Earthbound, which I will be getting, but I wouldn't recommend getting into this series if you haven't yet and certainly can't recommend this as any kind of stand-alone or entry point. Have to see how it turns out. Definitely some excellent parts in the two volumes so far, but I don't know what it'll add up to. (The third's actually out, but not in paperback yet.)

One spoiler comment: For a movie analogy, while nothing directly like it, this has the position and effect of The Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars trilogy - it's much darker and the "good guys" take it on the chin. The problem is that, at this point, the upside isn't as good and the end is much worse than Han being carbon frozen.

(Ironic to be this wishy-washy on a book when Haldeman's just been deservedly inducted into the SF Hall of Fame.)

[Extollager]

Current reading includes

Roger Scruton's Green Philosophy -- the noted conservative's discussion of oikophilia as an alternative to globalism-activism, and more; makes a lot of sense to me, but probably won't get much of a hearing, too far from the established narrative

Th. Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes -- the "courtship" novel by the author of Tess of the d'Urbervilles etc.

Salatin's Folks, This Ain't Normal -- by the founder of Polyface Farms, a hero of mine, about real food security etc.

Hendrickson's The Living and the Dead -- largely about former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Vietnam escalation) -- this seems to me a fine example of how "New Journalism" can get at fascinating stories with a special immediacy (I see New Journalism as a complement to, not substitute for, what was conventional journalism)

[ratsy]

I am reading "First Rider's Call" by Kristain Britain. I had just finished "Hidden Empire" by Kevin J Anderson. While it was slow in parts I did find myself really drawn into the universe he created. I will be buying the next on my Kindle App when I am done with a few more in my TBR pile at home.

[Diggler]

Autumn by David Moody. Pulpy and amateurish, but it's holding my interest. Plus it will be quick.

[Lord Soth]

Originally Posted by Diggler

Autumn by David Moody. Pulpy and amateurish, but it's holding my interest. Plus it will be quick.

A friend gave me a copy of this to read also, some post apocalyptic zombie survival thing? Originally a free book he gave away online and then (when it became more popular) published it himself i think.

[Warren_Paul]

Finished The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle - was a good entertaining read.

Started on The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - been very good so far. He has a great style of sarcasm to his writing.

[Stephen Palmer]

Originally Posted by Warren_Paul

Finished The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle - was a good entertaining read.

Going to start that on Monday. It's got a good cover, I notice.

[Coragem]

I'm finally reading Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes. Just over half way through and so far 10/10. Often parody, but so well executed with perfectly drawn characters, superbly tight writing, and hilarious.

Did I say "hilarious"!?

I think I ought to say "hilarious" at least three times.

Coragem.

[Grunkins]

Just finished Iain M Banks' Player of Games. Really enjoyed it. I've only read two of his novels so far but both have been great. I'm happy to report I have two more of his books in my TBR stacks and two on the way.

Started Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun. He's been approaching "favorite author" status for a while now. I adore his writing.

[Lord Soth]

Originally Posted by Grunkins

Just finished Iain M Banks' Player of Games. Really enjoyed it. I've only read two of his novels so far but both have been great. I'm happy to report I have two more of his books in my TBR stacks and two on the way.

Started Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun. He's been approaching "favorite author" status for a while now. I adore his writing.

Love Bank's stuff and to be honest I have the same feelings of GGK as you do too (although no-one can beat Erikson!). Will be interesting what you think, I have read 3 of his now, spreading out the enjoyment a little.

[Grunkins]

Originally Posted by Lord Soth

Love Bank's stuff and to be honest I have the same feelings of GGK as you do too (although no-one can beat Erikson!). Will be interesting what you think, I have read 3 of his now, spreading out the enjoyment a little.

I've been trying to spread Kay out as well. I have all his books and have been allowing myself to read one every few months. This is my fourth Kay book and all of them have been amazing.

I haven't read any Erikson yet, but I do have the first four Malazan books in my TBR stacks just sitting their, innocent as timebombs.