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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Here we go again with the P&M. I extended the number of books in the reading levels,though Weesam will probably still finish within 3 months! We had an excellent year in 2015,around 12 active participants reading 337 books,and reviewing 195 of them Amazing.
Lets hope for the same this year.
Anyone got any particular plans? I have cut down on heavy serious award winners etc this yearHey,the longer I can put off those massive wristbreaking tomes of the 90s the better,I am having a sort of break from them,but have lined up a host of fun 50s and 60s stuff,much more relaxing and enjoyable to me. lol.
Happy reading,people!
Edited by dustydigger 2016-01-02 4:12 AM
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Veteran
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Location: scotland | I am looking forward to trying to read more in 2016.
To start I have a few new books I got at christmas to start me off. | |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Great Lakes, USA | I am not sure what possessed me because I don't read much horror, but I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle yesterday. What a creepy little story! It's very well written, the characterization is excellent and it's creepy. Not blood and guts all over kind of creepy, but psychological creepy. I liked it.
I have a bunch of those wrist-breaking tomes on my list this year, so I probably won't join as many challenges or read the maximum on a lot of challenges. I am determined to read Under the Dome this year and finish Words of Radiance. | |
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Veteran
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| I've joined this year, too, but for the 40 book level. I'm starting with Nancy Kress' Probability Sun. (I really enjoyed the first book, Probability Moon.) | |
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Location: UK | @ Daxxh - I am a bit of a wimp where horror is concerned,especially the gory modern kind,but I think this is more on the creepy,insidious style of horror. I do have it in mind to read it some time,as I did like her Haunting of Hill House,many years ago.
@Mervi - 40 should be easy for you,you whizzed through books at the end of the year. I will be interested to hear about Nancy Kress' Probability series. Someday I hope to get round to her Beggars in Spain books. | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | First book of the year was John Varley's Titan.This was a fun romp, though quite cheesy at times. But I always love books about Big Dumb Objects, and lapped up this one, a huge space habitat orbiting Saturn, run by a semi-insane artificial intelligence. Fun descriptions of the habitat, the strange creatures, including centaurs and angels, mix engagingly with fastpaced adventures, and a quest to confront whoever is in charge of this place. Light fluff, but a nice read on a cold winter afternoon.
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Regular
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Location: USA | Howdy, dustydigger. Finally followed you over from Shelfari. I'm in on this challenge, though with a degree of caution. 2015 was a bad year for setting goals, and while 2016 holds promise - well every year does, right up to the moment when it all goes horribly wrong...
So, starting with 10. Don't what all of them will be yet, but the list is started, and I'm well into David Brin's book Kiln People. I had no trouble getting caught up in this one! | |
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Veteran
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| dustydigger - 2016-01-06 2:00 PM
@Mervi - 40 should be easy for you,you whizzed through books at the end of the year. I will be interested to hear about Nancy Kress' Probability series. Someday I hope to get round to her Beggars in Spain books.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. 
I enjoyed Probability Sun, too, but not quite as much as Probability Moon. In "Moon" Kress explores an alien society and their mindset; they have shared reality which is enforced by biology. Shared reality doesn't allow them to do violence or even lie. In "Sun", the aliens are almost a back drop. I will continue to Probability Space. | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | @ Leyra'an(aka Thomas) welcome toWWEnd,and Pick and Mix. I see I have read 5 of your picks,and Have Kil'n People and the Lies of Locke Lamora on the TBR.
I always enjoy David Brin. Hope to get round to the second Uplift trilogy,starting with Brightness Reef towards the end of the year if all goes well.So many books,so little time. | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | I found Ursula LeGuin's The Word for World is Forest a heavy handed, very earnest depiction of humans exploiting a planet, logging precious wood for Earth, using the indigenous people, small, green and furry, as slaves. The main human villain is almost cartoonish in his complete and utter brutality, the Hainish charcters are so high-minded and ethical, and the native people, though primitive technologically are at one with their world, rather in the mold of noble savages, with somewhat telepathic powers. One could look upon the society as still in Eden and sadly when they finally retaliate against their human oppressors its a case of lost innocence, a leaving of Eden, as they prove themselves as cruel, vicious and relentless as the humans. Not sure what to make of this, it was all a bit too black and white for me, and rather downbeat. A bit too overdidactic, but of course very much of its time in its concerns for the environment and the way man's greed can destroy what is beautiful or trampling on those who stand in their way. Not one of LeGuin's best, a bit too "worthy", with no shading. Oh well, at least it was SHORT!
Ann Leckie's Ancillary Mercy started out a bit stodgy,as usual,slow moving.Breq is as highminded as ever,and earnestly pits herself against Lord Mianaai,while sorting out her young officers,another ancillary,the AIs of a ship and a station,and lots of downtrodden stationers at intervals.It was well past halfway before Breq even made a little guerilla attack on the Radch enemy. Its all OK,perfectly reasonable read,but Breq does go on a bit,all that angst and internal muttering,while offhandedly sorting everybody's problem in passing!
Anyway,all in all Mercy is adequately rounding off the trilogy,but,unlike the myriad of fans, I guess I feel the whole series has been overhyped.I liked Ancillary Sword best,it got out of Radch space,and we got a straightfprward story,and the characters seemed more vibrant somehow. Oh well,just not really absorbing or exciting enough for me. | |
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA | @dustydigger.
I found The Word for World is Forest to be one of Le Guin's better efforts. I'm convinced it was the inspiration for the movie Avatar. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | In Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIHM widowed mouse Mrs. Frisby has to move herself and her four children from their winter home in a cinder block in the farmer's field to their summer home by the woodland stream. But her son is stricken with pneumonia and is both too weak to make the move and would find the cold dampness of their summer house very dangerous so early in the year. But in five days the farmer is making plans to plow the field and their home will be destroyed.
At her wits end, Mrs. Frisby seeks help from some unusual rats, rats which had escaped from intelligence-enhancing experiements in a lab at NIMH,( the National Institutes of Mental Health).Now with increased size,strength and high intelligence (they can read,which has been of important value in setting up their community) they have developed a conscience about stealing from the farmer,and are planning to move to a secluded area where they can establish a self-sustaining lifestyle,with the deliberate aim of setting up a new rat civilisation,without having to depend on humans,and avoiding recapture by the scientists.
On discovering that Mrs. Frisby's husband had important ties with the rats,even helping with their escape and survival, they agree to help her save her family.Mrs Frisby will have to risk all to save her son,especially by drugging the fearsome cat,Dragon,and there will be excitement, danger and tragedy before it all ends up happy ever after.
I really enjoyed this book,which won the Newbery Medal.It started off so rural,very much in the vein of Beatrix Potter,and then suddenly threw the reader into the adventures of lab rats escaping from the lab,and then the intense dangers and risks as both rats and Mrs Frisby have a hair raising time escaping the humans,and saving her home. Vividly written,full of thrills and spills,there are plenty of delightful things to hold the attention of adults.I loved it,and would recommend it to children and adults alike.
The author actually knew someone who worked on experiments with rats at the NIMH in the 50s and 60s Even today NIMH are doing breakthrough work. Research published in the March 2013 issue of Cell Stem Cell details the injection of human glial cells into the brains of newborn mice. Upon maturation, the mice were faster learners. O'Brien was on the ball 40 years before. Cool!
I am now reading T J Bass The Godwhale and Cordwainer Smith's Norstrilia for the 1970s Defining Books challenge
Edited by dustydigger 2016-01-11 5:20 AM
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Have only read a dozen pages in all over the last few days,because we are all in a furore over on Shelfari. Amazon has ''merged'' Shelfari and Goodreads,i.e. totally destroyed Shelfari. We have been given a princely two months to salvage what we can from years of discussions and recommendations,plus find a new home for our groups. Boy,the ears of the amazon bosses must be burning.I am busy setting up groups etc over on Leafmarks and reading is taking a back seat for the moment. | |
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Member
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| Finally figured this one out 
Of this year's reads so far I loved Childhood's End the most. Imagine a world where everybody could have whatever they wanted. Quite some effect this would have.
The other I really liked is Metatropolis - a collection of short stories set in a not too distant future where resources are scarce but humans have not changed their ways. Originally an audiobook exclusive, this has also been published in writing.
The Legend of Drizzt (Homeland, Exile, Sojourn) is really a bit much meeting bad beasties and battling them.
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams - also a collection of short stories - includes a few good ones, but nothing that really blew me away.
The Three Body Problem was very good as well. The setting in China with the cultural revolution angle was really interesting. Looking forward to reading the sequel.
Edited by Sushicat 2016-01-18 6:25 AM
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Regular
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Location: USA | dustydigger - 2016-01-14 9:07 PM
Have only read a dozen pages in all over the last few days,because we are all in a furore over on Shelfari. Amazon has ''merged'' Shelfari and Goodreads,i.e. totally destroyed Shelfari. We have been given a princely two months to salvage what we can from years of discussions and recommendations,plus find a new home for our groups. Boy,the ears of the amazon bosses must be burning.I am busy setting up groups etc over on Leafmarks and reading is taking a back seat for the moment.
It was quite a shock when the Pink Banner of Death appeared over Shelfari. This place and Leafmarks between them softened the blow, even if it was a bit disruptive.
I bumped myself up a level for Pick & Mix 2016...
What could I have been thinking? lol | |
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Veteran
Posts: 144
Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA | dustydigger and Leyra'an
I'm not familiar with Shelfari but if they're merging it with Goodreads, I invite you to join our Evolution of Science Fiction discussion group on Goodreads.
There was something of a furor when Amazon took over Goodreads, but can't see any deleterious effect. | |
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Location: USA | spectru - I don't actually have anything against Goodreads, I just preferred the format on Shelfari. I've not heard of that discussion group (the only one I keep track of, though I haven't participated in a long time, is Sword and Laser). I will check it out. Thanks! | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | My shelf still hasnt imported to GR,and I tried to export from shelfari within hours of seeing the Banner of Death.I did receive my shelfari file,and everything was on it,perfect. But migrating my books to GR ? Chaos.Only two measly books have arrived there,without ratings or read dates ,so ,once my data fully transfers to Leafmarks and LibraryThing,I am seriously hovering on the brink of leaving GR. When I joined GR several years ago,only 1800 of my 3400books (at the time) ever arrived. I added about 400 manually,then gave up and edited exclusively on shelfari.Now they are demolishing shelfari - and what if I have the same pathetic take up of books again?I am NOT a happy camper
@Thomas,I checked out the LT science fiction group,and though there are few discussions,there are some interesting threads,such as one about authors who seem to be neglected or forgotten. I felt very smug reading about those authors,because,thanks to WWEnds lists I am already familiar with a lot of them. Jim 's excellent Defining Books of the 50s in particular has made me familiar with many of them,and I have even READ quite a few books bythem!Good old WWEnd.
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Uber User
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Location: Gunnison, Colorado | In regard to the book site discussion, I tried Good Reads and LibraryThing, and ended up preferring LibraryThing, so that's where I catalog books. Hopefully Amazon doesn't buy them out as well... I guess it's not surprising Amazon would combine the sites, but you'd think they'd do it in a way that didn't destroy their users' work. I can certainly understand the anger. I guess there's no guarantee with these things...
And dusty, thanks as usual for the "Pick and Mix"! | |
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Uber User
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| Library Thing is offering free lifetime membership to Shelfari users and has help pages on importing books. Amazon has a small share holding in LT which they are determined will not get any larger. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Amazon want to rule the world as far as any book related site is concerned. In the UK there is only one major chain of bookshops left,Waterstones. In the second hand area they snapped up AbeBooks ,and it was sad to hear in 2011 that the Book Depository had also been gobbled up. As a result, independent booksellers were unable to compete,and are closing down at more than one a week!. You very rarely see a book shop over here nowadays .I live near a medium sized city,Sunderland.,pop.275,000.,It has one Waterstones branch,very small, selling mainly bestsellers,one W H Smith stationers branch,and NO secondhand bookshops at all! And this is a university city!
We had the most marvellous second hand bookshop near the city centre beside the university campus.Masses of textbooks,boxes of dusty old books tucked away everywhere which often turned up hidden delights(that was way I took on my username,getting grimy hands rooting out intriguing boxes of books),and having that distinctive smell of old books.Genre fans would be happily searching the packed shelves for the next crime or romance,teenagers would be poring over the display cabinets of badges and buttons,or the posters of old films.Imagine the horror when the place suddenly announced it was closing down to become a winebar! All very sad.....wonder if Alibris are nervously peering over their shoulder to see if they are being stalked!Maybe not,being owned by a billionaire,they are very similar to Amazon. lol.
Oh and one more depressing thing about Amazon. On UK sales of 4 billion,they paid a princely ELEVEN MILLION in tax.Our book buying culture is being destroyed,and we dont even make any cash from it for our beleaguered public services  .
Edited by dustydigger 2016-01-23 9:54 PM
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Wow,FINALLY completed my first SF book for a month,Alan Dean Foster's Icerigger
While I had no computer my online read of Alan Dean Foster's Icerigger was wiped off ,timed out,but fortunatelythere was another copy turned uo quickly and I polished off the last 50 pages at a gallop.
Some people,SF purists, tend to curl the lip a bit at ADF because he does lots of novelisations of films and pulpy stuff,but I have always found his books,no matter how slight ,are just good relaxing fun,perfect lighter reads. He has a smooth flowing style,glints of humour and engaging characters,and the pace is light speed rip roaring adventure. In Icerigger a salesman,Ethan Fortune,a huge Viking like crewman and a small geeky schoolteacher are inadvertantly swept up by kidnappers as they stumble into the abduction of a billionaire and his daughter,and are dragged away in a space shuttle,It then crashes on an icy planet,which is a balmy 0 degrees Fahrenheit at the equator in summer. There is a human outpost at the opposite side of the planet. The local city-state is about to be engulfed by a Horde of barbarians,so in return for the humans' help,with a judicuous amount of gunpowder,the use of crossbows and other minor infringements of the Prime Directive,against the brtal tribe,the locals build them a ship with duralloy sort of skis for their icerigger,and off they go across the frozen seas world,with various adventures,including an erupting volcano,religious fanatics who want to sacrifice them, a return engagement with the Horde,and attacks by vast creatures that would make a earthly whale look like a tiddler. Huge fun, a nostalgic re-read and of course I must now reread the rest of the trilogy .
I am now reading Cordwainer Smith's Norstrilia for my 1975 book in the 70s Defining Book challenge,plus Simon R Green's The Dark Side of the Road,an odd mix with an alien masquerading as a human, and a sort of cozy crime story,when the alien hero's boss is found beheaded during a country house Xmas house party,when a group of people are isolated by huge snowstorms. The murderer is among them! Good fun so far.
Edited by dustydigger 2016-02-09 9:22 AM
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New User
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| New to the forums here!
I was looking through the lists of honors and awards, and realized how few of these well-regarded works I've actually read. And I consider myself to be a fairly well-rounded reader.
That said, I'm taking up the challenge this year of reading through the NPR Top 100 list. I felt that it was a good place to start, because I already own several books on top of this list (but FAR fewer overall than I thought I did!). Even works I've read in recent years are going to be read again, and I'm going to try to stick to the order as closely as possible to keep myself on track.
Cheers, all!
Doc B | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Hi there Doc B,and welcome to WWEnd. Yep,there is nothing more lowering than to look down a list and see how little you have read! lol.
A lot of purists were a bit derogatory about the NPR,that it omits too many classic books,and is a mix of SF and Fantasy,mixed singletons and series,and too populist. But it was a good snapshot of what people are actually reading.
I picked it out as a starting point for getting to know SF when I joined WWEnd back in 2012 for that reason. Also for practicality,as I found that of the books I wanted to tick off,all but 7 of them were available in my library.Compare that with what my library could provide from the Hugos - only 27 of the 63! And only 37/100 from David Pringle's list. Certainly more accessible by far.
Since then I have discovered the Open Library which has put a lot more free books within my grasp
I've read 73/100 of theNPR books but I am now left with the ones I dont fancy,mostly for two reasons - I am not a fantasy fan as a rule(over 20 of those 27 unreads are fantasy).And nearly all of them are huge wristbreaking tomes. What is it with fantasy that every book has to be a minimum of 800 pages? Oh dear.I am much happier with those fun old SF books of around 200 pages!. I suppose because most of those old authors cut their teeth on writing stories for magazines,they could produce complete succinct packing - a- punch SHORTt novels - yet were often jam packed with fantastic themes and ideas! Good stuff.
Well.I am having a year off the NPR list this year,I will only read 7 off the list. and the Perdido Street Stations,,Mists of Avalons,Doomsday Books,and those massive Neal Stephenson,.George R R Martins and Robert Jordans can stay on the shelf without breaking my wrists for another year.
Have a great time working your way through the list! Happy reading. | |
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Veteran
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| Welcome Doc B!
My next read was Terry Pratchett's Raising Steam. Trains with steam engines have come to Discworld. Moist von Lipwig and the engine's inventor Dick Simnel put their heads together to come up with the railway system. Meanwhile, some dwarfs think that progress has gone too far. I enjoyed the book well enough but I don't think it's one of the best. | |
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New User
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| Thanks! I settled on the NPR list to have a broad range of topics for the challenge, but I have a feeling I'll move on to less 'generalist' selections for next year! I did like that there are enough on the list that I've never read to sustain me with new material for most of the year (also, bit ashamed about that). Not looking forward to those wrist-strainers... but I'll probably resort to employing the Kindle for those. I really only use it for weighty reference books and journals for work (much easier to transport between office and lab than multiple bound volumes), but I have a feeling it will be just the tool for those... erm... weighty selections.
Cheers!
Doc B | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Mervi,I felt a little let down by it somehow.It was almost a straight history of earthly railways,with less fantasy or laugh aloud humour than usual It wasnt half a good as Going Postal. But I am always happy when we meet up with the Patrician,one of my favourite Discworld characters. Was so sad to hear of the death of Alan Rickman. Terry Pratchett always said he had Alan in mind when he wrote about Havelock Vetenari. It would be perfect casting! | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Just finished Simon R Green's The Dark Side of the Road.A bit of an oddity this one,a sort of cozy mystery a la Agatha Christie's And Then There were None as a snowed in group at a christmas country house party are picked off one by one. But the protagonist is an alien who crashlanded on earth in 1963 and never ages,and the villain is a supernatural creature! Pleasant enough fun,but I was disconcerted by the way characters would lose a son,a mother,a father,and just sort of shrug it off with a ''oh well,we were never really close'' That was weirder than any of the action.Oh well,it was a nice light fluff read,quite short,perfect for relaxing on a cold winter afternoon,but certainly no brain - stretcher!
I am about 60% through Cordwainer Smith's altogether moreimpressive Norstrilia all a bit bonkers but fascinating.,and am about to start John Varley's Ophiuchi Hotline
Edited by dustydigger 2016-02-12 2:04 AM
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Regular
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Location: USA | Finished a book in the same month I started it. That's become a rare feat!
Fury, by Henry Kuttner.
Published in 1950, this book is a classic if not well know work of science fiction from Henry Kuttner, an author who deserves to be remembered and read more often than is the case these days. Fury is the story of a man named Sam Reed, a resident of Venus in a future when all that's left of Humanity exists in domed keeps under the seas of that world. Earth was destroyed seven hundred years before the tale begins, and the survivors colonized Venus. Sam is an angry man, one who uses his anger and his formidable intelligence as tools to carve a niche for himself in a society that is steadily decaying around him. Life in the keeps is too easy, lacking in meaningful challenge; the human species is slowly fading away. The salvation of Humanity exists in colonization of the hostile lands of the continents of Venus, places with insanely dangerous creatures that are sometimes both plant and animal. How Sam becomes involved in this colonization scheme, and the consequences of his involvement, make up the tale told in Fury.
Fury is very much character driven, and these characters have something in common. None of them are heroes in any sense of the word. There are no simple good guys or bad guys in this story, though Sam Reed certainly qualifies as an anti-hero. Each has motives and morals that, when they intersect, move the story forward.
While it is clear from its style that this book was written before the current obsession with "show, don't tell," the book reads well all these decades later. It doesn't even matter that the Venus of Kuttner's imagination is impossible. When Kuttner wrote this book (likely in the late 1940s) the possibility of a swampy, jungle Venus had not yet been ruled out. The book is beautifully written, the characters thoroughly realized, and the exotic setting works even in the face of current knowledge. Well worth the time it would take to read this short (less than 200 pages) novel.
Note: Fury was later (1958) republished under the title Destination: Infinity. The original title definitely suits the book better!
Edited by Leyra'an 2016-02-13 12:34 PM
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Great review Thomas! I really had wanted to read this book but havent been able to locate a free copy yet.I'm sure Jim Harris's Defining Books of the 50s is doing a valuable job of introducing people to these old writers slipping away from view. Kuttner was married to C L Moore,whose Jirel of Joirey I read and enjoyed last year.
...just checking,and I see a reasonably priced secondhand copy of Fury around,so there's another book on the TBR pile.....sigh.......
Edited by dustydigger 2016-02-13 3:59 PM
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Location: USA | You'll be glad you picked that one up.  | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| My next read was Judith Tarr's Queen of the Amazons. It's a historical fantasy set in the Ancient world, specifically in Alexander the Great's time. Alexander himself is a significant secondary character. The main character is Selene, an Amazon warrior. I loved the book but I'm a sucker for anything with Alexander the Great. | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | RYO Pick and Mix challenge update - Last year we had 17 participants who read 158 books and reviewed 33 of them over the whole year. Compare that with this year,in two months 20 participants have read 137 books and reviewed 29 of them! Wonderful. Keep up the good work,people. It really is pick and mix with a really eclectic list of books. Makes me want to rush off and read them all immediately. Lists do that to me ! lol. | |
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Location: USA | Finished a reread of LeGuin's novel The Left Hand of Darkness today. I first read this novel in 1975, while a college freshman, and although I enjoyed the writing style, really didn't know what to make of it. Rereading it now, after many more years of experience with life and books, I'm amazed by the power of the story in this deceptively short book. That it won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1970 surprises me not at all, and now I have a better understand of why it took top honors. Beautifully written, it's a strange sort of love story that expresses itself as such in an indirect way. You'll have to experience it yourself to see what I mean. An explanation from me would be a list of spoilers. This was my first experience with LeGuin's writing, and I was a fan by the time I finished it back then. Rereading the book easily confirms that long-ago impression. Highly recommended. | |
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Location: UK | Good book,Thomas,and it handled a gender issue in a delicate sensitive way. Its probably 20 years since I read it but the outcome for the characters has haunted me ever since.Imagine such a topic being handled by someone like Philip Jose Farmer for instance!....(shudder)
I recently garnered some disapproval from some quarters when I said I was not too keen onLe Guin's Word for World is Forest,which I felt was more propaganda than I liked,too heavy handed on the issues. With Left Hand,which is on a potentially more controversial area,the characters and the story were supreme. Heartbreaking and memorable. A classic | |
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Veteran
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| dustydigger - 2016-03-01 12:33 AM
It really is pick and mix with a really eclectic list of books. Makes me want to rush off and read them all immediately.
I agree, it's great to see how different books people are reading!
My next book was N.K. Jemisin's The Shadowed Sun. It's a second book in the Dreamblood duology and I enjoyed it a lot. It's secondary world fantasy with rich world-building. | |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Great Lakes, USA | The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Patrick Rothfuss. Even though Rothfuss suggests not reading this book if you haven't read any of the Kingkiller Chronicles, I read it anyway. It is a delightful little story about Auri, a damaged young woman with OCD. Told from Auri's point of view, everything must be done just so and placed just so. The underground world sounds fascinating and I may just have to read the Kingkiller Chronicles to see what's going on above ground.
The Peripheral - William Gibson. This is my first Gibson book, believe it or not. I own quite a few of his books and they're been in the TBR pile for years. This was a decent book - worth the read in my opinion. There's cool tech and a murder to solve across two time periods. The time periods are a bit dystopian, but not so unrealistic - especially the one near our own.
A Darkling Sea - James Cambias. The sentient species the humans are supposed to leave alone are giant lobsters who have their own civilization. They do everything by touch and sonar. The policemen of the galaxy are centaur-like and seem to be obsessed with sex. And the humans are typical humans - don't want to follow stupid rules. Great story. I can see why it was nominated for some awards. | |
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Location: USA | I'm on a roll!
Finished Star Gate by Andre Norton, this evening. At some point, so many years ago it feels like a story from another person's life, I read a stack of novels by Andre Norton. I have a list of titles that seem familiar from that time, and Star Gate is one of them. By the time I finished the alleged reread of Star Gate, I began to contemplate the fallibility of memory. Nothing was familiar except for the title. That's just fine. First read or reread, this short novel was a quick, entertaining read that maintains a solid pace and is populated by believable characters. Norton is not an author who spoon feeds a reader, providing enough detail to give a good frame of reference, then leaving much to the reader's imagination. The adventure told in this story is better described as science fantasy that science fiction, but that's a detail, not a complaint. Well worth the time spent tracking a copy down.
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Location: UK | I too wonder about the fallability of memory. I do remember reading an Andre Norton book belonging to a friend way back in somewhere around 1963,1964. I remember nothing whatsoever about it except for a little woodcut illustration at the start of the book,where a boy,presumably the teenage hero is looking out of an open window. A climbing rose is winding its way up beside the window. And thats it,nothing about the story at all,only a vague warm glow that I had found it very enjoyable. lol. Oddly enough I met up with the friend at a school reunion in the 1980s and brough this up as we reminisced about books we had read back at school,and she said she still had it,and would send it to me,but I never heard from her again,she was living in another part of the country,and I lost contact with our mutual friend,so that was that. A warm glow and a woodcut of a rose tree isnt really much help ,is it?
I do have The Stars Are Ours on my RYO challenge lists for this year.She seems to have an awful lot of books with the word Star in the title.
Meanwhile I have just completed a double,two Samuel R Delaney novellas,The Ballad of Beta B and Empire Star,early Delaney but good fun. But my brain is still stunned from Empire Star,which starts off as a seemingly straightforward tale of a boy who is handed a jewel like lifeform by a dying person on a crashed spaceship and sets off to go to Empire Star to carry an important message to someone,though at the start he knows neither said message nor the person it is intended for.As the little story of his journey progresses we encounter time loops and learn time is not linear in any shape or form. For example,he is sent off on his journey by an incredibly aged old woman,whom months later he will meet as a teenage princess!. Enormous fun,but the stunning explanations are made in two paragraphs right at the end of the book,too rushed to take in at a sitting.It will take time to sort it all out in my poor weak simplex brain! lol.Apparently Delany wrote this novella in a mere 10 days.and its a mindtwister.
Very much enjoyed Arthur C Clarke's Fountains of Paradise, about the building of a space elevator. I am a sucker for Big Dumb Objects and Clarke makes the building of the elevator and the dealing with an accident very exciting. Some of the subplots were a bit unnecessary really,but where the book scored with me was the way it restored some of the awe and wonder of the near space around us.We may not have attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orionas in Bladerunner,but Clarke managed to renew the feeling of wonder at space on a more prosaic but believable level,just above our heads.Clarke's rather dry style works perfectly with the dry engineering stuff,making it plausible,and the protagonist is made likable enough that we can identify with him in the tense later sections of the tale.
I think this is one of my favourite Clarke books as far as entertainment goes. I often found it moving and absorbing. Very enjoyable.That was Hugo winner #47/64.Next up will be #48.Joan Vinge's The Snow Queen,probably in May. Lots of wrist-breaking tomes coming up for that WWEnd list!
Now I am nearing the end of John Varley's The Ophiuchi Hotline,and | |
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| My next reads were Jeff Vandermeer's "Authority" and "Acceptance", books 2 and 3 in the horror/SF Southern Reach trilogy. They're very atmospheric books with interesting characters but the ending was left too ambigious for my tastes. The premise: mysterious Area X appeared 30 years ago on US soil separating a good chunck of land from the rest. It's pretty remote area, though, but Area X seems pretty malevolent and quickly wipes clean most signs of human civilization. The first book, "Annihiliation", is the diary of one of the people sent inside Area X. "Authority" centers on the government agency which has been created to oversee the border of the area and analyzing samples from there. Paranoia and distrust is rampant. "Acceptance" is again set inside Area X. | |
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Location: UK | YAY! Finally finished several books I have had on the go at once. John Varley's Ophiuchi Hotline was quite fun. 400 years before alien Invaders came to earth to tend the whales and dolphins,who are superior in intelligence to men. They completely eradicated every scrap of human technology,so mankind died in their billions,and the few humans left were reduced to the stone ageMankind now existed only on outposts on the moon and other solar system satellites. Then information started to come from an unknown source, seemingly from the Ophiuchi system,wondrous tech far beyond man's capabilities which they can only use but not understand,particularly in cloning bodies and recording memories,so that within months of someone dying,a new clone,indistinguishable from the original person can be made,though with a memory gap from the death till the time after the clone is''born'' Now the mysterious suppliers of the tech are presenting a bill for their services,and things are not looking good for mankind......
It was all good fun,but I have an horrendous cold,and as multiple clones of the heroine proliferated in time and space my poor old brain found it hard to keep track. It was made even worse by reading Samuel R Delany's Empire Star,which would have been challenging even in full health! lol.Time loops and paradoxes galore.
Anyway,these together with Fountains of Paradise made for a pretty interesting and enjoyable month of SF reading. Next up will be Joan D Vinge's Snow Queen, and C J Cherryh's Faded Sun : Kesrith but the grandkids are on school holidays now,and quiet time for reading is rather difficult,so it may be a while before I can concentrate on them! lol
Another great month for the Pick n Mixers.Last year 18 participants read 337 books in the year,and reviewed 198 of them. So far this year we have 25 participants,have already read 222 books with 47 reviews. 85 books in this month alone were added.well done! | |
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Location: UK | I felt sure I'd read the Ophiuchi Hotline, but it doesn't sound that familiar. | |
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| I really liked Cherryh's Faded Suns series. I hope you'll enjoy it. | |
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| The Snow Queen AND the Faded Sun! I have nice memories of both. I'll be lurking to read what you think of them. | |
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Location: UK | Looking forward to the Cherryh book in particular. I have read over 30 of her SF books,but I am not really a fantasy fan,and havent read much of that part of her work,so doing the 1970s Defining books challenge pushed me into reading Kesrith. Once the grandkids are back to school of course,its mayhem at the moment! lol.
AT LAST the paperback of Cherryh's Tracker is coming out in UK this week.I am always annoyed that neither our bookshops or the public library seem to be aware of her books,and I always have to wait ages,far behind my booksite friends till the paperback comes out. | |
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Location: UK | She doesn't seem to have much available in ebook in the UK, either. I would like to pick up some of the early stuff like the Chanur series which I don't own in paper.
The Faded Sun trilogy is SF. I'm fairly sure. Although now I think about it I can barely remember any details. | |
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| Faded Sun is SF. I read it a few years ago. I haven't yet read any of Cherryh's fantasy, either, but I have her Fortress series so I should try it. | |
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| My next read was Lois McMaster Bujold's Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. I've been a fan of Bujold for a long time and I loved this one, too. However, it's quite different from her previous books; it's not an adventure or mystery. It's a tale of two people who are finally getting over their grief and starting a new life. However, it's the latest (possibly last) book in her long Vorkosigan series and love the characters. | |
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Location: UK | Mervi I have been in two minds about this one. My heart broke when poor Miles was addressed as Count Vorkosigan,and I missed him so much in Ivan's tale,so I am in two minds about this one. I am sure to read it eventually,but with a mix of emotions. We'll see.
In theory I am reading Cherryh's Kesrith at the moment,have barely begun it,but am struggling with all the names and titles in the Mri language. Its difficult and confusing,and the book is very dense. I suppose once I get past these early pages things will improve,but what with school holidays for the grandkids and my husband putting moronic and or boring programmes on the TV,I am fully aware my concentration is shot and I will probably have to restart it once the kids are back to school.
What I am reading and thoroughly enjoying are the sequels to the iconic Mary Norton book,The Borrowers. Meant only to read #2,The Borrowers Afield,but the story of these 6 inch high little people who live on our leftovers is delightful and riveting stuff. I have read Afield,Afloat and Aloft back to back .and how now started The Borrowers Avenged. The tales are very enjoyable for kids,but there is a lot of darker stuff for adults to pick up on. The horror of losing one's home,cast out into a hard and dangerous world is something resonant for all of us in this time of migrants and homelessness on a huge scale. The way these little Borrowers keep on striving,looking for a safe,secure home somewhere, chimes with todays news,adding poignancy and relevance to this saga of a brave little family continually harrassed, uprooted and adrift,yet still bravely going forward, firm and strong in adversity. This series may be a little old fashioned,but its a classic,beautifully written,and with characters who are hauntingly real,fully individualizedL. Excellent,highly recommended.
Of course since I have just ordered C J Cherryh's Tracker,finally out in paperback here,all other reads are likely to be diverted while once again I accompany Bren-ji through the maze of the court. Look forward to tea with Ilisidi-ji despite the freezing cold on her balcony!. Ah but how I yearn to learn more about Banichi and Jago,or to go off to relax on Bren's country estate.Once the book arrives,all other worlds must be firmly set aside! | |
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| dustydigger - 2016-04-06 8:59 AM
Mervi I have been in two minds about this one. My heart broke when poor Miles was addressed as Count Vorkosigan,and I missed him so much in Ivan's tale,so I am in two minds about this one. I am sure to read it eventually,but with a mix of emotions. We'll see.
Aral is one of my favorite literary characters. I bought the eARC as soon as it was available but I didn't read it until now excatly because I didn't know if I would be able to handle a Vorkosigan book so pointedly without Aral. Turned out that I did but the book is very full of Aral's influence; reminiscenses and little stories about him. It helped that Cordelia is also a favorite character and I've long wanted to have another books from her POV. Still, we can always revisit the earlier books.
In theory I am reading Cherryh's Kesrith at the moment,have barely begun it,but am struggling with all the names and titles in the Mri language. Its difficult and confusing,and the book is very dense. I suppose once I get past these early pages things will improve,
Indeed. Pretty much every Cherryh book I've read have started that way. She doesn't explain much at all. One of the reasons I love reading her but her books always demand lots of concentration from me.
What I am reading and thoroughly enjoying are the sequels to the iconic Mary Norton book,The Borrowers. Meant only to read #2,The Borrowers Afield,but the story of these 6 inch high little people who live on our leftovers is delightful and riveting stuff. I have read Afield,Afloat and Aloft back to back .and how now started The Borrowers Avenged. The tales are very enjoyable for kids,but there is a lot of darker stuff for adults to pick up on. The horror of losing one's home,cast out into a hard and dangerous world is something resonant for all of us in this time of migrants and homelessness on a huge scale. The way these little Borrowers keep on striving,looking for a safe,secure home somewhere, chimes with todays news,adding poignancy and relevance to this saga of a brave little family continually harrassed, uprooted and adrift,yet still bravely going forward, firm and strong in adversity. This series may be a little old fashioned,but its a classic,beautifully written,and with characters who are hauntingly real,fully individualizedL. Excellent,highly recommended.
Good to know! My niece loves the movie and I've been thinking of giving the books a shot. | |
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Location: UK | I was lucky to obtain the original four books in a hardback anthology for a ridiculously cheap price,with fabulous old fashioned woodcut illustrations which enhanced and often elucidated the story. Marvellous stuff.I was also read The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper ,and was disappointed at then rather anticlimactic final two books. So I was relieved that the Borrower books lived up to their reputation! :0) I was very happy when WWEnd added so many junior classic titles to the database. After all,those early fantasy reads probably laid the foundations for all of us loving fantasy,and speculative fiction of all kinds.
It is available very cheaply on Abebooks.com. Check out Mary Norton/Borrowers anthology there,less than $5. The illustrations are miraculous,so in keeping with the story and its time of writing. | |
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| Thanks for the tip, dustydigger! Your set sounds great. | |
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| My next book was Patricia Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red. It's the retelling of the fairy tale of the same name. It's set in Elizabethan England and the characters speak in the Elizabethan accent. It feel like a fairy tale. Snow White and Rose Red are sisters and live with their mother in a small cottage. One day they spy John Dee and Edward Kelly in the forest, doing magic. That mortal magic affects a half-faery man unexpectedly and draws them all into danger. | |
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Location: UK | I have just today completed C J Cherryh's Kesrith ,a bit darker and more complicated than some of her work. Only her third novel,so a Hugo and a Nebula nomination isnt to be sniffed at.It has all the trademarks we admire her for,such as fascinating aliens ,two species this time no less,complex but credible characterization,fine descriptions of the harsh world of Kesrith,and of course that immersive third person voice of the characters which drags us to the heart of each protagonist,so we feel we know them in depth.Dark,dense,downbeat but riveting entertainment.
Next up will be Clarke's Sands of Mars,and some UF light reads. Too much going on in real life to concentrate on more serious stuff!. Lets hope I get more SF read next month | |
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| I'm glad you enjoyed Kesrith, dustydigger. Do you have the rest of the series?
My next Pick&Mix read was Judith Tarr's Bring Down the Sun. It's about Alexander the Great's mother, Olympias, or Polyxena as she's known at the start of the story. It has more magic than the books I've read previously from Tarr. Polyxena was born under omens which predicted that she will destroy her culture, the worshipers of the Mother goddess. Not surprisingly the priestesses have great concerns and have raised her ignorant of her own magical abilities. | |
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Location: UK | I have the Faded Sun omnibus edition,so,though I have a host of other books I should be reading I couldnt resist and have started Shon'jir. I've never read any of Judith Tarr's work. So many books - and authprs! - so little time! | |
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| dustydigger - 2016-04-27 2:28 PM
So many books - and authprs! - so little time!
Indeed. Story of my life, too.
I also have the omnibus edition. It's great that many of Cherryh's works have been gathered in the ominbuses. I discovered her just a couple of years ago and have so much to catch up. | |
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Location: UK | I started reading her books in the 80s. I got hold of the final book in the Chanur series,Chanur's Legacy and that was it,she had a lifelong fan. Unfortunately the libraries in my area have few or none of her works,and its the same in the bookshops,so collecting her works is slow going. I cant understand why she is not a household name in the UK.. I suppose she is not to everyone's tastes,with her immersive third person narrative,deep psychological probing of a character,their thoughts and their motives. Not enough flash bang space operatic action,maybe?
One thing I really like about Cherryh's work is the way her protagonists are never in the heroic mold,never great heroes who lead the rest and change the world by their actions.No Muad'dibs here.Instead they are vulnerable,lonely square pegs,seeking desperately for a place,or should I say some group, however far away from what they have come from, that will become a haven and a home. And when humans confront alien races there's no superiority whatsoever,in fact they are often pawns - think Bren Cameron,or Duncan in the Faded Sun series or Tully in the Chanur books. So we have super technology,so what? We are often shown as weak,naive or inferior in honour,and culture to the aliens. No hope of humans being complacent uplifters of other species! Very refreshing. Once we dive into Cherryh its hard to drag ourselves back to our mundane world.Once I finish Shon'jir I have Kutath to read,and then I have 40,000 In Gehenna,Merchanter's Luck,and Heavy Time on my shelf waiting their turn. It'll take a lot of effort to stave off reading them so as to fulfill current challenge reads!
I was truly happy to see that she has been made this year's Grand Master. Thoroughly well deserved | |
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Location: UK | Another month over,and quite a good one for the Pick n' Mixers. Around 24 active participantse read 327 books so far,with 51 reviews. In the whole of 2015 we read only 337,so we are doing great! Not so hot on the reviews,only 51 so far,only 3 this month,but thank you all for supporting the cjhallenge so well!
Special congrats to Pope Stig who has read no less than 45 books. Also Diane,with 37 reads under her belt. Weesam,you had better look to your laurels! | |
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Location: New Zealand | Ha, ha. I've changed the way I'm doing my challenges this year. I've signed up for almost all the challenges, as usual, and I am reading one book per challenge in a cycle. So some challenges like this one don't look that great at the moment. However, I am nearly finished all of the 12 book challenges, which means soon I will only have Pick & Mix left - then watch me go! I should be finished with all the 2016 challenges by July at the rate I am currently reading. | |
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| Well, I write reviews to my blog but I've been unable to copy them to this site.
My next read as Sebastien de Castell's Traitor's Blade. It's a quick-paced and action packed fantasy. The main characters are "Greatcoats" who used to be traveling magisters for the king. But the dukes have killed the king and made the Greatcoats outlaws and everyone loaths them. It has some uneven world building and a rather grim world but it was rather entertaining read, anyway. | |
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Regular
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Location: USA | Yet another satisfying entry in the "Foreigner" series. The Kyo have come and many things are made clear. In a way, I expected the series to reach this point eventually, but how it made the turn and the consequences for the characters - well, that took me by surprise. More than that would be a spoiler. If you've been following this story, you'll be pleased.
Nine down, eleven to go. | |
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Location: UK | I wont get it till the paperback comes out,Thomas - next April! lol. Ah well,something to look forward to!You're doing great with the P&M challenge,at the start of the year you werent sure if you could manage 10!
I finished off the Faded Sun trilogy with Kutath,which wasnt quite what I expected,as it was much more straightforward action than her books normally are. I also had a few doubts about the credibility of some of the premises of the story. But even lesser books by Cherryh are great reads.
Next up was Joan D Vinge's Snow Queen,and I wasnt too keen. Once again there were some improbable plot areas,the style was too wordy and overdetailed,so the story was slowed down,I didnt much like the characters(the heroine was too beautiful,sweet angelic to be true!) and it was all a bit too romancey and more on the fantasy side despite a lot of SF trappings.Dont know why it won the Hugo and Locus,and was nominated for the Nebula,and beat books like Benford's Timescape.Niven's Ringworld Engineers and Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer.it probably seemed fresh and original back in 1980,and imitations have blunted its effect now. We see this again and again.
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Location: USA | I remember Snow Queen being published and making a very strong impression. Everyone was reading it. It was a standout at that time, a new voice and style. It's had an influence, and awareness of that influence in the hear and now is quite like to make it seem less than fresh and innovative in the here and now. Of course, there were folk back then who found it over-written and implausible, dissenting views accompany any novel, no matter when it's published. No book ever has universal appeal.
I'm actually surprised at how much progress I've made in this list I set for myself. Surprised and pleased. I was once a much more avid reader than I've been of late. Groups like this one and the Shelfari crowd now currently at Leafmarks have increased my motivation to read. | |
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| My next read was Joanne Harris' The Gospel of Loki. It's a first person POV, a modern retelling of the Eddas. Loki is a very entertaining and humorous narrator who pretty much murders every one else's character, gods and others. I really enjoyed it. | |
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Location: UK | Just finished Arthur C Clarke's The Sands of Mars,his first published novel in 1951,but written back in the 40s. Pleasant,enjoyable,his trademark meticulous attention to science detail already strong,but also his boundless enthusiasm for the wonders of the cosmos.No masterpiece,but a fair read. Oh and for once we had some terraforming!. Bit of a peculiar way of bringing heat and light to the planet,and a rather over optimistic span of 50 years to produce a breathable atmosphere,but good fun. I love the enthusiasm, optimism and passion of these early writers,it made for a fun reading experience,no downbeat doom and gloom in sight!
I am now reading Marissa Meyer's Winter,the conclusion of her YA Lunar series. 800 pages! Eek!.
Also to read,for the 80s Defining Book challenge, is G R R Martin's Windhaven,for 1981,and have to shoehorn in Kate Griffin's The Midnight Mayor,for another challenge
.Doubt if I'll accomplish much more. My old sister has hurt her leg,my husband is going to be having various tests because of haematuria,I am scurrying about preparing for 6 visitors from the US on 30th May,(who have just blithely announced they will be staying 3 extra days!) so real life is sticking its ugly snout in the way of blissful reading. | |
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| I'm continuing my track of finishing series which I've started. Harbinger of Storm is the second book in Aliette de Bodard's Aztec fantasy series. It's definitely a fascinating setting with a likable main character Acatl who is the High Priest of the God of Death. I really enjoyed the first book, which I read three years ago, and Harbinger was another book which I hardly wanted to put down for trivial matters, like sleeping. It's a combination of murder mystery and political intrigue. The Aztec emperor has died (in battle) and a couple of men want to be the next emperor. Meanwhile, people are dying and Acatl strongly suspect that someone is summoning demons to kill them. I'm already reading the next book, Master of the House of Darts. | |
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| I enjoyed the Master of the House of Darts as much as the previous books. Luckily, this is a series which keeps its quality. In this last book, Acatl has another murder mystery to solve: this time a warrior who isn't well liked is killed with magic and it seems that the magic is contagious.
I just finished Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark which has been in my shelf for a couple of years. It's a historical fantasy, as Powers' books tend to be, set in 1529 Vienna during the Turkish siege. Brian Duffy is a middle-aged mercenary who is hired to a tavern as a bouncer. But he starts to see strange things and unknown people, and things, attack him. It's an enjoyable book and a quick read. | |
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| Just finished Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber. I've enjoyed the series quite a lot until now and I was a bit worried when some reviews said that this book would starts the decline. However, I didn't notice any decline. It's a full novel; the other books in the Grey Mouse and Fafhrd series have been short story collections, so Swords of Lankhmar is different stylistically. Otherwise it was much similar with the others. Adventurous parts I enjoyed a lot but there are also stuff which I don't care for. It's indeed one of the first Sword and Sorcrery books. | |
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Location: USA | Halfway through to the 20 book mark! Yesterday I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Excellent novel:
A very different sort of fantasy novel with a multi-layered plot of considerable complexity that somehow never ties itself into a knot. Imagine the motion picture The Sting set in a Renaissance city that resembles Venice, but was once upon a time inhabited by an ancient beings who built towers of glass. The plot centers on as engaging a set of con artists as you could imagine, who become ensnared in a bigger and more dangerous game than anything they could have planned. Lots of sword play, and some of the creepiest villains I've ever encountered. Best fiction read for me of 2016, so far! | |
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| I have Lies of Locke Lamora in my to-read-pile. Good to hear that it's worth reading!
Does it end in a cliffhanger? | |
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Location: USA | No, there's no cliff hanger. | |
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| Leyra'an - 2016-06-11 7:45 PM
No, there's no cliff hanger.
Thanks! | |
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Location: UK | Sorry to be conspicuous by my absence these last couple of months.due to family issues.Plus all we refugees from shelfari,closed down by Amazon,have also been turfed out after only 6 months from Leafmarks with a measly month's notice. Cue once more having to set up groups,move precious data,and work through a lot of editing etc at the new place - 3rd home in 6 months is no picnic,yet another steep learning curve.! All I have read in this genre over 2 months is George R R Martin's Windhaven and C J Cherryh's rather downbeat and very dense Forty Thousand in Gehenna. Very little time for readingbetween the crises! lol
Meanwhile the rest of you are doing fatastically. Well done........many a few reviews........?
Maybe I'll get back into reading next month. Still plodding through Marissa Meyer's Winter,got through 550/830 pages. Was really enjoying Michael Bishop's enjoyable No Enemy But time,looking forwrd to settling down again to that! | |
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Location: USA | I know the family issues routine. For my wife and I, things have (mercifully) settled down. Hope that's true for. The thought of dustydigger getting behind in her reading is rather unsettling!
Currently reading George R.R. Martin's novel Dying of the Light. Strange and moody book, but very well done so far. | |
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| I finished Becky Chambers' The long way to a small angry planet which I enjoyed a lot. But it's not an action adventure book; it has a series of events, like a season in a TV show. It follows the cargo ship Wayfarer and her crew. Each crew member gets a chapter to themselves so they're very well rounded. It has also three fascinating alien cultures. | |
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Location: New Zealand | Finished! Standouts from my reading this year have been:
Simon Green's Nightside series continues to be so much fun. As does Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series. Looking forward to more of these. And they are both an excellent substitute while I wait for what I really want - Ben Aaronovitch's next Peter Grant novel! Seriously, when it is coming out?
Finished off both Kate Griffin's (aka Claire North) Matthew Swift and Mike Carey's (aka M R Carey) Felix Castor urban fantasy series. Both are outstanding.
Paul Cornell's Shadow Police was a surprising win for me. Very dark and gritty urban fantasy, and so well done. I normally don't like dark and gritty, but I fell for these ones.
Matt Ruff continues to please with Sewer, Gas & Electric. I have loved every book Ruff has ever written, so I don't know why this one has sat on my shelf unread for so many years.
I have always enjoyed reading Robert J Sawyer, so it comes as no surprise that I enjoyed Triggers. I just don't understand why it took me three goes at reading this book to finally get into it.
The Eternal Sky series from Elizabeth Bear was wonderful. Her best work yet.
And rounding out the favourites would be Transcendental from James Gunn and Memory by Linda Nagata.
Thanks for another fun challenge.
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Location: UK | Wow! Well done Weesam,I'm glad you have had so many great reads.I am doing very badly by comparison,as we old Shelfari fans were ejected when Shelfari closed down ifollowed by the abrupt ending of Leafmarks with only one months warning,shutting down today. Now we are over on LibraryThing,the third home in 5 months! All the work moving our stuff ,setting up new groups,trying to edit the often inadequate data transfer from site to sitehas meant ,actual reading has taken a beating. Here's hoping we can hunker down for a long time now,and I can get some reading done!
This month I am hoping to read Michael Bishop's No Enemy But Time and James White's The Watch Below,as well as Zelazny's Isle of the Dead and maybe Larry Niven's The Integral Trees,but I wont commit myself to more than that,I have family health issues apart from the book site business.
Another great month for the PIck n' Mixers,27 active participants have read 591 books.compared with 337 books read in the whole of last year. Keep it up! | |
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Location: USA | Finished reading Dying of the Light by George R. R. Martin. A strange, dark, violent story set on a dying world. The setting is a tale by itself, with the planet Worlorn arguably one of the characters. The story is largely driven by each character's inability to deal with life as it is, rather than how they wish it could be, with naive pride, confused love, and misguided devotion to an obsolete code of behavior defining what happens along the way. None of the characters emerges unscathed; change comes to them all by the end. Beautifully written and realized. | |
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| Weesam, I've read a lot from Elizabeth Bear but I haven't read that series yet. It's great to hear that it's good. And I'm glad you chose such good books.
I've finished Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book. It's a sequel to the Eyre Affair and I recommed reading that one first. The main character, Thursday Next, is a literary detective. In the first book she went in to Jane Eyre to capture a criminal who had gone into the book. Now, Thursday is plagued by strange coincidences which turn out to be attempts to kill her. It doesn't have a proper ending but continues to the next book, the Well of Lost plots. It's very funny and has lot of referencies to books. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| I finished Catherynne Valente's Deathless. It's retelling of Russian fairy tales set in Soviet Union. The latter half is set in Leningrad during WW II and it was actually hard to read about the suffering of the starving and dying people. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it. It centers on Marya Morevna, who is the bride of Koschei the Deathless. Apparently Koschei is a devil like figure in Russian fairy tales but in this book he's the Tsar of Life who is constantly at war with the Tsar of Death. It's strange book but also beautiful one. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| Well, I couldn't resist reading Fforde's next book: the Well of Lost Plots. It's just as funny as the previous book and was another enjoyable read and I had again blast with the various literary references. However, the plot started from the previous book didn't wrap up in this one. Instead, it had another plot. This time Thursday Next tries to live quietly in an unpublished book for some months. Of course, she gets mixed up with the characters in that book and happenings in the BookWorld in general. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I enjoyed the first book in the series,but couldnt get into the second book very well,thought it was a one joke series,so I gave up. I may try again sometime
I normally avoid books about the holocaust,or slavery,or about child abuse etc,these days I tend to want lighter books on lighter topics. So I have been putting off Olivia E Butler's Kindred where a young modern black woman has an irresistible link with her slave owning white ancestor ,born back around 1810,so that whenever he is in physical danger she is transported back in time to save his life,switching back and forth in time till she is sure that her great great grandmother has been born to one of his slave women . I was surprised at how accessible the style was,since was expecting a typical literary fiction style,dry and erudite. The book did move smoothly and easily,and was tense and gripping. But I just found the whole heartbreaking slavery situation very distressing to read about,I only read one flashback section at a time because it was so grim and disturbing,as this modern american woman had to struggle to become servile to survive ill treatment and the heartbreak of numerous abuses of the slaves. So its taken quite a while to finish the book,but it was a good book I'm glad I read it. I think I will wait a few months before tackling another of Butler's works!
Co-incidentally I was also reading a very different time travel novel,Michael Bishop's No Enemy But Time about a time experiment where a young man is sent back to the Pleistocene,and when the technology for his return to the present fails,he joins a group of hominids and even falls in love with one! The book is vividly written,often hilarious,or harrowing,sexually frank,and addresses themes of racism and identity in a vibant way. Good fun.One more Nebula off the list!That's 31/52 completed :0)
How interesting that time travel can be used for such different authors themes! Butler uses it only as a device to get a modern character back to the 1820s where she can be a foil for the state of blacks back then,as well as showing that even the most sensitive or well-intentioned of people are affected by the whole social milieu,so that the whole society can fall into gross injustices and cruelty.I found it sad to be reading this at a time when any sort of progress of justice seems to be faltering badly,just one more reason for finding the book a hard read in some ways
Bishop uses a form of spirit travel combined with military equipment to thrust his protagonist much further back in time,while being careful to avoid pitfalls of pulp SF novels time travel gaffes That was my second Bishop book,and it was very different from Transfigurations,though both are rather anthropologically themed,and both interesting and thought provoking. Good stuff. | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | After a strong first half, my reading rate has slowed somewhat. Life happens. Finally finished one, though.
I've been hearing about the Discworld stories for many years, now, and when I mentioned to a friend my intention to finally pick one up, Guard! Guards! was his recommendation. That's turned out to be some of the best reading advice I've received in quite some time. Comedy, in any genre, is difficult to write, no less so in a fantasy. Pratchett pulls it off, and that's an understatement. I smiled a lot and laughed out loud from time to time. A very clever book. I begin to understand why his fans mourn his relatively recent passing to the degree they do. I'll be back for more Terry Pratchett's Discworld in the future. | |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | I loved Guards! Guards! Thomas.Its always a pleasure to visit Ank-Morpork( wonder if I am right in assuming that is an homage to Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar?).I love the way Terry slyly cuts our society to ribbons with many people not even noticing! lol. I liked Sam Vimes,but as ever when I am reading about Discworld I am eagerly searching for crumbs about The Patrician,Lord Vetinari. What a wonderful character! Terry himself once said that when he was writing about the Patrician,he had Alan Rickman firmly in his mind. Brilliant! Ever since that is who I see and hear in scenes with Lord Vetinari. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Larry Niven's The Integral Trees,a Locus award winner, was a hugely enjoyable romp,but as is usual with Niven it has a jaw dropping setting
.500 years ago the ship Discipline was exploring with an eye to colonization,under the watchful eye of a computer tasked with monitoring the crew's loyalty for the all powerful State. They came across the Smoke Ring,a massive gas torus surrounding a neutron star with no planets,but with a variety of plant and animal life-forms evolved to thrive in conditions of continual free-fall. A mutiny occurred,and the crew abandoned ship, setting up home on some of the vegetation,setting up a variety of social and political systems.Scratching for a living on the tree like vegetation,and now with no memory of their past,and a pitiful amount of old tech slowly dying out,life is hard.
A small group of survivors from a dying Tree have a hair raising series of adventures,including slavery, before they steal an aged shuttle craft and make brief contact with the ship Discipline's computer,which is still patiently obeying orders to monitor the crew,before setting up a new colony on a new Tree.
Sketchy characterization of course,but lots of derring do,narrow escapes and wild adventures. A fun,quick read,and of course that weird and wonderful setting of the Smoke Ring. Excellent.
That makes 28/46 Locus award winners completed.I am trying to read 2 or 3 Hugo,Nebula or Locus winners per month,it should take about two more years to complete them all! lol.
But now the nice short,easy SF/F reads are going to give way to all the massive wristbreaking tomes,so progress may be a bit slower. Having a great time though,and have had some wonderful reads since getting back into the genre after decades away.
Next up for August on the awards roster are Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman,and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's The Healer's War,both new author's to me.(Scarborough did some rather dull collaborations with Anne MacCaffrey many moons ago,but I havent read any of her personal stuff.) | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I needed to read a title beginning with the letter ''H'' for a challenge,and chose to reread C J Cherryh's Heavy Time. Big mistake. I had been away from the space station helldecks for a couple of years,and once I revisited I was hooked again. Heavy Time is perhaps one of the weakest of the Alliance/Union series,very confusing even to an old Cherryh fan,(we need at least a smidgen of exposition sometimes C J!) but the intensity,the gripping hold that world has on you so that you are dazed when you surface from the tale, dragged me in and I just had to read the sequel,Hellburner, one of my faves in the series.This was my 3rdreading of the book and I think I am getting my head around it,and probably another couple of reads and I will fully grasp things! lol.. Cherryh does not make it easy for us,and I'm sure a lot of people are put off by the unusual style,but we see new things every time we read,
Once started the book I had to keep going and reluctantly left the last 50 pages at 3 a.m. when my eyes were refusing to stay open.,and finished it next morning. Tiny snippets in the story were glances at others in the series and I very much fear that I will feel the need to check in on the rest of the series,despite all the challenge books I still have to read......sigh..... | |
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Regular
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Location: USA | The closest thing to a "light" sci-fi read by C.J. Cherryh I've encountered was the Chanur saga, which still taxes those with impaired attention spans. I also haven't read anything by her in the way of sci-fi that disappointed me. Curiously enough, I've never really been taken by her fantasy work | |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | I'm the same. The fantasy's not terrible, but it doesn't seem to grab me as well as the SF. It seems to me that it's in a different voice, and it's just not one that I find very appealing. I did like the Chernevog books, but I guess they're not quite the same thing. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| I haven't yet read any of Cherryh's fantasy but I have her Fortress series on my shelf and I plan on reading it later this year.
My next Pick and Mix read was Adam Roberts' Salt. It's a culture clash science fiction book. Humans from different ideologies travel to a plant which is covered in salt. There the people from different societies which utterly fail to communicate with each other, with tragid results. The story is told from the first person POV of two men, each the leader (sort of) of their own society. I found the book very interesting but not very enjoyable. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | It may be all flashand little real substance,but Roger Zelazny's Roadmarks,reread for a challenge where I needed a original world creation, was hugely enjoyable. I probably grasped a lot more than my bewildered first attempt (inaudible mumble) decades ago,or my second read maybe a decade ago. If you want amazing settings,quirky characters,mythology,a headcracking plot,a hero who is living backwards like Merlin,time travel,French poetry(in the original French!) AIs in the form of books of poetry, a ninja,a tyranosurus rex, rollercoaster adventures and DRAGONS no less,Mr Zelazny juggles all these effortlessly in the air and masterfully somehow produces some sense out of it by the end! lol.And its only 185 pages long! Enormous fun,and, sure sign of being one of my all time favourite books, I could have happily turned by to the beginning and reread it! Superior popcorn read,and its made me want to sink back into Zelazny again. I do have the second set of Amber books on hand,I am ready to read book 7,Blood of Amber,but I know for a fact I would want to read the other three books of the series straight after,and I still have nearly 50 other books on my TBR for the rest of the year.Think I had better leave Merle in the Shadows for a while,or I'll never finish my challenges!I'll join Merle on his travels in Shadow in December I think. Then if I must read more of one of my fave authors,I can put them on next year's list! :0) | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | Anyone able to point me to how books are added to WWE? Reading one now that's worthy of note, but it isn't listed. | |
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Uber User
Posts: 613
Location: New Zealand | Leyra'an - 2016-08-27 1:48 AM
Anyone able to point me to how books are added to WWE? Reading one now that's worthy of note, but it isn't listed.
Just go to this thread and ask for what you want.
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1...
Is is called "Can't find the book you want? Make your book requests here! Part II" and it can be found in the "Books, Awards and Lists" forum
Edited by Weesam 2016-08-26 5:28 PM
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Completed Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think as a winner of the Grand Master of Science Fiction award. Odd mixture of noir,fantasy and science fiction with some good ideas and it is fairly enjoyable,with your typical femme fatale of the noir genre luring some weak sap into committing crimes - only she is a witch/shapeshifter dedicated to destroying a device which could exterminate the shifters forever! Lots of psychology gobbledegook,so common at the time (1948).the blackest of noir with a very downbeat ending. Quite good fun,but the writing is clunky flat and repetitive. Could have been excellent in the hands of a better writer.
I found it impossible not to picture Lana Turner and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity as the protagonists! lol.But without the sparkling dialogue and sexual tension.Here the guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He persists in believing that he only dreams of going off as a wolf,tiger or huge snake and murdering people,all of them old dear friends. He only comes to believe its true 20 pages from the end.Ah well Jack did his best,and I did find it interesting.
That makes 24/27 of the Grand Masters sampled,only Damon Knight,Michael Moorcock and James E Gunn left to go....next year!
Also finished Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman all about an archaeologist in Mexico unearthing the ruins of a Mayan temple. She has always been able to see shadows of the people of the past but now an ancient Mayan priestess of a mother goddess is urging her on to kill her estrsnged daughter as a sacrifice,claiming this will bring the goddess back to power. Odd sort of book,almost a travelogue for Mexico. Masses of stuff about ancient Mayan life,their calendars and religion etc. Plus the difficulties between a mother and daughter. Apart from the ancient priestess popping up now and again,and a would be dramatic climax in an ancient temple which didnt really get me excited at all,I didnt really take to this book probably because the characters never struck a chord with me,and the book somewhat tailed off. Not really award winning material IMO,but it had all those womens issues so beloved at the time. Certainly a riproaring adventure like fellow nominees Brin's The Uplift War,or even Gene Wolfe's offbeat Soldier in the Mist didnt have enough gravitas! lol. Oh well,that makes 32/52 Nebulas completed,still a long long way to go
Well done Pick n 'Mixers,747 books read,compared with 337 books in the whole of last year. Well done Pope Stig and weesam,who have completed 80 books each. Many others are doing a great job well on the way to reaching their challenge totals. Yay for the Pick n' Mixers.Two thirds through the year,still four months to go, so many of you will reach your goals for sure.
Edited by dustydigger 2016-08-30 7:29 PM
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | Weesam - 2016-08-26 4:27 PM
Leyra'an - 2016-08-27 1:48 AM
Anyone able to point me to how books are added to WWE? Reading one now that's worthy of note, but it isn't listed.
Just go to this thread and ask for what you want.
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1...
Is is called "Can't find the book you want? Make your book requests here! Part II" and it can be found in the "Books, Awards and Lists" forum
Thanks! | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | Well, apparently WWE doesn't add books by "unknown" self-published authors. The book in question is Inish Carriag by Jo Zebedee. It's an interesting take on the alien invasion theme, in this case dealing with the aftermath. (We lost. And that's not a spoiler.) Believable characters and dialog, a well-managed pace, if a bit rushed at the end. An enjoyable read.
So my challenge this year will have an unofficial +1 when all is said and done. | |
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Member
Posts: 17
| Yipee! Dancing the jig! I just completed 20! Notching up a bit to 40!
Looking at the list, I can't pick a favorite - there's so many very different things on it. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Congrats Sushicat!. Your list is very varied. I love looking at Pick n' Mixers lists,they are so much more varied than most challenges,no parameters or boundaries,which makes it fun to browse. Hell on trying to reduce the TBR though!
(Missing you on the Trove,by the way! would have loved to have seen notes on these books on the What Are We Reading thread!) | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Whew! At last I finished Connie Willis's Doomsday Book A fair read that could have been even better if there had been less repetition and the stressing of themes had been less heavyhandedly pointed.Willis never heard that less is more
Most of the historical inaccuracies were minor or passed me by completely so didnt bother me much,except the irritation of the times ''The NHS phoned you'' and the measurements being in centimetres. Written in late 80s I would have expected feet and inches would have been more sensible,both for US and UK audiences. Instead,every time I saw centimetres it brought back the French Revolution when centimetres and metres were invented,400 years after the plague!
But I did like the theme that human beings are human beings in all their variety, strengths and weaknesses,and historians are too fond of simplifying, even dismissing this for the ''big picture''.The same attitude that dismissively states that back in ye olden days when parents lost three or four of their children before they reached five years old they didnt feel it as much as we much more sensitive modern people do.OK,cultural mores and religion may have muted things in some ways but tragedy,grief and pain were still there to be suffered.
Also read Asimov's [The Currents of Space] It was an OK read,typical Asimov,with the usual rather flat characters,but a reasonably interesting depiction of the relationship between two planets,one of which produces the only known plant kyrt which is processed into a beautiful material,the other rules and exploits the workers shockingly. Typical Asimov pessimism over human nature , and has the usual Asimov conspiracies and a slight mystery,complete with a Poirot like revealing of the culprit.{ Asmov must have been a Christie fan and enjoyed producing his own mystery series,The Black Widowers series.} To me however the writing is so dry and clunky it detracts from the story sometimes. I felt that in spades in Robots and Empire when I recently read it.
You've got to love Asimov'sboundless faith that some day humans will inhabit not hundreds,not thousands,but a million planets across the galaxy! :0) | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| Congrats Sushicat!
I read Willis' Doomsday Book years ago and remember enjoying it but nothing specific. Maybe it's time to reread?
I just finished Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters. I enjoyed it a lot: it's fun and light book with interesting world-building and characters. It's set in a fantasy world where magic is done through nature spirits, the kigh. Only bards can command the kigh, or rather ask for their help. The book has several point-of-view characters. Annice is a bard who finds out soon that she's pregnant and spends most of the book on the run and very pregnant. Stasya is her girlfriend and also a bard. Pjerin is the duc of a remote but tactically important keep. He's fraimed as a traitor and Annice helps him to run. While this might look like a setup for romance, it's not. Annice and Pjerin can barely tolerate each other. They're both very proud and convinced that they're right.
I've got the second book in the series and I'm going to read it next. It's set in the same world but has different characters. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I have just finished the excellent Replay by Ken Grimwood,a World Fantasy award winner.When, Jeff, the 43 year old protagonist, dies suddenly from a heart attack he then wakes up to find himself once more an 18 year old college boy,but with all his memories of his past life intact.Again he lives to the same date,again he dies - repeatedly returning to the original timeline.On a later ''replay'' he meets Pamela,another replayer and some of the sheer loneliness of keeping the situation secret is mitigated. But each replay becomes shorter,first by months,then by years,till in the end the replays only last minutes.Often sad,bittersweet and haunting,I was ever eager to see what the latest replay would be like. The characters come to the conclusion that they cant ever make the world better,only different,and that what we do to treat our people with kindness and love on a regular basis will impact on their very nature,
OK<perhaps a little schmaltzy and sentimental near the end,but a satisfying and enjoyable read. Next up is H Beam Piper's Fuzzy Sapiens. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| I just finished Fifth Quarter by Tanya Huff. It's set in the same world as Sing the Four Quarters but with different characters. Vree and Bannon are assassins, sister and brother, working for the Havakeen Empire. The army has raised them and they're unquestioningly loyal. Until this mission. Bannon goes in first and Vree finds him in another body which is old and dying. The only way to save Bannon is for his consiousness to jump into Vree's body. Vree allows it and then they're going after the man who stole Bannon's body. Unfortunately, the army considers them deserters now. There's also a subplot with a bard in it. I liked the book but not as much as the first in the series. But the bad guy is very creepy and a good antagonist.
Edited by Mervi2012 2016-09-21 1:15 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Finished Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld,which is set in an alternate 1914,where after an ideological split back in the 19th century Europe is divided into Clankers,nations who have become heavily mechanized,heavily armed,and Darwinists,especially in Britain,who have cracked the genetic code and have adapted animals and birds as beasts of burden and weapons of war,which is regarded as an abomination to the Clankers. Leviathan is a whale airship. Deryn is a girl disguised as a boy to join the military,Alek is the son ofthe Archduke of Austria -Hungary who has escaped with a handful of supporters after his family were killed as an excuse to start a war. He is being searched for across Europe to prevent him being a rallying point or asserting his claim to the throne.. A riproaring adventure ensues in a wonderfully convincing and detailed world. The book has copious magnificent illustrations which truly enhance the story. My first tentative foray into YA steampunk was great fun. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| I've heard good things about Leviathan I but haven't read it yet. It sounds really interesting.
I just finished Nancy Kress' Crossfire. A group of humans travel to a distant planet in order to colonize it. They're very surprised to find a group of aliens because that's the first time humans have met aliens in this setting. However, the aliens live in small huts and don't react to the humans at all. I've read other works from Kress and liked them more. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with any of the main characters: a lawyer, and the leader of the expedition, with a dark past, the very effective administrator, and the religious, pacifist leader with a rebellious daughter. Still, the aliens were very interesting and I always enjoy good exploration stuff. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | State of the challenge....another excellent month
Well done Pope Stig,Weesam,Ann Walker,daxxh,and devilinlaw for completing your challenges.Several others are getting near too - e.g. Diane 69/80.,infinity outlaw 35/40,kwaidan 19/20,Morpheus 18/20.piibald 37/40
860 books read (compared with 337 the whole of last year).,106 reviews. wonderfully eclectic and varied list!
I'm still a long way off,60/80 so I will keep plugging away | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| I've just finished Fritz Leiber's Swords and Ice Magic. It's the sixth book in Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's adventures. It's a collection of seven short stories and one novella. Most of the short stories are very short and straight-forward. Sadly, they aren't as good as the stories in previous collections. But the novella is better and worth reading. In it, our heroes travel to the legendary Rime Isle and defend it against Mingol pirates. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| My next Pick and Mix read was Jennifer Roberson's Sword-Dancer. It was rather a dark read than I expected because slavery and misogyny are a big part of the setting. Sandtiger is a mercenary, called sword-dancers in this world. He's one of the best. Then Del, a gorgeous, exotic Northern woman comes looking for him and Tiger agrees to be her guied through the desert. Del is looking for his younger brother who has kidnapped five years ago. Tiger thinks she can't succeed and is only interested in getting her to bed.
The desert setting was interesting but the way Tiger constantly puts down Del got on my nerves quickly. | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 556
Location: Great Lakes, USA | I finished my 10 books for this challenge! I used this challenge for books that didn't fit in any other challenge, so I only planned on reading 10. Here are my mini reviews for the books I haven't mentioned yet.
The Fold - Peter Clines. This book started out great. A reluctant genius gets involved in a DARPA-like lab that is involved in folding space. Pretty cool until the end. It was almost like the author finished a different plot.
Making Wolf - Tade Thompson. I liked this one. It's a crime novel set in a fictional African nation. I am not sure why it's considered speculative as there was no magic or advanced tech in it. It is violent, but so are many African nations. It's dark and gritty and seemed realistic (as much as someone who has never been to Africa can believe based on what is read in the news). I would recommend this one.
Beacon 23 - Hugh Howie. This was a very thought provoking book that explores PTSD and how the human mind deals with it. I would recommend this one, too.
Gypsy Plus - Carter Scholz. This is actually a collection of short stories, essays and the novella Gypsy. Gypsy is excellent. It's probably one of the more realistic depictions of a long space voyage that I've read. It's rather dark - no happy endings here, but I thought it was well done. The other short stories and essays weren't very good. Skip them and just read Gypsy.
Deep Navigation - Alastair Reynolds. Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite authors, so I was bound to like this one. I don't really like short fiction that much, but most of the stories in this collection were good. My favorite was 'Stroboscopic" - about a life or death virtual reality game.
Europe in Autumn - Dave Hutchinson. This was good. Europe has fractured into many small countries and travelling can be quite challenging. Rudi is a cook who gets recruited by an underground organization to smuggle messages and sometimes things between countries. But not all of the countries are in this universe. Excellent book - highly recommended.
Europe at Midnight - Dave Hutchinson. This was better than Europe in Autumn. Although it's book 2 in the series, the characters are new. This book takes place primarily in England. This is my favorite book of the year, so far (but I haven't read Alastair Reynolds' Revenger yet) I can't wait for the last book of the trilogy.
The other 10 entries for this challenge were all short fiction. Most were nominated for the Hugo or Nebula, which is why I read them. I really didn't like them and was rather disappointed. I did like the one story that wasn't nominated for anything - The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild by Catherynne Valente. The imagery in this story is fantastic.
Edited by daxxh 2016-10-16 1:40 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| Too bad that The Fold wasn't great. I've really liked Clines' superhero zombie books but haven't yet picked up that one.
Hutchinson's books sound very interesting. I'll have to check them out. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| My next read was Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard which mixes history, fantasy, and legendary beasts. The English Romantic Poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats, and Mary Shelley play a big part in it. They're all stalked by vampiric beings who give them the ability to write but demand a terrible price in return. Unfortunately, I thought the book was far too long. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| My next read was Jennifer Roberson's Sword-Singer, the sequel to Sword-Dancer. This time Tiger and Del, the two sword-dancers, head to North where Del has to face the consequences of her actions. This time Tiger is out of his element in the North and he's very unhappy about it. Various enemies hunt them, such as the loki which are capricious demonic spirits. I liked the book better than the first one. However, Del and Tiger argue almost all the time and the book ends in a huge cliffhanger. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Early in October I completed the awesome Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe.The further Severian travels away from Nessus the weirder,more surreal bewildering the saga gets! I would not believe that anyone could predict what will happen even a mere five pages ahead lol.Haunting,dazzling,extraordinary,bewildering and plain amazing,but never easy.
Another mindbending book this month was Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity,and I struggled with it,finding ample irritating examples of the usual flat characters and plodding pedestrian prose.But had to admire the fascinating and complex time travel premises,Asimov's usual turning things inside out,and the startling link with the Galactic Empire which underpins Asimov's whole opus,but seemed missing here till the very end.I wont even attempt a review,but I really was impressed by Scott Laz's excellent review here on WWEnd. What he said!
To continue the mindblowing theme this month I am working through Iain M Banks Use of Weapons,where the main story,in chapters prosaically called One,Two Three etc are interleaved with the digging out the reasons why the black ops protagonist is suffering burnout,struggling to reminder some deeply hidden forgotten horrors. These go backwards,being labelled XII,XI,X,IX and so on.Humour and horror cheek by jowl!
And last but certainly not least,I am loving Vernor Vinge's hugo winning A Fire Upon the Deep. Space opera on the widest scale intercut with a mediaeval society of very unusual aliens.Good characterisation too. Took a LONG time to puzzle out the Zones of Thought and what exactly the various alien races really were like.All in all this is proving a mindblowing mindcracking but fascinating and exciting month
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Elite Veteran
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Location: UK | Lester Del Rey's Marooned on Mars waswritten in 1952,so way before the Mariner mission supplied us with the stark truths about barren Mars. After that no more Barsooms etc,but at least here we could still some rather interesting martians,the weak remnants of a great culture which is running out of water and resources. Typical plucky young hero(who had stowed away on the first voyage to Mars as you do) As usual we have smoking,atomic fuelled rocket ships which have to land on three fins,and delightful make do and mend solutions to problems such as soldering holes in the walls of the rocket when the inevitable meteorite storm attacks the ship. Yep our hero just happened to have his soldering kit at hand to put things right immediately!That makes three of this series where I have seen meteorites are a problem
One or two interesting features. The crew are typical Right Stuff types. Our hero is scared to death,but the crew dont blink an eye,and their pulses remain rock steady. Perhaps the pilot really was Chuck Yeager in disguise.
Then there was a comment at the end when as The young hero is appointed to be liaison with the martians,one of the crew rather cynically states there will be no trouble with the natives until the humans have civised them enough that there own culture will go to pieces. Not quite the gung ho tone promoted by the rest of the book! Pleasant light fun,a nice return to the old style SF that a whole generation grew up with.I am very much enjoying this series | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Finished Vernor Vinge's excellent A Fire on the Deep.Some problems with the writing,and some of the ideas which seem great at first sight dont hold up fully at close scrutiny,but I love space opera,and this one has the whole galaxy as its background,great aliens,interesting idea of Zones of Thought and a good plot. Great fun.
Then John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale,which read as young adult.,similar in intent to Orson Scott Cards Ender's Shadow,being a counterpoint to the story told in The Last Colony. Enjoyable enough,but just a bit lightweight in the themes department,and a heroine to I pictured in my mind as Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Pleasant enpough fluff really.
For Halloween I revisited a few Edgar Allan Poe stories. Lush melodramatic,and still give a frisson.
state of the challenge - 927 books read(337 in total last year). Hopefully we can exceed 1000 in the whole year.
Well done kwaidan,who completed 20/20 and piibald who managed 40/40!
Others are very close to finishing - Morpheus 19/20,kabouter 19/20,infinity outlaw39/40.I am on 70/80. We're getting there!
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| I read Seanan McGuire's newest book in the Toby Daye series, "Once Broken Faith". It's the tenth in the series and while it wasn't the best so far, it was still very good. If you like faeries and urban fantasy, I heartly recommend this series.
I also read two humorous modern fantasy books from Tanya Huff: "Summon the Keeper" and "The Second Summoning". They were light and fun reads. The main character in the first book is Claire Hansen, a Keeper which is kind-of a witch who seals off portals to hell. The first book has also a romance triangle which wasn't as annoying as they usually are. Oh, and Claire has a talking cat with her. In the second book Claire's young sister Diana is also a main character. Diana is a teenager and a very powerful Keeper. The second book also has an angel and a demon who have to deal with teenaged bodies. So, lots of sex jokes and other jokes, as well. I liked them well enough but they were pure fluff.
Next up will be China Mieville's "City and the City" which I expect will be quite different.
Edited by Mervi2012 2016-11-08 4:10 AM
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Regular
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Location: USA | Completely lost track of this thread. In recent months I've read Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe, To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Farmer, Guards! Guards! by Pratchett, Ringworld by NIven, The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov, and The Stars Are Ours by Andre Norton. Currently reading All The Traps of Earth by Clifford Simak. Counting that one, I have four books to go. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Yay,keep it up Thomas,hope you finish. Feeling quite smug that I have read everything on your list except the Simak.When I reopen Dusty's Bar after New Year I hope we can have a sort of campaigh to resurrect interest in some of the older writers.Have you read Jim Harris's blog about all the books which no longer made it onto version 4 of the Classics of SF list? I was absolutely gobsmacked at some of the books that were lost - Animal Farm,Bring the Jubilee,The Chrysalids.Downward to the Earth,The Long Tomorrow and Zelazny's short stories in particular. Plus some of the lighter fun oldtimers like Kuttner,C L Moore,Harry Harrison etc,perhaps not classics but good fun. Got to expect it with the passage of time.Since SF is really about the preocupations of the present,we should expect books to lose relevance and seem oldfashioned,but its sad really. Time winnows the chaff away.
And on a personal level I am not pleased that no less than 28 books I have read have been removed!
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Whoo - hoo! I am now part of the Elite! Well,an Elite Veteran with 600 posts under my belt | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I flew through the last of the Heinlein juveniles,Time for the Stars Wow,what a contrast with The Rolling Stones which was the frothiest of humorous froth. So much is packed into a mere 188 pages in Time for the Stars with lots of science,space exploration adventure and danger.
When mankind sets off to the stars,desperate to locate liveable planets to ease Earth's dire overpopulation, the technology will get the ships up to 99% light speed,so radio waves will be impossibly slow for communication over the huge distances.So they decide to use the simultaneity of telepathy between twins,which is unaffected by distance.We follow the story through one such pair of twins,Tom and Pat. One twin will go on the spaceship,the other will stay earthbound to receive the ship communications. RAH carefully shows some of the interesting effects of relativity as the twin on earth ages by decades,while barely months or a few years passes by in the ships.
One interesting topic is the matter of relationships between twins which rather than being depicted as all sweetness and light can actually be quite fraugh . We also have contac t with aliens who pretty much wipe the floor with the humans,with a lot of deaths. Surprised that RAH managed to get so much of that through the publisher. This is definitely up at the top of of the audience's age group.
Then at the end is tacked on an unexpected tech development,slightly deus ex machina in my mind,but on return to Earth the spacers find that society has moved on tremendously in 50 years and they are just a minor little footnote in the history books.. Got to say despite the YA tone of the book I found this a much more agreeable and interesting take on relativity than Joe Haldeman's Forever War.(Yep I am one of the few who didnt take to that book in the slightest!).
I would rate this as one of the better of the Heinlein juveniles with its complex relationships and the stuff about relativity. Good stuff.
I am now about a quarter of the way through A A Van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle and have started ERBs At the Earth's Core | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Just completed A E Van Vogt's [Voyage of the Space Beagle] a fix up of some of his earliest stories. The writing is a bit stodgy.,characterisation nonexistent,and some of the science theories are a bit lame or vague,but the book earned its place in Jim Harris's Defining Books of the Fifties because of some of its ideas being used later.
Such as the fact that this is a five year voyage out across the galaxies seeking out life forms and new planets. It has an outsider who promotes a new science which integrates all others,but his dependence on sheer logic and rationalism separates him from his fellows,who are wary of him and his lack of human warmth. Each section of the book shows a new and dangerous lifeform to be bested. Certainly they killed off beasts a lot more readily than Star Trek,but the Enterprise voyagers did their fair share,high ideals or not!
Then in one episode a beast gets into the ship and steals crew members to act as incubators for the creatures eggs. After the crittur is finally killed the surgeon does an op to remove the egg,burning the eggs as they are removed. Suddenly-
''an ugly round scarlet head with tiny beady eyes and a tiny slit of a mouth poked out. The head twisted on its short neck and the eyes glittered up at them with hard ferocity.With a swiftness that almost took them by surprise the creature reared up and tried to to climb out of the vat. The smooth walls defeated it. It slid back and dissolved in the flames that poured upon it.
Smith licked his lips and said''Suppose it had escaped and dissolved into the nearest wall?''
Well,we all know someone with an evil imagination DID let the creature escape in a very gruesome fashion and frightened the wits out of millions of filmgoers in a modest little film called Alien.
But you can see why Van Vogt was able to contest them and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. :0)Hope it was a good sum! :0) | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| China Mieville's "the City and the City" was indeed quite different. It doesn't have fantasy (or scifi) elements as such, but it does have a divided city. Beszel is a divided city but not in a physical way. Inside and beside it is another city, Ul Qoma, which is different legally, culturally, and especially in the minds of the citizens of both city states. Daily, they see the buildings and people of the other city but must ignore and unsee them. If they dont, they are guilty of a breach which the most heinous crime either city has. Breaches are governed by the mysterious organization called the Breach. They are the bogie men making sure that the citizens of two cities keep apart from each other. This book is really a hard-broiled detective story but in fantastical cities.
I just finished "Women of Futures Past: Classic Stories" edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It has 12 science fiction short stories from various female writers and an excellent introduction from Rusch were she writes about how and why people seem to forget that women have been writing SF since the beginning. Short stories from women are not collected into anthologies and so are forgotten and ignored, even when the books women write are (sometimes) still in print. Stories by Bujold, McCaffrey, Zenna Hendriksen, Pat Cadigan, Cherryh, LeGuin, James Tiptree Jr., Andren Norton, Leigh Brackett, C. L. Moore, Connie Willis, and Nancy Kress. Some of them are excellent. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | YAY!Completing Ben Aaronovitch'sThe Hanging Tree,ERBs At the Earth's Core,and Lester Del Rey's Rocket Jockey finally completed my Pick N'Mix challenge for 2016,80/80.
I am out of hospital after my knee replacement,sadly had an infection,stayed in hospital longer than is normal,and have generally had a ropy time in recovery,specially being spaced out on meds,so I am relieved to reach target. Sadly I am about 18 books short of my planned 100 reads for the year,but real life just overpowered me this year....sigh......
I intend to run the P & M again next year,but sadly without a forum.I just didnt find the time to do it justice this year,and we had only a few contributors.My online time will be limited next year,as I will be main babysitter for my new great granddaughter and tragically my sister has developed Alzheimer's so thats another drain on time,I will have to ration time,and so the forum will be a casualty.
I may however still make an occasional post or comment on this 2016 thread just to keep an eye on how we are doing. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| Congrats, Dustydigger! You've done really will with all the struggles in your life! I'm happy to hear that P&M will return next year.
I've just finished Timothy Zahn's Cobra so I'm just one book away from completing the challenge. I've only read Star Wars stuff from Zahn before. Cobra turned out quite different from what I expected. It's set far into the future where Dominion of Man has spread to many planets. They're at war with an alien race. Jonny joins the army and becomes a Cobra: his bones and tendons are made almost unbreakble and he has nanocomputer put in which enhances reflexes. The Cobras are sent into occupied human plants and infilterate the locals and lead the resistance. But that's not all the book at all. We see what the Cobras do after the war and follow Jonny for decades. It's very easy to read and sucked me right in. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Mervi,I have read a couple of Zahn's Quadrail series about a James Bond sort of guy who deals with lots of aliens on the Quadrail,an intergalactic transport system which is the only link between galactic civilisations.Enormous fun,fast paced and exciting.In 2017 I will be reading his Heir to the Empire in 2017 while trying to locate more of the Quadrail series | |
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Uber User
Posts: 454
| I decided to use this challenge to show my top 10 Reads of the Year.
This year, I added two new favorites - Franz Kafka's Castle and Jamie Williamson's nonfiction The Evolution of Modern Fantasy, so it was something of a banner year for me. I wasn't too sure what to expect from Marge Piercy's He, She and It, but it was a strikingly impressive book. Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series, starting off with Night's Master, was just lovely - beautifully written with a poetic style that reminded me somewhat of Dunsany. Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles was wonderful, as I said in my review of it. The pieces in George Orwell's essay collection Facing Unpleasant Facts gave me a great sense of the man behind 1984. And Guy Gavriel Kay's Children of Earth and Sky lived up to lofty expectations. All in all, it was a great year.
Dusty, I'm sorry to hear of the adversities in your life, but I hope for good things and good books for you in the coming year. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Thanks Englebrecht,I am finally making some progress with my recovery,though its a slow job. I know from experience that it will take at least another 6-8 weeks to get back to some mobility,but I'll get there in the end
Some interesting reads there,Englebrecht,so glad you found some good reads. I thought you had read every book in existence! I dont read much fantasy but someday I do intend to read some Tanith Lee and Guy Gavriel Kay. Need to push the envelope a little,but at the moment I am working my way through the 90s SF,and also some golden oldies. Unlike you after 30 years out of the genre I have masses of great reads just waiting for me to find time for them | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | Just finished reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross, another new-to-me author, and one who has made a huge impression. The sequel to this book, Iron Sunrise, will be on next year's list!
Speaking of lists, this leaves me with two books and half a month left. Fortunately, one of them is very short. Still, this is gonna be close! | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I'veadded Singularity Sky to my 2017 reading list! Better get cracking with your last two books. You have done very well as I remember you being a little uneasy as to whether you could manage 10 books in the year.Severian derailed you a little I think! lol.
Oh boy! I've just surfaced (very appropriate word!) from Michael Swannick's Nebula winning Stations of the Tide.An unnamed bureaucrat is sent to the planet Miranda to find a renegade scientist -cum-magician who may have possibly stolen some proscribed technology.Redolent with allusions to The Tempest,this book swings wildly from SF to fantasy and is hallucinogenic,surreal,bewildering and hypnotic. I didnt understand most of it,and even the ending was weird,but the book was enormous fun,exploding with ideas,fantastic worldbuilding and it certainly lived up to the famous quote in the Tempest
''Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.''
This whole book was rich and strange indeed - and only 260 pages long!
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| Leyra'an - 2016-12-15 4:59 PM
Speaking of lists, this leaves me with two books and half a month left. Fortunately, one of them is very short. Still, this is gonna be close!
You can do it!
I've just completed my P&M challenge! "Long Hot Summoning" by Tanya Huff was my last P&M book. It's the third in the Keeper chronicles, light-hearted modern fantasy. It was a fun read and a good final book to the series. In this one, Keeper sisters Claire and Diana have to work together to end a threat from Otherside. | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | Almost half way through David Brin's short fiction collection The Rivers of Time, so yes, there's a good chance I'll pull this off. It helps that Brin is one of my favorite authors, so I have little incentive to put the book down for any length of time. ;-) | |
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| Just reading Children of Time, an uplift story, and the author named a major research vehicle the Brin Habitat! | |
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Veteran
Posts: 116
Location: Sheffield, UK | I'm happy to announce that last night I finished my eightieth book for the Pick'n'Mix Challenge of 2016. Huzzah! | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | Finished (and thoroughly enjoyed) the collection of short fiction by David Brin, The River of Time. On to the twentieth and last on the list, Star Born by Andre Norton. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Well done Thomas,the Norton book is pretty short so here's hoping you finish the challenge
Well done too to Mervi with your 40 books and Naomi with 80 books completed. Huzzah indeed
We've had a remarkable year,reached well over 1000 books read,triple last year.
Start checking out next year's reads,Pick N Mixers,as we start all over again in just over a week lol
Seasons greetings to everyone,hope you all get some intriguing new books! | |
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Veteran
Posts: 100
| Thanks for hosting, dustydigger!
Seasons greeting to everyone from me too! | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | And I've turned the last page of Andre Norton's novel Star Born. A quick, fun read. I read several novels by Andre Norton back in the late '60, but until this year hadn't given her work much thought. A conversation in the now defunct Shelfari prompted this round of rediscovery. It's been fun.
And now, contemplating next year. I feel a need to balance the reading of sci-fi/fantasy with more nonfiction, so I might not go for 20 this time. Also have some works in my sights that, being "indie" in nature, are likely to be beyond the scope of WWE. So we shall see... | |
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Veteran
Posts: 143
Location: Alief, TX | Looks like I finished at 50 books, so caught between levels. Leading authors were Philip K. Dick, Cherie Priest, Andre Norton, C.J. Cherryh, Mark Hodder, R.A. Salvatore, and Philip Jose Farmer. | |
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Member
Posts: 7
Location: Niceville, FL | Ok, be kind to me folks. Although I've been a member here for years, I haven't had anything to do with the forums or the challenges. This year I thought I'd change that. So I'm jumping into this challenge. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Hi Majkia,look forward to your reads, And love your Day the Earth Stood Still avi! Gort is looking suitably stoic! | |
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Regular
Posts: 53
Location: USA | Are we going to stick with this thread, or start a new one for 2017? | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I did say I wasnt going to bother,not enough response,but cant resist,I am going to set it up now ! | |
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Pick and Mix 2016