[Hobbit]

October’s here – the nights are drawing in, autumnal chills are more noticeable…. Time to stoke the fire (or switch on the heating! :D) and settle down with a good book.

What are you reading this month?

Hobbit

[ezchaos]

After a not-so-great experience with the last fantasy story I read, I'm going with The Robot Novels omnibus. This will be a re-read from years ago.;)

[SusF]

Going to read Ben Bova's Saturn soon as I'm done with Ill Made Mute. Time for a change to SF for a bit.

Susan

[Soon Lee]

Halfway through Alastair Reynolds' Redemption Ark which is going quite nicely thank you.

This is after last month's binge on short stories when I was reading The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois. I highly recommend the annual collections as an invaluable way of keeping up with the genre as a whole. They begin with a 'summation' of the previous year in the genre with links to various online SF resources, a survey of novels of note and other matters of interest to the SF fan.

The stories on the whole tend to be good to brilliant and are a good pointer to up and coming writers who often break into the biz with a short story sale. The short stories tend to be more experimental, with writers taking greater risks than they might if it were a full-length novel. Its a state of the art of the genre.

Standouts for me were “Breathmoss” by R. A. MacLeod, “Presence” by Maureen F. McHugh, “Winters are Hard” by Steven Popkes and “The Potter of Bones” by Eleanor Arnason.

[lemming]

Last night (so technically still in September, but whatever) I finished Haruki Murakami's book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It was every bit as insanely weird as the title would make it sound, and it does NOT have a normal western storyline, but by the time I finished I was fairly sure it was (soft) science fiction. So I think I can safely mention it here.

I would recommend this to you if you like deadpan narrators, aren't worried by some fantasy / heavy symbolism type trappings sneaking into your SF, and you don't find most mainstream SF (and SF characters) to be quite kooky enough for your taste, and you're tired of the usual "hero overcomes obstacles to do what you always knew he had to do" plot. I really enjoyed it, but I'm not sure what virtues I can really plug it for other than that. The Amazon reviews vary (and are total spoilers, so don't read too closely) but one person says something I'd agree with: "The book can be fascinating, technical, murky, strange, engaging, and eccentric all at once. The use of the word "wonderland" in the title is quite fitting." Yup. :cool:

[emohawk]

Though it tends to get classified as Fantasy, I'm still going to dig my heels in and count Perdido Street Station by China Mieville as SF. Finished reading it last night and really enjoyed it. For me it was one of those books that you can't wait to get back to reading, which is a really good sign when a book is as long as this one is.

Just started reading The Scar by the same author, which so far is much more in the Fantasy category, but then I'm only about 100 pages through. Got a number of Moorcock books up next so I won't be reading any SF for a couple of weeks.

[FicusFan]

I am reading Ciagar-Box Faust and Other Minatures by Michael Swanwick. It is a book full of short-shorts, about 70 stories in 96 pages. I would be done, except lately when I sit down to read, I fall asleep ! I am averaging about 2 pages a night. :( Don't know if its the colder weather or the fact that it is getting dark earlier.

[emohawk]

Originally posted by FicusFan
I am reading Ciagar-Box Faust and Other Minatures by Michael Swanwick. It is a book full of short-shorts, about 70 stories in 96 pages. I would be done, except lately when I sit down to read, I fall asleep ! I am averaging about 2 pages a night. :( Don't know if its the colder weather or the fact that it is getting dark earlier.

Funny you should mention that, I'm in Australia and my volume of reading has increased in the past month or so as the weather has gotten warmer!

[golinub]

I'm reading the complete Night Dawn trilogy by Peter F.Hamilton. I just finished The Reality Dysfunction and I'm now starting The Neutron Alchemist.

After Night Dawn. I will go for Bryan Aldiss's Who can replace a Man?

[Hungry Jo]

I've finished Fatherland which was excelent and although it might not be in SF section of your book shop it is still a great Alternate World Story.

I've started reading a collection of short stories by J.G. Ballard called Voices of Time' (I think) and so far it's been pretty good but typically Ballardian weirdness.

I've also been reading some old issues of Asimov's and Interzone from 2001.