Reading in December 2011

[odo]

As for The Recollection discussed above, a dissenting opinion from me - very average writing, very average story, very average book and a disappointment considering that i really liked some of the author's short stories and i expected much more; maybe 20 years ago when I got heavily into sf, this book would have seemed more interesting but today it is just a forgettable by the numbers one.

I agree completely.

[Hobbit]

Still enjoying the Malmont, but today I have been reading from these:



Arrived today from ebay: a selection of SF story collections and novels from the 1950's.

Some GREAT stuff in there....

Mark

[MyklSkeleton]

I'm currently reading Revelation Space and totally loving it. This is my first time reading Alastair Reynolds and now I'm wondering why I waited so long to check him out. I put the rest of his books on my Christmas Wish List and I'm hoping my wife will buy the rest of the series for me. Seriously, I haven't been this excited about a SF series for a long time. I'm usually more of a fan of cyberpunk works but now I realize that space opera can incorporate some of those dark, gritty, gothic elements I love so much as well. Just wish I had more time right now to read, the holidays make it tough

[Hobbit]

This is my first time reading Alastair Reynolds and now I'm wondering why I waited so long to check him out.

If it helps, Mykl, there's an opinion that they get better as you go on with Reynolds' books.

Have fun with the others as well!

Mark

[Rob B]

After almost a year, I'm returning to the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and jumping back into The Saint, the second GAUNT'S GHOSTS omnibus by Dan Abnett. I read the first two in the omnibus and will be picking up with Straight Silver.

[Hobbit]

Finished the Malmont, which I really enjoyed.

Now rattling through a reread of John Campbell's Who Goes There?, just been re-released by Gollancz. Who Goes There still creeps me out... not bad for a tale over 70 years old!

It was face up there on the plain, greasy planks of the table. The broken half of the bronze ice-ax was still buried in the queer skull. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood. from a face ringed with a writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow.

And this before Avatar....

Mark

[pox]

After almost a year, I'm returning to the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and jumping back into The Saint, the second GAUNT'S GHOSTS omnibus by Dan Abnett. I read the first two in the omnibus and will be picking up with Straight Silver.

Super, I shall join you. I am badly out of ideas again atm.

[Loerwyn]

After almost a year, I'm returning to the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and jumping back into The Saint, the second GAUNT'S GHOSTS omnibus by Dan Abnett. I read the first two in the omnibus and will be picking up with Straight Silver.

I'll join you in the universe, but I'll be a few centuries ahead with Ciaphas Cain again.

He's been watching a lot of undulating ladybottoms. I find no fault with this.

[NickeeCoco]

Currently reading Blood Child: and Other Stories, a short story collection by Octavia E. Butler. Read the first three stories, and really enjoying them. The ones I've read thus far are post-apocolyptic. It's rare that I enjoy a short story collection, but Butler has a way of dumping you right smack dab in the middle of the story, providing just enough information that you get what's going on, but then adds a little twist at the climax that gives you an Aha! moment. I recommend this one.

[Mithfânion]

Hobbit ( and Chitman as well when you're further in), could you expand a bit on why the Beckett novel didn't work for you?

I am considering buying it, really intrigued by the premise, but he posted a short excerpt on the site and that did not impress me.

[pox]

wow. I read The God In The Clear Rock on christmas day. Don't. It's really stupid. Christmas though and it was free.

Also snowcrash AGAIN and it still doesn't age that well.

I am awaiting Clockwork rocket and Ready player one to take away with me. Is there anything fringe author, sweeping tech, sharp but FTL, preferably mil-slash and new that I've somehow missed?
[edit, don't answer that, this is the wrong thread].

[pox]

Just bought The Recollection to my phone too so that's tonight interrupting a reread of The Nano Flower

[Loerwyn]

Dipped into the Sabbat Worlds anthology edited by Dan Abnett last night. I only read the first story, one by Graham McNeill, and it was a bit poor. If I hear the word "viffing" again, I'm going to punch something.

[Rob B]

I set aside Dan Abnett's The Saint after finishing Sabbat Martyr last night. I had previously set the omnibus aside after the first two novels and I realize why now. I can't really point to any one thing and say, 'oh, that's not good' but I just couldn't connect with the narrative in a good way. The writing isn't bad, the characters are fairly well drawn. It could be a case of reading the book during Christmas when I've got so many other shiny things to pull my attention.

Starting a 2012 book today, Myke Cole's debut: Shadow OPS: Control Point. Military SF meets Urban Fantasy as magic returns to the modern world and those who wield the magic are drafted into the modern military.

[Hellions]

I finished The Clone Republic by Steven L. Kent, first book in a military SF series of seven. It was a fairly entertaining action-packed affair which suffers a bit from weak characters and bland worldbuilding. The ending is promising enough so... I'll be checking out the sequel(s).