Thirith on 24/4/2014 at 07:43
I'm currently between 'real' books, having finished and not particularly liked The Art of Fielding. However, I've just read the first three collected volumes of Brian K. Vaughan's Saga, which I liked a lot. Comparisons have been made with Star Wars, and while the tone is very different (and very Vaughan - if you like his writing in Y: The Last Man or Runaways, you should like it here), Saga does a great job of hinting at a much bigger world beyond what we see in the story itself. Plus, fairly explicit sex.
We're doing a three-week trip this summer, and I'm planning to take along a couple of the big, fat books that have been lying on the shelves. Plan A: re-reading Moby Dick, since I didn't particularly like it (or get it) when I read it at the age of 20.
Harvester on 24/4/2014 at 08:49
I read Old Man's War by John Scalzi and liked it. It's a pretty light read, not exactly hard sci-fi, but still pretty clever and also pretty funny. I might read the other books in that series too.
Now I'm reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King. It's about a grieving widow but supernatural things are happening at the same time. It's a little bit different from most of his other books, I mean it's the same writing style but the tone is more personal, intimate and emotional. I like it and I'm wondering where he's going with the supernatural angle this time, he's slowly lifting the veil but it's not quite clear yet.
Oh and I read Het Diner (The Dinner) by Herman Koch. It's a Dutch novel but I believe it's been translated into English. A Dutch movie has been made of it and I've heard US movie producers have also shown interest to turn it into a Hollywood movie. It's a pretty good psychological thriller where nobody's innocent.
N'Al on 24/4/2014 at 09:09
Quote Posted by Thirith
Plan A: re-reading
Moby Dick, since I didn't particularly like it (or get it) when I read it at the age of 20.
Good luck! I never managed to get any further than 20 pages.
Thirith on 24/4/2014 at 09:19
We'll be on a train without internet access for three weeks. If I can't read Moby Dick in that sort of situation, when can I?
DaBeast on 24/4/2014 at 10:48
Just finished Iain M Banks' Matter. It was reasonable with a somewhat abrupt, maybe even unsatisfying, ending.
Just Surface Detail and Hydrogen Sonata left now :(
Finished listening to the full Glen Cook Black Company stuff, just the spin-offs left now.
nicked on 24/4/2014 at 12:14
Quote Posted by DaBeast
Just finished Iain M Banks' Matter. It was reasonable with a somewhat abrupt, maybe even unsatisfying, ending.
Just Surface Detail and Hydrogen Sonata left now :(
Finished listening to the full Glen Cook Black Company stuff, just the spin-offs left now.
Coincidentally I am reading Matter now. About 2/3rds through and enjoying it immensely so far. I wasn't a huge fan of the last two I read - Inversions and Look to Windward, which both ended up feeling a bit "pointless" somehow, like nothing much had really happened. My favourite is still Excession, just for being mostly whimsical chat-logs between super-computers, but still somehow being incredibly entertaining. Closely followed by Use of Weapons, which is probably objectively the better book, and certainly the most resonant.
DaBeast on 24/4/2014 at 14:22
Player of Games is probably my favourite so far. Though I'd agree Use of Weapons was more hard hitting, if a little predictable.
I probably would have liked Excession a lot more if it didn't seem so familiar to The Algebraist. I really got a sense that some characters were recycled in a way (thought it would be reversed since although Excession came out nearly 10 years before Algebraist).
Could just be me over thinking it, or at least being overly critical. I still enjoyed everything I've read so far and rate Banks higher than pretty much anyone who isn't Asimov.
nicked on 24/4/2014 at 18:41
I read the Algebraist after Excession, and many years after too, so I never made that connection. For non-Culture stuff, I prefer Against a Dark Background though. It's pure pulpy cheese but I loved it for some of the crazy ideas in there, like a planet-wide plant or the concept of the Lazy Gun.
I keep meaning to read some of his non-sci-fi work but never get around to it! :p
faetal on 28/4/2014 at 10:30
Just finished Rosemary's Baby. Wonderful horror in a fantastically confined setting. A friend bought me that and The Stepford Wives for xmas and having read them both, I'm not keen to know if Levin has any other books worth reading - can anyone advise on that?
Malf on 28/4/2014 at 20:02
Quote Posted by N'Al
Good luck! I never managed to get any further than 20 pages.
Moby Dick was one of the first books I read when I got my first eBook reader, what, six years ago now?
It was a slog, I'll admit, and Melville's insistence that whales were fish almost drove me insane as a modern reader, but there's a good story in there.
I think if I was to take one word from that book, that word would be "monomania".
For further adventures in monomania, follow up Moby Dick with Crime & Punishment :p
Seriously though, my Dad had been harping on at me for YEARS to read some Dostoevsky, and it's worth it. Hard, but worth it. I read The Brothers Karamazov, then Crime & Punishment and finished with The Idiot.
At the time, I thought The Idiot was my favourite, but over time, I've come to regard each as favourably as the others for different reasons.
Myself, I'm on a bit of a light-hearted tip at the moment and reading a lot of Jasper Fforde. Having just read The Eye of Zoltar, I realised I'd never read his most famous books, the Thursday Next ones, so I've made a start on them. He's got a delightfully playful approach to the English language, with sentences such as "These are the Forty brothers, Jeff and Geoff", a joke that only works when written down.
Prior to that, I'd finished Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, which while having moderately entertaining sci-fi elements, is most notable for how it plays with gender. It took me ages to realise what was going on, and when I did, it blew my mind.
