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*What book are you reading? (part 2)

DangDarn said:
Starting The Mote in God's Eye, by Niven. Heard it was a science fiction classic so I'm just gonna have to check it off the list.
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If you like try 'Ringworld' by the same afterwards. Its (I think) the first SF novel to run with the O concept, the Ringworld. Available in the SF Masterworks imprint (worth getting from that, theres usually forewards and appendices etc not present in earlier print runs)


I'm waiting till weds for Ian Macdonalds latest Luna: New Moon

fucking great author
 
The Whispering Storm, by Michael Moorcock.

His Sortabiography. It's half autobiography, and half his adventures in Alsacia, the hidden heart of London. They're both very entertaining, much more so than the last thing I tried to read by him (can't remember now if that was Mother London or Byzantium Endures, but it terribly overwritten whichever it was, like a Hieronymus Bosch painting made using only purple). The Alsacia sections are really showing what a good job David Mitchell made of that section of The Bone Clocks.
 
Crime City - Manchester's Victorian Underworld, by Joseph O'Neil.

All about the city being full of ne'er do wells in Victorian times - interesting stuff.
 
Just finished "All the pretty horses" by Cormac McCarthy - I'll be straight on with "The Crossing", now.

Voley I thought of you when I got to the passage about the train, it was really early on - it IS amazing. His descriptions are almost stream-of-consciousness and yet conversation in his books are masterpieces of "show, not tell". Giddy about how good the fucker is.
 
I am currentley reading The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathon Coe
I have read the full Bernie Gunther detective series by Philip Kerr [ No relation ] I absolutely love these books and Alan Furst's Night Soldier series
 
DotCommunist said:
If you like try 'Ringworld' by the same afterwards. Its (I think) the first SF novel to run with the O concept, the Ringworld. Available in the SF Masterworks imprint (worth getting from that, theres usually forewards and appendices etc not present in earlier print runs)
Click to expand...

I just checked out the blurb for this book and it sounds kind of insane, but in the best way. I always thought it would just be kind of like pre-Halo, but it sounds to have a more adventurous, and diverse, epic scope. Thanks for the heads-up ;)
 
Another- A Spy Among Friends - The latest ben macintyre book ( I think - it came from a charity shop with a used London-Tokyo business class ticket as free extra- its about Kim Philby and his realtionship with another Spy. As usual, like Agent ZigZag and the like, its a gripping read if you like books thats are basically a load of facts, organised into a decent narrative
 
One for DotCommunist, I think - just finished Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky. Dunno if you read any of his insects series - 10 long books, but I found them diverting, if somewhat silly, but enjoyed them enough to pick up his first sf attempt which, writing as the zoologist he once was, proved highly entertaining (although not for the spider-phobic). Suprisingly moving, a mish-mash of first contact, ark ships, ecology and yep, insects. What's not to like?
pm and I will pop it in the post.
 
S☼I said:
Just finished "All the pretty horses" by Cormac McCarthy - I'll be straight on with "The Crossing", now.

Voley I thought of you when I got to the passage about the train, it was really early on - it IS amazing. His descriptions are almost stream-of-consciousness and yet conversation in his books are masterpieces of "show, not tell". Giddy about how good the fucker is.
Click to expand...
Ah, splendid. :cool: Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. That section doesn't really need to be there to add to the plot, the characterisation, anything. Just creates the most incredible atmosphere. Absolutely loved it. If you want deep deep weirdness, give 'Child Of God' a go. I kept going 'Ah right so this is where Nick Cave gets it from'.
 
S☼I said:
Just finished "All the pretty horses" by Cormac McCarthy - I'll be straight on with "The Crossing", now.

Voley I thought of you when I got to the passage about the train, it was really early on - it IS amazing. His descriptions are almost stream-of-consciousness and yet conversation in his books are masterpieces of "show, not tell". Giddy about how good the fucker is.
Click to expand...

One of the most overrated writers in modern literature imho. Horrific syntactical construction and blood meridian is basically teenage heavy metal fetish.
 
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron


anthology of shorts collected by the tireless never-out-of-work Jonathan Strahan

quite good so far. Couple of moments of twee in some tales but it's a short story collection about fey witches and wizards so i was expecting a bit of that. Nobody has gone full Bombadil yet so thats ok
 
Just read Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury as i recently realised i hadn't ever read it....:eek:

Just started Extinction Game - Gary Gibson
 
I'm halfway through I Hear You Knockin' by Jeff Hannusch. It's a book about New Orleans R&B beginning in the 40s, mainly detailing various key people involved in the music scene there from the musicians to those on the record label and manufacturing/sales side of things. I'm not too bothered about the business aspects, but I suppose things like the collapse of Dover Records in 1968 had such a huge impact on R&B in the city that there's some interest there.

Anyway, there is plenty of fascinating information and stories of the era and if you are interested in that style of music then it is an excellent history.
 
Clarissa Oakes by Patrick O'Brian. 15th in the Aubrey Maturin series. I am re-reading them for the first time but back to back. Have probably become a bit unhealthily immersed...
 
Just finished Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, which is thoroughly recommended.

Next up, Limmy's Daft Wee Stories, which is hilarious.
 
I am reading Catch-22, Joseph Heller which I first read in 2013. Back then I read it fast and missed a lot of the details, this time I am taking my time and enjoying it a lot more.
 
I don't know what to read next. Choose for me.
Scared by the seriousnes of The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin
Afraid of more disappointment from Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warning
Believe the hype? Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie?
Another sci-fi classic perhaps? A Canticle For Liebnitz by Walter M. Miller?
Or should I finally get round to reading Mervyn Peake's Gormeghast Trilogy?
 
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