SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Neroon
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I read three Ian R. MacLeod stories yesterday. This way my first time reading this author and I was very impressed.
"Papa" is a story about the widerning generation gap. I really enjoyed this one. It immediately moved into my top 10.
"Past Magic" deals with cloning and how you can't really bring back 'Past Magic'.
"Starship Day" is something that's very entertaining and thought provoking, so I don't want to give things away.
MacLeod has a real talent for developing characters in a short period of time. I was hooked within the first couple of paragraphs for all of these stories. I plan on going to the library tonight and round up the three or four other stories there by him that they have. His stories are collected in the Dozois Best of SF frequently.
"Papa" is a story about the widerning generation gap. I really enjoyed this one. It immediately moved into my top 10.
"Past Magic" deals with cloning and how you can't really bring back 'Past Magic'.
"Starship Day" is something that's very entertaining and thought provoking, so I don't want to give things away.
MacLeod has a real talent for developing characters in a short period of time. I was hooked within the first couple of paragraphs for all of these stories. I plan on going to the library tonight and round up the three or four other stories there by him that they have. His stories are collected in the Dozois Best of SF frequently.
Just finished Vurt by Jeff Noon and I loved it. About a young guy (21 or so) who is searching for his sister that was lost in a Virtual Reality. Adventures, drugs and mayhem populate the pages. Easy to read, short chapters, and good story telling kept me going throughout the book. I highly recommend it.
I am about to start Snow Crash as recommended from people on the board.
I am about to start Snow Crash as recommended from people on the board.
I'm still stuck on the Torchwood novel "Another Life" that I cited in the previous thread. I've been so busy with work and family matters that I haven't had much time or energy to read fiction, so a book I'd normally burn off in a few days has taken me more than 2 weeks to get 100 pages into.
It's a good book, though, and quite timely as I've been playing around with Second Life and that's what the novel is about.
Cheers!
Alex
It's a good book, though, and quite timely as I've been playing around with Second Life and that's what the novel is about.
Cheers!
Alex
I just finished reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman, and loved it (I started a thread). Right now I'm delving into an anthology of fantasy stories from the 1800's, which the editor intends to illustrate the state of the genre before Tolkien wrote his magnificent opii; Lord Dunsany, George MacDonald, Andrew Lang, those sorts of guys.
I want to read some more of Gaiman's prose; hopefully American Gods will be next.
I want to read some more of Gaiman's prose; hopefully American Gods will be next.
One of my friends just read this and liked it. I've read Neverwhere, which I enjoyed at the time, but immediately forgot, it seems.
I'm reading The First Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (a Fantasy Masterworks omnibus that collects Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, Swords in the Mist, and Swords Against Wizardry).
I read quite a bit of the Lankhmar series back in the day, but I didn't read all of it, and some of it's receded from memory, so I picked up the two omnibus collections and plan to read through the adventures of those two lovable rogues, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from start to finish.
I read quite a bit of the Lankhmar series back in the day, but I didn't read all of it, and some of it's receded from memory, so I picked up the two omnibus collections and plan to read through the adventures of those two lovable rogues, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from start to finish.
I'm on page 120/210 of Way Station. I should be done by tomorrow.
My three short story selections of the day were:
My three short story selections of the day were:
- "The Great Goodbye" (2000) - Robert Charles Wilson
Nothing exciting about this one. Too short to really accomplish anything. 2/5
Works I'd previously read by Wilson: the novel Darwinia. Pretty decent novel. Had a sub par third act though.
- "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (1995) - James Patrick Kelly
Another story I chose at random that dealt with a replacement for a family member (read "Past Magic" by Ian R. MacLeod)
4/5
Hugo and Nebula nominee
- "Think Like a Dinosaur" (1997) - James Patrick Kelly
Another story about teleporting to another world and having your former body die. Pretty scary stuff, if you ask me. Highly enjoyable. It is definitely one of my favorites now. There is an Outer Limits episode with the same name based on this that I need to find.
Hugo winner, Nebula nominee
Works I'd previously read by Kelly:
"The Wreck of the Godspeed" - a fantastic novella collected in the anthology Between Worlds. It is also going to be the centerpiece in a new short story collection of his that hits the shelves shortly after the new year.
An excellent choice, though I feel slightly silly for saying so as next to that, Good Omens, and some short stories, I haven't really read anything he's written. Oh, and Sandman too, but I rate that... not highly.
Really? I haven't read all of The Sandman either, but I have I thought was fantastic. Oh well; we're all different.
But I'm going to visit the library later today to see if the online catalogue is correct in saying they have the book in. If they do, Jane Eyre may just have to wait her turn...Heh. Okay, I gave in. American Gods right now, with Jane Eyre the very next thing on the list, I swear. Then an anthology of short sci-fi called Starlight 1, followed by A Christmas Carol (which I would classify as fantasy) and then Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
Interesting, though I think Dunsany was mainly an early 20th century writer. I've never read Lang (he did those fairy tale collections, didn't he?) but I've read one of MacDonald's novels (Lilith, a great big obvious influence on CS Lewis's The Magician's Nephew, and The Princess and the Goblin), and I've read several books by Dunsany. Thorne Smith is another favourite fantasy novelist of mine from the pre-Tolkien era, but it's a very different kind of stuff -- contemporary urban fantasy, usually with a screwball comedy spin.
So what's the anthology?
Out Of My Vulcan Mind said:
I'm reading The First Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (a Fantasy Masterworks omnibus that collects Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, Swords in the Mist, and Swords Against Wizardry).
I read quite a bit of the Lankhmar series back in the day, but I didn't read all of it, and some of it's receded from memory, so I picked up the two omnibus collections and plan to read through the adventures of those two lovable rogues, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from start to finish.
That's one of the few book series I want to reread some day, and a nice omnibus edition would be a good way to do it. A couple of my books were used books that had been more abused than used.
FWIW, Robin Wayne Bailey wrote a Fafhrd and Mouser novel a few years back that wasn't bad at all.
I just started reading The Positronic Man. I used to own it, but I loaned it to someone six years ago and promptly never saw him again. I finally bought a replacement copy this spring, so I'm giving it a reread.
I remember really, really liking it-- probably the most successful of the Asimov/Silverberg collaborations.
I remember really, really liking it-- probably the most successful of the Asimov/Silverberg collaborations.
Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy. It's edited by Douglas A. Anderson, the same man who did The Annotated Hobbit (which I've never read). I'm actually not planning to read more in it just now, simply because Neil Gaiman reeled me in. However, at some point I'm going to want to "research" Victorian/Edwardian-era fantasy, at which time I'll definitely return to this anthology (and "1800s" was a purely random generalization of my part).
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