SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Neroon
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That IS interesting. My mom used to say the same thing to me whenever she'd notice me reading a book based on Any of the Star Treks, Star Wars, old BSG, Superman, Batman, etc. I loaned her some of my Star Trek novels once, and she said EXACTLY what you did.
Huh. And your experience pretty much mirrors mine.
I imagine everyone's experiences are different, but part of my reason for reading tie-in books is that reading is, generally, a more essential part of my life than watching TV is. I could go a month without watching TV a lot more easily than I could go a month without reading.
Also, becoming a fan in the early 1970s meant having sometimes only two or three TV stations, none of which was guaranteed to be airing Star Trek reruns. There were no videotapes or DVDs or downloads; if you wanted something Star Trek (or Planet of the Apes, etc) that you could hold onto, keep, and revisit whenever you wanted to, you bought the books. For that matter, there were tie-ins I read never having seen the TV series, like The Invaders (I read two Invaders novels in the early '70s and finally saw an episode in the early 1990s) and one I didn't realize was a tie-in for a while (Tom Corbett, Space Cadet). With Star Trek, I may have read most of the original series James Blish adaptations before I actually saw them on TV.
Meanwhile, I'm reading the anthology The New Weird, about which more later.
^
I definitely do more watching then reading (although a lot of 'watching' is more like listening because I do it during work). I suppose that might explain my perception or experience to a degree.
I have been reading quite a bit more than I used to in recent times, however. In no small part due to having to use public transport a lot more than I used to, I might add
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Cool!
I definitely do more watching then reading (although a lot of 'watching' is more like listening because I do it during work). I suppose that might explain my perception or experience to a degree.
I have been reading quite a bit more than I used to in recent times, however. In no small part due to having to use public transport a lot more than I used to, I might add
.Cool!
Again, same here.
As for my reading, still reading Sagitarius is Bleeding, but plan to finish it tonight. No idea what I'll replace it with, but was thinking a James Bond book. Or Tom Clancy.
Well, I finished that New Weird anthology, but went on in enough detail about it that I blathered on my LJ about it because it would be a bit long for this place. It's an interesting attempt at exploring what may be a viable new subgenre or just another marketing label by looking at some stories by writers who are key influences (M. John Harrison, Michael Moorcock, Clive Barker, etc) and some by people who are lumped into the scene now (China Mieville, Jeffrey Ford, Steph Swainston, Jay Lake, etc), followed by a number of writers discussing what it is and what it means, and concluding with a round-robin story by several other writers. I've already read several of the writers included, but there are a few I hadn't read before who I definitely want to check out.
Then, from New Weird to New Wave, I read a book that's been sitting in the Closet of Unread Books for quite a few years: The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard. It's one of Ballard's early disaster novels, which preceded most of the New Wave stuff, but it's clearly the work of the same writer. Solar flares have caused rising temperatures and, consequently, rising waters and melted ice caps; much of the Earth is uninhabitable because of the heat, and only a few million survivors live on in the polar regions, sometimes venturing back to the flooded cities to try to find something to salvage. But it's not an adventure novel, or a novel of character; it's a psychological novel focusing on a military/scientific expedition exploring a flooded London. The change in the Earth is affecting people psychologically by activating ancestral memories. It's more overtly science fictional than, say, Crash, High Rise, or Concrete Island, but it has the same focus on the psychology of the protagonists. There's some set pieces that evoke suspense here, sense of wonder there, but there's also a sort of clinical detachment between the reader and the characters, and between the characters and what they're going through. (It reminded me a bit of Lem's Solaris.)
And now, for something completely different, I'm reading some Hard Case Crime noir novels.
Then, from New Weird to New Wave, I read a book that's been sitting in the Closet of Unread Books for quite a few years: The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard. It's one of Ballard's early disaster novels, which preceded most of the New Wave stuff, but it's clearly the work of the same writer. Solar flares have caused rising temperatures and, consequently, rising waters and melted ice caps; much of the Earth is uninhabitable because of the heat, and only a few million survivors live on in the polar regions, sometimes venturing back to the flooded cities to try to find something to salvage. But it's not an adventure novel, or a novel of character; it's a psychological novel focusing on a military/scientific expedition exploring a flooded London. The change in the Earth is affecting people psychologically by activating ancestral memories. It's more overtly science fictional than, say, Crash, High Rise, or Concrete Island, but it has the same focus on the psychology of the protagonists. There's some set pieces that evoke suspense here, sense of wonder there, but there's also a sort of clinical detachment between the reader and the characters, and between the characters and what they're going through. (It reminded me a bit of Lem's Solaris.)
And now, for something completely different, I'm reading some Hard Case Crime noir novels.
I've just started reading the Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle graphic novel. I'm also reading DS9: Mission Gamma book 1, and American Gods
They're going to be publishing one next year that I won't be buying... because I have a 1950s paperback edition of it already (Stop This Man! by Peter Rabe). Aside from that, I've been buying everything they publish. I was particularly happy that they reprinted a novel each by Cornell Woolrich and David Goodis that I didn't already have. It's like the glory days of the late '80s Black Lizard line all over again. Which reminds me, Hard Case Crime should reprint the Fredric Brown crime novels I don't have yet....
I just finished The Handmaid's Tale which I have been meaning to read for years and years. It is pretty scary how the references in the book seem to be very poignant even twenty years after it was written.
I picked this up about 15 years ago and stopped for lunch at a Mexican place. I started reading while I ate, and finished it four hours later after a pitcher of margaritas. I couldn't put it down. To this day it blows my mind.
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The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
then it's Omega by Jack McDevitt
then it's anybody's guess.
then it's Omega by Jack McDevitt
then it's anybody's guess.
Ugh. Margaret Atwood. We had to read The Handmaid's Tale in grade 12 English. I'm never picking up one of her books again. Sorry guys, I had to say it.
There's a big difference between reading something because you're interested in it, and reading it because it's assigned for a class. I had to read Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in high school and destested everything about it. Years later, having seen constant references to Hemingway as an influence on hardboiled crime novelists like Dashiell Hammett (and I do like that kind of stuff), I decided to give it another shot, and actually enjoyed it.
I haven't read The Handmaid's Tale, though we have a copy (Laura read it at university). I had to read Atwood's novel Surfacing at university and hated it. It read like it was specifically written to be discussed in university Canadian literature classes. Years later I had a friend who was a major Atwood fan so I read The Edible Woman, which was a lot easier to get through, but not so much so that I wanted to read any more.
I generally find that not to be the case with me at all. I didn't relish the prospect of reading it beforehand, but I was open to seeing what she was like. Her style just doesn't attract me at all; and there are plenty of books I've had to read in school that got the completely opposite reaction from me.
Did you already read Chindi? cause it precedes Omega. I'm 1/2 way through Omega right now. Interesting read.
Ugh. Margaret Atwood. We had to read The Handmaid's Tale in grade 12 English. I'm never picking up one of her books again. Sorry guys, I had to say it.
There's a big difference between reading something because you're interested in it, and reading it because it's assigned for a class. I had to read Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in high school and destested everything about it. Years later, having seen constant references to Hemingway as an influence on hardboiled crime novelists like Dashiell Hammett (and I do like that kind of stuff), I decided to give it another shot, and actually enjoyed it.
I haven't read The Handmaid's Tale, though we have a copy (Laura read it at university). I had to read Atwood's novel Surfacing at university and hated it. It read like it was specifically written to be discussed in university Canadian literature classes. Years later I had a friend who was a major Atwood fan so I read The Edible Woman, which was a lot easier to get through, but not so much so that I wanted to read any more.
You didn't read it for Professor Cooke, did you?
Atwood, who of course doesn't really believe she writes genre fiction, is a literary writer and less accessible than others. Reading her work is like sitting down to read Lessing or Morrison--you need to be prepared to put effort into it rather than just sit back and enjoy. This is one of the reasons it took me twenty years to read. Now that I have, I am quite happy I put the effort into it.
In addition, she is such an anti-male writer, many men find her difficult to read. I swear I can feel my testicles shrivel in fear every time I pick up one of her novels.
Anyway, now I have moved back to The Anansi Boys, which I put down half-way through in June (not because I wasn't enjoying it). This is a much more accessible and "fun" novel. I love the characters, but I haven't really figured out what their underlying themes are yet.
The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
It sort of expands the universe that began with Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained but it's set about 1000 years after the events in those books
It sort of expands the universe that began with Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained but it's set about 1000 years after the events in those books
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