SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Neroon
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Finished The Rise of Endymion this morning.
I'm developing more and more of an interest in Arthurian legend. I read a condensed version of Malory a couple years ago, and have just ordered a somewhat more scholarly edition online; I'm also armed with some overviews of the literature from the library. AND I came up with I think is a pretty solid concept for a series of stories based on/inspired by Arthur.
I'm developing more and more of an interest in Arthurian legend. I read a condensed version of Malory a couple years ago, and have just ordered a somewhat more scholarly edition online; I'm also armed with some overviews of the literature from the library. AND I came up with I think is a pretty solid concept for a series of stories based on/inspired by Arthur.
I went through a bit of an Arthurian phase in the mid-80s, reading different modern takes -- Steinbeck, Mary Stewart, Parke Godwin, T.H. White, even John Jakes. I also started reading the Penguin edition of the Mabinogion but got bogged down. Never did read Malory, though.
As for recent reading... just finished Max Brooks's World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, after reading some surprisingly good rave reviews in various places. It's a great read, though not, as the subtitle suggests, a conventional novel. It's written as if after a zombie plague, with the author interviewing participants in key events around the world. It's more like nonfiction books like The Hot Zone than any zombie movie.
Also been reading various Doctor Who novels, the most noteworthy being Daniel O'Mahony's The Man in the Velvet Mask, a surreal, decadent tale featuring the First Doctor and Dodo Chaplet in a strangely altered Paris in 1805. Well written and disturbing, almost a New Weird-style take on Doctor Who.
As for recent reading... just finished Max Brooks's World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, after reading some surprisingly good rave reviews in various places. It's a great read, though not, as the subtitle suggests, a conventional novel. It's written as if after a zombie plague, with the author interviewing participants in key events around the world. It's more like nonfiction books like The Hot Zone than any zombie movie.
Also been reading various Doctor Who novels, the most noteworthy being Daniel O'Mahony's The Man in the Velvet Mask, a surreal, decadent tale featuring the First Doctor and Dodo Chaplet in a strangely altered Paris in 1805. Well written and disturbing, almost a New Weird-style take on Doctor Who.
Is Warday told in a similar style? Brooks acknowledges the influence of Studs Terkel, who compiled oral histories about American working class life and that sort of thing, and General Sir John Hackett, author of The Third World War, which was a definite precursor to WWZ.
I read a couple of Streiber's early books (The Hunger, Night Church) and thought they were okay, but when he jumped the alien abduction bandwagon I completely lost interest.
Meanwhile, my current fantasy reading is Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis, because the movie's out next week. I read all the Chronicles of Narnia over and over again as a kid, but it's probably been 25 or 30 years since I last read some of them. I don't think I'd like them as much if I read them for the first time as an adult, because Lewis talks down to the reader a bit, and he has a fair number of unexamined assumptions about The Way Things Should Be. But there's still some fun to be had from revisiting Narnia.
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Sons of Dragons - Book 1: The Road of Kyle
"Welcome to the Home Guard. Kyle Evans signed up because the uniform looked sharp, the pay was good, and he only had to serve two weekends a month. Then the war broke out. The Home Guards were supposed to remain on their native planet and protect the local population against invasion. Instead, Evans and his cohorts are loaded into troop ships destined for policing an occupied people. Their dropships deploy to the wrong location. Now Evans and his fellow troopers try to stay alive on a rogue planet where death claws for them at every turn. Surviving to see home again is a distant dream in their current nightmare. Witness the birth of the Sons of Dragons!"
Cheers
"Welcome to the Home Guard. Kyle Evans signed up because the uniform looked sharp, the pay was good, and he only had to serve two weekends a month. Then the war broke out. The Home Guards were supposed to remain on their native planet and protect the local population against invasion. Instead, Evans and his cohorts are loaded into troop ships destined for policing an occupied people. Their dropships deploy to the wrong location. Now Evans and his fellow troopers try to stay alive on a rogue planet where death claws for them at every turn. Surviving to see home again is a distant dream in their current nightmare. Witness the birth of the Sons of Dragons!"
Cheers
Steve-Warday is good in a flavor like the recent series Jericho. It's a series of interviews/author transcriptions of the 2 "reporters" traveling across a recovering USA. Its told like WWZ, with glimpses into different areas of the country and the different viewpoints of those being interviewed(or in some cases just observed). I found it haunting, actually, except for the parts devoted to War statistics, which read more like Sir John Hackett's book.
Feeling a bit down in the mouth at the moment, so I've gone back to an old pal, The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, which I know that I'm going to enjoy reading despite knowing it pretty well by this point.
I've been reading The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of The Science Fiction Writers of America, which is a collection of the "best" thirty-something pre-Nebula stories. After a couple early stories that were more miss than hit in my opinion, the book really settles down and churns out one piece of excellence after another. My favorite so far has been James Blish's "Surface Tension", about microscopic water-dwelling organisms who build a two-inch "spaceship". The moment where they finally reach "space" is sheer awe-inspiring magnificence.
It's been ages since I read "Surface Tension," but I remember liking it. A lot of Blish's short fiction is really good, and I liked some of his novels, too. The Cities in Flight books I wasn't crazy about, but A Case of Conscience was a good read, and Black Friday and The Day After Judgment were quite an experience. (The last three deal with religious schemes; the latter two are directly connected, and there's another book, Doctor Mirabilis, which is straight historical/biographical fiction about Roger Bacon, which I remember finding a bit dull.)
The closest I've come to reading SF lately is reading books about David Bowie's late '70s albums and the band Joy Division, both of which sounded at the time like science fiction (though J.G. Ballard-style SF, not space opera).
The closest I've come to reading SF lately is reading books about David Bowie's late '70s albums and the band Joy Division, both of which sounded at the time like science fiction (though J.G. Ballard-style SF, not space opera).
I've read The Devil's Day, the omnibus of Black Friday and The Day After Judgment. The former was good, but as for the latter-- I never thought the apocalypse could be made so... pedestrian. I have A Case of Conscience but I haven't yet read it, and that's about the limit of my experience with Blish's non-Trek work (aside from "Beep", I guess). If he's got more short fiction on the level of "Surface Tension", I'd certainly like to read more, though.
I've got an anthology or two at home - I'll have to look them up and give some recommendations later. I seem to remember it not being my favourite short story of his, though he's not one of my favourite writers of short stories to begin with. If it's worth its salt, that anthology should have my two very favourites, being "No Truce with Kings" by Poul Anderson and "The Wizards of Pung's Corners" by Frederik Pohl, and something by J.G. Ballard too (he's written too many excellent ones for me to choose).
I've been reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story collection Mosses From An Old Manse, which has more than a few fantastical tales in it (though obviously not billed as such). "Young Goodman Brown", "Rappacini's Daughter" (which I had read before), "The Celestial Rail-road", and "Feathertop" (which I just finished last night) are my favourites so far. He's a wonderful storyteller, and I've simply fallen in love with his writing.
After that, I've got both The Annotated Alice (In Wonderland) and Neil Gaiman's short story collection Smoke And Mirrors.
After that, I've got both The Annotated Alice (In Wonderland) and Neil Gaiman's short story collection Smoke And Mirrors.
Finished Torpedo by Jeff Edwards yesterday and started The Final Storm by Mack Maloney today.
Torpedo was pretty darn good if you like military fiction. The Mack Maloney series, The Wingman, rocks.
Another good series is The Outlanders by James Axler. I am up to book 11.
Cheers.
Starhawk
Torpedo was pretty darn good if you like military fiction. The Mack Maloney series, The Wingman, rocks.
Another good series is The Outlanders by James Axler. I am up to book 11.
Cheers.
Starhawk
Actually, none of those authors are even represented in the book, though both Poul and Pohl have novellas in Volume Two of the series.
By coincidence, though, I recently read Pohl's The Early Pohl. The stories in it ranged from forgettable to competent, but the autobiographical segments were much more entertaining and made the book well worth it
With the exception of the Heinlein(not one of my favs) that is a heck of a book. I own it myself and darn near everything in it is a classic. Helen O'Loy and Martian Oddessey are 2 of my favs(still can't spell that!)
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