• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?

The Gripping Hand was enjoyable as well, but not as good as Mote. I loved the sense of mystery and discovery in Mote. The Gripping Hand is more of a plot-driven story.
 
Started Sir Apropos of Nothing yesterday... I'm not entirely sure what I think to it right now. Seems so far to have been very expositional, but I kinda like the style, even though I have no clue what the plot is after about 90 pages.
 
Finished up The Road by Cormac McCarthy on Sunday. Great book. Currently about halfway through Exultant by Stephen Baxter; a Xeelee novel
 
Greg Egan, Incandescence
Steven Saylor, The Triumph of Caesar
David Mack, Promises Broken
 
Read Duma Key recently. I thought it was great. Certainly one of the better Stephen King stories I've read in a while.

Also read Blaze, but the less said about that, the better. :shifty:
 
I picked up a collection of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane at the library. Three stories in so far, and I think it's great.
 
I've read the novellas upon which Farthing is based in anthology form. Very good, but a little disturbing.

Without spoiling-basic premise?

The United States refrains not to enter WWII, and England, losing the war, brokers a peace with Hitler to end hostilities in Europe. Hitler is then able to focus on fighting the Soviet Union.

To this backdrop, England becomes more and more fascist, and starts a slow tumble down the anti-semitic, anti-homosexual, etc hill.

The first book, Farthing, is a murder mystery that takes place in 1949.
 
I've read the novellas upon which Farthing is based in anthology form. Very good, but a little disturbing.

Without spoiling-basic premise?

The United States refrains not to enter WWII, and England, losing the war, brokers a peace with Hitler to end hostilities in Europe. Hitler is then able to focus on fighting the Soviet Union.

To this backdrop, England becomes more and more fascist, and starts a slow tumble down the anti-semitic, anti-homosexual, etc hill.

The first book, Farthing, is a murder mystery that takes place in 1949.

THank you-sounds like my kinda thing.
 
Without spoiling-basic premise?

The United States refrains not to enter WWII, and England, losing the war, brokers a peace with Hitler to end hostilities in Europe. Hitler is then able to focus on fighting the Soviet Union.

To this backdrop, England becomes more and more fascist, and starts a slow tumble down the anti-semitic, anti-homosexual, etc hill.

The first book, Farthing, is a murder mystery that takes place in 1949.

THank you-sounds like my kinda thing.

The reason I found it disturbing is because it seems like the author views the psychological root of fascism as either arising out of, or being closely related to, sexual pathology.

More than that would cross into spoiler territory.
 
I finally got around to finishing the latest Dozois anthology. It ended up being a better year overall than I had thought when I was only part way through.

There are some worthwhile stories in it: "Boojum", "Five Thrillers" [that one is very good, and very original], "His Master's Voice" [truly kickass], "Balancing Accounts", "The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm", "The Ray Gun".

The bad: I couldn't make myself read the very tedious Kress novella. And I skipped the "jazz" story, because I could tell it would be rank. And the final novella by MacDonald was very meh. [Usually I love whatever novella Dozois wraps up with, so "meh" doesn't cut it when the story's in the final position.]
 
Finished Finity's End by CJ Cherryh, part of her Alliance-Union universe. Good stuff.

Rereading the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelasny.
 
Just finished David Mack's excellent Sorrows of Empire and really liked it. Now I'm off to read Superman New Krypton Volume One.
 
I recently finished Ray Bradbury's recent Now And Forever. It's a pair of novellas, "Somewhere A Band Is Playing" and "Leviathan '99". The first one was a very ghostly story, following a man who comes to a small town that isn't on any map and has a supernatural secret. I didn't enjoy it as much as the second one, which I stayed up late to read in a single sitting. It's a retelling of Moby-Dick, only instead of a whale the crew of the rocketship chases a comet that the blind Captain believes is going to swallow up the Earth.

I'm developing a desire to read more children's fantasy literature for some reason, and to that end I've begun buying Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; I want to read one per weekend to spread them out (those books can just fly by).
 
I finished the Mere Anarchy omnibus, and quite enjoyed it.

Then I decided rather than buying something new, to search my shelves for stuff I've bought but never read, and came upon the Shatnerverse trilogy, starting with Captain's Peril. (It is only a trilogy, isn't it? I only have the three books.)

Three chapters in and I have to say I am not impressed. They took three chapters (!) to describe a wholly unbelievable orbital skydive with Kirk and Picard, who are both invincible daredevils now, it appears. Unless the rest of the book is about skydiving, that was a total waste of pages. It reads as total wank.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top