So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Just read the one that was, for me, the big drawing card: "General Jinjur's Last Stand," by @Una McCormack. Many years have passed since the era of the Baum Canon, and the events thereof are in the history books. There are some outright contradictions of the Baum Canon -- the Wizard, with whom all the People of Oz had reconciled, and who was welcomed back and apprenticed to Glinda in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz -- is referred to as "wicked," and people have evidently resumed growing old and dying, but all in all, it's more faithful than unfaithful, and it's a very good story (not that anybody here would have any reason to expect otherwise). For three and a half pages, despite subtle hints like unusually fanciful names, and a reference to the "Good Old Queen," the setting could be a small town in any English-speaking place. Until the primary protagonist utters the line, "There's no magic done these days -- not in Oz."

 

[MLJames1961]

I've finished off the poetry section of my Poe collection and started on the fiction section. The poetry section ended with a piece I'd never even heard of, much less read: Politian, an unfinished play. The text of the play is written in blank verse, hence its inclusion in the poetry section of the book. The fiction section takes up roughly 90% of the book, and it includes his only complete novel.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Just finished Land of Oz. Jonathan Maberry's "The Little House on the Kansas Prairie" is . . . weird. To the point where I don't know what to make of it. Some things at the beginning don't make any sense: like the storm cellar being there when the house lands in Oz. But then, things get really weird. Like a horrific illusory episode that makes up almost the entirety of the story, and apparently takes place between paragraphs at the end of Chapter 13 of Wizard.

Let us know your favorite stories in this anthology.

I won't be visiting it again until next month as I'm reading for Victober this month.

I would say that the father-daughter duet about Scraps bringing Dr. Pipt to justice are my two favorite stories. Followed by "The Door to Oz," and the ones where Oz is a very visible, but entirely peripheral, presence. And I'd put the ones with gratuitous servings of eye-scream at the bottom.

Now not quite a full chapter into John Young's autobiography, Forever Young. Two Gemini missions, two Apollo missions, and two Space Shuttle missions. The only Astronaut to have flown in four distinct vehicles: Gemini, Apollo CM, Apollo LM, and the Shuttle.


*******

Monday morning: I've gotten through the chapter on the Gemini GT-3 flight ("Molly Brown"). He saved the corned beef sandwich incident to the end, and made a point that (1) it wasn't the first sandwich taken into orbit, and (2) the press and the NASA brass made far more of it than they had any reason to.

 

[Smiley]

I'm in the Wrath of Khan section of The Fifty Year Mission. Besides their artistic talents, both Meyer and Nimoy are fantastic at interviews. They almost always come off as interesting and articulate.

Looking at Meyer's writing credits, I was astonished to find that three of his Sherlock Holmes books were from the past five years (he is 80 now). The most recent is on hold for me at the library, and it will be my next book.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Continuing with Forever Young. I just finished a rather long chapter that covered the Apollo 1 disaster, and the Apollo 7, 8, and 9 flights, pointing out just how dangerous Apollo 8 was (once the CSM entered lunar orbit, Borman, Anders and Lovell's lives depended on the SPS engine re-igniting for the Transearth Injection burn), and just how important Apollo 9 was in terms of perfecting rendezvous techniques. The next chapter is Young's first Apollo flight.

 

[Steve Roby]

So, I've read James Swallow's game tie-in novel Deus Ex: Black Light, which kept me interested though I never got very far into the games, and COLD, the last of John Gardner's James Bond novels. I prefer some of the other post-Fleming Bond novelists, but I was entertained well enough by Gardner. I'm not a hardcore Bond fan or purist, I just want something fun.

Now reading Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero because the ebook was on sale cheap and why not. I read American Psycho back in the '90s and wasn't entirely crazy about it, though I seemed to have read a more obviously satirical version than a lot of other people, judging by reactions at the time. Haven't seen the movie version of either book, but the Less Than Zero soundtrack gave us LL Cool J's "Going Back to Cali" and the Bangles' cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter," so that was worthwhile.

 

[Harper3.0]

So, I've read James Swallow's game tie-in novel Deus Ex: Black Light, which kept me interested though I never got very far into the games, and COLD, the last of John Gardner's James Bond novels. I prefer some of the other post-Fleming Bond novelists, but I was entertained well enough by Gardner. I'm not a hardcore Bond fan or purist, I just want something fun.

Now reading Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero because the ebook was on sale cheap and why not. I read American Psycho back in the '90s and wasn't entirely crazy about it, though I seemed to have read a more obviously satirical version than a lot of other people, judging by reactions at the time. Haven't seen the movie version of either book, but the Less Than Zero soundtrack gave us LL Cool J's "Going Back to Cali" and the Bangles' cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter," so that was worthwhile.

I've wanted to give Ellis a try, but when I went through and read synopses of his various novels, I was left with the impression that he's a one-trick-horse. But I suppose the same could be said of authors I love, like William Gibson, too. I dunno. I suspect my view of Ellis was jaundiced by some interviews I saw with him, and he kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

 

[JD]

I decided I was in the mood for something different, so after I finished the Ripper arc in the Eleventh Doctor Archives, I returned it to Hoopla for now, and I got the first issue of the new Star Trek ongoing comic which I finished pretty quickly, and now I'm reading The Art of God of War, the behind the scenes book for first game in the second God of War series.
Also still making my way through Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, up to 23% now.

 

[Greg Cox]

Burn, Witch, Burn: the original screenplay by Richard Matheson & Charles Beaumont for 1962, based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber.

Just rewatched the movie recently (recommended), then remembered that I had a copy of the script on my Richard Matheson shelves.

Interesting to compare the original script to the final film (which apparently underwent some final tweaks by a third party). Most notably, a stone gargoyle that comes to life in the screenplay was replaced by a stone eagle that similarly comes to life. (Presumably because a trained bird required less extensive makeup and special effects than a living gargoyle, who is described in the script as being part ape, part lion, with wings!)

Hence, the movie being titled Night of the Eagle in the UK.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Read the rather long chapter on Apollo 10 last night, and the much shorter one on 11, 12, and 13 this morning.

 

[bdub76]

Reading some Allan Quartermain short stories and Sherlock's Last Bow stories.

 

[Harper3.0]

Reading some Allan Quartermain short stories and Sherlock's Last Bow stories.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all the H. Rider Haggard Quatermain stories that I have read. It's a shame they have not been more widely printed, outside of King Solomon's Mines and She. It's odd, since they must all be public domain at this point.

I recently finished a reread of Deep Space Nine: Avatar Book One by the wonderful S.D. Perry.

As Doc Savage came up in discussion here a few weeks ago, I read The Vanisher. And enjoyable story by Lester Dent.

I got a few chapters into Max Allan Collins' The Dark City, but his straight historical work on Eliot Ness with A. Brad Schwartz is so much more interesting to me than "historical fiction."

Currently reading and enjoying Earl Mac Rauch's Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, Et Al: A Compendium of Evils.

 

[bdub76]

I have thoroughly enjoyed all the H. Rider Haggard Quatermain stories that I have read. It's a shame they have not been more widely printed, outside of King Solomon's Mines and She. It's odd, since they must all be public domain at this point.

I grabbed some his novels and stories from Project Gutenberg and StandardEBooks. The short stories I'm reading now are from the StandardEbook collection: Allan Quartermain Stories. It contains: Hunter Quartermain's Story, Long Odds, A Tale of Three Lions, and Magepa the Buck.

Makes me want to read this non-fiction book later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man-eaters_of_Tsavo

 

[Harper3.0]

I grabbed some his novels and stories from Project Gutenberg and StandardEBooks. The short stories I'm reading now are from the StandardEbook collection: Allan Quartermain Stories. It contains: Hunter Quartermain's Story, Long Odds, A Tale of Three Lions, and Magepa the Buck.

Yep, me too! It's good that they're out there and available. I would like them in print. There was a collection a while back, but the volumes were quite pricey. Maybe they've gone down some now (or maybe they're even more expensive).

 

[bdub76]

Yep, me too! It's good that they're out there and available. I would like them in print. There was a collection a while back, but the volumes were quite pricey. Maybe they've gone down some now (or maybe they're even more expensive).

I tend to read most everything on my KOBO.

I have some old Doctor Who Target novelizations in print that I want to read, and I recently bought Momo in print since I had to import it. But I mostly read ebooks.

 

[Denise]

Just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Apollo 16 took up two and a half chapters (with the other half of the third discussing 17, and the budget cuts that ended the Apollo lunar program 3 missions earlier than originally planned.

When I finish this (and I'm not even 2/3 of the way through the book), Dining By Rail is next. It appears to be a combination of a history and a cookbook. (But not a cookbook in the sense of "To Serve Man.")

 

[Greg Cox]

The Unknown by Riley Sager.

A film crew, shooting an arty horror movie based on an historical event, decide -- for authenticity's sake -- to conduct rehearsals on the actual remote island where a bunch of seance-conducting spiritualists mysteriously disappeared back in 1926.

I'm sure this will turn out well for them.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I’m about halfway through All Sections Alpha: The Making of Space: 1999, the expansion Tim Heald’s 1976 The Making of Space: 1999 expanded by Fred McNamara.

The book is stumptuous, with page upon page of gorgeously reproduced photos (most in color.) However, the text is kind of a disaster, with typographical and word choice errors on virtually every page. Which is reminiscent of the show itself — awesome production values, with writing that was, more often than not, a head-scratching misfire.

 

[MLJames1961]

Still working my way through my Poe collection (savoring everything as I go). As a palate-clearing exercise, I've been trading it off with Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville, a collection of baseball essays written by Stephen Jay Gould and released shortly after he died.