Return of the Book Thread

[Ingmar]

I am very slowly working my way through Perdido Street Station right now on lunch breaks and such (China Mieville.) The plotting seems decent enough (and well into the weird) but his prose is awfully florid. I'm not sure how much more of his style I can take.

[apocrypha]

Decided to give Ulysses another go next so I'll either post here again in 2 weeks time to say I've given up on it again or I'll be back in 6 months time with my thoughts 

OK. Make that 3 days. I cannot read this book. It reads like gibberish to me. 80% of it is just a stream of nonsensical words and what I assume are "classical" references that I don't understand.

I think it's only been labelled "one of the most important works of Modernist literature" because no fucker understands a word of it and everyone's too embarrassed to admit it. Balls to it, I'm gonna skim the wikipedia article on it and then go read a Terry Pratchett.

[Quinton]

Finished Absolution Gap this morning, so I've now read all of the core "Revelation Space" trilogy by Reynolds.  The writing was a bit up and down (in particular, characters seemed a little inconsistent at times, some things were mentioned only in passing, and he has a Stephenson level of "nonendings" going on), but I loved the universe and the bits of the books that were just totally spectacular made up for the rougher spots.  Piles of neat ideas, which is something I enjoy in science fiction. 

Any commentary on the other stuff he's written?  I ordered a copy of Pushing Ice, which sounds to be self-contained and not in the RS universe.

[Rishathra]

Also very good.  Yes, it's in a separate universe.  Typical Reynolds, in that it has bunches of neat ideas but maybe not the most awesome ending.

Century Rain is also another good, if uneven at times, standalone story.

[Abagadro]

The Prefect is technically a Revelation Space universe book but it isn't marketed as such very highly so I'm not sure if you are including that. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[FatuousTwat]

Haven't read The Prefect, but have read the other 2, and I would recommend.

[Khaldun]

I really like that series, but for some reason I keep getting stuck on Absolution Gap. I get about halfway through it, and just quit. Don't really know why, I don't really remember disliking it.

Started The Darkness That Comes Before. It's ok. It already has some really overused tropes that I am thoroughly sick of.

I liked some of what he does in this series. But it gets really ponderous as it goes on, and he is way way too fond of the proposition that he's doing something that has philosophical weight to it. I really felt that if he'd had a editor who pushed back hard on him to make the prose leaner and cut down on the deadweight philosophizing in the second two books, it could have been a really classic series. As it is, way better than your average fantasy work, but that's a low standard to rise above.

Are you referring to Reynolds or Bakker?

Bakker.

I like Reynolds but somehow the ambient emotional temperature of his books is so low that I have a hard time getting hooked on them--there doesn't feel like there's a viewpoint character I can latch on to.

[HaemishM]

Picked up the 1st book in the Thomas Covenant series for my Blackberry e-book reader. So far I dig it.

[Sky]

I'm becoming unable to tell whether I enjoy the books I'm reading. I now simply judge books on "want to get back to" or "meh".

Been reading Peter Hamilton, finished Reality Dysfunction part one and about 1/4 into part two. Keep going back to it, therefore I like it under my new rules. It's interesting, a bit disjointed, focused on my least favorite plotline from the first book. Decent writing style and tech ideas, fun action; probably what keeps me coming back.

The scene in the first book where Joshua makes his big discovery is probably the high point imo.

[Dion]

I'm reading Indignation by Phillip Roth (duh) and I enjoy it so far.

I'm also working on the Crossing and Cities of the Plain of Cormac McCarthys Border-trilogy. I enjoyed Blood Meridian, the Road and All the Pretty Horses quite a lot.

[JWIV]

Picked up the 1st book in the Thomas Covenant series for my Blackberry e-book reader. So far I dig it.

I usually hate humanity somewhere by the middle of the series (though I love the books, they are not an easy read).

[Ironwood]

Just finished the a Banks Book : The Steep Approach to Garbadale

Totally predictable, but strangely that simply doesn't matter.  Awesomely written yarn.

[Quinton]

I read Altered Carbon this weekend on the recommendation of a friend.  It was a lot of fun.  Borrowed a lot of the trappings of hardboiled detective novels, in a future setting where death is impermanent, provided they can recover the device archiving your mind-state at the top of your spinal column.  Faster than light transmission of data (but not matter) is possible, but of course you need a body to be installed in when you arrive. 

I enjoyed it enough to grab the second book set in this universe, Broken Angels, which I'm reading now.

EDIT: s/film noir/hardboiled detective novels/

[gryeyes]

I enjoyed altered carbon a good deal. For some reason i stalled on the second book about 50 pages into it. I should go back and finish it.

[lamaros]

Finished Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana and kind of enjoyed it. Not his best, but the subject matter was interesting to me for a number of reasons and it was still diverting. Not as funny as he usually is, though.

[Khaldun]

I'm becoming unable to tell whether I enjoy the books I'm reading. I now simply judge books on "want to get back to" or "meh".

Been reading Peter Hamilton, finished Reality Dysfunction part one and about 1/4 into part two. Keep going back to it, therefore I like it under my new rules. It's interesting, a bit disjointed, focused on my least favorite plotline from the first book. Decent writing style and tech ideas, fun action; probably what keeps me coming back.

The scene in the first book where Joshua makes his big discovery is probably the high point imo.

Peter Hamilton needs an editor so desperately who will tell him to fucking cut every other word out. He has some decent ideas, some decent characters, but holy jesus is his stuff overwritten. Also some of his sex scenes are just howlingly awful even by the low standards of SF.

[Sky]

I'm about 3/4 done with book 2 now (I read slow) and I've gotten very good at recognizing when he's just rambling and skimming those sections. Made the books much better. Still enjoying it.

[Chenghiz]

Finished Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana and kind of enjoyed it. Not his best, but the subject matter was interesting to me for a number of reasons and it was still diverting. Not as funny as he usually is, though.

I enjoyed that book too actually. I grabbed it because Foucault's Pendulum was checked out, but I ended up enjoying his descriptions of life in Italy a lot.

[lamaros]

Finished Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana and kind of enjoyed it. Not his best, but the subject matter was interesting to me for a number of reasons and it was still diverting. Not as funny as he usually is, though.

I enjoyed that book too actually. I grabbed it because Foucault's Pendulum was checked out, but I ended up enjoying his descriptions of life in Italy a lot.

It was less annoying than Pendulum, but less enjoyable too.

[justdave]

Peter Hamilton needs an editor so desperately who will tell him to fucking cut half of his asinine plotlines out. He has some decent ideas, some decent characters, but holy jesus is his stuff overwritten. Also most of his shit is just howlingly awful even by the standards of complete, unabashedly shameless space opera.

Modified and emphasized the important bits.

When you skip 2/3rds of the book for the actually not bad parts, that tells me that the author has some sort of fucking overgrown gland that secretes liquid Wrong.

EDIT: Capital W.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, I agree on Hamilton: wretched excess in every direction, really.

[justdave]

Just finished re-reading Moving Mars by Greg Bear, forgot what good characterization that book had. Starting in on Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by HST.

I keep eyeing the non sci-fi stuff on my shelf that I buy/have bought when people give me shit about the fact that I pretty much only read sci-fi/crime/geeky shit, but I just can't be arsed.

[Murgos]

Just finished re-reading Moving Mars by Greg Bear, forgot what good characterization that book had. Starting in on Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by HST.

I read this last year at the height of the pre-election fever.  The number of parallels, or at least how little things have changed, is pretty interesting.

[Khaldun]

Almost done with Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. Was very surprised: it's actually pretty good. There's some circular plotting, a bit tedious here and there, occasionally too self-satisfied with the dark humor, but not bad.

[ghost]

I am very slowly working my way through Perdido Street Station right now on lunch breaks and such (China Mieville.) The plotting seems decent enough (and well into the weird) but his prose is awfully florid. I'm not sure how much more of his style I can take.

I liked the Scar and Iron Council better.  His writing style does get a bit thick.

[Ard]

I liked the Scar and Iron Council better.  His writing style does get a bit thick.

[Ingmar]

I finished the book and yeah
The book does pick up significantly after the first half in terms of stuff actually happening and getting interesting.

In any case I am moving on to my first KJ Parker, I just started Shadow, and quite like it so far, though I'm only maybe 100 pages in.

[Hawkbit]

Just finished "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.

I strongly recommend it.  It's mostly about a boy and a tiger trapped together on a lifeboat after a shipwreck.  I put it down a few times, a little tired of it.  But holy cow it has a fantastic ending.  I felt slapped, and I'm still thinking about it. 

[IainC]

Just finished "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.

I strongly recommend it.  It's mostly about a boy and a tiger trapped together on a lifeboat after a shipwreck.  I put it down a few times, a little tired of it.  But holy cow it has a fantastic ending.  I felt slapped, and I'm still thinking about it. 

I read that a few years ago, definitely worth reading and the ending does keep you awake at nights trying to work things out.

[FatuousTwat]

Finished Look to Windward and Matter. Both good, but I think Use of Weapons is still my favourite of his.

Just starting The Blade Itself.

[apocrypha]

Life of Pi was good, liked that.

just finished Red Shelley by Paul Foot, which was fantastic. I'm sure you're all well aware that I'm pretty left-wing and Paul Foot was even more so, so it's no surprise that this book is written from an extremely political point and with a political purpose. It's an exhaustive re-examination of Shelley and a refutation of the dogma that he was a poet primarily concerned with lyricism and romantic ideas - in fact he was deeply political and possibly one of the most powerful political poets ever.

Foot details Shelley's atheism, his feminism, his desire for social justice and equality and his struggle between the ideas of reform or revolution. It's not an uncritical book and also highlights Shelley's failings and contradictions, both as a poet and as a person.

Brilliantly written, very engaging and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in political and social history, anyone who's ever been taught Shelley at school or college and anyone with even vaguely left-leaning political ideas :)

[ghost]

I liked the Scar and Iron Council better.  His writing style does get a bit thick.

I liked the Scar and Iron Council a lot.  I would definitely grade them a fair amount above Perdido


I am currently trying to slog through Dahlgren by Samuel Delaney.  This is one of the weirdest and inscrutable books that I have ever read.  I recently finished up the following:

1.  Scar Night and Iron Angel by Alan Campbell-  highly recommended with unique story/setting.  Very fun read.
2.  Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson-  again, highly recommend to certain folks.  Can be a bit thick, but Stephenson has a good sense of humor. 

[HaemishM]

Still reading the first Thomas Covenant book, and I'm having a hard time with Covenant. He's not just unlikeable - he's a complete twat. The hunger strike thing and the way he reacts to every character is starting to stretch my believability. Perhaps that's the point - Drool sends him as the harbinger knowing Covenant has the power to save the Land but will never be able to because he's a complete cunt. The rape was hard enough to deal with, piling an unrepentant streak of douchieness on stop is getting difficult to deal with.

[ghost]

Still reading the first Thomas Covenant book, and I'm having a hard time with Covenant. He's not just unlikeable - he's a complete twat. The hunger strike thing and the way he reacts to every character is starting to stretch my believability. Perhaps that's the point - Drool sends him as the harbinger knowing Covenant has the power to save the Land but will never be able to because he's a complete cunt. The rape was hard enough to deal with, piling an unrepentant streak of douchieness on stop is getting difficult to deal with.

Yeah, I had the same reaction.  I own them, but just couldn't do it.

[Ard]

Yeah, I had the same reaction.  I own them, but just couldn't do it.

Ditto, I only made it through like the first half of the first book before I just quit, but I haven't tried reading it in like 15 years.  I just don't get why people like that series.