What are you reading? November 2018 edition

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

• Nov 1, 2018

• #1

So I finished I Shall Wear Midnight, one of the Tiffany Aching-focused Discworld novels. Wow, for categorized YA it really hit on some serious subject, the beginning was dark. I quite enjoyed it.

I needed a book I had on ereader so I just reread the first of Marion Harmon's Wearing the Cape series. Decent read. I'm a bit torn of superhero books. They aren't my normal genre, I like them best when they approach it from an unusual angle. For instance, Austin Grossman's Soon I Shall Be Invincible is a favorite, even though it's got some really lousy parts. For Wearing the Cape, I like the reality of their acceptance (and not), including Atlas' talk about how it started.

Going on a trip soon and looking for more kindle fodder. So, what cheap ebooks should I check out?

 

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R

Richards

Legend

• Nov 1, 2018

• #2

I just finished Walt Becker's Link, a first novel involving an archaeological expedition that discovers proof that modern man was created by aliens DNA-tampering with primitive Earth hominids. It was fairly well done, to the extent I'd probably pick up another book by the same author, should I ever run across one.

Johnathan

 

J

Jhaelen

First Post

• Nov 6, 2018

• #3

I'm not sure if already posted about it: I'm currently reading 'the Unconsoled' by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's been compared to Kafka's work and 'Alice in Wonderland', but so far I'd say it's simply a novel following dream logic: Morphing locations, strangers that turn out to be old friends on closer inspection, the focus of the narrative shifting all the time and even several classic nightmare occurrences, like suddenly realizing you're naked in public, etc.

Only the premise feels somewhat Kafkaesque: A famous pianist is invited to a take part in a great event, but in the beginning nothing's known about the event and the protagonist's role in it, but everybody acts as if he was supposed to know, and he doesn't dare asking.

It's not a bad read so far, but I really wonder if there's a point to all this; if it leads anywhere.

 

R

Richards

Legend

• Nov 8, 2018

• #4

I'm now reading Dean Koontz's Strange Highways, a collection of two novels and a bunch of short stories. It starts off with the eponymous novel, about a drunkard trying to stop a serial killer.

Johnathan

 

delericho

Legend

• Nov 8, 2018

• #5

I've just finished "Dungeon Crawl Classics", which looks like a good game... but deep down I know I'll never run it (and am doubtful that I'll ever get the chance to play it). Now reading "It Came From Hollow Mountain" for Pathfinder.

I'm also reading "Dunstan" by Conn Iggulden, which is okay so far. Next up will be "Whit" by Iain Banks, and the "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy.

 

Ralif Redhammer

Legend

• Nov 12, 2018

• #6

Back from vacation myself. Finished Asprin's Myth Conceptions, Blackwood's The Willows (a short story), Sapkowski's Time of Contempt, and Lord Dunsany's Fifty-One Tales.

Now I'm finally getting to Feist's Magician: Apprentice.

Yeah, the opening of I Shall Wear Midnight is pretty darn dark and melancholy. Like, Pratchett always has fairly profound insights, but this one I felt like he really was feeling his encroaching mortality.

As far as eBooks go, you can find a number of old pulp tales free of charge for the Kindle. Stuff like Blackwood, Hodgson, Haggard, Lord Dunsany, Merritt, etc.

Blue said:

So I finished I Shall Wear Midnight, one of the Tiffany Aching-focused Discworld novels. Wow, for categorized YA it really hit on some serious subject, the beginning was dark. I quite enjoyed it.....

Going on a trip soon and looking for more kindle fodder. So, what cheap ebooks should I check out?

Click to expand...

 

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

• Nov 12, 2018

• #7

Okay, back from Switzerland. My ToBeRead pile stayed at home, I needed to travel light so it was all kindle. (My "lowest cost" flight had zero checked bags, so I needed to fit 5 working days and a travel-back day in my carry-on. Plus all my work materials.)

Didn't get as much time to read as expected, was out and about Basel. Wonderful city, very clean. But I did end up reading all seven of the Wearing the Cape main books by Marion Harmon plus one side short story. (Though I still haven't read the side story with Jackie - she's not a favorite character.)

I guess the series rates a B+ from me. Writing is decent but not inspired or overly polished. Plot throws twists I don't expect. I like the characters. It does some interesting deconstruction of what it means to have powers in a world where most don't. The sixth book is a about crossovers and it's a departure in style and relies on some knowledge of the other material (which I didn't really have) to get the most out of it. Oh, and the author seems to be leaning heavily on extra-reality travel (that's the author's term) for plots. It makes sense, but there's still plenty of room to explore in the world.

 

F

Fluerdemal

Explorer

• Nov 13, 2018

• #8

I'm re-reading The Two Towers by Tolkien since it's been a few years since I've read the whole trilogy, front to back.

D.

 

Ralif Redhammer

Legend

• Nov 13, 2018

• #9

Nice. I did so two years ago. Not quite yet due for another one, but I've been thinking about The Lost Tales or Silmarillion of late.

Fluerdemal said:

I'm re-reading The Two Towers by Tolkien since it's been a few years since I've read the whole trilogy, front to back.

D.

Click to expand...

 

F

Fluerdemal

Explorer

• Nov 13, 2018

• #10

I haven't read much Tolkien lately, so I picked up Children of Hurin and read that kind of in the middle of Fellowship, and I want to read Fall of Gondolin somewhere during Towers.

D.