[April] What you're reading now

[Psychotic Dreamer]

Currently re-reading through Area 51 by Robert Doherty. Once I finish this I will probably finish the rest of the series. After that I will probably start up the Lost Regiment series by William R. Forstchen. Granted I'm not sure where my copies of the books went so I may have to repurchase them.

 

[Krug]

Finished King Rat but wasn't that impressed by it. Hoepfully his other stuff will be better.

Also read the last issue of Lone Wolf and Cub. What an ending. Truly poetic and don't think they could have done it any other way. Stunning.

 

[Pielorinho]

Sorry King Rat wasn't so good. I think it was his first novel, though, and may have suffered from that. Certainly Perdido Street Station blew me out of the water, and it started rocking very early on; you may want to try that, and if you're not spellbound by the first three chapters, maybe Mieville just ain't your cup of tea.

I'm now reading The Werewolves of London, by Brian Stableford. He's a very erudite author who seems to be trying to recreate the feel of Victorian science fantasy novels in some ways; although the writing style is kind of opaque (the dialogue is really stilted), the book is interesting.

Daniel

 

[Granduke]

The Devil in the White City. The parts about Dr HH Holmes are kinda creepin me out.

 

[Gizzard]

Finished King Rat but wasn't that impressed by it.

Really? As Pielorinho mentions, it's his breakout book if not his first novel. PSS is a much more complete work, but there's just so much good stuff in King Rat that I didn't have trouble overlooking it's flaws.

One flaw perhaps is that if you don't like Trance then his digressions about music and the London music scene might be interminable. I like Trance, so I was at least OK with that. But thats the only thing I can think of that bothered me.

Otherwise, the plot, the mythic feel, the characters and the atmosphere - I can't find any holes. The "transformation sequence" near the beginning of the book was what I was thinking of when I wrote "vivid imagery" in an earlier post. ;-)

What was it you didn't like?

 

[AuroraGyps]

Return to Valdemar

Well, I'm taking a break from Black Body by H.C. Turk. I stopped on page 168... it's a 517 page book but it's mostly dialogue that takes place during sometime in 1700's, so it's moving kinda slow. I needed something with a bit more action, so it's back to Valdemar for me with Owl Flight. So far it's just as good as the majority of the other books in that world, which I'm glad to see because Lackey wrote it with her husband Larry Dixon and I had my worries.

 

[CrazyMage]

Just finished Fast Food Nation. Since I'm working at losing weight, I've been avoiding fast food for the most part, and this book gave several more reasons (although I don't agree with everything in the book) to pass by the fast food places.

 

[WayneLigon]

Just finished up Patricia Briggs' Dragon Bones last night and I'm starting on the sequel, Dragon Blood today at lunch. DB was very entertaining, and had several twists.

 

[CCamfield]

Well, I didn't like King Rat either, even though I thought it was well written. I mean, I like gritty fantasy, but King Rat wasn't just gritty, it was grimy.

Since my last post I was incredibly lucky and found a cheap copy of Glen Cook's best SF novel, The Dragon Never Sleeps. Complex book - like certain other authors like Erikson, he pretty much throws the reader into things - but really good.

And now I've started to re-read The Tower of Fear, which is a very dark standalone fantasy novel by Cook. Sort of Arabian fantasy, with the evil sorcerer-tyrant of a city locked in permanent magical stasis, along with his citadel, while the rest of the city is under the occupation of a foreign power, there's a not-very-nice resistance movement, and a servant of the tyrant is making kids disappear, trying to find the one that will let him free his master.

 

[Gizzard]

Well, I didn't like King Rat either, even though I thought it was well written. I mean, I like gritty fantasy, but King Rat wasn't just gritty, it was grimy.

Hehe. Well, he is the King Rat so I thought the grimy feeling was a spectacular achievement. ;-)

Thinking on it now, Mieville certainly isn't bound by any genre conventions, so it's possible that some parts of King Rat are really closer to Horror than Fantasy. I don't read much Horror, but I do really appreciate it when an author can keep me on my toes by doing stuff I've never seen before.

Anyway, I hope I'm not hijacking this thread by discussing one of the books. I doubt a King Rat thread could get enough interest to live on it's own and it seems to wedge in here without being too disruptive.