Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I've started reading Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye. I've long been a hard-boiled, noir fan, but I've neglected the sub-genre's roots. I'm not very far into it, but I've already noticed what I can only assume are references to people/events from previous Philip Marlowe novels. To anyone who has read Chandler: should I read some of the previous novels to acclimate myself, or will this novel ultimately stand on its own?

On the advice of a few people, I've decided to start with The Big Sleep instead of The Long Goodbye for my introduction to Chandler. While I've been assured that they can all stand on their own just fine, if I had any intentions of reading more than one of the Philip Marlow novels, it was strongly suggested that the published order was the way to go.

[Sorilla]

I just finished this thriller ( The Targets by Sebastian Dark) and can not wait for another one to come as was promised by author ...in meantime I am reading this forum posts ( lol, I am new here and love it)!

[odiakkoh]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Busy slogging through Dracula. A very slow read.

I'm listening to it right now as my first audiobook. I actually enjoyed reading Dracula but I'm enjoying listening to it a lot more.

[JSWolf]

I just finished Judgment in Death by J.D. Robb. Not the best on in the In Death series, but still pretty good.

Next book I am about to start is Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic

The most talented Starfleet engineers of two generations unite to solve a two-hundred-year-old technological mystery that turns out to be only the beginning of a wider quest.

With the support of Guinan and Nog, as well as the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger, Geordi La Forge and Montgomery Scott soon find themselves drawn into a larger, deadlier, and far more personal adventure. Helped by old friends and hindered by old enemies, their investigation will come to threaten everything they hold dear. Seeking out the new, and going where no one has gonebefore, Geordi, Scotty, and Guinan find that their pasts are very much of the present, and must determine whether any sufficiently advanced technology is really indistinguishable from magic.

[carld]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Next book I am about to start is Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic

That looks really interesting, I may have to pick that one up myself.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by carld

That looks really interesting, I may have to pick that one up myself.

It has a really good review over at TrekWeb.

http://trekweb.com/stories.php?aid=4...&topBrowse=all

[tennoel]

Every woman needs a wife. This is a pick for my local all woman book club. Basic story: woman finds out hubby is cheating, she decides that since the mistress got something out of the deal, it was time she pay it back ........by being a "wife" to the woman who's married to the cheater. So far, it's VERY funny. The writer clearly was thinking out of the box.

[Crusader]

Finished Salem's Lot by Stephen King last night. It wasn't as scary as I was led to believe, although compared to Dracula I much prefer Salem's Lot. Having read Dracula a couple of weeks previously it was interesting to see the parallels/lore King uses with a twist of his own.

Overall a good enough read, but nothing that would keep me up at night.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Sorilla

I just finished this thriller ( The Targets by Sebastian Dark) and can not wait for another one to come as was promised by author ...in meantime I am reading this forum posts ( lol, I am new here and love it)!

and thanks for the recommendation.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Well, if they're sprinkled throughout, I think I may have just run into one of them. I just finished The Mummy's Case, and one of the suspects for the "Master Criminal" who's been stealing antiquities is a young man of a particular colouring and build from an apparently upper-class background who tends to run away at the prospect of physical violence, who's rather similar to an established character who steals antiquities and is a young man of a particular colouring and build from an apparently upper-class background who tends to run away at the prospect of physical violence.

Ancestor or red herring, who knows?

Before that, also read the 3rd Vicky Bliss Silhouette in Scarlet, which I rather liked because it's a) set in Sweden and I have this inordinate fondness for cultures which produce dragon boats and b) practically a non-murder mystery heist caper in which no dead bodies are stumbled across to provide extra drama. I like that for a change of pace.

I'd gotten a bunch of assorted Bliss and Peabody mysteries out from the library, which seems to have the lot along with some more obscure non-series Elizabeth Peters mysteries (even if I had to dig in the surprisingly well-stocked Large Print section for some of the older ones; who knew that people with vision difficulties loved their lurid mystery/crime thrillers that much?) with the intention of seeing how many I could read in order until I hit a gap.

I'd been intending to alternate between Bliss and Peabody volumes so as not to burn out on them, but then I went and read The Curse of the Pharoahs and The Mummy Case in short succession.

You know, I don't mind if there are inordinately precocious children showing up in adult-level books. I don't even mind really all that much if they're inordinately precocious children upon whom their parents dote and never really restrain who wreak destructive havoc upon their surroundings and make extra work for their actual put-upon caretakers who have to both tidy up after them and answer to the parents when the kids disappear off onto another adventure.

I'm willing to say that I can even tolerate it when said inordinately precocious children upon whom their parents dote and never really restrain end up wreaking destructive havoc which conveniently saves the day on a number of occasions, and helpfully turn up the answers which have evaded the silly adults who have foolishly been ignoring this inordinately precocious savant of a child. Although I prefer that to happen in YA/kids' books where it reads more naturally as a wish-fulfillment fantasy.

But I cannot even in the least put up with any child, no matter how precocious and day-saving and savant-like, who employs an adowable lithping speech defect to emphasize their adowable pwecocity.

It is at that point where I begin to believe not in the Victorian notion that "children should be seen and not heard" since technically that's all the appearance they're making in a print novel, but rather the notion that "children with twee speech defects should be packed off post-haste to the faraway boarding school and not be seen or heard from again until they are fully grown and the twee speech defect has been beaten out of them".

It's probably too much to hope for that they start leaving him at home during the digs.

Anyway, usual recommend for Silhouette in Scarlet if you like nice "To Catch a Thief"-like how-to-foil-the-heist-caper mysteries.

Very, very, mild recommend for The Curse of the Pharoahs and The Mummy Case if you enjoy Plucky Victorian Egyptologist murder mysteries.

Actually, since there appear to be nearly 2 dozen of the Peabody books, I think I'd skip TMC unless determined to read the series in order. You can always go back and read it later, after reading the ones where the kid is apparently grown and maybe childhood scrapes will seem more entertaining in retrospect.

TCotP had only a minor appearance and was fairly fun in other respects, although the copy I read came with additional commentary in the form of a previous Gentle Reader who left inane remarks written in pen, along with the occasional typo correction.

I think I might as well read Lion in the Valley next, since that seems to continue the "Master Criminal" plotline and it's a lightweight paperback and it's a nice, sunny day and I don't have to worry about it getting rained up on while waiting for the bus.

But after that I'm definitely cleansing my palate with Trojan Gold in the Bliss series.

He stops lisping.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

He stops lisping.

Oh, good. I'm currently halfway through The Deeds of the Disturber and there seems to be comparatively fewer of his escapades on feature and hopefully Elizabeth Peters will tone down his amazingly amazing and conveniently convenient helpfulness in resolving the plot by being completely unhelpful in many other ways. Already, it's a noticeable change for the better, or at least less annoying.

Finished Lion in the Valley which I give minor bonus points to for having extra redheads in it (I like extra redheads), even if they're suspected as being villains all the time because Set was a redheaded god.

I'm hoping this is the worst book in the Amelia Peabody series, because it was really kind of absurd.

Between the inordinately precocious day-saving know-it-all idiot-in-behavioural-matters-and-savant-in-willful-perversity child and the big reveal about the "Master Criminal" (I was tempted to laugh like a hyena when I read that, but alas, I was on the bus and thus confined myself to making the O_o face and snickering a little) and the Slap Slap Kiss Kiss matchmaking and moralizing, I have to say that if this keeps up in future books, I'm going to have to relegate the series to the level of those gimmick-based comedy cozies with the pun-filled titles: nice enough mind candy, but nothing I can take seriously.

Despite the presence of bonus redheads, I can't really recommend this one. Unless you, too, want to point and laugh at the reveal of the Master Criminal's motive and are willing to sit through twee speech defects and matchmaking moralizing to get to that.

Actually, just borrow it from the library and read the last chapter or so. Skip straight ahead to the entertaining part. Trust me, you're not missing anything else that's important.

After that, read Trojan Gold and Night Train to Memphis in the Vicky Bliss series, which were much, much better, even if they did not induce nearly as much in the way of suppressed hyena-like laughter.

A change in tone for the Bliss series, which was previously mostly standalone except for the presence of Vicky's supporting cast and a certain recurring character.

Both of these bring back characters from previous cases on the trail of new mysterious vanishing/reappearing treasures.

I'm not sure how I really feel about this development, because I did kind of like Vicky's cases being mostly standalone, but I didn't mind the reunion-fic aspects of these newer adventures, and the addition of greater required continuity knowledge worked pretty well for Night Train to Memphis.

NTTM incidentally, is where a large portion of the cross-series mentions seems to come into play. Not only direct references to the Peabody-Emerson digs as could be expected, but also the surprise appearance of yet another in the stable of romance-writing pseudonymous Valeries from the Jacqueline Kirby series, and Peters goes so far as to insert her own gothic thriller pseudonym, Barbara Michaels, into the narrative as one of the alternatives that Vicky would rather read than the works of the said Valerie.

Overall, both good reads, but I think I enjoyed NTTM, which was mostly light-hearted fun, a bit more than TG, which was more sober (and had a higher body count, which tends to be more of a downer; also came with comment written by the same Gentle Reader who annotated The Curse of the Pharoahs, though this time they confined their remarks to a single misspelling of "Rabbie Burns" for entirely non-obvious reasons).

Recommended as usual, but this time you'll have to have previously read at least Borrower in the Night for Trojan Gold, and Silhouette in Scarlet for Night Train to Memphis. It would probably also help to read TG before NTTM, but it doesn't seem strictly necessary, although I think a couple of mentions in NTTM might spoiler the whodunnit in TG.

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Night Train to Memphis (there's a story about the song in this one...ask me when you get to it and I'll explain.)

I duly ask; please feel free to explain away.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

I duly ask; please feel free to explain away.

Okay: Barbara/Elizabeth, Joan Hess, Dorothy Cannell, and Sharyn McCrumb are all buddies. One year after Malice Domestic, at the yearly after party at Mertz Manor (Barbara's house), they decided to turn their hands (and fertile crazy brains) to country song writing. That song is at the front of NTTM. It also shows up in each of the other authors published works that year. In some it plays only a cameo role - being heard on the radio or stuck in a character's head, and in some it's a major player.

I couldn't remember which titles it shows up in, but Google provided one:
O Little Town of Maggody - Joan Hess

I believe Elizabeth MacPherson's brother or cousin is singing it in one of the Elizabeth books, probably whichever one came out in '93, 94, or 95.

[Todd Young]

I've started The Magus by John Fowles. Can anybody tell me if it's worth the effort? It looks like it's going to be pretty heavy going. I'm not doing a lot of reading at the moment. More into writing.

[orlok]

I read the Magus about 30 years ago, so my memory is hazy, but I do remember it with great fondness mixed with a healthy dose of frustration, due to the ambiguous ending. Hard to say too much without spoiling it.

I do know that some on this forum think it is one of the worst books they have ever read.

[Jack Tingle]

Recently Read - May 2011

Long sf

Strahan, Jonathan, ed., "Engineering Infinity" *** e
This is a hard sf anthology with a good cast of characters. The stories are all readable or better. Rating anthologies is difficult, so take my 3 stars with a grain of salt.

Shepherd, Joel, "Haven" *** p
It's hard to review the fourth and final book in a series without spoilers. Some live, some die, some live happily ever after, some less so. I don't think that spoils anything.

Graham, Jo & Scott, Melissa, "Homecoming" ** p
On the one hand, you have two excellent authors. On the other hand, you have a Stargate Atlantis novel. It's better than the TV series. It's not as good as "The Black Ships" or "Trouble and Her Friends." It sucks less than a Star Trek or Star Wars novel (Karen Traviss excepted). God (or the Ancients) knows what it all means in a cosmic sense.

Brothers, Marilee, "Moonstone" ** e
Teenage girl wish fulfilment; competing secret societies (G v. E); prophecy; cute guy; mysterious moonstone pendant; gradually intensifying mystical powers. Slightly above average for this below average sub-genre. DISCLAIMER: I am not now, nor have I ever been a lower-class, teen-aged girl from the NW US. Nor have I played one on TV, radio or films.

Banks, Iain M., "Transition" ** p
I was very disappointed in this book. The architecture is obscure (intentional) and difficult (?), while the story is juvenile. It reads like too much beer, Lovecraft, high-concept-literature, and Kafka combined to make a not very good fantasy. There's a parallel worlds story, with an apotheosis or two, wrapped up with a villianess who would twirl her moustaches if she had any. The prose was OK, although it bordered on the purple here and there. I'm not sure it deserved the two stars. Call it a gentleman's D- for past good work.
_______________

Short sf
None of note this month
_______________

Non sf

Todd, Charles, "A Duty to the Dead" *** and "An Impartial Witness" *** e
I've never cared for Todd's "Inspector Rutledge" novels, but this set with a female WW I nurse sleuth is a pair of interesting reads. The mysteries are all that mysterious, but they aren't push-overs either. The action is somewhat realistic, since Bess Crawford isn't any kind of super-sleuth, just a caring person who gets dragged into helping some people out. If you like historical mysteries, these will do. There is apparently a third coming soon. I'll probably read it.

Gordon-Smith, Dolores, "Frankie's Letter" *** e
This WW I spy novel follows the hunt for a high-class traitor who collects bits and pieces of information from the good-old-boy network in Britain and sends it to the Germans. Even when you know how it was done, who-dunnit and why is slow to come. There's also quite a bit of side-action as clues lead to other concerns.

Brashear, Jean, "The Goddess of Fried Okra" *** e
This is a surprisingly good woman-in-crisis novel. Not quite a romance, except perhaps implied in the end. Eudora "Pea" O'brian has lost everything. Her mother, her sister (who raised her) and her self-respect. She seizes on a manic road trip to find the reincarnation of her beloved sister, who died of cancer shortly after Pea argued with her, and before she could apologize. Along the way, she picks up strays.

Upson, Nicola, "An Expert in Murder" ** e
From WW I and fictional people, to post-WW I and a fictionalized real person. 'Josephine Tey' was the nom-de-plume of a real mystery writer, who also wrote plays. This one is about a series of fictional murders centered on a real play, written by a nom-de-plume, solved by another nom-de-plume of the same author. Amazon's low-ranked reviews complained about liberties taken with historical persons, or inversely, about not enough historical information included in the fictional action. WTF? It's a decent mystery, a little slow at first, but readable.
_______________

My stars:
***** A classic, read it immediately.
**** Very good, you might even buy it in hardback.
*** Good, well worth your time.
** Readable, but I'd wait for a cheap copy.
* A book with at least one redeeming value, even if it's nice cover art.
Not rated - noted, but not rated because it's an anthology, or I couldn't finish it, or it's obviously good but not to my taste.
No stars (zero, zip, zilch, nada, none, goose-egg) - don't read this book.

e: electronic book; p: paper book

YMMV - seek other opinions, and don't blame me.

Happy Reading,
Jack Tingle