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

[orlok]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Just finished "Flood", by Stephen Baxter. Baxter is one of my favourite "hard SF" authors, and this book didn't disappoint. It tells the story of the end of the world, as seen through the eyes of a disparate group of people over a time period of 40 years or so, when global sea levels start (and continue) rising as water trapped in the Earth crust start welling up though sub-oceanic faults. Highly recommended, and I look forward to reading the sequel, "Ark".

So you've just ruined the ending. If it's about the end of the world, and then there's a sequel?! (just kidding)

Nearing the end of Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson, which satisfies the "A book about a road trip" category for my Something for Everyone challenge. Really enjoyed it - Bryson's self-effacement, and slightly naughtier sense of humour than I expected, hold delights on almost every page. And I do really want to pay down-under a visit.

[Rev. Bob]

I'm a third of the way through Gaie Sebold's Babylon Steel and will probably proceed directly to the sequel. I like how the backstory is interwoven with the main narrative by way of parallel chapters, and the setting reminds me in an odd way of Simon R. Green's Nightside... only more medieval-fantasy than urban-fantasy.

After those, I may need a change of pace. Superheroes or SF, maybe.

[Luffy]

I'm reading Temple by Matthew Reilly. My expectations are low, so I was not surprised by the quality of the writing. I hope to finish it in 3 or so days.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next up, I am taking a non fiction by Franz Kafka, Letters to Friends, Family and Editors, a print book waiting in my TBR since many years. I hope it will be a good change of taste for now.

Just finished Letters to Friends, Family and Editors by Franz Kafka. He is a master wordsmith indeed.

I will take up The Sign by Raymond Khoury published in 2009, as the next book, epub format.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I'm reading Temple by Matthew Reilly. My expectations are low, so I was not surprised by the quality of the writing. I hope to finish it in 3 or so days.

My sympathies - that's 3 days' reading time you'll never get back. To call it "rubbish" would be unfair to honest decent rubbish.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I'm reading Temple by Matthew Reilly. My expectations are low, so I was not surprised by the quality of the writing. I hope to finish it in 3 or so days.

Why? If it's that bad, just abandon it!
Leisure reading time is too limited to spend it on things you don't enjoy!

[richvalle]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

Next up are The Iron Jackal, third of the Ketty Jay steampunk novels by Chris Wooding and Boar Island, #19 in the Anna Pigeon Mysteries by Nevada Barr. Once I've read those and returned them to the library, I'll think about what to read next.

I really enjoyed the Ketty Jay books. The steampunk aspect is fairly traditional but the 'magic' system is bizarre.

[covingtoncat73]

Thoroughly enjoying and almost done (I'm at 80%) with my re-read of Slaughterhouse Five.

I think I am going to spring for Nutshell next, I find the premise so intriguing.

[Moe The Cat]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Thoroughly enjoying and almost done (I'm at 80%) with my re-read of Slaughterhouse Five.

That was a good one. I love the passage where Billy watches a movie backwards:

Spoiler:

“It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers , and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.”

As wonderful an anti-war statement as I've ever heard.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Moe The Cat

That was a good one. I love the passage where Billy watches a movie backwards:

Spoiler:

“It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers , and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.”

As wonderful an anti-war statement as I've ever heard.

Yes, that is a sublime passage.

[Dngrsone]

Gave up on Roald Dahl... the writing is just not engaging enough.

So, I am going to Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe.

[Luffy]

I DNF'ed Temple, by Matthew Reilly. Now I'm reading Death by Tiara, by Laura Levine. It's pretty much average so far. One of her few books that I won't be revisiting.

[HarryT]

Finished "Quest for the Well of Souls", by Jack Chalker, which I bought from Baen in 2003. This is really, as the author acknowledges, the second half of a single large novel, the first half of which was "Exiles at the Well of Souls". Excellent SF, and highly recommended, as is this entire series.

[HarryT]

Finished "Ark", by Stephen Baxter, which is the sequel to "Flood", which I read a few days ago. This book runs in parallel with the events depicted in "Flood" (a world-wide flood - no spoilers there!) and tells the story of a desperate attempt to save some remnants of Earth's civilisation by sending a group of young people to another planet. A little similar to "When Worlds Collide" - the attempt to build a spaceship while civilisation collapses around the project - but very well done. Highly recommended. Looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, "Landfall".

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Meanwhile, started reading a book from the latest Baen Bundle -- Women of Futures Past, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This is a collection of shorter works from some of the giants of the past and present. The very first one is The Indelible Kind, by Zenna Henderson. An author I didn't know, and a real winner of a story. Next up was a McCaffrey Pern story I had never read. This bodes really well and I'm quite delighted by getting this book in the monthly bundle, when it really wasn't why I was buying it.

Great book, a real find in an otherwise predictable Baen Monthly Bundle. Women of Futures Past had some stories I knew, and several that I didn't, including ones from authors I didn't know. All the stories were at least enjoyable, and several were excellent. My only disappointment was that there were no Kristine Kathryn Rusch stories in there -- I was hoping for an introduction to her writing as well.

Now reading, from the same bundle, Project Elfhome. I'd read the eARC, but now I'm reading and mostly listening to the final version. And enjoying it just as much this time as I did the first.