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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

The first three Chicks in Chainmail anthologies are actually collected in a new omnibus edition called Chicks Ahoy which was in one of the recent Webscription months (Dec 2010, I think). If you liked them, you might want to try Rosemary Edghill's The Warslayer if you haven't read it already. It's a Free Library book.

Ah - I'd seen that and assumed that it was just another in the series. I didn't realise on cursory inspection that it was an anthology. Excellent. I'll be buying the December Webscription next, but to keep my read:bought ratio in the right area, I'll be waiting until I've read at least another dozen books, and probably more like a score, since the next issues of Asimov's and Analog should be out shortly.

Oh, and yes, I've read The Warslayer. I liked it, but I don't have strong memories of it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Fangs for the Mammaries edited by Esther Friesner. A collection of short stories on te theme of vampires, with a bit of humour thrown in.

And yes, it was just what I expected. Fun, light vampire stories, with some nice twists on the usual motifs.

Next up: 1635: The Eastern Front by Eric Flint. Another from my October 2010 webscription purchase. At last - the next 'mainstream' novel in the 1632 alternate history series. Back to the main characters we (mostly) met in the original 1632. Although the situation is certainly a lot more complex, four years on from the "Ring of Fire", with wars and political manoeuvring on several fronts.


BTW, if you're not signed up at webscription.net, and you like the sound of this, you might be able to get the October 2011 webscription for free by joining my gift webscription chain over in the Freebies forum.

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Finished 84, Charing Cross Road this morning. Unfortunately it's not available as a (legal) ebook, but I had a copy in my boxed archives.

The book documents the 20+ year correspondence between Helene Hanff and the book buyer of an antiquarian bookstore in London, Frank Doel. The book starts with just a request of a particular book and continues as a friendship develops between Ms. Hanff and Mr. Doel and eventually the other members of the bookstore, their families and friends.

I you liked Charing Cross Road, you might want to look at The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's a novel, but written in the form of letters among the various characters. I had avoided it for a while, because I was afraid it might be hopelessly sentimental, but the author really did her research and tells a compelling story. The whole thing takes place in German-occupied Guernsey during the war. (Heck, who knew Guernsey WAS occupied!?)

Oh, and it's definitely available in e-book format.

[kennyc]

Haven't started Packing for Mars by Mary Roach yet, but got "Ideas into Words" (paper) by Elise Hancock in the mail yesterday and have started it.

Trying to pump up my enthusiasm for doing some science writing.

[WT Sharpe]

For Boston Blackie fans who also like graphic novels, I just recently came across "Bloody Shame" from Moonstone. It contains two complete stories (48 pages each): "Black Out" and "Inside Out" by Stefan Petrucha (art by Kirt Van Wormer and Chris Burnham, respectively). It's Petrucha's own take on Blackie, and it seems to combine the best of the many incarnations of him while remaining more faithful to the character created by Jack Boyle than any of the versions I've seen on TV, in films, or heard on the radio. Not that it's perfectly faithful to the book, for Petrucha adds his own twists, such as presenting the character as a former Opium addict, in addition to his weakness for other people's jewels. And I didn't like it when Blackie kissed another woman other than his wife Mary (unlike many adaptations of the character, Boyle's jewel thief was not a womanizer), but in the context of the story, it fit.

I just read the first story last night and loved it. The black and white graphics add a wonderful noir touch. I highly recommended it, and the book looks great on the iPad.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by bevdeforges

I you liked Charing Cross Road, you might want to look at The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's a novel, but written in the form of letters among the various characters. I had avoided it for a while, because I was afraid it might be hopelessly sentimental, but the author really did her research and tells a compelling story. The whole thing takes place in German-occupied Guernsey during the war. (Heck, who knew Guernsey WAS occupied!?)

Oh, and it's definitely available in e-book format.

Oh yes.. That looks like a good one. Appears to be available on the kindle and probably the Nook. Just read a review that makes it sound like a very readable book. Thanks..

[bZkindle]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

You go on reading whatever works for you! When everybody was reading novels they were considered plebeian and highly suspect from a moral point of view. Now that everybody is watching TV or playing video games, novels have become high brow. We tend to forget that the vast majority of novels published are no better in terms of quality than what we see on TV (or would see if I watched TV, in my case). Of course that's also true of non-fiction

Most fiction these days seems well, what you said...
When I read fiction, it tends to be classics.
Still, it's gotten to the point for me where I'm just happy to see anybody read period!
(I don't really mean that. I'm a total snob!)

[kennyc]

Got sidetracked slightly and read a great little short book on writing : Recreational Writing by Gene Wilburn (a member here) Available at Smashwords and other bookstores.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/36742

Definitely interesting and inspiring! Well worth the $2!

[ATDrake]

Going through my Read an E-book Week Smashwords specials to decide which, if any, sequels to get.

Finished Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's The Drastic Dragon of Draco, Texas, one of her previously printed 80s backlist books which I freely admit I just picked up because there was a dragon involved, according to the blurb and cover art. It turned out to be a fairly funny comedic period fantasy, with a re-awakened alien dragon god raiding cattle in the Wild West and expecting sacrifice, though not of the sort you might expect.

Scarborough's use of dialect is much more tolerable in this book than in The Godmother's Apprentice. More naturalistic use of quaint folksy vocabulary and fewer teeth-gritting phonetic misspellings to indicate "foreign" speechifying.

Fun light mock-western fantasy romp, mildly recommended if you like such (a bit reminiscent of Alan Dean Foster's Mad Amos stories, come to think of it). I enjoyed it enough to go and buy the sequel in my 2nd batch of Smashwords purchases this afternoon after skimming the sample, which seems to set things up promisingly.

Currently moved on to Scarborough's Channeling Cleopatra, which seems to be a relatively newly written small-press book about using genetic material to recreate the personalities of famous historical personages within donor hosts.

Mildly interesting so far, but not really grabbing me. Unless it becomes very compelling within the next few chapters, I think I'll leave off getting the follow-up until the next round of sales.

[ATDrake]

As it turns out, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's Channeling Cleopatra did pick up after a few more chapters, and turned into a nice light action-adventure-y corporate espionage-ish the-future-is-almost-now consciousness transfer thriller with a pleasant touch of practical archaeology* in it.

I ended up quite liking it and went and bought the sequel at 25% off just before the Smashwords sale officially closed.

Mild recommend if ancient Egyptian personalities pseudo-scientifically housed within modern day hosts, and various people plotting for the prestige of such acquisitions (and trying to foil corporate figures who've figured out what other things the technology could be used for) entertains you. The sequel, Cleopatra 7.2, looks like it'll go even further in-depth on those points.

* Had a shout-out to the Amelia Peabody series, too.

[thinkpad]

Started on the second book in the Hunger Game series. So far it's good but not great.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

You should try carrying them home on the subway (along with the planters and soil to go with them). Believe me, that puts a damper on your enthusiasm pretty fast.

I was in London some years ago, in May ...

Travelling back by air, it was interesting seeing folk travelling to Scotland with plants and soil that they had gotten from Chelsea ....

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

1635: The Eastern Front by Eric Flint. Another from my October 2010 webscription purchase.

And it does advance things, and it was fun to read. But I've just got back into the stories and characters and situation and..... it stops!

Granted, it stops at a fairly logical point, but I want to know what happens next!

Hmm... it looks like the next one is coming out in April 2011. Hey - that means it should be in the April Webscription. That's currently at three quarters available, but should be fully available any day now! But I'll have to resist — I must get by TBR pile under control before buying lots more ebooks!

So, next up, something a bit lighter. MYTH-Interpretations: The Worlds of Robert Asprin by Robert Asprin.

He did lots of humorous fantasy stuff, and this collection should be good.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I was in London some years ago, in May ...

Travelling back by air, it was interesting seeing folk travelling to Scotland with plants and soil that they had gotten from Chelsea ....

Don't you have soil in Scotland?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Don't you have soil in Scotland?