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

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

These are some of my very favourites and I own them in two languages in multiple editions (including a hardcover omnibus with very nice illustrations by Kaja Foglio of Girl Genius fame). Very highly recommended, for anyone else who might be thinking of picking up the series which is now e-booked from Subterranean Press (not available to Canadians, alas).

The omnibus is coming to the Fantasy Masterworks series next year. Hopefully this will make it available to the rest of the world.

I'll admit I temporarily "relocated" to the US to buy the Subterranean edition from Kobo back at the start of the year.

I've only read Bridge of Birds so far, but I liked it a lot.

Since I last posted, I've read:

The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie. Had to stop reading a Christie short story a day so I could catch up a bit on the novels. This one was fine.

Soldier of Sidon - Gene Wolfe. I loved the Soldier books way back when the first two were written, and this belated follow-up won a World Fantasy Award. Latro is a Roman mercenary in the pre-Empire ancient world. He forgets every night, so has to write things down. Since he has no memory, he doesn't think it odd to see demons and speak to gods. The earlier books were set in Greece, this one moves to Egypt. Still pretty great. Still felt like half of it was going over my head, but it didn't matter. I genuinely think that Wolfe is an underappreciated literary colossus.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley. Not as good as I was expecting. I found it a bit heavy-handed and clunky, with a big infodump at the start, and an actual embodied argument between the two opposing viewpoints. I read Zamyatin's We earlier in the year, which was earlier and covered similar ground. It handled the world-building much better in my opinion, but had other faults that made it a worse read overall. I guess I already knew the setting of BNW - I think I saw part of a film adaptation once - which might have ruined its impact.

And now I'm nearing the end of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, which I have very much enjoyed so far, although I already feel I know Sanderson's MO after less than two books.

[bfisher]

Enjoyed Conflict of Honors. Rereading Agent of Change. Amazing book, I think this is the third or fourth reread and it's still at least as good as the first time around.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Soldier of Sidon - Gene Wolfe. I loved the Soldier books way back when the first two were written, and this belated follow-up won a World Fantasy Award. Latro is a Roman mercenary in the pre-Empire ancient world. He forgets every night, so has to write things down. Since he has no memory, he doesn't think it odd to see demons and speak to gods.
…

This sounds pretty interesting and I'll have to look these up at the library. I've heard that Wolfe's work was along the lines of the kind of literary fantasy that I tend to like sometimes, but I've never actually gotten around to trying him.

Finished Finnish author Leena Lehtolainen's My First Murder, 1st in her apparently very popular and adapted for Finnish television Maria Kallio, Intrepid Aspiring Law Student And Reluctant Cop series, which has been translated as an AmazonCrossing title, of which I bought several some years ago when they were 99 cents on sale.

Actually, I picked this one as a very short-lived, probably glitch freebie, and of course I opt to read this first instead of the ones I actually paid cash money for. Priorities, what are they?

But it did give me a chance to evaluate if I wanted to shell out actual money in the future for more in the series, and the answer is "sure, if it's on deep-discount sale again".

So, Maria Kallio is a reluctant cop who's gotten disillusioned with her day job, having gone into it in the hopes of righting wrongs and dispensing justice and finding out that you don't really get to do all that much of it in actual policework, especially when you're handling vice and domestic abuse cases, which quickly become pretty damn depressing.

Thus, one transfer to homicide later, where at least catching killers seems to be much more straightforward, in between a return to studying for a law degree which she hopes will one day enable her to dispense justice as a judge, Maria is finally called upon to investigate a case which doesn't involve the usual drunken stabbings-gone-wrong.

The interesting angle to this particular murder mystery is that Maria is closely acquainted with the victim and much of the circle of suspects, several of them being former students together, and the victim himself being the ex of a close girl friend of hers.

The very personal touch to this, as Maria struggles to overcome her prejudices towards and against certain suspects based on her prior knowledge of them as well as having to deal with the tensions as the small circle of well-acquainted suspects begins to turn on itself with suspicion and distrust, Ordeal by Innocence-style, while trying to convey their not-quite-accusations to Maria, makes for a nicely layered emotional touch to the investigation.

Also, the structural approach to this case had a low-key, heightened verisimilitude feeling to it. If fantasy has a "magical realism" subgenre for that type of story, then mystery must have a "procedural realism" one for this kind.

Maria's policework is very much the backbone of this story, taking her through the days as she interviews suspects, investigates evidence, follows up leads on the main murder case, in between taking care of other police duties such as handling more of the usual drunken stabbings-gone-wrong and assault cases as the unfinished investigation continues. This seemed different and novel compared to the more mono-focused single-case-oriented everything-which-happens-is-related-to-it crime thriller mystery types I've been reading recently.

This also had an interestingly retro look at Finnish society (this was originally published in 1992, but not translated into English until 2012), as Maria deals with tokenism as one of the few female cops in her precinct, as well as her parents' now-antiquated expectations. And also, 20 years on and an entire continent away, some things never change as she thinks that the people knocking unexpectedly at her door one day must be Jehovah's Witnesses.

Medium recommend. It's got an interesting approach to both the sleuth's actual relationship to the case and the depiction of how she investigates it, and the whodunnit makes sense, with clues you can probably follow, uncovered by solid, painstaking detective work. I liked this and I'm perfectly willing to buy and read further books in the series if they go on discount sale for a good price.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

LightSpeed Magazine for September 2014. My only unread purchase for this month left!

Which was OK. I liked the shorter stories but not the big novella, which dragged the rating down.

Next: First Action by G. Harry Stine. From one of my most recent books to one I bought 10 years ago. My oldest unread purchase, from 24 September 2004!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Enjoyed Conflict of Honors. Rereading Agent of Change. Amazing book, I think this is the third or fourth reread and it's still at least as good as the first time around.

It is an amazing series of books. And I agree, they just keep on giving pleasure. I'm holding off on a re-read until a little closer to the release of the next one.

Meanwhile, I just started reading the first of the Ann Cleeves Shetland mysteries, Raven Black. This is in an omnibus edition bought on the cheap with a 90% coupon a while back.

[Daskalos]

Still working on Simon Scarrow's Legion series with Kato an Marko. I am currently reading Praetorian. I hope to move on to some classics next, Homer and the such.

[MickeyC]

Just finished The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout and it was another great mystery.

Next up Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. If I like it, I'll go see the movie which opens in early October.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next I'll try Harry Harrison's Deathworld that I grabbed from the public domain. My first Harrison.

Enjoyed the setting and fast pace. Unique world. I think I would have left the planet a long time ago. Rated generously C [3 stars].

Next I'm going to read the final book in an alternate history trilogy while I still remember the events in the previous two. Necessary Evil by Ian Tregillis.

[ATDrake]

Finished another Agatha Christie, this time one of her suspense thrillers, Endless Night, which the "Clues to Christie" promo freebie listed among the author's own Top 10 picks of her favourites among her works.

The setup is that Mike Rogers, a working-class Englishman, one day meets Ellie Goodman, a wealthy American, on the site of an English country estate which is popularly thought by the locals to be cursed (and they are both warned off it by a local fortuneteller who reads their hands and prophesies doom if they stay).

Despite this, Mike and Ellie continue to see each other and are determined to make the place where they met into their future dream home, rumoured curse notwithstanding.

And of course, it all goes wrong.

This was very low-key in terms of the actual suspense, with occasional hints of the terrible things to come alluded to in the retrospective narrative, in between Mike and Ellie trying to settle down to a happy new life despite their class differences and interference from her extended family, many of whom are dependent in some way on Ellie's money, and potentially hostile locals who resent their moving on to the "cursed" land, and you keep waiting for disaster to happen and are never quite sure just when it will strike* or how, so it becomes a bit of a surprise when it eventually does.

It's actually a rather subtle work, with the clues as to what really happened laid out carefully in such a way that it's possible to see them in retrospect, but perhaps startling once you're told what's been going on, since this isn't one of her dedicated mysteries where you would normally expect to uncover a clear-cut culprit among a mass of suspects if you pay close enough attention.

I freely admit to being surprised by the reveal (and the aftermath of it, which seemed to suddenly dip into the melodramatic after the rest of the book had been fairly grounded until then), but it all added up and made a logical and terrible sense in terms of the foibles of human behaviour.

Also read the GN adaptation, done by François Rivière, with art by Frank Leclercq, which, while the art style was fairly standard "realistic" French BD stuff, was well-paced and had a deft balance of illustrative panels and word balloons/captions which followed the story quite well, right up until the last two pages where they suddenly crammed in and condensed the last few chapters. Oh well, 48-page album limit.

Recommended. It's a bit old-fashioned and takes more time to unfold than by modern standards of suspense thriller (despite being a relatively short book at ~180 pages on my Sony), but still a rather good story which will make you anticipate the outcome, and then (probably) surprise you with the ending.

* In line with the best Hitchcockian tradition of mystery being not knowing if there's a bomb under the table or not, and suspense knowing that there is, but not knowing when it's going to go off.

[Melon Soda]

Currently trying to finish the Ascension series by SM Reine and I am on the last book, Sins of Eden, now. A tad darker than I expected compared to the first 3 (free) books which I enjoyed; I guess it's not that bad, just... unexpected. Hopefully I can finish the series by this weekend and get started on a new book/series!

[ATDrake]

Finished another Agatha Christie, this time The Secret of Chimneys, an early mystery/thriller from the mid-1920s.

A very convoluted storyline, with lots of mysterious strangers barging in to interfere with one's affairs and suspected hidden identities (of which I correctly guessed two) and attempted framing of people for crimes and searching for purloined items, much of it done in the titular English countryside manor.

Sometimes I wonder if authors in Central/Eastern European countries who get to see their regions expied as Ruritania (or in this case, Herzoslovakia) and used wholesale as unstable generically foreign nations which so thoughtfully provide lots of underhanded political intrigues for Englishmen to heroically sort out, ever invent fake areas of the British Isles in which to set thrillers where some fine upstanding Ruritanian subject gets dragged into the sordid squabbling caused by absolute primogeniture as those sneaky snobby aristocrats poison, strangle, and stab each other in order to inherit that precious Earldom and accompanying House of Lords seat from their oblivious bachelor uncles so they can begin repairing the decaying ancestral pile by taking bribes for their votes straightaway.

Anyway, this one was kind of part-Prisoner of Zenda, part WWI-prelude-influenced (what with the comrades of the "Red Hand" and the overthrow/assassinations of the ill-fated royalty of the book's faux-Balkan nation), and seemed to be trying to throw in the kitchen sink in terms of cramming a lot of sensational developments all into the same story.

That said, it was entertaining to see characters openly trying to work together to figure out what was really going on, and even making little tests to try and catch each other out. Mind you, I could have done without the casual use of ethnic slurs and the depiction of foreigners who are not of Anglo/Scottish heritage all being these funny-acting untrustworthy and occasionally barbaric chaps with stereotyped appearances and behaviour.

Also read the GN adaptation by François Rivière with art by Laurence Suhner. This time, the pacing of the story is done pretty much exactly right through the end, even if it did have to get condensed for the 48-page album length. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the facial designs of the art in this, which often made the putative hero of the story look like he had these especially sinister, evil plans he was just sitting on and waiting to unleash on the unsuspecting, especially right at the triumphant end. But the panel layouts were pretty cinematic.

Mild recommend if you're looking to try an early standalone Christie with a Ruritanian effect. Mystery/thriller bits are competently enough done, but the overall effect is not good enough to read on its own without that kind of curiosity value, IMHO, especially with the accompanying period prejudices enshrined in the novel.

[AnemicOak]

Just finished reading Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber & Eric Flint a good entry into the extended Honorverse and have started Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986 by David Hitt & Heather R. Smith.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I just finished Haruki Murakami's newest Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage yesterday and got a few chapters into F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise.

I started a "book jar" this year where I colorcoded genres via post it note, wrote 100+ books down and dropped them in the jar. It makes me get through my TBR list. If I buy something new, it goes in the jar and has to get in line.

I really like that idea, I'm often overwhelmed by my TBR list.

How did you like Colorless Tsukuru? I enjoyed it quite a bit, I'm looking forward to the Haruki Murakami novella that will be published in December.

I'm currently reading a book from the Tales of the Otori series: Heaven's Net is Wide.

[Luffy]

I finished Fool Moon, the second Dresden Files book. I'm next going to read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I've heard it has a slow beginning and it's long, but if it has a rich language and impressive fleshing out of the world it's set in and its characters, I can't see myself ditching it prematurely.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I finished Fool Moon, the second Dresden Files book. I'm next going to read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I've heard it has a slow beginning and it's long, but if it has a rich language and impressive fleshing out of the world it's set in and its characters, I can't see myself ditching it prematurely.

I remember really liking The Historian (I read it around the time that it was published), I've been meaning to reread it. I hope that you enjoy it!