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

[CharredScribe]

Almost finished Gerald's Game by Stephen King. Very creepy and unsettling.

[HarryT]

Just finished "Postern of Fate" by Agatha Christie. This was the last novel she wrote (but not the last to be published), and was originally published in 1973.

Now in their seventies, Tommy and Tuppence move to a quiet English village, looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But, as they soon discover, their rambling old house holds secrets. Who is Mary Jordan? And why has someone left a code message in an old book about her 'unnatural' death? Once more, ingenuity and insight are called for as they are drawn into old mysteries and new dangers.

I have to say that this is a simply dreadful book, and should honestly never have been published. Christie was clearly severely failing in her mental faculties, and it shows clearly in the book. A conversation occurs in one chapter, and then a virtually identical conversation takes place a couple of chapters later, for example (about how to get away with poisoning someone). The characters agonise for chapters about solving the most blindingly obvious of puzzles. It really is almost embarrassing to read, and doesn't do Christie (who was 82 years old at the time of the book's publication) any favours. Avoid!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next: F&SF November 2014 edited by Gordon van Gelder. (I might as well read all my November 2014 purchases before anything else!)

Reading LightSpeed Magazine for November 2014 at the same time, as I was away from my eReader for a bit....

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I completed my Dead Beat Halloween re-read yesterday. It was a great re-visit!! I think I'll take a long weekend off (of reading) and then go back to reading An Artificial Night on Monday.

An Artificial Night was a somewhat different take on the Halloween Wild Hunt than the one depicted in The Dresden Files with both lots of similarities and lots of differences. I found it to be well worth the read!

Next I'm going to read Raging Heat (Nikki Heat #6) by Richard Castle.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by CharredScribe

Almost finished Gerald's Game by Stephen King. Very creepy and unsettling.

If you haven't already, you may want to follow that up with Dolores Claiborne, which also involves the eclipse depicted in GG. As I recall, the two stories were supposed to be one book at some point, but were split for arcane publication reasons.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next: F&SF November 2014 edited by Gordon van Gelder. (I might as well read all my November 2014 purchases before anything else!)

Finished the F&SF. A good issue - I enjoyed very nearly all the stories, and even the one I didn't enjoy was OK, just not for me.

Now reading LightSpeed for November 2014, as mentioned.

[DrNefario]

I finally bludgeoned my way to the end of Crown of Slaves, by David Weber and Eric Flint. I didn't like it much, and sort of wish I'd just dropped it 30% when I took a break to read something else. It's talky and preposterous, and often unpleasant, and it doesn't have the pay-off of a main-sequence honorverse novel, where everything builds to a climactic space battle full of glory and duty and sacrifice.

Next up I think I'm going to start on Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, which has been creating some buzz this year. There are still few days left of the Autumn Sale at Amazon UK where I can get the second and third books slightly cheaper, so I'd better find out if I want them.

[CharredScribe]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

If you haven't already, you may want to follow that up with Dolores Claiborne, which also involves the eclipse depicted in GG. As I recall, the two stories were supposed to be one book at some point, but were split for arcane publication reasons.

Thanks for the tip. I haven't read Dolores Claiborne yet, although I do have it. I'll make it my next book.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by CharredScribe

Thanks for the tip. I haven't read Dolores Claiborne yet, although I do have it. I'll make it my next book.

DC's kind of weird, in that (IIRC) it's basically one solid block of spoken text. It's been some time since I read it - original hardback publication day, I believe - but I do distinctly remember the lack of chapter breaks. I believe it's a transcript of the title character's deposition...

[Gazella]

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

[HarryT]

Finished "Galactic Derelict" by Andre Norton, which is the second book in the "Time Traders" omnibus, published by Baen. I bought this in 2000.

When an alien spacecraft is brought forward through time from the distant past, where it had crash-landed, it accidentally launches, taking four men with it, on a series of adventures on various alien planets.

Distinctly average SF. I wouldn't really recommend it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now reading LightSpeed for November 2014, as mentioned.

Also a really good issue.

Then I read a short story: The Man Who Murdered Himself by Nancy Fulda which was a freebie from Amazon. It was very good, although the ending was predictable.

Next up: Moonbase One by Raymond F. Jones. My oldest unread book, bought from Fictionwise, 8 November 2004.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by CharredScribe

Almost finished Gerald's Game by Stephen King. Very creepy and unsettling.

If you haven't read it yet I'd suggest Delores Clairborne next as it links up with Gerald's Game via one of the events in Gerald's Game. I finished John Bellair's "The House with a Clock in its Walls" the other day. Mr. Bellair wanted to write a mystery for adult readers but couldn't get it to work so he re-wrote it for the young adult market instead. I read it yrs ago after seeing the story dramatized in "Once Upon a Midnight Scary" which was hosted by Vincent Price and I still enjoyed the story this many yrs later.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

If you haven't already, you may want to follow that up with Dolores Claiborne, which also involves the eclipse depicted in GG. As I recall, the two stories were supposed to be one book at some point, but were split for arcane publication reasons.

I didn't know that. Interesting. Of course they do as you say link up via the eclipse as I recall. Of course Mr. King often includes throw away lines in a book that refer to events that happen in one of his other books. Sort of like how Alfred Hitchcock would arrange to have a cameo of some sort in each of his movies.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

An Artificial Night was a somewhat different take on the Halloween Wild Hunt than the one depicted in The Dresden Files with both lots of similarities and lots of differences. I found it to be well worth the read!

Next I'm going to read Raging Heat (Nikki Heat #6) by Richard Castle.

Raging Heat was riveting! Maybe the best Nikki Heat yet! Next I'm going to read my monthly freebie from the Amazon Prime lending library, The Alarming Clock (Ed Noon Mystery #5) by Michael Avallone.