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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm reading A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane. The New Millennium edition.

Only one or two typos, and the updating wasn't intrusive. And the 10th book is out! I think I'll wait until I've caught up in the revised editions before I buy it. I bought the 9.5 interim book last year (Interim Errantry) and I still haven't read that yet.

Next up: Asimov's SF, March 2016 by Sheila Williams.

[Quelch]

Reading the third in the Zombie trilogy by Rhiannon Frater
As The World Dies
The First Days - Book One
Fighting to Survive - Book Two
Siege - Book Three

The First Days was named one of the Best Zombie Books of the Decade by the Harrisburg Book Examiner.

And now for something completely different:

My next read:
A new novel from the Booker Prize winning Pat Barker,
Noonday - London, the Blitz, Autumn 1940.

My mother lived through these dark days and told me a lot about her experiences
Looking forward to reading Noonday

[drjd]

Just finished re-reading Owls Don't Blink by A.A fair aka Erle Stanley Gardner. Since I have read 6-7 Gardner's books consecutively, I am planning to change the taste for a while. I will go for The Sicilian by Mario Puzo next, awaiting in my mammoth TBR list since long.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Sharpe's Gold was excellent.

I just finished Sharpe's Rifles and I was faintly dissatisfied, for the reason that makes me prefer reading books in written order, rather than according to internal chronology. It was as if the prior two books hadn't happened, as indeed they had not, since Cornwell hadn't written them yet. It especially made his relationship to the female interest rather problematic and contradictory, based on the retroactive backstory.

Oh, well. These are, after all, mostly stand-alone books so it doesn't really matter.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

I just finished Sharpe's Rifles and I was faintly dissatisfied, for the reason that makes me prefer reading books in written order, rather than according to internal chronology. It was as if the prior two books hadn't happened, as indeed they had not, since Cornwell hadn't written them yet. It especially made his relationship to the female interest rather problematic and contradictory, based on the retroactive backstory.

Just two prior books? In internal chronology, there are five books before Sharpe's Rifles.

I was willing to accept that some events in earlier novels would be only vaguely alluded to (if at all) in 'later' novels that were written first. Overall, I'm very happy that I've been reading them according to the internal chronology.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Just two prior books? In internal chronology, there are five books before Sharpe's Rifles.

I was willing to accept that some events in earlier novels would be only vaguely alluded to (if at all) in 'later' novels that were written first. Overall, I'm very happy that I've been reading them according to the internal chronology.

I prefer to read in published order, too. An excellent example is the "Narnia" series. If you read the first book chronologically, "The Magician's Nephew", first, all the interest in the discovery of what Narnia is that forms the core of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is lost.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Just two prior books? In internal chronology, there are five books before Sharpe's Rifles.
.

I know. I cheated* and started with the fourth book, since I was more interested in the Napoleonic Wars than the Indian period. In any case, the backstory for the Indian books seems to have been established at least to an extent, whereas the Trafalgar and Copenhagen interludes were wholly imagined subsequent to Sharpe's Rifles.

I don't disagree; I'd rather have the broad sweep of the Napoleonic Wars in order than skip around, but I still found the anachronisms in regard to the internal history dissatisfying.

*Hey, once you start breaking the rules, why stop with one?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I prefer to read in published order, too. An excellent example is the "Narnia" series. If you read the first book chronologically, "The Magician's Nephew", first, all the interest in the discovery of what Narnia is that forms the core of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is lost.

Yes, I do agree there. Starting the Narnia series anywhere other than with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" would be foolish in the extreme.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes, I do agree there. Starting the Narnia series anywhere other than with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" would be foolish in the extreme.

Like I did .

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up: The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith unless one of my other holds comes in from the library.

I finished this last night and did enjoy it. Discussion in the book club starts on the 20th for anyone who is considering this.

Next up: I forgot my Kindle at home today so Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz (Odd Thomas book 5) will wait till Monday. For now I am reading Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe which didn't work on my old Kindle even though it is a Kindle book, it does work in the app though so I have been reading it as filler material for a while.

Edit: Decided to start The Helmsman by Bill Baldwin, the first in this space opera/military sci-fi series. I am enjoying it so far.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I finished this last night and did enjoy it. Discussion in the book club starts on the 20th for anyone who is considering this....

I've been reading that one interspaced with Dante's Divine Comedy. I don't normally do a lot of re-reading, but this is my third time through the Comedy, although they were all by different translators. The first was by The Rev. H.F. Cary, M.A. (The Harvard Classics edition), the second was the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation, and the one I'm reading now was translated by Anthony S. Kline. This is by far my favorite, as it is a prose translation that is much easier to understand. I've had the book on my TBR list since at least 2010, but after Longfellow and Cary I felt like taking a break from the tale for a few years.

I should mention that Tony Kline has made his version free to download for non-commercial use at his website, Poetry in Translation, along with many other works he has translated including Ovid's Metamorphoses as well as some of his own poetry. This fellow really seems imbued with the spirit of the late Michael S. Hart, to whom he has dedicated at least a portion of his output.

As for The Nightlife of the Gods by Thorne Smith, well, I read this several years ago and it still cracks me up. My wife was wondering why I kept bursting out in laughter at things Thorne wrote. Comedy is a rapidly changing field. What was hilarious to one generation often barely brings a smile to the lips of the next. It is a testament to Smith's comedic genius that his work remains sidesplittingly funny a full 85 years after it's composition.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by cromag

...
Repairing the Sky, Tales of Myth and Magic from Old China, by Dorothy Trench Bonett, is brand new at Smashwords. I'm a fan of mythologies of various cultures and don't know too many from China. Ms. Bonett is apparently a translator and poet, and did a good job. (NOTE: There are a few typos. No worse than I used to encounter in mass market paperbacks back in the early 60s, but be aware.)

I'll be reading more short stories for a while, but things may (finally!) be approaching "manageable."

Many of the short stories I wound up reading were from James H. Schmitz, including his short novel Legacy, in Baen's Trigger & Friends collection. I started off feeling a bit disappointed in the way the story was headed, but it was nicely wrapped up in the end. I wound up liking it better than I expected.


And I've just started reading the first volume of Baen's collection of Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories -- The Van Rijn Method. Some of these stories are new to me, but others are old friends from back when I first discovered SF magazines on the rack in the local drug store. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I've been reading that one interspaced with Dante's Divine Comedy. I don't normally do a lot of re-reading, but this is my third time through the Comedy, although they were all by different translators. The first was by The Rev. H.F. Cary, M.A. (The Harvard Classics edition), the second was the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation, and the one I'm reading now was translated by Anthony S. Kline. This is by far my favorite, as it is a prose translation that is much easier to understand. I've had the book on my TBR list since at least 2010, but after Longfellow and Cary I felt like taking a break from the tale for a few years.

I should mention that Tony Kline has made his version free to download for non-commercial use at his website, Poetry in Translation, along with many other works he has translated including Ovid's Metamorphoses as well as some of his own poetry. This fellow really seems imbued with the spirit of the late Michael S. Hart, to whom he has dedicated at least a portion of his output.

As for The Nightlife of the Gods by Thorne Smith, well, I read this several years ago and it still cracks me up. My wife was wondering why I kept bursting out in laughter at things Thorne wrote. Comedy is a rapidly changing field. What was hilarious to one generation often barely brings a smile to the lips of the next. It is a testament to Smith's comedic genius that his work remains sidesplittingly funny a full 85 years after it's composition.

I've read a few of Thorne Smiths novels. Aside from everything else I also found his comedy to be a bit subversive -- especially given the times in which he was writing.

[HarryT]

Just finished "Divergence", by Charles Sheffield, bought from Baen a long time ago. This is the second half of the "Convergent Series" omnibus, and the second book in the "Heritage Universe" series. The book is a direct sequel to the first book, "Summertide", and continues the story which started in that. Excellent hard SF about exploration of ancient alien artefacts, much along the lines of Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama". No longer available for purchase, unfortunately, although still available for download by previous buyers. Very highly recommended.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I should mention that Tony Kline has made his version free to download for non-commercial use at his website, Poetry in Translation,

Thanks for the link. I've downloaded and added to my TBR .