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

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by gmw

I picked up a trilogy omnibus of these on special a couple of years ago but haven't gotten to it yet. Any good?

I got the same trilogy. I have mixed feelings. It's well written, but the vampire-witch romance angle doesn't appeal to my taste. I'm enjoying it enough to finish the trilogy and there are some interesting ideas popping up.

[Dr. Drib]

Just started reading Fraulein Else, by Arthur Schnitzler.

[Uncle Robin]

Having finished the excellent and informative India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 by Richard Eaton, it's back to Beloved Delhi and starting Paper: Paging Through History for Nonfiction November at The Storygraph. I was thinking of sideloading the mp3s of Il Gattopardo onto my brand new Sage, but reading the thread about that and the realization the battery would probably die before I could count to "due" changed my mind

[gtriever]

Originally Posted by Apache

I think that is my favorite Roger Zelazny book (Lord of Light). I am going to have to reread it again. I have lost count of how many times I have read it.
Apache

I agree, and it's among my all-time favorite sci-fi books along with Niven & Pournelle's 'Mote in God's Eye' series.

[Dr. Drib]

Finished Fraulein Else, and have now started My Name is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout.

[Uncle Robin]

3.75/5 for Paper: Paging Through History at The StoryGraph - good, but could have been better. Really enjoying getting back into Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City and her Greatest Poets, the bios are very informative, learned a lot more about the tragic Bahadur Shah Zafar, especially about his (poor-to-middling) reputation as a poet. And SQL for Dummies is proving less 'dummied-down' than I feared, a good beginners book for the marginally-less than-100%-tech-illiterate.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm reading Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

Which I can only give a 3/5 to. I just didn't like the structure, and I didn't like any of the characters.

Next up: The Ship by C. S. Forester.

[covingtoncat73]

Boy, Snow, Bird was really good, kind of a combo of Brothers Grimm and Imitation of Life.

I'm now reading The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. It's really good so far.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Ship by C. S. Forester.

Which was a most enjoyable fictionalisation of a WWII naval action, focusing on one ship and its officers and crew.

Next: Dead Cert by Dick Francis. The first of his thrillers based in the world of horse racing.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next: Dead Cert by Dick Francis. The first of his thrillers based in the world of horse racing.

Which I had certainly read before, but was still very good. Astonishing for a first novel.

Then I started The Nightingale Gallery, the first in Paul Doherty's Brother Athelstan series, which starts in 1377, the year that Edward III dies, and around 30 years after the start of the Great Pestilence (Black Death) which killed between 40% to 60% of the population, and only 15 years after the next wave, which killed around 20% of the remaining population. But not a mention of these events in the first half of the book.

I could forgive that if the rest of the book wasn't full of the massively crowded conditions in London, and the details of the squaller of city life.

But really, just none of it rang true for me, neither characters nor locations. Abandoned at 50%.

And also discarded another one in the series, and the four Hugh Corbett novels I have in my TBR (I see a decline over the first five in by ratings of them, that I don't think it's worth continuing.)

Next up: A random pick, The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. The second in their Martin Beck series.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next, a breather, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Picked up through Prime Reading.

This was very enjoyable. The writing was superb. Witty and precise. The ending was the only disappointment but there were a few twists and turns to keep me guessing. I needed this after a series of duds. Rated B+ [4 stars].

Next a freebie from somewhere, Into the Labyrinth by John Bierce.

[Dr. Drib]

Finished My Name is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout. A moving and loving story. I plan to read the second one in this series.

Now for a complete change: I'm currently reading (for the 3rd time in about 40 years), The Transition of Titus Crow, by Brian Lumley.

[astrangerhere]

My wife and I had always planned to do a re-read of Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series when the final volume was released. We're a little late getting started as Perhaps the Stars was released a few weeks ago, but I've settled in with the first volume, Too Like the Lightning, for my current read.

I'm not likely going to make my goals this year, so I am in no rush and am savoring all the language and philosophy layering this science fiction story. Media around the release of the final book have dubbed it "Hopepunk." I have no idea if I agree as the third volume did not end hopefully at all. Can't wait to see how it all plays out during the holiday reading season.

[gmw]

Eragon by Christopher Paolini. The first of what became 4 books of the epic fantasy series Inheritance Cycle. I give up (almost 200 pages in). I just didn't care about any of the characters and found myself preferring to work rather than sneak in a bit more reading time. It seemed to be all the standard fantasy tropes gathered together but without much flair or originality. Certainly it is an impressive work for a fifteen year old, as apparently the author was when he started writing this, but ... the result hasn't worked for me so I'm raising the white flag and moving on.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Fbone

This was very enjoyable. The writing was superb. Witty and precise. The ending was the only disappointment but there were a few twists and turns to keep me guessing. I needed this after a series of duds. Rated B+ [4 stars].[...]

I recently picked this (and the two sequels) up on special. After reading your success with it as a break from much less satisfying reads I thought I'd take it as a sign. So...

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I, too, found it very enjoyable. The end was somewhat predictable I suppose but I enjoyed it anyway. The style of the story-telling was interesting and distinctive, though it took a while for me to get comfortable with it. I like the way it seemed to turn into something quite chaotic and yet it never felt confusing and all the pieces came together quite well. 4/5 from me.