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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by orlok

Haven't read a vampire book for an age, but these could just tempt me back...

I also recommend The Dracula Tapes. I think there are nine in the series, but they're all pretty much stand-alone stories, as far as I remember.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I just loaded my ENTIRE Shell Scott PI ebooks onto my Kindle, in preparation to reading them again.

These are by Richard S. Prather.

If you're tired of having to be constantly reading politically correct ebooks - and want a good laugh, to boot - then these PI [private investigator] novels might be your PI [politically incorrect] cup of tea!

These are better than Ed Noon for zaniness.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR LAUGHS AND OUTRIGHT LUDICROUSNESS!

Thanks Dr Dibb

Just read The Amber Effect and it was everything you said it would be. Very pleasant non-PC holiday read. More to come

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

So....I'm reading an author whom I love: Fred Saberhagen.

And the book?

The Dracula Tape (Saberhagen's Dracula Series Book 1)

This is wonderful and fun, although I'm only about 60 pages into it.

Highly recommended.

One of my favorites, although I find that some of the later books (particularly the historical reminiscences) drag a bit. If you can find it, I'd also recommend his The Frankenstein Papers, which is sort of a one-and-done cousin book.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I also recommend The Dracula Tapes. I think there are nine in the series, but they're all pretty much stand-alone stories, as far as I remember.

Not really. Séance is a direct sequel to Holmes-Dracula, and Old Friend relies on at least Tape. Many of the historical books, though, yes.

[ATDrake]

Finished a slew of books, some re-reads, some new and/or new-to-me. Finally got around to reading Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven and River of Stars, a diptych in his Kitai setting which, like Barry Hughart's The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (one of my nostalgia re-read selections, from the Subterranean Press e-book I got from a long-ago HB, which seems to have a disappointing number of typos and possible autocorrects which changed the meaning of the intended phrases) take place in “an ancient China that never was”.

In an introductory note somewhere, GGK explains that he prefers to do his thinly-veiled historical fantasies, which essentially amount to retellings with a mild dose of magical realism, because it gives him the freedom to play with the story and characters as he pleases, without the intrusiveness of ascribing certain acts and attitudes to the real people who existed once upon a time, long-dead and little known though they may be. Given that there's quite a bit of supposedly non-satirical mainstream historical fiction purporting to tell authentic tales about the personalities behind the history, which have made me wonder if the author's “research” included so much as a skim of the relevant Wikipedia article, I admire his scrupulous restraint even if I think it's an unnecessary nicety, considering.

A few reviews have labelled GGK's style of historical fantasy “alternate history”, but IMHO that's not really the case, since there's not so much points of departure exploring what might have been as points of convergence depicting what it could have been like for someone caught up then and there. Aside from being recast into a mildly fantastical expy version, nothing really changes as far as the fates of people and nations goes. Only the personal outcomes of a few individuals might change as they get swept up into the tide of history which continues to follow the real life events and timelines quite closely. In this case, expy Tang dynasty in the prelude to the events that would lead to its eventual collapse, and a few centuries later, expy Song in the period which tries to recover from the Tang collapse, but in turn is destined to collapse upon itself as well.

In an interview, GGK claimed that RoS isn't actually a sequel to UH, any more than the European Enlightenment would have been a sequel to the Renaissance, which makes a certain amount of sense. But while not a direct follow-up on the characters and events, RoS does explore the fallout and lingering effects of the collapse of faux-Tang, which pervade the faux-Song political and cultural outlook to an unhealthy degree as the diminished Kitan empire strives to rebuild past glories even while they strive to suppress the qualities that probably led them to glory in the first place (it seems that GGK thinks their IRL counterparts picked up the wrong lessons from history, and I'm inclined to agree; as far as non-barbarian-invader-established dynastic eras go, it's pretty much been downhill for China since the Tang and the isolationist policies and ever more rigid class and social and gender stratification probably didn't help at all).

In term of storytelling, UH had a grander feel with larger than life characters* and higher stakes. There was certainly more excitement and drama. But I think in the end, RoS was overall the better story of the two, more grounded and resonant on a level closer to home than the grand heroic tragedy of UH, with a lower-key feel of sadness and decline and hope. I think in a way, it helps that GGK takes as his model real life historical events, which kind of have an anti-tendency to happily ever after or grand triumphs against overwhelming odds, rather than the standard heroic journey and inevitable defeat of evil with perhaps a token nobly tragic sacrifice along the way. It does give him and his novels greater flexibility and well, novelty, in letting the story unfold in ways that feel unexpected compared to much more standard fantasy tales.

Anyway, these were both quite good and recommended if you're interested in the grand sweep of historical events affecting seemingly ordinary people who sometimes find themselves becoming not so ordinary in response to them, in a sideways version of ancient China.

Also read Ann Leckie's Provenance, a self-contained novel in her Imperial Radch universe, though far outside of Radch space. This was a lower-key domestic adventure and quasi-coming of age tale for the scion of an important family with A Clever Plan™ to impress the clan head, which of course goes wrong. There's a bit of mystery involved, but it's really mainly a device to get the rest of the plot rolling, rather than a full-fledged investigative whodunnit.

The pronoun/gender play in this one was different, with the standard male and female sexes and an also standard third sex which was apparently quite common throughout the related systems. And while we only had vague hints that the events of the Ancillary trilogy had important fallout effects yet to be explored, we did get a glimpse of some of the other species mentioned in the earlier books, as well as how the Radchaai look from the outside (apparently, they have the British entertainment niche of generic dramatic villain accent).

Overall, a charming tale which gives a nice glimpse of personal and familial expectations in a slightly different society where autographed souvenirs are SRS BSNS, and an enjoyable look at a portion of the rest of the setting, for which I hope we eventually get more.

* Based on larger than life historical figures turned legend, of whom I was surprised but pleased to recognize two. Although they were two that pretty much anyone who takes even a cursory look into Chinese history and culture will have encountered anyway, and at first I thought the one based on the famous poet was actually based a famous historian of similar expied name. I didn't recognize any of the expied historical figures in RoS (some of whom GGK helpfully names along with recommended further reading sources in an afterword), but I'm feeling proud that the thing I thought really seemed a lot like a reference to a famous Chinese classic I only know by reputation did in fact turn out to be one.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I also recommend The Dracula Tapes. I think there are nine in the series, but they're all pretty much stand-alone stories, as far as I remember.

There are 10, I believe.

A Coldness in the Blood (The Dracula Series)

https://www.amazon.com/Coldness-Bloo...erhagen+kindle

I have yet to read this one.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Thanks Dr Dibb

Just read The Amber Effect and it was everything you said it would be. Very pleasant non-PC holiday read. More to come

You're welcome.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Started Alice McDermott's The Ninth Hour this morning on my Kobo.

Finished The Ninth Hour yesterday. I read the entire book in two sittings. It's a late entrant, but it is definitely being added to my top ten of the year.

I think I'll have a little lighter fare now, with an upload from MRs Library - Annie Haynes' The Man With the Dark Beard.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

There are 10, I believe.

A Coldness in the Blood (The Dracula Series)

Oh, so there are! This one doesn't seem to have made it into ebook form in the UK yet.

[kansaskyle]

I finished Code Name Verity and gave it two-stars. It was a charming story, but seemed too unrealistic to me after all the WW2 books I've read.

Full review on Goodreads here.

[Dngrsone]

Just finished listening to Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. I rather suspect that part 7 may have been incomplete, though... I might just try downloading it again.

Anyway, conveniently enough, the last HP book on audio came in today, so that will be on the USB drive for my commute to work tomorrow.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I think I'll have a little lighter fare now, with an upload from MRs Library - Annie Haynes' The Man With the Dark Beard.

I finished this in almost one sitting. It was a fun little mystery, though there was not enough of the detective to suit me. There was quite a bit of melodrama and many twists and turns. All in all, I can see why she was a less well-known contemporary of Agatha Christie.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Just finishing up Artemis, Andy Weir's sophomore effort. A good listen, but with even more flaws than Martian. I'll give it 3 stars, but that's only because it does pull you along. The dialog is strained, at best, and Jazz's internal dialog with herself is just not very convincing at times. But it is fun.

Next up, something a bit more worthy, I hope--R. F. Delderfield's Long Summer Day, the first book in his A Horseman Riding By trilogy. At least with this book, I'll be sure the dialog will be well written and believable.

I'm well into R. F. Delderfield's Long Summer Day, and what a pleasure after Artemis. The complete opposite -- not a lot of action, but a whole lot of superb writing, about a period in England that I know little about -- the Edwardian Era, starting with the end of the Boer War, and the coronation of Edward VII. This is a rich book that would be a wonderful read for the New Leaf Book Club, but it's probably a bit too long. I might just go ahead and nominate it for the It's All Relative theme regardless.

[kansaskyle]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm well into R. F. Delderfield's Long Summer Day, and what a pleasure after Artemis. The complete opposite -- not a lot of action, but a whole lot of superb writing, about a period in England that I know little about -- the Edwardian Era, starting with the end of the Boer War, and the coronation of Edward VII. This is a rich book that would be a wonderful read for the New Leaf Book Club, but it's probably a bit too long. I might just go ahead and nominate it for the It's All Relative theme regardless.

Thanks for the update! I see it is part of Kindle Unlimited, so I may sign up for a month and read the trilogy.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Dragon's Teeth by Mercedes Lackey. An omnibus of short story collections, and I've read the two older collections before. So I'll only be reading the previously unpublished stories in Part II.

The new stories were pretty good. Good enough that I'll be looking out for the novels in the same universe.

Next up: F&SF, Nov/Dec 2017

[JSWolf]

For the MR Book Club, I am starting Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Lord Peter Wimsey spends his days tracking down rare books, and his nights hunting killers. Though the Great War has left his nerves frayed with shellshock, Wimsey continues to be London's greatest sleuth—and he's about to encounter his oddest case yet.

A strange corpse has appeared in a suburban architect's bathroom, stark naked save for an incongruous pince-nez. When Wimsey arrives on the scene, he is confronted with a once-in-a-lifetime puzzle. The police suspect that the bathtub's owner is the murderer, but Wimsey's investigation quickly reveals that the case is much stranger than anyone could have predicted.