Whats everyone reading?

[TordelBack]

Classics indeed.  This is all old hat, even for this thread but....  'Lord of Light' is just brilliantly clever, and while 'Flowers for Algernon' always feels like it should be a short story it's still great.  As to the rest, 'The Dispossessed' is my all-time No. 1 SF book by my all-time favourite SF author, and as I think has been conclusively demonstrated time and again 'The Stars my Destination' is the best book to give to anyone who claims to have no interest in reading SF - I've never met anyone who doesn't love that book once they've tried it.

I've finally given in, and started into Banks' Surface Detail - a quarter of the way in, and it's fantastic.

[Jared Katooie]

I've finally given in and am reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it, since I had it pegged as one of those flowery language Lord of The Rings clones. If you've written it off for this reason, I urge you to reconsider. It's well worth a luck.

[Ignatzmonster]

Steve, I read "The Forever War" when I bought a load of these Gollanz classic SF paperback editions (lovely jacket design with the bumbf on the back printed landscape and all the page corners round cut).

Waaaant soooo baaaad. Nothing in the 10 Commandments about not coveting a geeky book collection so I think I'm safe.

[Mikey]

I've finally given in, and started into Banks' Surface Detail

Hurrah! One of the Ships has become one of my favourite Ships. (This might confuse those unfamiliar with The Culture!) I'm not sure if it turns up in the first quarter of the book, so I'll say no more.

Just to digress, having read many a penny dreadful in my time, I think The Culture is the only literary construct I really want to be real. I actually want to live in The Culture. sigh

My reading round up; got up to speed with The Walking Dead trades and it's kept me on board after starting to doubt the penultimate one. Also read book 4 of Moore's Swamp Thing - a few of the episodes lost me a bit, but this is some good stuff for the art alone. Now catching up on Interzone and Black Static (again!), to be followed by Cloud Atlas...

P.S. Mrs Mikey recently read The Stars... and utterly loved it! She's not SF averse per se, but this has sent her hoking among the good end of the bookshelves

M.

[Ignatzmonster]

Classics indeed.  This is all old hat, even for this thread but....  'Lord of Light' is just brilliantly clever, and while 'Flowers for Algernon' always feels like it should be a short story it's still great.  As to the rest, 'The Dispossessed' is my all-time No. 1 SF book by my all-time favourite SF author, and as I think has been conclusively demonstrated time and again 'The Stars my Destination' is the best book to give to anyone who claims to have no interest in reading SF - I've never met anyone who doesn't love that book once they've tried it.

I've finally given in, and started into Banks' Surface Detail - a quarter of the way in, and it's fantastic.

Bester is the Gateway drug to Sci Fi no question. Definitely turned me. If a hardcore LeGuin man says Banks is okay I'll give him a shot.

SweetTooth Vol 1 & 2: Not bad Canadian post-apocalyptic story. Read it while I was on the train listening to Sufjan Stevens and I think that helped. Feels like small press on a large press schedule. Not a massive fan of Lemire's drawing but I really like when he gets creative with his paneling.

Locke & Key Vol 1: By Joe HIll, Stephen King's kid, and there is a lot of his dad in this story for me. Very creepy and suspenseful and Gabriel Rodriguez brings a great deal to the table. I am both turned on and turned off by how Rodriguez draws faces, but his eye for detail in the backgrounds is unquestionably impressive. For this one I'm on board.

The Long Ships by Bengtsson:This is really good. Has anyone read it before? A viking story with a very sardonic narrator telling the tale of a lucky hypochondriac viking named Red Orm.
Just started it but it's already had one of my favorite scenes where the vikings come across and puzzle over a Jew fleeing captivity. So why won't this Jut row on Saturdays?

[Mardroid]

Locke & Key Vol 1: By Joe HIll, Stephen King's kid, and there is a lot of his dad in this story for me. Very creepy and suspenseful and Gabriel Rodriguez brings a great deal to the table. I am both turned on and turned off by how Rodriguez draws faces, but his eye for detail in the backgrounds is unquestionably impressive. For this one I'm on board.

I got that one on the PSP comic ap. I really enjoyed it.

[Zarjazzer]

"Wrath of the Lemming men" by Toby Frost a rollicking good read so far with allusions to a famous twoofy story right at the beginning. "Piles of severed heads, corpses of lemming men ,these are pleasing words to us..."

[Mike Carroll]

Just finished reading Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future: A Biography by Daniel Tatarsky. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't help feeling that a lot of stuff was missed out or very quickly glossed over. I realise it's chiefly about Dan Dare and the creation of same, but the sections on the creation of Eagle comic were just as interesting, and I felt a little short-changed that Eagle's sister publications (Girl, Swift and Robin) were only mentioned in passing: no word on when they were created, by whom, how long they lasted and what impact, if any, they had on the market.

Likewise, I'd like to have seen a lot more about the post-Eagle versions Dare in 2000 AD, the revived Eagle, and Revolver. Also, there is - criminally - no mention of Termight Replicas!

Still, worth a read if you're a fan of the character, and definitely worth it if you want a pretty decent glimpse of what life in Britain was like in the decades following WWII.

-- Mike

[I, Cosh]

As it happens, I bought The Blade Itself this afternoon having seen it recommended on here a few times. I was a bit annoyed to discover it was the first volume of a trilogy so I hope I don't like it.

After six hundred pages, they've only just decided they need to go on some sort of fucking quest. I don't know that I'd recommend it. Seems too obviously in thrall to A Song of Ice and Fire in structure (and one particular character) without being as good or offering enough of its own, but it's definitely a page turner. Got the second volume, Before They Are Hanged, from the library today.

[House of Usher]

Getting to the end of Strontium Dog Agency Files Vol. 4, now. The Rammy was one of the funniest things I've read in comics in ages, and it's a shining example of good, dense, well structured and action-packed storytelling. Stone Killers, which followed it, was a bit flabby but still good fun. Then I got to The No-Go Job, and I was surprised to find it wasn't just the art that let it down; it's like Alan Grant was having an off day when he wrote that.

[SmallBlueThing]

Having finished the forever war, it's time to move on to asimov's the caves of steel. Sadly, i got waylaid last night with library copies of BPRD- the soul of venice and plague of frogs. Meh. The Venice collection was bordering on being just a bad, boring comic, and frogs was okay, ish.
As for the forever war; i couldnt help thinking throughout that it's made to be a play, perhaps a musical. Certainly its gay theme and the changing evolution of human sexuality would make a strong hook for a musical. I really enjoyed it, but wont be reading the other two just yet.

SBT

[Ignatzmonster]

Beasts of Burden: Read this last night and was blown away. About a pack of dogs and one marmalade cat protecting their neighborhood from the supernatural. It IS as cute as you would imagine that scenario to be but it is also horrifying and incredibly moving. The stakes are very real and you don't put the book down thinking Disney could easily adapt it.

[HOO-HAA]

A bit of pulp: JOY HOUSE by Day Keene.

I've also just received URBAN GOTHIC by Brian Keene.

So, it's all about the Keenes, I guess!

[TordelBack]

Having finished the forever war, it's time to move on to asimov's the caves of steel.

Don't half envy you SBT - have you really never read Caves of Steel before?  You lucky beggar, what a treat!  The next two are great too, but after that you're on your own...

BTW, when is someone going to hurry up and make those multi-lane travelator highway wotsits a reality?  I can never slog towards an airport departure gate without imagining myself hopping from lane to lane, deftly avoiding the waddling gentlemen and the ladies with their suitcase encampments...

[Mardroid]

Just After Sunset by Stephen King

I got this for 1.99 at The Works clothing down sale. Great deal for a hardback book.

Still too early to tell yet how good it is, but the first story, Willa, was interesting, although I guessed the twist. The second story The Gingerbread Girl is good so far, and kinda nasty.