What book are you reading...

On the final book, ( released anyway ) of my re-read of "A Song of Fire of Ice". Enjoying it , although I must admit I have been speed reading some of the characters chapters , just a bit boring.

Looking forward to re-watching the TV show next.
 
Our Way - Reg and Ronnie Kray. An interesting enough read, but I didn't feel like I got a true representation. We're only getting Reg and Ron's view of themselves and to be honest, some things sounded like every other bully you hear from - "they didn't mind, surely I think they were quite grateful..." I would like to have heard more about their everyday activities and what led them to where they were.

I also read Hide and Seek the second Rebus book. Much better than the first, there was some actual detective work going on in this one.
 
Well, I Am Pilgrim was certainly a page turner- 800 pages read in three days. The plot is complicated, but everything gets solved and the world is saved.

The main character is very "American hero" and thus annoying as hell. He is an expert at everything, was adopted (by billionaires), is a ruthless killer with a heart of gold etc etc. I half expected him to start flying around and have laser eyes.
 
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potatolord said:
I don't think those sort of books do depessing/ ambiguous endings!

I was talking with someone about The Death Of Grass the other day. Jeez, that book has no sunny side.
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Given the scenario, it wasn't likely. For those who haven't read it, a virus wipes out all members of the grass family of plants. Which includes wheat, barley, oats, rice etc.

The author was trying to write a non-cosy catastrophe in answer to John Wyndham (they knew each other) and succeeded.
 
Vern1961 said:
Yes Book 13 of WOT, Towers Of Midnight, awaited me in Swindon Central Library this afternoon. 800+ pages and hardback to boot.

That's going to take a bit of reading! Think I'll be extending beyond the three week due back date.
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Ive read the entire series 3 or 4 times and always enjoyed it, but as you mentioned in a previous post books 7, 8 and 9 are a real drag. Thankfully it finishes strong and the character evolution is brilliant to my mind.
 
Meridian said:
Given the scenario, it wasn't likely. For those who haven't read it, a virus wipes out all members of the grass family of plants. Which includes wheat, barley, oats, rice etc.

The author was trying to write a non-cosy catastrophe in answer to John Wyndham (they knew each other) and succeeded.
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When I finished Death Of Grass, I was amazed to find it was written in the 1950s. It feels very modern, and must have been shocking stuff at the time.
 
potatolord said:
When I finished Death Of Grass, I was amazed to find it was written in the 1950s. It feels very modern, and must have been shocking stuff at the time.
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It was. As I said, the British SF market was all cosy catastrophe (it's when the expression dates from). These tended to gloss over the breakdown in civilisation and cut straight to the middle-class agrarian utopia without all those peasants who were now safely dead. See "Earth Abides" for the US version (I think it's now a TV series?).

John Christopher's "The World in Winter" is good as well - one year winter simply doesn't end and a new Ice Age has slowly begun. But that means no crops can be grown in places like the US and Europe. They start looking at the now temperate areas in the old tropics with a covetous eye.


Currently I'm reading "In Accension" by Martin MacInnes. He's a mainstream literary writer who dabbles around the edges of genre writing. It means that the critics like him, but his book comes across as tremendously well-written not very good SF. Not much happens, but it doesn't happen in great style. It's a good book, but it's clearly aimed at literary readers, not SF readers.

Before that was Mo Hayder's "Birdman", a hunt-the-serial-killer book. Well written, just not a genre that interests me. The twist was well done, but I'm not going to bother with others in the series. I will try at least one of the standalones though. And I still recommend her book "The Book of Sand".

I also went back to re-read Brian Stableford, after the author's death earlier this year. I have a few of his books from many years ago, so I tried the first Grainger book, but didn't like enough this time around to bother with the other five. I did enjoy "Empire of Fear" again though. An SF vampire book, high on biology and low on horror. It is set in an alternate world, starting in 1606, where the leading rulers of Europe are a cadre of vampires, let by Vlad Tepes and Richard the Lionheart. Meanwhile, a group of proto-scientists try to work out how vampires are created...
 
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Meridian said:
It was. As I said, the British SF market was all cosy catastrophe (it's when the expression dates from). These tended to gloss over the breakdown in civilisation and cut straight to the middle-class agrarian utopia without all those peasants who were now safely dead. See "Earth Abides" for the US version (I think it's now a TV series?).

John Christopher's "The World in Winter" is good as well - one year winter simply doesn't end and a new Ice Age has slowly begun. But that means no crops can be grown in places like the US and Europe. They start looking at the now temperate areas in the old tropics with a covetous eye.

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Ta for the reply. I might get The World In Winter, following your post.

Mo Hayder was pretty good. Birdman is a good read.

I must have read some Brian Stapleford, but can't remember anything.

I'd recommend the Annual World's Best SF books (1972-1990) edited by Donald Wollheim. They're short stories published in the previous year and are generally excellent.

I'm off to the bookshop.in ponty market later. He's usually got some good stuff, though I did clear him out last time.
 
I read all the Wollheims at the time. Short story collections were a lot more common then. It's also the best place to start SF.

One of the more annoying things about reading SF is how few of the award winners seem to be stocked in actual bookshops. Or even published in the UK sometimes. I go to Waterstones and there's six shelves of Doctor Who tie-ins but not a single Nebula or Hugo winner. I will never resort to e-books and I don't like getting books from Amazon because I want to support bricks and mortar. And yes, I'm aware that if you order a book from Waterstones they use Amazon to get it...
 
Picked a couple up yesterday.

Shes Always Hungry - Eliza Clark
Weird ***** - Lynne Tillman

Only read the first two shorts so far, second lost me a bit but writing is great. first short was great, really reminded me of the substance.
 
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