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

[Dngrsone]

Finished How to Save the World by Lexie Dunne, the third Superheroes Anonymous book. It did not disappoint, to be sure.

I am now reading Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell by Jack Olsen. Among other things...

[Cinisajoy]

Finished Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich.

[Pulpmeister]

Just read "A for Andromeda" by Fred Hoyle and John Elliott. It was a simultaneous novelisation, appearing with the 1961 BBC TV series. The writing was by Elliott; the science and the way the British science establishment works was by Hoyle, a prominent astronomer.

I dimly remember seeing the TV series as a kid, and it was pretty scarey, having a suble air of inevitable doom about it. The book successfully conveys the same atmosphere.

A new supersensitive radio telescope picks up a faint, but unmistakably artificial, transmission from M31, another galaxy far away.

Recorded and laboriously decoded proves to be a 3-part message contained instructions on building a supercomputer, plus its operating system, plus a programme; all being broadcast endlessly into space from somewhere in M31.

One of the people involved in the project realises it's potential danger, and fights a bureaucratic and scientific rearguard action. It all ends badly.

The TV series introduced actress Julie Christie to a wide audience, spawned a sequel, and was even remade many years later.

The book's a great read, had aged well, but only seems to be available as a pbook. Mine is a rather tatty Corgi paperback with a still from the TV series on the cover.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

A new supersensitive radio telescope picks up a faint, but unmistakably artificial, transmission from M31, another galaxy far away.

Recorded and laboriously decoded proves to be a 3-part message contained instructions on building a supercomputer, plus its operating system, plus a programme; all being broadcast endlessly into space from somewhere in M31.

Sounds a lot like Carl Sagan's Contact and Jack McDevitt's The Hercules Text, both published about 25 years later (1985, 1986). If you've read either of those, how's it compare?

As for me, I'm in the middle of Oz Reimagined, an anthology that's pretty much what it says on the tin: reinterpretations of and sequels to Dorothy's adventures over the rainbow. (At present, I'm in the midst of "One Flew Over the Rainbow," which recasts the protagonists as mental patients and the witches as the head nurses.) I had to smile at one turn of phrase in "Dead Blue," an earlier story: "Dorothy's eyes were flat blue, the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Time marches on, n'est-ce pas?

[Pulpmeister]

A for Andromeda had a very different premise from Contact; can't speak about Hercules, never read it.

Andromeda is not benevolent, and there's a body count. Pretty scary at the time. Not long after came Dr Who, for kids, and another scary TV serial called the Big Pull, which ends really, really badly and which scared me (I was a kid at the time). The Beeb was on a succesful SF kick at the time, in the wake of the success of the Quatermass series. The Big pull was never in novel form, so far as I know. And there are no copies of the programme surviving either.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Roman Blood (Gordianus the Finder Book 1) by Steven Saylor

Which was good. A nice working of a mystery around the unknowns in a real historical event.

Next up: Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford. I bought this one from Fictionwise, way back in July 2008.

[poohbear_nc]

I just finished a delightful romp through Henry James' The Golden Bowl -- Yes, you heard me, delightful ... I've been reading all of James' oeuvre in chronological order to prepare me for the 'big three' final novels, but after watching Merchant & Ivory's film version, scripted by the incomparable Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, I had to jump to the end and dive into it. I was amazed to realize that she literally reduced pages of prose to individual lines of dialogue for the shooting script, as well as retaining pieces of dialogue from the novel. Taking Rebecca West's advice to hear the novel as if being spoken, rather than slogging through the hierarchical punctuation structures, brought the novel alive ... and prevented me from becoming bogged down on pages containing lengthy sentences. Hearing Nick Nolte's, Anjelica Houston's, Uma Thurman's, and Jeremy Northam's voices in my head as I read provided a very rich experience.

[ATDrake]

Finished The X-Files: Skin, a vintage tie-in novel by Ben Mezrich, who's had an interesting career trajectory for a tie-in author, what with him getting famous off of thinly-veiled non-fiction about card-counting casino-hacking gamblers, one of which I read a few years ago when it was in a Humble Bundle. Anyway, this was a decent casefile with a blend of the military-industrial complex conspiracy and the weird creature angles, with a visit to exotic locales to sort it all out.

Also read Chris Ould's The Blood Strand, 1st in his Faroes series of faux-Nordic Noir Britcrime novels. Back when I started reading Michael Ridpath's Fire & Ice series starring a Detective Magnus Jonson aka Magnús Ragnarsson, US-raised Icelandic childhood immigrant Boston cop returned to his formerly home island to deal with a local mystery and also untangle some crime stuff involving his estranged extended family and tragically prematurely deceased mother and father, I thought that was likely to be a more-or-less unique reading experience since that was a pretty niche setup for a police procedural premise.

Turns out I was only partially right, since apparently the niche has enough space that this can star DI Jan Reyna aka Jan Reyná (with an accent), Intrepid Expat Faroese-British Midlands to Tórshavn Cop, who was indeed looking into some crime stuff involving his estranged father and extended family and tragically prematurely deceased mother. I actually rather like fish-out-of-water cross-cultural cross-jurisdiction buddy cop stuff like Due South, Keen Eddie, and Bon Cop, Bad Cop, so I rather enjoyed this one, on top of a decent mystery set in the Faroe Islands, which are a pretty rare setting for any form of fiction. (Coincidentally, the last time I did read about them in a novel, it was another crime story, as a brief visit during the 3rd Ava Lee mystery.)

Anyway, I'm glad that not only did I buy it on impulse during a Kobo coupon sale, but also that according to the "coming soon" blurbs in the back, a 2nd and 3rd novel are already scheduled for publication, even if the latter won't be out until 2018.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next up, A Death In Vienna, a thriller by Daniel Silva.

Finished The Death In Vienna by Daniel Silva. It is the fourth in the Gabriel Allon series. An Israeli-run Holocaust research office in Vienna is bombed, resulting in the death of the two female staff and serious injury to the Director. Gabriel Allon, a former assassin for 'The Office' and working under a new identity as an art restorer in Venice, is requested by former director Ari Shamron to go to Vienna to investigate.

A very good thriller and page turner for lightweight weekend reading. Recommended.

Next up, a little serious read for now, Mohenjo-daro: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Settlement of the Indus Valley Civilization by Charles River Editors.

[Cinisajoy]

Started Fearless Fourteen last night. Finished it this morning.

[ATDrake]

Well, from one set of ancestral cultures that produced dragon boats to another, finished Aunty Lee's Delights by award-winning Singaporean writer Ovidia Yu, 1st in her cozy mystery-with-recipes series starring the eponymous elderly widowed Peranakan (Straits Chinese) lady and owner of a namesake teashop, which had the obligatory recipe and an interesting bonus Q&A in the back between the author and Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny.

This was a cute, lightweight read with her making friends and influencing people to solve a couple of mysterious murders (and I'm in agreement that putting a tourist resort in a spot that used to be called "Island of Death" in the local language is just asking for trouble, narrative causality-wise). Maybe a little too cute, since either my tolerance for charmingly interfering eccentric busybodies who know best and meddle with everyone's lives, whom everyone trusts and respects except for the obligatory boorish uncouth ingrate fools who nevertheless have to grudgingly admit that said busybody is good at what they do has gone down significantly since last I read a batch of cutesy gimmick cozies, or this was an unusually saccharine variation thereof.

But aside from that, I did rather like the look into contemporary Singaporean culture and the mix of Chinese and Malay and expat characters, and the assorted aspirations of the workers and the middle class and the wealthy, and I'd give a mild recommend for it to anyone interested in that sort of setting and approach. I don't regret having gotten the 2nd one on sale a while ago (the reason why I checked this 1st out of the library, to read in order) and I'll get around to reading that eventually. It just gave me the feel I usually get when picking up a six-pack of late-night discount dahn tat over at the T&T: I still like the flavour and don't think I wasted my money, but two bites in, it's pretty clear that the bakery used somewhat more sweetener than suits my personal taste and since I'm a lousy, lazy cook who doesn't bake, it's not like I can fix the issue by making my own, so it's something I'm just going to have to put up with if I want to experience halfway-decent egg tarts (albeit in smaller doses than I was anticipating).

[Cinisajoy]

Over halfway through Finger lickin' fifteen.

[DiapDealer]

Just started Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit. A sequel to her The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

[CRussel]

Just finished a re-read (this time primarily in Audible format) of Boundary, by Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor. This was just as compelling the second time through (after a couple of years since the first read) and is an excellent SF offering. The characters are believable (mostly) and likable, the technology a stretch, but a reasonable stretch, and the story moves along well. Recommended.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I quit two books yesterday. Agatha Raisin and Beach Road, by James Patterson. I've started British Manor Murder, by Leslie Meier. This one, I'm almost sure, I'll read till the end.

I completed the reading of British Manor Murder. It was a slightly dull but mostly solid cozy mystery. I gave it 3 stars.

I'm halfway through Agatha Christie's The Thirteen problems. It's very enjoyable.

I'm also about to begin reading Hero of the Ages, by Brandon Sanderson.