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

[Gandulf]

Originally Posted by Padraic73

I'm in the middle of reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's very good so far. I'll finish the series unless something drastic changes in the last half of the novel.
.

The drastic thing is he doesn't believe in dedlines, been years waiting for his next book in series.

Just started The Misbegotten, reviews complain about the language, but he is supposed to be a bad ass assassin. So far so good.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Padraic73

I'm in the middle of reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's very good so far. I'll finish the series unless something drastic changes in the last half of the novel.

The closest you can do is "catch up" rather than "finish" the Kingkiller Chronicles. Not even his editor hadn't seen the draft of Book 3 as of last summer and it's been 10 years since book 2 was released.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

IIRC Nightfall was John W. Campbell's idea and he offered it to the relatively unknown Asimov to write, giving his writing career a major boost.

Thanks for the tidbit. Didn't see that mentioned in the book. Nightfall is 'Asimov's' best story.

[Gandulf]

Found this about Nightfall.

"*Then John W. Campbell, Jr., the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, showed me the Emerson quotation that starts "Nightfall." We discussed it; then I went home and, over the course of the next few weeks, wrote the story."

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Thanks for the tidbit. Didn't see that mentioned in the book. Nightfall is 'Asimov's' best story.

I have read the short story. Didn't Asimov later turn that one into a full length novel? I might be confusing that with van Vogt's The Weapons Shop. IIRC, that was a short story turned into a novel as well. Was it both van Vogt's and Asimov's stories that got this treatment? It's been many decades since I read either of these.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I'm currently reading:

• City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett on my Kobo
  
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman in audiobook
  
• The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector in paper form

Since My last post, I've finished:

• City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett on my Kobo
  
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman in audiobook
  
• Gently French by Alan Hunter (almost done with all the Gently novels that have been released in ebook)
  
• The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon

I plan to start City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett on my Kobo this evening.

I am currently reading The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector in paper. I'm reading one story at a time, every few days or so.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Since My last post, I've finished:

• City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett on my Kobo
  
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman in audiobook
  
• Gently French by Alan Hunter (almost done with all the Gently novels that have been released in ebook)
  
• The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon

I plan to start City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett on my Kobo this evening.

I am currently reading The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector in paper. I'm reading one story at a time, every few days or so.

Are the Gently books good? Shaw and Ingleby were excellent in the TV series IMO...

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Are the Gently books good? Shaw and Ingleby were excellent in the TV series IMO...

I like them for what they are. Many of them are showing their age in more ways than one, but they are still an interesting snapshot. But be warned, there is no Ingleby in the books.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by haertig

I have read the short story. Didn't Asimov later turn that one into a full length novel? I might be confusing that with van Vogt's The Weapons Shop. IIRC, that was a short story turned into a novel as well. Was it both van Vogt's and Asimov's stories that got this treatment? It's been many decades since I read either of these.

Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg co-authored a novel length version of Nightfall (published 1990). I liked the first two-thirds of it, but the last third I found unconvincing. My comment at the time I last read it: Some of the ideas behind the last third are interesting... I just don't feel that they come across very well.

[WT Sharpe]

I was surprised to learn that my favorite Isaac Asimov short story was also his favorite: "The Last Question," which addresses if there's any possible way to reverse entropy. It can be found at Princeton University's website here.

Which is what I'm reading (again) now.

[gmw]

I find it hard to pick a single favourite, but The Last Question is certainly among the top selections for me too. It has certainly been among the most memorable, and for that it stands alongside Arthur C. Clarke's The Nine Billion Names of God.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by gmw

I find it hard to pick a single favourite, but The Last Question is certainly among the top selections for me too. It has certainly been among the most memorable, and for that it stands alongside Arthur C. Clarke's The Nine Billion Names of God.

Personally I much prefer it to Clarke's story, but that's a good one as well.

[Luffy]

My 3 star review of Five on a Treasure Island (Famous Five, #1), by Enid Blyton:-

Spoiler:

This fresh and ingenious children's book is for me, divided into two parts. The first part gets 5 stars from me, but from the point where the children succeed to past the climax, the book barely holds its own.

I really liked the first part. Many of the ideas were more than can be hoped in such a simple book. The children were lifelike. Their holidays's details were evocative. The Kirrin House, the island, the boat and the sea, and the people in the story were distinctive.

But when the villains made their appearance, I felt nothing. I really ought to like the climax, but the starkly real world felt like a doll's house.

I'm giving the book its due but I also cannot give the book more than it deserves. There were lots of positives to take from the story. I hope to reread this book one day and revisit the premise. For a while it made me feel like a wonderstruck person.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Personally I much prefer it to Clarke's story, but that's a good one as well.

But I bet you didn't have to look it up, did you? Which was the main point of my comparison. Of the hundreds of sci-fi shorts I've read over the years, those two still stand out in my memory ... of course that may be just that I read them when I was young and easily impressed/influenced.

[gmw]

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. First of the Grim Reaper series, a comic contemporary fantasy set in San Francisco. This was great fun. Quite reminiscent of his "Love Story" trilogy, the same setting and some quite similar characters, but this didn't detract anything for me. Much of the story was not particularly unexpected, but it had a few twists. And did I mention it was fun? 4/5.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. An contemporary/apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic story. This was odd. I really liked the start, but then the timeline began to switch back and forth and for a long time I could not work out why. I'm still not entirely certain of the point, but the story becomes satisfying as the back story links the pieces of post-apocalyptic story. None of the pieces felt particularly novel, except perhaps the Station Eleven itself, but it was well told and all-together came to something quite different and very good. 4/5.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry. A contempoary fantasy set in Wellington, New Zealand. There were times that the story felt long, but I was always fascinated. The large cast of characters, both the re-imagined versions and those original to this story, are wonderfully done. The story is neat, and while I have reservations about the wrap-up at the end, it was told well. I am amazed that the author has managed to make such a fantastical fantasy seem so real. 4.5/5.