Our reads in October 2021

Another month,another pile of books.
Anyone reading books for Spooky October?
I know ScoLgo will be reading Night in the Lonesome October yet again - as will I.

>1 dustydigger: Yes, I will! I also have The House of a Hundred Whispers and A Head Full of Ghosts on tap for Spooktober.

Just finished slogging through Seveneves earlier this week. As a thought-experiment, it's a cool book. As a compelling story - not so much. Not one of my favorite Stephenson novels.

Currently just over halfway through the full-length Murderbot novel, Network Effect. Enjoying it every bit as much as the earlier tetralogy of novellas.

Dusty's TBR for Spooky October
Robert W Chambers - The King in Yellow ✔
Roger Zelazny - Night in the Lonesome October
Amanda Stevens - The Restorer✔
Robert Jordan - Eye of the World ✔
Clive Barker - Weaveworld
Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary ✔
Robert Bloch - Notebook Found in a Deserted House ✔
Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven ✔
Robert Bloch - That Hellbound Train ✔
Robert Bloch - Notebook Found in a Deserted House ✔
Robert Bloch - Opener of the Way ✔
HP Lovecraft - The Outsider✔
H P Lovecraft - The Rats in the Wall✔
H P Lovecraft - The Hound ✔
Robert E Howard - Pigeons from Hell✔
Robert E Howard -The Horror from the Mound ✔
Robert E Howard - The Hills of the Dead✔
Algernon Blackwood - A Psychical Invasion ✔
Algernon Blackwood - Ancient Sorceries✔
Algernon Blackwood - Nemesis of Fire ✔
++++++++++
Plus weird tales from the Magnificent Seven - Arthur Machen,Algernon Blackwood,M R James,H P Lovecraft,Clark Ashton Smith;Robert E Howard,Robert Bloch.
And brooding in a dark corner,staring at a strange bust of Pallas Athena,the rather unwholesome,creepy but most definitely a genius,Mr Edgar Alan Poe.

>2 ScoLgo: Seveneves was the book that made me take Stephenson off my authors-whose-books-I-buy-as-soon-as-they-are-published list.

>1 dustydigger:
>2 ScoLgo:

Also will be reading Zelazny's Lonesome October, the first time I'll do the ritual progression of one-chapter-per-day. I've roped my entire family into a read-along, I hope they'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed my first reading, though none is particularly familiar with HPL, old horror movies, or supernatural literature.

Actually, we're starting tonight since a birthday party interferes with tomorrow's conventional start date.

>4 pgmcc: So what tomes do you use as door stops now? ;-)

>6 DugsBooks: REAMDE & ANATHEM. I still have Seveneves to baracade the door with. :-)

>3 dustydigger: Speaking of weird tales, I recently acquired a used but pristine hardcover of The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, so will also be dipping in & out of that in the coming months. It's a huge book with 1,111 pages of stories, (not including the Foreword, Afterword, and Acknowledgment sections). Perfect for cold winter nights by the fire.

>4 pgmcc: I only bought a copy of Seveneves because I happened onto a like new copy at the (sadly now defunct) neighborhood used bookstore a few years ago. It was only two dollars so I couldn't pass it up. I also happen to be acquainted with someone that works at Blue Origin. A number of years ago, (Anathem era), my contact mentioned that he had recently met Neal Stephenson at work. So, going into this book knowing that he had consulted with Bezos' space company, I could not help but think that most everything in these pages must have sprung from discussions during his consultancy. Sure enough, the first sentence of the afterword confirmed this. There are a lot of big ideas in the book but also quite a few faults in logic. The tech stuff and orbital mechanics may be well within the realms of the possible - but are they the most likely solutions we would come up with? The sociological and eugenics aspects struck me as problematic at best. The altruistic gathering together of resources and energy in the face of imminent destruction also seemed very optimistic. Ben Winter's The Last Policeman series seemed a more realistic scenario to me, where Hank Palace's way to deal with the end of the world makes him an outlier rather than one with the majority. I did think NS found an interesting and heroic way to kill off Jeff Bezos Sean Probst.

At the end of the day, I think Seveneves would have been a much better story had the first two parts been volume 1 in a trilogy. I may have enjoyed a second volume covering the time between the first two sections and the third. A trilogy also would have allowed him to expand on that last part of the book as the ending felt a bit rushed after all the earlier exposition. This is one Stephenson I will likely re-home as I don't plan to re-read it. I have plenty of other NS novels on the 'keep' shelf.

>5 elenchus: Each time I read A Night in the Lonesome October, I glean something new. Hope you enjoy your re-read. It's also fun to try to ID who is who on the cover...

>8 ScoLgo:

The Weird is a great compilation, if difficult to hold while reading. The DEEP ONES weekly reading group dips into it regularly, with a dedicated thread for each story. Encourage you to drop by after reading a story and leaving a comment, assuming it's been read by the group.

>9 elenchus: Thanks for the invite. I am a long-time lurker in The Weird Tradition group and regularly follow the story threads. I don't usually comment but may start doing so as I begin to read through the compendium. I really enjoy all the analysis and insights that you all post in the story discussions!

For a spooky October read, I think I might crack open Joyce Carol Oates' Night-Gaunts that's been on my shelf for a while. That and/or The King in Yellow Tales (not the Chambers, more recent jauniste stories by Pulver).

I am starting October reading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I am a Sci Fi fan yet have never read this classic. The 6 page foreword he wrote in 1966 for the edition I am reading hits the nail on the head for my own experience with writing. I really enjoyed his The Illustrated Man that I read decades ago but I was not that keen on The Martian Chronicles that I read just this past summer. So far I am thoroughly enjoying Fahrenheit 451. I am certain I will finish it quickly. And then what to read… Hmmm…

I'm back to finishing Winter in Eden, then I think my 'spooky October' book will be Bride of the Rat God.

>12 Neil_Luvs_Books: "It was a pleasure to burn." One of the great opening lines in speculative fiction...

>13 Karlstar: I have Bride of the Rat God on my library wish list so will be interested in reading what you think of it. The only other Hambly I have read to date are the first three James Asher novels, which I liked.

>12 Neil_Luvs_Books: I should add that the Danish first edition of this has the title 233 grader Celsius :-)

>15 bnielsen: The Swedish translation kept the English title, so for a Swede, it's not even obvious that it refers to a temperature.

>16 anglemark: Newer Danish editions also switched back to Fahrenheit. (I wonder if Rankine, Kelvin, Réaumur or Felsius will ever be used?)

Felsius 342 ?
https://xkcd.com/1923/

Started off Spooky October with Mr Poe's The Raven. Its a bit touch and go for the first couple of stanzas,the rhyming seems over the top to our modern ears,and I have to try and tune out Homer and Bart's version,which is absolutely hilarious,but makes a solemn serious read an awful lot harder. :0).But you are soon caught up by the tale.
I tried James Earl Jones's take on the story but was a bit disappointed - a bit rushed,too much emphasing the rhymes etc .Then I found Christopher Lee's marvellous version on YouTube. He subtley tempered the verse,bringing more melancholy and grief to the tale. Loved it.
Are there any taphophiles on here? I am doing a reread of Amanda Stevens creepy The Restorer,first book in the Graveyard Queen series. My 3rd read of this book,but it still feels so tense and creepy. Good stuff

A Lem story free to read on the MIT Press Reader:

The Truth, by Stanisław Lem

Lem's 1964 story, published in English for the first time, tells the tale of a scientist in an insane asylum theorizing that the sun is alive.

Finished A Door into Ocean, started The House with a Clock in its Walls.

>19 LolaWalser:

Lem's been on my "wishlist" for years, figured I might as well start with that one. It was worth it.

I assume the date of the experiment was deliberate allusion and not mere coincidence, though from what I can tell after briefly consulting Wikipedia, the time of the explosion is off by an hour. That general reference puts me in mind of the Asimov story, "Hell-Fire" (1950).

I read 3 Robert Boch short stories:
1. Bloch's famous 1959 Hugo winning short story That Hellbound Train was a fun tale in the deal with the devil genre. Bloch always has a wry somewhat cynical take on the foibles of mankind. Amusing.
2.His Opener of the Way was set in an ancient egyptian temple,where a statue of Anubis protects a hidden tomb. An archaeologist hungry for fame power and riches ignoresthe warnings and drags his weak and dominated son with him. The son dies,and he had a better outcome than his father! :0)
3. Notebook Found in a Deserted House was one of those tales set in ancient hills where demons and their sinister devotees seize people for sacrifice. This was quite a tense tale,with a 12 year old boy as narrator. Bloch really gets across the boy's fear and desperation.

>22 dustydigger:

I'm pretty sure I've read both 2 & 3, and was especially impressed by the latter.

still reading Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff and Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons.

>17 bnielsen: Felsius... rolfl!

>20 ChrisRiesbeck: A Door Into Ocean is on my TBR pile of books. Did you enjoy it?

>19 LolaWalser: Wow, what a weird story! Thanks for sharing the link.

>18 dustydigger: Thank you! I've always loved cemeteries & never knew the word "taphophile". I'm getting lots of new words in recent times. This should join psithurism and tsundoku as top favorites.

>14 ScoLgo: After Bride, I really should read the third James Asher novel, haven't read any Hambly or that series in a long time.

>25 Neil_Luvs_Books: For me it was solidly built, and became more engaging as it went on, but heavy-handed on the good vs bad side. Worth reading and I have the sequels on my own TBR short stack.

>25 Neil_Luvs_Books: I'm not the person you asked but I thought A Door Into Ocean was remarkable. It is not an action-packed SF tale though. It is much more anthropological in nature and I therefore found it reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin's style. If you have read and liked any of Le Guin's Hainish books, then A Door Into Ocean might also appeal to you. I really should try to get around to the sequels...

>28 Karlstar: For me, the James Asher novels have trended downward from the first to the third. I liked all of them pretty well but I thought Those Who Hunt the Night was the best so far. I plan to read the 4th book, The Magistrates of Hell, soon-ish but probably won't get to it this year.

>30 ScoLgo: Thanks for the heads up that A Door Into Ocean is evocative of Le Guin. The Dispossessed and The Left Hand Of Darkness are two of my favourite books. Those and The Earthsea Cycle. Sounds like I will enjoy Slonczewski.

I just finished reading Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. What an incredible story and incredible writing. I cannot believe that it has taken me this many decades to finally get around to reading it. I remember long ago friends in school telling me that I should read this book but for whatever reason, it just never made it to the top of my TBR list; at that time I was too taken with reading the likes of Frederik Pohl, Robert Heinlein, and Frank Herbert. So glad I finally got around to this one. Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death is also on my TBR list and I think will likely have similar things to say as Bradbury. Interesting to note that Bradbury preceded Postman's work by 35 years for his critique of television's impact on public discourse.

I am curious... How many of you have had similar experiences to this? Having a book recommended to you long ago and finally getting around to it years (decades) later only to realize this is something you could have benefited from reading much much earlier in your life.

>32 Neil_Luvs_Books: How many of you have had similar experiences to this?

Provocative question, I suspect I have multiple examples and will reflect on this a bit. The example coming to mind now was Le Guin herself, actually: long had Earthsea on my wishlist and even thought I'd read the first in my teens, but reading it within the past couple years, I suspect I never read it. One of my fav fantasy series, now.

On the other hand, I have no doubt I get much more from it reading now, than I would have in my teens. So maybe all to the good.

As it stands right now I'll be reading The Secret Chapter, Sea Change, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It, and Architects of Memory.

>33 elenchus: And maybe that is why Fahrenheit 451 made such an impact on me now in this later stage of life - I was simply ready to think about it now.

I am finishing up The Human. I like Neal Asher's Polity books, but the scope of some of these massive ships and the weapons has my head spinning a bit. I think I will be reading A Night in the Lonesome October as I finally have my books out of boxes and can find it. (Never realized how many Star Trek and Louis L'Amour books I own!) Just got The Body Scout from the library. I requested Bride of the Rat God just because of the previous comments. Sounds fun. Anything else will be random.

>32 Neil_Luvs_Books: For me, it was To Kill a Mockingbird. If I read it when I was younger, I forgot, which seems unlikely. I read it for the first time a couple of years ago. It really is a great book.

>35 Neil_Luvs_Books: ... made such an impact on me now in this later stage of life - I was simply ready to think about it now.

That's an experience I had with Steppenwolf, a book which is popularly supposed to appeal to readers in early adulthood, but which was actually written by an older man and addressed to his peers.

I finished reading and reviewed Delany's Tales of Nevèrÿon over the weekend. In my review, I discuss some discomfort with the suitability of the "fantasy" and "sword and sorcery" genres for the book. The more I reflect on it, the more I think that the absence of supernatural magic or fabulous creatures (excepting only pterosaur-type "dragons") makes the book prehistoric science fiction.

>39 paradoxosalpha:

I've added that Delaney to my wishlist.

Curious: based on the diacriticals, I pronounce the title "ne VER ee ahn" or perhaps "-ohn". That's in tension with the embedded "never", which I instinctually try to pronounce and end up stumbling over.

How do others pronounce it?

"Nuh-VAIR-ee-uhn" with lazy "uh" schwa sounds, in my case.

There's an implied etymology for the name in the appendix which is rather entertaining:

"In Greek, 'Transpoté' would seem to be possibly a play on the words 'across never.' The Homeric meaning includes the possibility of 'across when' or 'a distant once.' There is also, of course, a more prosaic reading possible, that reads 'pote-' as some sort of apocopation of 'potamos' meaning river, so that the translation may simply be 'across the river.' Other translations are 'far never' and 'far when'--none of which, alas, helps us to locate the actual country."

I'm taking a breather (while I read Night-Gaunts), but I've got the sequel Neveryóna on my shelf ready to go.

Now finished O-Zone. It was subjected to considerable mockery from within the sf community when it came out for its clunky style, pseudo-scientific language and its reinvention of sf tropes in the style of bad 1950s hack writers. Theroux chooses to satirise what he probably thought of as science fiction by having a group of wannabe space colonists as minor players in the novel, who carry round what sound like bad sf novels as their holy texts. Well, people in glass houses, etc, etc. In my 2nd edition of The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction, John Clute comments that "...the setting is not nearly as original as Theroux thinks it is".

I suspect most people didn't stick with the novel into the third part, where a character kidnaps a 15 year old "alien" (that word is used throughout in the American political sense, i.e. anyone who is not a citizen) because he has become obsessed with her after seeing her on some surveillance video. What then follows can only be described as grooming. This is not written up as one of the sins of the characters. I'm fairly certain that this was as illegal in 1986 when the book was written as it is now.

Now cleansing my palate with Ken MacLeod's Intrusion.

>42 RobertDay: Intrusion is an interesting one. You might find parts of it somewhat apropos to some present day activities.

>43 pgmcc: I've read about the first fifteen pages and the parallels are pretty obvious. I expect there may well be more, knowing MacLeod.

Finished Robert W Chambers The King In Yellow weird fiction about a playtext which brings tragedy and madness to any who read the play. It impressed H P Lovecraft who pinched the idea for his Necronomicon.
Also had an enjoyable reread of Amanda Stevens The Restorer. The cemetery is pretty creepy on its own,but things are even worse below ground! :0)
Today I read aouple of short stories. Algernon Blackwood's The Empty House,fun little haunted house tale. And Dean Koontz The Black Pumpkin was all about avery nasty old carver of pumpkins who carves a very nasty pumpkin indeed. Some awful people get quite a comeuppance........
I am reading Clive Barker's Weaveworld but I didnt know just how big it was,nearly 700 pages.Between that and Jordan's Eye of the World (read 550/800 pages of it) its hard to find time for much else,so I am reading only a few short stories a day.

>21 elenchus:, >26 JacobHolt:

You're welcome. In a funny coincidence, right after finishing it I turned to the book I had been reading and fell onto a long bit about the sun and sunspot activity etc. The Three-Body Problem was very enjoyable. It's rare that I get the feeling the characters in science fiction are believable scientists; no such problem here. I was extremely interested in the setting and how it shaped the characters and their acts, not just the stormy period of the Cultural Revolution, but the vast poverty, and tradition. There's the unmistakable period touch in the seventies enormous hope placed in science, same in all the socialist countries (the capitalists trust in "business").

Looking forward to the second volume.

Finished The Secret Chapter this evening and just when I think that Cogman is going to run out of ideas for her series she manages to up the stakes in a convincing fashion.

Earlier this week, I finished The House of a Hundred Whispers. Interesting premise but I didn't love it.

Also wrapped up A Head Full of Ghosts last night. It was okay but felt rather derivative. While I enjoyed the plethora of nods to other works of horror, I also found the naming of the main character to be a dead giveaway of where the story was headed. It was too obvious a piece of homage and ended up ruining the surprise ending for me.

Now reading Ellen Datlow's Vanishing Acts, an anthology of stories about extinction. Also picked up Ken Macleod's The Execution Channel. The latter starts off with a bit of a bang. :-)

Just finished Defy or Defend, which is essentially Cold Comfort Farm but with vampires, in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate universe. The female lead character is one of the Finishing School students; it was good to see her on the job, after the training. Light fun, which is exactly what it purported to be.

Currently reading Haunted castles: The complete Gothic stories by Ray Russell. They feel very 19th-century, despite being written in the 1950s-60s. But that's not a bad thing at all!

Everyone has such good choices this month! I added Ellen Datlow's Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror to my reading list.

Just finished Ken MacLeod's Intrusion, which will take some thinking about. He makes some very pertinent (small-'p') political points and I need to see something of how others have reacted (if they have spotted them). My own ideas are fairly clear, though.

Taking a short break from genre before tackling something far less weighty: Robert Rankin's Knees up Mother Earth.

added The Midnight Library by Matt Haig to my rotation.

After reading 3 Robert Bloch tales this month (see post 22 above) I have now done a reread of 3 of my favourite H P Lovecraft stories;
1. The Outsider was the first HPL tale I ever read - any moons ago. So mysterious and creepy,but also sad. The loneliness of this person(creature),the strange place he lives in and climbs out of,and the devastation he suffers when he recognises himself as a monster,and regains his memory is all heartrending.
2. I choseThe Hound because this is a rare thing in Lovecraft,a narrator who is a decadent,bored to tears with normal life, who has created a gruesome sort of museum of things that he and his even more corrupt graverobber partner dug up. Plus a portfolio of evil drawings locked in a human skin cover. And exquisitely beautiful humans,expertly stuffed.Oh and of course,a copy of the Necronomicon,written by a certain mad arab(first mention of it in a HPL story)
It all goes pear-shaped when they dig up a famous ghoulish graverobbers coffin and steal an amulet which was described in the Necronomican. Bad mistake.
Its such fun working out allusions to Poe etc,and as I say corrupt young men(I can just picture what Aubrey Beardsley could draw to illustrate this tale),are unusual protagonists.
3. The Rats in the Walls is one of HPLs most famous works. I love all those ancient underground ruins! It has the famous horrific ending,similar in content to the infamous final paragraphs of The Shadow over Innsmouth only much worse! Rats are the least evil creatures in the story.

Well, I think I've mostly moved out of my reading slump, but I've mostly been doing re-reads:

The Roaring Twenties series by Jenn Bennett, reread. Light urban fantasy that skates the edge of paranormal romance. Fairly steamy in places, but no worse than most and the smut doesn't take centre page. Set in San Francisco in the 1920s (duh) the 3 books follow the love lives of the Magnusson siblings. Winter, the eldest brother who is a bootlegger, Lowe the middle brother who is an Indiana Jones style archaeologist, and Astrid, their baby sister. The gender and racial themes seemed a bit on the modern side, but the paranormal side of things was limited to spiritualism and various nasty cults rather than shape-changers and elves.

Metaphorosis 2019. A LTER offering which I've been dipping in and out of. 3-5 stories per month, and the book covers the year. It's a multi-author anthology and I tend to find them a bit of a curate's egg. At least there was nothing overly twee.

The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer, reread. A regency romance.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Magical realism in Franco's Spain. Interesting, and reminiscent in style of The Mask of Dimitrios.

Mostly I caught on on my cataloguing; ebooks are up-to-date apart from a scan of The Dream Detective which I'm cleaning up first. Compared to some of the badly scanned short stories from Munsey's, it's not bad, although I've needed to check against my print copy a few times where it looks like something got missed out or was badly garbled.

Apart from some pro-magazines and the RuneQuest folder, my RPG pdfs are also up-to-date. Next to catalogue are the general fiction and crime fiction bookcases, and I need to clear boxes of books and comics out to the Oxfam bookshop in Huntingdon. (Memo to self: get some veggie boxes next time I'm at the supermarket.)

I nearly lost all my Calibre data at the start of the month - it was touch and go for a while when the old iMac started to refuse connections; either the hard drive is on it's way out again or it was a certificate issue. I've moved the data into iCloud (it took 5 days to synch!); now I must set up a smart folder on the new iMac so Paul can access the library. As part of this effort, I cleaned up my book folder on iCloud which netted some 20 or 30 books books which got missed - LTER offerings, Tor.com give-aways and a couple of bundles.

>55 Maddz:
I have The Shadow of the Wind but have not felt any particular urge to read it. Your likening it to The Mask of Dimitrios shoots it right up the TBR mountain. I am a great fan of Ambler’s work.

>56 pgmcc: One more vote for The Shadow of the Wind. Read it. It is unlike anything else I can think of and it can connect to a lot of things (Ambler being one of them) :)

I'm reading Lovecraft country and really enjoying it so far.

I've started Neal Stephenson's Seveneves - it's got mixed reviews but I'm enjoying it so far.

I just witnessed the next Star Trek saga - Captain Kirk ties his own shoes as he waits to enter space!! It was quite the struggle at first inside the tight flight suit. Hope the launch & landing go well!!

15 minute wait

And the capsule is down!! ..... have yet to check on the contents and I am being cautious of lightning bolts for being so snarky. ;-)

Back on Earth!!

>59 SChant: My reaction to Seveneves, (above), was rather mixed. I'll be interested to read your thoughts once you finish.

Ken Macleod's The Execution Channel was an excellent read for me. Near-future, sociopolitical alternate reality with a new super-weapon macguffin thrown into the mix. Quite a ride - and the ending was startling.

Speaking of mixed reviews, I'm now about halfway through Gene Wolfe's An Evil Guest. A book that some readers have rated highly while others seem to have hated. I'm finding it easy to pick up and read. There is a certain noir flow to it that is working for me.

I finished reading Joyce Carol Oates' Night-Gaunts and posted my review. I enjoyed it, but it didn't exactly feel "seasonal" to me. So now I'm starting in on All Hallows' Eve by Charles Williams, one of his Aspects of Power fantasy novels with modern settings and theological concerns.

I am now a third of the way through Child of Venus by Pamela Sargent. Wow! I like her writing. She really has a way of depicting humans behaving in normal human ways in a science fiction setting. I thoroughly enjoyed the previous two books in her Venus trilogy and am pleased that the strength of the storytelling continues with this next generation of characters. Even though this was written 20 years ago it still feels relevant today with her exploration of prejudice, fear, bullying and people rising to the challenge of standing up for themselves and others who are marginalized by those in positions of power.

>63 paradoxosalpha: I could never warm up to that one. The Greater Trumps, War in Heaven, and Shadows of Ecstasy are my favorites (in that order).

Completed Eye of the World. I got a discarded library copy in November 2019,for 20p! It sat on the bookshelf opposite my bed till a few weeks ago when I saw lots of excitement online on a WoT TV series starting mid November so I finally read it to dispel my total ignorance. I still have major problems with this type of fantasy.LOTR seems to be the beginning and end for me in this genre .But it was an OK read. Wont be continuing with the series,but I did find Jordan's worldbuilding to be excellent. People seem to hammer RJ for being too like Tolkien,but ALL books back then were like that. lol. Which probably drove Martin to demolish and subvert the whole subgenre.
Mind you,there has been two decades of fantasy remorselessly driving towards grimdark till now its all pervading.
Wonder if I will live to see the next huge revolution,whatever it may be......
Am now reading some Robert E Howard short horror,The Black Stone and the delightfully named Pigeons from Hell plus my usual Zelazny daily chapter .
Does anyone know about the origin of Vicar Roberts? I did read an HPL story the other day about The Evil Clergyman but Zelazny's vicar is a much nastier character! :0)

>66 dustydigger: Vicar Roberts

I've always loved this "who's who" article on Lonesome October, but it does contain spoilers for anyone not having read it yet.

Looking for a sci fi that might be a fun read for December. Im leading that month for my book group and am a bit at a loss. Nothing too long. Suggestions?

>65 rshart3:

Hm. We have different tastes then. I've read the others, and my tops would be Many Dimensions, The Place of the Lion (despite its conspicuous flaws), and Descent into Hell. I expected to really dig The Greater Trumps and found it disappointing.

>68 cindydavid4:

Leiber's "A Pail of Air" is fun but a short story, not a novel.

>68 cindydavid4: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet?

>67 elenchus: Loved the article,Elenchus. Thanks. I knew most of the references but its fun learning new twists.
I'm glad that Lonesome keeps Zelazny in mind. I rarely see comments about his books these days. This Immortal,Lord of Light,the Amber books and several other works are still among my most loved SF titles. Not sure if young'uns are still reading him?
EEK,just thinking most of my fave Zelazny books are now over 50 years old. Seems like yesterday when I was stunned by the newly published Lord of Light lol

>67 elenchus: Murderbot? The first one is a novella and easy to find. ETA: The series has brought out some good discussions in two of my book groups.

This week I finished Revelator by Daryl Gregory. Spooky period piece in 1930s-1940s Tennessee hills. Longer and less humorous than many Gregory books. Good though.

>68 cindydavid4: Second Murderbot: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

we read those already. Something about cold, winter, maybe christmassy ( we already read Hog Father, so thats out)

>75 cindydavid4:
I've just finished Ice by Anna Kavan. It's the apocalyptic kind of SF, and it plays out in a space where snowball earth, hallucinations, toxic masculinity and Kafka meet.

If, however, you're specifically looking for something cozy to read in December, I'd stay away from this one.

>75 cindydavid4: Possibly Winterfair Gifts by Lois McMaster Bujold? It's listed as a novella though I would have called it a short story. There's also the problem of bringing in a story with over a dozen previous novels of backstory. 🙄

>68 cindydavid4:. How about something by Andre Norton - Sargasso of Space or Dark Piper?

Spoilers ahead.

Saw that the Wizard of New Zealand got fired from his job this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/15/new-zealand-council-ends-contract-...

Gave me flashbacks of Harry Dresden getting fired by the Wizard's Council at the end of Battle Ground. Who knows what will happen next!?!?!🤷‍♂️

Finished Sos the Rope by Piers Anthony, the 2010 Planet Stories edition. Good stuff.

So, I had the opportunity to read The Echo Wife and I have to admit that, at a certain point, it started reading like a feminist "Weekend at Bernie's." Certainly not a throwaway book, but I'd probably be more impressed if I actually knew that it was supposed be to an exercise in absurdism.

I have started reading The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, specifically the fancy illustrated edition. My wife used to own it but it went missing (we think she loaned it out and didn't get it back), so I bought a replacement copy... it's well out of print and cost me $40 for a used edition that has a torn dust jacket! But worth it anyway, I think. Good stuff so far, as ever.

yikes! Its probably available on bookfinder.com! But glad you got it. Im not always a fan of YA lit, but with pratchett writing, how could you lose? loved that book, enjoy!

finished Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons. Meh. Added The Dark Veil by James Swallow to my rotation.

>83 cindydavid4: Bookfinder is how I found the $40 used copy!

Oh no! so sorry usually it works for me. Whats up with this book that is so pricey? Do the others in the series cost as much?

>86 cindydavid4: Small printing run compared to the number of fans that really want to have it :)

Finished The Fury from Earth, began The Space Eater.

I completed Zombies, The Recent Dead. I enjoyed this anthology. I expected all the tales to be gruesome or sordid, but was pleasantly surprised at the varied themes and perspectives. I learned about the various cultural and literary origins of zombies, as well as the different types - from mindless puppets under a chemically induced spell doing their master's bidding, to the flesh-rending monsters known from cinematic roots. There is even a zombie romance story.

My next stop is another anthology: Darkness, two decades of horror.

I finished Lovecraft country and really enjoyed it. The mix of real-world and eldritch was well done, and I liked the format of linked short stories.

My next SF read will probably be Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang.

Now reading Notes from the Burning Age, which is future dystopia that also recalls the rise of World War II. A priest ends up as a spy for the Brotherhood, which wants to bring back all the old tech from the bad times. He's one of the ones who can sometimes still translate the info on old, recovered hard drives.

finished The Dark Veil by James Swallow. surprisingly excellent read.

I've just finished one of Robert Rankin's Brentford trilogy books; the seventh, Knees up, Mother Earth. Some irritating tics in the writing, but the surreal fantasy has its share of fun and frolics. There is a lot of genre name-checking, some of it in the form of malapropisms uttered by some of the cast of characters. I mean, the Iain Banks Marching Band?

Now taking a break from genre before tucking into Provenance.

>88 ChrisRiesbeck: Long since time I should have re-read The Space Eater.

>86 cindydavid4: There are cheap MMPBs of all the books, including the first, but this was a deluxe hardcover, profusely illustrated, with, as 87 said, a small print run.

>94 Stevil2001: ahhhh, ok. Heck I might be interested!

Read 3 tales by Robert E Howard,king of pulp.
1. The Horror from the Mound was a vampire tale with cowboys,of all things.A vamp had been trapped in an ancient burial mound. Cue a poverty stricken idiot who is looking for treasure digging up the mound.
2. Pigeons from Hell ,southern gothic at its finest,tipping over into melodrama at times but great fun
3. Hills of the Dead sees Solomon Kane fighting vampires in darkest 18th century Africa.Pretty nasty vamps at that! lol.
What I did finding interesting is the way Howard really shows how terrified ordinary people are when confronted by ghosts etc. None of this stiff upper lip stuff of arcane scholars over in Arkham.Even when the slimy monster is approaching the attic door they are writing out their tale for posterity. Here people almost gibber with fear! lol. Love it as a change,but still prefer HPL and the east coast gang,with their less pulpy,much more grandiloquent prose. :0)
My last trio of tales for Spooky October will be by Algernon Blackwood,plus of course Lonesome October :0)

>93 RobertDay: Surprised someone has heard of it. Not that in that many LT libraries, though it was a Timescape selection. Reserving judgment. Started off fast but I'm at the halfway point and they're just now getting to the main event.

>97 ChrisRiesbeck: Ah, well, Dave Langford has been a fixture in British fandom for as long as I remember. Some of us always hoped that The Space Eater would be his breakthrough novel, but his professional sales have been dogged with bad luck. I can recommend almost everything he has ever written, though most of his book-length works have appeared from various small press publishers.

His monthly newszine Ansible has all the news that's fit to print. of late, he's been heavily engaged on the third (online) edition of The Science Fiction Encyclopedia.

I recently finished Machine by Elizabeth Bear. I have mixed feeling about the book. On the one hand I loved the space opera aspect especially since the main character was a woman with chronic pain who through technology and sheer grit works as a rescue specialist in space. On the other hand all of Bear's musings about faith and trust went on far too long and too often for me. I wanted to be carried away by the story but kept getting bogged down with several pages of philosophical meanderings in almost every chapter. I'd be interested in other people's reactions.

>99 gypsysmom: I had the same response as you - too much internal monologuing that added little to the character or plot, and interrupted the action. I loved the premise and setting though, inspired by James White's Sector General stories. More authors should write about space hospitals, there is so much scope there!

>99 gypsysmom: That novel has been on various TBR lists of mine for awhile, but it seems that it might be drowned in the onslaught of oncoming books.

Speaking of books that escaped the said oncoming onslaught, I finished How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It yesterday evening. I've been finding this trilogy to be a lot of fun, but it no doubt helps that I care about the actual history of "Late Antiquity."

>102 Shrike58: that sounds like the short reign of Pippin the IV but instead of Byzannatium, its Charlemange. lots of fun!

>98 RobertDay: I loved David Langford's The Leaky Establishment, and there are a few others of his I'd like to try but they are hard to find here.

>104 Darth-Heather: Dave always said of 'Leaky' that the events in it that people thought were the most surreal, fantastic and unlikely were the things that actually happened in the Ministry of Defence...

I picked up Otherland: River of Blue Fire again and then put it down to start The Grapes of Wrath. There's nothing wrong with O:RBF, but since it is a re-read I've been reading it in between other books.

Thanks for all the suggestions for winter (like the idea of winter gifts but doesn't sound like a stand alone) I sent all of them to our fearless leader and see what she thinks

I read NK Jemisin's short story that was the premise for killing moon rading that now and oh my its good! Love her world building her characters, and just everything about her writing. Shes amazing

>105 RobertDay: that is both hilarious and terrifying...

>93 RobertDay: I really enjoyed reading Provenance in the spring. Leckie is good!

For spooky, I first thought of The Golden by Lucius Shepard and At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft.

I am continuing with my "Why did not I read Butler earlier?" quest with her first novel: Patternmaster. Which is... interesting so far - different from her later novels but good.

(Yes, I know that there is a revised reading order out there but this novel is not the same novel if you read it first (and have to figure out things) or if you read it at the end of the series after you read the prequels which were written later and explain things for you - no novel is. We are not talking about "written in order, published in a random order" kind of thing aka Fox airing Firefly by choosing episodes out of a hat (or calling a randomize function...) - which is the only case when I would go with reading a series in non-published order (when I can find all the books of course or know they exist)).

>110 teafancier: Hi teafancier - your post has the wrong touchstone (The Golden Compass). Good book, but not Shepard.

>111 AnnieMod: I read Patternmaster in the early 1980s but lost my copy and haven't re-read it since. Loved it at the time. It'll be interesting to see what you think, reading it in publication order now.

Started reading Stormland by John Shirley. Fifty pages in and almost all the characters are male -- except for one murder victim (referenced), her sister (who cuts the conversation short), and another incidental character. Hmm, *checks the cover* all the blurbers are male, too. It's not bad, but maybe I'll finish it another time.

I am traveling so I couldn't take the giant Illustrated Wee Free Men with me, so instead I am reading Stross's Glasshouse. I've never read anything by him before; I am finding it very zippy and entertaining despite a pretty dense opening. I am about two-thirds of the way through, and I don't think the current setup can sustain the rest of the book, so I am curious where it is going to turn.

>111 AnnieMod: Agreed. Sometimes I'll do order of events when I do rereads but for the first time through, publication order is the order in which the author meant people to be reading them as they came out.

>114 karenb: Hmm, sausage fest eh? I hate that sort of thing.

I finished All Hallows' Eve and posted my review. It was indeed satisfyingly seasonal.

Now I'm starting out on an LTER book Cosmogramma, of which I've read only the first story so far.

Reading The Fall of Koli, last in Mike Carey's Ramparts trilogy. So far it's very good.

>118 paradoxosalpha:. I've got Cosmogramma, too, and I am almost finished. I'd be interested in hearing your impression.

Read 3 Algernon Blackwood tales from the John Silence psychic detective series.A Psychical Invasion,Ancient Sorceries,and Nemesis of Fire Quite diverse settings and I found his graceful,elegant style very pleasing,rather dreamlike and thoughtful,quite a contrast with last week's author,the vigorous and in your face prose of king of pulp writing,Robert E Howard
I've really enjoyed all the fabulous short tales of the early weird tradition authors this month. :0)

>118 paradoxosalpha:

The closing paragraph of your review certainly gives one pause.

Finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Found it rather dull. Started Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

I realized that I was not on track to finish all my Hugo finalists in time (funny how tasks will always expand to the time allotted to them; I normally do all this in a few months!), so I have decided to buckle down and am already halfway through Piranesi. What a delight so far!

Finished The Space Eater and now reading Daughter of Elysium

>124 Stevil2001: I couldn't get through Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel despite several tries and watching the tv movie. So the concept to this book sounds facinating, just making sure this is written for me to understand?

>107 cindydavid4: so I am into Killing Moon, Im liking it so far. Really appreciate the well stocked dictionary included!

>126 cindydavid4: Piranesi is written in a very different, less dense, style.

Reading Patternmaster immediately followed by Chanur's Homecoming gets one head turned around :) Loved both (for different reasons) but if two far future novels can be more different than these two, I'd be surprised. :)

>126 cindydavid4:, >128 anglemark: It's also much, much shorter! But yes, she is not doing C19 pastiche this time.

>128 anglemark: thanks

reading killing moon and realized this would have been the perfect book for my rl group to read this month. Not scary, just very uncomfortable stuff goes on here (and I am loving it)

I'm now over halfway through my reread of The Book of the New Sun, being a little into Sword of the Lictor. I was surprised to look in my book files & find that it was over 13 years ago I last read it. I had remembered the many odd words, the science fantasy/Dying Earth scenario, and the picaresque quality. I had forgotten how many brilliant, toss-away ideas he spins off almost constantly: thoughts (visions?) Severian has about possible worlds or situations, or about what's real, or what's happening -- some of which could be the base for whole stories of their own.

Loved the sad little 1939 Joseph E Kelleam tale Rust about the last 3 robots on a dying earth where man no longer exists.
Also read Blackwood's Secret Worship.John Silence becomes more saintlike in each new episode!
My daughter adored Goosebumps stories in the 90s. Unbelievable that her own daughter is now at 11 eager to read Stine's horror tales. I joined her to read the very first tale,Welcome to Dead House Cute thrills for kids Today is devoted to the final chapter of Night in the Lonesome October
I have so enjoyed Spooky Season this year! :0)

Finished Sea Change yesterday evening; in a word, slight. Nancy Kress has done better and I never believed in her conspiracy of scientists for a second; might be one of those times were less is less.

>133 dustydigger: Would love to read rust. Where did you find it? I can find info on line but no text

>134 Shrike58: she was one of my fav sf writer years ago. Thin the last ones I reas were her Moon and Sun books, but anything els I tried after that just left me cold. My fav was beggars in Spain

>134 Shrike58: she was one of my fav sf writer years ago. Thin the last ones I reas were her probability Moon and Sun, but anything els I tried after that just left me cold. My fav was beggars in Spain

>133 dustydigger: Sounds like the Brian Aldiss story "Who Can Replace a Man?"

>135 cindydavid4: It's in this book, I'm sure.

Fighting the Future War: An Anthology of Science Fiction War Stories, 1914-1945

Googling for X-120 L-1716 rust
gave a fair bit of it in Google Books. (I have it, but in a Danish translation).

Made a start on Provenance. It's all about collecting!

>139 bnielsen: found it here https://classicsofsciencefiction.com/ Interesting that it was written on the cusp of WWII. Reading more about fighting the future war sounds like an interesting collection, but way too depressing for me to read.

>141 cindydavid4: Ah, nice. I think I should look up a couple of other old Astounding stories. The Danish translations of that time were often very low-budget :-)

Apparatus Infernum: These 2 should have been noted in my September reads but I missed them.

The Corinthian: This and The Conquerer were the final 2 Heyers I was missing in ebook. Also read Simon the Coldheart; I think I prefer Beauvallet though.

Diamond City Magic: The first book was great - then the rest started getting over the top and annoying in that you are literally left on a cliffhanger with no real resolution. The 5th is written but not released and I doubt I will bother continuing the series. Frankly I prefer Hidden Legacy; same sort of territory, but with a good dose of humour and better world building.

Saint Germain Chronology: Been dipping in and out of these - I've read about 8 so far, mostly thematically. Apart from Out of the House of Life, Better in the Dark, Blood Roses, Borne in Blood and Saint Germain Chronicles, I've been re-reading the Far Eastern books: Dark of the Sun, Path of the Eclipse, and A Feast in Exile. At some point, I must try a chronological read. The later-written books could have done with an editor willing to quash the Call My Bluff aspects; having to constantly look words up really breaks immersion. The only ebook I'm missing now is Saint Germain Memoirs.

The Dream Detective: Finally got my hands on a reasonable scan (OCR'd and complete), which I cleaned up with reference to my print copy (which will now go in storage). Very much of their time (1925), so be warned about the implicit racism.

Wakenhyrst: An oddity. Set fairly local to me, it's what could be described as Fenland Gothic. Not bad.

I'm sure there's others I've missed mentioning, but it seems like I've come out of my reading slump with a vengeance. Admittedly, I still seem to be mostly re-reading, but 5 in the above list are first reads.

>132 rshart3: I read BotNS for the first time this past summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. The Urth of the New Sun is now on my TBR list. Have you listened to the ReReading Wolfe podcast? It might be great to follow during your re-read. I have really been enjoying them. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/rereading-wolfe-rereadingwolfe-7gR6fMWZqQk/
I have never come across a book that was written with the author’s intention that it should be reread.

>144 Neil_Luvs_Books: I didn't like the follow-up series nearly as well; it seemed very flat. Thanks for the podcast link. I'll check it out.