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What are we reading in January?
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dustydigger
Posted 2022-12-31 12:14 PM (#26655)
Subject: What are we reading in January?



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Location: UK		Hi people,Happy New Year! Hope you all got some books in the holiday period
Here's hoping some new people will join in to share what they are reading!
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dustydigger
Posted 2022-12-31 12:16 PM (#26656 - in reply to #26655)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January?



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Location: UK		Dusty's TBR for January 2023
SF/Fantasy
Poul Anderson - Star Ways
Paul Cornell - Severed Streets
Nalini Singh - Archangel's Light
Charles de Lint - Some Place to be Flying
Arthur Conan Doyle - Land of Mist
Samuel R Delany - Dhalgren
Naomi Novik - Uprooted
Clifford D Simak - Destiny Doll
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time

from other genres
Edmund Crispin - Case of the Gilded Fly
Jack London - White Fang
Isaac Asimov - A Whiff of Death
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daxxh
Posted 2022-12-31 7:35 PM (#26659 - in reply to #26656)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		Trying this again, as I typed in a response and it never showed up.

I am probably going to finish To Reign in Hell: the Exile of Khan Noonien Singh before the ball drops. Otherwise, I will try to read all the library holds which all came at the same time.

A Crown of Swords - Robert Jordan (halfway through)

The Constant Rabbit - Jasper Fforde (started but not really liking it)

Venomous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman (with that title and that cover, who wouldn't at least pick it up and look at it?)

The Heir of Caladan - Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (finishing the trilogy)

Needle - Linda Nagata (really looking forward to this one)

Other Genres
When the Fog Rolls In - Mary Kathryn Koma (have to read the local author)

Cannery Row - John Steinbeck (I am deficient in classics, so I am trying to read some.)




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dustydigger
Posted 2023-01-04 7:37 AM (#26677 - in reply to #26659)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January?



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Location: UK		Finished George RR Martin's Nightflyers novella. Not really impressed,there is something about his writing that just doesnt click with me. I couldnt engage with or have sympathy for the characters. I presume if I could do so,all the nasty things that happened would have struck home,but it all left me cold. I once tried reading Game of Thrones and couldnt engage with that,.Add it was fantasy,my not very beloved sub genre,all those characters and families,etc I gave up after about 60 pages and never returned! lol
It annoys me that the book and those massive sequels are on so many WWEnd lists. I suppose I will have to give in the end and read the darned thing . Amazing just how shocked loads of people can be that I dont love GoT. Mind you,on my preferred arena,SF,I am not a worshipper of Dune,either. Shock horror!
Of course back in that halcyon period,1968 I ended up having both LOTR and Dune turn up on my reserved books list at the same time. The reservation queues were ENORMOUS,stretching well over a year ahead,so I had 3 weeks to read both of these monster tomes .LOTR won hands down,I loved it,and have reread it many times since. But Dune? It dragged,and - shock horror - I didnt take to Paul Atreides! Fatal. lol. 54 years have gone by and I have never had the urge to reread it,and certainly not the sequels. Oddly,I really enjoy other books by Frank Herbert. Whipping Star,Dosadi Experiment,and Santaroga Barrier,and some short stories. have reread them several times. Go figure
Wow,when I think back I did an awful lot of reading back then.,probably 6 or 7 hours a day.40 pages an hour. I got through a LOT of stuff.
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dustydigger
Posted 2023-01-08 11:01 AM (#26696 - in reply to #26677)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January?



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Location: UK		Completed Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time. Quite a fun read,though with longuers when too much time was spent with the humans,when of course readers want more time with the spiders. Some clever ideas. AT skates on thin ice at times but he rushes over any cracks,the speed and sparkle covering any urge to slow down and actually ponder the somewhat handwavium science. Good fun,though. On a reread, I think lots of people would skim the slow sections. But at least the book had some freshness about it,though of course,in this day and age we have to have some gender politics etc.And a satisfying ending. Nice.
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Sunscour
Posted 2023-01-08 5:22 PM (#26697 - in reply to #26655)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January?



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Location: Loxley USA		I'm reading The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor, excellent read so far. It is about intelligent octopus and what it means to be real or what makes us human. There are quite a few action scenes and also deals heavily with climate change and wildlife conservation.
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dustydigger
Posted 2023-01-19 3:40 PM (#26758 - in reply to #26697)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January?



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Location: UK		Yay! After 4 years I at last completed DElaney's Dhalgren,on my fourth attempt. A bit pretentious at times,and I found the last section withits obsession with the process and problems of being an author tedious,I felt no empathy with that. The transgresive elements,the graphic language,the explicit sex of every sort soon lost its shock value and became rather boring. Plus the intriguing slivers of science fiction were pushed aside as the book progressed,which disappointed me. Delaney does have a good ear for dialogue,and much of the depictions of the squatters lifestyle taught me much about the 1970s,particularly the black experience and sub culture,which was very interesting. A flawed book,massively too long at 879 pages,but with still Delany's Dhalgren is a strong work. Just not as good as the authors he he studied,as mentors,like James Joyce,or even Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. I sigh with relief that I finished it. lol
And finishing it actually completes the Locus Best SF of All Time list!.Everything apart from Dhalgren was finished many years ago,so its great to post a WWEnd list as complete.
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daxxh
Posted 2023-01-19 8:30 PM (#26759 - in reply to #26758)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		@dusty - Whoo Hoo! Congratulations on finishing Dhalgren and finishing the Locus SF list!

I read Dhalgren twice, both times as a teenager. My first thoughts were "Wow, this is so bizarre, do people really do that, and most importantly - what happened to the sun?" The second time my thoughts were "Wow, this is quite a character study. I need to read this again." Then, I grew up, found out that Delany was gay and learned a little more about inner city life and life in general. The book made more sense. I think it deserves the praise it got. I am not sure if I will read it again. Perhaps when life is less busy, and I have time to think ...
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