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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | A new month,some new books. The only change from our Groundhog Day life is that the book titles change! 
Hope to read these this month
C J Cherryh - The Kif Strike Back
C J Cherryh - Chanur's Homecoming
C J Cherryh - Chanur's Legacy.
James Tiptree Jnr - Houston,Houston,Do YouRead?
Roger Zelazny - The Doors of His Eyes,the Lamps of his Mouth
Diana Rowland - My Life as a White Trash Zombie
I only intended to read the first of the 5 book Chanur saga last month,for a group challenge,and fell helplessly into Cherryh's world and was hooked into reading the whole set yet again.And each time I grasp more of the intricate relationships and events of the series.The first read,back in the 1980s I was just bewildered and went with the flow,trusting Cherryh to get us to a resolution.But now I must follow,oh,at least 50% of the shenanigan's. Let me live another 20 years (that would make me 92!) and I might actually understand the whole thing lol. |
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Uber User
Posts: 370
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA | I'm starting off the month with Vellum by Hal Duncan. It's a pretty thick book, so it may take me a while. 460 pages, small font, oversized trade paperback. I'm also planning on reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones for our SF Book Club in Exile. After that, I'm not sure. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 556
Location: Great Lakes, USA | I finished The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich today. I like her writing style and am half way through another of her books, The Painted Drum. I like this book better than The Antelope Wife. I am putting this author on my must read list. I am also half way through Light of Impossible Stars by Gareth Powell. I like this one better than the first two in the series so far. I should have finished this a while ago, but I keep reading the ebooks with a due date on them since I can't renew them. I have Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, Goldilocks by Laura Lam and a nongenre Longmire mystery on top of the eTBR pile. I should also be getting a hard copy of Agency by William Gibson soon, as the library is now open for drive-by hold pickup!! |
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Uber User
Posts: 140
Location: Carrollton, TX | I'm about halfway through The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle which I'm loving, and about halfway through Central Station by Lavie Tidhar which I'm not as much. It has its moments, but my enthusiasm for it is pretty inconsistent. Those will be my first two reads for July.
On the short-short list after that (in no particular order):
Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
But my last two reads in June were excellent, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland and Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip, so I'm a little fired up about reading more from them. We'll see.
Edited by Slinkyboy 2020-07-02 9:57 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Finished Zelazny's Four for Tomorrow,short stories including The Doors of his Face,the Lamps of his Mouth and A Rose for Ecclesiastes,vivid and intense,perhaps a little overelaborate in the heady exuberant early Zelazny stylebut always interesting.
Another novella I am reading is James Tiptree jns's Houston,Houston,Do You Read? Wish I could go back in time to where it was totally unknown that Tiptree was actually a woman,Alice Sheldon.Even when it became known she was female people in theSF world,including famous authors and editors, just refused to believe it
I must admit the prose is extraordinarylean strippeddown. I suppose the utter lack of sentimentality made it seem masculine. But knowing today that a woman wrote this,a real feminist,we see so many feminine features in the work. But it is subtle. Its a slow but relentless build up of the story,and its obvious things are going to end badly. About 50 pages left to read. |
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Uber User
Posts: 370
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA | I just put down a terrible book, Invisible Soft Return by Roberta Degnore. It's the first book I did not finish in many years. It's about sims versus reality and is very heavy on philosphising. I'll be taking this one off the LGBTQ Resource List next time I update it.
I'm about to begin the Alpennia series by Heather Rose Jones. I hope to finish it this month. The first book is Daughter of Mystery. I'll probably read other books between each one, just to take a break. I usually do that with trilogies.
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Uber User
Posts: 370
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA | I'm really enjoying the Alpennia series. Have the first two done. I also read When Fox Is A Thousand by Larissa Lai which I really enjoyed, and am beginning Fairs' Point by Melissa Scott. |
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Member
Posts: 43
Location: Chicago, IL | I had a dismal reading June. Self-isolation kind of sapped my energy. But this month I re-read the last 4 Dresden Files books in preparation for Peace Talks coming out. I also read The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaVelle, which was fantastic, and I'm working my way through Mexican Gothic by Siliva Moreno-Garcia at the moment, which is also fantastic. Very reminiscent of Rebecca and The Yellow Wallpaper. |
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Member
Posts: 43
Location: Chicago, IL | I also picked up a collection of C J Cherryh short fiction, but as far as her novels go, she just has _so much_ that I'm not sure where to start. Any suggestions on where to get started with her books, outside of short fiction? |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 556
Location: Great Lakes, USA | @thejessleigh - My favorite Cherryh book is Downbelow Station. That is one of my favorite books of all. I love the Alliance-Union universe. I also liked Rider at the Gate - telepathic, carnivorous horses.
I finished the third book in the Void Witch series (Static Ruin). That trilogy was ok. I also finished Moon of the Crusted Snow (good) and Goldilocks (good) And, I just started Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I completed Houston,Houston,Do You Read? Excellent most of the way through but a bit melodramatic,on the verge of risible at ttimes in the final scenes.But stillimpactful today.
Also did a reread of a few famous short stories including
Ray Bradbury - A Sound of Thunder one of the earliest tales about how the smalestl interference in the past can change the present via a sort of butterfly effect
Arthur C Clark - Nine Billion Names of God where tibetan monks who expected to take thousands of years compiling a theological lis tutilise computer technology to list the names of God,and bring about the end of the universe
Ursula K Le Guin - The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelasa stark tale about a place which has every good thing,beauty and peace,but only because one poor child lives in pain and misery.Tough stark and thought provoking.
It was nice to read some short stuff for once.When I started reading SF aged 13 in 1961 short fiction was still really the rule. The library was jam packed with anthologies Bradbury,SturgeonPoul ,Anderson,Clarke,Asimov and others were at their best. As the magazines dried up,novels became the normal thing,but I still remember those days. There's something about that sharp shock or revelation that you are hammered with at the end of ashort tale! lol.
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New User
Posts: 1
| Slowly reading through Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson which I believe is over 600 pages. It's really gripping, and I'm glad I chose it as the book to help me with my vocabulary. |
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What are you reading in July 2020?