What are you reading?

[Jubal]

I dunno, I just changed a bunch of words because I thought it might be kind of amusing.

[Glaurung]

I've very recently read one of Neil Gaiman's latest novels, "The Ocean at the End of the Lane", and I recommend it. It has something of the feel of "The Graveyard Book", in that the protagonist is a child, but the story is rather different - almost horror, in some ways.

Looking back, I've enjoyed everything that I've read by Gaiman: novels "American Gods", "The Graveyard Book", "Neverwhere" and "Stardust", and "Good Omens" (with Terry Pratchett); short story collections "Smoke and Mirrors" and "Fragile Things".

[Jubal]

I should read more Neil Gaiman... currently on "The Moor's Last Sigh" which is by Salman Rushdie. It's an interesting read and he's an excellent writer, very different to the pacier style of most modern western novellists. 

[Pentagathus]

I've just finished reading "The Lord of Middle Air" by Michael Scott Rohan. T'was amazingly good and I heartily recommend it. I'm surprised I've never heard of this author before, definitely going to check out his other works.

[Glaurung]

... "The Lord of Middle Air" by Michael Scott Rohan. T'was amazingly good and I heartily recommend it. ...

I agree - he's a very good writer who's published frustratingly little, and seemingly nothing at all since 2001 (which is probably why you've not heard of him). There's a probably complete bibliography on his Wikipedia entry. He also has his own website that explains more about his work, though there several unfinished pages, and it looks as if it's not been updated since 1998!

[Glaurung]

Thus prompted, I re-read Run To The Stars in one sitting last night. It's an SF thriller, set in a near-ish future dystopian world.

I think the "Winter of the World" trilogy is probably next: The Anvil of Ice, The Forge in the Forest, The Hammer of the Sun. Heroic-ish fantasy set during the Ice Age, weaving in elements of Norse and Finnish mythology. I say heroic-ish because the "good" characters are not uniformly so: they can make bad decisions, their actions can hurt others. There's also a peculiar appeal to me in that, judging by the place names, the principal language is Cornish or Breton!

[Pentagathus]

I've been reading the winter of the world trilogy, not far through the forge in the forest yet. To be honest I was a bit disappointed, its a good tale so far but its very different from the lords of the middle air. The style of writing and sometimes the main protagonist's character reminds me of the children of hurin, not sure yet if thats a good thing or not.

[Glaurung]

Despite my intention, I haven't got started on MSR's "Winter of the World" yet. I also have a copy of Iain M. Banks' Surface Detail which I got about halfway through some months ago. This is unusual - I normally read a new book right through, as fast as other commitments will allow. Anyway, I had a couple of hours on trains yesterday, so I picked it up again and have got back into it. I think it's going to be very good - possibly one of Banks' best.

[Cuddly Khan]

I'm reading the Metro 2033 book. It's actually really good. I recomend it.

[Tom]

I'm reading the long earth at the moment and I'm loving it.

[Cuddly Khan]

I'm reading Exilian E-book

[Glaurung]

I'm now on Stephen Donaldson's The Last Dark. It's the last in his series "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant". I read the first Thomas Covenant book over thirty years ago; I'm reading this last one at least partly just to find out what happens in the end. I'm about halfway through it, and I'm struggling to see how things can come to any sort of happy ending at all. Donaldson seems to have gone to some lengths to paint his characters into a corner.

After this, I will probably move on to Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. I have heard only good things about it, and it's won all the major literary SF awards.

[Glaurung]

I finished The Last Dark some while ago. There was a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing, of running away and fighting. In the end, I think all the loose ends got resolved, and Donaldson probably managed to ensure that he never has to write another Thomas Covenant book again. I'm not sure that this, and the previous three books, are going to end up on my bookshelves - I doubt I will want to re-read them.

Then I moved on to Ancillary Justice. I was less enthused about it than I expected to be, based on the awards and so on. It has a lot of interesting ideas, and I think it's well-written, but it didn't have the 'spark' that would have grabbed me. Maybe it would have helped if I had read it in one go, rather than intermittent 15-minute doses on the bus to and from work.

I've now moved on to some non-fiction: Germania by Simon Winder. It's a history of Germany from the Roman Empire up to 1933. It's a complex subject, and I hope I will finish the book understanding it better. After that it will probably be the same author's Danubia, a history of the Habsburg empire in Europe.

[Jubal]

Mostly lots of Herodotus, the Tom Holland translation. It's very interesting, quite stressful working out what one is meant to extract from it for a coursework essay though.

[Othko97]

I've been re-reading Tolkien recently.