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Published 1977-1983. I started reading them in 1984 when I worked as Xmas staff in a bookshop. We had the Fantasy/SF stand right next to the till, which meant I spent a lot of time planning my next read. I barely read anything away from that genre for the next few years, and might be wrong, but I don’t remember any sort of ‘iron grip of cloneware’ as you describe. I’m desperately trying to think of anything – other than the Covenant novels – that could be described as ripping off Tolkien. Help me out – my brain is old and creaky!
You're a man of discernment Jon, you were prob reading Gene Wolfe and M John Harrison early 80s, along with three other people. But the whole world of fantasy was driven by sales of things like Sword of Shannara and the Belgariad around that time. The commercial success of Shannara in particular was very influential - an extremely basic book that nevertheless sold millions. TSR carpet-bombed the US market with D&D novels early 80s, but I don't recollect seeing them over here. We did get dragonlance though, which is the same franchise, and I remember enjoying as a kid.
I also liked the Belgariad, so was disappointed to hear recently that David Eddings was a horrible man - did prison time in the 70s for child abuse.
Covenant novels also massive sellers, but no one has ever read those books and thought - hmm, this reminds me of Lord of the Rings. The black Frodo nihilism angle really comes alive. But they were different times for book sales - an avant-garde SF novel like Dhalgren by Samuel Delany sold a million copies in the 70s.
Jon, you were prob reading Gene Wolfe and M John Harrison early 80s, along with three other people.
😀 Maybe. I'd been playing D&D etc for years with the same group of friends, so between us we read and lent each other anything and everything. I certainly read Gene Wolfe, don't remember reading Harrison, loved Leiber, Silverberg, Dick (ooh err), Moorcock, etc. I was working my way through decades of classic SF, and remember the fantasy boom coming a bit later than Covenant. You are right about Eddings and Terry Brooks, but, although they sold plenty, there was still lots of choice around. They didn't flood the market so that you couldn't find better books. And yes, the only people who read the terrible TSR books were kids! We sold them but not in huge numbers, as I remember.
Because of this I've just spent a while watching stuff on Youtube about 80s fantasy. I'd forgotten how gorgeous the covers of the Covenant books were - mine went to Oxfam a long time ago. I also wonder if I had a 1st edition of The Colour of Magic? 🙁
Just finished Hopeland by Ian McDonald, which I mentioned up the page. And I am bereft, all I want to do is read more Hopeland and there isn't any more. It's a spectacularly overambitious mess, feels like at least 3 novels carcrashed together, and there's whole sections that are barely even compatible and could have been edited out and arguably made the whole thing better not worse, and a bunch of people complain that they were just getting into the novel it looks like it's going to be then a fifth of the way in it just sort of restarts and ends up going in a completely different direction, and that is absolutely fair and deserved. But it's also incredible and uncaged and beautiful and hopeful and I loved it, probably more than anything else I read this year I think? Don't fall in love with my family, they say but I totally did, the world is poorer for the Hopelands not being real, what a gorgeous idea. It's straight into the "things I will probably re-read every few years for the rest of my life". I reckon McDonald could write a spellbinding shopping list.
Also it has caused me to have Sunchyme by Dario G stuck in my head. Luna did this too, partway through I started picking up on the music mentioned and listening along with the books, which meant a whole lot of bossa nova and it definitely enhanced the whole thing for me. (not to mention that it's music that I'd never listened to, and now I really like it) There wasn't as much of that in this one, but just enough. Orbital and Robert Miles and Dario G and David Holmes... Also having the very final chapter play out to All Is Full Of Love was perfect. Multimedia baby!
Yeah quite liked it. Decided I just didn't want to read anything else modern or new or fantastical after it, it'd be so unfair so I'm starting into a Shogun reread as a sort of reset just because it's so different and I think that's teh only way I can get into reading anything else right now.
Just finished Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick. Very disappointed. Am now at a total loose end as to what to read next ....
Finished A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towels very recently. I thought Lincoln Highway was good but this possibly surpassed it. Just a brilliant writer, books that you don't just read but absorb, books that actually become a part of you
I've been really struggling to get in to that very book @avdave2
I'm doing a masters degree currently, and it seems to have ruined my ability to relax by reading a book 😕
Every Man For Himself and God Against All - Werner Herzog. Makes me want to rewatch all his films. A Guide for the Perplexed is probably the better book however.
Just finished ‘Venomous Lumpsucker’ by Ned Beauman. A sort of near future sci fi farce about the marketisation of conservation. Would be funnier if it wasn’t so depressing.
I'm audiobooking The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It's incredibly long, and I was wary as it became something of a right-wing cult classic.
I'm really enjoying it; it's very well written and I'm properly invested in the story. It's not overtly political, rather a case for free-thinking individualism over collectivism, which isn't surprising for a author who was raised in brutal Soviet Union.
I'd be interested in others' opinions. Am I a selfish right wing freak for rooting for Howard Rourke?
Looking forward to reading A Gentleman in Moscow soon, once I’ve finished The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell which I’m quite enjoying but not yet fully sold on.
One Ive just finished and really enjoyed was A woman in the polar night. It is a short book by an Austrian artist in the 1930s who went off to join her husband living in a trappers hut in north Svarlbard for a year - as you do. That doesn’t sound very promising but it is really good.
Just finished - The Crusader Armies by Steve Tibble - very readable - challenges the many assumptions of who fought for who and why during the crusades.
Currently on Bernie Taupin’s autobiography which is name drop heaven.
Something I enjoyed late last year was the story of the USS Jeanette, In the Kingdom of Ice. I’ve been interested in reading about exploration since reading a book about Shackletons mission, this Jeanette story is amazing and includes the origin of the saying ‘Gordon Bennett!’ (One for the kids there)
Not sure what’s on my bookshelf next
Empire of Normality - Neurodiversity and Capitalism. Robert Chapman. "shows how the rise of capitalism created an 'empire of normality' that transformed our understanding of the body into that of a productivity machine."
Epitaph for a Spy, Eric Ambler
Always a sucker for 1930s written books for the insight into the concerns and fear of Germany before WWII.
Recently finished IQ84 by Haruku Murakami. Not my favourite Murakami, but worth reading (my favourite is Kafka on the Shore).
Now on Maiden Castle by John Cowper Powys. Very Victorian, but once you get over that, good stuff.
Daniel Clowes marathon. Started with Monica, which was excellent, checking out some of his prior stuff but nothing's tickling the synapses the same yet.
About halfway through City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Very good, it's like if Perdido Street Station was easier to read and less oppressive and horrible. Tchaikovsky's a genius I think, it feels so different to the apt series for his fantasy, never mind the sf stuff.
Before that was Year Of Our War by Steph Swainston, which I loved. Not perfect, far from it but I just loved the characters and wanted to spend time with them.
Currently reading 'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking' by Susan Cain, and 'Triumphs and Turbulence' the Chris Boardman autobiography.
Having previously never listened to a podcast, I've also become somewhat addicted to the podcast series: The Hilarious World of Depression, and the follow up, Depresh Mode. (Apologies those aren't about reading!)
The Book About Everything: Eighteen Artists, Writers and Thinkers on James Joyce's Ulysses
Kiberd, Declan; Terrinoni, Enrico; Wilsdon, Catherine
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville.
A big book of crazy.
Most of the time it's in a good way.
Just finished Wool (part 1 of the silo trilogy) that someone bought me. Typical badly written sci-fi with great ideas and absolutely no characterisation and the only genre that seems to dispense with editors. Won't bother with the other 2.
Just started Behave by Robert Sapolsky, the story of human behaviour, Heard him interviewed on Leading and he sounded like he had a few interesting ideas so bought the book - its a bit more in depth than I thought with a whole appendix on Neuroscience 101 which I've just ploughed through. Hope I learn something!
Just got this one. Kasser's ideas expressed in cartoons. Only read a few pages so far.
Hyper-Capitalism: the modern economy, its values, and how to change them Paperback – Illustrated, 10 May 2018
by Larry Gonick (Author), Tim Kasser (Author)
I think there's a few on here that have had dealings with him. A thoroughly good bloke.
Just finished In Ascension by Martin MacInnes. Woman's work in algae studies takes her from an underwater research trip to an stellar journey to the edge of the Oort cloud. Mixed if I'm honest, the writing can be mesmerising and infuriating in equal measure and the ending's a cop-out.
Just finished Wool (part 1 of the silo trilogy) that someone bought me. Typical badly written sci-fi with great ideas and absolutely no characterisation and the only genre that seems to dispense with editors. Won’t bother with the other 2.
You forgot it completely ignoring basic physics too - radio waves from walkie-talkies transmitting through solid earth and underwater, and being able to dive very deep without any pressure implications and being able to come straight back to the surface.
I'm also reading an Adrian Tchaikovsky, Doors of Eden. About parallel evolution and crossovers between different Earths where life evolved differently. Very good.
I can handle doors between multiverses, but not radio waves transmitting through water.
I quite enjoyed the first Wool. I thought the conceit was pretty cool. Yeah, you can make the obvious anti-physics claims, but y'know; SciFi...If you think that's bad; in book 2 there's a man who's frozen and revived a couple of times over 50 years or so, and in book 3, it turns out to have been a big worry over nothing, so y'know, in the big scheme of things...
I think Wool (like the Southern Reach series) was just a bit too ambitious and I have a sneaky suspicion that the authors were probably offered an advance they couldn't turn down.
I’ve just finished- scattershot by Bernie Taupin. (Lyricist for Elton John)
This is a sort of autobiographical account of his early years in the music industry, his time as a bonefide rodeo rider and other bizarre bits of his very interesting life. As a wordsmith it’s beautifully written, but I suspect he’s got selective memory and the drugs have taken their toll.
@bunnyhop I’m in the last few chapters and I’m always amazed how those with a drug and alcohol laced past can be so clear on things that happened whilst in the same sentence be off their feet on tequila and powder.
I do take some great pub quiz question stuff from the book though, which member of Dads Army has a son who played in a band with the man who wrote candle in the wind type stuff.
@white101 - Bernie Taupin's a bit of a naughty one, because I've followed him and Elton since I was at school in the 1970's, Taupin has definitely changed many things he's said over the years. But I find these types seem to get away with it.
I absolutely love his lyrics (I'm not a fan of most of Elton's singles) on most of the albums they wrote together. His 'American wild West' leanings while being an English farmer's son is astonishing.
I met Bernie once at an Elton John backstage concert, all I remember was how tiny he was and Elton's not exactly a tall chap.
I’m in the last few chapters and I’m always amazed how those with a drug and alcohol laced past can be so clear on things that happened whilst in the same sentence be off their feet on tequila and powder.
They aren't clear on stuff at all, they're just setting out their version of the truth.
Reg Harris' biography, Amid the high hills by Hugh Frazer, Letters to young shooters by Ralph Payne Gallway, some thing about the spring claasics but it is the summer house and I'm not going out in the rain to check the author and next to start, both Mein Kampf and Das Capital. Found in an deceased aunts book case. Thought I have a balanced approach.
i have a few books i have to read that i bought on kindle but 3 hardbacks that i have recently bought that are great (if you are into guitars/bass) are...
messengers the guitars of james hetfield
marr's guitars (johnny marr)
geddy lee's beautiful big book of bass (and it is big/massive book).
all 3 books are great with some fab pics of the guitars/basses.
Just started Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan after enjoying Mayflies.
Reading Blood of Empire by Brian McClellan. Really enjoying these books and this is almost what I'd say is the 6th book in the powder mage series but its really the third of a second trilogy. Quite a different magic system involved and im now quite attached to some of the characters.
Once this ones done ive four or five at home still to read but no idea what I'll read next as im quite often a just whatever is on top of the pile person.
I'm having another go at getting through Empire of Democracy by Simon Reid-Henry. Its making more sense to me now, and feeling a bit more relevant as its tying in nicely with what I'm currently studying.
Read Go Like Hell this week, the book that Le Mans 66 was based - was ok, they definately took some liberties with the film! 🙂 You can tell it was written by a non-motorsport journalist, lots of hyperbole (Moss apparently smashed almost every bone in his body at Goodwood in '62...), and he also talks about Surtee's big crash in the Lola in Canada without actually saying what car it was (T70, I now know). But it's all right, passed a few rail miles happily enough. 🙂
Just finished The myth of normal by Gabor Mate Very good I now understand trauma a bit better.
Before the Mate book I read, Why Zebras don't get ulcers by Robert Sapolsky- Also very good I found it more useful than the Mate book.
Just finished Good cop, bad cop by Simon Kernik. I liked it. But then I like all the books of his that I have read 🙂
Coffee First, Then The World by Jenny Graham - every bit as good as I hoped it would be.
I’ve just discovered Tim Winton, read Breath and just finishing Dirt Music.
Really enjoyed both so looking forward to reading more of his work.
Heartstone by CJ Sansom (reading through the Matthew Shardlake series) and Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart.
Alternating between the two.
Hope you are enjoying >> Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan.
Went to hear him do a reading from it last night,he was very,very good ,and interesting to hear the places his research took him. He had been working on it since 2013.
I recently finished the Last Policeman by Ben Winters; it had been in storage for 3 years so I was looking forward to it! Definitely not as good or as multi-textured as Underground Airlines, but a fantastic overarching premise, gripping enough to want to find the next book somewhere.
Also whipped through book 4(?) of Slow Horses by Mick Herron. Fantastic as ever, some definite "wtaf?" moments. And the beauty of the TV adaptation is that when reading it now the characters do feel like the actors - Ho, Louisa, Lamb, Cartwright et al.
Just started on Solitary by Albert Woodfox; very much a companion piece to In the Place of Justice by Wilbert Rideau, about life as a black prisoner in the infamous Angola prison in Louisiana
I’ve just discovered Tim Winton, read Breath and just finishing Dirt Music.
Really enjoyed both so looking forward to reading more of his work.
I've got a load of his books. Generally I like them, but he really can't write a good ending IMO. They just go weird.
Notes On A Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. Hoping to inspire myself to cut back on social media and be happier with my lot.
@reeksy haha, just read Shepherds Hut as my first intro after nabbing it from my sister's & couldn't agree more
Mister-P
Free Member
Notes On A Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. Hoping to inspire myself to cut back on social media and be happier with my lot.
Pretty sure I've got this in my pile somewhere. I can manage max 1 'sensible' book and 1 fun book at a time, though - the sensible ones get read less quickly than the fun ones. So I've had it in the pile for a couple of years now!
Currently working through The Norm Chronicles as my sensible book - it's about stats and probabilities of death. Quite interesting (to me), quite well presented.
How about this for minority interest - "Be glad for the song has no ending - an Incredible String Band anthology". 800-odd pages about the band and their records. Very limited numbers printed (hardly surprising, really). I'm loving it. Even I, as a long time fan, was surprised to discover how popular they were. Very influential, too.
Am near Wigtown for a few days, where the books are. Picked up the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft and the selected writings of Dylan Thomas for starters. Was already halfway through Project Hail Mary and have an Anthony Bourdain. Deciding which Lovecraft to read my girls before bed.
@fasthaggis - Yes really enjoying it, you can tell there's a lot of work gone into it from a very talented writer.
About halfway through Ken Macleod's Beyond The Hallowed Sky and tbf it's a bit rubbish. I love Ken Macleod, his Fall revolution series is superb but this just isn't hitting on any counts. Maybe it'll pick up, it got great reviews
The Patient Assassin, by Anita Anand - really enjoying the Empire podcast she does with William Dalrymple so thought I'd try a book. Not sure what I expected but it's way more engaging than I thought it would be, and eye-opening in terms of painting a picture of just how godawful the Raj was.
Holiday reads so far:- Roald Dahl - Going Solo - interesting reading about his life in the RAF during WW2. Herman Hesse - Gertrude - bit like wading through treacle but I guess a lot is lost in translation. Mark Radcliffe - autobiography - of its time, but quite amusing antidotes of his experiences. Tim Winton - Shepherds Hut - if cousin love & survival in the bush is your thing. Just picked up Bill Bryson - At Home.
I’m reading The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones. It’s the last in a trilogy. Only started it last night but looking forward to it as I enjoyed the last two.
War Doctor by David Nott.
A remarkable man who picked up and used a commercial pilots licence in his spare time whilst working full time in the NHS as a surgeon (across 3 hospitals) and spending his holidays operating and teaching in war zones.
Picked up the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft and the selected writings of Dylan Thomas for starters.
I always think that Lovecraft's actual writing is a bit heavy-handed for me, but a lot of the writers who he inspired use that background much better.
I live about a mile from where Dylan Thomas was born and may well be in one of his favourite pubs later. Mind you every pub around here claims to have been frequented by him. Away from the drinking, he was a beautiful writer.
Storm command by Sir Peter de la Billiaire
It's ok and described clearly how the Iraqi army really didn't stand a chance
Picked up the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft and the selected writings of Dylan Thomas for starters.
I always think that Lovecraft’s actual writing is a bit heavy-handed for me, but a lot of the writers who he inspired use that background much better.
I know what you mean. The Cats of Ulthar was well received though. "The cats was naughty!"
On audio I've just listened to Soul Music, read by Tony Robinson. Fortunately audiobooks are included in my Spotify subscription, he can't do Death's voice.
Just finished The Last Continent, good to revisit Terry Pratchett.
Just started One Man and His Bike.
Am near Wigtown for a few days, where the books are.
Shaun Bythell’s diary of a bookseller books are really funny, worth popping in his shop if you’re there.
Just finished The Book Of Strange New Things by Michael Faber. My second time reading it, found a totally new perspective in this time round, completely different to how I remembered it!
Just finished The Book Of Strange New Things by Michael Faber. My second time reading it, found a totally new perspective in this time round, completely different to how I remembered it!
have you read Under the Skin? Weird but really good and better than the film.
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this arrived today, which seems topical given current events. Where did I put those iodine tablets….
I always think that Lovecraft’s actual writing is a bit heavy-handed for me, but a lot of the writers who he inspired use that background much better.
Actually, who are you thinking of, other than Gaiman?
Am near Wigtown for a few days, where the books are.
Shaun Bythell’s diary of a bookseller books are really funny, worth popping in his shop if you’re there.
Our first port of call 🙂
November 1942 - Robert Englund.
A view of a very pivotal month in the war told through the personal experiences and diary entries of the people that experienced it. Not just soldiers, sailors or airmen, but journalists, writers, folks at home, POW etc etc (Albert Camus complaining about a review of L'Estrager by Jean Paul Sartre is one highlight) He adds nothing to their words really, just footnotes and the odd explainer here and there, but leaves it to the stories and experiences that he's found. Pretty impressive amount of research if nothing else, but it's extraordinarily affecting to hear this sort of history stripped of the normal 'adventure story' narrative of lots of these sorts of books
Also having another go at some more of the Laundry Files as some-one else has also suggested them to me (as well as @Alex on here) admittedly they do get better, but I still think the main character's a prick though
On audio I’ve just listened to Soul Music, read by Tony Robinson. Fortunately audiobooks are included in my Spotify subscription, he can’t do Death’s voice.
I'm reading the Thief of time currently.
I cleared out a lot of my Pratchetts (mostly hardback) a few years back. Now wish I hadn't, really, especially since I now have more bookcase space!
Finished Solitary by Albert Woodfox. Just started Revenger by Alastair Reynolds, which I guess I must've bought at some point.
It's not bad, but obviously Reynolds trying to write more accessible sci-fi, for teens or whoever. So it's easier going than usual, a little light but enjoyable anyway
I always think that Lovecraft’s actual writing is a bit heavy-handed for me, but a lot of the writers who he inspired use that background much better.
Actually, who are you thinking of, other than Gaiman?
That's a great question and I can't answer it. 😀 I had a book of Cthulhu stories by other authors and I've no idea where it is now - probably in the Oxfam shop several years ago. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Robert E Howard's Conan stories, which although not Cthulhu, share the same sort of feel, with extra fantasy of course. I may be mistaken but I think they were friends or acquaintances?
Anyway, I'm currently reading The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Dreadful, but thankfully it is very short. He seems to have been inspired to write a Godzilla story channelled through The Big Bang Theory.
Just finished Mike Carter's 'All Together Now'. Excellent book IMHO
I had a book of Cthulhu stories by other authors
Maybe Ramsey Campbell? many years ago I was in a band with a bloke who’s dad was an author in the same area - Brian Lumley. Used to recommend authors and Campbell was one.
Anyway, I’m still going on the big fat Can (ahem, Can the band 😂) book, but also got The Revenant (Michael Punke) going for the fiction fix.
I have been working my way thru the lensman series again. Very much of their time but great space opera. Before that it was "Attack surface" by Cory Doctorow which I really enjoyed
I was in a band with a bloke who’s dad was an author in the same area – Brian Lumley.
I've read some of his stuff. Can't remember how good it is though! (I read too much and have the brain of a goldfish!)
I have been working my way thru the lensman series again. Very much of their time but great space opera.
I've got one of the Lensman compilations on my Kindle but haven't got around to it, but keep thinking 'Lensman, what a great name!'
Currently half way through Prophet Song by Paul Lynch - a grim (so far, and I don't think its going to get any brighter) tale of a family's experience in a dystopian Ireland. Its written without speech punctuation which is a bit irritating, but I'm finding it compelling and unsettling.
I've got that on my shelf, ready to read when I feel in the right mood. Seems it's been a fairly popular book round these parts (S Dublin) - 'popular' in that a lot of them have read it, rather than that they actually liked it...
‘popular’ in that a lot of them have read it, rather than that they actually liked it…
Aye....in a few days I'll report back on which category I can fit it in.......
Lee Cragie - Other Ways to Win
and
Andrew O Hagen - Caledonian Road
@creakingdoor ... Going to give the Shardlake series on Disney+ a spin tonight.
Sean Bean as Cromwell 🙂