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What are we reading in February?
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dustydigger
Posted 2013-02-16 2:23 PM (#4711)
Subject: What are we reading in February?



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Location: UK		How very odd! people are so busy begging for books to be added to the database that they seem to have forgotten to share their reading with the group!.I was disconcerted to see that no one posted after me on 17th January.I so much enjoy seeing what people are reading,so it was a bit depressing that no-one has shared ther reading for the last month while I was mostly away.Anyway,I will start a Feb thread very late in the day,and look forward to your reads and comments.Especially from all these hundreds of new members.Great to see,but why not join in and double your pleasure. Anyway,I will inaugurate the february post now.Better late than never!

Edited by dustydigger 2013-02-16 2:24 PM
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dustydigger
Posted 2013-02-16 2:33 PM (#4713 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: UK		Just completed Heinlein's Space Cadet,a pretty cute little book about going off to be a Space School student.I'm sure teenage boys back in 1948 were agog,and dreamed of joining.I wanted to myself! lol.Loved the little detail of the hero getting a phone call,and casually fishing his phone out of his bag.Obviously a mobile!
I am having a great time working my way through the juveniles.Heinlein wrote a dozen,then the company wouldnt accept Starship Troopers so he left that publisher.
So here is my ''Filling the Gaps'' ongoing project;

Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947
Space Cadet, 1948 ✔
Red Planet, 1949 ✔
Between Planets, 1951
The Rolling Stones aka Space Family Stone, 1952
Farmer in the Sky, 1953
Starman Jones, 1953 ✔
The Star Beast, 1954✔
Tunnel in the Sky, 1955 ✔
Time for the Stars, 1956
Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957 ✔
Have Space SuitWill Travel, 1958
----------
Podkayne of Mars1963

Heinlein himself didnt look at Podkayne as a juvenile,but many readers do.
Space Cadet has one of those space vehicles with fins,and three tripod like poles.Just what I always worry about,it landed on soft ground and fell over! lol.I think this is the only example I've see of this problem.Good old Heinlein!

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dustydigger
Posted 2013-02-16 2:34 PM (#4714 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: UK		Just finished Ian M Banks The Player of Games,where a brilliant master gameplayer and strategist is manoeuvred into traveling to a distant cruel empire which has a fiendishly difficult game that is used to decide peoples social and professional positions.The winner will become Emperor.The player must pit himself against people who mock,blackmail and almost kill him,and in the end it comes down to a clash of cultures and philosophy.Intriguing and enjoyable
Also read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland,where three early 20th century men discover a land of women and female children.For 2000 years they have built up a fair and rational society,reproducing by parthogenesis.Starts off fun,with lots of humour as the hapless men,one a predatory womaniser,one a Sir Galahd type who sets women on pedastals to pamper and worship,because after all they are the weaker sex,and the narrator who is a sociologist and comes nearest to seeing the women as people.The humour leavens some of the stodgy explanations of society,but not fully.
Gilman's ideas on what women can achieve are interesting,as are her ideas on the education and upbringing of children so as to bring out their full potential.The whole book is imbued with the idea of the perfectability of women and society,that we can progress and improve.Gilman is therefore a product of her times.A half century of improvements in health, education,technology and so on,had led to a sense that progress was inevitable.Sadly the horrific history of the 20th century where the seemingly most advanced nations could lapse into insane barbarity and cruelty has made that utopian dream a complete non starter.Utopias as a whole are not popular,unless they are mainly technological etc.
All in all,an interesting read,but Utopias,by their very perfection,can be rather boring to read about it! lol

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dustydigger
Posted 2013-02-16 2:36 PM (#4715 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: UK		I finished Wells The Island of Dr Moreau.I found his ''youthful blasphemy'' as he himself termed it,fascinating and quite a bit of a shocker.,on the verge of being a horror book.All sorts of interesting themes ,such as scientific ethics,just what is humanity,our relationship to the natural world and more.All wrapped up in a cracking adventure story.Dr Moreau was repulsive but fascinating.Wells's victorian readers would have just found him an over the top evil villain,but sadly we had a real life Doctor Moreau in Dr Mengele in Nazi Germany,so it comes closer to home.Certainly Dr Moreau makes Victor Frankenstein look like a weak pussy cat by comparison. It was a brilliant stroke to make the narrator not some upright goody goody hero type,but a vacillating,pusillanimous self obsessed whiner.Good stuff!
Also read Heinlein's Double Star,about an actor who has to impersonate a politician on Mars so as to bring Martians peacefully into the federation.Pity there was so much politics and only a smidgen of seeing the Martians,but that is typical Heinlein,isnt it?
Still slowly working my way through Le Guin's The Dispossessed.I find her writing very dispassionate and dry.I like the protagonist Shevek,but am not so enthused with all the political stuf,.it doesnt interest me at all.Its turned out to be a ''read ten pages then leave it for a while'' book,I'm afraid. Still over 150 pages to read,so it will take the rest of the month to get through.
I still have Clarke's A Fall of Moondust,Henry James The Turn of the Screw,and at least a few of Poe's short stories to get through this month.
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Scott Laz
Posted 2013-02-16 5:02 PM (#4717 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: RE: What are we reading in February?



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Hi, Dusty. Lots of good stuff going there. Moreau is my favorite by Wells! If you didn't see it, here's my take on Herland, which is pretty similar to yours: 

 http://blog.worldswithoutend.com/2013/01/forays-into-fantasy-charlotte-perkins-gilmans-herland/

I read William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land this month (post forthcoming!), and am now into The Rapparee (aka Five Gold Bands aka The Space Pirate) by Jack Vance, an early (1951) novel that involves a treasure hunt on a series of alien planets--minor Vance but great fun!

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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-02-16 9:57 PM (#4718 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Moving my way slowly through "Olympos" (it's a very long book). My February WoGF is 'The Testament of Jessie Lamb" which I'm hoping to get to in February if I ever get done with Dan Simmons.
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pauljames
Posted 2013-02-17 4:56 AM (#4719 - in reply to #4718)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: scotland		Currently reading The City and The City by China Mieville, 100 pages in and I am gripped. Also in February I finished reading What The Night Knows by Dean Koontz a fairly easy read but with a gruesome serial killer storyline. I have now read 52 Dean Koontz novels and must get round to suggesting more to be added to the site and then start putting in reviews.
I read The Dispossessed last year and found it quite hard to read, but was surprised when I finished it at the fact the I would definitely like to re-read it at sometime. Invariably the best novels may take more than one read to fully understand them.
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guy
Posted 2013-02-17 12:42 PM (#4720 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Currently on book five of Randolph Lalonde's Spinward Fringe series. Will be sad when I've finished them. Also on third book of Peter Hamilton's The Night's Dawn trilogy. That'll get me through till March I think.
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DrNefario
Posted 2013-02-17 2:07 PM (#4721 - in reply to #4720)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: UK		I really liked The Dispossessed, having not really got on with Left Hand of Darkness. Maybe it's all down to your frame of mind going in?

In February, so far, I have read:

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein. I genuinely despised this book, enough that, after all these years, I wondered if science fiction and me were really made for each other after all. It starts off okay, but by the end it's an awful, smug, sexist, self-satisfied sexual fantasy (and even on that level it's a miss with me). I really don't understand what anyone sees in it. I'm glad I've crossed it off my Hugo list, and don't intend to read any more later "bad" Heinlein.

The Adamantine Palace - Stephen Deas. I fancied a bit of fun with dragons after that, and this was just the thing. I had the good fortune to win the second and third books in this series from the author last year, and finally got around to buying and reading the first. It's full of political manoeuvring, affairs, betrayals, poisonings and all sorts of fun stuff like that. I'm very keen to see where it goes next, but I like to make myself wait.

A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute. Not genre at all, but it came up as a book club selection over at mobileread, and since I have a full set of Shute I inherited from my father, I thought I'd join in. I finished it yesterday, and enjoyed it.

And I've just started The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell as this month's WoGF selection. I seem to have picked one of my longer books, for the shortest month, and it's touch and go whether ill finish it before March.

Edited by DrNefario 2013-02-17 2:09 PM
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-02-17 8:45 PM (#4723 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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The Dispossessed is my favorite Le Guin. I think it's her masterpiece. Writing a engrossing political novel is a rare, rare skill.

I read Stranger in a Strange Land many years ago and not too long after the end of the Hippie Era. It was of course a cult classic of that era. There again, in hindsight, one could characterize the Hippie Era as a smug, sexist, self-satisified sexual fantasy.
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theman
Posted 2013-02-18 11:32 PM (#4730 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: Virginia		Keeping open three to five books at once, here is February's log:

Read A Memory of Light.
Reread the Earthsea Trilogy.
Reading A feast for Crows, Something Wicked Comes this Way.
Rereading the Once and Future King.



Edited by theman 2013-02-18 11:34 PM
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DrNefario
Posted 2013-02-25 7:23 AM (#4744 - in reply to #4721)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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DrNefario - 2013-02-17 8:07 PM

And I've just started The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell as this month's WoGF selection. I seem to have picked one of my longer books, for the shortest month, and it's touch and go whether ill finish it before March.
100 pages to go, and there are only 4 days left this month. I should make it, but it might be tricky to get the review done.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-02-25 10:43 AM (#4748 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Finished The Testament of Jessie Lamb for February's WoGFC and started on Quicksilver. The System of the World is the only Locus SF award winner I haven't read so only two doorstops to go before I can read that one.
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Scott Laz
Posted 2013-02-25 2:59 PM (#4753 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: Gunnison, Colorado		Not much time to read this month. Finished Jack Vance's The Raparee and PKD's Radio Free Albemuth (better even than I'd remembered). Now it's comics and short stories--the fourth issue of Arc (still going strong at the end of it's first year--stories by Nancy Kress, Robert Reed, Bruce Sterling, etc., in this one), the November 1959 issue of If, and some early Vance.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-02-26 11:26 PM (#4765 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Polished off Lester del Ray's "Police Your Planet", del Ray was the only Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master I had not read.
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DrNefario
Posted 2013-02-28 7:50 AM (#4777 - in reply to #4744)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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DrNefario - 2013-02-25 1:23 PM

DrNefario - 2013-02-17 8:07 PM

And I've just started The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell as this month's WoGF selection. I seem to have picked one of my longer books, for the shortest month, and it's touch and go whether ill finish it before March.
100 pages to go, and there are only 4 days left this month. I should make it, but it might be tricky to get the review done.

I made it. Finished it yesterday, and liked it.

I kind of wanted to get started on another Hugo winner next, but none of the ones I have left felt like enough of a change after The Sparrow, so I decided to go straight into another WoGF book - Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey - which is a fantasy and thus provides enough contrast with the SF book I've just finished.

I didn't realise until I picked it up that it was 900 pages. It doesn't even look that thick. It must be printed on tissue paper. That might well be March accounted for already.
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dustydigger
Posted 2013-03-07 3:38 PM (#4802 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: UK		Oops,sorry,havent been around,,no less than three family birthday shindigs recently ,so i have a lot of posts to answer.So,in order;
@Scott Laz - I did see, and enjoyed ,your Herland article,and intended to thank you for it,but real life got in the way,as it so rudely tends to do.I still havent read any Jack Vance,my library doesnt have his works,but some day I hope to get to him,plus the other 8 Grand Masters I havent yet sampled.Maybe next year.
I have W H Hodgsons The House on the Borderlands on my list for next month. Have you read it?

@pauljames.hi Paul,I read The City and the City a couple of months ago,and it was intriguing and exciting.Read Kraken not long before that,and the less said the better.I felt totally let down by the end.Got Embassytown next in Mieville's oeuvre,and am hoping I like it,not too sure about it at all.As for Dean Koontz,I have probably read over 20 of his books,but mostly the early stuff,which I read back in the 80s.Didnt like much of his later stuff.My favourites were Fear Nothing and Seize the Night.

@justified sinner - Ursula LeGuin - The Dispossessed. Oh wow!.I had quite a turn around when I finished this book.What seemed to start as a rather dry dissertation on the relative merits of capatalist versus anarchist societies,which I was eager to rush through just to enjoy the more personal bits about an attractive and likeable protagonist only fell into place as a complete story 8 pages from the end,where we see that that likeable hero could be totally ruthless in his goals,and became the most anarchical man in the universe.Pleasant little flashbacks presumably to illustrate the different societies now showed up as the lifelong tempering of the hero Shevek to get him ready for this journey he makes to the planet below his moon.
It was rather like shaking a kaleidoscope and producing a whole new picture.I felt a bit like those people who went to watch The Sixth Sense,and they had their whole perception of the film changed at the ending.Many people went back to watch it again with their new awareness,and I may have to reread this book to fully assimilate it in the same way.
LeGuin used great skill in subtlely developing the book,interweaving what is actually two timelines,not a few flashbacks.We are coming into the story halfway through,and the climax in time terms has already occurred,as Shevek makes his plans for the future,though we dont know this till right at the end.A revelation.Its so good to have revelations
Oh dear ,I am NOT expecting revelations with Heinleins Stranger in a Strange Land. I think I pretty much was a rather hippie - ish girl back then in the 60s,you know,walked around in bare feet,carting LOTR rings around under one arm,but SISL had me cringing even then,and I couldnt bear to read it,gave up after about 80 pages.I felt if I heard the word ''grok'' one more time,I would scream,so bye bye Michael Valentine Smith.Unfortunately this book is on one of my challenges this year,so I started yesterday,and,after 30 pages I am already saying well eat him already!.I am going to read one chapter a day,like medicine.,like I did with Gabriel Garcia Marquez 100 Years of Solitude. Nuff said.Oh well,at least it isnt about Lazarus Long
I read Police Your Planet,for the GMRC,and I thought it was great fun,hardboiled detectives in space.I thought the knockabout (literally!) romance was hilarious,but I have a member of my shelfari SF group who would foam at the mouth.She was ranting the other day when we all were listing our top 10 favourites that we had predominantly male authors,and it was a disgrace,so Del Ray's book would probably give her apoplexy!

@Dr.Nefario - Hooray,another person who cant stand SISL.And the same person likes Neville Shute.I enjoy his books.The heroes are just quietly brave men who get on with facing whatever comes up without fuss or self pity.I recently read and enjoyed his Trustee From the Toolroom,dated but enjoyable.Not so many people know him now,but you can always be sure of an enjoyable read - well,perhaps enjoyable isnt the word for On The Beach,but you know what I mean

@ Rhonda - just in case you pop in here,thank you for the blog article about the old weird fiction detectives.I have always meant to read Notting Hill Murder,just o fill the gaps in my ignorance....hmm,more gaps than substance in my case.I read Sheridan Lefanu's In a Glass Darkly last month,and loved a revisit to Green Tea,and Carmilla was new to me.and very interesting.I also completed a reread of Poe's most famous stories.Gloomy doom ridden crumbling mansions,beautiful young women dying,and often terrifyingly returning,melancholy young men enamoured of ancient dangerous knowledge.You know,typical cheerful Poe.Particularly gripping favourites,The Black Cat,The Tell-Tale Heart,Fall of the House of Usher,Masque of the Red Death.And boy,isnt Poe inordinately fond of people being prematurely buried alive? Good Gothic fun.
Next up,Lovecraft and Machen





Edited by dustydigger 2013-03-07 3:43 PM
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Scott Laz
Posted 2013-03-07 4:19 PM (#4803 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: RE: What are we reading in February?



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@dusty: Well, you set me up for another opportunity to plug the blog:

http://blog.worldswithoutend.com/2012/03/forays-into-fantasy-the-house-on-the-borderland-by-william-hope-hodgson/


Having now read The Night Land as well, House on the Borderland is definitely the place to start with Hodgson!

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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-03-07 5:03 PM (#4804 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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@dusty - Yeah, I do think The Dispossessed is Le Guin's masterpiece.

But it's March already! So a new thread.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2013-03-08 12:32 PM (#4807 - in reply to #4802)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Hey Dusty,

My Old Weird blog on Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly is already in Dave's inbox. He will add it after a few more WoGF reviews. I will be interested to hear what you think of it. My favorite story was "The Room in the Dragon Volant," if that is the correct title. 

 You should certainly read the Notting Hill Mystery. It is very well constructed. 

 My next blog after Le Fanu will probably be on Robert W. Chambers, but one on Machen will probably be soon after that. 

 Happy Reading

Rhonda 

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dustydigger
Posted 2013-03-09 3:44 AM (#4812 - in reply to #4711)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in February?



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Location: UK		@ Scott - Thanks for the blog link,this was several months before I joined.Borderlands sounds nice and creepy!

@ Rhonda - Yes,Dragon Volant was interesting.The young man's naivete and the fact that he was being conned were glaringly obvious,thought he hidden keyhole and passage were fun.It was a truly unsettling scene when he was paralysed and they put him in the coffin,but the rest of the story was just a mystery really.

@ justified sinner - thank you for setting up the new thread for me,I am so far behind this month.And my son is staying with me,and he hogs the computer.He even takes it to bed with him,and doesnt come down till about midday! lol.I had the computer a princely 40 minutes last night,and I have it for 20 minutes now.Probably it will be Sunday or Monday before I post this months reads.
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