What fantasy/science fiction book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Post by **Cameraman Jenn** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:27 am

Had the day to myself. Talked on the phone for hours with an old friend from back east. Went back and took a three hour nap. Then I wandered out to Borderlands to get the Martin book. Had an amazing conversation with the gal behind the counter about meiville and so forth. Bought a box of amazing edward gorey kitty cards which I plan to send to my sis and came home and made a fantabulous dinner of pulled pork verde served over cheese grits with a side of sauteed chard. the only thing missing was me inviting lucimay over early enough to still be spontaneous. by the time I thought it, she would have said it was too late. Lucimay, I have monday off, any interest in dinner?

Post by **lucimay** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 8:31 am

why sure!

how's bgb doing? should i wear black?

Post by **ussusimiel** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:10 pm

Bought and started Gardens of the Moon on the strength of Fist's advocacy. Going well. I did read it back in 2000 but wasn't impressed. Bit annoyed by all the magic but liking the potential backstory of Whiskeyjack and obviously the anticipation of the introduction of trueborn dragons!

Interested in the order in which the rest should be read. I'll get back to you when it becomes an issue.

Post by **Vraith** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:31 pm

For some reason I'm re-reading "tommyknockers"...don't know why, I don't really like it.

Luci, I've been meaning to ask forever...I'm 90% sure I recognize that avatar picture, but can't place it...it's almost identical to one of ee cummings, but not a him, of course. [virginia w. and anne sexton keep popping into my head, too].

Post by **ussusimiel** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:39 pm

Vraith wrote:For some reason I'm re-reading "tommyknockers"...don't know why, I don't really like it.

Luci, I've been meaning to ask forever...I'm 90% sure I recognize that avatar picture, but can't place it...it's almost identical to one of ee cummings, but not a him, of course. [virginia w. and anne sexton keep popping into my head, too].

I like the start of that book: 'McCargle Bargle' and some of the drink-fuelled back-story. It gets a bit tedious once the actual plot kicks in. (Although the phrase 'repple-depple' also sticks.)

u.

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 6:24 pm

Finally finished my re-read of A Clash of Kings. Need to decide if A Storm of Swords is next or one of the books I've not read before. Maybe something light to help pace myself.

Post by **Avatar** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:19 am

Vraith wrote:For some reason I'm re-reading "tommyknockers"...don't know why, I don't really like it.

One of my least favourite early King books.

--A

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:20 pm

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu

Post by **lucimay** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:26 am

Vraith wrote:For some reason I'm re-reading "tommyknockers"...don't know why, I don't really like it.

Luci, I've been meaning to ask forever...I'm 90% sure I recognize that avatar picture, but can't place it...it's almost identical to one of ee cummings, but not a him, of course. [virginia w. and anne sexton keep popping into my head, too].

good job! it's anne. my favorite muse. reading anne taught me how to allow myself to say what i wanted to say, to talk about the things i wanted to talk about, and to find beauty (and poetry) in even the most painful moments of my life.

Diplomystus

I come, everyday, to this garden
where the stones sing ancient biographies
and clinging vines grapple
with desirous flower trees.
I always find, in the pond,
one pale fish, turning endlessly
in the murky water of words.
I always hear the wind of your vowels
poured over straight bourbon
and blown through too many Salems.
The sound of your swimming
back and forth calms me.
You have come before me
and hacked a path through the tangle
and purchased the map by which I am to travel.
I cannot shut windows against the sirens,
cannot recusitate and hold you,
cannot ask you to be more alive
than the recorded message you have left me,

so I count the syllables
and meter the lines of my own demons
and dip my fingers in the water
to touch you.

for Anne Sexton, circa 1993

Notes to Sexton, 2005

I'm older than you now, Anne.
odd to think that I might have something to tell you.
The ciggarettes in the plant were a good gesture;
as a mostly life-long smoker,
I can appreciate the finality of it.
Just so you know,
we all talk to our dead,
KL, Dead Rick, Bob Kaufman, Bob Kaufman, Bob Kaufman.
But my dark girls have all shucked their habits, Anne,
They're all busy trying to change something,
the speed of light, the Ph of the native soil,
the nature of the work, the heart of a child,
their lives.
That's why i like 'em.
That's why i'm hear to tell
whoever will listen, and you, Anne,
that there's more after 45.
There is more.
In fact, it seems to get better, and listen,
just between you and me,
I'm really glad you didn't take
any body with you,
wild woman.
Oh yeah, and thanks for the map.

Post by **Vraith** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:15 am

Lady, you don't have to convince me on Sexton. My favorite female [I surely must have said that somewhere before?] and, depending on mood, somewhere between 2 and 4 of favorite no matter sex/gender. Heh...even like things about her, for long time had as sig. a P. Gabriel song excerpt about.....and bio usually bores me.
I have real and serious problems with visuals/facial recognition from photos/film, or I'd have known.
Anyway, finished tommyknockers, it is as bad as I remembered. Starting [do these even count as sf/f? I've read the first and one at least of others before...more like horror with math concepts in it] a series a friend lent me... Brian Lumley vampire [excuse me "Wamphyri!] books...like 10 or 12 of the things, and long, too.

Post by **lucimay** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:13 am

the awful rowing toward god/mercy street.
where you're inside out dreaming of mercy...

ANYways... jenn, i love bellis too. again meiville waxes into his poetics with the descriptive passages but manages to pull most of them off without being overly adverby. (heh) i'm, for whatever reason, much more interested in the characters in The Scar than i was in Perdido Street Station.
decorative. and i guess steampunk baroquely so. (still i like stephenson or gibson better for steampunky and wallace stevens for decorative. just sayin.)

i'm curious if he will pull off satisfying resolutions for the couple or three balls he's got in the air here[the lovers'; shekel, tanner, & angevine; bellis and fennec, etc]. i think the most interesting character of all, thus far, is Tanner.

reminds me of my irish friend Lisa's mother wakin her (she'd only been asleep just a fraction over an hour after a night out with her pals in the pubs)on the mornin she was to fly to the US for the first time. "WAKE UP!" she says as she gives her stinky daugher a shake, "YER IMMIGRATIN'!"
it's Tanner and the chiurgen in the surgery when Tanner wakes up...

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT those of you who intend to read The Scar DO NOT PEEK.

Spoiler

"WAKE UP! YER A FISH!"

Post by **Cameraman Jenn** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:40 am

I'm halfway through A Dance with Dragons. I bought it on Friday.

Post by **danlo** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 2:47 pm

My ADWD should arrive today, if it doesn't by arrive tomorrow I'm taking Strieber's 2012 (War of the Souls) with me to New York. Someone gave it to me, and while it's sort of a doomsday book, I guess, I've read chunks of it here and there and it has some pretty dam funny parts to it. I enjoyed his Communion way back when and the movie, with Christopher Walken is pretty darn freaky.

Post by **aliantha** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 4:04 pm

ADWD. Going slow so I can keep everybody straight.

The Reader version is just over 1000 pages; I'm on p. 209.

Post by **Vader** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:32 pm

Stanislaw Lem - The Star Diaries of Ijon Tikhij.

I read them some 20 years ago and totally forgot how hilariously funny they were.

Post by **Avatar** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:41 am

Never read that one, but have read a couple of his others. Pretty good stuff.

--A

Post by **stonemaybe** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:51 pm

Two thirds through Deadhouse Gates. Didn't enjoy it first time round but loving it this time.

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:14 pm

Finished How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe - very good; an odd, geeky, self-referential novel about a man who gets stuck in a time loop, but also about memory and family and regrets and learning to stop running from them.

Post by **Orlion** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:39 pm

Finished A Game of Thrones, now to focus on Little, Big by John Crowley. It's actually reeeeeeeaaaallllllyyyy good. I had my doubts with the first couple chapters... it took a little getting use to Crowley's style, and if he was being silly or not. At chapter 3, though... holy crap.... I'm almost two hundred pages into the book, should be finished by next week

I'd be interested to hear Ali's opinion on it... or anyone elses', I suppose... it just seems to be an Ali book.... seriously, when you pick it up, just make it to the third chapter. If you don't fall in love with it then, I imagine you can put it down... and seek psychiatric help

Post by **Orlion** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:41 pm

Stonemaybe wrote:Two thirds through Deadhouse Gates. Didn't enjoy it first time round but loving it this time.

I enjoyed Deadhouse Gates about as much as Gardens of the Moon... which is to say quit a bit, but Memories of Ice... that has to be one of my favorite books.

Edit: While I still remember and to avoid triple posting- I'm wondering if I should give China Mieville a chance. My favorite books (as of now) include Titus Groan, Memories of Ice, Against All Things Ending, and Some Do Not.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

What fantasy/science fiction book are you reading RIGHT NOW?