What's Everyone Reading - September 2007 Edition

[Berin Kinsman]

Feeling my way through Chris Roberson's Paragaea. It's supposed to be a "planetary romance" in the style of Barsoom or Flash Gordon. So far, it feels like a history buff's fantasy roleplaying campaign. Two of the lead characters are a Napoleonic-era British Navy officer and a female Cosmonaut from 1964. Apparently, for no reason thus far explained, people and stuff from Earth fall into this world all the time.

There are jaguar-men and bird-men and dog-men and reptile-men and an evil cult and sorcerers and all that stock stuff. Plus, airships. It's a fluffy fun read, and good for idea mining.

[Xose Lucero]

Sounds pretty cool. The only thing I'm reading right now is Great Tales of Terror & the Supernatural, a big old anthology; nothing more recent than Lovecraft. For some reason modern horror just doesn't do it for me but 19th and early 20th Century stuff is delicious. I eat it with a spoon and make num num sounds.

[Berin Kinsman]

It's like Hitchcock films versus modern slasher flicks -- it's about mood and storytelling, and the scary stuff happens off-screen and is left to your imagination. I'm with you there.

[Hank Harwell]

See, I could really get into Hitchcock. Not at all interested in Hostel/Saw/TorturePorn. I agree that the scariest stuff is what you dream up yourself, and not what someone else forces in your face.

[Vulcan Stev]

I'm currently between Clive Cussler novels from the local library. In the meantime I just finished the Ultimate Spider-man Clone saga and am eagerly awaiting Vol 3 of DC's 52.

The Ultimate Clone Saga managed to make the plot-line bearable, readable, and most importantly enjoyable. The original Clone Saga got very cumbersome and long winded. Bendis is probably the one of the best writers currently at Marvel.

[mrmontie]

Been quite busy with all of the students coming back to school. Finished KJ Parker's Devices and Desires. About 800 pages of quite realistic fantasy. no dragons and whatnot.

She's an english author who I'd recommend to anyone that has an interest in medieval type engineering. Her Fencer trilogy was good as well. Shes the type of person that actually builds the catapults and makes the rapiers and bows before or during the writing process, which i can certainly respect.

After that, I needed a bit of fluff for the busy time, so most of the way through Michael Conolley's Trunk Music. I'm generally not one for hard boiled detective type novels, but every now and then they're a nice change of pace. First book of his i've read, and I'd pick up another at half-price or what have you.

A buddy just mailed me copies of Woken Furies (richard morgan's latest Takeshi Kovachs novel) and Getting Stoned with the Savages, the sequel to Troost's travel biopic, Sex Lives of Cannibals. looking forward to both.

[Berin Kinsman]

Okay, I just reached the part in Paragaea where the airship the main characters are on gets attacked by sky pirates riding pterodactyls. If nothing else, the books will get my recommendation just for that.

[Xose Lucero]

What's with all the zeppelins vs. pterodactyls all of a sudden? Is that some overlooked archetype?

[Deidzoeb]

I think the ghost of airships past has made it so that the zeppelin vs pterodactyls meme is catching on very slowly, and might go down in spectacular flames. Or maybe it's just too weird to go mainstream.

[Cameron Goble]

I'm reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's been on my to-read shelf for about five years, recommended highly by a friend, and I finally got to it. Highly enjoyable, great characterization and lots of epic "WTF???" mystery. It feels a bit like the second book in the Rendezvous with Rama series.

[Berin Kinsman]

Speaking of Rama

[Bill V]

Hyperion has to be in my top 10 favorite books, if not the top 5. Why? It is a beautifully constructed, it is set in a (what-I-thinkis) unique universe. It's science fiction but it is also touches on a variety of genres (the "noir"ish detective piece, fr'ex). And... the real reason it is in my top books list: it made me cry.

[mrmontie]

I'll have to give this one another shot. I tried reading it a couple of times many years ago and just couldn't get into it. my tastes have since deversified a bit.

Would any comparison to Frank Herbert be accurate? Seems that I tried a book or two of his around the same time and just couldn't get into those either.