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Thin Places by Kerri Ni Dochartaigh A book about personal problems, mental health, the recent history of Northern Ireland particularly Derry and the the redemptive power of nature. If you're interested in the concept of thin places this book is for you
Have one called The Vorrh up next by Brian Catling – don’t know if anyone has read that here? Rated as a very original book by some so hoping it lives up to its reputation. Writer seems like an interesting man, a sculptor and artist who only started writing novels in his late 50s.
I’ve read it, quite enjoyed it, have read the second one in the trilogy. It’s very dark fantasy.
Currently working my way slowly through The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown. In fact I'm currently working through everything he ever wrote!
Have one called The Vorrh up next by Brian Catling – don’t know if anyone has read that here?
The whole trilogy is very good. His novella Hollow is exceptional - what would it be like to live in a Hieronymous Bosch world?
redthunder
Free Member
Just started…Flashman and the Mountain of Light.
Could (sounds) like fun 🙂
Flashman is pretty reliably good. I got the 12-book set on Kindle a few years back for something like £60, and it was great VFM.
Still working through the second Arkady Martine book here - A Reminiscence of Turkey or something. It's excellent stuff, not dissimilar to Iain M Banks, in that it's sci-fi about space and empires, but fun and funny with it. Really gripping.
And for non-fiction I'm still with Jupiter's Travels - Ted Simon's book of riding a motorbike around the world in the 1970s.
The new Chuck Palahnuik, Not Forever, But for Now. I think that's title, can't even be bothered to check. What a letdown, after all his other brilliant books, I can't wait for it to be over.
So at the same time my Kindle reading is Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy). Funny, cos I found his last book a bit of a letdown too. Blood Meridian is awesome though.
I need to find a new favourite author. 🙁
Just started The Three Body Problem in prep for the new netflix series next year. Only a couple chapters in so far and it's not what I expected.
Oooh yes, The Three Body Problem has been on my to-read list for a couple of years now. Is it good?
Agreed on Cormac McCarthy. I started with the Road and then Blood Meridian and both are absolutely excellent. Then tried Suttree (couldn't finish it), The Orchard Keeper (did finish it but it wasn't great); now I've got the All The Pretty Horses trilogy on the shelf ready to read, and hoping it's more like the first two I read
A couple of chapters into The Nanny State Made Me by Stuart Maconie, and it's making me quite annoyed (with the subject matter, not the author)
However, Family Friendly Dog Training has just dropped through the door, and given this weekend's addition to the IHN household, reading that is the most pressing need...
Agreed on Cormac McCarthy. I started with the Road and then Blood Meridian and both are absolutely excellent. Then tried Suttree (couldn’t finish it), The Orchard Keeper (did finish it but it wasn’t great); now I’ve got the All The Pretty Horses trilogy on the shelf ready to read, and hoping it’s more like the first two I read
Suttree was one of his earlier ones. I finished it but didn’t particularly enjoy it. I could see some of the elements of his later works but it was clear he wasn't really in his stride at that point. AtPH is his magnum opus and for my money one of the great American novels.
I thought 3 body was absolute shite tbf, but, I am in the minority I think. But definitely worth a try. People keep telling me the 3rd one is great though
All The Pretty Horses trilogy on the shelf ready to read
I loved that.
No, it was just his last one - The Passenger that I didn't like - didn't bother with Stella Maris after that.
Arabs And Israelis, by Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman and Khalil Shikaki. Not a comedy, but seems vitally important right now.
Backseat Rider by Laura Massey-Pugh, the stoker half of the couple that broke the round the world tandem record in 2022.
Great book, enough detail and anecdotes without it being too detailed. They are doing talks to promote the book - went to one at a nearby cycling club and liked it so much I'm arranging one for our club.
I'm re-reading my copy of Palestine by Joe Sacco
He also published Footnotes in Gaza which is another excellent read
I thought 3 body was absolute shite tbf, but, I am in the minority I think
nah, I'm with you, I didn't rate it either. The concept sounds cool I guess but maybe the drama was lost in translation. Couldn't wait to finish it, and haven't bothered with the 2nd or 3rd books.
Stephen Donaldson - The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Against all things ending
First started reading these in the mid 80's. The last book in the chronicles wasn't printed until 2013.
Thought it about time I finished them off. Though it has been a struggle at times.
Oooh yes, The Three Body Problem has been on my to-read list for a couple of years now. Is it good?
Even translated from the original Chinese it's still very readable - but I'm only a couple chapters in so no idea where the story will go. There's definitely quirks to the translation you can pick up on that aren't perfect but it's cirtainly interesting.
Netflix series come out in March and I wanted to read it before the TV adaptation so I bumped it up my to-read list.
Lucy Worsley's biography of Agatha Christie. Love many of Christie's stories and have a big crush on Lucy so win-win.
Just finished Red Notice, by an American financier who was one of the first big investors in Russia when they started selling all the state assets. Much more readable that I expected. Goes from a story of investment banking and hedge funds to one about corruption and revenge under Putin.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22609522
Quite emotional at times too.
Now reading The Wolf, about the wolves of Yellowstone. It's quite good, but a bit middle-ground between story telling and science. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41750870
Have also read recently "Wool", the first book in the Silo series. It was OK, but too many aspects of the plot broke the laws of physics and it got annoying. It's set on a future earth too, so can't "alternate universe" away the holes.
And Alex Dowsett's autobiography, "Bloody Minded". Recommended, different to the usual cyclist memoir due to his haemophilia.
Stephen Donaldson – The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant – Against all things ending
Did the first 2 trilogies, tbh not in any great rush to reread them.
Red Notice is top notch, really fascinating and instructive stuff but gripping too
Did the first 2 trilogies, tbh not in any great rush to reread them
I'd like to see what they were like - he improved massively as a writer through his career afaik. The first books have some deep feels and ideas, but undermined with lurid bad writing and melodrama. What's the verdict Keando?
Donaldson set the benchmark for the antihero in fantasy. Like you'll really hate reading about this guy. Before Covenant it was all edgy emo kids like Elric.
I thought 3 body was absolute shite tbf, but, I am in the minority I think
nah, I’m with you, I didn’t rate it either. The concept sounds cool I guess but maybe the drama was lost in translation. Couldn’t wait to finish it, and haven’t bothered with the 2nd or 3rd books.
Same here. I don't necessarily think it was lost in translation, just not a great read.
No, it was just his last one – The Passenger that I didn’t like – didn’t bother with Stella Maris after that.
The Passenger kept me interested enough to read Stella Maris, which was awful. But that's McCarthy - some books are utterly brilliant, some are grim. The Crossing is up there in my favourite books I've ever read, and I recently read and enjoyed Child Of God. (When you can show some sympathy for a rapist serial killer loner in the woods then you know the author is doing a good job. )
The first books have some deep feels and ideas, but undermined with lurid bad writing and melodrama.
There's a name I've not heard in a while. I just remember my brother (coming down off a LOTR high) trying to tell me that the Covenant books were the next greatest things and reading the first one...All the while saying "what the ****" to my myself over and over...Doesn't the first "chronicle" open with a rape? (I seem to remember) The past really is a different place.
There’s a name I’ve not heard in a while. I just remember my brother (coming down off a LOTR high) trying to tell me that the Covenant books were the next greatest things and reading the first one…All the while saying “what the ****” to my myself over and over…Doesn’t the first “chronicle” open with a rape? (I seem to remember) The past really is a different place.
The story is literally about a leper transported to a beautiful land who rapes the first person who is nice to him, then spends the rest of the books refusing to believe any of it is real and generally being a massive downer about it all. Followed up in the second trilogy with another main character who was even more of an energy vacuum on the page (Linden Avery).
BUT they sold millions and connected with a lot of people because basically he's an original writer, with good ideas and powerful (if dislikeable) characters, writing when the whole genre was asphyxiating in the iron grip of formulaic Tolkein cloneware.
Weirdly bad feel for language - he couldn't write a sentence without bolloxing it up with a clumsy adjective. Layer this on to the awkward premise of the books and a lot of people haven't got the time for it, which is fair enough. But I'm pretty sure he improved a lot - I've read the Mordant's Need books z1ppy mentioned and they're solid, substantially better writing.
The Three Body Problem
First book was pretty good. Reasonably original concept kept it going. Worth a read. Not sure it will translate to tv very well.
Second, not so great. Never got into it.
Three Body Problem spoilers...
Thing that killed me isn't just that the bits in the game are bad- though they really are bad- it's that so much of the novel is hung on that game and it makes no sense whatsoever. "OK so you have spent ages playing our terrible and boring VR game, for some reason. But now we unveil ourselves! It is all a genius strategy to recruit people into our pro-alien anti-human conspiracy! Join us!" And he goes, aye, sure and joins them and then instantly betrays them, and apparently nobody has ever said "um, excuse me? That's really stupid, there's nothing about the game that could possible identify people who might join you, let alone stream out the people who'd be absolutely against you and would instantly report this to the authorities. I've spent hundreds of hours playing Total War, it doesn't mean I want to be a ****ing skaven. You people are idiots." We spend like a quarter of the novel going through all that tedious crap and in the end it doesn't even work. I wanted to throw it out the window at that point. It's like recruiting for your ecoterrorist organisation using Final Fantasy 7.
Thing that killed me
[more spoilers] Aliens are coming, but not so fast that I can't get a couple of squeal books written first...The whole thing is a daft concept.[/spoilers]
Currently ploughing through Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, last book in Thomas Cromwell trilogy. I got through the other two ( Wolf Hall and Bring out the Bodies) in no time but I’m struggling to get into this one.
The story is literally about a leper transported to a beautiful land who rapes the first person who is nice to him
Yeah, as "introductions to the hero of this trilogy" its a tough sell..😃
writing when the whole genre was asphyxiating in the iron grip of formulaic Tolkein cloneware.
A reluctant hero is forced to go on a quest/journey with a group of other folks to destroy a powerful baddie who lives in Mount Thunder (the next door address presumably) using a literal ring as a metaphor releasing lava which destroys the baddie...Yep, that's a wildly different take.
BUT they sold millions and connected with a lot of people because basically he’s an original writer, with good ideas and powerful (if dislikeable) characters, writing when the whole genre was asphyxiating in the iron grip of formulaic Tolkein cloneware.
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! 😀
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.