Karsa Orlong Posted February 10, 2012 Author Share Posted February 10, 2012 Grass by Sheri S. Tepper From Amazon: "What could be more commonplace than grass, or a world covered over all its surface with a wind-whipped ocean of grass? But the planet Grass conceals horrifying secrets within its endless pastures. And as an incurable plague attacks all inhabited planets but this one, the prairie-like Grass begins to reveal these secrets -- and nothing will ever be the same again . . ." Overall I enjoyed this book, but it's not without its problems. In some ways it reminded me of Frank Herbert's magnificent Dune: instead of sand there's grass, you have the great houses (bons in this case), instead of sandworms you've got another type of creature (which I won't go into detail about, because it's a slowly uncovered mystery in the book), instead of the Fremen you have another mystical race, instead of being addicted to Spice the characters have another addiction ... Even Tepper's writing style is similar to Herbert's, switching between multiple viewpoints within the same body of text without section breaks (which can get confusing if you're not concentrating). I'm being a bit unfair to it but, now I think about it, the comparisons are blindingly obvious. And, quite frankly, it's nowhere near as good as Dune. That's not to say it's bad, though. It's probably 150 pages too long, but when the story does move it is quite engrossing. Once I hit the 300-page mark I thought it was building up to a really exciting climax. Unfortunately there was still over 200 pages to go, and there is some downtime that seemed to me to interrupt the pacing. Perhaps the best thing about the book is the heroine, Marjorie. More than anything, I felt the book was about her journey, from being trapped in a loveless marriage, with a husband who openly cheats on her, to taking on and leading the fightback on Grass and the search for a cure to the plague. Rigo, her husband, is a character full of anger and jealousy and selfishness - he had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and I couldn't help feeling that Tepper was perhaps working out some issues with him. Another character, Rillibee, is probably the most sympathetic character in the book, and I found his journey equally as interesting as Marjorie's. The big mystery itself turns out not to be quite as big as it wants to be, and it does require a quite frustrating deus ex machina ending to work it all out. But don't let me put you off. If you fancy a science fiction novel with a strong leading female character, you may enjoy this. 7/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 10, 2012 Author Share Posted February 10, 2012 (edited) Help! I really can't decide what to read next. I've narrowed it down to: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga and I've just had Replay by Ken Grimwood (great name!) turn up in the post, and it sounds fab. Mwaaaah! Edit: Decided to go with Lord of Light ... Edited February 10, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I haven't read any Roger Zelazny except the Chronicles of Amber, so I look forward to hearing what you think of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 I'm nearly there, Ooshie - shall probably finish it today Just picked up Chronicles of Amber off Amazon Marketplace for 1p - plus £2.80 postage, which always makes me laugh for some reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelley.s Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 I'm nearly there, Ooshie - shall probably finish it today Just picked up Chronicles of Amber off Amazon Marketplace for 1p - plus £2.80 postage, which always makes me laugh for some reason Always love a good bargain happy reading! My copy of The Night Circus came today, so excited to get reading tonight, ive actually had withdrawals these past two days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 I'm nearly there, Ooshie - shall probably finish it today Just picked up Chronicles of Amber off Amazon Marketplace for 1p - plus £2.80 postage, which always makes me laugh for some reason Hey, that is a good deal! But you're right, it feels very strange to pay so much for postage for a book costing 1p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Always love a good bargain happy reading! Hehe, you too, Shelley I can't imagine not having my next read already on-hand when I finish a book. That must take some willpower Hey, that is a good deal! But you're right, it feels very strange to pay so much for postage for a book costing 1p Yeah, they should just say it's £2.81 and be done with it It did occur to me that, seeing as I tend to clear books off the shelf quite regularly and give them to charity (as I did this past weekend) that buying brand new paperbacks might be a bit of a waste, unless it's a series or author I collect, so maybe second-hand is the way I should go, I dunno. I only tend to buy paperbacks if the book isn't available for Kindle these days, though, or if it's got maps in it - which a lot of the books I read tend to have! I always complain when I get a fantasy novel that doesn't have at least one map and a ten page dramatis personae at the start of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny "His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then he never claimed not to be a god." There's a quote from George R.R. Martin on the cover of this book. It says, quite boldly I think, that it is "one of the five best sf novels ever written". This probably explains why Martin is taking so long to finish his 'Song of Ice and Fire' series, if he's got time on his hands to read every singly science fiction novel out there so that he can justify making that statement. Of course, it becomes apparent in Martin's afterword that he and Zelazny were great friends until the latter's untimely passing in 1995, so maybe you can forgive him a little bias. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Lord of Light. This is the first Zelazny novel I've read, so I had no clue whether I'd like his writing style, and I deliberately found out as little as possible about the story beforehand cos I like to discover these things for myself. I knew that the Hindu gods were involved but that was about all. When I started it I thought immediately that I wasn't going to like it much. The first chapter is one of the most bewildering things I've ever read. I had to keep reading and re-reading bits to try and make some sense of it (people who find Steven Erikson hard going should try this first chapter, seriously). I got there in the end. Some of it still made no sense to me, but I got the basic idea. I still thought I wasn't going to like it, and even thought it might be one of the rare books that I didn't finish. So what happened after that was a bit of a surprise. The second chapter is one of the most awesome chapters in any book I can remember reading for a long time, and it maintains that level for much of the rest of the book. There's the occasional dip but nothing that breaks the pace too much. The story is one of those that starts at the end, and then goes back in time to tell how the characters reached that point in time. I don't want to spoil it too much, because working out what was going on was part of the fun for me. If I'd known the following it would have made things a bit clearer in the first chapter so, if you'd rather not know, skip the next paragraph. Far in the future mankind has colonised an alien world. They travelled there on a generation spaceship called The Star of India. The crew decided to keep the technology they took with them to themselves, casting the passengers out to start from scratch. The result is that now, hundreds of years later, a medieval society has grown and the crew have taken on the guises of Hindu gods, using technology to give them powers. This technology has also made the transferring of souls from one body to another possible, resulting in near immortality. Again, the 'gods' have taken this under their control, and dictate who is entitled to it. They have also used drugs to enhance and alter their brains, again resulting in extraordinary powers. Mahasamatman - Sam, or Buddha - is an 'accelerationist', who wants to give the technology back to the people, and leads a revolt against Heaven. The really clever thing that Zelazny did, I think, is that he walks a very fine line between science fiction and fantasy. He leaves the reader to figure out the powers he's describing. For instance, in one sequence a god is fighting demons (I won't explain that, it's another one of those aspects of the book I really liked) with fire and, although Zelazny writes it in such a way that it seems like some magical power it's fairly obvious that the person is actually using some kind of futuristic flamethrower. But this is how the technology is explained throughout the book - as powers used by the gods - and it worked for me brilliantly. And then there's the pun. Apparently, it's one of the most famous puns in science fiction. He spends several pages building up to it, and it's indicative of Zelazny's clever wordplay and mischievous sense of humour that he gives over that much time just to get that pun into the story. Is it cringe-inducing? Yeah, probably, but I didn't even notice it until I read about it afterwards, which maybe says more about me than the book - I had to go back and re-read it afterwards There's also a scene where two characters are talking to each other in a hall of mirrors that made me chuckle Anyway, the fact that I've waffled on about Lord of Light for so long shows how much I enjoyed it. Is it one of the five best science fiction novels ever written? I don't know. Unlike George R.R. Martin, I haven't read every single sf book out there in order to make the comparison. It is, though, one of the most brilliantly constructed and told stories I've read in the genre for a while - despite that first chapter - and I'm sure there are still multiple layers to it that I haven't even figured out yet. It's not a book that will be going to the charity shop anytime soon. 9/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Hi Steve good review! I have read 4 of Zelazny's books and they can be a bit bewildering at the beginning but make sense later. That taking a happening and then going back and looking at events leading up to it- that is a trademark he does it also in Doorways In The Sand. He does Egyptian Gods in Creatures Of Light And Darkness. Wouldn't be surprised if someone got the idea for Stargate from that book. My Fave is Isle Of The Dead. That is fairly straight Sci-Fi. Guy living for ever through time dilation makes quite a lot of enemies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Thanks James I''ve been reading about Creatures of Light and Darkness over on the SFF forums (have you looked there, there's a thread dedicated to Jack Vance ...). Sounds good. Shall have to look up Isle of the Dead, too. I've got the first five Amber books on the way (in one volume), but I'll hold off reading any of those until I've finished the Dying Earth books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Wow. I'm going to have to read more Zelazny now, amn't I?! Onto my wishlist it goes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Glad I could help, Ooshie Grendel by John Gardner Just the idea of this book made me jump in and buy it without a second thought. It is the first part of the epic poem Beowulf re-told from the monster's point of view. Basically, between his nighttime raids on King Hrothgar's meadhall, it is about Grendel pondering the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Some of this, particularly the scene about halfway through involving the dragon, left me cold, mainly because some of the language and ideas were presented in a way that didn't seem to fit in with the time and place in the story. This was quite deliberate on Gardner's part (the dragon, for instance, lives throughout time, and so talks about philosophies from the present day, which left Grendel - and me - quite bemused). It's quite crucial, though, because the story is about Grendel's search for his place in the world and it's told with a suitably dark sense of humour, and is quite sad at times. Grendel is a tragic character who, in trying to befriend the humans of Hrothgar's hall, is attacked for his ugliness and his inability to communicate with them. It starts with him as a youngster and follows him as he grows, and tells of the history of Hrothgar and his people, as Grendel watches them from the shadows. Beowulf is only a minor character, and I don't think he was even named - although you know full well that it's him. Naturally, this book only tells of Grendel's encounter with him, and does not go on to tell about his battle with Grendel's mother or the dragon. If nothing else, this book has reminded me that I really want to read the original epic, so it's really now just a question of which translation I get. 7/10 One of my mates bought me Craig Thompson's Habibi for my birthday, so I'm going to have a look at that next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) Habibi by Craig Thompson This is the first graphic novel I’ve read in many years. It’s presented in a sumptuous, gold-and-red embossed 670-page hardback book which is beautiful to look at and to hold. I’ll have to see if I can post a photo of it. The story, set in a fictitious middle-eastern country, is that of a young girl, Dodola, whose desperate father sells her to a scribe to be his wife. As events would have it, the scribe is later murdered and Dodola is taken and thrust into a life of slavery, where she finds and meets a young boy she calls Zam. The story is quite simple: it’s a love story – about unconditional love, at that – but it touches on and deals with so many pertinent issues that it becomes quite difficult to describe. Race and racism, religion and faith, sex and sexism, language, industrialisation, guilt and redemption. Above all else, it is about storytelling, beginning when Dodola tells Zam bedtime stories. These stories are usually lifted from the Koran or the Bible, illustrating the similarities between them. I don’t claim to know much about either, so can’t really judge, but I did feel that I was gaining quite a bit of information from these passages. It doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects, either. Bearing in mind that Dodola escapes from slavery into hiding, and there sells her body to pay for food to feed young Zam, there is a lot of sex, nudity, and violence within its pages. The men within the story are almost all completely unpleasant pigs. In fact, apart from one fisherman, the only 'male' characters who are presented with any sympathy are the eunuchs. It definitely won’t be for everyone. Coupled with the myriad of subjects it covers, it’s a lot to deal with, and I do find myself wondering if it tries to do just a little bit too much and if, in trying to be ‘adult’, it actually bludgeons some of its points across in a more childish fashion. Even the humour is confusing: when one character is accompanied by a ‘fart cloud’ every single time he appears you have to wonder if Thompson was really certain of the audience he was aiming at. The narrative structure is brilliant, darting back and forth to different points in Dodola and Zam's story, gradually filling in the gaps until it all falls into place by the end. The artwork is stunning throughout. Crowd scenes and architecture, in particular, benefit from huge amounts of detail. It’s the aforementioned religious stories that stand-out above all, though, with gorgeous illustrations and calligraphy. The final pages, where the meaning of ‘Habibi’ is finally revealed, are quite moving. For the artwork and presentation alone I would give it a 10, it’s just a shame that its content is so confused, and that side would probably get a 6 or a 7. So I’ll settle for … 8/10 Edited February 18, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Summer Knight (Dresden Files book 4) by Jim Butcher Poor Harry, he's a bit down in the dumps at the start of this one. He finds himself pretty much responsible for starting a war between the Red Court of the vampires and the wizards' White Council, plus his girlfriend has been infected by the vampires and just one taste of human blood will put her over the edge. So not surprising that he's wallowing in self-pity really. Now the vampires have a contract out on him and the White Council - fearing the coming war - are ready to sacrifice him to save their own necks. So it doesn't really help when Mab, the Winter Queen, turns up and tells him that she's bought his 'debt' from his godmother, Leanansidhe, and basically owns his ass. She promises to release him from this debt if he'll carry out three favours for her, the first of which is to clear her of the murder of the Summer Knight. Light streaked from the candle into the crystal in a glowing stream and sprang up out of the crystal again in a large cone stretching up above the stage, several yards across at the top. Within the cone of light appeared a spinning globe of the Earth, its continents vaguely misshapen, like something drawn from a couple of centuries past. A murmur ran through the room, and Bluebeard, at my table, mutter in Latin, 'Impressive.' 'Bah,' I said in English. 'He stole that from Return of the Jedi.' This all makes for another enjoyable Dresden adventure, full of the usual sardonic wit, twists and turns and plenty of action. It doesn't quite hold the tension that the previous novel, Grave Peril, did, and that's maybe because it seems like a pause for thought before the series gets back to the main plot, a bit of light fluff before things get dark again. This one's all about Dresden proving himself to the White Council so that they don't throw him to the lions - or vampires, in this case. It moves at a fairly breakneck pace, which helps a lot, and it really doesn't overstay its welcome, plus it brings back the Alphas, which is good, and involves Murphy a lot more heavily, which is also good. Last year I would've given this an 8, but I'm being a meanie this year, plus I'm told that the series gets better and better from here on out, so I have to leave somewhere for the scores to go! 7/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Gaaagh! Just had to buy the next Dresden book, Death Masks. Just when I think I'm reducing the TBR pile a bit ... Now starting Phil Rickman's first Merrily Watkins mystery, The Wine of Angels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Oh dear, my wishlist seems to have started to grow rather quickly You want to know how to make it shorter? Buy a few books from the list. Ive got a strict criterea for my list haha. So far it has worked though, out of 6 books last month 5 were really really good and one was a load of poop I want to hear more about this strict criteria! Info needed badly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickle Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Gaaagh! Just had to buy the next Dresden book, Death Masks. Just when I think I'm reducing the TBR pile a bit ... Now starting Phil Rickman's first Merrily Watkins mystery, The Wine of Angels Enjoy and enjoy have read both, just debating whether to get the last Dresden book as one of many I ma taking on my hols...I love my Kindle now it doesn't matter how many I take Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 You want to know how to make it shorter? Buy a few books from the list. Oh alright then ... I want to hear more about this strict criteria! Info needed badly. It's something about only buying another book after you've finished the previous one. Madness. Enjoy and enjoy have read both, just debating whether to get the last Dresden book as one of many I ma taking on my hols...I love my Kindle now it doesn't matter how many I take Are you going on holiday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 It's something about only buying another book after you've finished the previous one. Madness. What? That's not criteria, that's ... something completely different and it's scaring me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 What? That's not criteria, that's ... something completely different and it's scaring me Oh yeah, you're right, Frankie - my mistake, that's not criteria, it's something called, er, willpower? At the moment, I'm on Plan C, otherwise known as "see book, buy book". I don't have criteria. Or willpower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Oh yeah, you're right, Frankie - my mistake, that's not criteria, it's something called, er, willpower? At the moment, I'm on Plan C, otherwise known as "see book, buy book". I don't have criteria. Or willpower. The last time I spoke to you you were doing your darndest to steer clear from Plan C Wow, I guess I should try the lottery this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 The last time I spoke to you you were doing your darndest to steer clear from Plan C Yeah, and I'm achieving that by staying away from Waterstones, Forbidden Planet, Smiths etc etc, the theory being that if I don't actually see the books then I won't buy them. So I bought two for my Kindle yesterday instead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Yeah, and I'm achieving that by staying away from Waterstones, Forbidden Planet, Smiths etc etc, the theory being that if I don't actually see the books then I won't buy them. So I bought two for my Kindle yesterday instead What if I start posting images of book covers on this thread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 What if I start posting images of book covers on this thread? Are they science fiction? Oh look, I do have criteria after all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Are they science fiction? Oh look, I do have criteria after all If I say they are, would you double-check? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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