Better late than never, I suppose. Forty-one books read this month. Mostly a list and not a commentary, alas.
294 Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker (reviewed here)
295 Walter Tevis, Mockingbird (reviewed on the SFF Masterworks blog)
296 William Morris, The Well at the World's End (seminal fantasy, but dry at times)
297 Michael Moorcock, Gloriana (reviewed on the SFF Masterworks blog)
298 Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris (nice appreciation of books read. Thanks to Fábio Fernandes for recommending it to me)
299 Patricia McKillip, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (reviewed on the SFF Masterworks blog)
300 Brian Aldiss, Helliconia (reviewed on the SFF Masterworks blog)
301 Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions (reviewed on the SFF Masterworks blog)
302 Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man (OK to decent read)
303 Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic (interesting premise, but the story didn't impress me that much)
304 Joe Halderman, The Forever War (someday, I will re-read and review this. Very good work)
305 Larry Niven, Ringworld (OK, but nothing all that great about it)
306 Jack London, The Scarlet Plague (excellent story of a mass near-extinction of humans)
307 John Crowley, The Solitudes (one day I'll write an appreciation of the Ægypt Cycle books)
308 George Meredith, The Shaving of Shagpat (excellent 19th century oriental fantasy)
309 Hernán Rivera Letelier, El arte de la resurrección (Spanish; fairly good work)
310 Darin Bradley, Noise (good debut effort, but not among the best 2010 debuts I've read so far this year)
311 Gail Carriger, Blameless (good, but at times I wonder if she's beginning to repeat herself)
312 Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (very good debut effort. Moving)
313 Lord Dunsany, At the Edge of the World (nice 1970s collection of some of his earlier short stories)
314 John Crowley, Love & Sleep (see earlier comment)
315 Reza Negarestani, Cyclonopedia (I really ought to do a review sometime, but a re-read is in order first. Outstanding on the initial read)
316 John Crowley, Dæmonomania (see earlier comment)
317 John Crowley, Endless Things (see earlier comment)
318 Sam Sykes, Tome of the Undergates (oil and water here. I think some would enjoy this debut more than I did. Just not the sort of adventure/quest I was in the mood to read, with me never really being able to engage with the prose, characters, situations, setting, etc. Maybe next time. Maybe)
319 Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down (good poli-sci book on contemporary problems, revolving around energy/resource usage)
320 Grace Krilanovich, The Orange Eats Creeps (three lit creeps have already eaten this orange, I believe)
321 Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (eds.), Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded (full review in early November. I have a hot/cold relationship with steampunk fictions and that was evident in reading this anthology)
322 Miguel de Unamuno, Niebla (Spanish; good early Modernist work)
323 William Beckford, Vathek (now one of my favorite oriental fantasies)
324 John Ajvide Lindqvist, Handling the Undead (an undead/zombie story that I actually loved! Might need to write a full review of this sometime soon)
325 Hannes Bok, The Sorcerer's Ship (some good descriptions, marred by a sometimes flat storytelling style)
326 Katherine Kurtz, Deryni Rising (her debut book, and its Welsh/Celtic storyline was executed well)
327 Lucius Shepard, Viator (Shepard writes damn good stories, ya know?)
328 Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month (prose, poetry, honey tasting all blended into one odd but delightful stories that deserve to be read, one a day)
329 Viscount Lascano Tegui, On Elegance While Sleeping (review in the near future)
330 Gert Jonke, The System of Vienna (review in the near future)
331 Ann Radcliffe, The Italian (one of the best Gothic novels of the late 18th century)
332 René Belletto, Dying (review forthcoming)
333 Poul Anderson, Hrolf Kraki's Saga (retelling of a fragmentary Norse saga. OK rendering, but nothing special to me)
334 Lin Carter (ed.), Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy I (four novellas, all good to very good)
As for October 1-12, I have since read another 16 works, with hopes to read another 15-20 by month's end.
The Empirical Approach to Learning
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3 comments:
It's cool that you have read and liked John Ajvide Lindqvist's Handling the Undead. Looking forward to your review of it! Did you read Let the Right One In?
In Sweden, he released a third book, called Paper walls, which was a short story collection. A few good stories, but the really good thing about it was that it contained a longer novella that was basically a conclusion to Handling the Undead (which suffers from lacking a proper ending). I liked it very much and felt it was a much needed addition to Handling the Undead.
It doesn't seem like Paper walls has been translated to English yet though.
You are a reading machine!
Glad you liked Fadiman's Ex Libris. I have another of her bibliophilical-biographical books here, "At Large and At Small" - not so good and likeable as Ex Libris, but interesting anyway.
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