What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Flying_Monkey]

Just finsished Transitions by Iain M. Banks. Well-written but incredibly derivative - Michael Moorcock should sue Banks several times over for ripping off not only Nomad of the Time Streams, but also the Jerry Cornelius and the Dancers at the End of Time sequences! And probably Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright stuff, which did acknolwedge its debt ot Moorcock, too. In addition, it doesn't really go anywhere; there is no convincing revelation that brings any sense to the whole caper. And at least one of the narrative strands doesn't really work at all. Fun but not really much more than fluff.

[Oaky]

re-re-re-...-reading one of my favourites: Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

[David Martin]

Still reading Russell. Up to the early fathers..

[IanDG]

Just finsished Transitions by Iain M. Banks. Well-written but incredibly derivative - Michael Moorcock should sue Banks several times over for ripping off not only Nomad of the Time Streams, but also the Jerry Cornelius and the Dancers at the End of Time sequences! And probably Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright stuff, which did acknolwedge its debt ot Moorcock, too. In addition, it doesn't really go anywhere; there is no convincing revelation that brings any sense to the whole caper. And at least one of the narrative strands doesn't really work at all. Fun but not really much more than fluff.

Loved the 'Dancers at the End of Time' must be 30 years since I read it

[Mr Larrington]

Now moved onto Echoes From the Dead ~ Johan Theorin.  It's OK, and the translation from the Swedish is way better than that of the Millennium Trilogy, but Larsson it ain't 

[mrcharly-YHT]

'A soldier of the great war' by Mark Helprin.

It's what 'captain corellis mandolin' was hyped up to be.

[Tim Hall]

Trying to understand exactly what the Riemann Hypothesis is again in "Music of the Primes".

[her_welshness]

Now onto the final book in Larsson's trilogy, 'The girl who kicked the hornets nest'. I've got a bad feeling about Salander, the heroine of the piece.

[αdαmsκι]

I'm reading A Case of Exploding Mangoes, by Mohammed Hanif, that I happened across in Waterstones. It's set in Pakistan in 1988 prior to the death of General Zia ul Haq and is a bit of a mystery book because you're not quite sure where things are leading to. I'm enjoying it.

[Spinners]

"'Tis" the sequel to "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and, so far, every bit as good.

[spindrift]

"Too Many Men" by Lily Brett.

Funny and tragic, an American woman returns to Poland with her father who escaped the nazis.

She becomes haunted by the spirit of Hoess and her father revisits his old confiscated house in Krakow.

Much funnier than it sounds.

[Mr Larrington]

Blackwater ~ Kerstin Ekman.

[TimO]

I just rapidly went through The Osiris Ritual by George Mann, since I've travelled on the Tram for a few days.  I seem to have run out of fresh fiction, so I'm reading the Map Addict by Mike Parker which I picked up in Stanfords at the weekend.  It seems to be worth a chuckle, one of the bits which has stuck in my mind so far, was a sign which says "Road impassable to vehicles of the Queen Mary type."⁽¹⁾

Footnote (1): I think the Queen Mary is a Bedford Truck trailer which was used by the RAF to move aircraft.  Why it's called this is a mystery to me

[Mr Larrington]

Your Soul To Take ~ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.

[geoff]

"Effendi" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (thanks for the tip, Flying Monkey!) middle of the trilogy...going well  though a bit bogged in structure (e.g. updating new readers) compared to "Pashazade". .Good stuff though.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.

[her_welshness]

'The Good Husband of Zebra Drive' by Alexander McCall Smith. These books are like prozac for the soul 

[αdαmsκι]

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.

Any good? It's on my pile of things to read.

[Deano]

I am struggling to read The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

The author is called Scarlett.  The narrator is called Ariel.  That may give you a clue as to the nature of the book.

But, beneath the waves of pretension and faux-cleverness, there is an interesting story developing, so I'm going to persist.

[Flying_Monkey]

"Effendi" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (thanks for the tip, Flying Monkey!) middle of the trilogy...going well  though a bit bogged in structure (e.g. updating new readers) compared to "Pashazade". .Good stuff though.

Cheers! I have a weakness for 'arabesque' stuff. I'd recommend The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin if you want something a bit darker and more edgy in this vein (and not SF, more like fable)...

[Deborah]

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland.  I am a fan of Vermeer, so quite an interesting read.

[TimO]

I just finished Stone by Adam Roberts, which was kind of interesting.

I don't think I'd read it again, which isn't much of a recommendation, since I've got some books which I've read multiple times, but it did have some interesting snippets.

One element I found slightly irritating is that the author has obviously got some information about Quantum Physics and the collapsing of wave-functions, but doesn't really understand what observation means in this context, and takes a rather metaphysical approach to it, which isn't really what Quantum Physics says.

(Don't click the link to Wikipedia if you want to read the book, it isn't actually a very accurate synopsis, and is full of spoilers which give away the entire story).

Now I need something else to read on the Tube/Tram home!

[Flying_Monkey]

One element I found slightly irritating is that the author has obviously got some information about Quantum Physics and the collapsing of wave-functions, but doesn't really understand what observation means in this context, and takes a rather metaphysical approach to it, which isn't really what Quantum Physics says.

I wouldn't get too wound up about it. Lots of SF authors treat scientific ideas in a poetic manner. It's not 'hard SF' (c.f. someone like Greg Egan) but then, that's not the point... it's not necessarily the case that he doesn't understand it at all, but more that he's chosen to use the concept in this more literary way. Mind you, I am not a huge fan of Roberts's work - he tends to have ideas that don't ever go anywhere or which end up being something much less interesting than you thought they were going to be. Salt is still his best book, I reckon, although Yellow Blue Tibia came close.

[andrewc]

Halfway through the latest Le Carre "A Most Wanted Man", so far, so good..

[TimO]

Fair comment Flying_Monkey, it was just particularly irritating since it was central to the story, but really so wrong.  Still it wasn't as bad as Digital Fortress, which shows that Dan Brown really doesn't have a clue about crypto or computers.

Now I need to find something to keep me going for the commute into work and back today!