What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Von Broad]

Next up you should read The Secret Race

Ok thanks,ordered that. Reporting back in due course.

[ian]

I have got about 10 minutes of "Not Alone" by "Craig A Falconer" left and frankly, unless there is a major twist, this has got to be one of the worst, most predictable and overlong book I have read since I once read a..... embarrassed to say this... a Dan Brown book.


God...what a pile of rubbish although it started off okay but then just went on, and on, and on. Indeed, at 730 pages long, a good editor would have deleted at least 400 pages and cut out all the guff. And... I have no doubt that the author has seen "Close Encounters" and most episodes of the X Files....the crap ones.... as they nicked the the story lines from there.

Strangely, most reviewers on Amazon seemed to like the book so I am likely to be wrong but I really think this is rubbish.

Hmmm, a self-published book with many, many five stars reviews...

I forget what it was, but when I first got a Kindle, I downloaded some freebie in this category as a test. It was, without a doubt, the worst thing I've ever read. Not just bad, but astonishingly, brain-achingly bad. Not Dan Brown bad, at least that might have been written by a grown-up, this read it was written by someone who still writes a vulgar fraction after their age.

By-the-by, you can buy the five star reviews.

[citoyen]

Hmmm, a self-published book with many, many five stars reviews...

Cynic.

I have a friend who self-publishes and isn't all that bad. He writes 'dark fiction' which isn't really my bag but I read one of his books* and it was quite enjoyable - not what you'd call fine writing but perfectly readable, and a well-conceived if not hugely original story. I also applaud his work ethic - he really does churn the stuff out, and puts a lot of effort into marketing it - whereas I have yet to even start my novel that I've been threatening to write for at least 20 years.

I have some sympathy for self-published authors - it's often not the quality of their writing that stops them getting published more conventionally. And when you look at the likes of Dan Brown, you can see that being able to write isn't a requirement of getting published conventionally anyway.

However, on the whole, the heaving morass of self-published landfill available on Amazon does roundly disprove the old adage about monkeys and typewriters.



*This one, if anyone's interested: http://amzn.eu/aIzHdz2 - I'd say it's worth 99p of anyone's money, and Chris is a good bloke, so do him a favour.

[ian]

Oh it's true and I didn't mean to demean every self-published author. Getting published through the conventional pathway of getting an agent and a publisher is hard work (I'm learning the hard way, heh heh, I have three and I'm starting on a fourth) – the literary (and I use that loosely) world is rather incestuous and it helps to know someone who knows someone. And not everyone knows someone who knows someone.

Of course everyone has a great novel inside and it would often be better if they stayed inside. *cough*

That said, the one I read was awful in ways Dan Brown couldn't even comprehend. Kudos for writing it and getting to the end, but really, it was awful. Not everyone can write – and even if you can, you still need a good editor. At least DB can string together a pacy story and a semblance of characters. But anyway, you can buy reviews en masse, a practice Amazon doesn't seem to have stopped, presumably because they have a percentage off anything they distribute, so it's all good.

[essexian]

I didn't realise that it was self published.... it figures as frankly (I must stop using that word; it shows a lack of ability to write proper) I doubt a publisher would have picked this up. As I said in my review, its basically a re-writing of Close Encounter and X Files.

Now, you may ask, why I read it...well, actually it was top of my list on Youtube so listened to it for free: the reviews on Youtube were positive so in I went. I would have been most disappointed if I had actually paid for it.

Now "reading" Starship Troopers" by Robert A Heinlein. While the book is nearly 60 years old and a little dated in places, it's a far better "read" than Not Alone.

[ian]

Ah, but I hated Starship Troopers. Awful. I have no idea how that got published.

[T42]

It was aimed at juveniles at the end of the 50s and reflects the attitudes of its time: basically, USA vs the Darkness.  I read somewhere back then that US soldiers in the Far East were discouraged from referring to the enemy as "little red brother" because it suggested kinship, and told to use "gook", "monkey" & similar instead.

[lou boutin]

LAt weekend I read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - I enjoyed it and it explained aspect of the film that i didn't understand in the film and put right things that didn't fit right in the film. 

This weekend I read Perfection by Kathleen Wade. This is the story of 10 years of a woman's life as she enters a convent. It follows her through her Noviciate year, temporary vows and permanent vows against the back drop of the tied of eclesatical change, brought about by Vatican II, and the social change, facilitated by the American Civil rights movement, Kennedy's and King's assassinations and the Vietnam war.

[essexian]

Just finished "Starship Trooper" and actually quite enjoyed it. I could see how it linked into the wars the US were fighting at the time but felt that the story of the trooper was interesting without being too gung ho.

Also read "Around the World in 80 days" by Mark Beaumont. Enjoyable but.... got up, went for a ride, felt knackered and in pain, fell asleep.... does get a bit repetitive. Perhaps next time he could do it a bit quicker to save some time and some reading..... 

[woollypigs]

Also read "Around the World in 80 days" by Mark Beaumont. Enjoyable but.... got up, went for a ride, felt knackered and in pain, fell asleep.... does get a bit repetitive. Perhaps next time he could do it a bit quicker to save some time and some reading..... 

And stop and look at things instead of racing by. OK I haven't read the book, but cycling around the world that fast he might as well have driven. The enjoyment of cycling for me is that you get the see/smell/hear things, that you definitely don't get to do with train, planes and automobiles. oh well each to their own

[Mr Larrington]

Aurore ~ Graham Hurley.  Second of his "Wars Within" novels, which are loosely connected via a couple of common characters.  An actor-turned-conscientious-objector-turned-Lancaster-wireless-operator ends up on a SEEKRIT disinformation mission in occupied France.  So far without hilarious consequences.

[Legs]

Now I'm plugging through Ken Follicle's Century trilogy.  Lots of coalmining, espionage, and bodice-ripping so far.

Onto the third one now (yes, I'm a slow reader; I only get the chance to read last thing at night and keep falling asleep with my Kindle.  In mitigation, they are each more than 1000 pages in print).  A very egregious typo just now about a U2 spy plane travelling at "a mile every second".  To Kenbob's credit, he does acknowledge it in the Errata page on his website.

[Canardly]

Also been bitten by the Monsieur Pamplemousse bug so thanks for highlighting. Light reading but witty, informative and amusing.

[woollypigs]

Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings, now a BRILLIANT BBC4/BBC America tv series called Killing Eve.

Book, is as always more detailed than a tv show, start different and explains/show what is happening differently, characters got different names/sex to the tv show. But this is one of the rare times where I like the tv show more than the book. As it got a wicked dark humor, that I like a lot, where the book falls short.

[essexian]

Blimey.... 

Okay, I have been interested in space and space travel since I was a lad. I remember back then sitting on the floor in the school hall watching men walk on the Moon, while I had Thunderbirds wallpaper in my bedroom and built a Saturn 5 Rocket kit. Hell, if I had been any good at Maths rather than getting lost doing A levels, I would have loved to have gone onto University to study Astronomy.... I did get an O Level in such however.

I also tended to read a lot of Science Fiction books back in the day and drew pictures of Mega Space Ships. Thus, it was no surprise that I read and indeed re-read all of Arthur C Clarke's most excellent Rama series.

So, finally I discovered that some bloke called Larry Niven had written a book on a mega city in the sky: "Ringworld." I thought...it's got good reviews, it must be worth a read...... nope. Pile of crap. Too much sex, too much: "and then they did this followed by that" and really a story which went nowhere slowly.

I really should give up reading fiction again and stick to reading factual stuff.... read an interesting book a time back on Astrophysics for people in a hurry which was interesting but a little basic in places. Stuff like that.

[Mrs Pingu]

Have you tried the early Alasdair Reynolds Revelation Space series?

[Mr Larrington]

Revisiting the "Twin Cities" series of Minneapolis-based crimethings by "PJ Tracy" before reading nos. 7 & 8.  In spite of the DETH of half of PJ Tracy, the other half will apparently continue solo.

[Gattopardo]

Also been bitten by the Monsieur Pamplemousse bug so thanks for highlighting. Light reading but witty, informative and amusing.

Is he the one with a dog?  The radio plays on bbc?

[citoyen]

Also been bitten by the Monsieur Pamplemousse bug so thanks for highlighting. Light reading but witty, informative and amusing.

Is he the one with a dog?  The radio plays on bbc?

Yes, a dog called Pommes Frites. I wasn't aware of the radio plays.

[T42]

Still ploughing through Ellroy's Perfidia. Not quite sure why; his most engaging characters are vile. Got about 300pp to go and then I've got KSR's 2140 to help me over withdrawal.

[Jakob W]

I've had that on my paperbacks shelf for a long time now, but I've not been in enough of an Ellroy kind of mood to pick it up. Is it any less sprawling than Blood's a Rover?

[T42]

Yes: pretty well LA only, more or less a prequel to L.A. Confidential.

[Graeme]

Just read Riot Days.

I realise that I would have been in Moscow on business when Masha was in prison. I was so oblivious.

Of the many things that stick with me after reading this; the reflection that women devote their lives to visiting their husbands in prison, while many men eventually stop visiting their wives is saddening to read.

She was convicted of inciting religious hatred. What utter crap - once again religion used by those in power to justify abuse. And because this never was about religious hatred the book moves on to the reality of running from the police and life behind bars in Russia.

Her experiences recorded in Riot Days set a powerful background to the pitch invasion during the world cup.

I'm glad they had a chance to speak and perform at Greenbelt.

[andrewc]

Just finished Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson. Second of a trilogy beginning with Europe in Autumn and ending with Winter, only I hope he adds more.  Really excellent near-future SF/espionage, very satisfying to read - they aren't long but by the end of Midnight I felt as if I had just read a 500-page Le Carré.

Just seen him on Twitter saying a TV adaptation is in the offing. https://twitter.com/HutchinsonDave/status/1041122897635487745    It's always iffy moving this sort of thing to TV,  I didn't much care for the recent "Altered Carbon" , but thought they did a very good job on "The City & The City".   

[ian]

Catching up on John Connolly's excellent Charlie Parker series.

Charlie's going to West Virginia.