Just doesn't grab me. I'm not generally a fan of, err, the more flamboyant, semi-humourous type sci-fi / fantasy stuff.
I read of mince and men, and it was good but it left me wanting.
At the start of lockdown we built a small book exhnage / free library in our communal garden.One day, fairly early on I spotted The Grapes of Wrath in mint condition so grabbed it. It's been on the "to-read-sometime" pile for ages. Well... Nearly halfway and what a read.I read of mince and men, and it was good but it left me wanting. So far GoW just has much more scale and breadth. So much has gone into each scene, each character.Sitting on my own in the Laggangarbh hut, after not getting any skiing in today due to the wind, but I couldn't be happier. Climbing tomorrow, with a refreshed outlook.
Climbing tomorrow, with a refreshed outlook.
On a slightly (very) different level I have just read Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh - it’s the fourth/final book following the characters from Trainspotting and I thought it was absolutely brilliant! Funny, dark, sad. Tbh all the books are great - Skagboys, Trainspotting, P0rno, and then this. P0rno is potentially the best of the lot actually but haven’t read it for years.
Also in the current top20 i am currently inserting Hemmingway, Bukowski & Murakami
Maybe I need to give Steinbeck another try. I had a go with Grapes of Wrath years ago and just couldn't get into it. DNF.
Finished MJH's Light. Wish I'd never read it tbh. Felt like such a waste.
Quote from: Duncan campbell on January 24, 2023, 08:51:14 amOn a slightly (very) different level I have just read Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh - it’s the fourth/final book following the characters from Trainspotting and I thought it was absolutely brilliant! Funny, dark, sad. Tbh all the books are great - Skagboys, Trainspotting, P0rno, and then this. P0rno is potentially the best of the lot actually but haven’t read it for years. Excellent, wasn't aware of it, will look it out. I only read pr0no recently. I thought Skagboys was the best of the lot, leads well to the hero's tragic demise. Felt like pr0no tried a bit too hard to be a more wild ride. All good though. I really liked bedroom Secrets of the Masterchefs, worth reading if you haven't. Don't let the title mislead you.
Big Country vs The Mission, tough call
East of Eden is far superior to Grapes of Wrath I think. Amazed it hasn't been made into a big HBO series.
Quote from: Wellsy on January 24, 2023, 05:55:35 pmFinished MJH's Light. Wish I'd never read it tbh. Felt like such a waste.I'm kind of with you on this, but Harrison's prose is so good I really want to try and salvage something from that book. There's a lot of nonsense and I think he is writing for a very mature sci-fi audience. I honestly couldn't tell if it was satire or not, but it certainly reads better if you think of it as genre parody (IMO).
Quote from: owensum on January 24, 2023, 06:17:28 pmQuote from: Wellsy on January 24, 2023, 05:55:35 pmFinished MJH's Light. Wish I'd never read it tbh. Felt like such a waste.I'm kind of with you on this, but Harrison's prose is so good I really want to try and salvage something from that book. There's a lot of nonsense and I think he is writing for a very mature sci-fi audience. I honestly couldn't tell if it was satire or not, but it certainly reads better if you think of it as genre parody (IMO).The prose is good but wasted, as is a lot of the conceptual stuff re. the setting and technology, all of which is beautifully described. The technobabble for the K-ships was very evocative and cool. Its just that 2/3 characters were just totally unlikeable cunts and the 3rd was merely "fine." The plot was pretty meandering to non existent and there wasn't much going on that I cared about. If its a satire of the genre then I'd say that it should have been ten pages long not hundreds and that the best satire is quality in of its own sake. I'm sure MJH would defend all their creative decisions and I've enjoyed their other work but there's not many books I've read where I finished it in a vaguely cross mood at having been subjected to it's content.