Reading woes

[qthewetsprocket]

So, I'm on the last Lucifer Box novel, and after that I've only got one more Sherlock Holmes short story collection to read. And after that, my literary cupboard is bare.

:(

Anyone read anything good lately?

Guidelines: I like steampunk, though you should know I thought Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was the most overrated waste of space ever

Comments

[thisiszircon]

I've been reading quite a lot of fantasy lately. I could manage a couple of recs, in case they're of use.

Currently I'm re-reading George R R Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. That's up to about four books now (one of them is actually two books, however). Less swords and sorcery, more swords, schemings and political-machinations. Epic in its scope, but never overwhelmingly so. (I am often overwhelmed when I pick up a new 'book one' in a fantasy series, as I feel bombarded with establishing information about geography and cast and so on.)

If you're less inclined towards fantasy's propensity for never-ending series, however, I can recommend a UK fantasy writer I've just discovered. Joe Abercrombie wrote a novel entitled "Best Served Cold" which I finished a few weeks ago, and which I thought was thoroughly marvellous. Great characters, well-written prose, and a decent plot. Brutal in places, though.

[qthewetsprocket]

i dislike the fantasy genre's cookie-cutter Tolkien ripoff series-heavy tropes in general, yeah, so Best Served Cold might be more up my alley.

[crossbow1]

I could never get into Terry Pratchett either. I liked two or three Douglas Adams books.

Hmm. I'm staring at my bookcases, and nothing's presenting itself. My fantasy stuff is classic: Tolkein and LeGuin. Nothing remotely steampunk. Oh, but have you read Caleb Carr (The Alienist)? Steampunk era at least. Stephen King has quite a lot of supernatural horror.

[qthewetsprocket]

I used to absolutely digest Stephen King's work, but then the latent pedophilia in his books got more overt and really squicked me the hell out, to the point that I avoid him on general principle now (though I might give The Colorado Kid a gander). I've never read any of LeGuin's novels, but I did quite like her Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences collection (which was more shamanistic than fantasy, really, to be honest). What would you recommend of hers?

The Alienist looks quite intriguing; thanks for suggesting it - will check it out next time I'm round Powell's.

[crossbow1]

Latent pedophilia???I never even got a whiff of that! In which stories?

Of Ursula LeGuin's, I recommend the Earthsea trilogy. They're very short.

[qthewetsprocket]

I was uncomfortable in IT, when it transpired that the only reason he included a girl in the 'lucky seven' gang was to have them all gang-bang her down in the sewers at the end (would have made far more sense for them to form a daisy chain, but hey, I guess that would make too much sense. As well as, you know, ruining his kink of having six boys gang up to have sex with one eleven-year-old girl). And I thought he lingered unnecessarily over the descriptions of the old hag molesting the genitals of the naked, hypnotised, and obligingly helpless young preteen maiden in one of his Dark Tower series.

By the time I got to his creepily overdone, lingering, and near-masturbatory descriptions of the sufferings of the preteen girl having her dislocated shoulder tended by a middle-aged grandfather figure in Hearts in Atlantis, that was it

[dreamer_easy]

This would be a good opportunity for me to get my finger out and send you those books I was threatening to send.