The Lucid Garden discussion

I just started reading Valente's The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coins and Spice, and was curious to know what other folks are reading. Might get me to add more books to my list!

Hm, I've got a couple of books on the go at once. China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, Alastair Reynolds' Pushing Ice, Dan Simmons' Olympos, and Jack London's White Fang. (Spot the odd one out...)

I really like 'em all. Although the world Perdido Street Station is set in is disgusting -- very well described, and disgusting. Haha.

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark (not fantasy, but very recommended) and am currently about 200 pages into The Book of Joby by Mark Ferarri...even though I only started reading it yesterday!

Nikki: Olympos is quite good, have you read Simmon's Hyperion series? It's easily one of my favorites.

PSS is kind of off-putting, but well worth it in the end. It took me three separate tries to actually finish it, but moved Mieville up into the ranks of authors who I constantly watch for new works to appear.

Perdido Street Station is one of my favorite books. New Crobuzon reminds me of large cities like New York, London, or Paris. Cities that have a lot of history, a patina of neglect, and a good amount of filth. Mieville spends a good amount of time early in the story creating the atmosphere, and less on characters and plot, which may make the story seem to move along slowly. This didn't detract from the story at all. I loved that I could actually feel, breathe and taste the city. I love Mieville's writing style and found the book rich and very satisfying, like the difference between savoring a dark chocolate mousse cake and wolfing down a bag of chips.

If the filthy and fetid city of New Crobuzon bothers you, you may like The Scar better. Armada reminds me of younger, more modern, and cleaner cities (like San Francisco).

I just finished reading Clive Barker's The Thief of Always, about a young boy who is bored with his mundane life and meets up with a mysterious stranger who lures him to the Holiday House, a wonderful and enchanting place that satisfies every child's whim. Gradually, the boy discovers the house has a dark side. It's a quick, fun read with lots of illustrations that capture the spirit of the novel very nicely.

I quite like Perdido Street Station, but I'm more of a characters person, so it's not really hooking me as well as it could. I'm intrigued, though.

Once you get past the early descriptive passages, I think you'll find Mieville's characters to be difficult and complex.

Early descriptive passages? I'm more than a quarter of the way through the book! I'm just starting to get onto a bit that might be more characterisation for Lin, or might just be more description of the way khepri live.

Stick with it, Nikki...it pays off! I'll agree with Nancy, though, in that the Scar (and Iron Council) are both a bit less oppressive, and their pace is a bit faster. Personally I can't wait for the next book set in that particular universe!

I'm about halfway through it now. I've been alternating between it and other books.

When I read Perdido Street Station, I gobbled it up in 3 days and it was the only book I was reading. I didn't pick up anything else for a week after I finished. Usually, I have two or three books going at the same time.

Still haven't read Iron Council. Maybe later this summer when I'm not distracted by school reading.

I could easily have finished it in two or three days, but I've had exams and I've had trouble with focusing.

Well, now I'm well finished with Perdido Street Station (and several other books!), and I'm currently reading Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy. Shaman's Crossing was good, but the second book is a bit weird, I think. I'm not far into it, though, only 100 pages.

Anyone else reading anything interesting now?

All the bas lag books are so good...I need to reread them at some point. Reynold's Revelelation Space is equally good(with occasionally lapses of dialogue and character) with great tone, creeping horror, mind blowing science, weird aliens, post-human mutations, and usually edge of the seat pace throughout 4 novels, 2 novellas and a couple short story collections. The Prefect is on the way from the library...excited. Curious about his non-RS stuff like Pushing ICe. I just finished my first Iain M. Banks SF book with Consider Phlebus...unbelievably grim but with great imagination. Finding Lucius Shepard's Life During wartime not as focused as his excellant short work. Brought George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones(I liked his short work before esp. the SF horror of "sandkings" and "Nightflyers"...which remind me of Reynolds) along on European vacation...thought it would be page turning fun for the train and plane..pissed off that it is so overwhemingly good, so now I may be stuck reading that endless series. Want to explore the short work of Michael Bishop, Paul Difillipo, and Ian Watson soon...any thoughts?

I loved Hobb's Madship trilogy, but the Soldier Son series got too thick for me.

I've just finished Ben Okri's 'Dangerous Love', which was intense and well-written. I loved the magical realism and story touched me deeply. I'm starting his 'Famished Road', but so far it's a bit too contiguous in it's wandering through other realities to keep my attention.

On the humorous end of things, James Morrow's 'Only Begotten Daughter' got me chuckling and 'Good Omens', a team effort by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett cracked me up. I can't really stomach Pratchett by himself, but his silliness balanced by Gaiman's grim wit is quite hilarious and sweet.

Adam, I loved Paul Di Filippo's A Year in the Linear City for its detailed description of the city, the characters, and the sheer imagination and originality of this story. The style and bizarre setting reminds me a little of China Mieville or Jeff VanderMeer. On the downside, the story wasn't long enough to explore all the mysteries of this world.

I haven't read any of Michael Bishop's short work, but really enjoyed Unicorn Mountain.

I love Alastair Reynolds' work. The RS stuff was good, but you should try his stand-alone novels too, I think. Pushing Ice bored me a little, and skipped a lot, but I remember loving Century Rain.

Good Omens is awesome, too.

Oh, and Soldier Son is pretty hard going. Nevare's kind of self-pitying. I actually didn't like the Liveship Traders trilogy that much -- infodumps, complex but unsympathetic characters, bad portrayal of women... But her first trilogy writing as Robin Hobb, Farseers, is brilliant.

Famished Road is great but quite a bit to say the least...his short collection Stars of the New Curfew is great also. Never read Dangerous love..maybe I will, I miss Okri.

Where I can understand people being off put by Perdido Street Station, it never was for me it was pretty much crack for me and I lived only to read it when I first discovered it. It felt like reliving my childhood in a new light as it was so entwined with my first literary loves of Moorcock, Wells,Poe, and Lovecraft and also with my adult faves like Angela Carter, W.S. Burroughs, and Philip K. Dick.

Just started The Chronicles of Corum by Michael Moorcock. Picked it up as part of Fantasy Masterworks series. It's pretty straightforward fantasy, so far, but with that lovely dark edge that Moorcock brings.

Just finished Stranger in a Strange Land. I guess I'm on a classics trip. It was actually really good. I read the new, un-abridged version. The style is dated and overtly preaching, but I like what Heinlein's on about, and I actually found some things in there which seemed really fresh.

More relevant to this group, maybe, recently finished Light by John M. Harrison. Gorgeous, freaky, crafted.... I loved it.

Haven't read any of those Moorcock books since I was a teenager, not that I am implying that it is immature to read them...but I do wonder how they hold up..loved the Cormac/Elric/Hawkmoon books back then...since then its the Jerry Cornelius, Bastable, and especially Dancers at the End of Time that have held my interest(and his reviews)Light is one of those most beautiful books of all time, its follow up but not sequel Nova Swing is great also. Recent favorite read has to be Jeff Vandermeer's novella The Situation. An office comedy as Peake or Dante would have written it. Halfway through Ian R. Macleod's The Great Wheel. Kind of reads like if Graham Greene or Paul Bowles had written a scifi book. Wonderous prose and melancholy as I expect from Macleod.

I just got "Steampunk" and "The New Weird" *both edited by the Vandermeers* through the mail yesterday!! I'm super excited to dive into these! Stories by Moorcock, and Stephenson,and Lake and on and on. I haven't read any of these authors, so this will be a huge new experience for me.

Thank goodness I have tomorrow off!

I will begin reading Little, Big by John Crowley next week at the beach!

I'll have to try 'Stars of the New Curfew', once I can handle Okri again. :)

Right now, A friend has turned me onto James Morrow and I munched down 'The Last Witchfinder' which was quite wierd but entertaining and devoured 'Only Begotten Daughter', which is hilarious and am now eagerly awaiting more of his books from the library.

On an utterly different tack, I just finished 'The Joy of Living' by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche which is an awesome discussion of the meditation and neuroscience. Loved it.

I never got into Little Big or Crowley but maybe it was my mood. Haven't read that steampunk comp but I have read lots of stories from it...the Macleod,Chapman, Difillipo, and Chiang stories are really good, in fact some of my favorites by those respective writers especially the Chapman..the weirdest story ever...I'm in steampunk mood though with Difference Engine, Anubis Gates, and Steampunk trilogy on my platter...I just started Lucius Shepard's The Golden despite my allergy to vampire fiction. Good, really good so far in fact if some french guy wrote it in the early 20th or late 19th century it would probably be surrealist classic reprinted by dadealus or Exact Change...Shepard always has hints of surreal but this almost a full on plunge with hints of Peake and Borges...with vampires and a detective story thrown in.

Right now I'm reading Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and rather enjoying this collection of fantastic, odd, and sometimes dark and unsettling stories told from the perspective of young people approaching adulthood and coping with difficulties in their lives. Though Russell has a completely different style, her stories remind me a little of Kelly Link.

I couldn't get into The Time Traveler's Wife and abandoned it after about 200 pages. Are you enjoying it?

hi :) Right now I am reading Best Gay Erotica 1997. The stories are unique and definitely not your standard fare.

I believe you said "gruesome", Jase? :)

The Time Traveler's Wife was highly praised by many people whose taste in books I trust, but it just didn't work for me. I tried so hard, or I would have abandoned the book even sooner.

Nancy wrote: "I believe you said "gruesome", Jase? :)"

Yes! two of the stories so far have ended in violent death.

I'm considering picking up one of my slipstream anthologies (Elastic Press stuff - absolutely fabulously unique fantasy/sci-fi/anything and everything) but am waiting for a friend to send me his manuscript.

I had just started reading The City Of Illusions by Ursula LeGuin, but then i picked up a book of essays of hers, The Language of the Night, in which she mentions that City of Illusions was "incomplete" and, perhaps, should not have been published. So, i don't know. Do i keep reading it?

Mat wrote: "I had just started reading The City Of Illusions by Ursula LeGuin, but then i picked up a book of essays of hers, The Language of the Night, in which she mentions that City of Illusions was "incomp..."

I would be too curious about what she thought was 'incomplete' to stop reading!

Adam wrote: "Where I can understand people being off put by Perdido Street Station, it never was for me it was pretty much crack for me and I lived only to read it when I first discovered it. It felt like reliv..."

Exactly how i felt about Perdido Street Sta. and i immediately went on to read every book Mieville wrote. The only one i hadn't read was his newest and i just recently got it and am reading it now. Did u know he's got a new book coming out in May i think called Kraken

I am finishing up Clive Barker's Imajica. It's my second go around and I loved it this time just as much as the first time trough.

Coming up next is either going to Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman, Gardens of the Moon by Steve Erikson or On Blue's Waters by Gene Wolfe. I'm a little bit intimidated to start Gardens of the Moon since the Malazan series is 10 books long with 9 already published, and if I like the first one I know I'm going to nuts and just blow through the next 8.

I just started Nick Flynn's Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir. Its title caught my eye at the library.

Linda wrote: "Right now, I'm in a happy place. I want to read happy things. I find myself blazing through the light, fun reads, and trudging through the more "serious" works. For instance, I'm thoroughly enjoying The Handmaid's Tale - I think Margaret Atwood is an extremely gifted writer, both in how she chooses her words and the story she tells. Yet, it's taking me an inordinately long time to finish the book. I'm barely halfway through, and I've been reading it for the past 6 months or so!..."

I mostly like books that explore the darker side of humanity, engage my emotions, disturb and challenge me. After a steady diet of such books, I get depressed and crave something light and fun, usually a romance that I know is going to have a happy ending. I read The Handmaid's Tale years ago and enjoyed it enough to read it twice.

Déjà Dead has been on my shelf for many months. Based on your comments, it may be there for many more.

Have you read Octavia Butler's Parable books?

Dave, I haven't read the second book yet and I'll probably revisit the first one before I do.

Parable of the Sower was bleak, impossible to put down and, to me, a very realistic vision of a possible future.

Dave, I loved China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and The Scar. I really need to read his other books.

As far as Palin's recently popularity, I had absolutely nothing to do with it....just so you know. ;)

Finished The Gargoyle a couple of days ago and started Crooked Little Vein. It's Raymond Chandler meets Christopher Moore and William Burroughs. Fairly strange but very funny and a quick read.

I had some mixed feelings about The Gargoyle, but ended up enjoying it overall. Early on, the descriptions of the main character's suffering were too heavy-handed. Enough! I get he had a rough childhood. Once Marianne Engel entered the story, I had a difficult time putting the book down. Her stories were the best parts of the book.

Did you enjoy the story, Dan?

Reading Womack's Random Acts of Senseless Violence- kinda in the vein of A Clockwork Orange as is much of Womack's work. This guy is exceptionally good

Also reading Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick, this is my 1st book of his and i'm enjoying it so far. based on Goethe's ancient tale about a scholar who trades his soul to the Devil for unlimited knowledge. He does a great job with this story in my opinion.

Trying to finish Shriek: An Afterword by VanderMeer because i'm so excited to read the new Ambergrisian baseed book-Finch that recently came out. i had read City of Saints and Madmen quite awhile ago and while i did like it i wasn't super impressed. Shriek, on the other hand is mind-blowing. the prose is exquisitely poetic and VandeMeer's insight into the human spirit, spot on

Dave,

The Warren Ellis who wrote Crooked Little Vein is an English author - mostly graphic novels. The musician/composer Warren Ellis is from Australia. Maybe they should colloborate on a rock opera along the lines of Tommy.

Nancy,

The way the author developed the first-person narrative of the protagonist in The Gargoyle gave me the feel of sitting across the table from him as he told his tale. He is a very self-centered individual and his constant repetition of his past strengthened that perception throughout the book. Sometimes I started thinking he might be likable but mostly he was pretty despicable which, I believe, is the opinion of him that the author was trying to elicit from us. I thought it was interesting that he was able to give a different "voice" to the protagonist and to Marianne even though her stories were told in the first person through him.

Hello folks - Potentially interrupting here....but since it popped up about The Gargoyle:

Nancy -
I agree I did have mixed feelings about the book The Gargoyle - although the main character's ranting did not bother me - a spoiled gorgeous bastard using his beauty but finally getting his due in a sort of enlightening way.

In the end I could not decide how to rate the book, but finally rated it a 5 star. Very rare for me.

btw - thanks for the invite to this group

Dan -
I think you so right on in your description of the main character's personality and the author's decision to create him as such ...which is why the book has stuck in my head. An unusual character which I keep thinking about it even after almost a year.

I am also currently reading Tender Morsels, and almost finished with it. It will be another five star in my opinion. Tender Morsels

I'm so glad you're enjoying Tender Morsels, Shellie. You should check out Lanagan's short story collections too.

As much as I loved Tender Morsels, it is a very dark story with dense prose and one I wouldn't recommend to children or young teens.

'Singing My Sister Down' is the first story in Black Juice and one of the best stories in the collection. Unlike some of the others, its straightforward rather than fantastic. All are told from the perspective of young people, are very thought-provoking, and very suitable for adults.

Nancy -
I agree... Tender Morsels is for advanced YA fantasy readers and older teens. I would almost consider it an adult novel and I would not recommend it to everyone. It is extremely dark and the language is not common - but it is wonderful.

This is my first reading of anything by Lanagan. I am now a serious fan. She is excellent. I can see why Nancy when you got the new copy of Black Juice or was it Red Spikes....you wanted to nibble the spine....lol!

Dave - if you can find a first edition hard copy of Tender Morsels buy it. It may be valuable some day. :)

I have a new thing for first editions after reading The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession

Here is a link for an interview she did recently after winning The World Fantasy Award:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/...