Agree with Smartcat and Joe about the current appeal of rereading.  I did the whole Chanur saga again last year and reveled in it.  And I find myself conjuring up favorite memories from Victoria Goddard’s books- a relatively new obsession thanks to Pence ❤️.  But  I don’t want to reread them so often that they become too familiar. 

I was just at Amazon buying Stephen and Evie Colbert’s new cookbook for my significant other’s upcoming birthday (I left it too late to buy it from Bookshop.org, which is my preference)  and saw that their production company is working on a TV series based on Zelazney’s Chronicles of Amber. Whew. That would be fun!!! Another series I've not revisited for quite some time, but which was a great favorite some decades back. 

Last edited by Kokipy (9/25/2024 5:37 pm)

Slowly chugging my way through yet another ponderous Orson Scott Card book: Pathfinder. Boy spends sooo much time deliniating logic.

Kokipy wrote:

however, Surtac, I can recommend to you a US crime novelist, William Kent Kruger, who writes about murders in the cold and rural parts of Minnesota, home of, among other notables, Tim Walz. There are about 21 of  them and they are pretty good so far.  I have only read the first 3 but look forward to getting the rest at some point.  They are the kind of book I would rather check out of the library than buy at this point. 
also, have you read the books the TV show Slow Horses are based on? I thought they were terrific. Mick Herron is the author.

Just realised I hadn't responded to this when I meant to (life here at Chateau Dysfunction has been somewhat feral over the last few weeks).
I will check out Kruger.  Thanks, he's one I hadn't heard of.  And yes, I have read all the Mick Herrons, including the books / series he wrote before the Slough House books took off. They're all pretty good.


 

I finished The Wilding by Ian McDonald.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone to likes their conteporary fantasy at the very dark end of the spectrum.  I repeat, it is not SF.

This is not a story of effing sparkly vampires or sodding rainbow unicorns.  This is Old Wyrd Britain at its deepest and darkest.  It is all about spirit of place and the fact that civilisation has edges and history is built in layers.  It is folkloric horror, where the coffin roads and leylines of Hookland meet the spirit gates at the entrance to a modern farmer's field. 

I was reminded very much of the early Sarah Pinborough books in her Dog Faced Gods series, and of course Liz Williams' recent Fallow Sisters novels, but there was a particular Graham Joyce book that resonated in my mind as I read this (Joyce's protagonist could so easily have been a younger, opposite-gendered version of McDonald's protagonist here).

McDonald's writing is just getting better and better, full of sneaky literary allusions, deft turns of phrase, and some sly musical jokes that had me laughing out loud in places.

And now I have to re-read some old favourite Graham Joyce works.