Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Finished that one yesterday. Good read.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
Oh, when they announced Marc Platt was novelising ‘Battlefield‘ and not Ben… sooo angry.
Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Finished that one yesterday. Good read.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
Do you reckon this is the final book?
Do you reckon this is the final book?Finished that one yesterday. Good read.
Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
Not a chance in hell
(Unless aaronovitch dies or doesn't get his publishing contract renewed or something)
Not a chance in hellDo you reckon this is the final book?Finished that one yesterday. Good read.
Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
(Unless aaronovitch dies or doesn't get his publishing contract renewed or something)
He is pushing them out quickly though. Wonder how long until the next one.
Will have this book finished in a month. Left it at work over the weekend
Not a chance in hell
Do you reckon this is the final book?
Finished that one yesterday. Good read.Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
(Unless aaronovitch dies or doesn't get his publishing contract renewed or something)
He is pushing them out quickly though. Wonder how long until the next one.
Will have this book finished in a month. Left it at work over the weekend
I've only read the first 2 and I enjoyed the second, even though it was very violent for my tastes, but more importantly is his old man still playing jazz?
Incidentally Wikipedia lists the next book in the series as "The Hanging Tree" due in 2015. Philip K ■■■■ wrote a great short story called "The Hanging Stranger" way back when.
I read all of the PD James books apart from the last few. I think the best by far is Innocent Blood, which is a really brilliantly constructed psychological thriller. There's one false step in the epilogue, but otherwise it's just about perfect. There are some really intelligent insights into the nature of memory and its fallibility. It's one of my favourite books.
I thought Children of Men didn't work at all, and Death Comes to Pemberley was a bad idea that resulted in (as HM says) a stinker of a book.
I'm sad she's died, but she was pretty old. She was very good at the police investigatory techniques, and she could describe a murder scene very effectively: the opening scene of Death in Holy Orders is unforgettable. She was hopeless at romance, and her characters were nearly all much the same type: educated English upper middle class. Very, very different from most of what is currently being churned out.Late 80s I was reading a lot of those English ones - read a swag of Inspector Morse and Dalziel and Pascoe, then got into American crime with the likes of Ellory, James L Burke, Connelly, Grafton, Crais, Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Block (with a few missteps along the way) - they're not really even the same genre - even amongst the police procedurals.
Don't mind Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Barry Maitland and James Craig of the more recent UK lot (although I hear Maitland lives in Sydney).
I think there's only so much crime that I can take. I liked Elmore Leonard a lot, but sadly he's now gone to the great Library in the Sky. I quite like Morse and Ian Ranking, but I get a bit sick of them suffering such inner tortures. One of the things I like a about Maigret is that he's not "troubled". He doesn't have a Past that Haunts Him. He likes his job. He loves his wife. He goes after crims and he catches them. I can't remember a Maigret book in which there's a serial killer.
I've started reading (i.e., listening to) a Martin Amis book called The Zone of Interest. So far I have absolutely no idea what it's about. I was a huge fan of his father's early books (up to but not including The Anti-Death League), and I liked Martin's very early stuff, but for ages I've found him tiresome. I'll be interested to see how this one goes.
Just as a matter of interest, there was a film made in 1965 of a book starring Anthony Quinn, James Coburn, Dennis Price and others. It was about some childrean who were caught in a huge cyclone in the West Indies, and afterwards somehow found themselves on a pirate boat. The child of greatest interest was a girl called Emily, aged about 13, who developed a close but chaste relationship with the pirate captain. There was a young boy who I think may have been her brother. He was played by Martin Amis.
Do you reckon this is the final book?
Finished that one yesterday. Good read.Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
Not a chance in hell
(Unless aaronovitch dies or doesn't get his publishing contract renewed or something)
Or his hard drive crashes?
I've started reading (i.e., listening to) a Martin Amis book called The Zone of Interest. So far I have absolutely no idea what it's about. I was a huge fan of his father's early books (up to but not including The Anti-Death League), and I liked Martin's very early stuff, but for ages I've found him tiresome. I'll be interested to see how this one goes.
I'm interested in your comments on Martin Amis's latest novel because it's the first of his books that I haven't felt drawn to, not because I've wearied of his work(admittedly he's not releasing the scintillating work of the 80s and 90s but he's still produces prose that most modern authors can only dream of) but primarily because I don't know if I can face another Holocaust novel.
I'll probably read it eventually because I admire him that much; his great mid career quartet of novels beginning with the hilarious "Money", the underrated masterpiece "London Fields", "Times Arrow" (his first Holocaust novel) and culminating in the ambitious "The Information"(even if he did filch parts of the plot structure from his friend Iris Murdoch's best novel, "The Black Prince") is as good an authorial run as anyone else in the current game. I agree he went into a bit of rut after that, what with having to sort out his marital and dental problems, but I thought he started to hit a bit of form with "Lionel Asbo", even if there is an echo or 2 from "London Fields". I am a fan of his dad but I think I'll take Martin's work to my desert island.
Finished Foxglove Summer… wow
If the hardest of hard sci fi (with a pretty fluffy protagonist admittedly) is your thing, then check out The Martian by Andy Weir.
Astronaut from the 3rd manned mars expedition gets stranded alone on mars after an accident. The book is a journal of his attempts to survive there long enough (in the region of years!) for a rescue.
Xmas must be coming, the booklists are starting to bloom.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/29/-sp-writers-pick-best-books-2014
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/01/-sp-writers-pick-best-books-2014-part-2
If The Age have published one can someone post the link. I'd also be interested in a Sci Fi list for 2014 if one exists.
bookdepository.co.uk is having their prechristmas sales now, with delivery times before christmas.
I've only read the first 2 and I enjoyed the second, even though it was very violent for my tastes, but more importantly is his old man still playing jazz?
He is pushing them out quickly though. Wonder how long until the next one.Not a chance in hellDo you reckon this is the final book?Finished that one yesterday. Good read.Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
(Unless aaronovitch dies or doesn't get his publishing contract renewed or something)
Will have this book finished in a month. Left it at work over the weekend
Incidentally Wikipedia lists the next book in the series as "The Hanging Tree" due in 2015. Philip K ■■■■ wrote a great short story called "The Hanging Stranger" way back when.
He also signed up to do another 2 after that
I've only read the first 2 and I enjoyed the second, even though it was very violent for my tastes, but more importantly is his old man still playing jazz?
He is pushing them out quickly though. Wonder how long until the next one.
Not a chance in hell
Do you reckon this is the final book?
Finished that one yesterday. Good read.Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
(Unless aaronovitch dies or doesn't get his publishing contract renewed or something)
Will have this book finished in a month. Left it at work over the weekend
Incidentally Wikipedia lists the next book in the series as "The Hanging Tree" due in 2015. Philip K ■■■■ wrote a great short story called "The Hanging Stranger" way back when.
He also signed up to do another 2 after that
But is his dad still playing jazz?
Is this the same Aaronovitch who used to do scripts and novelisations for Doctor Who (Remembrance of the Daleks springs to mind) back in the 80's?
Is this the same Aaronovitch who used to do scripts and novelisations for Doctor Who (Remembrance of the Daleks springs to mind) back in the 80's?
Yep and there's nowt wrong with that but that still doesn't tell me if Peter Grant's Dad is still doing "Body and Soul".
But is his dad still playing jazz?
He also signed up to do another 2 after thatI've only read the first 2 and I enjoyed the second, even though it was very violent for my tastes, but more importantly is his old man still playing jazz?He is pushing them out quickly though. Wonder how long until the next one.Not a chance in hellDo you reckon this is the final book?Finished that one yesterday. Good read.Foxglove summer by Ben Aaronovitch. Not even 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it.
Will refrain from discussions til you've got to the end. I reckon it could have used an epilogue to sort things out though!
(Unless aaronovitch dies or doesn't get his publishing contract renewed or something)
Will have this book finished in a month. Left it at work over the weekend
Incidentally Wikipedia lists the next book in the series as "The Hanging Tree" due in 2015. Philip K ■■■■ wrote a great short story called "The Hanging Stranger" way back when.
Pretty sure he is
Ive had Kindle old-school which broke and now have a kindle voyage (which has the paperwhite screen), i havnt noticed any added eye fatigue, it feels the same. I dont have old eyes but i hate reading on a phone/tablet, and have no issues with the paperwhite. I actually find it slightly easier if anything to read…
Sorry, I got half way through your post and got bored.Lol.
I got this far & laughed so hard I popped a rib…
“his efficiency and ability to paint indelible pictures with a few carefully-crafted paragraphs”Thats so the opposite to reality.
It was probably in old old blitz when I spoke on JRR, but I read the Hobbit as a kid, & went on later to LOTR, at maybe 12 - 13?
Remembered getting into it but not finishing it.
So when the movies are coming out a mate gets it & reads it & I borrow it to do the same. I get halfway through & it all comes back to me why I didn’t finish it the 1st time. It was like deja vu.
I’d put money on it that I stopped & consigned it to the bin on exactly the same page. A more long winded, unending, unmitigated borefest I’ve not encountered.
Fantasy is hard enough, but 10 15 pages describing some hollow they camped in o/nite in a forest was beyond ridiculous. I’ve never been back to the genre in books movies or TV, life is too short to waste on such things.
That’s pretty much how I felt when I read it, although I did eventually get to the end. I read part 1 when I was still at school and wrote a book review about it for an assignment. I thought part 1 was imaginative, well-written and quite interesting, but also terribly twee. I don’t think I had any difficulty getting through it.
Not so the remainder, and I think I finally got to the last page in about my third or fourth year of university. By that time I’d become thoroughly bored, and I only forced myself to plough on to the bitter end so that I could say that I’d done it. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t some good parts; I remember being entranced by the Elf Kingdom for example, and the revelation of the history of Gollum was gripping. But for most of the time it was just trudging on and on and on past one obstacle after another.
As for all those series of doorstop-sized books about people with ridiculous names and set in some time that may be in the past or may be in the future, I can’t be bothered. Most of them are appallingly written, full of cliché and journalese. Every so often I’ll see one in a bookshop that I’ve heard of and pick it up just to see what it is; but I can never get beyond the first paragraph.