What are you reading?

[rogatny]

Wow. It's been a long time since I've read it (~15 years) but I don't remember it being like that at all

It starts with female main character essentially being sold to become the Count’s concubine to pay off family debts. Female character runs off.

Then male main character is forced to seduce female main character for the purposes of his conspiracy group’s rebellion. Which he does by force.

Male main character goes off to do undercover stuff while female main character hides. She gets attacked by one of male main character’s collaborators. She flees to someone she thought was her friend who then sells her into prostitution. She’s put on a boat where she’s again attacked, but uses her witch power to save herself.

Meanwhile male main character gets wrapped up in an elaborate plan to trick a high born lady into having sex with him. That fails. He later has actual old fashioned relatively healthy consensual sex with a serving girl. Later his cover is blown and he has to flee. He gets on a boat where the captain attempts to make him pay his way by being the captain’s boy toy. When he refuses, he’s beaten and accused of mutiny.

Female main character is horrified to learn she’s been sold into prostitution. She refuses to cooperate and is arrested for failing to pay her way. Male main character finds her but can’t save her until they’re saved by a Knight guy who takes them back home.

Knight guy later tries to force himself on female main character, while male main character becomes a clerk for a judge. One of the two cases we hear in detail involves the brother of a baron who wants to kill his nephew so that he can be with the nephew’s wife. The other case involves the concubine the Count got after he couldn’t have female main character; she offers male main character sex in exchange for her freedom.

It ends with the two main characters running away together to get away from this sordid mess.

If these were a few details in a 600 page epic with a bunch more going on, that’d be one thing. But this is about a 180-200 page book and what I wrote is pretty much the entire plot short a couple details.

[JasonZavoda]

The Past Through Tomorrow by Heinlein.

One of my favorite books - the first half, at least. IMO Heinlein was at his best in his short stories and most of my favorites are included here:

Lifeline
The Man Who Sold the Moon
Requiem
The Green Hills of Earth
Ordeal in Space
The Menace from Earth
Searchlight
Misfit

The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
All hands! Stand by! Free falling!
And the lights below us fade.

Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet —

The stars that shine around us
Are torches on the road
The Black, extending outward,
Is with great peril sowed.

We embark on our adventure —
Return and count the losses worth
To see across the darkness
The cool, green hills of Earth.

We rot in the molds of Venus,
We retch at her tainted breath.
Foul are her flooded jungles,
Crawling with unclean death.

Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me
As they rove around the girth
Of our lovely mother planet
Of the cool, green hills of Earth.

The harsh bright soil of Luna,
Silent and dead as the grave,
Holds not the souls of Earthmen
Whose lives for Earth's they gave.

Across the seas of darkness
The good green Earth is bright —
Oh, Star that was my homeland
Shine down on me tonight.

The rust-red Martian deserts,
Her lonely wandering sands,
Are naught but lifeless visions
To who on her surface stands.

My heart turns home in longing
Across the voids between,
To know beyond the spaceways
The hills of Earth are green.

We, in the frozen nights of Titan,
Dream of Saturn's rainbow rings.
Yet in all our waking hours
It's the Earth alone that sings.

We've tried each spinning space mote
And reckoned its true worth:
Take us back again to the homes of men
On the cool, green hills of Earth.

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.

[benjoshua]

I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and it was a rip-roaring good ride! I read it because it was rated as one of the top 100 fantasy/sci-fi books by Time Magazine. It reminded me of The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny because of the tone, pace and presence of a parallel reality. However, the protagonist reminded me a little of Thomas Covenant (from the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series)in that he's hapless but rises to the occasion later. There were parts that made me laugh, and there were a couple of good twists. There was a sequel coming out later this year, but it appears to be delayed. Recommended!

EDIT: I've learned there's an illustrated version of the book with illustrations by Chris Riddell. The illustrations I saw were evocative and well-done.

[Welleran]

I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and it was a rip-roaring good ride! I read it because it was rated as one of the top 100 fantasy/sci-fi books by Time Magazine. It reminded me of The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny because of the tone, pace and presence of a parallel reality. However, the protagonist reminded me a little of Thomas Covenant (from the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series)in that he's hapless but rises to the occasion later. There were parts that made me laugh, and there were a couple of good twists. There was a sequel coming out later this year, but it appears to be delayed. Recommended!

The BBC miniseries the book is based on (backwards, I know) is also quite good.

[T. Foster]

I’m currently about 20% of the way through The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss which I purchased a few years back alongside several other well-regarded “modern” fantasy books. I was expecting it to be an easy, if long, read along the same lines as GRRM, Robert Jordan, Scott Lynch, Stephen King, etc. but it turns out it’s written in a more florid style that makes for slower reading, which is mildly annoying because it’s still fundamentally trash/candy but it’s putting on airs of being something more.

I keep thinking about how in the hands of somebody like Poul Anderson or Jack Vance or early Moorcock the ~150 pages I’ve read so far would’ve been 3 chapters and about 40 pages max. I read actual literary fiction - I neither need nor want that flavor of peanut butter in the chocolate of my trashy fantasy escapism.

I’ll see it through and maybe it will grow on me, but at least so far it’s definitely not living up to its reputation.

Finally finished this last night. What a boring, mostly unpleasant, slog. About 100 pages of story stretched into 720 pages.

[Flambeaux]

Finished Ember's End by S.D. Smith. I can highly recommend the whole Green Ember series. It's solid, good fantasy and makes a fantastic read-aloud to young children (rabbits, with swords!).

Read The Battle of the Frogs & the Mice aloud to the family last night. It's a delightful ~300 line epic poem about a battle between frogs and mice, translated from the Greek. It was a very fun and quick read aloud to the whole family.

[benjoshua]

I read The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope. This is a classic adventure, and it moves fast with plots and counter plots. There is a castle to invade, swordplay, and a dastardly villain. The tale has a bit of a James Bond feel without the spy gadgets. The first book has inspired half a dozen films and dozens of homages including the 1994 RPG "Castle Falkenstein!" It's a grand, gothic, swashbuckling, adventure worth reading!

[Philotomy Jurament]

I read The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope.

Now you should read The Zenda Vendetta by Simon Hawke. It's part of the "TimeWars" series (cheap, pulp sci-fi/fantasy -- definitely not "literature"). I read them in junior high and enjoyed them. (I think they may have inspired, or at least influenced, the Pacesetter time travel RPG.)

[rredmond]

I have really enjoyed Prisoner of Zenda, more than once. It’s just a fun read for me.

[Melan]

Ahhh, thanks for the reminder. I need to read that book, but never got around to it.

[benjoshua]

I read The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope.

Now you should read The Zenda Vendetta by Simon Hawke. It's part of the "TimeWars" series (cheap, pulp sci-fi/fantasy -- definitely not "literature"). I read them in junior high and enjoyed them. (I think they may have inspired, or at least influenced, the Pacesetter time travel RPG.)

Thank you for the suggestion, but I'll probably pass unless I can find the series (12 books!) cheap.

[rredmond]

Was listening to Prisoner of Zenda on Librivox last night. Kind of old timey writing (yeah, I'm no expert with words and stuff ) like H.G. Wells, but only just enough. The background (even though it's like a chapter and a half or so) isn't too much too, it all fits in well together. Great story.

[Joe Mohr]

I read The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope. This is a classic adventure, and it moves fast with plots and counter plots. There is a castle to invade, swordplay, and a dastardly villain. The tale has a bit of a James Bond feel without the spy gadgets. The first book has inspired half a dozen films and dozens of homages including the 1994 RPG "Castle Falkenstein!" It's a grand, gothic, swashbuckling, adventure worth reading!

My father was a huge fan of the Stewart Grainger movie version of the 1st book. I have seen that one many times.

[Welleran]

I’m most of the way through The Possessors by John Christopher. So far it’s interesting, 60s Brit Sci Fi about a rather localized alien invasion. One thing that strikes me about it: the main characters are drinking on almost every page. A lot. It keeps making me crave bourbon while reading!

The author also wrote No Blade of Grass (AKA The Death of Grass), one of my favorite apocalyptic novels of all times. He also wrote The Tripods which, while very popular, I never cared for very much.

[benjoshua]

I read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, and it was an immersive and intriguing read. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2015, and the writing is beautiful. Events are woven together bit by bit. The plot develops slowly, so if you like lots of quick action, this book is not for you. Most of the book takes place during WW2 in France and Germany, and the descriptions of life, food, products and people are thought-provoking. The theme of light emerges again and again as a powerful symbol in interesting and revealing ways.