I've actually been getting through quite a few books recently. I'm also listening to some on my Kindle on my commute. Here's my quick updates.
Gangdom's Doom, either 4th or 7th in the Shadow series by Maxwell Grant. I listend to this one, in which the Shadow goes from New York to Chicago. I actually liked this one about the best of the ones I've listened to so far. It featured the Shadow on stage more than some of the previous volumes, which focused overly much it seemed to me on Harold Vincent, the Shadow's assistant.
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, by John Ryder Hall. This is a novelization of the movie and stays pretty close to the film. I have to say I liked the film somewhat better. I thought the book started out well but began to seem rushed toward the end. Plus, it stayed almost too close to the movie. I like when novelizations expand a bit on the film.
Why Mermaids Sing by C. S. Harris. Harris is really Candice Proctor. This is the third in her Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series, which is set in England in the early 1800s, the Regency period. I love this series. I read the first two back to back but then somehow got distracted and delayed picking up the third. Once I finished this one, though, I launched immediately into the fourth one, Where Serpents Sleep. "Mermaids" was wonderful and so far I'm really enjoying "Serpents" as well. I have the fifth one, What Remains of Heaven and it's scheduled next. The sixth in the series will be out next year. I'm actually not a huge mystery reader but the character of Sebastian St. Cyr is so compelling, and the settings so wonderfully etched, that I'm hooked on this series.
I'm currently listening to She by H. Rider Haggard. Definitely a bit of a slow start but once it gets going it's pretty cool. I had not previously read this and I was kind of fascinated at some similarities in the 'introduction' to the story to the introduction that I used for Swords of Talera. Almost uncanny in some places.
Here's a couple of books I'm wanting below:
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Didn't realize they'd made a book for the Sinbad movie.
ReplyDeleteºme? I'm reading the Spanish edition of the first Black Company book. Glen Cook is.. let's say it this way: How is possible i had spend so many time without knowing his work?
ReplyDeleteAlex, I think they did novelizations of most of the Sinbad movies, though this is the only one I have.
ReplyDeleteDeka, yes indeed. I just really loved the Black Company books.
Mr Productive!
ReplyDeleteAloha from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
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Gangdom's Doom is one of my favorite Shadows. And I just finished listening to John Mortimer's The Penge Bungalow Murders, which relates how Rumpole first encountered She (Who Must Be Obeyed).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we could find a dozen books we've both read. I find it so fascinating how varied reading can be among people who know each via blogland.
ReplyDeleteSecond Patti's comment. Due to some shortcoming or short circuitry, I usually find myself grazing in different pastures.
ReplyDeleteCharles, the funny thing is the book is not mine. It belong to one of my brothers, but he did not like it. His tastes are others. So... he gave me the book.
ReplyDeleteOur reading lists never overlap but you always open my eyes to new things.
ReplyDeleteI always thought the H. Rider similarities were intentional-- he's so right up your alley! Might be because he was an influence on Burroughs and Howard, and *they* were such big influences on you...
ReplyDeleteAnd Candy's St. Cyr books really are something! :)
She
ReplyDeleteH.Rider Haggard.
This is largely held as a mediocre book, but the great Carl Gustav Jung seemed to find it fascinating.
I am hardly great, but as an obsessive would-be lover, I think I know, from male perspective, what it's like to chase a fickle woman for 2,500 years!
I really should give audio books a try. Guess I just have to make the effort.
ReplyDeleteWe have such different reading habits--I've been reading an economic history of Latin America
ReplyDeleteCloudia, sometimes.
ReplyDeleteEvan Lewis, Yeah, Gangdom's doom is pretty good. I like the Shadow's "alter ego" here. Never read the Penge Bungalow murders. Sounds intersting.
pattinase, I imagine we'd find at least a dozen in common, though probably many hundreds not in common.
Ron Scheer, well that just means among the lot of us we can cover a lot of ground.
Deka Black, I've known some who haven't liked the Black Company books. I think the style of them is different than your typical fantasy style. I liked that but some folks don't.
Travis Erwin, seems like there are A LOT of books out there worth reading.
Steve Malley, I think so. I've actually only read one Haggard before, "The people of the mist." But I bet you're right, his influence on ERB and REH got translated through to me.
ivan, Some of the opening sections definitely didn't work well for me. Almost too much attempt to convince the reader that the stories are real. But once he got into the "lost race" part of it he is hitting his stride. I did not know Jung liked it.
benjibopper, if it weren't for my long commute I probably wouldn't have discovered them. but it lets me feel like I'm getting something acomplished.
Sage, that sounds pretty slow to me! :)
ReplyDeleteI bought a copy of the Sinbad book quite awhile ago, but have yet to read it, eventhough I loved the movie.
ReplyDeleteGlad for the heads up about SHE, I've been meaning to start that for a long time now and slow starts can make me put a book down and then it waits a long time for me to come back to it.
I remember reading books!
ReplyDeleteTime constraints have made it redundant...
Must get back to trying
I like it precisely because is different. The characters of the Taken, well, i'm only halway in the book, but they are scary. perios. Deadly scary.
ReplyDeleteAnd the sorcerers of the Company. Differents from what i know, and this is good. Add variety to the fantasy multiverse.
I'm curious about those historical mysteries. Is there even a faint element of speculative fiction in them? I'd love that...
ReplyDeleteI've been reading tons lately too... but my list is way different from yours Charles. To each his own... just so one reads!
ReplyDeleteEver since I started working this job, I haven't had time for anything. I come home and drop into bed and my day starts all over again. I hope I can get some time in my schedule to read because so far, it's just not happening.
ReplyDeletestill have no audio book, or even ebook, reader...
ReplyDeletesome of these sound great, esp candy's :)
Uncanny similarities can freak you out, can't they ?
ReplyDeleteDavid J. West, Even though “She” starts slowly, I’m finding it worthwhile after it gets going.
ReplyDeleteMiles McClagan, sometimes I read in barely a trickle, sometimes a flood, depending on what is going on in my world.
Deka Black, yeah, I loved the concept of the Taken. I even used a variation on it in Witch of Talera, although I called them Bane-Thralls. But the stimulus for that came from the Taken
Harry Markov, there actually is a kind of faint element. The main character, Sebastian, has yellow eyes and an almost preternatural ability to see in the dark. The author actually has an explanation of this based on a real physiological process. That’s pretty much it, though
Gaston Studio, interesting how different such lists can be.
Christina, especially when jobs are new it often happens like that, but it should settle down eventually.
laughingwolf, Candy’s books I’m reading in print. I think some of them are available as ebooks but I actually bought print versions at her signings.
Heff, yeah, it was pretty weird, even to at one point me thinking, “I hope someone doesn’t say I plagiarized that particularly scene from Haggard.”
Forgive me for being somewhat dense, or for living under a rock, but are we talking about, say, the Lammont Cranston Shadow?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that your post reminds me of the Sebastian St. Cyr books. I wanted to read them last time you wrote about them and then I forgot...
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful weekend!
Charles, I may check out the C.S. Harris. I've read him before and liked his stuff. Thanks for the review! Happy Halloween Charles and Lana!
ReplyDeleteX-Dell, yep, I downloaded a bunch of these as ebooks for my Kindle. Grant was the pen name that Walter Gibson used, so you may have seen them under the Gibson name.
ReplyDeleteVesper, good books for sure.
Jodi, C. S. is actually a woman, and that isn't her real name. But she's written under a couple of pseudonyms.
Never heard of these. Thanks for sharing. I love finding new things to read. :-D
ReplyDeleteDemon hunter, there's a lot of books out there for sure.
ReplyDeleteI am currently reading Stephen King's On Writing. I think the man could write a manual about plumbing and it would be fascinating!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation! I checked out CS Harris and I'm intrigued by the setting, so I put What Angels Fear on my wish list. I just started another book, so this one will be next.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, he does have a way of connecting to the audience.
ReplyDeleteTravis Cody, definitely a fun and intriguing series.