Ogapoge Reads!
Jim’s been away most of this week – he gets home this evening . In his absence, books have been my companions. Well, books and cats and guinea pigs and even the fish. But I’ve been reading a lot.
For those of you just discovering this part of my blog, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week. Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.
The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list. If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.
Once again, this is not a book review column. It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.
Recently Completed:
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Audiobook.
Last Call by Tim Powers. Lived up to good memories so I decided to read the entire “Fault Lines” trilogy. It’s an unusual series in that the first and second books are completely independent of each other.
Expiration Date by Tim Powers. Bonus for this one is that it’s set in the three days leading up to Halloween. Very seasonal!
Summer of the Danes by Ellis Peters. Audiobook.
In Progress:
Murder at the Bar by Margery Allingham. Audiobook. Among her many gifts, Allingham writes phenomenal dialogue and dialect.
Earthquake Weather by Tim Powers. This is the first time I’ve read this in tight sequence with the previous two. Interesting to see how elements from the prior novels are woven in from the very start.
Also:
Still looking at various magazines. The first of the “shop for Christmas” catalogs came in this week as well.
October 12, 2018 at 4:19 am |
Thanks for mentioning Last Call. You had reviewed it before, but I hadn’t added it to my TBR list. It is on there now!
I am reading Odd Interlude by Dean Koontz. It is an Odd Thomas story, listed as book 4.5. So far, it is ok.
Also reading Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber. This is the second collection of stories about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. These are fun adventures. The way the book is broken up makes it difficult for me to see a whole, integrated plot.
October 12, 2018 at 8:45 am |
I think that most of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories were publishing in installments in magazines — more short stories than novels. I agree they’re fun though. I really have enjoyed them. You may have encouraged me to re-read some. That certainly would be a big change from my current immersion in Tim Powers.
One of the great things about books! So very, very many flavors.
I read the first Odd Thomas book and always meant to read more. Do you recommend the series?
October 13, 2018 at 7:12 am
Thanks! That explains why they read as individual stories! Duh!
Odd Thomas, like many other series, was good in the first 3 books, but then they fell to “enjoyable and ok” after that.
October 12, 2018 at 10:30 pm |
The first Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser book that I ever read was “The Swords of Lankhmar” which is actually a complete nove (the only actual novel in the series)l. It turned up (in a British edition) in my local library. I absolutely loved it and in the years that followed I hunted down all the other stories. And I loved those as well. Chronologically I think it’s the fifth story in the series, but it works perfectly well as a stand alone novel (a big point in its favour).
Leiber re-visited Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser many times over his writing career and you can actually watch him maturing as a writer as the series progresses. I think these stories are probably the best things he ever wrote (though I do have a soft spot for “The Wanderer”, a Hugo winning novel that many people dislike — but I think Tigerishka is a compelling character and her story fascinates me).
—
-Alan
October 15, 2018 at 7:35 am
Thanks for the chronology, Alan, and for correcting me about the novel!