What are you currently reading..?

[James Everington]

A quartet of novellas and chapbooks:

The Night Just Got Darker - Gary McMahon
Drive - Mark West
Respite For The Dead - Lucy Taylor
Water For Drowning - Ray Cluley

[Rolnikov]

Just finished Of Whimsies and Noubles, another fantastic novella about Luff Imbry by Matthew Hughes, from PS Publishing. Just my cup of tea.

And I've just started Willful Child by Steven Erikson, which I'm still getting my head around. So far it's about a gleefully sexist spaceship captain who loves Star Trek.

[Rolnikov]

Reading Engines of War, the War Doctor novel by George Mann. I'm enjoying how it draws on different eras of the programme, like the High Council room from The Five Doctors and Rassilon from The End of Time, and weaves into the story all the different bits we know about the Time War, while feeling very much in the tradition of the Target adaptations of old dalek stories. So far the War Doctor doesn't seem all that different to the other Doctors, but maybe the difference will show when he's forced to make a difficult decision.

[Rolnikov]

Bone and Jewel Creatures, by Elizabeth Bear, a terrific novella about an odd kind of wizard who takes in a feral child just as a necromancer makes his move. It's a Subterranean Press book, but the ebook was available at a very reasonable price via Weightless Books.

[Wayne Mook]

I've picked up the re-issues of Robert Aickman from Faber, lovely and unsettling stories. The Books gorgeous as well. I particularly liked the afterwords have been particularly illuminating.

Also dropping in and out of collection of William hope Hodgson's tales, picked up cheap on the kindle.

Wayne.

[Rolnikov]

Started The Dragon Griaule by Lucius Shepard. I haven't read any of these stories before and he's a writer I like very much, so my bet is that I'll enjoy it.

Just finished The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth, which had been my inbetweener for a few years. All about the etymological connections between words. Constantly amazing, which is why I liked reading it in bursts. You can only do so many double-takes a day before your neck gets tired.

[Rolnikov]

I've been reading lots of the Mike Mignola books that are going cheap at the moment: Hellboy in Hell, Zombieworld, Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, BPRD. All very enjoyable, with terrific art. They're a good corrective to my usual laziness when reading comics, because you have to read the artwork on his books as carefully as the words to understand what's going on.

[Rolnikov]

Just read David Quantick's How to Write Everything. It's okay, with some good advice, but a bit thin, given how much experience he has. For example he says he's written ten thousand reviews but only talks about it for half a page (and not all the advice is admirable: "If you are are going to make a review up, make it look convincing"). On interviewing, I got a lot more out of Jason Arnopp's How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else.

Also read Malorie Blackman's The Ripple Effect, a nice little Doctor Who book. And BPRD: Vampire by Mike Mignola and chums, which looked great though I was a bit lost. (I'll have to read the Hellboy books again in order once I've got them all.)

[Rolnikov]

100th book of the year was Axe Cop, Vol. 2: Bad Guy Earth, written by a six-year-old boy and drawn by his big brother. Didn't make me laugh quite as much as the first book (not much ever has), but still very good.

2900th book of my life (more or less) was The Goon, Vol. 1: Nothing But Misery by Eric Powell, about a mob enforcer who is secretly the boss. His rivals are a gang of zombies.

[Rolnikov]

Just finished volume two of the complete Valerian et Laureline, which collects Le Pays sans Etoile, Bienvenue sur Alflolol and Les Oiseaux du Maitre. They're a pair of space agents who get embroiled in a different adventure on each planet. Can't pretend I understood every word, but that didn't stop me enjoying them. I like how Laureline does exactly what she wants, however irksome it is for Valerian.

[Rolnikov]

125th book of the year was Usagi Yojimbo, Vol. 13: Grey Shadows by Stan Sakai. The rabbit ronin travels to collect the bounty for Hosoku the Bandit on behalf of a friend, and while waiting for the money helps Inspector Ishida to investigate murders and corruption in a series of connected short stories. The artwork is brilliant, so full of character. Every Usagi book is a treat.

[Rolnikov]

Book 140 was Deadpool Classic, Vol. 1, which I didn't enjoy much at all. Not a fan of Rob Liefeld's art, or other art in a similar style. Now reading God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlepig by Tad Williams, a comic called Captain Ultimate, and approaching the end of Showcase Presents Superman Family, Vol. 3, which I can barely read a page of without thinking, what the hell, Superman? The description of Descartes' evil demon fits him perfectly: "as clever and deceitful as he is powerful, who has directed his entire effort to misleading [Lois and Jimmy]".

[Djibril]

Currently reading The Girl at the End of the World anthology, edited by Adele Wearing. Interesting take on the post-apocalyptic premise, in that the first section seems to involve stories about people whose private worlds are ending, rather than the normal zombie/eco-/nuclear/plague extinction event that we find ourselves in… (Presumably later sections involve more conventional apocalypseis.)

[Rolnikov]

The last book I began this year was Billy's Book by Terry Bisson, a short PS Publishing collection of deliberately fragmentary and repetitive stories about a boy who has odd stuff turn up at his house, like giant ants and wizards and unicorns. They're okay, but it was a bit of a surprise at the end to see what starry venues they had originally appeared in.

The day before that I read two novellas: The Change: Orbital by our former chair Guy Adams, about Howard Phillips struggling to survive after a cosmic rip brings weirdness to the world, and God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlepig by Tad Williams, about an angel advocate trying to help out a werewolf client.

Enjoyed myself during December reading lots of short books and comics, and having a little holiday from reading books for review, but I'm looking forward now to getting stuck into something a bit more substantial and reading it really slowly.

[Jen]

Just binge reread a ton of graphic novels over the last few days - all 11 Mike Carey Lucifers, 4 Brian K Vaughan Mystiques, Elaine Lee's Vamps, Saga #4, 5 volumes of The Losers, 3 assorted Catwomans and Gail Simone's Red Sonja Vol.1.  And now my brain is melting!  (I'm writing a thing for a place, so it was research. Also an excuse to reread them.    )

Now I'm onto Seanan McGuire's The Winter Long, and attempting the finish the various anthologies I'm at various points through - namely - The Mammoth Book of SF stories by Women, The Mammoth Book of Warriors and Wizardry, Dangerous Women pt 3, Dangerous Games, the Women Destroy Horror issue of Nightmare, Fearsome Journeys, Sword & Mythos, and Zen Cho's collection Spirits Abroad.