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April Reads


Garett Hornwood

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Just finished the Sand omnibus by Hugh Howey. I liked it very much and I hope there's more to come - I'm interested in the characters and the world, and the book leaves many unanswered questions.



Next up - Caine Black Knife by Matthew Stover. I look forward to a trip to Overworld! And badassery Hari-style!


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I finished The Shadow Rising. It's like I'm in the past.

Quirky review on my blog: http://loopingworld.com/2014/04/20/the-shadow-rising-robert-jordan/

Now I should probably go on with Erikson or Wolfhound Century, but this one is so short I'd have to write another review in like a week. It's possible I'll derail to Words of Radiance.

I should also get started with the whole Horus Heresy and Neal Stephenson.

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Finished The 19th Wife. A strange, haunting tale of polygamy in the US, and the split between the Firsts and the Latter Day Saints. I Googled Ann Eliza Young, and was disturbed by my what I read. In the novel, I liked the way both the old story of Ann Eliza, and the modern story of Jordan Scott, were woven together. A pretty good book - 4 stars on Goodreads.

Due to the release of the new BBC adaptation of Jamaica Inn, I suppose I can't ignore the book any longer. Will start that tonight.

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This Thursday the faculty/staff book discussion group at my university is talking about And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I had read the first third this weekend and last night at 11 pm thought I'd read a couple of chapters before going to sleep. I ended up finishing it, staying awake until 2 am, the first time in years I've done that with a book. In thinking about the plot afterwards I think there were a couple of holes in it -- but the idea of the book was so fascinating in a creepy way that it just compelled me to keep reading until the end. Wanting to know which of the ten characters will be the last to die turned out to be a very powerful motive. I can see why the blurb on the cover claims this is the best selling mystery novel of all time.


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This Thursday the faculty/staff book discussion group at my university is talking about And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I had read the first third this weekend and last night at 11 pm thought I'd read a couple of chapters before going to sleep. I ended up finishing it, staying awake until 2 am, the first time in years I've done that with a book. In thinking about the plot afterwards I think there were a couple of holes in it -- but the idea of the book was so fascinating in a creepy way that it just compelled me to keep reading until the end. Wanting to know which of the ten characters will be the last to die turned out to be a very powerful motive. I can see why the blurb on the cover claims this is the best selling mystery novel of all time.

Such a creepy and interesting book, I love Agatha Christie but her books give me chills and the ending I would never have guessed it. Great Book

Speaking of Agatha Christie I'm reading her book "The Tuesday Club Murders" I really like it

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After finishing the third of five Stockholm novels (or chronicles) by Fogelström, I decided to pick up a Flannery O'Connor short story collection. I've only read A Stroke of Good Fortune so far, but it was pretty interesting. Most of her well known short stories seem to be included - Everything That Rises Must Converge, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, etc.


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Just finished The Firedrake by Cecelia Holland, which I picked up to break in my new Kindle. I discovered her through Nora's Song in the Dangerous Women anthology and wanted to check out more of her work. This was her first published novel and it shows but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable read. It follows a roaming Irish knight as he enters the Flemish and Norman courts in the years leading up to the Battle of Hastings. Her clever use of concise sentences when the protagonist is alone illustrated what a simple, straightforward Medieval mercenary he was.

Next up is The Poisoned Crown by Maurice Druon, book 3 in The Accursed Kings.

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Reposted from Goodreads: Otherland is the first fantasy series that I've finished this year (I've read a few other book #1s with no intention of continuing, including Tad William's own awful slogfest MS&T). I started a thread that got pretty long many years back about fantasy series that ended somewhere between well and spectacular. It didn't turn out to be a very long list. Otherland isn't on it. It wasn't terrible, it just wore out its welcome. The least interesting character ended up being the hinge point of the entire plot (which really went off the rails). The main character of the first book that pulled me into the story ended up not actually having much to do, plot-wise. As happens with long series, I kept reading out of curiosity for what happens with book 1 characters while not caring about characters introduced later and finding time spent with a few of the later characters to be an annoying distraction.



If you want to read Otherland, I recommend stopping when the settings and characters start losing their magic.The start of the story depended heavily on a "sense of wonder" advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, with success, but became repetitive and brought in too many convenient or out of nowhere powers and coincidences too many times by the end.



The next list book is Planet of Adventure, Jack Vance. It looks awful.


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Kristen Britain's Blackveil was a disappointment in many levels. The dialogue was stupid at times, the characters behaved like teenagers, one particular event had me rolling my eyes so hard it gave me a headache. I'll probably read the next one but it's not high on my priorities list.



I made quick work of Kim Harrison's A Perfect Blood and Ever After, books 10 and 11 in The Hollows series. They were fine as brain candy goes, not as good as the first books in the series. As it the norm with such long series I'm getting bored with the use of repetitive phrases and mannerisms and situations (but then again, my screen name comes from someone who tugged her braid approximately 4 dozen times in each book of another really long series, so who am I to talk, right? :P) These books can be very entertaining if urban fantasy is your thing, and they are still better quality than some of the other stuff I've read in the genre -and I've read a lot, and I plan on reading more.



I'm going to start Blood of the Mantis by Adrian Tchaikovsky this weekend, book 3 in the Shadows of the Apt series.


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