November reading thread

[MaybeMike]

Starting a re-read of A Game of Thrones

[Iskaral Pust]

I really hope that post is intended as mockery.

I've been reading a lot David Mitchell. The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet, Ghostwritten and now Number9Dream. I read Cloud Atlas last year. All but N9D (so far) have overlapping characters, locations and some plot points. He also tends to have a near-future apocalypse as a secondary, depressing plot. He writes really well and experiments with novel structure.

I've also read a couple more of the Strongbow Saga series. Pretty good historical fiction set in the Viking era. I also tried the first book in the Galloglass series. Undistinguished stuff, I don't plan to read further into the series.

[Darth Richard II]

Hint: When you edit your post, people can see that you have edited your post.

[Migey]

Nooo! Did we miss another Kurtism? What was the original post? We must know.

[Darth Richard II]

I also wonder if he knows we can see his nickname history...

[The Reckoner]

I recently finished The Crippled God. I didn't think I'd meet anyone I liked less than Ramsay, until the Forkrul Assail. The best epic fantasy series I've read. About to crack Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. I may go back and take a fourth shot at Assassin's Apprentice, but I think I came to this one too late. I do recommend it as a gateway novel, as it did remind me of Harry Potter: something I would've really loved if I were just getting into reading for leisure, or the fantasy genre.

[Darth Richard II]

The idea of Assassin's Apprentice being a gateway book is so mind numbingly insane I'm still trying to phrase a non inflammatory response.

[deleted01]

The Wise Man's Fear is slow going, but I'm enjoying young Kvothe more this time, even if he is still an irritating tit sometimes.

[Iskaral Pust]

Nooo! Did we miss another Kurtism? What was the original post? We must know.

It was almost a repeat of his first post in the thread he started. No new gems.

Iskaral - Without going into much detail, could you list your preferences in Mitchell novels? I've only read Cloud Atlas and Thousand Autumns. Merci.

Sure. It might be slightly influenced by the order I read them but, in descending order:

- Cloud Atlas

- Thousand Autumns of JdZ

- Ghostwritten (feels like Cloud Atlas)

- Bone Clocks (starts well and overall has a more distinct plot than the others but some of the

POVs drag and the epilogue about a near-future apocalypse is far too long)

- Number9Dream (still well written but too trippy)

[Maester Llama]

Finished Seanan McGuire's eighth October Day novel, The Winter Long. I derive a lot of joy from these. Feel-good comfort food, with some good world building and a protagonist I've grown to like a lot. This one's another solid iteration of the Toby book formula, with some bonus slightly-bigger-than-usual developments on the overall series arc front. I'm still in the frame of mind that wants fast lightweight punchy stuff with absorbing leads and I'm out of urban fantasy novels, which means its finally Honor's Knight time motherfuckers.

I'm also halfway through Django Wexler's The Shadow Throne, the second book in his flintlock epic fantasy The Shadow Campaigns after The Thousand Names. When this came out back in the summer it seemed to divide folks, based on the few reviews I saw. It got some quite positive reviews that hailed it for improving on the already very good first book while taking the series onto quite different ground subject matter-wise. And then it got some reviews kvetching about how the first book had great battles in it and this one's all revolutionary politics and it sucks -- a couple of these came along with some bonus homophobia, as one of the principle characters in the series has a sort of romance plot in this one. I fall firmly into the camp that feels The Shadow Throne only improves on The Thousand Names, a book I already liked very much; I really like that Wexler is expanding the scope of his military fantasy series to include the political / revolutionary arena. I love me some well-described battles and look forward to seeing some more of them, but The Shadow Throne feels like its very definitely where the series needed to go next, and it expands Wexler's powers as a storyteller as well as filling in a lot of world stuff in intriguing ways. Its also still super exciting -- this is a very accelerated, hyped-up version of revolutionary politics that's basically all the storming of the Bastille all the time. One critique of the book that I've seen that I do sympathize with is that the whole thing feels somewhat simplified as a depiction of political upheaval, but it works for me as the backdrop for a robust story of swashbuckling adventure. Great series so far, and, halfway through, great second installment.

[Spockydog]

My sister's been going on at me for months, trying to get me to read Scott Sigler's Infected. I started it last night, and not quite sure what all the fuss is about. We shall see...

[mashiara]

Terry Pratchett's Raising Steam was not all I hoped it to be. In fact, it was the most unfunny Pratchett I've ever read, I can't remember reading one of his books and not laughing out loud a couple of times, or grinning a lot. It was a total miss for me, it felt more like a series of moments than an actual story -and preachy too, too intent on passing on a message.

I'm now reading Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie, and loving it so far.

[Mark Antony]

even if he is still an irritating tit sometimes.

Understatement :P

Reading Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrock and rereading Masters of Rome series

[deleted01]

Understatement :P

Reading Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrock and rereading Masters of Rome series

Tell me about it. Decided to put him away for a while and reread The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. With my TBR pile the size it is, I can't really justify a reread, but I bloody love this book.

[Jo498]

Good Omens by Pratchett/Gaiman. Pretty good, but not great, I should probably get back to Pratchett's real stuff. I read a handful of discworld novels in the '90s (mostly in German translations) and have not kept track of the "newer" ones.

Now started Roddy Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha ha ha". I was reminded of that one by the "Booker Prize" thread. Episodic (and I have to guess some 1960s slang), but funny and very well done. Also an interesting glimpse into Ireland in the late 60s. Some things seem almost "medieval", others remind me of my own childhood around 1980 (not in Ireland).

[SkynJay]

Lost track of the last time I posted. But recently I have finished of 'Abbadon's Gat'e in my quest to get caught up. Liked it almost as much as book 2, and liked both of those a lot more than book 1.

Also read 'The Broken Kingdoms' by Jemison, book 2 of The Inheritance. So much better than 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms,' I only tried book 2 because of how good her other series was, glad I kept going.

Now I am rereading 'Empire in Black and Gold' because I would like to keep reading the series but forgot everything about it.

[polishgenius]

This weekend I read, based on recommendations earlier in the topic, Generation V by ML Brennan. I'm certainly glad y'all talked about it, because I'd never have picked it up based on the cover and the premise - but it's not only funny and entertaining, it manages the very difficult trick of holding my interest while dealing with vampires. It also has the early signs of a good supporting cast, which is always important in urban fantasy series like this.

It wasn't flawless- I found myself getting a bit irritated with how much of a doormat the main character was, the author had clearly enjoyed Wesley in the Wanted film but there's a difference between a quick jokey film intro and living in the character's head for the whole book. But it improved when other characters started taking the piss out of him too.
And there was one plot revelation that was so blatantly obvious that it threw me for a loop that the author tried to play it as such at all - I'd worked it out about a hundred pages previous and had just assumed the geezer had too, because, well, duh.

But all in all, a solid read and looks like the beginnings of a seriosuly promising urban fantasy if it keeps on like that..


I've now begun the aforementioned River of Souls.

[Eponine]

Finally finished Middlemarch (my book club meets in two days). I hated it. But it's the kind of book that was never going to interest me for 900 pages. For starters, I don't care greatly about mid-1800s England. It's familiar enough with the attitudes about women's roles and the bickering about religious subtleties and reputations and positions to not feel like I'm getting a great insight into *what life used to be like for women*. And it's not part of my personal history - this isn't the life I'd have been born to had I been born two hundred years earlier. (Although arguably it has some similarities to the life I was born to 30ish years ago). And then I don't care about romantic entanglements and misunderstandings and the beauty of making a match with the right person and who's going to end up with whom. So it's no revelation that someone who didn't like this kind of book didn't like this book.

I also finished The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness, which to put it shortly, had some really good parts but felt like too many things smushed into one place. I was worried about the Asian woman with white man thing, but it generally evaded offensiveness - or at least, if you believe that a white author can retell a Japanese story at all (I don't personally see why not), it did as well as it could to minimize inappropriate appropriation. (That's simply to say, I didn't feel like an idea of Asian-otherness was being shoved in my face). I'd like to know what about it stood out so much to the friend who recommended it.

I'm rereading Gears of the City for the third time because I love it. I have a good sized list of suggested books from various threads.

[James Arryn]

Am 70% through The Ninth Orphan. by James and Lance Morcan.

It's terrible. I'd read good reviews, but it's awful. Recycled ideas seemingly written by/for HS students. I'll finish it, though, for reasons I never understand. I either bail v. early on or I push through. I was very close to bailing on this early, but hoped IT would get better. Nope.

Does anyone know if the series gets (a lot) better? Felt like something new in a spy thriller type, hadn't read one for years, but no joy. Why wasn't the Worricker Trilogy based in great books I could enjoy?

[Darth Richard II]

Oh oh oh, if you love Gears of the City you'll probably really like City of Stairs. Gave me a very Gillman vibe.