December Reading Thread

[Er Rn]

Finished Royal Assassin and thought it was great. I'm enjoying this series so much, and I really don't know why I never read it before. Moving right along into Assassin's Quest.

The thread is locked and I don't know if a new one will be opened, so I'll post here that I met my reading goal for the year with 30/30 books completed in 2014.

[mashiara]

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears was a great read. It started off slowly and simply and then it became a lot more complicated and complex. I love books with unreliable narrators and this was a great example of the kind. A great historical novel too.

Heaven's Queen, by Rachel Bach. The third and last book in the series, it was a fun one but I did not love it as much as the first two. Could be because it was heavier in gooey romance than the others, I guess. Or because the writing and the dialogue didn't feel as good. Still, quick fun.

I'll be starting The Twelfth Department by William Ryan. I don't often start a series from book 3 but I won this at a local contest and it seems interesting.

[Seasick Shrimp]

Finished Gone Girl today, a fun read, but I feel like the story escalated a little too much for me, it lost me somewhere around the last third of the book. Still a great read though. Now I'm reading a biography about Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of Minecraft. Not too exciting, but a cosy little read before christmas eve, when I will receive lots of awesome books to devour as usual :D Absolutely love the feeling of laying around the house at christmas eve, with a belly full of food and sweets, a little sleepy after all the celebrating, and just reading some new book you received earlier that day. :)

[scortius the charioteer]

I was reading Assail, out of some odd sense of obligation, I checked it out of the library and couldn't get more than 100 pages in in 2 weeks.... What happened to the Esslemont who wrote Stonewielder? He's been MIA for 3 books now.

I also just started the Daylight War and I might not finish that either. Man that series goes right off a cliff after book 1. I feel like this is what happens to writers who spend years polishing something and it becomes a hit and they are now a Writer instead of a guy who's writing a novel. Then they have to quickly come up with multiple sequels because after Game of Thrones you can't just write one book apparently if you are a new author. Most of them don't seem up to the task and lately in a lot of series I've read there is WAY too much rape as motivation. And you're talking to a Bakker fan.

I am actually reading Ghosts of Cannae. Fantastic read.

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah, Brett seems to to use rape as plot when he gets stuck. Which is apprently every 20 pages. Still got nothing on Sara Douglas though.

[Spockydog]

Yeah, Brett seems to to use rape as plot when he gets stuck. Which is apprently every 20 pages. Still got nothing on Sara Douglas though.

:ack: :ack: :ack:

[buff daddy]

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears was a great read. It started off slowly and simply and then it became a lot more complicated and complex. I love books with unreliable narrators and this was a great example of the kind. A great historical novel too.

I haven't thought about that book in ages but I loved it back when I read it years ago. I'm surprised it's not mentioned on sites like this one more often, what with it's meticulously detailed and authentic-feeling medieval setting and more generally just how well written and unique it is,

[Starkess]

Finished Shadow and Bone. It was a quick, easy read that was a lot of fun. Swung by the bookstore after work today to pick up Siege and Storm. Not sure it will be as good--the structure of the series lends me to feel that the first one was likely to be the best--but it's short and quick and I'm sure it will still be enjoyable.

[SkynJay]

Finished Shadow and Bone. It was a quick, easy read that was a lot of fun. Swung by the bookstore after work today to pick up Siege and Storm. Not sure it will be as good--the structure of the series lends me to feel that the first one was likely to be the best--but it's short and quick and I'm sure it will still be enjoyable.

That is what happened to me. Loved the first one, still saw promise in book two, all came crashing down in book three. But Shadow and Bone was good enough I will probably read her new series.

[Maester Llama]

About half-way through Kameron Hurley's The Mirror Empire. I've been anticipating this book hugely through a lot of this year and in a lot of ways it's rising to those expectations. The world retains an epic fantasy feel while also being genuinely unusual and fascinatingly disorienting; the cultures are interesting; the plot, while it starts a little obscure, is elucidating itself as the story goes on in a way that feels fairly smooth and very satisfying, and it's very exciting. There are crazy carnivorous plants and blood magic and ambiguous gender stuff and organic lightsabers and I love it. The prose feels a little bit blunt and rough in places but generally manages to at least not get in the way, at least for me. Lots of characters get point of view and it's taking me a while to get them straight -- Hurley's not big on character descriptions for the most part, and the series seeds detail rather than infodumping, which is lovely -- but there seem to be a few who are clearly more important. Half-way through and I'd say I am very interested by many of them but they're not super likeable, or rather what I've seen of them and their motivations doesn't really give me much to grasp in the way of getting invested in their success / continued survival. However, one character who I at first thought was just the absolute worst is now perhaps the one I'm most engaged with as an individual who clearly wants something, so I think Hurley's definitely going places with the characters and I'm still very much on board with seeing if they can involve me.

One character's plot arc is also really bugging me because it seems to be primarily composed of the plot, in the shape of two different important factions, volleying this character back and forth between them trying to make her go places / do shit with them, damaging her in various horrific ways in the process. They just trade off opportunities to fuck with her every couple chapters, and whenever there's a hint she might establish some kind of meaningful friend / support connection with anybody or attain some degree of agency beyond the momentary some new species of horrible shit rains down upon her and off she volleys again. There's chronicling the harrowing life of a character who others view primarily as an object, important as a game piece but not of inherent value as an individual with a self and a life, and then there's this, which feels like watching some sort of fucked up version of pingpong they play in Hell.

I'm also working on Patrick Rothfuss' The Slow Regard of Silent Things, taking it gradually, and Rachel Bach's Heaven's Queen.

[Tellus Explorer]

I finished my reread of running with scissors and enjoyed it just as I did, the first time I read it.

Now I have started my cloud atlas and shutter island reread....

January I hope to start reading all of the star wars novels :wideeyed:

[TheRevanchist]

I finished my reread of running with scissors and enjoyed it just as I did, the first time I read it.

Now I have started my cloud atlas and shutter island reread....

January I hope to start reading all of the star wars novels :wideeyed:

With those being decanonized, it isn't probably a good idea. Especially not a good idea to read novels after ROTJ.

I will go batshit crazy if they completely change the Thrawn trology stories on the next movie. Those books are arguably the second most important part of Star Wars and without them, Star Wars would have died. And are as good as top tier fantasy books.

[Tellus Explorer]

With those being decanonized, it isn't probably a good idea. Especially not a good idea to read novels after ROTJ.

I will go batshit crazy if they completely change the Thrawn trology stories on the next movie. Those books are arguably the second most important part of Star Wars and without them, Star Wars would have died. And are as good as top tier fantasy books.

then what do you suggest for my sci/fi fantasy fix to kick off the new year?

[First of My Name]

Finished Jericho Moon by Matthew Stover. I liked it better than its prequel Iron Dawn, entertaining action-adventure novel.

Also started 11/22/63 by King. This one looks promising.

[aceluby]

then what do you suggest for my sci/fi fantasy fix to kick off the new year?

Have you read the Hyperion saga yet?

[polishgenius]

With those being decanonized, it isn't probably a good idea. Especially not a good idea to read novels after ROTJ.

Oh come on. It's a bit annoying that they've been declared non-canon, but that doesn't mean the good ones aren't good.

Although I certainly wouldn't recommend reading all of them, or even most of them tbh.

[HexMachina]

With those being decanonized, it isn't probably a good idea. Especially not a good idea to read novels after ROTJ.

I will go batshit crazy if they completely change the Thrawn trology stories on the next movie. Those books are arguably the second most important part of Star Wars and without them, Star Wars would have died. And are as good as top tier fantasy books.

What does them being decanonised have to do with anything? If they are good books (I genuinely have no idea, I've never read them) then I see no reason not to read them whether they are canon or not.

[First of My Name]

With those being decanonized, it isn't probably a good idea. Especially not a good idea to read novels after ROTJ.

I will go batshit crazy if they completely change the Thrawn trology stories on the next movie. Those books are arguably the second most important part of Star Wars and without them, Star Wars would have died. And are as good as top tier fantasy books.

It's already been confirmed that the new movies won't be based on the Thrawn trilogy. j=And judging by what is known so far of Episode VII they won't borrow anything from that trilogy either.

And like Helena said, why does them not being canon make them any less enjoyable?

[Darth Richard II]

Weirdly, the new Tarkington book, which IS cannon, makes references to books that are no longer cannon. It hurts my brain.

[First of My Name]

Weirdly, the new Tarkington book, which IS cannon, makes references to books that are no longer cannon. It hurts my brain.

Yeah, I haven't read it but I heard this too. The writer mostly references his own non-canon books though. I'm not surprised that he'd try to salvage parts of his own stories.