February 2015 Reads

[SkynJay]

Snip

Empress left me with such a bad impression I ignored my opportunity to read it. For many of the same reasons you listed. You can play with language if you want, but you better keep it consistent. Otherwise I would prefer to just assume everything has been translated to English.

The good news is, going by the author's history, she will get over her grimness and the next book in the series will be sunshine.

[Ser Jake]

Finished up another AGoT reread and started Starship Troopers, enjoying it so far. Going to either continue my ASoIaF reread after I finish, or pick up book 2 of the Expanse series.

[Darth Richard II]

Empress left me with such a bad impression I ignored my opportunity to read it. For many of the same reasons you listed. You can play with language if you want, but you better keep it consistent. Otherwise I would prefer to just assume everything has been translated to English.

The good news is, going by the author's history, she will get over her grimness and the next book in the series will be sunshine.

I dunno, her follow up books to her first Innocent mage books took the characters from those books and turned them into horrible, selfish shit bags. And then

They pretty much all die from being asshole sto each other. Or Drown. God I hate those books

And despite all this I picked up the Falcon Throne on sale anyway. IF there's one thing I'd file under guilty pleasure/shit you read even though you KNOW it's shit it would be Miller.

[RedEyedGhost]

I LOVED both of them!! Honestly, all I ever read was Autobiography books and a couple of History. I didn't read a lot before ASOIAF.

But what did you love about them? Because you like history books, I would suggest Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles starting with The Winter King.

I dunno, her follow up books to her first Innocent mage books took the characters from those books and turned them into horrible, selfish shit bags. And then

They pretty much all die from being asshole sto each other. Or Drown. God I hate those books

And despite all this I picked up the Falcon Throne on sale anyway. IF there's one thing I'd file under guilty pleasure/shit you read even though you KNOW it's shit it would be Miller.

How much do you hate yourself? Karen Miller could win the internet, and I would still not read anymore of her books - I would literally think that all the praise was an elaborate joke to Rick Roll me.

[Darth Richard II]

A lot?

She is actually really popular outside of these boards, which baffles me somewhat.

[Peadar]

Just finished all the Farseer books by Robin Hobb. It was my SECOND fantasy read, ASOIAF being the 1st. In my opinion, It was just as addicting as ASOIAF. I bought Wheel of Time and the First Law Trilogy on iBooks but can't get into it like GRRM and Hobb. Do you guys have any suggestions?

I think what you're looking for next is Guy Gavriel Kay. Maybe give The Lions of Al-Rassan a shot?

The writers you've enjoyed so far both value character development highly, as well as immersive, patient world-building. They live on what I would describe as the literary end of the fantasy spectrum, although they are more middle-brow than high-brow IMHO.

[Lyanna Stark]

Just finished all the Farseer books by Robin Hobb. It was my SECOND fantasy read, ASOIAF being the 1st. In my opinion, It was just as addicting as ASOIAF. I bought Wheel of Time and the First Law Trilogy on iBooks but can't get into it like GRRM and Hobb. Do you guys have any suggestions?

WoT is juvenile. Avoid it. If you are over 18-19, it ought to grate on you unless you really like to faceplant in very traditional, epic Fantasy, in which men are men and wave swords and women bicker with other women, care about dresses and sniff a lot.

The First Law Trilogy might need a bit more time. Or, switch over to Best Served Cold which can be read standalone and is excellent, imho. If you are looking at more grown up Fantasy in general, then The Long Price Quartet is excellent. Somewhat slow at the start, but it is more than made up for by the characterisation and how the plot is held together.

Just plowed some more Ilona Andrews because delayed trains are the bane of my existence. Finished "The Edge" series of four quite short novels, or at least they felt short, and am now totally out of saccharine to make my commuter time bearable. I have to say, given how popular Andrews is, you'd think the dialogue would at least get a little bit of polish, but it's often really, really clunky. Especially the third novel was pretty goddamn awful in that regard. Given that I complain about WoT being essentialist bullcrap, it's perhaps disingenuous to read Andrews, because that stuff is in here too. Sometimes more subtle, but in the fourth novel is bounced straight into overt territory. Please tell me more about how men can't have feelings because it would be oh so emasculating. :stillsick: I like my saccharine well enough, but there were enough blunders in these ones to make me almost too annoyed to be able to enjoy them. In fact, I think for saccharine, I prefer Bec McMaster more since I won't have to suffer through so much overt essentialist wah wah.

I might take emberling up on the elf hate-rec next and hope it has enough saccharine in it to make me suffer through my commute and associated delays.

[lessthanluke]

100 pages into Paladin of Souls by Bujold. Not really sure where it's going to go so no comments yet.

[First of My Name]

Finished Saga: Book One, which includes the first three trade paperbacks and an extensive look at the creative process. I really enjoyed this, great characters, twists, humor and art. I'll definitely pick up Volume 4 in the near future.

Also halfway through Hobb's Royal Assassin, which I'm also enjoying a lot. Even better than the first book. It's funny that Hobb can make the main character's daily life so compelling.

[Night's_King]

Finished Brian Staveleys Providence of Fire. It's the second book of the Unhewn Throne series and definitly one of the best second books I've ever read.

The plot grew more interesting, the characters were deeper and there was a lot of action, I enjoyed. All in all, it was a great read.

[aceluby]

Reading some non-fiction, Head Start Design Patterns, for work. It's about computer designs, but it's written in a way that has games to teach you the concepts instead of just boring text. Getting a lot out of it already. For my evening read I started The King's Bastard. I haven't gotten too far into it, but the prose isn't blowing me away right now.

[benpeek]

Finished Neverwhere by Gaiman. Really enjoyed it. Well done characters, interesting plot and generally well paced throughout.

Now onto Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. The blurb makes it sound really cool, so I am kind of excited - but haven't heard anything about it otherwise.

The Man in the High Castle is great. People probably don't talk about it that much these days because of it's age, but I imagine that'll change a bit 'cause there's a TV show that just started up. Anyhow, either way, it's a sweet book. Dick himself used the I Ching to decide certain plot points within it and it's an interesting experience to see the characters using it within the book at the same time that you realise the author was also using it.

[Zorral]

Have started a non-Alatriste novel by Arturo Pérez- Reverte, The Siege. It's set in Cádiz during the Napoleónic wars. It's a mystery of women's murders connected to the French artillery engineer attempting to solve the distance problem of launching explosive projectiles successfully into the city instead of them fizzling out and / or never getting over the walls. Lots of geometry.

The non-fiction book I've begun is The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin. Graceful prose that doesn't bludgeon the reader with the author's learning; deeply researched from Adams's own papers and journals, as well as his wife's, Louisa Catherine Adams -- who is a fascinating character in own right. Among other things she traveled alone (servants -- she had servants) with her young son, from St. Petersburg to Paris right after Waterloo.

[peterbound]

Finished Brian Staveleys Providence of Fire. It's the second book of the Unhewn Throne series and definitly one of the best second books I've ever read. The plot grew more interesting, the characters were deeper and there was a lot of action, I enjoyed. All in all, it was a great read.

Ya, I dug it.

Fuck do I hate the sister though.

[YellowDogJen]

I've been reading the Generation V series - great fun! A young man is a reluctant vampire trying to get out from under the thumb of his dominating family. He's befriended by a kitsune (a sorta were-fox) and they solve mysteries. Lotsa fun supernatural critters make appearances, there's action, and pretty good humor.

And Holy Robin Hobb! The main character's name is Fortitude, his brother is Chivalry, and his sister is Prudence. :wideeyed:

Popcorn reading, for sure, but fast and so amusing. Recommended.

[beniowa]

I got a fair bit into iD by Madeline Ashby. However, it wasn't grabbing me at all so I put it aside. Maybe I'll come back to it later, maybe not. I've picked up Gutenberg's Apprentice by Alix Christe instead. I'm also nearly done with Racers of the Night by Brad Torgersen.

I really like the sound of this! But for the moment, I'm reading Rustication by Charles Palliser. Too early to say if I'll like it...

I read this one not long after it came out. I really didn't like it much at all.

[Darth Richard II]

I've been reading the Generation V series - great fun! A young man is a reluctant vampire trying to get out from under the thumb of his dominating family. He's befriended by a kitsune (a sorta were-fox) and they solve mysteries. Lotsa fun supernatural critters make appearances, there's action, and pretty good humor.

And Holy Robin Hobb! The main character's name is Fortitude, his brother is Chivalry, and his sister is Prudence. :wideeyed:

Popcorn reading, for sure, but fast and so amusing. Recommended.

Those names arnt that weird. Look up what Protestants in England used to name themselves.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Finished Brian Staveleys Providence of Fire. It's the second book of the Unhewn Throne series and definitly one of the best second books I've ever read. The plot grew more interesting, the characters were deeper and there was a lot of action, I enjoyed. All in all, it was a great read.

Ya, I dug it.

Fuck do I hate the sister though.

I finally managed to finish this a few days back. While it started on a promising note,by the halfway point it turned into a bit of a slog for me.Too much uninteresting worldbuilding/descriptions that i just skimmed/skipped through.It also did not have the narrative pull of a page-turner.

Kaden bumbles from one place to another ,Valyn after all that cool training goes into teen angst/emo mode and he's supposed to be a leader !!

Adare,the lone female POV is the biggest disappointment though out of the three.She's supposed to have studied under her father (the Emperor) and been a minister in the government ,so lot's of experience governing yet some of the choices she makes are ridiculous/dubious.This i think has more to do more with weak characterization than anything else.Also because : PLOT !

There were some cool twists and action along the way but overall this is just another average epic fantasy that new readers to the genre might enjoy more.

[peterbound]

I've been reading the Generation V series - great fun! A young man is a reluctant vampire trying to get out from under the thumb of his dominating family. He's befriended by a kitsune (a sorta were-fox) and they solve mysteries. Lotsa fun supernatural critters make appearances, there's action, and pretty good humor.

And Holy Robin Hobb! The main character's name is Fortitude, his brother is Chivalry, and his sister is Prudence. :wideeyed:

Popcorn reading, for sure, but fast and so amusing. Recommended.

I dug the GV novels

Don't sweat the names. In a genre with shit like Whiseyjack, Tyrion, and Aragon I don't think you should get to spun up about RH's name choices. They make sense in the grander scheme of things.

Also, popcorn wouldn't be how I'd describe her novels.

[Maester Llama]

Re The Falcon Throne:

Helena: You're very welcome. If you've already got it it's probably worth another shot, yeah. Massively flawed but there's some good stuff in there, I think. I hope you enjoy it.

SkynJay, DR, REG: The popularity of Miller's early stuff baffles me as well because I think it's bad, but -- based solely on looking at amazon and goodreads and suchlike -- The Falcon Throne seems to have gone over rather less well, and that baffles me too, and is part of the reason I felt I should try to write about it at slightly more length, because it feels like it comes closer to being successful than that earlier material. I don't think we should be praising it especially or holding it up as exemplary or anything, but it seems a shame that Miller's audience seems to be drifting away a bit while her books are taking steps forward with some solidly-built characters and storylines. I don't think it's holy-shit-reverse-your-no-Miller-policies-you-do-not-know-what-you-are-missing better, not by a long way, but it is better. DR, if you enjoyed the earlier books as bad but fun epic soap I suspect you'll get what you want out of this one.

Okay, posting about things in books that piss me off isn't really something I'm into, but I'm about fifty pages into Sebastian DeCastell's Traitor's Blade and about half-way through Brian Staveley's The Emperor's Blades [many blades up in here] and you know what I could do with a lot fucking less of? Authors fridging their women characters as formative trauma for their male heroes. Hardly a revelatory statement, I know, but I happened to read two instances of it in these two secondary world fantasies -- which each certainly have things to recommend them -- quite close together and the tired shittyness of the trope was brought home to me anew. I'm enjoying both to a degree -- DeCastell's book contains some fun swashbuckling elements whilst Staveley's is conjuring an epic fantasy world that's divertingly metal in places -- but I think I might maybe take a break and go back to Schafer's The Whitefire Crossing, which is making me happy rather than pissing me off.