May 2015 Reads

[SilentRoamer]

I finished Adrian Tchaikovsky Heirs of the Blade which is book 7 of a 10 book series.

AT does a great job of keeping the story fresh with new revelations whilst keeping things back for future reveals, a nice slow peel. The only issues I have is sometimes the prose jars me a little bit - the story often being better than the telling, I also like when we follow more of the major factions rather than the sandboxed novels following specific main characters (although I understand this is in part due to internal chronology). That being said I still enjoyed this and will definitely finish the series.

I have started Abercrombie's First Law #3 The Last Argument of Kings and only a few chapters in I can feel the same tone that had me enjoying the first two volumes so much.

Not sure where to go after this Abercrombie - I suspect next month will see me finish the original Dune series.

[End of Disc One]

I also like when we follow more of the major factions rather than the sandboxed novels following specific main characters (although I understand this is in part due to internal chronology).

Are you referring to book 5, The Scarab Path? I'm on that one now and am enjoying it quite a bit. Although for fantasy in general I tend to prefer the broader stories.

[SilentRoamer]

Yeah EoDO,

I really liked book 5. Book 6 (The Sea Watch) has probably been my favourite so far though - which is odd considering this is more of a sandbox than the Scarab Path - The Sea Watch introduces and develops more of the worlds mythos.. The Scarab Path is my second favourite so far though and not much between them.

The book I have just finished (Book 7) follows Tynisa for most of the novel and is pretty singularly focused on the story it is telling. I am looking forward to finishing this series.

[Corvinus85]

I finished Providence of Fire. I did not really find it any better that Emperor's Blades. It started out well, but it turned in a bit of a slog after the mid-point, though the ending was okay.

[Maester Llama]

CH: Where are you at in Strange and Norrell, if I may ask? I faltered several times before a couple things happened: I started to work out the layers in some of the major characters more, and also I got to the part where the plot just picks up more and gets momentum behind it, which takes quite some time.

Finished Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs. Dang. Involving on both a plot / character, visceral level and also on a thematic one. Just great great stuff. Also, I kind of didn't get the title at first -- insofar as direct plot relevance goes -- but I think I've worked out why it's perfect, at least for myself, subjectively, because one of the most evocative images in the whole thing for me is the stairs that stick up into the skies in some places in Bulakov, reaching up and up but broken at the top where the Blink took what they led to away, leading nowhere. Still thinking about the world and the characters.

About three quarters of the way through Elizabeth Bear's steampunk western Karen Memory. More awesomeness. I've found Bear's stuff compelling even when flawed for as long as I've been reading her, but she's really been on a role these last few years insofar as managing books that -- for this reader at least -- live all the way up to their considerable potential and feel like they're realizing their aspirations. Great voice, great characters, great sense of fun and adventure while still tackling weighty topics.

Also almost through Pierce Brown's Golden Son, the second in the trilogy that begins with Red Rising. There's ... look, it's bombastic, and it's macho and "aw yeah man that was sick" in an over-the-top way, and it's kinda dumb, but there's an energy and a velocity to it that I do find very compelling. I see how it's a well-executed version of a slightly more socially conscious, progressive, teched-up version of something descended in long line from Conan and John Carter and other sword-and-sorcery badassery tales of that kind, and I see how it is probably blowing a lot of young readers' minds wide open, and I am enjoying it, and all these things are good. But I definitely don't feel well brain-fed when I read it, the way I still can with the equally entertainment-based fantasies that are aging up with me and/or targeted more at where I'm at now. I'm having fun reading at but I'm finding I can't ever lose sight of what it is or of the fact that I'd be hard-pressed to call it "good," even though I think it hits a number of the things it is aiming at very very well.

[Astromech]

Maester,

I'm on the chapter where Strange is first going to Portugal to meet Wellington and Norrell is having a heart attack about him taking books with him

I haven't completely given up on the book, but it is really slow at this point and not enough magic to make up for the pace. It will probably be one of those works that takes me a few months to slog through.

[Maester Llama]

CH:

Ah, okay, yes, that part. As I remember, there's a somewhat more focused, clearly purposeful short run of chapters at this point, concentrated on

Strange during the Peninsular War -- there's quite a bit of magic in these sections as well --

but then the book lays off again for a little while and reverts to its former pace. I definitely found the first two thirds or so a slog the first time through. It took me months, and I think approaching it that way on purpose, as something to read a bit of and then set aside for a while to come back to later, does sound like a pretty good idea.

[Astromech]

Thanks for the advice, Maester. I'll just read it slowly while I'm reading other novels. Having a tough time deciding on books while I'm at the book store as well.

[mushroomshirt]

Maester,

SPOILER

I haven't completely given up on the book, but it is really slow at this point and not enough magic to make up for the pace. It will probably be one of those works that takes me a few months to slog through.

I actually tried to read this a few years ago based on recommendations from one of the other threads here. I was exactly in the same boat as you. I got about 1/4 of the way in and bailed out. The Jonathan Swift writing style really did it for me I think. I can usually handle slow books OK but I couldn't get through this one.

[Astromech]

Reading various reviews of the novel tells me my opinion thus far is not uncommon. The reviews I've read have been mostly glowing or scathing, not much in-between. Anyways, I'll just take it slowly and read something else to cleanse my palate in June.

[LordStoneheart]

Just finished The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker.

Overall I thought it was great. It had all of his trademarks. Grotequeries, some poetry, magic, and fun phrases like "Hell's heavens." And two of his most known characters, Pinhead (The Hell Priest) and Harry D'amour. Chapter lenghts varied between short and long, which helped with the pacing. The plot was familiar yet engaging, and the secondary characters had their moments that could range from heartbreaking to campy. It also had some pretty good twists that were revealed perfectly, particularly when meeting the King of Hell himself.

Some issues I had were the caliber of gore. It's definitely his style, but sometimes when it's packed on so strong I can't help but think it's completely unnecessary. I don't really need to hear about where the hooks entered the bodies or the literal "mountain of bleeding cunts" after a demon battle (though that one is pretty funny.) There was a strange lack of sex in this book, which I haven't decided if it's a strength or weakness in Barker's case. Certainly there were a lot of sexual references, but nothing too explicit. In relation to the budding romance between the self-described "dandy and queen" Dale and Caz, the flirtatious banter was laughably cheesy, which was strange since I've read Clive's description of genderless/intergender sex in Imagica. I was sure they were going to get a sex scene instead of just jokes about "canes," but since they were literally walking through Hell, I guess Clive just couldn't squeeze it in. Lana seemed rather underdeveloped to me. Very forgettable. And Pinhead... He definitely lived up to the reputation Hellraiser built, but I couldn't help but feel the ending that Barker promised us was not satisfying. Rather confusing, IMO.

I do hope Harry D'amour makes another appearance one day, but if not, he had what I think is a fitting end.

[Deedles]

Just finished "The Goblin Emperor " by Katherine Addison. Loved it! A properly kind protagonist . Well handled angst. Delicate handling of vague incompetence. Learning on the job. A look at the mechanics of government. Racism. Classism. Sexism all in an easily read bundle.

Also, ferret faced elves.

[Spockydog]

Since finishing Cornwell's The Pale Horseman (which I really enjoyed), I've started and aborted the following:

Forsaken, by J.D. Barker. Heard about this by virtue of it winning Superior Achievement in a Debut Novel in the Bram Stoker Awards. Interesting premise, but the prose felt slightly amateurish and it just didn't grab me.

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Scot's thread piqued my interest, so I downloaded the free sampler off Amazon. Again, interesting premise, but I just couldn't be arsed with all the exposition. Do we really need to read 400 words to understand why an astronaut prefers her hair a certain way? No, we don't. I'll probably come back to this when I'm on holiday and feeling a little more patient.

Blood Kin by Steve Rasnic Tem. This won the Bram Stoker for Best Novel, but Christ knows why. Dull and pretentious, with skeevy characters I didn't care about at all.

Now reading Cornwell's The Lords of the North. I have to say, I'm really warming to Uthred. So glad there's another five books to go in this series.

[Darth Richard II]

I hear you Mr Vulcan Dog Sir. I could read Cornwell's Saxon books forever. I think there are only two more left though. Boooo.

[Spockydog]

Gah! (spoiler for Lords of the North)

Guthred has just sold Uthred into slavery!

The treacherous bastard!

[mashiara]

I finished Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. I liked it but didn't quite fall in love with it the way I was told I would. I loved the bleakness and the starkness of the descriptions, I loved the main characters voice, no so much the chapters when the people around her were doing the talking. A good book with some beautiful language, maybe I just wasn't in the best mood for it.

Now reading Kitty Steals the Show by Carrie Vaughn. My brain is fried so close to the end of the school year, easy reads are what I need.

[Jo498]

I finished "The Method" (Corpus delicti: Ein Prozess) by youngish (*1974) German writer Juli Zeh; this was not bad, a dystopian novel about a mild totalitarian society where Health is the formost civic duty. (Although some things seem rather close to '1984' and other classics of the genre).

Within the last month I also devoured four "Nero Wolfe" books by Rex Stout (Some buried Caesar, Black Orchids, Death of a Dude, The Mother hunt).

For some reason I had missed this author completely in the several mystery/crime fiction phases since my teenage years. While the mysteries might not always be very plausible, the writing style is extremely entertaining (Wodehouse was a big fan and Stout's narrator character Archie owes quite a bit to Wodehousian types) and the settings also funny and original. With the search function deactivated I wonder if Stout was ever discussed on the forum as I could need some recommendations.

[First of My Name]

I've started Ship of Magic, the first book in the Liveship Traders trilogy. The first ten pages didn't do much for me but then that familiar Hobb magic kicked in. I'm only on page 33 but I think I'll enjoy this one.

I've also got about 70 pages left on Mostly Harmless, which is funnier than the previous book but also with less of a plot (which might be an advantage, given what kind of book this is).

[Candre]

I finished "To lie with lions" by Dorothy Dunnett. The sixth book in the series. This one took me seven months to finish.

As I started reading Niccolo Rising several years ago I was astonished. What a wonderful setting, what gorgous language and my what a twisted set of plots. I really fell in love with the series. I was wondering: Why is this series so unknown and why are the amount of reviews so sharply decling on goodreads and amazon book after book?

Several reasons:

1.) The plot is all over the place! In several thousand pages Miss Dunnett has introduced several dozens characters, that actually are important and have to be tracked in your mind. Most of the twists are predictable, but I didn´t see them coming, which is to some part clever writing, to some part cognitive overload! Headache incoming ...

2.) Her grammar and semantics are top notch! Which sounds like a good thing, unfortunetely for those of us, who aren´t native speakers of the wonderful English language, this is problem. All in all most authors repeat the some 10.000 words and then some. Not so Miss Dunnett. Even worse, she isn´t restricting herself on words with a Germanic origin. God thanks, I had some latin in school. My headache is growing ...

3.) Her protaganist are misogynistic and enjoying themselves. Yeah, we all love grey characters and some good meaning villain or two. But Miss Dunnett has created some real (and unfortunetaly believable) bastards. Nicollo could be the sucessor of Kim Yong-Un. He would probably turn arround North Korea into a tiger state into a few years, while enriching himself even more than Kim Yong un in his wildest dreams.

Will I finish the series? Oh yes. But be aware if you start this one and buy some ibuprofen in advance.

[polishgenius]

2.) Her grammar and semantics are top notch! Which sounds like a good thing, unfortunetely for those of us, who aren´t native speakers of the wonderful English language, this is problem. All in all most authors repeat the some 10.000 words and then some. Not so Miss Dunnett. Even worse, she isn´t restricting herself on words with a Germanic origin. God thanks, I had some latin in school. My headache is growing ...

This makes me wonder which writer, apart from James Joyce because it's obviously James Joyce, has the widest working vocabulary.

I know Gene Wolfe's is pretty spectacular.