April 2011 - Reading Thread

[nickg]

I'm not sure if its out of print again, but I'm assuming it is. I'm pretty sure I could have purchased it online, but the copy I found was in great condition and only $1.25. Really, really enjoying what I have read so far. I was hooked from the moment in started, which is usually the case with what I have read from Glen Cook.

[kcf]

I just posted my review of The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham - I enjoyed it. I still owe reviews for Son of Heaven by David Wingrove and Embassytown by China Mieville.

I'm currently reading Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding.

[saint777]

150 pages into The Crippled God. This is the slowest start to the series yet. Only the Malazan scenes are keeping me interested. I think I have less patience with this one since it is the end of the series. Hoping Erikson gets on with it. There is clearly set up going on but at a much slower pace than all the previous volumes.

[nickg]

Just read John Scalzi's new excerpt =). It was pretty funny.

Oh, and I finished The Tower of Fear by Glen Cook. Going to agree with Grack. It was awesome, definitely one of his best.

[williamjm]

150 pages into The Crippled God. This is the slowest start to the series yet. Only the Malazan scenes are keeping me interested. I think I have less patience with this one since it is the end of the series. Hoping Erikson gets on with it. There is clearly set up going on but at a much slower pace than all the previous volumes.

It is a very slow paced start and you've still got a lot of set-up to get through, but it does start to pick up about page 400/450 and the pacing in the second half of the book is much better.

[murphy]

Just read John Scalzi's new excerpt =). It was pretty funny.

Oh, and I finished The Tower of Fear by Glen Cook. Going to agree with Grack. It was awesome, definitely one of his best.

I wish it were a published book, even if only in e format.

[SkynJay]

Finished The Dragon's Path by Abraham. Loved it.

Now on to The Name of the Wind. So exciting.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I just finished Shadowplay by Tad Williams. I found the first half of the book to be slow paced, but it really picked up in the second half.

Shadowrise is next.

[Grack21]

I'm still reading The Wise Man's Fear, since the past week has been one of THOSE weeks. 600 pages about. Love it. I know it bothers a lot of people but I personally love the slow pace. I like books that take there time. Probably why I like Tad Williams so much.

[Mjolnir]

Burned through C. J. Cherryh's Rimrunners in a couple days. Fascinating way to do science-fiction -- very close-in, grunt's eye view of a tiny corner of a universe. Takes place in Cherryh's Alliance Union universe and doesn't explain itself too much, so I often felt like I was swimming against the current so far as figuring out what was going on and what the political situations were, but in a way this is how I like it; the book is totally immersed in its universe, and it trusts you to keep the hell up. Couple of the central characters were interesting too, a very damaged bunch, and being caught on a spaceship with them felt very very claustrophobic a lot of the time. Cherryh's space opera's solid in a very cool way, as well; shit breaks and needs to be fixed, there's awesome supersoldier armor but its this clunky suit that creaks and has little screws all through that take all day to adjust to fit a new wearer, etc. Extremely tense book. Liked it a lot.

Then I advanced about 200 pages in Kate Griffin's urban fantasy A Madness of Angels, and I'm not sure this book and I fit together very well. On the one hand you've got Griffin's conception of urban magic as being comprised of the ordinary acts and articles of city life rendered extraordinary, which is wonderful almost beyond words and I love love love it! The imagery in the magic -- a tube station barrier holding back a monster, beings coalescing in the phonelines because of the shere buildup of people's experiences passed back and forth along them -- its all beautiful. And then on the other hand you've got the things that happen within this awesome conceptual frame, and the characters they happen to, which are somewhat shakier. I'll certainly finish it sometime, perhaps soon, but I seem to have gone off it again for now.

Then I read Paolo Bacigalupi's very exciting ya novel Ship Breaker. Awesome stuff. Very much in the Bacigalupi vein, with concerns about sustainability and a ravaged post-oil landscape at the forefront, but more of an all-out adventure story than The Windup Girl. Mean, with brutal consequences for characters' actions, but always fun. I was genuinely excited, breath held, even got angry a couple of times. Hope there's a sequel.

Advanced fifty pages or so in The Wise Man's Fear. The plot thickens, particularly in regard to the motivations of one of the more enigmatic central characters who Kvothe makes repeated attempts to follow round all over the place.

[nickg]

I'm about halfway into Shadowline by Glen Cook thanks to a slow day at work. Its really good, reminiscent of The Dragon Never Sleeps and the Dread Empire books in some ways ( always a good thing imo ). Looking forward to reading the whole trilogy, but I'm probably going to start on The Wise Mans Fear next. Have been putting it off for a while.

[murphy]

Burned through C. J. Cherryh's Rimrunners in a couple days. Fascinating way to do science-fiction -- very close-in, grunt's eye view of a tiny corner of a universe. Takes place in Cherryh's Alliance Union universe and doesn't explain itself too much, so I often felt like I was swimming against the current so far as figuring out what was going on and what the political situations were, but in a way this is how I like it; the book is totally immersed in its universe, and it trusts you to keep the hell up. Couple of the central characters were interesting too, a very damaged bunch, and being caught on a spaceship with them felt very very claustrophobic a lot of the time. Cherryh's space opera's solid in a very cool way, as well; shit breaks and needs to be fixed, there's awesome supersoldier armor but its this clunky suit that creaks and has little screws all through that take all day to adjust to fit a new wearer, etc. Extremely tense book. Liked it a lot.

It's much more understandable if you've read Downbelow Station first. That explains much of Rimrunners.

[ambyr]

Then I advanced about 200 pages in Kate Griffin's urban fantasy A Madness of Angels, and I'm not sure this book and I fit together very well. On the one hand you've got Griffin's conception of urban magic as being comprised of the ordinary acts and articles of city life rendered extraordinary, which is wonderful almost beyond words and I love love love it! The imagery in the magic -- a tube station barrier holding back a monster, beings coalescing in the phonelines because of the shere buildup of people's experiences passed back and forth along them -- its all beautiful. And then on the other hand you've got the things that happen within this awesome conceptual frame, and the characters they happen to, which are somewhat shakier. I'll certainly finish it sometime, perhaps soon, but I seem to have gone off it again for now.

This was my reaction even after finishing--awesome worldbuilding paired up with a paint-by-numbers plot. I do mean to check out the sequels at some point, just to see if the author manages to find a story worthy of her world. And I'd be all over a RP campaign that used her magic system.

[Larry.]

The last three books I've finished:

R. Scott Bakker, The White-Luck Warrior

A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

I dare you to find a common thread that links all three of these together besides random reading order.

[TheEvilKing]

Finished Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley. Very slow reading, especially in the middle, until stuff started happening at the 400 page mark. He did a good job with the ending.

What should I read next?

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Black Man by Richard Morgan

Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks

FIRST ANSWER WINS!

[FastBen]

Just finished The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss and The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon.

Now I'm reading The Tudors by G.J. Meyer.

[Wras]

The last three books I've finished:

R. Scott Bakker, The White-Luck Warrior

A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

I dare you to find a common thread that links all three of these together besides random reading order.

All written by authors with three names.

Finished Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley. Very slow reading, especially in the middle, until stuff started happening at the 400 page mark. He did a good job with the ending.

What should I read next?

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Black Man by Richard Morgan

Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks

FIRST ANSWER WINS!

Blood Meridian. Do it.

[TheEvilKing]

Blood Meridian. Do it.

Consider it done.

The only previous McCarthy I've read is The Road which I didn't like. So this is his last chance! :smoking:

[nickg]

Consider it done.

The only previous McCarthy I've read is The Road which I didn't like. So this is his last chance! :smoking:

Blood Meridian is a great book, but it can be difficult. I finished The Road in one sitting and liked it, but Blood Meridian took me more than a week to finish, and that was during a slow time at work. Just couldn't read huge chunks of it at a time.

[TheEvilKing]

Blood Meridian is a great book, but it can be difficult. I finished The Road in one sitting and liked it, but Blood Meridian took me more than a week to finish, and that was during a slow time at work. Just couldn't read huge chunks of it at a time.

That's cool, I don't mind a difficult book at all.