June 2011 Reading Thread

[Mjolnir]

I stand at the crux of reason and want, where virtue, had it a face, would turn and rend itself. Men are gluttons in this way: that after long feasting, and though they have surfeited, seeing that the food is nearly vanished away, they begin imagining on the instant what hitherto unthought-of delights the cook might set forth after another turning of the sun. If only they whip him hard enough. Truly, in their search for more, more, ever more, men are as dogs, their stomachs -- or their thoughts, if their gluttony tends that way -- as ever-ravenous as the whirling funnels that boar down into the sea.

...

Hem.

So I'm three chapters away from the end of R. Scott Bakker's The White-Luck Warrior and I'd say that I'm duly impressed. I find it difficult to remember The Prince of Nothing -- I never really understood the thing beyond a surface level, but I'd say I've enjoyed this more, considerably more, than The Judging Eye. Not that TJE wasn't good and important, but this very much expands on and begins to fulfill the promise of that book, which was all about introduction. Stuff's getting pretty impressive now. Even though I'm compelled forward I almost don't want to finish, because I know it's going to cliff hang me hardcore and it'll be a long, cold wait through the years for The Unholy Consult.

Now, blubbering fool chained within my own preconceptions as I am, I still have reservations. Large ones, in some cases. Foremost among them probably being that the book, and by extension the series it holds up the centre of, is easy to admire but tough to love. It's easy to be fascinated by Earwa and its people, but I find it difficult to really live and die with them. I don't want to say that I find the book's tone and portrayal of its characters lends itself to just intellectual appreciation -- it's far more visceral than that, when it needs to be. But ... I'm interested, I'm compelled, but I don't feel the attachment to many of these people and places I feel for some of even the more unpleasant figures in ASoIaF.

I am of two minds about Bakker's quest narrative. One of the several ways Bakker seems to be unknitting and reassembling the epic fantasy story in this series is the ripping of the shit out of the notion that a quest through dread wilds for lost treasure or knowledge would be in any way fun or exciting. Part of me's all for this, and damn but it's compelling. It really does work; it's amazingly gripping. And the other part of me -- writhing blindly in the shackles of its preconceptions -- is like "no, fuck you, man, why are you shitting on my quest? I get how you want to be all gritty and real and hardcore and rad, I really do. But you know what? This fantasy thing? This is supposed to be fun. And you've got your wicked primordial forest and boundless plains and dread fortress; all these things are beautiful in the horror they evoke. But you see these people, these Skin-Eaters of yours? Why the fuck would I possibly want to slog across a continent with these assholes?" Bakker balances this incredibly well, far as I'm concerned, because whenever I begin to fall into this temper tantrum something will happen -- a character moment, or a revelation of complexity, or something -- to get me totally engaged again. But

when a reader such as I, not particularly penetrating, can call the revelation of the traitor within the party via the following logic: "this man does not act like a complete and utter dick every hour of every day; he must have a vile agenda"

I think it's just possible you might be laying things on a bit thick. Compelled as I am, I find it difficult to imagine myself rereading to spend time with these characters again, though to be fair there is Achamian and Memara at the centre of it all, and Cleric to a lesser degree.

I've argued, to myself at least, both sides of the Bakker and women issue at various times, and a hundred fifty pages from the end of White-Luck I think both sides have new ammunition but, based on my cursory reading of the text, the "Bakker is feminist" side is coming off much better than the "Bakker's books are sexist" side of the argument. There are several passages -- not necessarily long, but keenly focused -- about Memara's experiences in the brothel which are very sympathetic while also considering the issues she faced in a very mature way. I still don't understand what Bakker's trying to do with the female characters in several other cases, and think he may be dropping the ball somewhat in the Satma sections, which work for me much less well and are heavily laden with imagery of the monstrous feminine, but I find Memara's bits very compelling. Esmenet's good too,

though given where her plot is at I'm anxious to see how much pull she manages to have on events.

The shere focus on the fact of a woman's -- any woman's -- carnal potential whenever she walks on screen during sections narrated by men is still a little frustrating and off-putting, and ... yeah, just all round the issue remains a legitimately fraught one. But I can see the book visibly trying, and if I can see that there's probably lots I'm missing.

So yeah, it's pretty awesome. Probably gonna go read the rest of it now before I get back to The Dragon's Path.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

I began June having started three books:

A Game of Thrones (I'm around 2/3 through; just in concurrence with the TV show)

The Hunger Games (Just started.)

Winter's Bone (halfway done)

Hopefully I'm done with all of these by the end of the month :P

Winter's Bone is a fantastic book. Best I've read this year.

[Grack21]

ME finish Warrior Prophet. Late night time morning time is now.Hard thinky. Mesa like book yay! Kellus is asshat.

Edit: Haha wow. I shouldn't type when I've been up so late. Yeah Finished The Warrior Prophet. Very good, but like I've said, that Bakker fella needs a hug.

[WhiteHaven]

At the moment, I am reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson.

I started the Trilogy since I couldn't read WoT any further without having a break. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is not a bad book, it is somehow entertaining - but I think the first one was far better (well at least up until now), however I like Lisbeth thus I keep on reading the last one. Also I hate not finishing a series.

WoT on the other hand is a real pain the ass.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

OK - I'm 70 pages into the first book of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. I'm loving it, but I think I may need to put it down for now. I know that I will want to read ADWD when it comes out in about six weeks, and there's just no way that I'm going to get through the entire Baroque Cycle before then. I think I may instead just try to read two shorter stand-alone novels between now and July 12.

I really envy those of you who can read fast.

Funny that! I've just started Quicksilver myself. I hope I can read it fast enough as I want to dive into a re-read of ASOIAF before ADWD. I plan to read the rest of the Baroque Cycle during the summer. Reading them back to back would be too much.

I finished The Land of Painted Caves by Jean Auel. It was a weak ending to the series, but I didn't hate it. The title is apt as I got mightily bored in the middle section as she describes one cave painting after another.

[Starkess]

I really feel like I ought to read some Bakker, if only because it gets referenced constantly around here! Yet another thing to add to my list...

[Grack21]

If you're liking it to this point, I think that you will continue to like it. Three more books in the series are already on the shelves, and Bakker works pretty fast so the next one is hopefully only a year or so away.

Well I have the third and just ordered the fourth. I was told the second one is the one where you either love it or throw it in the bin and call the cops because you think Bakker is coming to rape you. :P Really, it's a bleak and dark series, but I don't know where some of those accusations come from, at least so far.

[Spaceman Hobbes]

Well I have the third and just ordered the fourth. I was told the second one is the one where you either love it or throw it in the bin and call the cops because you think Bakker is coming to rape you. :P Really, it's a bleak and dark series, but I don't know where some of those accusations come from, at least so far.

See I finished PoN and still couldn't decide if it was brilliant or if Bakker had just raped the hell out of my brain. :P

Dark ass series. I'll read the first two aspect emperor books later this summer.

[Grack21]

See I finished PoN and still couldn't decide if it was brilliant or if Bakker had just raped the hell out of my brain. :P

Dark ass series. I'll read the first two aspect emperor books later this summer.

Well, I didn't mean he'd come rape your BRAIN....

[Eponine]

Finished Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. It was bleaker than both Blood Meridian and The Road, but made me feel sorry for the characters, particularly Rintha, in a way that neither of the aforementioned did. This was McCarthy's second book, and I think it was considerably better than his first, The Orchard Keeper, but in both, you can see the development of the language and ideas that show up in Blood Meridian to much better effect.

The Orchard Keeper uses extremely grandiose and sometimes overwritten descriptions of the landscape that end up working well for the hard, parched plains of Texas and Mexico, but don't take the right tone for the Appalachians. This was scaled back in Outer Dark for a vocabulary that I thought was much more appropriate for the setting. My analysis of these earlier novels is that McCarthy is struggling to find a story that deserves such a high literary treatment. The theme of the absent father is always present and the parable of the murdered traveler in Blood Meridian can fit both the Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark, but the scope of these stories falls short. Outer Dark does contain a moving and shocking story, complete with symbolism and references to many myths and older stories, but at the end, I was left feeling that the references were more a curiosity and an intellectual exercise than something that lent much lasting meaning. For me, it's a preparation of all these things to be distilled into the figure of the Judge.

[Contrarius]

Finished Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. It was bleaker than both Blood Meridian and The Road, but made me feel sorry for the characters, particularly Rintha, in a way that neither of the aforementioned did.

Very interesting to read your analysis. I loved The Road, No Country for Old Men, and All the Pretty Horses, but I couldn't make it all the way through Blood Meridian -- just too danged bloody and depressing. I'm gonna try some of his others one of these days -- but if Outer Dark is even more extreme than Blood Meridian, maybe not that one!

[Kanathan]

Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick - Very good debut but to long on the fight scenes

The President's Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth - Awesome squeal, almost equal to the first book Blood Oath. My only complaint that it was too short.

[peterbound]

Finished Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. It was bleaker than both Blood Meridian and The Road, but made me feel sorry for the characters, particularly Rintha, in a way that neither of the aforementioned did. This was McCarthy's second book, and I think it was considerably better than his first, The Orchard Keeper, but in both, you can see the development of the language and ideas that show up in Blood Meridian to much better effect.

The Orchard Keeper uses extremely grandiose and sometimes overwritten descriptions of the landscape that end up working well for the hard, parched plains of Texas and Mexico, but don't take the right tone for the Appalachians. This was scaled back in Outer Dark for a vocabulary that I thought was much more appropriate for the setting. My analysis of these earlier novels is that McCarthy is struggling to find a story that deserves such a high literary treatment. The theme of the absent father is always present and the parable of the murdered traveler in Blood Meridian can fit both the Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark, but the scope of these stories falls short. Outer Dark does contain a moving and shocking story, complete with symbolism and references to many myths and older stories, but at the end, I was left feeling that the references were more a curiosity and an intellectual exercise than something that lent much lasting meaning. For me, it's a preparation of all these things to be distilled into the figure of the Judge.

This post has entirely too much punctuation for you having just finished a McCarthy novel.

[peterbound]

Very interesting to read your analysis. I loved The Road, No Country for Old Men, and All the Pretty Horses, but I couldn't make it all the way through Blood Meridian -- just too danged bloody and depressing. I'm gonna try some of his others one of these days -- but if Outer Dark is even more extreme than Blood Meridian, maybe not that one!

A fucking masterpiece, and in my opinion, his first foray into the realm of fantasy.

[Contrarius]

A fucking masterpiece, and in my opinion, his first foray into the realm of fantasy.

I'll probably try it again one of these days, but I'll have to do something to increase my blood/gore/death/desolation/despair tolerance first!

[nickg]

I'll probably try it again one of these days, but I'll have to do something to increase my blood/gore/death/desolation/despair tolerance first!

I can see how its a rough read, but I agree with peterbound, it is a fucking amazing book. I've given my copy to two friends and both gave it back the next day, about a quarter of the way in. I have not read outer dark, but I'm intrigued.

[Eponine]

I'll also say that despite it being a beat down of awful things, Outer Dark was very short, I finished it in about three hours and feel ready to start on the next book (Child of God).

Actually I'm kind of stuck on what to read, because the next book on the rec list for me is China Mountain Zhang and I can't find it as an ebook nor is it in my local library. (You don't happen to own it do you PB?) I guess there's nothing wrong with skipping it since I intend to skip books from the list that don't look interesting to me, but it's frustrating that I can't find it. Else the next book or story collection anyway is HP Lovecraft, and then I'll be 20% through since I've already read a lot of the books in this section.

[peterbound]

Ep-

I'll bring it next month during the meetup

[SkynJay]

Feed. Reread. Still good. When it comes to zombies, I still like World War Z the best, but Feed good too.

Now Robin Hobb or Sara Micklem. Have both from library. Probably flip coin.

This post written in the style of Grack's Warrior Prophet post, because hard statements are fun sometimes.

[Eponine]

Thanks PB