August 2011 reading thread

[Calibandar]

A new month…

I finished reading ADWD this weekend. Not much we can say about it here in this forum. I enjoyed many of the chapters I read but was baffled by how little plot progression there was. It’s clear that the book I’ve waited all these years for is not ADWD, but Winds of Winter. Many sideplots, many side characters, some interesting developments but also a LOT of treading water.

Very enjoyable to read, but falls down in my rating for the fact that it covers so little, despite it’s 960 pages. Great set up book for Winds of Winter, but to be honest ADWD is only a better book than Feast because it features much better characters. Other than that it suffers from many of the same flaws that so plagued Feast.

[TheEvilKing]

Currently reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

[Isis]

This year has been a huge failure for me in terms of reading but for good reasons this time. I'm halfway through ADWD but I've given up hefting it around with me so it'll probably take me another week at least. Something I can manage to carry around is Titus Awakes by Maeve Gimore and Mervyn Peake - a fourth book in the Titus cycle written by Peake's wife from some notes and chapter headings left behind. It seems reasonably in-keeping with the tone and style of the third book. I'm about halfway through and I'm (sentimentally) hoping for some resolution/happy endings to make the book worth the writing.

I've also just finished a joint reading of Watership Down. Works really well for reading aloud too. I love it so. :wub: Next up for joint reading in the bath: The Hobbit.

[SkynJay]

Just finished White Luck Warrior. WOW. Best yet, by far.

And since i am so close on the library list for Dance, I am reading some old favorites while waiting. First up, Small Gods by Pratchett. For what may be the twelve time, but it has never gotten old.

[pat5150]

Just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Prince of Mist.

I don't usually read YA stuff, but this novel gives you a glimpse of the author Zafón will become, the one that wrote the unforgettable The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game. So it's a pretty good, if light, read.

Check the blog for the full review... :)

Patrick

[Lord Toblerone]

Today I started Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

[jdiddyesquire]

Finished The Magician King and A Den of Thieves this past week. Lots to say about the first, not super thrilled with the second.

About 30% through Zoo City and loving it. Not sure where to go next.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm halfway through The Key to Creation. Up next is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

[Contrarius]

I'm nearing the end of a reread/listen of Changes, in prep for my first reread/listen of Ghost Story. Gotta check up on continuity. I'm still also near the beginning of The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I really feel guilty about for not finishing instantly. Oh, and I started actually READING (as opposed to listening) to The Prince of Nothing, which so far is verrrrry oddd......

[Bahimiron]

Finished The Folding Knife this morning. I really liked it. My first KJ Parker book and though some of her style is a little different than I expected I found that I quite enjoyed it from start to finish.

I think I might give up on Kraken, which I petered out on when ADWD was released and haven't had much desire to go back to.

After a quick game of Kindle eenie meenie minie moe, I started Tim Powers' Forsake the Sky (though my edition is called The Skies Discrowned) as part of my decision to fill in my Tim Powers back catalog. He's my favorite author and there are two books out there and a short story collection I've never bothered to read. I know this FtS and Dinner at Deviant's Palace aren't quite as highly regarded as his secret histories, but I need to fill that gap in my reading history.

After FtS it's back to inka binka bottla ink between Devil in the White City, A Betrayal in Winter, The Atrocity Archives and Red Sea Under Red Skies.

[jdiddyesquire]

Finished The Folding Knife this morning. I really liked it. My first KJ Parker book and though some of her style is a little different than I expected I found that I quite enjoyed it from start to finish.

I think I might give up on Kraken, which I petered out on when ADWD was released and haven't had much desire to go back to.

After a quick game of Kindle eenie meenie minie moe, I started Tim Powers' Forsake the Sky (though my edition is called The Skies Discrowned) as part of my decision to fill in my Tim Powers back catalog. He's my favorite author and there are two books out there and a short story collection I've never bothered to read. I know this FtS and Dinner at Deviant's Palace aren't quite as highly regarded as his secret histories, but I need to fill that gap in my reading history.

After FtS it's back to inka binka bottla ink between Devil in the White City, A Betrayal in Winter, The Atrocity Archives and Red Sea Under Red Skies.

Folding Knife kicks ass.

[Deedles]

I reread A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold. I think that's probably my favorite book ever. After at least 10 rereads I still laugh and cry at it.

Just started Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. It seems intriguing so far. As it's small and slim, it'll do nicely for my lunchtime / tram reading.

I think I'll also start Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb at home. Another reread, but a good one. While I "liked" the later Rain Wild books, I'd forgotten just how good the Liveship Traders were. Better than the Tawny Man trilogy also.

I'm very much looking forward to Ghost Story by Jim Butcher, which should be delivered this week. I reread Changes in February as I was going to Mexico for a week, and found it stood up, so I think the continuation of Harry's journey.

[Starkess]

Still working on my re-read of The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. Not sure what I'm going to read next...

[serdog]

Reading Storm of Swords to get ready for A Dance with Dragons

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished The King of Crags by Stephen Deas a few weeks ago, and it was a good book but very flawed. It just felt like too much was edited out, and the first 2/3 of the book felt like it was just jumping from story line to story line to force the plot along without providing significant motivation for why the characters were doing what they were doing. And unfortunately only two of the four story lines were all that interesting. It did end well, though, and I'm hopeful that the third book will build on that.

After that I read ADwD, and I really enjoyed it... but it could have used a little bit more editing. Only one of the three primary POVs seemed to have any traction and I don't really feel that (coded, just to be extra careful)

the Meereenese Knot has been unraveled.

I really enjoyed a couple of the new POVs and a lot of the more minor existing POVs were really great. It's a very good book, but it has many of the same flaws that AFfC had. I really wish GRRM would have been able to work in the five year gap.

I've been catching up on some short story podcasts, and a few from pseudopod have really stood out: The Evil-Eater by Peadar Ó Guilín, The Nimble Men by Glen Hirshberg was very creepy, and Wendigo by Micaela Morrissette which I'm honestly surprised that Peadar didn't write :P

Right now, I'm half way through Long Reach by Peter Cocks. It's very good so far. Up next will either be Jim Butcher's Small Favor or Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf.

[Stubby]

I'm racing through The Heroes at the moment.

Not yet halfway though. It's somewhat like the Bernard Cornwall book "Sharpe's Waterloo" but with more POVs.

[Antonius Pius]

I'm halfway through ADWD but I've given up hefting it around with me so it'll probably take me another week at least.

Normally I would have lugged ADWD with me, but I decided not to. I didn't want the book to end up much damaged. Having said that, I thought I'd rip through it like I did the others, but I haven't. I don't really know why, but I guess it doesn't fascinate me as I thought it would. I only read a few chapters every odd day, with some more in the weekend. I'm about three quarters through now, will probably finish it next weekend.

Something I can manage to carry around is Titus Awakes by Maeve Gimore and Mervyn Peake - a fourth book in the Titus cycle written by Peake's wife from some notes and chapter headings left behind. It seems reasonably in-keeping with the tone and style of the third book. I'm about halfway through and I'm (sentimentally) hoping for some resolution/happy endings to make the book worth the writing.

Interesting. I had heard Peake had planned five books originally. Is there also a fifth coming up in the near future, do you know?

I found a used copy of Children of Hurin yesterday, which made me a happy panda. I've been looking for it for some time now.

As for historical stuff, I'm currently reading The Norman Kingdom of Sicily by Donald Matthew. Looking to start Velleius Paterculus after that, or perhaps Hugh Kennedy's The Arab Conquests.

I also picked up a book about the American Revolution and David Fromkin's In the Time of the Americans. Time to read up on my American History.

Edited to correct a title.

[Peadar]

Wendigo by Micaela Morrissette which I'm honestly surprised that Peadar didn't write :P

Thanks. I wish I had!

As for me, I enjoyed The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. Up next, possibly Zoo City by Lauren Beukes.

[Mjolnir]

Read a few more chapters from Dance. Not at the end yet, but closing in. I'm enjoying it, oh yes I am, but I'm definitely starting to feel the crunch as the end draws nigh and plots are temporarily wrapped up or cut off for this book. I'm having to remind myself to focus on what is there, rather than what seems to be being left for the next novel, not all the time but more often than I would like. This is my fault and not the book's, but it does demonstrate a way in which serialized storytelling can actually not be at its best the first readthrough, but may grow later when the mad dash to find out what happened then, and then, and then, isn't as fierce.

I finished Genevieve Valentine's Mechanique, and give it much applause and praise. The semi-supernatural circus at the center of the book is wondrous and creepy at the same time, a little sparkly but a little grungy too. And the people, wow, the people balance being very deeply broken, and often unpleasant with it, with being fascinating to read about and, in the hints we're given of their backstories, very sympathetic. The book doesn't always fill everything in -- sometimes details of a character's life and/or thoughts are coloured in pretty completely, but sometimes we just get the faintest of implications -- and the flow of information is all wonderfully judged. The book makes the circus both an entrancing place and a dangerous one, something that can kill you or eat you up, but might also shelter you, maybe, if you're willing to meet its terms. Seriously good book, this one.

About to start Jim Butcher's Ghost Story, I think. Ghost Story and A Dance With Dragons. Today is a good day.

[Bartman]

Red Seas Under Red Skies By Scott Lynch- almost done, loving it.

Swords and Dark Magic - short stories by Cook, Lynch, Abercrombie, etc..

Next on the List= The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein