257 replies to this topic

[dornish prince]

reposted from the november thread...

thanks for the replies yall.  i polished off the first last night and jumped immediately into the second.  this has been very enjoyable so far.  i feel increasingly bad for fitz.  he is not in the best of places after book one.  also growing is my interest in the fool.  i'm excited to see where this goes.  

i've been juggling a couple books at a time for a while now but hobb has certainly narrowed my focus.  i have no complaints.  the prose flows, the characterisation remains consistent, even down to tertiary characters and the plot line, so far, carries an ending of empire strikes back bleakness that won't allow me to put the book down.  the eventual triumph, regardless of how bittersweet, is going to be such a catharsis.  i can't wait!!!

life doesn't allow me to concentrate on reading as much as i used to but i'm hoping to finish the trilogy by the end of the month

[MaesterHeisenberg]

Finishing Red Country today.

Then these in this order.

Cogan's Trade - George V Higgins
The Hobbit
Serena - Ron Rash

[cseresz.reborn]

my plan for december:

1. A magyar dráma antológiája II.

2. Herman Melville: Moby Dick - "To be short, then, a whale is A SPOUTING FISH WITH A HORIZONTAL TAIL."

3. A magyar novella antológiája I.

4. Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady - I just love this book

+ December 21 = The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[Ser Pink of Floyd]

The plan...

[Current] Reading Excessions - Iain M Banks, around 20pages in at present.

[The Plan] In 2-3 weeks to have finished and be either... reading Rondezvous with Rama or reread Watchmen or A Storm of Swords

[Mr.Howard]

Finish reading through asoiaf nearly finished acok.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

^{I just finished Spirit's War and onto the final novel of the series, Spirit's End by Rachel Aaron.  It has been an entertaining series to read.  As for rest of December the only books I'll read for sure are Towers of Midnight and The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson.}

[Serious Callers Only]

Finished the October Daye series. The other books were ok. I think i can see what will happen in general, but it's ok, suitably epic (small e).

[Garett Hornwood]

I'm currently a little over 40% of the way through Crossroads of Twilight in my first read through of The Wheel of Time series.

Afterwards comes The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi, about the infamous serial killer's killing spree and the police investigations and media criticisms.

And I'll probably start Knife of Dreams before the end of the year, though not finish it.

Also some time this month I hope to finished off Angry Saints.

[RedEyedGhost]

Since I didn't comment much about what I was reading in November, I have some catching up to do.  I read Red Country by Joe Abercrombie, and loved it.  Lots of returning characters from the trilogy - including my favorite Abercrombie character, and Temple was a fantastic new addition.  It was a bit too straight forward for my tastes and both the Ghosts and Dragon People were woefully underdeveloped.  Other than that I don't really have any complaints.  Great book, and I'm not sure where I would rank it against Abercrombie's other books, but it's near the top... now I want to reread the rest.

After that I was really missing my kindle, because the last 4-5 books I had read were all physical books, so I went with Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold.  My only complaint with it was that it was really, really short.  I loved it when Miles

Spoiler

came up with the idea that Admiral Naismith was a clone of Lord Vorkosigan.  Mark was not nearly fleshed out enough in this book, but that was completely rectified in Mirror Dance

Then I went with Aloha From Hell by Richard Kadrey.  I really enjoyed this book as well.  Probably not quite as much as book two, and I think book one is still the high water mark for this series.  Overall I am a big fan of the Sandman Slim books - they feel like a cross between Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Casebooks and the movie The Prophecy.  He used the word "hoodoo" entirely too often in this book, and that was extremely distracting.

I then wanted something I could read quickly so that I would be able to pick up my current book as soon as possible, so I went back to the Vorkosigan series and read Mirror Dance.  It picks up two to three years after Brothers in Arms, but it's directly follows the events in that book.  I loved this book.  The way Bujold dealt with identity in both Miles's and Mark's POV chapters was fantastic.  

Spoiler

While a cryo-amnesiac it was great how Miles was completely confused even when he was presented with both Admiral Naismith and Admiral Naismith's Clone as potential identities.  I also liked how Bujold only referred to him as a pronoun while he didn't know who he was.  Mark's character development and personal growth over the course of the novel was wonderful, and really made up for it's deficiency in the previous book.

  This might just be my favorite book in the series thus far, but that might not stand for long because I've heard the next book, Memory, is one of the best.

I'm now 20% through The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman.  So far, I very pleased with it, but Gilman is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  This book's predecessor, The Half-Made World, was my favorite read in 2010, and so far this year Gears of the City has been my favorite - so good.

My plan for December is to read at least four more books to get my yearly total up to 55.  Up next will be Cold Days by Jim Butcher - I also most bumped this ahead of TRoRC because of the extremely strong reviews it has received.  Then I'll go with Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold, after that likely The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, and then I'm not sure, possibly Lords of Slaughter by M.D. Lachlan.

Edited by RedEyedGhost, 01 December 2012 - 10:38 PM.

[SkynJay]

I am starting off the month with a book I had never heard of, but recognized the author's name in the library.  The Wizard Hunters, by Martha Wells.  Halfway through, not sure what I think.  A really good premise, and some parts have moved very quickly, while some others have dragged.  Now that I think about it, I had some similar issues with her book, Death of the Necromancer.

[Lord of Oop North]

I'm working through The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I recently re-read the previous four novels, but now I'm in new territory. Afterwards, I'll likely move on to Pirates of the Levant by Perez-Reverte. I'm loving this series. Any fan of Dumasesque adventures would definitely enjoy it.

Edited by Lord of Oop North, 02 December 2012 - 12:22 AM.

[Isis]

I'm about 40% through Ash, stalled by sickness and an overly busy social life.

I did slip in A Game of You in the bath last weekend and will probably try to zip through another couple of Sandman titles in my attempt to get >40 books this year.

[Werthead]

A number of time constraints have limited my reading time. It's taken me two weeks to get halfway through Belly of the Bow, which is poor going. I devoted some time to Gaiman's Worlds' End to make up for it (graphic novels being much faster reads) but I need to finish off the Parker and move on to Blood and Bone by IC Esslemont.

[Eponine]

I liked some of Ligotti's other short stories, so I read My Work Is Not Yet Done, and I thought it was terrible. That's really all I have to say about it - it was clunky and unsubtle.

ETA: I don't share Ligotti's attitude toward the corporate world. Admittedly, I haven't worked for any large corporations where I was just a number. I've never experienced the kind of tension and backstabbing that he seems to take for the norm. I could ask almost any boss or coworker I've had for a recommendation and feel confident that they'd want to say something good about me. Maybe I'm just lucky that way. I know some places have terrible environments, but I just can't relate.

I have on my list Broken April by Ismail Kadere and The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman.

Edited by Eponine, 02 December 2012 - 10:54 PM.

[Procrastimancer]

I'm still reading THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES by Roberto Bolaño. I am not a fan of poetry and I tend to dislike the journal entry narrative style (has switched to a sort of interview based narrative in the second part), so it is somewhat surprising how much I am enjoying it.

[buff daddy]

Right now I'm reading Night of the Swarm, the final installment in Robert Redick's Chathrand series. Love it so far but that's no surprise as I loved every previous book in this series.

After I'm done with that, it's on to either Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane or Blood and Bone by Esslemont.

[3CityApache]

Plan for December is to finish Drood this week (still more than half to go, but I am enjoying it), then A Blink of the Screen and/or Dodger by Terry Pratchett, fourth and final book of Ice Garden's Master, and perhaps Prince of Thorns, if there's still time.

[Melonica Stormborn]

Pathetic me is stuck on the last volume of 1Q84 despite my prediction that I will finish it in November, mainly due to additional tasks at work. I'm on vacation leave now so I'll do my best to finish in 2 days and then follow through with my plan to read Red Country.

[Kobayashi Maru]

Lord of Oop North, on 02 December 2012 - 12:17 AM, said:

I'm working through The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I recently re-read the previous four novels, but now I'm in new territory. Afterwards, I'll likely move on to Pirates of the Levant by Perez-Reverte. I'm loving this series. Any fan of Dumasesque adventures would definitely enjoy it.

Ah Graveyard book,I loved that one. Very light before bed time reading

Now I' in the middle of Stephen King's The body (novella on which Stand by me movie was based on) and then I'll move to American gods

[Winter's Knight]

I am on the third installment of the Bartemeaus trilogy after which I might give WoT  a shot,  simply because everytime I  ask for a fantasy rec, that is the first one mentioned.