July 2014 reads

[Peadar]

I'm reading Half a King by Joe Abercrombie, and really enjoying so far.

[Zared]

Just about to start Conn Iggulden's War of the Roses: Stormbird. I feel ashamed to admit that I've never read any of his previous works, so thought I'd make a start with this one.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Just about to start Conn Iggulden's War of the Roses: Stormbird. I feel ashamed to admit that I've never read any of his previous works, so thought I'd make a start with this one.

Don't feel too ashamed; his works aren't well-regarded around here :p

[deleted01]

Flew through Half a King. I wish I made things last! It was pretty damn good though. Fast-paced, entertaining, funny. My only gripe is that I wish the characters were a bit more fleshed out. But I have to remind myself that it is YA.

I started The Name of the Wind - going to attempt to battle through the tiny print, as it seems really good so far. I'm also reading a local author's childrens book for an article I'm writing - Devonshire With a Hint of Albanian by Matt Ewens.

[RedEyedGhost]

I struggled a bit with The Heroes - I guess everyone has a book they think is the weakest - but Red Country was fantastic.

You should check out Territory by Emma Bull:

Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday. Ike Clanton.

You think you know the story. You don't.

Tombstone, Arizona in 1881 is the site of one of the richest mineral strikes in American history, where veins of silver run like ley lines under the earth, a network of power that belongs to anyone who knows how to claim and defend it.

Above the ground, power is also about allegiances. A magician can drain his friends' strength to strengthen himself, and can place them between him and danger. The one with the most friends stands to win the territory.

Jesse Fox left his Eastern college education to travel West, where he's made some decidedly odd friends, like the physician Chow Lung, who insists that Jesse has a talent for magic. In Tombstone, Jesse meets the tubercular Doc Holliday, whose inner magic is as suppressed as his own, but whose power is enough to attract the sorcerous attention of Wyatt Earp.

Mildred Benjamin is a young widow making her living as a newspaper typesetter, and--unbeknownst to the other ladies of Tombstone--selling tales of Western derring-do to the magazines back East. Like Jesse, Mildred has episodes of seeing things that can't possibly be there.

When a failed stage holdup results in two dead, Tombstone explodes with speculation about who attempted the robbery. The truth could destroy Earp's plans for wealth and glory, and he'll do anything to bury it. Meanwhile, outlaw leader John Ringo wants the same turf as Earp. Each courts Jesse as an ally, and tries to isolate him by endangering his friends, as they struggle for magical dominance of the territory.

Events are building toward the shootout of which you may have heard. But you haven't heard the whole, secret story until you've read Emma Bull's unique take on an American legend, in which absolutely nothing is as it seems...

[Maester Llama]

I remember quite liking Bull's Territory. Very hefty, chewy weird western, rather than the more pulpy approach to that kind of thing in stuff by authors like Mike Resnick [whose western stuff I've not read beyond samples] or R. S. Belcher's The Six-Gun Tarot from last year. I understand there is supposed to be a sequel at some point, entitled Claim.

As I mentioned in the last thread I was struggling with Marie Brennan's The Tropic of Serpents, the second in her series written as the memoirs of the famous dragon naturalist Isabela Trent set in a secondary fantasy world closely analogous to our nineteenth century. It picked up. These books are refreshingly different in the things they're concerned with, but I find them tough to adjust my expectations to as a result. Isabela's narration is entertaining and often dryly comical, with lots of asides to the reader [who is assumed to be familiar with some of the events already, since these are presented as memoirs published within the universe.] However, there's also something unexpectedly reserved about the books, or at least unexpected by the standards of books about travelling the world to study dragons: Isabela is composing her memoirs, not writing for maximum drama, and as a result characterization and description don't always come in using every single writerly technique at their disposal to create a gripping story. The events Isabela is describing are gripping, but they are not superheroic, and the people are interesting once you figure out how to distinguish them, but there are an awful lot of background figures who help or hinder Isabela and while they're important they fade in and out more than is perhaps standard practice in a plot-driven novel, because this plot-driven novel is presented as a life. Once I got myself back into the emotional register of this series and started to remember how it presents story The Tropic of Serpents really picked up, with meaty character scenes told in Isabela's spare, reserved way and some teeny tiny world-building hints and big exploration setpieces that were great fun. A good series that I think, for me, may not have quite come into its own yet.

Now torn between several things, including but not limited to Elizabeth Bear's Steles of the Sky, Daryl Gregory's Afterparty, Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes, and Laini Taylor's Dreams of Gods and Monsters. It's a good problem to have.

[deleted01]

You should check out Territory by Emma Bull:

Ooh sounds interesting! Cheers for that :)

[familydutyhonor]

I've just finished The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory, which I really enjoyed, so I think i'm going to make a start on some of her other historical fiction this summer. I've heard good things about The White Queen, so maybe that! I'm also planning to do a LOTR re-read, although whether or not that'll get finished this summer around work, moving house and studying is another matter...

[First of My Name]

I have a strict reading schedule for this summer vacation :)

I've finished Star by Star and Traitor, two Star Wars books. Traitor remains a great book, with great quotes. ("Is it what the teacher teaches, or what the student learns?') and I love this line in particular:

'Everything I tell you is a lie. Every question I ask is a trick. You will find no truth in me.'

Now reading Prisoner of Azkaban. I have about 15 books I plan to read after that.

[lessthanluke]

Just finished Half a King and enjoyed it. Interesting to see where it goes in books 2 and 3.

[polishgenius]

So, having struggled with it the first time round because I couldn't get into the prose, I gave The Red Knight by Miles Cameron another go with a bit more patience, got into it, and ended up loving it. In the early parts he pays a bit too much attention to showing off how much he knows about who wears what and the like in medieval times, but once the action gets going, that same attention to details allows some really interesting battle scenes- and I love the way he tries to combine magical tactics with some sort of realism.

But most of all, the take on magic in the book is great. Absolutely love this sort of thing, and while neither his take on epic fantasy nor his take on wild fairy-type magic are particularly original in themselves, I haven't seen them combined in this way before.

[LessThanLuke2]

So, having struggled with it the first time round because I couldn't get into the prose, I gave The Red Knight by Miles Cameron another go with a bit more patience, got into it, and ended up loving it. In the early parts he pays a bit too much attention to showing off how much he knows about who wears what and the like in medieval times, but once the action gets going, that same attention to details allows some really interesting battle scenes- and I love the way he tries to combine magical tactics with some sort of realism.

But most of all, the take on magic in the book is great. Absolutely love this sort of thing, and while neither his take on epic fantasy nor his take on wild fairy-type magic are particularly original in themselves, I haven't seen them combined in this way before.

I have that but the cover just made me not want to read it lol (bought it for my brother)

[polishgenius]

Heh. I really like the cover (though I have it on ebook so it's irrelevant to me anyway).

If you do decide to give it a go, do bear in mind that it seems to be reasonably common opinion that the beginning is quite trying, so it requires patience.

[mashiara]

It took me forever to finish Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin. I thought the language was painfully beautiful but I had a hard time sometimes keeping up with the story, such as it was. I loved the mystical/magical elements and looking at the whole picture, the book was wonderful, it's just that reading individual parts felt like a slog at times, even in its beauty. Does that make sense? It didn't help that I was exhausted and sleep deprived the whole time. I fear I didn't do it justice.

I also read The Fault in our Stars by John Green. By comparison, a really quick read. I liked it a lot as well though I didn't think it was the greatest literary achievement of our times, just a good book about a difficult subject. It wasn't the tear jerker I expected it to be either.

I'm almost done with Stephen King's novella Ur and then I'll start Only Half Alive by Konstanz Silverbow.

[Queen of Whores]

Started reading Blood Meridian but already it's a struggle, and not for the reasons McCarthy's other works were for me (terrible prose [in my opinion, and I know it's an unpopular one] and a complete lack of talking marks that pisses me off a lot). I just find this book so damn bleak and messed up and depressing. And I'm only two chapters in! I went ahead and read a wiki summery on it to see if it changed, and anyone that's read the book will know that 'lol no it gets a thousand times worse'.

Now, I quite liked No Country For Old Men (even though I prefer the movie), and I think The Road is excellent and I prefer it more than the former, but it's hard for me to get into Blood Meridian. The complete lack of any kind of likeable protagonist is kind of jarring. At least in McCarthy's other works that I've read there's always someone you know you can rely on to be a source of 'goodness' (Llewin, the Father). In this, the main character is an absolute piece of shit, and it says a damn lot that he ain't even the worst character (morally) by a long shot!

I'll keep trying with this book, but so far I've felt nothing but depressed, hopeless and slightly unnerved at the brutality of it (and I can handle some brutal shit in stories).

[LessThanLuke2]

Heh. I really like the cover (though I have it on ebook so it's irrelevant to me anyway).

If you do decide to give it a go, do bear in mind that it seems to be reasonably common opinion that the beginning is quite trying, so it requires patience.

Duly noted, it has been added to the TBR pile.

[RedEyedGhost]

I remember quite liking Bull's Territory. Very hefty, chewy weird western, rather than the more pulpy approach to that kind of thing in stuff by authors like Mike Resnick [whose western stuff I've not read beyond samples] or R. S. Belcher's The Six-Gun Tarot from last year. I understand there is supposed to be a sequel at some point, entitled Claim.

I keep hoping to hear that the sequel is completed, there's so much more story to tell! And Jesse Fox was a fantastic character.

[deleted01]

After reading the Kindle sample a few weeks ago, I saw The Girl With All the Gifts in Tesco's today in their 2 for £7 deal. Couldn't really argue with that, so I bought it, and started reading this afternoon. Really good so far, it's been hard to put it down.

Still reading and enjoying The Name of the Wind too.

[Nicomo Cosca]

Sort of spoilery comentary on The Heroes so far:

I'm really enjoying this book alot! I'm currently around page 200 and its deffinetly very addictive. It sort of sticks with you when you are not reading it.

I loved how Abercrombie narrated the main battle on Day 1, very creative.

Sadly I still don't see the appeal in Gorst, he is sort of there. I mean, I like him as a "window" character but I'm not that interested in his story.

Craw, Calder and Tunny on the other hand I'm very interested to see were they go.

Curious to see if that kid who voluntered to the Northern army reappears again, I was interested on his story arc.

[RedEyedGhost]

It took me forever to finish Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin. I thought the language was painfully beautiful but I had a hard time sometimes keeping up with the story, such as it was. I loved the mystical/magical elements and looking at the whole picture, the book was wonderful, it's just that reading individual parts felt like a slog at times, even in its beauty. Does that make sense? It didn't help that I was exhausted and sleep deprived the whole time. I fear I didn't do it justice.

That and you read it at the completely wrong time of year! :P

Sadly I still don't see the appeal in Gorst, he is sort of there. I mean, I like him as a "window" character but I'm not that interested in his story.

Different strokes. Gorst's particular insanity was one of the highlight of the book for me (and that book is tied with LAoK for my favorites of his), and the "revolving" POV during the battle - I think the Day 1 creativity you mention, it's been a long while since I read it.