December Reads - Curl up with a good book this Christmas

[Elder Sister]

I just finished Rick Bragg's biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story and it was freaking electric.  Jerry Lee is a wildman, and Bragg's poetic way of describing Jerry Lee's lifestyle, overly large ego, and overly large talent is pretty much hypnotic.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Oooh. That sounds right up my alley. Thanks, ES!!

[Maia]

Finally finished "The Old Venus" anthology edited by GRRM and Dozois. On the whole, it rather disappointed. I expected to find stories that would  blow my mind and provide the unbridled sense of wonder...  but mostly they are just alright and my overall feeling is "been there, done that". 

"Invisible Library" by Genevieve Cogman - a nice YA-ish fantasy novel. I liked it, but can't help but see some parallels to Fforde's "Friday Next", which was, IMHO, better. Still, a solid series start with a decent female protagonist and refreshing lack of romance (so far).

"The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin. This one did blow my mind in many ways and kept me as much glued to my tablet until I finished it, as life allowed. A huge, huge improvement over her previous work (about which I am ambivalent) , really interesting and fresh worldbuilding, great characters, etc. It does end on a cliff-hanger, and I have some quibbles, but on the whole I really loved it.

Currently reading Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. Liking it so far, except for one quibble:

Would corporations really throw out people mere weeks/months after paying astronomical sums just to bring them to the Moon? This doesn't seem economically feasible to me, no matter how cut-throat libertarian you'd want that society to be.

 

[HexMachina]

I have Invisible Library to read, so nice to hear a bit of feedback. Did you know the second book is out already? 

Going to rejig my reading schedule i think, so i can jump straight from The Winter King into book 2

[Garett Hornwood]

Yesterday I finished The Art of War, which had three military/political treatise: the titular treatise by Sun Tzu, The Prince by Machiavelli, and Frederick the Great's Instructions to His Generals.  It was very thought invoking to see three individuals with different life experiences give advice about succeeding in one's undertakings, they all have a common theme but a totally different approach with "instruction" and word usage.

After finishing that I started Maskerade as part of my read through of Discworld.

[Maester Llama]

Finished a couple things recently:

 

Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest, a return to the faerie mythology that the author is apparently very invested in and which seems to have served some of her earlier ya novels very well, was solid. I dug it. I didn't find it as gripping and viscerally powerful as her equivalent Holly-Black's-definitive-thoughts-on-the-state-of-the-vampire novel The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, but that bar is pretty high, and I still think Forest is a very good book. It does interesting stuff thematically with the idea of the changeling and the longing for wildness that the fae can represent. The characters mix likability with spikeyness in a way Black is very good at, as does the writing -- it's easy to read, but occasionally throws a thorn or a bit of more elaborate prose in as an accent mark. The fae are standard-issue faeries done well, with hollow hills and elf lords and so on, and while the plot moves quickly and is strictly business-focused enough that we don't really get to explore or shade in their world too much and the book falls back on well-known fae signifiers a lot, Black is as skilled as usual at evoking these kinds of captivating and perilous magical beings. The sense of wonder isn't always evoked as atmospherically as it could be, for me, but there are hints of it certainly, and the novel has a strong sideline in portraying the fae as horror movie-esque menaces in several scenes. Black's one of my favourite ya writers and while this maybe isn't Black at her absolute and considerable best I still enjoyed it very much.

 

I have finished Queen of Fire, the legendarily bad third book in Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow epic fantasy trilogy. I don't have the energy right now to parse out what parts of the book I thought worked and where I thought it vigourously attacked itself and ensured its ultimate failure, but I do wanna talk about it so hopefully I feel more up to it some time soon. My short-ish response would be: Secondary cast hugely bloated and undifferentiated; whole 20-ish percent of book devoted to mystical workings-of-the-world plotline largely horseshit; depictions of tribal characters often wince-inducingly bad; villains range from boring to nonsensical; number of things seem to happen far too easily or for no reason; couple plot and character twists actually pretty good imo but delayed waaaaaay too long; a couple big plot mechanics near the end rely on characters I don't think the series has done the footwork to get us invested in; one character the victim of insulting and unnecessary refridgeration in the late game. On the other hand: series' continued evolution away from Blood Song's dudebro preoccupations is appreciated and compelling; Ryan still writes a mean fight when he's got the energy; character arcs for Lyrna and a couple of the other major characters get lost often but are well-turned in theory and get some good scenes; Lady Reva forever. The plot gets very muddled, major revelations are held off way too long, and the pacing is largely broken, but, while the book's plenty disappointing, it didn't make me vomit, and I'll still totally read Ryan's next thing. Maybe it helps that I thought Blood Song was extremely finely-crafted, skillfully-paced oldstyle fantasy boys'-club nonsense, so wasn't invested in the series as deeply. A hugely flawed book, for me, but not without a redeeming feature or two.

 

About fifty pages into Aftermath, with a bad case of Impending Star Wars Movie Fever, and it has yet to start sucking. I can tell Wendig wrote it super fast and some of the sentences are just awful, but I like how it personalizes the grunt troops at the Battle of Endor and sketches in the messiness of the Empire in decline.

[Sheep the Evicted]

So since last i posted i've read:

The Kiterunner by Khaled Husseini. Not as good as a Thousand Splendid Suns but still pretty damn good. Felt like the winning performance in the misery olympics at times but all due credit to the author I always ended up caring despite myself. Will have to read his third soon to see what he's capable of after maturing as an author.

The Mechanical by Ian Trelligis. Interesting world, good prose. Probably too overwrought to be honest as I found his action scenes impossible to follow. Also felt like he was laying it on a bit thick at times; Britain remains a rainy unknown island in the north atlantic and no one knows who Newton is. We get it. It did get better as it went on however and ended up being very good indeed. Will read the sequel next.

The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin on the other hand was completely fantastic. Thanks for the recommendation! I can see why so many of you tipped it as the next big thing. However, for me, it loses out to last year's board favourite - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - as my novel of the year. Still its always great to see a new fantasy that is unique and refreshing while remaining suitably epic.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. I picked this up because I needed to have read something from the "womens fiction" category in the Goodreads Compatibility test and it seemed the most acceptable. In the end it was, just about. Started pretty well, became boring and monotonous through the first quarter and i couldn't wait to get a third of the way through the book so I could finally drop it and still count it towards my yearly total. But then it picked up and I ended up finishing it. Like most of these vignette novels it had some fantastic moments and some awful ones so in the end i guess i could say it was decent ?

Cold Iron by Stina Leicht. Recommended by REG as hands down his favourite novel of the year and up until now he's never let me down. Got about 70% of the way through and then had to drop it. My Dragonlance days are behind me; if I never have to read about the war between Elves and Humans again, or about two star crossed teenage lovers who for some reason can't "be together" then i'm most of the way towards dying happy. I mean it was better than that and i'm exaggerating slightly  but i was expecting something better than Uprooted and The Fifth Season! Sure, taste is subjective and all but....nah. I'm betting REG knows the author personally and its colouring his opinion.

Next up is The Rising by Ian Trelligis. At this time of year I like to read new releases so ill follow it with either Six of Crows, Crashing Heaven, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet or The Vagrant. If i get two of those in before January that will get my 2015 total up to a nice even 50 so here's hoping.

 

[The Reckoner]

Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson. I'm enjoying the subplot with Yedan Derryg, Yan Tovis more than I did the first go-around. Still fistpumping for the Burned Tears after they turned on the Bolkando.

[Magnar of Skagos]

Will probably read Sword of Destiny and Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski once this semester is over on the 19th. Really looking forward to it.

[peterbound]

Trying miles.....again. Little different this time though, doing it on audible this time. Enjoying it more.

Re reading the monarchies of God again as well.

[RedEyedGhost]

Cold Iron by Stina Leicht. Recommended by REG as hands down his favourite novel of the year and up until now he's never let me down. Got about 70% of the way through and then had to drop it. My Dragonlance days are behind me; if I never have to read about the war between Elves and Humans again, or about two star crossed teenage lovers who for some reason can't "be together" then i'm most of the way towards dying happy. I mean it was better than that and i'm exaggerating slightly  but i was expecting something better than Uprooted and The Fifth Season! Sure, taste is subjective and all but....nah. I'm betting REG knows the author personally and its colouring his opinion.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as I did!  But no, I do not know Stine Leicht, I just really like the way she writes.  I loved her first two books too. 

[Darth Richard II]

Stine Leicht has published books before. She's not new.

[RedEyedGhost]

Stine Leicht has published books before. She's not new.

Who said she hadn't?

[Darth Richard II]

Well I got the impression he thought she was some newbie author you were pushing cause you knew each other. But I've been uh playing Xenoblade for 12 hours so I'm kinda zonked.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

 

Double post- spoiler mistake!

[Guinevere Seaworth]

 I am glad I re-read The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson.  I had forgotten a lot of the details.

Can anyone tell me who was

the Ascendant Warrior?

Now reading Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson.

[Maia]

 

Now reading Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson.

I really liked Shadows of Self, it does some interesting things, IMHO.

As to your question:

Ascendant Warrior is Vin

 

[deleted01]

I've been so crap at posting here lately, mostly because my phone doesn't like the new interface much. Anyway. 

We're moving house this Friday, so my books have been in storage for a couple of weeks. Luckily I've had some review books to keep me busy, and I've taken to reading on my Kindle again. The best review book was without a doubt All The Rage by Courtney Summers. It's due out next month, and is simply brilliant. A hard-hitting novel about a young girl surviving rape, with other current issues interwoven within the story. 

I also read Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill, which was creepy as fuck, and fantastic. Now I'm on to The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood. A good read so far, but I'm wondering what the hell is going on. 

[Cry_Havoc]

I'm roughly in the middle of American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  Why I'm just now getting to his novels is beyond me.  He's a great writer.  Amazon recently had a sale on books and I ordered The Revenant by Michael Punke.  The film version looks breath-taking.  I also ordered Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake and The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, of which I will not finish per se, but rather dip into here and there.   

[Ser Kafka]

Currently taking Eeny Meeny by MJ Arlidge. Decent so far, about 200 pages in.

Next up will be Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Really looking forward to this.

Then my usual ghost stories which I usually read Christmas time.