March 2016 Reads

[The Marquis de Leech]

7 hours ago, Lyanna Stark said:

Why would you do that to yourself?

It's interesting as an influential historical text. As I've said earlier though, the "war is glorious" bullshit really grates to a modern reader.

(Curious fact - George R.R. Martin has written not one but two stories inspired by Runeberg's Sveaborg).

[Starkess]

I finished The Spider's War. It was a quick read and felt like it should have been even quicker, as it did feel a bit like stretching to be an entire book-length book. If you like the rest of the series, I don't think you'll hate it. Definitely some really great parts to it.

Next I will try to get back into Ancillary Justice, if I can even remember where I was at. I mean, it's on my Kindle, so I know exactly where I left off (20%), but remembering the story, characters, and context may be a bit more difficult.

[mashiara]

I finished Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. It was a good read with some great moments. Not nearly as good as The Sparrow, but I was really glad to revisit some of the characters, get some new insight on previous events and see how it all played out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I'm hoping to start The Spider's War this weekend.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished Death Masks. Next up is The Master of Ballantrae, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

[James Arryn]

Starting Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle for the first time. Love Arthurian stuff, but haven't gotten around to this before.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I am finally back from a week long sailing trip.

I finished The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.  It was great to read a standalone novel with a positive ending. The only issue I had was the male and female naming conventions. It was confusing and annoying.

The novella Binti by Nnedi Okorafor was interesting.  It was really well written but creepier than I thought it would be.  I wish it was a bit longer to develop the world building and I also got the feeling that I missed some important African mythology.

I found Ken Follett's Winter of the World a decent read. It just got a bit annoying that somehow all of the characters were involved in every major event in WWll such as Pearl Harbour attack, Battle of Midway, Battle of Moscow, D-Day, Manhattan Project.  I liked more of the lesser known events before and after WWll such as the partioning of Germany, and the clashes in London to protect the Jewish quarters from Fascist mobs.

Now reading the final book in the Century trilogy, Edge of Eternity, by Ken Follett.

[Maia]

"Cuckoo Song" by Frances Hardinge. I had heard about the author somewhere, so when the book showed up in my library, it was a no-brainer to pick it up. I liked it a lot. It is technically  YA, I guess, since the protagonist is young, but apart from not featuring anything graphic, I'd say that this is more semantics than anything. A really good  combination of darker fairy-tale folklore, without being in any way yet another re-telling, with a touch of horror and a good helping of heroic adventure. All set in a town in early 1920-ies Great Britain, so it would technically qualify as urban fantasy, I guess? Yet refreshingly romance-free. And well-written. This novel certainly put Hardinge on my radar as an interesting author to follow.

"Ms. Peregrine's Home for Pecular Children" by Random Riggs. I was intrigued by visual design of the book and learned that it was  popular, so when it appeared in my library... ;). Unfortunately, the "cover" is much more interesting  than the text, so to speak. It is OK, a decent YA novel, with all the expected beats, but it didn't do much for me.

"The Aeronaut's Windlass" by Jim Butcher. Certain worldbuilding ideas seem to be thick in the air currently - like humanity living in spire-cities high over dangerous surfaces of planets that may or may not be post-apocalyptic Earths. "Updraft" by Fran Wilde (which I hated, and, I think, have written about it in one of the earleir "Reads" threads) had it too. I didn't hate this, in fact, it was a quick and entertaining read, and I liked it much better than the first volume of his "Codex Alera" series, which had been his previous stab at epic fantasy. And which was tropy and predictable to the nines, IMHO, but a lot of people still loved it.  Heck, even I have finished the entire series, which yes, became better, but still was a disappointment, IMHO. Anyway, back to "The Aeronaut's Windlass". Some interesting ideas, riveting battles, particularly aerial ones. Also, Butcher has been clearly trying to improve on his previously lacking portrayal of female characters, with some success, IMHO, even though he still falls into some regrettable tropes. 

"The Golden Son" by Pierce Brown. I picked the "Red Rising" trilogy because this book won the Goodreads choice award for science fiction. The last 10 genre candidates remaining before the final vote seemed reasonable to me on the whole, from what I have read, so I was curious about this series. First of all, it is basically science fantasy, with worldbuilding that makes no sense even by relaxed space opera standards and might have worked better as pure fantasy. Nevertheless, it has a  kind of energy which sweeps one along into a tale of heroic, adventurous derring-do. The first book is a riff on "The Hunger Games"with a twist, while this second one is mainly military fantasy (despite their use of spaceships and such). It certainly has it's interesting and engrossing  aspects, although some things became a bit too contrived and signposted towards the end of the book, so  that the outcome was obvious from a mile away. Still, while I am at loss as to why this book won, I am sufficiently intrigued to want to finish the trilogy.

 

I have also been reading short fiction available online here:

http://www.asimovs.com/about-asimovs/readers-awards-finalists/

and coming to the conclusion that I am very jaded and difficult to please where short fiction is concerned. I mean, I have been suspecting it for quite some time, as I have been purposefully reading and listening to a lot of  SF short fiction during the last several months, but this nails it.

 

 

[beniowa]

I've got a few to catch up on since I last posted.  I read Ghost Summer, which I found to be a pretty good collection of Tananarive Due's short stories. 

Also read The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar, which I thought was fantastic.  Definitely a great read.

Then I read Wild Cards 13: Card Sharks.  Some of the individual stories were good, though it felt like the whole was less than the sum of its parts.  A little too much backstory for the next book then a full story in itself.

Finally, I read the last Dagger and Coin book, which was good, but not great.  Still a good finish to the series and I'm anxious for Abraham's next project. 

 

I'm now reading The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirahk and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu. 

[Lyanna Stark]

On 12/03/2016 at 4:05 AM, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

It's interesting as an influential historical text. As I've said earlier though, the "war is glorious" bullshit really grates to a modern reader.

(Curious fact - George R.R. Martin has written not one but two stories inspired by Runeberg's Sveaborg).

I suppose you read it in English? It's actually more readable and less full of itself translated. Normally I would never ever in a million years recommend to read Swedish poetry translated, since you lose both the ambivalence created by the grammar and the laconic quality which I value very highly (and which makes English poetry so often vexing for me to read: too many words!) but Runeberg...yep, he is actually improved by someone reworking that high-handed blather.

 

(I actually had to google the English version just to compare it. Normally I would do a lot to avoid Runeberg completely! Him, Esias Tegnér and Erik Axel Karlfeldt are on my NOPE list. )

[Peadar]

I'm reading Michael Swanwick's Chasing the Phoenix. I was privileged enough to get five minutes of his time at Boskone and came away delighted -- he claims the be planning a third "Dragons" book. What a lovely guy he turned out to be too...

[ithanos]

Had a productive reading month in February, but this month has been slow. I have 3 books that I'm due to return to the library this Friday; The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce, The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis, and The Devil You Know by Mike Carey.

[RedEyedGhost]

1 hour ago, ithanos said:

Had a productive reading month in February, but this month has been slow. I have 3 books that I'm due to return to the library this Friday; The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce, The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis, and The Devil You Know by Mike Carey.

Those are all great books.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished off The Master of Ballantrae (my 25th completed book this year). This one is particularly satisfying - it's a book that has sat on my shelf for twenty(!) years, but I'd never been able to get through it. Not because of the story or characters (both are good), but because the prose puts me to sleep every single time I've tried. I never had a problem with Treasure Island, Kidnapped, or Jekyll and Hyde, but for some reason, I couldn't do The Master. So that's a monkey off the back.

Next up is The Reavers by George MacDonald Fraser.

[KiDisaster]

Finished Altered Carbon the other day. I really enjoyed it overall. The sex scenes were overly gratuitous IMO (I'm far from a prude, but if I wanted to read some erotica I'd read some erotica) and didn't really add anything of value but that's really the only nitpick I have. But, y'know, rock on with your bad self I suppose. Also I guess it says something about the culture I was raised and influenced by that extremely graphic descriptions of sex in a 'regular' book catch me off guard that way but the extremely graphic descriptions of bodies being blown apart or otherwise mutilated don't faze me at all. 

Shit's weird, yo. 

Anyway, I started the sequel, Broken Angels, yesterday. Already I'm not as interested in the premise as I was by Altered Carbon. I think losing the detective, mystery angle is really gonna hurt it but hopefully it'll pleasantly surprise me. The third book has a different narrator than the first two for some reason and based on the previews I've heard (and the reviews on Audible) he's not very good so I don't know if I'll be bothering with that one. 

On 3/9/2016 at 6:05 PM, Muwhahaha said:

60% through Crashing Heaven; damn good stuff.  It's like a mix of Quantum Thief, Poseidon's Children, and maybe Kovacs with Mieville/Gilman-esque prose - though not quite that level.  Really good new book.

Checked this out on Good Reads. Sounds like I found my next book. Thanks  

[HexMachina]

Finished Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad William. It was alright, and I felt he did a very good job giving character to San Judas and had a pretty interesting central plot with some nice twists and turns. But in terms of the characters, they all felt a bit flat and underdeveloped to me. And the romance-y/lust-y stuff felt tacked on as an afterthought. Might check out the following books but they aren't high on my priority list right now.

[Contrarius+]

On 3/12/2016 at 3:10 PM, beniowa said:

Also read The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar, which I thought was fantastic.  Definitely a great read.

I'm dying to read this. I was a big fan of A Stranger in Olondria.

 

I just finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Loved it to death -- it's going on my Hugo nominations list. Five stars.

 

My review here: review at Goodreads

[Muwhahaha]

Started Romulus Buckle and the City of the Founders.  Thus far it's pretty bad.  It tries way way too hard to be steampunk.  I'm sorry, but why would someone's hat have gears and copper tubing?  Subtle, this book is not.  And the captain is 18 years old with most of the crew in their early 20s.  I'll give it another couple hours listen and if it continues with its absurdities, I'll bail.  

About 60% through the Stand.  Love'n this one.  I'm new to King (except the Dark Tower series) but I'll probably try some more of his stuff after this one.

[Barty]

Just finished The Last Mortal Bond (Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne 3) by Brian Staveley in one sitting and absolutely loved it. Amazing trilogy that just gets better and better with each book. Highly recommended. 

[The Marquis de Leech]

Update on completed March reads:

• Ice Moon, by Jan Costin Wagner
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
• The Tales of Ensign Stål, by Johan Runeberg
• The Burning Land, by Bernard Cornwell
• Death Masks, by Jim Butcher
• The Master of Ballantrae, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Reavers, by George MacDonald Fraser

I am now currently onto Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. 

I was a bit disappointed by The Reavers. I was expecting something a bit silly and Robert Rankinish, and I have sufficient contextual knowledge to get the in-jokes, but as a story I felt it out-stayed its welcome. It might have worked better as a novella or if Fraser had been willing to tone down the self-consciously zany prose, but as a novel-length book, it got tiresome.

[HexMachina]

I'm currently reading The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen, which I downloaded as my free Kindle First book (either this month or last I don't remember). It's a....rather strange and disturbing book thus far. But I think I like it. I don't know, it's one of those odd things where I don't quite know how to feel about it