April 2016 Reads

[Darth Richard II]

A lot of the stuff in Ancillary Sword doesn't really pay off, IMO, til book three. Although I also don't remember it being preachy? I lot of government/political stuff goes over my head though.

[Isildur's Mane]

Finished 'The World of Ice and Fire' today. Loved reading all the histories and looking at all the artwork. I'm glad I took my time to savour it. It inspires me to put this much detail (or even more) into the world I'm creating. This is the part I love about writing. 

[HexMachina]

22 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

I hate Snuff. In fact, I'll go so far as to invoke canon discontinuity on it - this over-powered bully isn't the Vimes I know, damn it. 

(Ditto with Raising Steam. As far as I'm concerned, the mainstream Discworld series ended with Thud!. I'll allow Tiffany Aching)

Have you read The Shepherd's Crown by any chance? I keep going to it but after some unfavourable reviews I'm reluctant. Part of me just wants to let it end with I Shall Wear Midnight so I'm not disappointed

[Sheep the Evicted]

Im having a really dissapointing run. Had to drop Claw of the Concillator and then i got about half way through The Once and Future King before i had to drop that too. Well written, well reviewed books but just not to my tastes. TOaFK also felt vaguely blasphemous, like T.H White couldnt be bothered or didnt have the skill to play the Arthurian myth straight so he had to insert these wierd narrative asides. It was annoying.

Then i picked up Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho due to the strong reviews here and i generally like regency fantasy. I managed to get through it, so there is that at least. My problem was with her main characters; the foremost magician in the realm who stands about doing nothing when he's not being rescued and a girl who can do whatever she pleases, in a repressive society no less, with no consequence. Felt very Mary Sueish.

[Peadar]

About to finish David Mitchell's Black Swan Green. It took me 150 pages to get into this properly. Not sure why, but it doesn't matter. I love it now.

Need to decide what to read next. M.R. Carey's Fellside? Sarah Pinborough's 13 Minutes?

Sample chapters will decide me.

[Astromech]

Wow, sounds like boarders are having a difficult  reading month in April. I'm about 1/3 through Diarmaid MacCulloch's, The Reformation: A History. It is extremely dense due to the amount of information he throws at readers. This is most assuredly not an intro to the Reformation. It's fascinating, but not an easy read. I've thrown in Simon Schama's, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, so I can alternate books chapter to chapter and come up for air.

[UtherDoul]

Finished The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. A fun romp, and while some of the twists were a bit predictable, it was fun to see how all the various puzzle pieces fit nicely together.
 

[HexMachina]

Finished Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Loved it, thought it was much better than any of the books in the First Law Trilogy (which I did like, but wasn't as crazy about as some here). Characters were all very interesting, though some felt a bit too similar to his characters from the First Law. Highly entertaining, especially the black humour, and I definitely plan to give the other stand alone books a try now.

I also finished up A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab. This was, well, really bad actually. The first book (A Darker Shade of Magic) was alright, not brilliant but enough there to convince me to read on. But this book...I got to 50% complete and absolutely nothing of note had happened. The plot barely advanced at all, and nothing important happened until the last 10% of the book. The characters were all very bland and there was little to no funeral world building from the first novel. Do not recommend this one.

[SkynJay]

23 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

This thread is sad, only three pages when the month is half over  

 

I finally finished a book so I could even consider posting in it.

Founding Brothers was a short little snapshot early United States history.  It has five (six?) little shorts dealing with Hamilton's Duel, Adam's precidency, Franklin's anti-slavery proposal, etc.  I found it quite enjoyable and still find myself on a bit of a founding father's kick so I think I will dig up Jefferson's biography next.  Seeing these founders as people, rather than the near gods they are often presented as, makes them so much more interesting.

I am working on The City and the City which is slow going but rewarding thus far.  I also have Thud by Pratchett on my night stand and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers on my kindle. If i work real hard maybe I can get three books read this April.

 

[Andorion]

So far I have spent this month reading the Dune books by Frank Herbert. 

This series is very interesting.

The first Dune is awesome. One of my all time favourite books. Dune Messiah is also pretty great. 

Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune I did not really like.

But Heretics and Chapterhouse were both excellent books. 

I am trying to read Dune 7  Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, but so far its really bad.

I also read the graphic novel Nimona which was refreshingly entertaining as well as Michael Moorcock's A Cure for Cancer which was strange, but funny. 

[Darth Richard II]

There are only six Dune books. *angry glare*

[Sheep the Evicted]

10 hours ago, SkynJay said:

I finally finished a book so I could even consider posting in it.

Same. I guess alot of us may have been riding momentum from last years Reading Challenge or made new years resolutions to read more and it's now fizzled out four months in. Certainly the case for me.

[Andorion]

8 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

There are only six Dune books. *angry glare*

I just finished Hunters. I agree. There are only 6. The rest need to be sent into the Sun

[The Marquis de Leech]

9 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

There are only six Dune books. *angry glare*

I'll confess I only ever bothered with the first one. I didn't hate it, but I've never felt inspired to pick up any of the others.

(I think my biggest objection to Dune is the way Herbert piles onto poor Vladimir Harkkonen. I mean, a sleazy, obese, gay, paedophile? We get it, Frank. You hate this character).

[Maester Llama]

Last week I read Patrick Ness's latest young adult novel, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, which is about the lives of the "ordinary" "side characters" in a teens-save-the-world story. It's great: humourous, but also poignant. If you just can't care about teenagers and their problems it may be a bit of a slog, because it is thoroughly focused on those issues of belonging and discovery and uncertainty that teenagers feel maybe most keenly, but if that is a place you're interested in going I'd highly recommend it, and Ness skillfully layers in a little bit of stuff that I suspect punches extra hard for adult readers. There are zombie deer, too.

 

Now I'm part-way through a couple things: I'm over half through The Price of Valor, the third in Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns age-of-powder epic fantasy. I love it, as I have loved the previous ones, and never want it to go away. The characters in these are just great. And I'm also in the middle of Laura Anne Gilman's weird western where the Devil has claimed a section of country between the expansionist Spanish empire and the young United States, Silver on the Road. I want to be more enthusiastic about it than I am: I love the premise, both for the setting and the main characteer, but I'm finding it quite a slog, honestly. It's coming together a bit now, but I'm over half-way through, and there has been some sloooow going. Will certainly finish, though, so I'll see how it comes together.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished off House of Orphans. Dunmore has a beautiful poetic style (well, she is a poet), and the novel doesn't lack for atmosphere. Shame about the disjointed plot utterly lacking in resolution, and the generally weak characterisation (only Dr Eklund was interesting - and even he gets short shrift via the non-existent ending).

Next up is Wolf Winter, by Cecilia Ekbäck.

[HexMachina]

Started the Coldest War and just wanted to post to note

 how great the first chapter is at setting up Gretel as extremely powerful and really pretty creepy/scary. having a woman commit suicide years prior just to have a jar in the right place? Ruthless and creepy.Very deftly done!

[Iskaral Pust]

1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Started the Coldest War and just wanted to post to note

  Reveal hidden contents

 how great the first chapter is at setting up Gretel as extremely powerful and really pretty creepy/scary. having a woman commit suicide years prior just to have a jar in the right place? Ruthless and creepy.Very deftly done!

 

Yes, her character as the central driver of the whole plot was very good IMO.

[The Marquis de Leech]

On 18/04/2016 at 4:01 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

Have you read The Shepherd's Crown by any chance? I keep going to it but after some unfavourable reviews I'm reluctant. Part of me just wants to let it end with I Shall Wear Midnight so I'm not disappointed

Sorry for delay - have only just spotted this. No, I haven't read The Shepherd's Crown. If I do get around to it, I'll be getting it from the library too - tail-end Pratchett has burnt me enough.

[RedEyedGhost]

7 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Started the Coldest War and just wanted to post to note

  Reveal hidden contents

 how great the first chapter is at setting up Gretel as extremely powerful and really pretty creepy/scary. having a woman commit suicide years prior just to have a jar in the right place? Ruthless and creepy.Very deftly done!

 

I'm glad you're finally getting around to it.  Although, be prepared to need to pick up book three immediately upon finishing this one.  Great series.