July 2016 Reads

[stonebender]

Recently finished Erikson's Fall of Light.  Usually I'm a fan of his, but this one was a struggle.  Pretty much 800 pages of the type of introspection familiar to the main sequence, with even the comic relief characters feeling overly portentous.  Not very excited for the third volume at the moment.

Now I'm on Moorcock's King of the City.  Covers ground familiar to his other literary efforts, but well written and enjoyable nonetheless. 

[polishgenius]

8 hours ago, Maia said:

 

and add that I was glued to the text the whole way through, but felt that the solution to the central mystery was disappointing and contrived. Getting there was fascinating and absorbing the whole way though.

 

I can see this point of view, but I guess I didn't feel that the mystery was really the central part of the novel so I didn't feel the issue as strongly - the mystery about it needed to be maintained to keep up the essential tension between the two characters, but it was a fairly logical possible direction early on I thought and in the end it was more about the character journey than the big revelation, for me.

 

I mean,

 

from our perspective it's a bit of a stretch that no-one else tumbled to this possibility sooner, but it's a key part of both story and theme that the whole society is based on essentially brainwashing and indoctrination so I can buy that they didn't.

 

 

My next read has been another May debut, In the Shadow of the Gods by Rachel Dunne. It's quite good, it marries the neat trick of successfully marrying modern grey-moral trends with a bit of old-school earnestness, which I liked, and has some nice balance with two theological sides where it's difficult to say who we're supposed to root for, but it's so very much a prologue to a bigger series that the blurb is pretty much literally a blurb for the next book, not this one- it tells you things that only come out in the final two chapters.

So don't read the blurb.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

Morning Star by Pierce Brown was blah for me. Way too violent for me.

Now reading Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian.

[benpeek]

On 7/6/2016 at 1:50 AM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Anyway,i finished Leviathan's Blood (Children Trilogy #2) by Ben Peek. the excellent sequel to The Godless.Complex plot,true to life characters,great world mythology.This series is quickly turning into one of my current favourites.Excited for the final book!

Tops, man. I'm glad you liked it.

[Maia]

16 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

I can see this point of view, but I guess I didn't feel that the mystery was really the central part of the novel so I didn't feel the issue as strongly - the mystery about it needed to be maintained to keep up the essential tension between the two characters, but it was a fairly logical possible direction early on I thought and in the end it was more about the character journey than the big revelation, for me.

Well, I can't agree that this issue wasn't pretty central to "The Ninefox Gambit". Tension was great, but the narrative was teasing the mystery throughout, and I found the explanation unpersuasive. I mean, 
 

Spoiler

 

That's basically who Jedao is/was and who his eventual composite with Cheris became. And it doesn't make a lot of sense. So, he killed lots people who opposed the he(pt)xarchate because he  wanted to overthrow it's tyranny?! And then he staged a massacre because he wanted to be made immortal and didn't trust Kujen. And as an immortal he continued to destroy enemies of the hexarchate with extreme prejudice, because it was the condition of his continued survival. Yet, somehow it was all supposed to help him overthrow this despotic society? How? I mean, he couldn't even permanently influence people he got to work with, including his anchors, because they all got mind-wiped afterwards, no? And then, once he finally got anchored to a mathematician - what was his play? He should have known that once  the heretics were mostly defeated he'd be removed. Cheris wanted to be rid of him, too. So, if corpse-bomb hadn't been used, wouldn't it have been yet another dud run for him and proof that his whole plan could never work? That he killed millions of people for nothing and all he has ever done only served to strengthen the hexarchate in the end?

Not to mention that I was under impression that his anchoring to Cheris wasn't an oversight at all, that both Shuos and Kujen were quite aware that she was a mathematician with great potential, and at least the former very much manipulated the situation so that she'd get picked. I.e. thar Jedao got played at his own game and that the result - a true Jedao-Cheris composite capable of concoting a powerful heresy on their own, was very much the desired outcome. But this part of it doesn't bother me, since it can be explored in detail in the planned sequel.

 

 

I still liked the book a lot, mind. The journey was fascinating indeed.

 

[red snow]

After "the stand" I'm having a fiction break and reading Attenborough's "a life in broadcasting". Fascinating stuff as you realise he was with TV when it started (at least in the UK) and played a massive role in shaping TV. It's amazing how he got to do that and manage to do all the travelling and wild-life filming. Seems a great "can do" kind of person.

[TheRevanchist]

Just finished the Way of Kings. A large book, but a brilliant reading. Here are my thoughts on it

 

- Best original Sanderson's book. I think that The Gathering Storm is better, but you cannot count it as a Sanderson book.

- The difference between this and Mistborn is so large. Mistborn feels like a juvenile book in comparison.

- The book is quite complex, and until the middle of it, it is hard to know what is going on. However, it is clear that there is a large plan in motion.

- The book has all the Sanderson's elements. Interesting story, epic battles and twists going on.

- The writing has improved a lot from Mistborn. It doesn't feel awkward anymore. Obviously it isn't in the level of some of the top fantasy writers, but it doesn't look anymore like a high school essay writer (a large part of writing in Mistbon felt exactly like that).

- I wonder when he planned this book. Was Cosmere created from the very beginning, or he decided later to put everything there. The influence of Wheel of Time and Mistborn can be easily seen there.

- I would say that this is the second best book I have read this year (after The Lies of Locke Lamora), and so the second (out of 27) book I've read this year I am giving a perfect 5/5 goodreads rating.

- Words of Radiance is next.

[End of Disc One]

Oh man Words of Radiance is so good

[First of My Name]

I finished Golden Son, liked the last 100 pages and ending, so I'd give it 4/5 instead of the 3/5 I was leaning to earlier. I'm interested enough to continue the trilogy.

I also rushed through Saga Vol. 6, great as always but it's a little annoying how you only get 150 pages of story each year. Downside of comics, I guess. It barely scratches the itch of wanting to know how it continues.

Continuing my third read of Blade of Tyshalle now, and I was quickly reminded of why this is my favorite book.

 

[The Wolves]

Finished The Great Gatsby and I hated it. I hated Daisey and Tom and hope that they both had a horrible life. I hated Gatsby for being an obsessed idiot for a girl not worth it. I hated all of it. It was a miserable book that I had no patience for and I will never read it again. 

 

[Jo498]

But would you not concede that it is pretty good writing to make you feel so strongly about the characters? Even if you are repulsed by them...

[Lily Valley]

On 7/8/2016 at 8:48 AM, beniowa said:

 

 

BEST SHORT STORY

 

• “Asymmetrical Warfare” by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)
  • So I guess this is a SF comedy about militaristic starfish who find out humans aren’t like starfish at all.  This joke’s too long and not particularly funny. 

     

• “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)
  • Internet search engine becomes sentient and tries to help people by bombarding them with ads.  Interesting I guess, but the A.I. felt like a jerk and I didn’t care for the victim-blaming.

     

• “If You Were an Award, My Love” by Juan Tabo and S. Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)
  • This isn’t a story at all, rather an anti-Scalzi and anti-SJW rant.  I can’t believe it took two people to write this.  A drunken monkey could have written a better story.  No Award for sure.

     

• “Seven Kill Tiger” by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
  • The final story from Vox Day’s anthology and the second in it to warn against Chinese aggression.  Does VD think that having Asian authors doing the writing will give legitimacy to his message? 

     

• Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)
  • Uh, I’m not a fan of erotica.  Or at least not gay dinosaur porn.  That being said it’s almost better written than the other short stories…

All the novellas were decent to great; a huge improvement from 2015.  I definitely agree with Lily that the novelettes were weaker than the novellas.  And Short Story was the weakest of all.  Frankly, I’m almost tempted to vote No Award for the whole category, though I’m also tempted to vote for the Tingle.  

My only beef about the Tingler being included is that I thought "Pounded in the Butt By My Own Butt" was a much better story.   I haven't read the Award parody story yet.  I've been eyeballing it like a flaming bag found on my doorstep while I hold the hose.  

Have you finished the novels yet?  I'm about to break down and order The Aeronaut's Windlass, if I ever finish SevenEves.  Honestly, this book is KILLING ME.  I finally hit a rhythm that permits me to skim, then read and that seems to be helping, but WHY IS IT SO LONG??  To be fair, the things that piss me off about this ponderous thing are less boring than a lot of stuff I read for escapism.  Perhaps that's why I am so critical.  I LIKE techie space stuff and it feels like Stephenson is talking down to me the whole time I am reading this novel.  Also, I am delighted that my smart friends love a novel that I deeply hate and we have a chance to talk about it.  That is a nice gift from this Hugo packet.  I should be more grateful, and I will be, IF I EVER FINISH THIS EFFING BOOK.

So far I have Leckie in first place again.  I just love her so much.

I found out that Liz Gorinsky, editor of the US release of The Dark Forest is up for a Hugo.  That's the only nod available to that magnificent novel and she is going to get my vote.  She also edited Radiance by Catherine Valente.  I started Radiance and will pick it up after I finish slogging through the rest of the Hugos.  Valente generally takes me a long time to get through.  Her prose is very dense and her editor is to be commended.  

I will be taking a Hugo breather because K. Eason's Outlaw (sequel to Enemy) is out tomorrow.   Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Ben, you would love this series.  LOVE.

[Peadar]

I just read a YA contemp. novel called Eden Summer. It's by no means my usual reading, but I know the author on twitter, so I gave it a go. Wonderful sense of place (Yorkshire, moors), great characters.

Up next, the new Claire North. Of course. The Sudden Appearance of Hope. 

[Lily Valley]

Digging into Outlaw,

PROS:

She has taken the matriarchy from the previous book and greatly expanded upon it.  I actually had a "Mother-fucking Hallelujah" moment when she exposed an idea in two lines of dialogue that I had as an undergrad when dealing with evo-psych in the classroom for the first time.  It took me fifteen pages to explain the reverse of the "modern gold-digger / philandering- banker syndrome".  It took her TWO LINES OF DIALOGUE.  TWO LINES!  It was beautiful and extremely vindicating.

Cons-

Ok.  Her prose style is long run-on sentences and she still falls into stream of consciousness stuff occasionally.  I find it an effective way to choose a close third person POV.  Mileage may vary. 

Some of her points of view  have a voice that is jarring.  There are language barriers between several characters.   I do think she is using the voice for a specific effect.  If someone smarter than I am could look at this idea, I'd appreciate it.  There is a big fat role reversal happening in this story and it might be an affectation for emphasis.

There's a lot of Zwoots in her world (omg, so many zwoots).  I'd count them, but ......

Zomg pros again:

I am too busy actually using the highlight function on my kindle to pick up zwoots,

Awesome things like:

 Here's a goddamn pissing contest that is ACTUALLY done the way that women do it.

I wonder if Pride  actually feels like that from a whole crowd trying to keep face.

Oh shit, THAT is actually what trust in someone else's competence looks like.

I'm putting that very last bit in here, just because I liked it.   The character speaking is extremely agoraphobic and xenophobic.  He let the other go, leaving himself alone and among strangers.

Veiko watched the pattern she took, climbing breezes and drafts that he couldn't feel on his skin, couldn't smell.  He trusted that she would not bump against the stone walls he could not see.  Trusted that she could navigate that absolute dark.

Ok, you can see the affectation used from that.  No contractions, other stuff that I'm sure is annoying.

I DON'T CARE.  I AM TOTALLY LOVING THIS BOOK!

[Iskaral Pust]

On July 10, 2016 at 4:41 PM, Triskan said:

I finally caught my own personal white whale which is to say that after years of fits and starts I've finished Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.  Debating two books on my shelf that I've not read:  Remains of the Day and Blood Meridian.  I've heard they're really similar. 

Congrats Trisk.  The third book drags a bit and the ending is anticlimactic, but the completionist neurosis must be appeased. 

I really enjoyed Blood Meridian, FWIW.  Haven't tried the other yet. 

[Teng Ai Hui]

I have recently started The Widow's House (The Dagger and the Coin #4). I had been reluctant to try it because I felt the previous book was just a bunch of actionless walking and talking. Even though the pacing is still a little slow, I'm enjoying the increased action. Another plus is that each character's story arc is starting to intertwine again.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Completed reads for July:

• The Salmon of Doubt, by Douglas Adams
• The Brothel in Rosenstrasse, by Michael Moorcock
• Poison Fruit, by Jacqueline Carey
• Midnight Falcon, by David Gemmell

Falcon had its moments (I liked the ending), but the book as a whole suffers from structural problems. Far too much time was devoted to the ultimately unimportant gladiator section.

Next up is Ravenheart, by David Gemmell (the next one in the Rigante series).

[RedEyedGhost]

On ‎7‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 1:35 AM, polishgenius said:

I think it was probably better than Touch because of Touch's poor ending, but I really thought she should have written two stories, one about the app-based technothriller and one about the forgotten girl. It's like she really wanted to write the former but felt she needed to include the latter because that kind of weird situation is what the 'Claire North' identity does.
Even though the Gameshouse trilogy of novellas, also published under the Claire North name, doesn't do that.

I thought that those two aspects of the book worked quite well together, but I do think that they did come about as two separate ideas that she decided to use in one book. 

 

Especially with the guy that's like her that ended up becoming memorable, and the ex-spy that wants to become forgotten.

  Wow, I've completely forgotten how Touch ended.  I plan to read the Gamehouse books sometime in the near future.  How were they as a whole?

 

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 7:48 AM, beniowa said:

Believe it or not, this was my first Bujold

   The first of many, I hope!

 

I finished Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb last Thursday.  I now completely understand why people were so pissed when this book came out, and I remember reading at the time that the book just stops - that is totally what happens.  I think The Rainwild Chronicles was supposed to be a duology and the first book was too large so they split it into two, and that's exactly how this felt.  I would have been so upset if I didn't have that next book available right away like readers when this was released.  Compared to my glacial reading pace lately, I read through that one fairly so I decided why wait, and moved directly onto Dragon Haven.  I finished that yesterday, blazed through it.  Another reason I think people didn't like this series relative to her other Realm of the Elderlings books is that these first two are mostly just a travelogue and there's not that much real conflict in them, there's some conflict that's manufactured

 

Greft and Jess - but that doesn't ever really feel like it's going to cause true problems.  The flood was good though, but even then I was not worried that Rapskal and Heeby had actually died.  And they came back in

exactly the same manner in which I expected they would.

  I really enjoyed these first two, especially watching the characters grow

 

and the dragons developing into more of their true potential

  It's been a long time since I've read in books in this world (2004), so maybe I'm miss remembering how much happens in those first nine books (I don't think I am), but yeah, I think I can see why these were so unpopular when they were released.  I'm just happy I waited and can read them all in quick succession.  Because of that I decided to jump straight into City of Dragons and will make Blood of Dragons my next read.  I doubt I'll read these two as quickly as the last two, because I'm crazy busy the next 2-4 weeks, but Hobb has a way of making me make time for reading, so we'll see (and 7% into CoD there's already more true conflict then there was in the first half of the series).  I also really liked the bird keeper notes that ended each chapter!  Good stuff.

[ljkeane]

I just finished Leviathan's Blood by Ben Peek, which was excellent. When's the next one coming out?

Before that I read Penric's Shaman which I enjoyed, it was a fun read like most of McMaster Bujold's books, but it wasn't amongst her best I'd say. It felt a bit lacking dramatic tension.

Up next I'm thinking about reading Anthony Ryan's The Waking Fire but I'm a bit torn. I really liked the first book in his last series but the next two were varying degrees of disappointing, it felt like he didn't really know how to carry on after the first book given the changes in format etc. Given a new start I'm hopeful that'll be less of a problem and he can get back to the standard of his debut book but I'm a bit wary. I'll probably give it a chance.

[beniowa]

Finished Wild Cards 14: Marked Cards.  One or two stories came close to being as good as some of the older ones, but the rest were meh.  Oh well.  Another Wild Cards book down, three more to go.  Almost done with the series!

I also read Dark Run, a new debut by Mike Brooks.  Like Retribution Falls, Dark Run has a lot of similarities with Firefly.  Perhaps even more so because this book is actually set partially in space and on spaceships.  I think the book does manage to be enough of its own beast, which is good.  The writing and the characters are good too so I'll be checking out more books when they come out.

 

On 7/11/2016 at 11:08 AM, Lily Valley said:

My only beef about the Tingler being included is that I thought "Pounded in the Butt By My Own Butt" was a much better story.   I haven't read the Award parody story yet.  I've been eyeballing it like a flaming bag found on my doorstep while I hold the hose.  

Have you finished the novels yet?  I'm about to break down and order The Aeronaut's Windlass, if I ever finish SevenEves.  Honestly, this book is KILLING ME.  I finally hit a rhythm that permits me to skim, then read and that seems to be helping, but WHY IS IT SO LONG??  To be fair, the things that piss me off about this ponderous thing are less boring than a lot of stuff I read for escapism.  Perhaps that's why I am so critical.  I LIKE techie space stuff and it feels like Stephenson is talking down to me the whole time I am reading this novel.  Also, I am delighted that my smart friends love a novel that I deeply hate and we have a chance to talk about it.  That is a nice gift from this Hugo packet.  I should be more grateful, and I will be, IF I EVER FINISH THIS EFFING BOOK.

So far I have Leckie in first place again.  I just love her so much.

I found out that Liz Gorinsky, editor of the US release of The Dark Forest is up for a Hugo.  That's the only nod available to that magnificent novel and she is going to get my vote.  She also edited Radiance by Catherine Valente.  I started Radiance and will pick it up after I finish slogging through the rest of the Hugos.  Valente generally takes me a long time to get through.  Her prose is very dense and her editor is to be commended.  

I will be taking a Hugo breather because K. Eason's Outlaw (sequel to Enemy) is out tomorrow.   Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Ben, you would love this series.  LOVE.

I've read all of the novels except for the Butcher.  The Leckie and the Jemisin were both great.  Seveneves and Uprooted both fall into the "I get why people like it, but didn't work for me" category.  I don't know if I'll get to the Butcher before the deadline.  Frankly, there's lots of other books I'd rather read.  Let me know if you do read the Butcher. 

I voted for Gorinsky in first place too because of Dark Forest and Radiance.  Great books!  You know who is of course getting No Award.

And thanks for the rec!  I'll be sure to check that out.