August 2016 Reads

[Iskaral Pust]

8 hours ago, Jo498 said:

Which one of Stephenson's would you recommend to start with?

I recommend Cryptonomicon because it's quintessential Stephenson and a very good read.  Snowcrash is much shorter if you want an easier starting point.  After that, Anathem is great if you have patience for metaphysics, the Baroque Cycle is very good but also very long and runs out of gas a bit in the third volume, and Diamond Age is another quick read from his earlier work with an interesting premise and bizarre ending.  Reamde was pretty conventional; some people who find his other stuff inaccessible might like this, but for me it lost a lot of what sets apart his work. 

If you're just getting started on Stephenson then you have a lot of fun ahead.  Enjoy. 

[Iskaral Pust]

3 hours ago, aceluby said:

Finished 1Q84 over the weekend and only thought it was ok.  The prose was good and it was far from cliche, but there were some serious flaws.  The ending wasn't great, some of the story is left completely unacknowledged, and literally every single female character is described by her boob size.

I agree with all of that.  I didn't understand the hype around this book and so have not tried anything else by the author.  There was a pervading sense of ennui too that made it a drag to read. 

[aceluby]

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I agree with all of that.  I didn't understand the hype around this book and so have not tried anything else by the author.  There was a pervading sense of ennui too that made it a drag to read. 

That is a really good word for it.  This book took me a LONG time to finish.... longer than most books because I think I just wasn't excited about anything that was happening and though I kept wanting to find something to draw me in.... nothing really did.

Usually my gf and my tastes line up pretty well, but this one was definitely an outlier.  I've read more Bakker in 2 days than a month of 1Q84.

[Lyanna Stark]

Finished Sailing to Sarantium at last. It's a good read, I do not dispute that, yet that feeling of vague disappointment and even slight annoyance wouldn't leave me. After some thinking on it, it seems to be I could break it down into three categories: the first being the sometimes odd omnipresent narrator, which I felt was unecessary and really brought you out of the moment. The second was that the themes and motives, all very well thought out and stylish, kept plot, pacing and sometimes characterisation down. It definitely lacked the emotional punch of The Lions of Al-Rassan and even to a lesser degree, some of the passages in Fionavar tapestry, although to be fair, I read the Fionavar tapestry some 25 years ago, so my impression of it is definitely coloured by my then age. Still, the last fight with Avaia the Black Swan and Lisen's circlet lighting up on Darien's head at the very end are things I actually remember with clarity 25 years later. Which says something about them, I think.

There was really nothing that touched on the heartstrings the same way in Sailing to Sarantium. Yes, there was sad stuff, and cruel stuff, and death and murder, but without that "OMG I think my heart just broke" effect.

Thirdly, and perhaps the thing that kept niggling at me the most, was the description of the female characters, of which there are many, and they are also interesting. However, I wrote this in my review of it, and I stand by it. Warning some spoilers:

 

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I think there is an issue with how Kay writes his female characters in this novel. Apart from Kasia, a girl sold into slavery (including sexual slavery by the by), all the women who aren't someone's mother or really old are supremely beautiful and amazingly attractive. Further, they are also often defined in terms of their relationship with me, or how they affect men sexually. Even if they are described as powerful schemers and strong thinkers, the main source of their power are their looks. It's even described as being quite amazing how the Empress at her fairly advanced age, can still be so alluring. Oh, and she was a dancing girl/prostitute when she was younger. Basically, everyone who is not older than Satan is either a dancing girl/prostitute, or behaving like one. This becomes repetitive after a while, and it would be nice to have a female character in the novel who is not so strongly defined by relationship with men, whether or not she is attracted to Some Dude, avoiding to be sold into sexual slavery to some Dude, or trying to seduce Some Dude.

Even the mothers/old women are defined with regards to their relationship with men. Someone's wife, someone's mother. Kasia again somewhat avoids this trap, but she still ends up in the Attracted to Some Dude camp, and she starts the book in abject misery, as both a kitchen and sexual slave, so I feel she can't really be held up as a good example of something truly different.

After a while, it really becomes apparent how much the female characters are anchored in the physical world, while the male characters are far more concerned with philosophical concerns, like the nature of Art, the transience of beauty, etc.

Also, WTF kind of beauty standards does the author have for thinking some red headed mong is so extremely attractive to one and all women they are falling over themselves to be so attracted to him they can barely keep it together after spending ten minutes in his company? The suspension of disbelief made a huge WOOOOOOSH right there, thank you very much. At least Ammar ibn Khairan from The Lions of Al-Rassan was basically a superskilled and amazing looking übermensch, so I could sort of buy that he was at least mostly irresistible, but this time it reeks of poorly executed wish-fulfillment. Minor quibble perhaps, but somehow on top of all the seducing women, it really annoyed me, perhaps more than it should.

 

 

Onwards to the next one, I suppose.

[polishgenius]

I find Kay an often wonderful writer, but his writing of women, and sex, is at best a bit weird and at worst, yes, sometimes quite off-putting. There's definitely a lot of wish-fulfillment going on.

[williamjm]

13 hours ago, Jo498 said:

Which one of Stephenson's would you recommend to start with?

For all of Stephenson's work that I've read I'd say the plots have a mix of inspired brilliance and baffling choices, including Seveneves which I'm nearly at the end of (will probably say a bit more about it when I have finished). I think Snow Crash is probably his most famous work and maybe the obvious place to start, although I think Cryptonomicon is probably my favourite work of his. The Diamond Age has some of his best work in it, but I really didn't understand some key elements of the ending and having read other reviews I'm not sure anyone else understood it all, either. I'd probably suggest skipping Reamde, which starting with an interesting premise then abandoned it to turn into what felt like an 800-page long episode of 24.

[brunhilda]

With Stephenson understand that the ending is going to suck. My faves are Snowcrash and Diamond Age. 

Just finished two more Claire North books: I loved "Touch". I hated "The Sudden Appearance of Hope".

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished off Godslayer. It's literally the second half of Banewreaker, so no change to my sentiment (a fun, but ultimately misaimed, deconstruction).

I do have a soft spot for it though, if only because it's a vanishingly rare high fantasy series where the antagonists win.

Next up is The Slow Regard of Silent Things, by Patrick Rothfuss. 

[Darth Richard II]

18 minutes ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

 

Eh, you might want to mark that as spoilers for those of us who have never read Godslayer.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Oops, have done. 

To be fair, it's not a massive spoiler, since the fundamental premise of the story is Tolkien fanfiction from the point of view of Morgoth, Sauron, and the Witch-King of Angmar.

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah I long of figured, that's why I said might.  but some people people are super sensitive about that stuff.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished off The Slow Regard of Silent Things (well, it is short). It might be my new favourite Rothfuss work - partly because the quirkiness works (Auri comes across as Pippi Longstocking's autistic cousin, but the point is actually getting inside an alien psyche), and partly because Kvothe isn't in it. The worst bits of the book were Rothfuss' Foreword and Afterword, which come across as a bit too smug for what is framed as an apology.

On the other hand, perhaps I'm being generous because I didn't pay money for this (it's a library book) or have high expectations.

My completed August reads:

• Bitter Seeds, by Ian Tregillis
• The Coldest War, by Ian Tregillis
• Necessary Evil, by Ian Tregillis 
• Stormrider, by David Gemmell
• Handling the Undead, by John Ajvide Lindqvist
• The Core of the Sun, by Johanna Sinisalo
• Banewreaker, by Jacqueline Carey
• Godslayer, by Jacqueline Carey
• The Slow Regard of Silent Things, by Patrick Rothfuss

Next up is Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida.

[Iskaral Pust]

RBPL - I really envy the reading time you have available.  You seem to have a prolific list every month. 

[The Marquis de Leech]

Thanks.

Anyway, finished off Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. I hated it. Not because it was dull - I could have tolerated that. Not because I wanted every single character to die in a snow storm or something - that happens. No, it was a combination of an "all men are rapists!" theme (way to stigmatise an entire gender), a contrived and unlikely plot, and a protagonist whose actions are just bizarre at times (especially the end). It's one of those books, where you feel you have to wash the taste of it out of your mouth.

Next up is The Winter Place, by Alexander Yates. 

[Garett Hornwood]

Finished my simultaneous re-read of A Feast for Crows (last Wednesday) and A Dance with Dragons (Monday).  I thought reading them together, well AFFC and 60% of ADWD, gave the series something more.

Today I started The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (and Bryan Mealer)

[Jo498]

Finished "Rhialto the Marvellous" from the Vances' Dying Earth volume. I found this (3 largely independent novellas, only sharing some personnel) rather weak. It's over the top magic, supposed to be funny (but not very funny compared to the Cugel books) and it doesn't really fit so well with the other three books. Magic suddenly seems to work differently. Whereas in the original Dying Earth we get the influential concept that Magicians can only keep a very limited number of spells (only about 6 if it is a very good mage, only one for a dabbler like Cugel and he usually blunders the pronunciation so something goes wrong) in their memories, now magicians command in addition to their spells indentured genie/demon-like beings (sandestins) and magical items which results in almost god-like powers like time travel, stopping time, travelling around the universe in a flying mansion, conjuring up simulacra of beautiful women for their entertainment

But mainly the stories are not very good and none of the characters is drawn as well as e.g. Cugel or even some of the lesser ones of the earlier books. I'd rate Dying Earth and both Cugel books at about 4/5, this last one about 2.5/5 if that much.

 

[unJon]

Just finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Was a good if light read. Thriller with some good action and big ideas about quantum physics and identity. Recommended. 

In August I also read all the Cormoran Strike novels by JK Rowling's pseudonym. I enjoyed them much more than I thought I would. I think Rowling's craft and ability to structure a novel are superb and have come a long way from her first novel. Good detective story fare. 

Min nonfiction I enjoyed Bonk by Mary Roach. She's a very funny writer in the popular science vein. This one was about the science of sex. Almost self-recommending. 

Not sure if I should dive next into A Crown for Cold Silver or Gladstone's series starting with Three Parts Dead. 

[williamjm]

I finished Seveneves. There were a lot of things I liked a lot in it, but also some significant flaws. It's oddly structured where the first 600 pages almost feel like a prologue for the last 200 pages, which is a bit of a pity because the first two sections of the book were better than the third. The 5000-years-later section did have some interesting ideas but it didn't feel like it spent enough time on most of those ideas or the characterisation of the large cast that are introduced near the end of the book. Many aspects of the society and some of the key events in that part of the book felt a bit unconvincing and contrived, I don't know if I could necessarily say the earlier plot was necessarily plausible as such, but at least there was a certain amount of verisimilitude that the last section lacks. At least the ending was largely comprehensible which isn't always something you can rely on with Stephenson's books.

On a more positive note, I did really like a lot of the early parts of the book, particularly the increasingly complicated and desperate space missions attempting to provide a way to survive the apocalypse. I do quite like SF stories which don't really have an antagonist as such, instead most of the focus is on the characters trying to co-operate to accomplish some extremely difficult task and most of the story falls into that category (although there a couple of semi-antagonists introduced later on).

Finished off The Slow Regard of Silent Things (well, it is short). It might be my new favourite Rothfuss work - partly because the quirkiness works (Auri comes across as Pippi Longstocking's autistic cousin, but the point is actually getting inside an alien psyche), and partly because Kvothe isn't in it.

I did like it a lot as well. I think in some ways Rothfuss' writing could be better suited to shorter formats rather than big epic fantasy trilogies (his pace of writing is probably better suited to that as well), I enjoyed The Lightning Tree from the Rogues anthology as well.

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm nearly finished with John Hornor Jacobs' Foreign Devils the follow up to the wonderful Incorruptibles.  I'm really liking the stuff in Tchinee, but didn't care too much for the travel getting there (although seeing Rume was interesting).  It's not quite as good as the first, but it's still pretty great.

Up next will be Peadar's The Call.  Really looking forward to it.

 

[aceluby]

19 hours ago, Garett Hornwood said:

Finished my simultaneous re-read of A Feast for Crows (last Wednesday) and A Dance with Dragons (Monday).  I thought reading them together, well AFFC and 60% of ADWD, gave the series something more.

Totally agree on that.  Felt it tied everything together much better.  The only thing that doesn't work is Sam and Jon have basically the same scene in different POV, but it's only a couple chapters.  IMO it's greater than the sum of its parts.