January Reading 2017

[Peadar]

I'm reading Siege by my friend Gustavo Bondoni. I have barely started, but the stakes are very high indeed.

[Iskaral Pust]

I just read, very quickly, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.  It's a SF thriller recommended by Amazon after I read The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August.  The dust jacket synopsis mentions a character kidnapped and woken in a world that's not his own (similar but with differences).  I won't spoil anything but since it also describes the novel as dealing with choices and paths not taken, I'm sure you can guess the general thrust.

The first 20-30% was a bit cliche, with similar scenarios in a bazillion SF movies and books, but after the halfway point it leaves the cliche scenario and starts exploring somewhat new and different territory and then the final quarter of the book has a pretty unusual and surprising conflict to resolve.  The actual final resolution works reasonably well although I can think of at least three others that would have fit the SF situation better and been more satisfying.

Overall it's a quick read, pretty well written and the core idea of living in regret and wondering at paths not taken, expressed through a good SF scenario is the main reason to read it.

[Queen of Procrastination]

Just finished The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen. Enjoyed it in the beginning, but got let down by it in the middle and towards the ending. It wasn't as good as the first book. I liked that it had some unusual (for an YA novel) POV characters like a priest in his 70s. There were many flashbacks and contrary to some other readers I enjoyed them. However, I didn't like the main storyline that much. The protagonist is the queen of a country that is being invaded and she spends more time thinking about the past, her body and men than about ruling her country. Furthermore, the antagonists aren't really complex, but more sterotypical evil. I hope the third book will be better.

I'm gonna read The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss and the non-fiction book Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt next. 

[Zorral]

I'm soon to begin a new Dumas, The Red Sphinx!  New, at least in English.

Dirda writes about the Red Sphinx in the WaPo: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/newly-translated-a-sequel-to-the-three-musketeers-is-as-fresh-as-ever/2017/01/04/d5deff7a-cc3f-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?

 

Quote

 

Quote:
Originally called “The Comte de Moret,” “The Red Sphinx” first appeared during 1865 in Les Nouvelles, but it was never quite completed after the magazine folded. For this handsome new edition — the work’s first translator since a wretched 19th-century version — Lawrence Ellsworth appends a related novella titled “The Dove,” which brings the adventures of the Comte de Moret and his beloved Isabelle de Lautrec to a dramatic, nick-of-time close. 

Yet the Red Sphinx himself, as the historian Michelet dubbed Cardinal Richelieu, wholly dominates the book’s 800-plus pages. The action begins in December 1628, shortly after the French victory at La Rochelle chronicled in “The Three Musketeers.” A mysterious cloaked hunchback tries to hire a down-on-his luck swordsman named Latil to murder the Comte de Moret. That young man, the illegitimate son of the late Henri IV, has just arrived in Paris from Italy, bearing secret letters for Marie de Medici, Anne of Austria and Gaston, the duc d’Orleans, respectively the queen mother, the queen and King Louis XIII’s brother (and would-be successor). When Latil refuses to be an assassin, a quarrel develops, the hunchback’s three companions join the fray and the swordsman is left for dead. 

. . . . In the final third of this continually enjoyable novel, the action moves to the battlefield, as the armies of France enter Italy. Here several guerrilla operations behind the lines should thrill even fans of Bernard Cornwell. Here, too, Richelieu encounters a young papal officer named Mazarino Mazarini, who will eventually become a French citizen and ultimately Richelieu’s successor, Cardinal Mazarin. 

 

I so admire Dumas as an historical novelist and his methodology for creating historical fiction. He knew his history and researched constantly. He really knew what he was doing, by which I mean he consciously constructed a set of tools by which he thought the sort of historical fiction he was writing -- which he and the father of historical fiction, Sir Walter Scott -- called Romance -- and matter-of-factly employed them day in and day out.  Despite his love for Romance fiction, he didn't regard writing as an activity of Romance, but one of a job that provided an excellent living.

 

 

[Zorral]

On 1/2/2017 at 10:29 AM, Niphredil said:

Books finished over the winter break:

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin- I am far from an expert on US history, so I found this to be a very interesting book on the life of Lincoln, who I didn't really know much about prior to reading this. In the first few chapters, I was doubtful of the approach of discussing his 'rivals' histories and motivations, but I have to say that it all really came together in the middle and ending of the book, and it was a good perspective to have instead of a book that was just straight up about Lincoln. Really enjoyed this. 

Smaller and Smaller Circles by FH Batacan- Zippy crime read, good book for a vacation. It might have made more of an impact on me if I was not from (almost) the exact same area in the Philippines where the book takes place . As it is, a lot of the context was already very familiar to me, the story was pretty straightforward (not a whodunit) and I wasn't a very big fan of the prose. Still, I would say that it is worth reading.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith- Uninteresting characters (and character development) + uninteresting story development where not much really happened = unfortunately not worth reading for me. I thought there were a lot of interesting ideas/aspects that could have been developed further but the story ended up being all over the place and not really cohesive. 

Be sure to take Team of Rivals with ample shakings of salt -- a lot of it is basically fiction.  She also plagerized some of it.  Which are part of why the book is such an enjoyable read.  (Not to say that really good and accurate histories can't be enjoyable reads too.  Many are, because the authors are not only excellent scholars by excellent writers.)

It's really too bad that this is the book about Lincoln's cabinent that Obama fixated on -- as much of it wasn't actually how history shows what happened he made a lot of wrong assumptions of how he could handle the republicans when he came into the Oval.

 

[williamjm]

Today I've started The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

Slight change in reading plans.

I finished a Powder Mage novella Forsworn.  

I am almost finished reading a library book, The Dakota Cipher by William Dietrich.  These are like The DaVinci Code but during the Napoleonic Era.  Same kind of always action as our hero races from one clue to another while the baddies chase him.  Entertaining fluff for me.

then I am going to read The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams.

[Andorion]

Finished The Thousandfold Thought by Bakker. Awesome book. 

[Starkess]

On 1/5/2017 at 7:29 AM, Andorion said:

BTW what is the forum opinion on Brent Weeks? I tried and failed to read his Night Angel books, but I consistently hear praise for Lightbringer

I'm a fan! Although I enjoyed Night Angel too, but Lightbringer even more. I wouldn't say it's high literature, but it's romping good fun and I devoured them. Although I will say the latest one (#4, supposedly the penultimate) did suffer a bit from series bloat.

[mashiara]

I finished S.A.Corey's Babylon's Ashes and I liked it, just not as much as the previous Expanse books. It was still a great read but it felt slightly off at times.

Now reading Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. So far, it's fun.

[Lightning Lord]

On 1/7/2017 at 5:56 AM, williamjm said:

Today I've started The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

I just read this about a month ago.  It was excellent.  I was more impressed with Cloud Atlas, but this was a great read.

[Andorion]

17 hours ago, Starkess said:

I'm a fan! Although I enjoyed Night Angel too, but Lightbringer even more. I wouldn't say it's high literature, but it's romping good fun and I devoured them. Although I will say the latest one (#4, supposedly the penultimate) did suffer a bit from series bloat.

So basically entertaining fun? Fast moving light reads?

 

I finished Bakker's Thousandfold Thought. Awesome book. I am now solidly in the " I love Bakker" camp

[beniowa]

Finished Chains of the Heretic.  Liked it a little better than the last book, but I still had some issues with it.  After a promising start to this trilogy, I've decided that on the whole this series and this author just aren't for me. 

I won an ARC of forthcoming novel, Crossroads of Canopy by Thoraiya Dyer, on Goodreads so I'll be reading that next.

[C Rutherford]

I had a few issues with Salyards as well.  Thought the first book was a bit rough but promising.  Then he tried to do more sweeping and broad plotting and it just did not work that well for me.  Plus he seemed to contradict himself in many small but annoying ways.  The commander of the military group is supposed to be this fearsome leader.  The military group is seen as a threat by various cabals and conspiracies and those just wanting to maintain power.  And yet every single time there was some kind of action that needed to be taken they stood around and argued and back talked and second and third guessed.  I think Salyards thought it created witty dialogue and built the suspense.  Instead it made the whole thing seem downright silly more often then not.  I think the author worked better doing short and more succinct plot lines like in the first book. 

[Leofric]

Finished The Plague of Swords by Miles Cameron, enjoyed it, but not as much as the two previous books in the series.  Now will have to wait for the last book to come out.

Also, read The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson.   Loved this book.  Wonderful Viking saga of the adventures of Red Orm as he travels through Europe around 1000 AD. 

Started reading Death's End by Cixin Liu, the last book in his trilogy have high hopes that it will be as good as the first two books.

Also have my lunch time reading, The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross.   Enjoyed the other Laundry Files books I've read.

 

 

 

[SkynJay]

On 1/8/2017 at 2:48 PM, beniowa said:

I won an ARC of forthcoming novel, Crossroads of Canopy by Thoraiya Dyer, on Goodreads so I'll be reading that next.

I will be interested to hear thoughts.  There are very few reviews of this up thus far.

[Guest]

On 1/8/2017 at 5:23 AM, Lightning Lord said:

I just read this about a month ago.  It was excellent.  I was more impressed with Cloud Atlas, but this was a great read.

I was telling a buddy about the new Scorcese movie Silence, and he was like "So it's like the Mitchell book Thousand Autumns..."

Probably not so much in story but moreso in setting for sure.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Almost done with The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams.So great to be back in Osten Ard.Though a short novel, it still feels epic and is highly immersive.Loving it!

[Lightning Lord]

4 hours ago, Triskan said:

I was telling a buddy about the new Scorcese movie Silence, and he was like "So it's like the Mitchell book Thousand Autumns..."

Probably not so much in story but moreso in setting for sure.

Interesting.  The setting is (or is similar to) a trading outpost in 19th century Nagasaki?

 

I just finished a different David's book, Hologram for the King.  It was fascinating to read and then discuss some of it with some people I know that lived in Saudi Arabia as well.  I can't say I loved it, but I'd definitely recommend it to nearly anyone.

[Peadar]

Up next for me is likely to be 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough.