beniowa Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 New year, new month, new thread. I'm about to start Chains of the Heretic by Jeff Salyards, third book in Bloodsounder's Arc. I quite enjoyed the first book, but was disappointed by the second so we'll see how this goes. I'm also reading Bridging Infinity edited by Jonathon Strahan. So what are you reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garett Hornwood Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I'm starting the year off with Don Quitoxe as my primary read--the book I take to work to read during breaks and lunch--and The Acts of the Apostles by Ellen G. White as my first home read, pretty obvious where I'm reading it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guinevere Seaworth Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I am going to read a Powder Mage novella, Forsworn until I get my pre-ordered ebook, The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams. I can't wait to be back in Osten Ard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I finally started A Crown For Cold Silver by Alex Marshall and I want to marry this book. His sense of humor lines up PERFECTLY with mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiriki Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 2 minutes ago, Guinevere Seaworth said: until I get my pre-ordered ebook, The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams. I can't wait to be back in Osten Ard! As an early reader, I can pretty much guarantee you will love it. I know I did. Enjoy, Guinevere! : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andorion Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Started the year by experimenting to see how many books I can read together. The Thousandfold Thought by R Scott Bakker - 84 pages in - his usual excellent quality so far The Ships of Merior by Janny Wurts - too early to comment Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - too early to comment Rereading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds - about 250 pages in - I forgot how epic and elegant Reynolds can be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 My comments on The Shepherd's Crown are in the December thread - it feels odd, finally saying farewell to Discworld. Next up is The Queen of the Damned, by Anne Rice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I've had a mixed bag over the past two weeks. I read The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North and enjoyed it a lot. It's like a David Mitchell novel mixed with Tregillis' Milkweed. My only complaint is that it is too morose, both the specifics like the torture/imprisonment scenes but also the general nihilism and ennui of the kalachakra. Some ennui seems appropriate but there was no delight of infinite experimentation. And weird that none of the kalachakra ever seem to have children or use that as an experience to vary their lives. In a very different vein I also read a couple of mainstream thrillers rec'd by a friend who read GRRM and Abercrombie at my behest. The first was Killing Floor, Jack Reacher #1 by Lee Child, and the second was Rules Of Prey, Lucas Davenport #1 by John Sandford. Both are the first in crime genre series of 20+ installments, both are very readable in their way although the characters seem too wish-fulfillment to read more than a few of each. Jack Reacher is the knight errant crusading through small town America, racking up a high body count as he stops crime without any pesky due process or even legal status as a policeman, but of course that's ok if he's always right and he stops the crimes the pencil-pushing police cannot. It seems like he should have been portrayed by Bruce Willis rather than Tom Cruise, because the yippee-ky-yay would have fit. Lucas Davenport OTOH is a wealthy, stylish, ladies man, police detective who stays mostly within the law as he solves crimes with authentic-sounding police procedure. I'm not sure if they're harmless fun or damaging fantasies, especially Reacher, although I guess the same could be said of most SF/F. I'm also reading on and off, a few chapters each time between other books, Into The Thickening Fog by Andrei Gelasimov and translated from Russian. It was one of the monthly free Kindle books on Prime. It's humorous, like a Russian Hunter S. Thompson using vodka instead of drugs as he visits his tiny, frozen hometown. OK so far but not yet very compelling at the 30% mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I am reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. Mostly because I checked it out from the library and it's due back in 2 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mashiara Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I'm starting the year with Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leofric Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I ended 2016 with Babylon's Ashes, and then started the year by burning through The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron on New Years Day, with the The Plague of Swords already waiting to go next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plessiez Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Planning to get quite a few books read this month, including a few things I stalled on last year. I'd hoped to finish Stefan Zweig's Beware of Pity before Christmas, but I found the middle third of the book very slow going. So slow in fact that I'm still there. In hindsight, the fact that the translator's forward spent so much time saying what a great short story writer Zweig was was perhaps a bad sign. I tried reading one of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books a few years ago and found it just too depressingly bleak to finish, so I was pleasantly surprised by her Life After Life, which I read last month. I've now picked up the (sort of) sequel A God In Ruins. I found second-hand copies of a number of old C. J. Cherryh books in November of which I've only read one so far (The Pride of Chanur). I think I've read most of the 'main' Alliance/Union books as well as the Morgaine Saga, but I'm not really too familiar with her other work. I've just started Rusalka now. Also sitting on the to-read pile are Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, Michael Moorcock's The Dancers At The End Of Time and Marge Piercy's Woman On The Edge Of Time. I struggled with the latter when I tried it last year and I decided I'd restart rather than trying to continue. If I get through those, I'm hoping to find a copy of Ken MacLeod's latest book Insurgence (which I thought was coming out this month for some reason, but apparently came out late last year) and of Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightening (which came out last year as well, but apparently not in paperback?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niphredil Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peadar Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I may try Jay Kristoff's Nevernight next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I read Josiah Bancroft's Senlin Ascends, which I thought was very enjoyable. It did have an original premise, while none of the individual elements may be entirely new (it's actually the second 'man ascends the Tower of Babel' story I've read in the last fortnight after one of Ted Chiang's short stories) I don't think they've been put together in quite this way before. The Tower itself with its many societies which don't even know much about their neighbours was a fascinating setting, although I was slightly disappointed that the culture of the wider world of Ur seemed to be basically Victorian steampunk rather than something a bit more unusual. Senlin is a likeable protagonist even if his naivety can be a bit irritating early on and I liked the way Marya's character was slowly revealed by flashbacks. The story keeps moving at a good pace, although sometimes the plot seemed to rely a bit too heavily on coincidence. I'll definitely pick up the second book next time I do an Amazon order. Currently most of the way through Paul Cornell's novella The Lost Child of Lychford, which is fun but a bit disappointing so far, the plot feels like one of those TV episodes of a fantasy show where all the characters start behaving in a really uncharacteristic manner because of something supernatural messing with their minds, which I think is a plot that works better when the characters are more established rather than in the second instalment in a series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 1 hour ago, Peadar said: I may try Jay Kristoff's Nevernight next. Noooooooooooo you have so much to live for! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Really a December read, but Gwyn Jones' A History of the Vikings. Very informative in spite of its age (1968) and archaeological discoveries since (L'Anse aux Meadows, etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 20 hours ago, Starkess said: I am reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. Mostly because I checked it out from the library and it's due back in 2 days. Finished it. It was very good, I was intrigued by the different timelines and how people's lives intersect and then diverge and the introspection of someone who likely has untreated mental illness. The ending was a little abrupt, but not detrimental. This is my first Haruki Murakami novel, although I've been meaning to read some of his work for a long time. I'll definitely check out some others. Next up is The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unJon Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 26 minutes ago, Starkess said: Next up is The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. I keep meaning to pick up a David Mitchell book. What do people think the best place to start is? (I saw the Cloud Atlas movie though don't remember much about it.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Finished the excellent News of the World by Paulette Jiles. I had a great time with this book - simple but beautiful prose, great characters and enough tension to keep me interested throughout. I didn't know much about the Texas Indian tribes (especially the Kiowa), so I actually learned something from the book as well. Highly recommended. My only criticism is the: Spoiler unnecessary flash-forward at the end. Now on to Sanderson's Elantris, which I am having trouble with so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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