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February Reading 2017


Garett Hornwood

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Surprised that there wasn't already a thread, but here it is and with that...

I've started reading Dangerous Women 1, the first of three paperback editions of the anthology edited by GRRM and Dozois.  Since 1 has "The Princess and the Queen" it's the one I purchased since I was only interested in ASOIAF material.

I'm still working my way through The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White as my home read.

So what are you reading this month?

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I finished The Trespasser by Tana French and really really liked it. It wasn't as dark and twisted as her previous books but it was very well written and I felt connected to her main character.

I'll read Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston next. Technically I've read this one before and I remember that I liked it -and that it had something bad happening to a cat that I'm really not looking forward to- but since I don't remember much else about it I'll reread it before I read the next ones.

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I just finished up A Blade of Black Steel by Alex Marshall. I really liked the first book but this one didn't really capture my attention as much, the characters were still amusing but not much really seems to happen in the book.

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A bit behind here in posting.  In January, I finished Naamah's Blessing.  A nice conclusion to the Terre D'Ange series.

Barren Lands by Kevin Krajick was a non-fiction novel of finding the big diamond mines in Northern Canada.  I am geologist but I admit knowing very little of prospecting for diamonds and the individuals who found the strike in Canada.  It was quite epic and interesting novel.

Now reading A Passage of Stars, Kate Elliott's early science fiction series.  It is okay so far.  I can see she has really improved her craft as far as prose and plot structure as I have read Jaran and Crown of Stars series.

   

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I finished The Harp of Imach Thyssel, third of Patricia C. Wrede's first series. It's a fairly standard YA fantasy book, but I actually liked it a lot. Simple and sort of sweet with some enjoyable and unforeseen twists.

Next up is a re-read of the Harry Potter series. I am going to a big trivia night in a few weeks and my HP pride won't accept being rusty!

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I finished Brandon Sanderson's The Bands of Mourning. It was a fun read, but overall I'd say I preferred the previous book. This one had a couple of really great action set-pieces, but the overall plot seemed to increasingly focus on some sort of wider conflict against an external threat that has yet to really be a compelling plotline. The plotline about the search for the ancient temple also felt a bit silly, to the extent that even the characters seemed to notice how clichéd it was. Characterisation continues to be a mixed bag, I like Marisei and Steris and Wax is a reasonable protagonist but Wayne was still annoying and some of Sanderson's attempts at being funny were a bit painful.

Next up is Josiah Bancroft's Arm of the Sphinx.

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Tom Holland's "shadow of the sword".

Not sure why I keep reading his books (probably because the subject matter is interesting) but his history books never quite click for me. This one seems all over the place and jumps around in time a lot - something I'm not really a fan of in history unless it's about a central idea. I think the central idea here is islam or generally the history of jewish/christian/muslim texts and how they are all a bit dubious from a historical viewpoint. I guess the most interesting thing is my reaction to it, in that I don't know if I'm uncomfortable about his dissection of Islam because I think he's targeting it over the others or because I've been persuaded to think islam should be treat more delicately than the other monotheistic faiths. I'm not partucularly keen on either scenario. I think if he'd focused more on the fluidity of not just these three religions but how all the pagan ones essentially influence each other it'd be a stronger book. These elements are present they just don't come off as obvious to me.

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About halfway through Arm of the Sphinx now. Enjoying it so far, although there are times when it's hard to suspend disbelief, in particular there's a bit with an airship, a harpoon and a train that I can't really believe working as well as it did.

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Finished GGK's, Children of Earth and Sky. Another fine novel by GGK but didn't reach the emotional highs and lows of some of his other novels. The feels only really hit towards the end. A number of references to the Sarantine Mosaic and even the Lions of Al Rassan. A loose story in so far as it follows the arcs of numerous characters with no concrete central arc. At times I was thinking GGK may have been using this novel as a bridge between the Sarantine Mosaic and future novel(s).

Now, I'll finally finish Daniel Abraham's Dagger & Coin series. I haven't read the last two novels of it.

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22 hours ago, williamjm said:

About halfway through Arm of the Sphinx now. Enjoying it so far, although there are times when it's hard to suspend disbelief, in particular there's a bit with an airship, a harpoon and a train that I can't really believe working as well as it did.

I just went with it. I very much enjoyed the book.

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Finally finished The Lions of Al-Rassan - not because it was bad, but because I've been pretty distracted in recent times. I liked it far more than A Song for Arbonne (having a Grey/Grey setting, rather than Black/White works much better for the sort of story Kay is trying to tell). My major complaint is that the setting (Reconquista of Fantasy Moorish Spain) is much more interesting than the love-triangle story. And the way the love-triangle is resolved... I literally said "oh, come on!" when I realised what was going on.

Next up is Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent.

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Been pretty busy over the last month few weeks and didn't post in the last thread.  Read The Axe and The Throne and it was only ok.  Pretty much a ASOIAF clone, but far more one dimensional characters.  Probably won't finish that series.  Finished up Leviathan Wakes and absolutely LOVED it.  Can't wait to get more into that series.  Read Elantris over the last week and it falls in line with pretty much every Sanderson book I've read, though the dialogue didn't seem quite as cringe inducing as some of his other works.  Again, the magic system shined the most, but the majority of characters were cardboard cutouts.  About 3/4 of the way through Dragon Keeper by Hobb and have really enjoyed it so far.  It's nice being back in the south of this world; and the characters are anything but one dimensional.  Also have been struggling through The Red Knight.  It's just not gripping me yet.

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On ‎2‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 11:56 AM, Mark Antony said:

Been reading the first law trilogy. Knocked out the first two and I'm on the third. Seems to be getting better and better as it goes. Really enjoying the characters. 

 

I so need to get on this. TBI, BTAH and TH were all great. I'm quite curious as to what happens next.

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