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March Reading 2017


Garett Hornwood

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I'm still having a hard time concentrating on my reading. I finished The Just City by Jo Walton a couple of days ago and it was OK, but didn't really do much for me. Maybe it was because I wasn't in the right state of mind for a book full of philosophical discussions. I had the hardest time continuing, part of me just wanted to give up.

I'm now finally reading the first Wild Cards book. About 1/3 of the way in and I like it so far.

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Lots of love here for Adrian Tchaikovsky.  I was intrigued by reviews of his work but also a bit jaded on traditional fantasy.  Perhaps I'll try one soon. 

I finished Bengtsson's The Long Ships, a historical fiction of the Viking era.  What set this apart is that it was written in the 1940's.  It tells the life of adventure of a fictional character.  As a novel, it lacks in the quality of prose, characterization, suspense/drama, action and development arc.  As historical fiction, it does a good job of representing the culture, worldview and attitudes of these peripheral Norse who suddenly exploded in their impact on the world around them, including a claim to be the real roots of western democracy, especially considering that the popular depiction at this time was simple swashbuckling raiders with horned helmets.  Fans of Dunnett's King Hereafter and Cornwell's Saxon Tales series will enjoy the portrayal of the culture but miss the crafting of the story. 

Now reading Ellroy's The Black Dahlia, first of his LA quartet.  Thanks to Marsen for the rec. 

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Finished Twelve Kings in Sharakhai.  I tried Beaulieu's debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, some time back, but couldn't get into.  I did finish this book, though I'm not sure how I feel about it.  Parts of it were quite good, while others frustrating with bits of plotting and characterization feeling somewhat convenient.  I'm not sure if I'll ever read the sequel. 

Still reading Bookburners, albeit slowly.  Been doing it mostly on my days off.  About to start Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly.and The Line Between by Peter S. Beagle. 

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5 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Lots of love here for Adrian Tchaikovsky.  I was intrigued by reviews of his work but also a bit jaded on traditional fantasy.  Perhaps I'll try one soon.

Although he's mostly been writing in the fantasy genre, he does have one hard-SF book, Children of Time, if you'd prefer that genre.

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6 hours ago, beniowa said:

Finished Twelve Kings in Sharakhai.  I tried Beaulieu's debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, some time back, but couldn't get into.  I did finish this book, though I'm not sure how I feel about it.  Parts of it were quite good, while others frustrating with bits of plotting and characterization feeling somewhat convenient.  I'm not sure if I'll ever read the sequel. 

Still reading Bookburners, albeit slowly.  Been doing it mostly on my days off.  About to start Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly.and The Line Between by Peter S. Beagle. 

I liked Twelve Kings in Sharakhai  well enough and I plan on reading the next one, but I don't understand the people who named it best book of 2016.

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Finished A Blink of the Screen. Most of the stuff is a handful of pages and generally not very interesting beyond a garnering a smile. But there are some gems in there - I really enjoyed Final Reward (a sword and sorcery author has to deal with his protagonist on the doorstep), Once and Future (Pratchett's spin on The Sword in the Stone), and Troll Bridge (a tribute to Cohen the Nonagenarian).

Next up is The Howling Miller, by Arto Paasilinna.

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I haven't really been looking forward to rereading the first two Rain Wilds Chronicles books to try and get the series finished before Robin Hobb's latest book comes out, I didn't enjoy them the first time round and I was anticipating them being a bit of a slog, but surprisingly I've whizzed through Dragon Keeper and a decent chunk of Dragon Haven. It's a lot less irritating to read what's essentially a quarter of a book when I know I can just get the next one in the series without having to wait a year.

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I'm reading the Cloud Roads by Martha Wells.

Just finished up the last book in the Tale of Shikanoko, The Tengu's Game of Go by Lian Hearn.  I didn't realize until the end that it was a stealth prequel to her earlier series, Tales of the Otori.  Overall, the series is very poor and I'd advise people to not bother with it, even if they liked Tales of Otori.

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9 hours ago, Lord of Rhinos said:

I'm reading the Cloud Roads by Martha Wells.

Just finished up the last book in the Tale of Shikanoko, The Tengu's Game of Go by Lian Hearn.  I didn't realize until the end that it was a stealth prequel to her earlier series, Tales of the Otori.  Overall, the series is very poor and I'd advise people to not bother with it, even if they liked Tales of Otori.

I am beginning to suspect yo are me from the mirror universe. On book 3 of Shikanoko and loving the hell out of it.

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I thought Hearn's prequel series worked really well when read as four parts to one novel. 

I finished my advance copy of Assassin's Fate by Hobb.  A momentous book with relentless momentum is how I will leave it until its is released and open for further discussion.

Weird delivery on the most recent of Brigg's Mercy Thompson books.  I enjoy these but am always a bit disappointed in how pate and slight they end up being.  As urban fantasy it works.  But I really loved some of Briggs earlier fantasy work and every time I read one of the Thomspon series I feel cheated because it means another strong seller that keeps her writing this urban fantasy froth.  Anyway, because of the weird delivery, I got it yesterday and am about a third of that way into that.  Then I think I'll delve into some historical fantasy since Margaret George's take on Nero and Sarah Dunant's Borgia book both also just came out.

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I have a desire to read some grimdark fantasy with:

THE DARK DEFILES by Richard K. Morgan
THE TOWER OF THE SWALLOW by Sapkowski

Also, BEYOND REDEMPTION by Fletcher

I should also mention that I'm guilty re-reading the RESIDENT EVIL game novelizations by SD Perry. I loved those books in 2000 to 2005 and still love them today despite being adaptations.

I also read VILLAINS RULE by Michael Gibson which is a nice bit of fantasy parody.

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Finished off The Howling Miller. It resonated a bit with me, if only because its bitter humour deals with something that remains a very real issue today (i.e. attitudes towards mental illness). I did spot one screw-up though: Paasilinna has a drunkard character drink the first bit of distilled liquid from a still. While the character isn't too bright, the fact that he's made it to 50+ without going blind suggests that he's aware of the rule that you don't drink the first (or last) bit of distilled alcohol - otherwise you are consuming toxic methanol or higher alcohols, rather than ethanol.

Next up is Philosophy in the Boudoir, by the Marquis de Sade.

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