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March Reading 2017


Garett Hornwood

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I read Frog Music by Emma Donoghue and I was far from impressed with it. I didn't even know it was based on real people and events until I got to the end but the writing left me unimpressed, when I've always loved other things she's written. The story seemed so... scattered. There were redeeming passages here and there but overall it was a disappointment.

I also made quick work of Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs, part whatever (9, I think?) of the Mercy Thompson series. That was fun to read, as always.

I'm now starting Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft, based on the numerous recs I saw here. :)

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Finished Edward Cox's The Relic Guild, which was OK but didn't really stand out. I quite liked the split structure with alternative chapters taking place 40 years apart including some of the same characters, I thought it was a good way of gradually revealing the backstory. One problem with it was that while the pacing in the modern storyline was fine the past storyline moved a bit too slow so that by the end of the book it was still a long way from its conclusion even though we already know from the modern day plotline what ultimately happens. The characterisation was decent but without a huge amount of depth. It's a minor point but I also find it hard to take seriously an authority figure with the name Van Bam. I haven't really decided whether I'll read the rest of the trilogy, I'm moderately interested in how things turn out but there are a lot of other books I could be reading instead.

Just about to start Ian McDonald's Luna : Wolf Moon.

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I really wanted to like The Stars are Legion, but in the end I did not. The kernel was there, and the beginning was promising, but it just didn't come together for me.

Spoiler

 

The travelogue part sucked cancerous space balls. There was almost no character arc whatsoever. The narrative was a garbled mess and the ostensible payoff was one big "meh." Which sucks, because buried in the book are some of my favorite themes in fiction: the nature of sacrifice (physical, mental, self -- memory!) to achieve a possibly dubious goal, betrayal, tribal affiliation, Othering, etc. I'll probably try to reread this in a few months -- maybe it will be one of those gems that improves vastly the second time through. :dunno: 

No idea if the Zan thing was supposed to be a book-long mystery, but I'm guessing not, because I thought that it was pretty clearly telegraphed.

I wonder what the significance of "Rasheeda/Rasida" is in Hurley-land. Two thoroughly amoral, animalistic, and likely psychopathic characters named Rasheeda have shown up in her work -- I'm curious if there's one in the Worldbreaker series -- and I am curious if/what the connection is. 

 

 

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Other books I'm currently reading:

Nixonland by Rick Perlstein -- recommended by Brady and Ser Davos, and I have to agree with them that it's a solid take on the rise of Tricky Dick from 1966 through the '72 election. But I did not anticipate how often I'd want to reach through space and time to punch Nixon in the piehole. As such, this is a book I can only handle in small doses.

The Hate U Give by by Angie Thomas -- recommended by Kair and I agree with her that it's a very good read about a 16-year-old young woman of color who is the sole witness of her friend being murdered by a white cop during a traffic stop, and the fallout from that. 

 

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I made it through the first 100 pages or so of Naomi Novik's Uprooted, but it hasn't hooked me. I've started Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl instead. I'll probably give Uprooted another shot after.

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Finished Abaddon's Gate.  My least favorite of the series so far, and yet still had some very interesting new characters and was a very solid SF adventure.

Currently listening to Wayward, the 2nd book in the Wayward Pines trilogy.

Also started reading The Library at Mount Char based on numerous positive recs here.  A third of the way in, very impressed and really liking it.

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I returned to crime fiction -- I was persuaded by a friend some months back that I owed the genre a fair try -- this time to Jack Reacher #3, aka Tripwire.  It was really flat and showed a lot of limitations, especially with the cartoonish antagonist.  The final act was the best part, but not enough to redeem the rest.  The author's love affair with the character was a little too much.  As a reader of fantasy, I can't be too critical of Taveren-ish characters (to use RJ's word), but since when are mid level military police like special forces badasses, front-line heroes, savant snipers and experienced detectives? Does arresting drunk jarheads in brothels really confer that level of awesomeness?  And although James Bond set the benchmark, it's hard to see why this violent, taciturn, penniless hobo manages in each book to attract the fawning love/lust of an otherwise educated, beautiful, stylish, successful career woman.  

Once again, the unauthorized knight errant in pursuit of unchecked violent criminals would make more sense in a world of lawlessness -- like the typical Western genre -- but not in modern America, outside of limited scenarios.  Volumes 1 & 2 concocted acceptable, but still implausible, scenarios but this one required too much suspension of disbelief. 

Now onto Arm Of The Sphinx, Josiah Bancroft's sequel to Senlin Ascends.  Pretty good so far, continuing the lyrical prose and exploration of naivety and desperation.  There is a childishness/YA to the tone and plot that I can accept as an alternative to grimdark, but it requires some forbearance to accept the implausibility of characters acting as they do. 

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I finished the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms collection, so now I'm finally caught up on Dunk & Egg. It was great to see Westeros under Targaryen rule, and the artwork this version includes is great. The stories were what I expected, I hope we'll see some sequels before long.

I'm now starting a book that will likely take me some time, but one I've been wanting to read for ages, Les Misérables. I'm now 25 pages in and it's undoubtedly the slowest thing I've ever read, but it doesn't matter because the writing is very strong.

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36 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I returned to crime fiction -- I was persuaded by a friend some months back that I owed the genre a fair try -- this time to Jack Reacher #3, aka Tripwire.  It was really flat and showed a lot of limitations, especially with the cartoonish antagonist.  The final act was the best part, but not enough to redeem the rest.  The author's love affair with the character was a little too much.  As a reader of fantasy, I can't be too critical of Taveren-ish characters (to use RJ's word), but since when are mid level military police like special forces badasses, front-line heroes, savant snipers and experienced detectives? Does arresting drunk jarheads in brothels really confer that level of awesomeness?  And although James Bond set the benchmark, it's hard to see why this violent, taciturn, penniless hobo manages in each book to attract the fawning love/lust of an otherwise educated, beautiful, stylish, successful career woman.  

Once again, the unauthorized knight errant in pursuit of unchecked violent criminals would make more sense in a world of lawlessness -- like the typical Western genre -- but not in modern America, outside of limited scenarios.  Volumes 1 & 2 concocted acceptable, but still implausible, scenarios but this one required too much suspension of disbelief. 

I think the thought process for Child is that he's in a special, elite unit that goes after the really bad guys and as such, must be trained at a comparable level. It's a stretch, but I go with it because it's a quick read and generally entertaining.

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4 hours ago, Winterfella said:

Finished Abaddon's Gate.  My least favorite of the series so far, and yet still had some very interesting new characters and was a very solid SF adventure.

Currently listening to Wayward, the 2nd book in the Wayward Pines trilogy.

Also started reading The Library at Mount Char based on numerous positive recs here.  A third of the way in, very impressed and really liking it.

As far as the Expanse goes, I'd say hang in there, it's a very rewarding series.  

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23 minutes ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Red Rising was my first SF ever, and I really enjoyed it. For those of you that are into SF, what would be some good recs. I don't need a bunch of technical jargon, well, because that will fly over my head. Just looking for a good story. Mysterious, intrigue, good plot and characters. Thanks.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold first and foremost.  Takeshi Kovacs Novels by Richard K Morgan.  The Bel Dame Apocrypha by Kameron Hurley.  Replay by Ken Grimwood and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North for time loop goodness.  The Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis.  And The Old Man's War Series by John Scalzi. 

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Finished off The Ninth Circle. It isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination (Bell's portrayal of Budapest is very evocative). It's just that the attempts to reference classical literature, especially Dante and Milton, come across as incredibly pretentious (some of us have read both Dante and Milton, Ms Bell, so stop wasting page space explaining how clever a reference is), and the underlying thematic discussion isn't as profound as the author thinks it is.

Next up is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. I've seen the film, but never read the book before.

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Finally got time to finish The Circle over the weekend.  Decent and somewhat thought provoking, but for some reason I feel kinda 'meh' about it.

Now onto Calaban's War, which should be a pretty fast read.

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I'm halfway through The Dragonbone Chair.  Really hits the sweet spot for what I'm looking for these days, not too gritty, not overly simplistic/throwaway or whatever you want to call it.  Only ever read The War of the Flowers by Williams before, and that was quite a while ago.  I forgot how good his prose is.    

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On 3/26/2017 at 7:17 PM, williamjm said:

Just about to start Ian McDonald's Luna : Wolf Moon.

 

On 3/27/2017 at 5:10 AM, Peadar said:

Yup. Me too :)

Me three! Just started this morning and and loving it so far.

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