What you're reading - June 2017

[Garett Hornwood]

Finished The Iliad/The Odyssey today, well the latter as the former I finished on Sunday, and really enjoyed both and frankly, but unsurprisingly, found them way different from adaptations I've seen in movies or on tv...which made them even better.

I've started reading The Wee Free Men by Pratchett today as part of my read through of Discworld.

[C.T. Phipps]

Am reading the ANGEL IN THE WHIRLWIND series by Christopher G. Nutall, which I really enjoyed the first book of. There's some problems I have with the book like the fact it's basically the War on Terror IN SPACE but they portray it as one of Good vs. Evil. Which...problematic. I may be ditching the series after the second one, though, because the second book is one about how religion is a source of so many wars and suffering in the universe.

Which...fair point, there are a lot of religious wars.

However, she works for a transparent stand-in for the British Empire and a corporatocracy who are the Ultra Pure Good Guys.

Yeah...no.

 

[First of My Name]

So I finished the Akira manga and uh, yeah... that was certainly something, but I'm not quite sure what. Glad I read it though, if only for the brilliant art. I loved the story too, I just can't figure out what to make of that ending (or the entire last volume).

[red snow]

Reading "the Fireman" by Joe Hill. Hard not to do "the Stand" comparisons (especially when some of the characters have similar names/behaviours). It started well but then

they basically reveal that the yeast infection can be controlled and give you superpowers meaning it seems hard to see what the threat is. Especially when they introduce a villain called "Harold" that wants to tell the rest of the world that it isn't a death sentence and I'm failing to see how that wasn't a really sensible thing to do

. I'm struggling a bit since that point but I'm hoping there's more going on beneath what feels like a non-apocalypse. The characters are pretty strong in that some initially seem nice until challenged at which point they become darker - something that many books neglect. Or at least the ones I read.

Neil Gaiman's "norse mythology" book is proving a chore. I get the impression he's trying to emulate the source material and it makes for a disjointed read that for the most part feels like an appendix to a book but with pepperings of Gaiman's usual writing style. I think I'd have preferred him doing it in his usual style and not being afraid to fill in the blanks as long as the overall stories remained true. But I can see why he chose to approach it the way he did as he's obviously very reverential to the mythology.

 

 

[Mexal]

On 6/13/2017 at 0:49 AM, RedEyedGhost said:

I think I've had that on my shelf for about 8-9 years.  Let me know if it's good, and it might make its way into the actual queue.

I liked it. Not the best book I've read but a lot of action that kept me reading.

On 6/21/2017 at 6:07 AM, C.T. Phipps said:

Interestingly, I was just about to check that out.

I enjoyed it in an airport kind of way. I turned my brain off and just enjoyed the non stop pace. I had a hard time putting it down.

[Paxter]

On Invalid Date at 9:44 AM, Triskan said:

I put down King's Dark Tower III about 300 pages in.  I was by no means hating it, but I was not motivated to continue through several more heavy volumes.

Yeah I'm not surprised that you fell victim to The Waste Lands. It's a pretty tough series to read in one hit.

I'm plodding through Wuthering Heights (not because I'm not enjoying it, have just been a bit short on reading time lately). Concurrently reading the graphic novel/web comic collection Nimona, which is proving to be a nice, light-hearted distraction.

[HexMachina]

On 21/06/2017 at 6:38 PM, KiDisaster said:

Update on my previous statement re: Assassin's Apprentice

  Reveal hidden contents

WHY DID THE DAMN DOG HAVE TO DIE AGAIN 

 

Oh you have no idea what emotional suffering this series will put you through  

[Damelon]

Onwards with the final and raucous stop on the TSA-Bakker reread train, 'The Great Ordeal'...

[Hodor the Articulate]

Just finished The Handmaid's Tale, and now I'm super depressed. But it was a good read, so I'm considering picking up another of Atwood's books, The Blind Assassin, which I had been interested in before, but stayed away because of mixed reviews.

[Cithrin's Ale]

Over the past two weeks, I finished The Long Price Quartet and The Monarchies of God.

The greatest strengths of the Long Price Quartet were its prose and characterization. In regards to prose, I loved Abraham's descriptions of the landscape his characters traveled through. His characterization has always been a strength of his, particularly in how he humanizes villains. That being said, I felt Price of Spring failed to live up to An Autumn War. I felt An Autumn War was much better paced. Balasar Gice was also my favorite antagonist in the series. On the whole, I preferred Dagger and Coin to The Long Price Quartet. I simply preferred reading about the cast of Dagger and Coin. I'm curious to see how The Expanse compares to these series.

I ended up loving The Monarchies of God.  I should have hated it. I should have dismissed Kearney as an author with no concept of structure. And yet, it all worked for me. The battles were wonderfully gritty. The fantasy version of the age of discovery was a breath of fresh air for me. By eschewing proper structure in writing his series, Kearney inadvertently paid tribute to the fact that history does not follow narrative rules and made a story that felt strangely natural to me.

I am now torn between Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Lyonesse and The Silmarillion. I'm probably going to do MST since it seems to be a hot topic for discussion thanks to Williams reviving the series.

[Astromech]

Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize winning novel,  The Sympathizer. Excellent 

[Iskaral Pust]

I just read Jack Reacher #5 for a quick break from SF.  Pretty good again.  Only #3 had a drop in quality. 

Now reading A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms.  I had been saving this for a time when I needed to remember how great ASOIAF was.  

[Garett Hornwood]

Well I finished The Wee Free Men today at lunch and really enjoyed it, I'm looking forward to the other books featuring Tiffany especially since she'll be getting older along the way.

I also finished Tell It to the World by Mervyn Maxwell over the weekend, it's about the beginnings and early history of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

I'm currently rereading Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill, this is the fifth book of his Hinges of History series.  I won't finish it by the end of the month so unless I get quoted this will be my last post for this particular thread.

[KiDisaster]

On 6/26/2017 at 5:05 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

Oh you have no idea what emotional suffering this series will put you through  

Just finished the first book. 

 

She actually brought the first dog back to life only to kill it off again. (OK so it never actually died the first time but still). Why does she hate dogs so much?

[brunhilda]

Reread His Majesty's Dragon, and liked it much more than the first time. Continued on and finished Throne of Jade, which had stalled me last time and DNF. This time I got through it and it was okay. (It was the bitter unfairness that got me last time, but turns out there was a reason). Trying to decide whether to continue on to Black Powder War or to finally give Powder Mage I a try.

Either way, I'm kind of over Napoleon and the past. I'd much rather sink my teeth into something a bit more fun and less historical.

[HexMachina]

7 hours ago, KiDisaster said:

Just finished the first book. 

  Hide contents

She actually brought the first dog back to life only to kill it off again. (OK so it never actually died the first time but still). Why does she hate dogs so much?

She's a huge animal lover, it's obvious throughout her books. But she treats all her beloved characters harshly  

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah well, Robin Hobb isn;t nice to any species.

[Starkess]

I finished On Beauty. It was definitely a change of pace and a well-written book. I didn't realize it was an homage to Howards End until after I finished, but that's probably because I remember vanishingly little about Howards End. It was a good book but leaned a little too far towards the literary for me--that is, a meandering tale about flawed, selfish people and only a loose semblance of plot tacked on over top. Also made me a little nervous about my impending descent into academia...

I also finally got around to reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (found it in a used bookshop). It was entertaining in its way, but overall I was not super impressed. Obviously it would probably be much better to see as a play, but I have read other play scripts before and not found the dialogue so terrible and the feeling so thin. This felt like fanfic and not a particularly good one. Also I found the time travel mechanics to be very disappointing. Time travel is very hard to "get right" in my opinion, and I thought PoA did it really well, so this felt like a very wrong turn. Still, it was Harry Potter, so.

Now I think I might embark on a re-read of Wheel of Time. Discussing its possible TV adaptation made me miss it, and I could use some easy entertainment now. Looks like my library has the Kindle versions, so whee! Here we go!

[brunhilda]

Continuing in the Black Powder War and loving the discussion of Dragon Abolition! I appreciated the notice and condemnation of human bondage in Books I and II, but this one is taking it to a new level. Slavery, of any sentient creature, is a moral wrong. I hope the author continues in this vein.

Rock on, Celestial boy, rock on.

[Beathag]

Trying to find hardback copies of books I read and liked when rearing children.  Discovered it is more difficult than I thought.  Grass Dancer is only available as a paperback.

Am reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for the sixth or seventh time since the Pratchett book I was reading fell behind the little bookcase.

Then, if I don't move the bookcase, I will start The Wheel of Time and finish it this time. A good friend said whoever swept in and finished it up did a fine job. Sniff, twitch.