April Reading Thread

[Renasko]

I'm finishing off Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson, then onto Cell by Stephen King

[Isis]

The second half of Gulliver’s Travels is definitely better than the first (oddly enough, given that the first two adventures are the famous ones). It’s still more of an excuse for satire than a well thought out plot but it’s very funny and you get to meet people like the Laputan scientist who is convinced that the secret to understanding people is by studying their shit, on the basis that everyone thinks their most profound thoughts while sitting on the toilet.

Oops. I took it back to the library yesterday. Now I have nagging unfinished book guilt.

[Korax]

Oops. I took it back to the library yesterday. Now I have nagging unfinished book guilt.

Ah well, I don't suppose it'll be going out of print in the near future

[Deornoth]

Finished reading 'The Children of Hurin' last night (review Here). Next book up is 'The Lees of Laughters End' by Steven Erikson, I love Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

[Astra]

Propogating the Mieville love here: Un Lun Dun is a wonderful book. Some brilliant ideas, some fantastic imagery, and Mieville's illustrations are excellent as well. Only a third of the way into it though

Un Lun Dun. Is. Excellent. In case this wasn't clearly established before.

Some people say it is a bit...childish story? not very serious? What do you think about it?

[pat5150]

Currently reading Ian McDonald's Brasyl, and it just might be the scifi book of the year! I still have a ways to go, but it sure looks as though this will be one of the books to read this year...

Patrick

[Marcelo Rebelo Firqoralas]

So far in April I have finished:

The Devil in a Forest by Gene Wolfe, which was good, but not one of best. It's sort of YA:ish, with a clear moral message, but the depth of his best work isn't really there.

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde, which listened to in audio book format. This is the first Fforde I've read, and found it to be good, lightweight fun. Does anyone know how it compares to his other books?

The following are books I've read for the science fiction class I'm taking:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. My teachers seem to buy quite heavily into Brian Aldiss' highly debatable idea that Frankenstein is the first sf novel. (To save you all the trouble of finding out, I can hereby reveal that it really isn't, instead it's the original whiny emo kid story.) I can see why such a highstrung tale of alienation and brutality has become popular, but it really isn't all that good.

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. Wells really is the grandfather of all sf and this is one of his most important stories. It's short, accessible, entertaining and well worth a read.

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke is all about the ideas. Here are a some very interesting ones, but with characterization and prose as flat as this it's hard to work up too much interest (I actually fell asleep while reading this in the middle of the afternoon.) Still, it picks up steam towards the end and it is fairly short, so it wasn't all bad.

[Werthead]

Some people say it is a bit...childish story? not very serious? What do you think about it?

It's a kid's book, so of course it's not serious in the same way that Perdido Street Station is. But it blows the entire Harry Potter series out of the water on its own and is much darker than any other kids' story I've ever read, possibly excluding His Dark Materials. Having finished it (review soon) I'd probably also have to mark it down for a slightly stumbling start (Mieville's clearly not 'down with the kids' if his grasp of London street slang is anything to go by) and a slightly groan-inducing sequel-establishing ending. But it's still a very good book. In fact, in terms of London or alternate-London urban fantasy I would rank it as superior to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

Just started The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

[Deornoth]

Just finished reading 'The Lees of Laughter's End' (Steven Erikson, have a look Here for my review ) and will be starting 'Dark Space' (Marianne de Pierres) tonight.

[Astra]

It's a kid's book, so of course it's not serious in the same way that Perdido Street Station is. But it blows the entire Harry Potter series out of the water on its own and is much darker than any other kids' story I've ever read, possibly excluding His Dark Materials. Having finished it (review soon) I'd probably also have to mark it down for a slightly stumbling start (Mieville's clearly not 'down with the kids' if his grasp of London street slang is anything to go by) and a slightly groan-inducing sequel-establishing ending. But it's still a very good book. In fact, in terms of London or alternate-London urban fantasy I would rank it as superior to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

Thanks

[Werthead]

Now started The Name of the Wind. Very well written but a bit slow to get going. It's starting to pick up now though.

I printed out a copy of the world map from Rothfuss' website (the map that I believe appears in US editions of the book) - the UK one won't have one apparently - and note that 95% of the locations mentioned in the book don't appear on it. So for once it seems having a map for this book may be a genuine waste of time, since it's not very helpful at all.

[kcf]

Now started The Name of the Wind. Very well written but a bit slow to get going. It's starting to pick up now though.

I printed out a copy of the world map from Rothfuss' website (the map that I believe appears in US editions of the book) - the UK one won't have one apparently - and note that 95% of the locations mentioned in the book don't appear on it. So for once it seems having a map for this book may be a genuine waste of time, since it's not very helpful at all.

Well, there was no map in the ARC and I didn't miss one. I like maps as supporting content, but a well done book doesn't require one. I'd say the map in this case is just a sort of fancy window dressing.

[Herbie of High Heart]

I just picked up "Forever Peace" by Haldeman. Book cover says it won the Hugo and Nebula Award. Pretty good credentials.

[AryaSwordMaiden]

I just finished Angela's Ashes for school and I loved it. Totally amazing.

I am also reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, which is so cool. I have seen the movie enough times to recite it, and the book is perhaps better. Not to mention the awesome slang it is written in.

[Korax]

I am also reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, which is so cool. I have seen the movie enough times to recite it, and the book is perhaps better. Not to mention the awesome slang it is written in.

Trainspotting is such a great book – it made more of an impression on me than almost anything else I’ve read. Where it really scores over the film is that the way it gives everyone a chance to tell their story instead of just focusing on Renton, which not only gives a more interesting view of the whole scene but adds much more depth to all the characters. In the film, Spud is a bit of a comedy sidekick, but the book makes him a lot more sympathetic.

[Caligula_K]

Been a pretty good month for reading. Started with The Scar by China Mieville, an amazingly depressing read thats as good as people say Perdido Street Station is... Much better than that one. Went on to Livy's Early History of Rome (ie, the first five volumes of his History of Rome in Penguin Book form), interesting as always, even if one could summarize it with the words "The Romans fought with the Volscians, Aequi and the Etruscans, and the plebs and the patricians fought a lot," though of course the fun is in the detail and its nowhere near as simple as that. Read the latest Uhtred book by Cornwell, The Lords of the North- as usual, an extremely entertaining read, probably the best one in the trilogy so far, even if some of the plot developments became unrealistic (this one has much less basis in history than the first two, owing to the fact that little is known of Northumbria at Alfred's time). Did a re-read of the Oresteia by Aeschylus, as beautiful as ever. For school I've read Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and The Good Soldier by Ford- Both are excellent, though the Good Soldier in particular struck me through Ford's use of narrative structure to express the limits of knowledge. And finally, am now doing a reread of Colleen McCullough's The First Man in Rome, which would be one of the greatest historical fiction works of all time if she only knew how to consistently write good prose and dialogue.

[Bellis]

Brahm, i agree (no surprise) that The Scar is better than PSS. PSS was a great fun romp raised by better than average prose, but The Scar is IMHO darker, and I found that Bellis and Tanner were more fleshed out characters than Isaac or Lin. I'm toying with doing a Scar re-read myself.

I just read White Noise by Don DeLillo. I found MaoII compelling but ultimately empty (I hardly remember it), but White Noise was much more interesting. I still find it frustrating that DeLillo's characters seem more symbolic than real people. On the other hand, the book had some laugh out loud absurdities (the protag is a chair of Hitler studies and his buddies chairs Elvis studies) and depressing if slightly outdated commentaries on life in 1980s middle america.

[lokisnow]

Finished Children of Hurin.

The last half of the book is outstanding, LOTR level of writing.

The earlier stuff, almost two thirds of the book, is downright embarassing. Ineptly written, unfocused, meandering, with dull, blank slate characters you couldn't give two hoots about.

I wish tolkien had gotten a chance to begin the book with the same skill displayed by the end of the tale. It could have been a tremendous romantic tragedy, as good a story as the hobbit.

The first half does have a very old testament feel to the language though, it's like you're reading ancient scripture in its tone.

I've often thought before that Orlando Furioso was an enormous influence on Tolkien (especially the character of Eowyn, based on the Bradamante tradition of female heroes. And Children of Hurin strongly echoes the metastructure of Orlando's tragedy. The one thing the tale is missing is the sacrifice is worth the suffereing because the sufferer founds the future saviors of society, but that classic mythological concept was spun off into the lay of Luthien and Beren, rather than staying with the tale of the Children of Hurin.

Hurin is definitely a very unlikable character (again, like Orlando), almost the villain in his own story, which is a unique quality I didn't expect to find in Tolkien's work. I really would have loved to have a more complete and excellent beginning to the tale. Alas it was never written.

halfway through blindsight, can't wait to finish it. up next after that is Special Topics in Calamity Physics & Cormac McCarthy's The Road