July reading

[Jaxom 1974]

Anthony Everitt wrote the recent Cicero bio, and one of Octavian as well.

Damn. That's what I meant. Why do I get those two confused? Bah.

[Deornoth]

Finally mananged to finish 'Winterbirth' (Brian Ruckley). A really difficult book to get into (all the names sound the same and the map wasn't up to scratch!) but it really hit it's stride about a hundred or so pages in. I've posted a review Here and I'm looking to seeing how the sequel ('Bloodheir') turns out. I'm now well into Scott Westerfeld's 'The Last Days' and I'm also looking at Glenda Larke's 'Heart of the Mirage'

[The Iceman of the North]

I re-read A Canticle for Leibowitz by Frank Miller. I'd last read it about 12 years ago and wanted to refresh my memory. It's an excellent post-apocalyptic/future earth parable, with little juicy bits about the role of religion and faith and morality within science/technology. These latter parts are what make this entry in the post-apo genre unique and imho ahead of the pack. If you haven't read it yet, do so.

Funny, before going off on a week along the Dalmatian coast, I went to a bookstore to see if I could find some vacation reading, and ended up picking up A Canticle as well as Echo Park by Michael Connelly.

I thought Miller gave a good insight in the fears of the nuclear holocaust that people in the 50'ies and 60'ies lived through, but I did find it unlikely how little the Catholic Church would change over more than a millennia.

Connelly's book was as always a good summer read.

[davk]

I just started the first book of Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy, which I had tried to read about a year ago but put down 40 pages in.

I still am not done reading Reaper's Gale for some reason.

Nor HP7 for that matter, I guess I am doing it on purpose because it's the last one and there won't be one after. :cry:

[williamjm]

I finished Ken Macleod's Execution Channel.

It was reasonably good, but the story wasn't exactly a page-turner. I have slightly mixed feeling about the ending. In some ways I did quite like the ending and the way it was blatantly foreshadowed but the foreshadowing was done in such a way that I didn't really notice it at the time, on the other hand it did feel like a bit of a deus ex machina. I also wonder if it's really a good idea having an ending that might be primarily appreciated by people who have read a certain classic SF novel.

I would quite like to see a set-in-the-same-world-but-with-different-characters sequel, primarily so we can see:

SPOILER: Execution Channel ending

More spindizzies... It could be like Cities in Flight which was a great concept, but I think Macleod could write it much better than Blish did.

[blackwater]

HP 7 finished (I needed 6 days to read it ) and I like it, now I'm reading Richard Knaak's Diablo series

[Muttering Bill]

Invitation to a Beheading - Nabokov

This one was kind of a surprise. I was expecting a somber recount of a man's final days, but instead got a parody of it. The prose was charmingly eccentric (though I'm not sure if that belonged to the author or the character), but was a little difficult to follow in places. It was an absurd book, but overall entertaining.

Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky

Let's be honest, this book doesn't exactly need my seal of approval. It was a delightfully ridiculous story from one who is arguably the greatest writer of all time.

Now... Red Seas Under Red Skies. I expect to have to do a B&N tour to actually come up with a copy - at the end of which, I'll end up buying it from Borders for $8 more. Oh well. Here's hoping they don't let me down. I'm also going to pick up The Name of the Wind with it.

[Deornoth]

Just finished reading Scott Westerfeld's 'The Last Days', a YA book about supernatural battles in New York. It was an entertaining read although it presumed a level of musical knowledge that I just don't have... The blurb on the back was misleading as well, the most interesting character hardly got a mention in the story itself... A full review is Here

I've now got Glenda Larke's 'Heart of the Mirage' and Patrick Rothfuss' 'The Name of the Wind' on the go. 'The Name of the Wind' looks like the better book so far

[pat5150]

When John Twelve Hawks' The Traveler was released in 2005, it immediately created waves that rippled across genre fiction and beyond. As a matter of course, I wished to read this novel, yet I wanted to wait for the buzz to die down before giving it a shot. And somehow, I forgot all about it. When I was sent an ARC of the sequel, The Dark River, I realized once again how much of a dumbass I could be when I put my mind to it.

To remedy this unfortunate and unacceptable state of affairs, I brought The Traveler with me to NYC and DC. And I'm sure glad I did!

This thought-provoking techno-thriller will keep you begging for more! Complex and engrossing, The Traveler is a post September 11th cyber-version of the classic 1984.

Though the novel is a well-executed thriller, it's the "fantasy" elements found within that truly make this one such an awesome read. The Harlequins, the Travelers, the Brethren, the Realms, and how they are all connected to our collective history, past and present, those are the characteristics which will mesmerize you at every turn.

Disturbing and paranoid, The Traveler should satisfy anyone looking for a quality read this summer.

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[Caligula_K]

End of July, time to recount my monthly reading:

I read the last four books in The Gap Series by Stephen R. Donaldson (Forbidden Knowledge, A Dark and Hungry God Arises, Chaos and Order, This Day All Gods Day)- ithe series was excellent space opera with some very interesting characters (as well as some not so interesting ones, but what can you do) and despite the fact that I found book 4, Chaos and Order, to be rather weak due to some very annoying characters (Morn, Davies and the "Morn rules! crew), all of them are still worth reading.

Next up are volumes III and IV of Theodor Mommsen's History of Rome, From the Unification of Italy to the Conquest of the Greek States and The Revolution. A very interesting and well written history- though as Antoninus Pius pointed out at the beginning of the thread, Mommsen is a product of his times, and his bias becomes more obvious in these volumes- for example, his blanketing of all Roman theatre as complete crap (I, personally, do enjoy some Plautus now and again), his antipathy to any form of welfare, and his analysis of Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus wherein he accuses them of aspiring to the kingship, an argument I disagree with completely.

There was Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, a beautiful short novel that makes you think about enlightenment, happiness, man's connection to nature, and the path through which to achieve these things. On the fantasy end, three books this month: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which, as I have mentioned elsewhere, I found to be unnecissarily convoluted and generally dissapointing. Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies was pure entertainment- a very fun read filled with clever and likeable characters. And I checked out a Neil Gaiman novel for the first time (though I had really enjoyed Sandman), reading American Gods- as someone who loves mythology, it was a real treat, and I thought it was very well written to boot.

And I just finished off Robert Grave's Claudius the God, which I like even more than I, Claudius, due to its study of the office of emperor (well, to be historically correct, princeps) and as a character study through Claudius' corruption through absolute power.

So, a very good month for reading, methinks.

[beniowa]

Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell. It was fairly good and I liked the caribbean flavor of the story, however, it just didn't grab me. Not sure why. I still plan to read Ragamuffin as well as the one Buckell is still writing.

[davos]

So far this month I've finished:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It had some very strong points and some glaring weaknesses. I enjoyed it but it could have been so much more than it was.

Reaper's Gail by Erikson-thorougthly enjoyed this. It has all the strengths and a few less of the weaknesses of the other malazan books, at least for me. It flowed better than some of the installments and definitely was heading somewhere the whole time. The characters were sharp (I enjoy Tehol and Bugg a great deal) and it moved the overall plot forward a great deal. The ending, as with most Erickson books was a bit messy but by and large it made great sense. At least one character that was a favorite of mine dies, though with Erikson its hard to say if thats truely perminate.

Blindsight by Peter Watts-It won't rank up with my favorite works simply because I didn't find it effect in drawing me in emotionally but none the less one I liked a great deal. Brilliant work though. A first contact story that raises some disquieting and thought provoking questions about the nature and role of conciousness and intelect.

Just started Thirteen by richard morgan. Only a few chapters in so not going to venture any kind of response to it at this point.

[Antonius Pius]

Next up are volumes III and IV of Theodor Mommsen's History of Rome, From the Unification of Italy to the Conquest of the Greek States and The Revolution. A very interesting and well written history

I incidentally read some of Mommsen a few days ago (purely by accident - I had completely forgotten about discussing him here), and I wonder: what edition do you have? Are those parts you mention separate volumes? My edition is a pre-world-war German edition, but it's got all those separate volumes in one, making a book of some 700 pages. If your volumes are sold separate, they can't amount to more than roughly a hundred pages each, right? Or am I missing something?

his analysis of Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus wherein he accuses them of aspiring to the kingship, an argument I disagree with completely.

For what it's worth, I agree. The Gracchi would have been aware of the possible rewards, especially in clientele, regarding their land-bills, but I do allow for some altruism on their parts. And accusations of kingship are really ridiculous.

[Caligula_K]

I incidentally read some of Mommsen a few days ago (purely by accident - I had completely forgotten about discussing him here), and I wonder: what edition do you have? Are those parts you mention separate volumes? My edition is a pre-world-war German edition, but it's got all those separate volumes in one, making a book of some 700 pages. If your volumes are sold separate, they can't amount to more than roughly a hundred pages each, right? Or am I missing something?

Methinks you have a very abridged version. I have a five book set published by The Free Press- each volume is split approximately 500 pages (though the volumes are not split as Mommsen split his work: He did publish it with five sections, one dedicated to the time of the kings, one dedicated to the beginning of the republic and the conquest of Italy, one to the conquest of Greece and Seleucia, one from the Gracchi to Sulla, and the last from Sulla's death to Julius Caesar), and the total comes to 2,500 pages.

For what it's worth, I agree. The Gracchi would have been aware of the possible rewards, especially in clientele, regarding their land-bills, but I do allow for some altruism on their parts. And accusations of kingship are really ridiculous.

Yep. I think that Mommsen has an appreciation for the competent, morally defined and upfront political and military statesmen, and tends to attribute them the highest of motives regarding personal interest. So I hear he slags off on Cicero quite a bit in the next volume and praises Caesar, and in his chapters on the war with Carthage constantly criticized Fabius Cunctator for not fighting Hannibal like a man when his was the only strategy that had some positive conquest up to that point in the second Punic War.

[Joanna vander Poele]

Finished Memories of Ice. Overall, am very pleased with the book. I didn't have the "what the hell is going on?" aspect I had in GotM (which I'll finish reading someday) or DHG; being vaguely aware of the setting was slightly easier on me.

SPOILER: MoI

Silverfox was a bitch, so naturally Itkovian broke my heart. Tool talking to Toc (who doesn't recall him) at the end of the novel was very sweet. I also got used to Envy and I'm fond of Gruntle and Stonny. Quick Ben is pure awesome, I dig that he wants to challenge the Crippled God.

The part about Moon's Spawn going into the sea with the dead Bridgeburners saddened me, and so did Whiskeyjack vs. Kallor, who always seemed a little too evil to be believable.

My main gripe: Hetan talking about bedding every man she meets. Ergh. Especially Kruppe - that part was only half as funny as it was icky, and I wish everytime we met her she wasn't all with the sleeping with men she just discovered even exist. Bah.

My favourite Bridgeburners were Spindle, Blend, Mallet, Quick Ben, Paran (in my head, I think of him as emo emo emo) and Whiskeyjack. Very brave way to die. Also, Murillio and Coll trying to save the Mhybe was so precious, and the latter of the three living in her dream world, content, is dear. Kruppe was also ten times funnier than he was in GotM; I actually found myself smiling a lot during them. Erikson's jokes are pretty awesome, if eccentric.

The epilogue was tremendously sweet and I love the thought of Paran just barging into live in Finnest House (even though I barely recall who Raest is). The thought of the old Bridgeburners just chillin' in Picker's crappy inn was very cute, and I was awfully glad for the return of Duiker (I completely forgot he was coming back). I usually hate character resurrection, but his death in DHG was just horrible (Pormqual is an asshole) and I loved him well. I'm very glad to see him back, although I don't know why exactly he was resurrected.

I'm very happy with the book. Definitely buying HoC - TBH next time I go to Chapters. RG is still in trade paperback and therefore too costly, but the other three books + possibly RSURS will keep me happily occupied.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. After I finished reading the last page last night, I literally looked at it and said, "Well that was f*cking WEIRD." (While this is a better reaction than I have had to previous books, I still doubt I'd actually recommend it. Hmm.. but interesting. I still do NOT understand what the HELL was going on with the empathy handles and Mercer and the merging of people. Can I get a wha wha!?! God I'm a dork.)

I also just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and uh, yeah, WTF was that stuff going on with Mercer. Does it connect to other stories of Dick's? Because it made no damn sense. There were some things that the book did better than Bladerunner did: the society was much more bleak in the book, I liked Deckard's inner struggle, I thought the main villain's motivation was better, and I also liked the main villain better in the book (it seems they tried to make Bladerunner more action oriented by making Roy Baty the lead villain). I felt they made a wise decision by eliminating the Mercer/Buster Friendly and the animal extinction/worship from the movie. I liked the first half, but the second half just got weird.

6.5/10

@ Joanna Nox (or a moderator): You really should spoiler tag that Memories of Ice stuff. Some of the stuff you wrote could ruin the book for anybody that hasn't read it yet - and there are plenty on the board that haven't read it, yet.

[Isis]

I was just about to say that too (and not for the first time).

REG: this is what the report button is for btw, to bring stuff to the mods attention asap

[Antonius Pius]

Methinks you have a very abridged version. I have a five book set published by The Free Press- each volume is split approximately 500 pages (though the volumes are not split as Mommsen split his work: He did publish it with five sections, one dedicated to the time of the kings, one dedicated to the beginning of the republic and the conquest of Italy, one to the conquest of Greece and Seleucia, one from the Gracchi to Sulla, and the last from Sulla's death to Julius Caesar), and the total comes to 2,500 pages.

Ah, I see. Thanks. That sounds about right. My edition keeps the separate sections you mentioned, but they amount to no more than 100 pages each. That would make it quite the abridged version...

So I hear he slags off on Cicero quite a bit in the next volume and praises Caesar, and in his chapters on the war with Carthage constantly criticized Fabius Cunctator for not fighting Hannibal like a man when his was the only strategy that had some positive conquest up to that point in the second Punic War.

And after Fabius laid down his dictatorship, the next year brought the Battle of Cannae. Fabius bought the Romans time to group their resources and equip new armies. And severely hampered Hannibal's range of operations.

BTW, Caesar is indeed his favourite.

[Caligula_K]

Ah, I see. Thanks. That sounds about right. My edition keeps the separate sections you mentioned, but they amount to no more than 100 pages each. That would make it quite the abridged version...

And after Fabius laid down his dictatorship, the next year brought the Battle of Cannae. Fabius bought the Romans time to group their resources and equip new armies. And severely hampered Hannibal's range of operations.

BTW, Caesar is indeed his favourite.

I reccomend trying to get the complete version, if you can find it anywhere for relatively cheap. I imagine that at 700 pages, its rather like many other survey historys of the Republic, save written from a 19th century German perspective- but there are so many, many details and some great pieces of analysis in there (particularly on the evolution of the Republican constitution, the rise of the plebeian aristocracy and the evolution of Rome's foreign policy from an Italian policy to a Mediterranean one)- it seems strange to think that someone could shorten it down by 1800 pages.

And I completely agree, of course, about Fabius. Before Cannae, when Hannibal had no allies in Italy save Gauls Fabius' policy was the only reasonable one to follow; Hannibal needed dramatic results in order to get the Italian allies to switch to Carthiginian allegience, and Fabius was succesful in denying him what he needed as well as slowly picking off Hannibal's men in small engagements.