What Are You Reading - May '08

[duchess of malfi]

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1372745' date='May 28 2008, 00.45']Can't wait to hear what you think about this one. I've got it on the stack - probably within the next 10. :thumbsup:[/quote]

Am about halfway done with [i]Water for Elephants[/i] and am enjoying it greatly so far. Staying away from huge spoilers, the story is set in a traveling circus during the Great Depression years. Needless to say, this is both interesting and exotic. :)

[Ser Barry]

Brawl by Erich Krauss

A UFC-centric history of early MMA which covers the first 30 UFCs or so and some of the other organisations which started at the time. Interesting stuff if you are a TUF n00b like my good self.

[swedeheadchris]

I've finished [url="http://thebookswede.blogspot.com/2008/05/midnight-never-come_29.html"]Midnight Never Come[/url] by Marie Brennan, from Orbit. It's a historical fantasy set in Elizabethan England with an alternate fae court beneath London. It's woven absolutely seamlessly into the fabric of the time, not just by having characters such as [b]John Dee[/b], [b]Walsingham[/b], [b]Lady Lune[/b], [b]Michael Deven[/b] and Elizabeth herself, but in the very small details that on their own are unimportant, but, through flash-backs and memories, together form an intricate and fascinating back-history. It's not a book I expected to like, to be perfectly honest, but it really impressed me :)

[url="http://thebookswede.blogspot.com/2008/05/midnight-never-come_29.html"]Midnight Never Come review[/url] here!

~Chris

[ThRiNiDiR]

[font="Century Gothic"]Trin read and [url="http://sf-fantasy-books.blogspot.com/2008/05/pamela-freeman-blood-ties-book-review.html"]reviewed[/url] [i]Pamela Freeman's[/i] "[color="#006400"][b][size=3]Blood Ties[/size][/b][/color]". She put the novel in the same category as Karen Miller and her "Kingmaker, Kingbreaker" duology, but thought it a better book.

Excerpt from the [url="http://sf-fantasy-books.blogspot.com/2008/05/pamela-freeman-blood-ties-book-review.html"]review[/url]:[/font]
[font="Book Antiqua"][color="#FFFFFF"]---[/color][color="#696969"][i]"The plot, as mentioned before, is unashamedly straight-forward and very typical - travelling, surviving and stuff like that, but the lack of young-apprentice-turns-hero prophecy felt like a balm to my eyes. Freeman creates a world where asking about your fate is almost like going out for a beer and accepting the answer you get is the most logical thing to do. It makes the whole thing a lot more convincing - "why me? I'm just a simple farm boy!" is a classic answer when a hero-to-be hears the news/rumors that he is supposed to be The Chosen One; but when he starts slaying beasts/foes with one hand, gathers followers with the other and in between uses his superior wits to achieve the unachievable - then you are safe to say that the suspension of disbelief is heavily strained. But in "Blood Ties", the characters rarely complain about their fate (and even when they do, they do it half-heartedly), not to mention that they don't need to repeat how ordinary and unsuited for the task they really are - by that point in the story this will already be crystal clear to the reader."[/i][/color][/font]

[Multaniette]

Finished Ian R. MacLeod's 'House of Storm.'


Exquisite, brilliant and ultimately extremely depressing. The writer's a genius with words - in many ways better than Mieville. The Light Ages covered West Yorks and London while The House of Storm focuses on Bristol and the West Country.

His style also reminds me a bit of Thomas Hardy - I think their characterization is about par. I can't remember the last time I read a novel (apart from aSoIaF) which had as many well-crafted characters as this.

Pick it up and read it, people. It's almost certainly better than just about any other fantasy book out there, IMO.

[Cuchulain]

[quote name='Peadar' post='1377266' date='May 30 2008, 19.53']Somehow your board name gives that away slightly ;)

Beir bua!*



*Be victorious![/quote]

Peadar, being from Ireland and all, have you got any other good reading recommendations concerning Irish mythology etc. ?

[Peadar]

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1377899' date='May 31 2008, 03.40']Peadar, being from Ireland and all, have you got any other good reading recommendations concerning Irish mythology etc. ?[/quote]

If you don't mind humorous writing with your Irish fiction, I would highly recommend [url="http://www.amazon.com/Unfortunate-Fursey-Mervyn-Wall/dp/0863277292/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212225235&sr=1-1"]The Unfortunate Fursey[/url], by Mervyn Wall. Sadly, it's out of print now and the cheapest edition I linked here is over $30 :(

On the other hand, you could just read the brand new and, I have to say brilliant, translation of [url="http://www.amazon.com/Tain-Ciaran-Carson/dp/0670018686/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212225430&sr=1-1"]The Táin[/url] by Ciaran Carson. Yes, yes, we've all read versions of this story before, and maybe the previous famous translations. But this one is just the best for a modern reader who wants the real, disgusting flavour of it all.

If I think of any more, I'll PM you.

[A Time for Wolves]

[quote name='Un-Yearded Pita' post='1375602' date='May 29 2008, 15.15']Don't even start talking to me about that.
Yesterday I sat down to add another chapter to my book and before I knew it I was writing an obituary.
And it was a really nice one.[/quote]

I knoooowwww. :cry: I can't bear it.

[i]Going Postal[/i] was awesome. So funny and cheeky and awesome in every way. I am glad I got to see more about the clacks towers and stuff, though I still need to figure out what a semaphore is. And I'm suddenly very keenly aware of all the discussions of mortality in the Discworld books.

I am reading [i]Making Money[/i] now. Oh, Terry.

[Dark Wolf]

After I read "Through A Glass, Darkly" this month, I've managed to talk to Bill Hussey, the author of the novel and made an interview. You can read it on [url="http://darkwolfsfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/2008/05/interview-bill-hussey.html"]my blog[/url].

[Cuchulain]

[quote name='Peadar' post='1378077' date='May 31 2008, 11.20']If you don't mind humorous writing with your Irish fiction, I would highly recommend [url="http://www.amazon.com/Unfortunate-Fursey-Mervyn-Wall/dp/0863277292/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212225235&sr=1-1"]The Unfortunate Fursey[/url], by Mervyn Wall. Sadly, it's out of print now and the cheapest edition I linked here is over $30 :(

On the other hand, you could just read the brand new and, I have to say brilliant, translation of [url="http://www.amazon.com/Tain-Ciaran-Carson/dp/0670018686/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212225430&sr=1-1"]The Táin[/url] by Ciaran Carson. Yes, yes, we've all read versions of this story before, and maybe the previous famous translations. But this one is just the best for a modern reader who wants the real, disgusting flavour of it all.

If I think of any more, I'll PM you.[/quote]

Thanks for the recommendations. Too bad the first one seems so hard to find.

[Captain Bentley]

[quote name='Andrea Mandruleanu PERE' post='1377889' date='May 30 2008, 22.29']Finished Ian R. MacLeod's 'House of Storm.'


Exquisite, brilliant and ultimately extremely depressing. The writer's a genius with words - in many ways better than Mieville. The Light Ages covered West Yorks and London while The House of Storm focuses on Bristol and the West Country.

His style also reminds me a bit of Thomas Hardy - I think their characterization is about par. I can't remember the last time I read a novel (apart from aSoIaF) which had as many well-crafted characters as this.

Pick it up and read it, people. It's almost certainly better than just about any other fantasy book out there, IMO.[/quote]
MacLeod is woefully underrated IMO.

[Peadar]

Finished and enjoyed George Green's [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hound-George-Green/dp/0553815342/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212268155&sr=1-2"]Hound[/url]. Will definitely be picking up his other one -- [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawk-George-Green/dp/0553815385/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212268155&sr=1-1"]Hawk[/url].

Now about to start [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Armageddon-Rag-George-R-Martin/dp/0553383078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212268241&sr=1-1"]The Armageddon Rag[/url] by Angry Martin. This is the only one of the Sensei's major works to have escaped me so far.

[Amras]

Lo and behold! A review of [url="http://natsecorma.net/theredundantblog/2008/05/30/transmetropolitan-by-warren-ellis-darick-robertson/"]"Transmetropolitan"[/url] by Warren Ellis can be found on my blog. It's a comic series that ran some sixty issues back in its day, and it's really, really good in a totally insane way, which is just the way I like it. I've got three more book/comic reviews coming down the pipe line in the near future, so keep an eye out ;)

In other news, I'm working myself up to reading "Return of the Crimson Guard" by Ian Cameron Esslemont. All I've got is a PDF (not that I'm complaining, mind you) from PS Publishing, and I'm really unsure whether I'll appreciate it as much if I read it on my laptop compared to having hard copy. We'll see.

[Inigima]

I've been rather crap about finishing books lately -- I seem to start new ones instead, and I'm in the midst of at least four or five that I can think of offhand -- but I did manage to finish Nick Webb's [b]Dictionary of Bullshit[/b] last week.