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In fact, The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque is waiting in my bookshelf at this very moment. Is at the top of my “what to read†list. :)

Now I've almost finished In the Palace of Repose by Holly Phillips. With my limited knowledge of English I would dare to risk my literati reputation (it's always easy to risk something that does not exist) and nominate this book for the "books with a beautiful prose" list.

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*Looks at shelf*

It's like Agulla is stealing books of my own shelves lately! :)

Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque is my favorite Ford work (do you have his Cosmology of the Wider World? Which if having read the bulk of his work is similar to saying it's one of the best fantastic fiction has to offer IMHO.

Now I've almost finished In the Palace of Repose by Holly Phillips. With my limited knowledge of English I would dare to risk my literati reputation (it's always easy to risk something that does not exist) and nominate this book for the "books with a beautiful prose" list.

Loved this colection, and looking forward to her Burining Girl at the beginning of 2006. It's such a versatile collection. My favorites were 'Pen and Ink’ and ‘Summer Ice', butt he title piece is very apt beginning of a collection - creating an inviting atmosphere and mood.

If you think that prose is beautiful however, and enjoyed it, and if you haven't already, check out Catherynne M. Valente's books!

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I think I'll give Catherynne M. Valente a try. I don't have Cosmology of the Wider Worldbut it seems interesting so I might try to get this one.

Just finished In the Palace of Repose. Summer Ice is one of my favourite tales too. By the Light of Tomorrow's Sun is haunting me since I read it yesterday, my thoughts seem to have gotten stranded in End Harbour.

Now I'll read Persian Fire by Tom Holland. Some History will be good to keep my edge sharp in this subject. I expect to read at the same time Vera Nazarian's The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass (while I wait for The Lords of the Rainbow) and Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow's The Rapture of the Nerds.

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That series is one of those that I began reading a few years ago and then dumped because I couldn't get into it. Although Tanith Lee speaks very highly of CD-T so even though I think double-barrelled names are silly (most of the time) I may give it another go one day.

Nice avatar by the way. :)

The prose is a little thick. I thought the first book was interesting enough to buy the second (which is where all the eye rolling romance comes in) but by then I had to finish the series just to know what happened.

I wish I could take credit for the icon lol...stole it from a world of warcraft forum ;)

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I've read the last books I mentioned. Since then, I've read:

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, which was excellent. The extremely graphic violence might put some off.

Europe: A History by Norman Davies. A bit dry in parts, but it provides a good panorama of European history and interesting bits of trivia.

Right now I'm reading An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, a good "historical mystery" that frequently draws comparisons to The Name of the Rose.

Books I'd like to read in the near future:

The Rules of Attraction, by Bret Easton Ellis; The Song of Kali, by Dan Simmons; and The Crusades through Arab Eyes, by Amin Maalouf.

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Tehipite Tom : I loved Ivanhoe too. I've got Waverley sitting around somewhere (prolly in a box in another country), but never been able to get round to it.

CenOtaph : welcome to the board! Other authors is a good place to start :)

I finished Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke. Loved the prose in the first part, but found it lost its edge as the book went on. Overly long, iIn my opinion; a good couple of hundred pages could have been cut. It got very baggy. But I would certainly read more by her, maybe a 7 out of ten.

Next up was the Lions of Al Rassan by G.G. Kay, which I found strangely disappointing. I adored Tigana, I'm intigrued by that period and place in history when Moorish and Christian cultures collided in Spain, but Lions of Al Rassan failed to truly grab me. I found the female protagonist a bit of a Mary Sue. In fact, all the major characters were a bit too bold and dashing and wonderful to be true. The end seemed very rushed, and his habit of avoiding telling you who was killed until further on grated when repeated so often as a plot device. Maybe I'll enjoy it more on a reread.

Currently reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. but the book has skipped page 138 to page 203 - bad publishers! so if anyone can tell me what happens in that bit of the book, I'd be very grateful :P (I will take it back in a fortnight when I am in Britain, but dammit, I want to read it NOW) So far : nice concepts, but it shows its a first novel in the writing, and all the sciency bits are a bit much for an ignoramus like me.

Oh, and kingslayer, I reccomend The Dream of Scipio by Pears, if yer enjoying Fingerpost.

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Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke. Loved the prose in the first part, but found it lost its edge as the book went on. Overly long, iIn my opinion; a good couple of hundred pages could have been cut. It got very baggy. But I would certainly read more by her, maybe a 7 out of ten.

:agree:

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Finished off To Green Angel Tower today. For the most part, the book was even more entertaining than the second. Still far too long and drawn out, but it nonetheless kept me increasingly hooked as it got closer to the climax. Some instances of great writing as well. That passage about the Sithi riding was gorgeously Tolkienesque. Nonetheless, Williams managed to fuck it all up with the ending. Spoiler time!

SPOILER: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
In the end, the Storm King, whose undying hatred has been left on the pot to simmer for five hundred years, and has plotted and schemed for generations to bring about the total destruction of men, is stayed by as trifling a thing as human pity. And where an arrow through Pryrates' throat only manages to piss him off, another arrow through Elias banishes an infinitely more powerful being from the material world forever. My ass it does.

And then Simon turns out to be the long-lost descendant of a previous king, and Prester John is really a big fucking fraud, and Josua survived by blocking a hideously powerful magic sword with his manacle, and everyone who didn't die and some that did live oh so happily ever after. How nauseous.

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Almost finished reading all the interesting stuff and compilations from the AGOT RPG companion book, which is recommended.

Now I'm ready to start with Good Omens again. Memories of Ice is next, or The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, the lovely new collection by Del Rey.

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I just finished The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick, after seeing multible recommendations here. I liked it a lot! Swanwick has created a great hi-tech faeryland, his plotting is good and I liked his main protagonist, Jane.

I just have one small confusing thing I'd like to ask about:

SPOILER: Highlight to read
In the beginning of the book, we're told that it's very important that dragon pilots are virgins, and that it's standard operating procedure to neuter them. By the end of the book, a dragon pilot is clearly lusting for Jane and we learn that as a part of their conditioning, dragon pilot recruits are sexually initiated by young elf girls. What's up with that?
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At the moment in time I'm reading a book by Mark Urban called "Generals" its about British generals who have had a serious effect on the British landscape, both in martial and political sense.

It starts with Monck the kingmaker, and ends with good old Monty. A very factual if at times dry read.

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Musashi, which I transited to after reading Taiko. I must say I am enjoying the former a fair bit more as it is a view of fedual Japan from the bottom up (lords and daimyos make only cameo-like appearances). I felt Taiko didn't go far enough in explaining Hideyoshi's rise to power, or even a lasting insight into his psyche.

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Persian Fire, by Tom Holland. I found Peter Green's The Greco-Persian Wars far more interesting and complete. The same I could say of Barry Strauss' Salamis in what respects to naval policies and warfare. It's not that Persian Fire is not a good reading, it has some interesting points like the approach to Persian diplomacy under Darius and Xerxes from the religious perspective of Persian Dualism.

The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass by Vera Nazarian. This novella is the first book by this author that I've read and I have mixed feelings about it. It's well written and accurately paced, the story it's interesting and kept me reading almost without interruptions. Yet I felt that it could have been better, I had the impression that there could have been more, that it could have conveyed better that sense of loss of Vance's Dying Earth.

I'm waiting to read Lords of Rainbow to have a more informed opinion on this writer. So far it's promising.

The Rapture of the Nerds by Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow. First of all I have to say that I really like Charless Stross novels and novellas, I've read most of his books (Toast is still waiting but I expect to give it a try soon) and my opinion of them has ranged from outstanding (Accelerando and Atrocity Archives) to interesting (Singularity Sky). I have yet to read anything by Cory Doctorow and I feel that it's passed the time that I tried considering the good reviews this author is having here. I'm saying this because this common effort by these two authors, a novella composed by two stories; Jury Service and Appeals Court, has disappointed me. Really disappointed me. It's not that the concept is bad, it's the execution that fails, the feeling of vertigo in Accelerando it's turned here into a pyrotechnical rollercoaster of things happening very fast, confused conversation, and characters I really don't care for in the best of the cases (in the cases where I care is that I want them to be destroyed, killed, taken away of the story very fast). I found this book annoying.

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I'm putting a few books to rest now, Paul Auster's Brooklyn Follies, Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain, and a reread of Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora before a review.

I recenty started Hamilton's Judas Unchained, and Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland

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