April 2010 Reads

[Vrana]

Over the last few days I've read Tom Holt's 'Blonde Bombshell', a comedy that didn't make me laugh once, Alden Bell's 'The Reapers are the Angels', utterly superb, and Charlie Huston's 'Sleepless', heavy going in places but worth sticking with. To finish the week on a bit of a bang I'm working my way through 'Helsreach' (Aaron Dembski-Bowden).

I read Holt's You Don't Have To Be Evil To Work Here But It Helps, and felt it to be a personal affront that he's compared to Pratchett. Pratchett is actually funny.

[mashiara]

I read The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. It was slow reading, it took me almost a full week to read all 4 novels. At times I felt tired or lost but I see why this book is considered a masterpiece. It's so elegantly written, its prose flows so beautiful it's almost poetic. It's a book (or rather, a set of books) that speaks of a set of characters in Alexandria before and during WW2. It gives you such a sense of corruption, of decay, of passions and intrigue and politics that at times it becomes overpowering. It wasn't an easy read, I had to make myself stay focused on the text at times. Out of the 4 books the third one, Mountolive, was my favorite. The fascinating aspect of this tetralogy is that every book unveils some new layer of the same story and the same people and you gain a new understanding of what came to pass, or you see things under a whole different light.

I am currently reading Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle and I am totally blown away! Even though I am only 1/10th into the book, I can tell this is going to be a sweet read, in a good/bad/weird kind of way.

The beginning of it (which is the only part I have read for now) is mind-bogglingly horrific. It's almost like torture porn (not helped by the fact that the narrator is an actual porn actor/producer) but the writing is so good that I *must* keep on reading.

I just finished Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle myself. I just couldn't put it down, it was one of the most gripping and the darkest books I've read lately. Correction, one of the best books I've read recently. The beginning had my skin crawling, it was that horrifying, but I wouldn't call it torture porn either. The story didn't actually become weird, it became better as it moved along and not one scene felt stretched or unnecessary. A really sweet read, as I'm sure Gigei will confirm in a couple of days.

I'm planning on starting The Testament of Yves Gundron by Emily Barton next.

[Procrastimancer]

I started The Android's Dream by John Scalzi a couple days ago. It has been sitting on my to read pile for the better part of the past two years, but I never got around to reading it. I had a run-in with burn out over the last couple months due mostly to a fucked up sleep pattern gained from adding a couple graveyard shifts to my work week, so I have been read very little and slowly at that. I am breezing through this one though. There's a good bit of humor to be found (including an opening chapter that had me cracking up most of the way through) and Scalzi's style tends to make for quick, easy reading, so that's working out. Things tend to bog down with some overly long infodumps, but they aren't too bad.

I read Big Fish by Daniel Wallace before that and it was a decent read. I don't think too highly of it, but it is far from bad. It had a bit of charm and magic at the beginning, but as the book went along that sort of faded. Might have something to do with not really relating to the story. :dunno:

Before that was Point Omega by Don DeLillo, which I rather enjoyed.

[Quarterman]

Feral by Berton Roueché 5/10

The Ghosts of Manacle by Charles G Finney 6/10

The Totem by David Morrell 8/10 (interesting "werewolf" novel)

Haven't decided my next read yet. It is a slow busy month.

[Werthead]

Kraken is possibly the weakest Mieville novel I've read to date. Great ideas, as always, and Mieville on a bad day still wipes the floor with many on their best, but the writing and pacing is seriously and surprisingly turgid. Hope it gets better soon, otherwise I'm taking a break of it when the review copy of Under Heaven arrives.

[The Evil Hat]

That's not encouraging, I'll admit, though I think I've gotten something out of Mieville even when I'm not thrilled with the story as a whole, such as in Iron Council.

[BookWyrm]

Swan Song has to be one of the coolest fucking books ever. I don't know what's better, psychotic, tripping 13-year-olds, busses taking out planes....in the air, or just the fantastic writing. Man I'm enjoying this one. I'm about half way through it.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

The Mystery Knight by GRRM. I was hankering after some pseudo medieval fantasy and then my copy of Warriors arrived in the post.Smashing! Back to Clive Barker now.

[Happy Ent]

Fall of Thanes by Ruckley. I liked the first book well enough. The second was a bit weaker.

This? Dreary, boring, repetitive. Nothing interesting is happening for hundreds of pages.

Except for awesome pages about trees, maybe three pages worth. Really.

What a huge disappointment. The worst book I’ve read since Name of the Wind.

[Quarterman]

The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams.

[beniowa]

Last night I finished The Affirmation by Christopher Priest. Wow, what mind trip. Literally. Even after almost twenty-four hours I still can't fully articulate my thoughts on it. What I can say is that the book is a great story as only Christopher Priest can write it.

I need something I can read quickly while waiting for Under Heaven to come out so I'm going to try Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.

[Werthead]

Thank God. Kraken is a bit rough for the first 150-odd pages and then kicks into gear and becomes much more compelling. It's Mieville's lightest and funniest read, possibly even moreso than Un Lun Dun, but still funny. There's also an orgasm of geekiness at one point:

Our protagonists meet a mage who is a huge Star Trek fan who has created himself a Tribble familiar and a fire-spewing wand disguised as a phaser (sort of). In the resulting discussion of wizard SF fans we get shows such as American Gothic, Lexx, Farscape and BSG ("The revamp, of course,") referenced.

Brilliant :D

[A Time for Wolves]

Lost a bet and have to read Eclipse before the end of April. Fortunately my roommate (who is a fan, FML) had a copy lying around. Just reached Chapter 2 and almost tore the book in rage. Instead flung it at the TV because I cannot tear someone else's book.

I am irrationally full of hate and anger and really want to reach through the pages and throttle the characters. The only thing keeping me sane is Cleolinda's hilarious snarky commentary and Mark's also hilarious (but much more rage-filled) chapter-by-chapter commentary, both on Eclipse. I have to read these as I go along, so I feel that someone else is sharing my pain over precisely the same passages.

Worst. Reading. Project. Ever.

[Gigei]

I just finished Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle myself. I just couldn't put it down, it was one of the most gripping and the darkest books I've read lately. Correction, one of the best books I've read recently. The beginning had my skin crawling, it was that horrifying, but I wouldn't call it torture porn either. The story didn't actually become weird, it became better as it moved along and not one scene felt stretched or unnecessary. A really sweet read, as I'm sure Gigei will confirm in a couple of days.

Oh wow I just finished it and even though the ending was a bit too ambiguous and unsatisfying, I am still blown away by this book.

I almost made myself sick reading it up until 3 am because I couldn't put it down even though I have the flu. That's how good it is. I see that there is a separate thread just for the gargoyle so I'm off to that thread so I can post spoilers.

[Quarterman]

Still reading the Williams novel.

But found a copy of Gary Brandner's The Howling at a used bookstore. What the heck ya know, a "classic" werewolf horror novel that had been adapted into a popular horror movie by Joe Dante! Very slim at 220 odd pages.

This is one of the worst horror novels I have read in recent years. No real lycanthropy action until about 90-100 pages. There is just alot ... "the howling".

Honestly this book is one of the dullest, suspenseless, and unengaging werewolf books I have ever read.

First off there is no Eddie Quist, the swarthy psychopath that needs to have his teeth filed down, his nails clipped, and a haircut. His iconic scenes and dialogues are nonexistent including the porn shop, morgue resurrection, or "I'm gonna give you a piece of my mind." Heck there is not even smiley face decals.

There is a rapist gardener called Max Quist, but he is apprehended and hauled off to the pen after raping the female protagonist and never reappears in the book AGAIN. Oh yeah the victimized protagonist is not a intrepid reporter stalking a serial killer but a random housewife. There is no serial killer in the book. The female is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time namely in her house alone with a psycho gardener with long history of sexual offenses.

The werewolves suck and so does the book. Skip it, or rather watch Joe Dantes' scary and funny adaptation.

For werewolf horror literature, seek out David Morrell's The Totem and Whitley Strieber's The Wolfen instead. They both have their flaws but they're infinitely more entertaining than Brandner's The Howling. 1/10

[Ratatoskr]

Just started Abraham's A Shadow in Summer. Too early to comment on that one.

Before that, a couple of short stories. I always try to read some short fiction in between novels. This time: "Defect" by Kristin Kathryne Rusch, from the excellent collection The New Space Opera Vol. II by Dozois/Strahan, which I heartily recommend to every fan of the genre. And, finally, "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison. Wow. Utterly impressive. Brilliantly written and frightening as hell. If you haven't read that one, I urge you to rush out and get your hands on it ASAP. Unless you're numbered among the faint of heart, that is, in which case i implore you to stay away from this story. Far, far away.

Before that, the Young Miles omnibus, containing two novels and a novella from Bujold's Vorkosigan saga. I lack the eloquence to descibe just how much I adore this series. Yeah, so it stretches plausibility at times, which is about the only weakness I found with it. But it's SO MUCH FUN!!! And I got ten more novels to go. WOOT! I'm in for such a ride. Seriously, I had to force myself not to read the next Miles book right away, but I want the series to last me a while. Highly recommended. If you need convincing, I bet my ass that the protagonist was a direct inspiration for a certain conniving noseless dwarf in a certain fantasy series by a certain NM-based writer and editor.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman last week, and I liked it a lot. It's the final volume in the trilogy so I won't say too much about the plot of this particular book; the trilogy itself is set far in the future where most humans are injected with nanocomputers before birth that can allow for all sorts of enhancements (better health, increased physical prowess, and other things like the ability to control the temperature of the water in your shower with only a thought). The trilogy itself deals with the impending release of a program that allows the user to view multiple realities and select the one that is most beneficial to him/her. I liked the concepts quite a bit, and it was fairly well written. My biggest complaints are: one, that other than Natch and Jara are really the only characters that are well developed (Quell gets quite a bit more development in this book, but overall is still an enigma for the most part) and two, the book is very unwieldy it's a large trade paperback and is printed on very heavy paper that the paperback cover cannot support - I usually prefer larger books because I have large hands but this I found myself not wanting to even pick this one up to read (this goes for all three books in the series unfortunately).

8/10 for the content

1/10 for the book's format

After that I flew through Duane Swierczynski's Severance Package. A year or two back I read his first book The Wheelman because it drew comparisons to Charlie Huston's work and liked it a lot. While Swierczynski has been able to maintain the face paced adrenaline fueled mayhem of that first book, his plotting (and therefore my overall interest in his books) has really taken a nosedive. His second book, The Blonde, was a little absurd at times, but the entire plot of Severance Package was just ridiculous - the headman of a financial services outfit that is really a cover operation that tracks and empties terrorists' bank accounts calls all the upper level employees (5 of the 7 know exactly what the company is) in on Saturday so that he can kill them because of orders from higher up in the spy organization. Well, his second in command has other plans, she wants to use this as an opportunity to get a promotion by killing the other six and her boss instead of the other way around... It's a quick read, but at the end I was very unsatisfied. I did like Jamie's character, I also like how all the novels have secondary characters linking them together, and there was a great internal monologue as a character is slowly dying and his mind drifts to cottage cheese and he details why 2% is the better than 4% and 1% (which is totally correct btw). I'm not sure if I'll continue reading Swierczynski's books.

5/10

And now I have started The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. So far it's been fantastic (I'm 90 pages in), but the shift from Arlen to Leesha was a bit jarring and felt like running into a brick wall as Arlen's story was getting so interesting. I think it would have worked better if he had been alternating their chapters from the start, but I've only read about 25% of the book so this might not be a valid criticism after finishing the book.

I made short work of Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski. In his latest novel, Swierczynski takes a odd turn with a story on a web of death, government research, and time-traveling astral projection. Thankfully, the author makes his characters as good as always or otherwise I might have stopped reading. It actually turned out to a pretty good story revolving around the main character's desire to discover the truth of his father's murder. The time travel bit ends up leading to a seemingly endless cycle of violence and Swierczynski handles it quite well. My favorite book is still The Wheelman though.

So what's the verdict on this one compared to The Blonde and Severance Package, Ben?

[palin99999]

A year or two back I read his first book The Wheelman because it drew comparisons to Charlie Huston's work and liked it a lot.

If you want something that reads like Huston try Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper or any of Don Winslow's books, but specifically: The Death and life of Bobby Z.

And now I have started The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. So far it's been fantastic (I'm 90 pages in), but the shift from Arlen to Leesha was a bit jarring and felt like running into a brick wall as Arlen's story was getting so interesting. I think it would have worked better if he had been alternating their chapters from the start, but I've only read about 25% of the book so this might not be a valid criticism after finishing the book.

I agree that it was a bit jarring at first, but I grew to like Leesha's early story better than Arlen's and like how he incorporates them later.

[Bellis]

Heroes Die by Matthew Stover, which was a fun airplane read, though I found some of the obscenities, especially those related to gender/sexuality, a little jarring/offensive. Also, the purported darkness is a bit dated in this age of everyone writing grey SFF.

Cuckoo's Egg - an alien POV short novel by CJ Cherryh. I liked it well enough, though it didn't have the epic sweep of Gehenna.

[RedEyedGhost]

If you want something that reads like Huston try Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper or any of Don Winslow's books, but specifically: The Death and life of Bobby Z.

I actually have both of those on my amazon wishlist, and I think Beat the Reaper will be what I go with when I'm in need of a Huston-like fix :thumbsup:

I agree that it was a bit jarring at first, but I grew to like Leesha's early story better than Arlen's and like how he incorporates them later.

Even though I haven't read much of Leesha yet, I do like her story so far. :)