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September Reads


mashiara

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It's September already, time to say goodbye to summer and vacation, time to go back to school. You know the drill, new month, new books, what are you reading, what are you enjoying, what are you hating? Come on, share with the rest of the class, will ya? :P

I'm currently reading Matter by Iain M. Banks. It's my 4th Culture novel and I'm liking it so far but I haven't made much progress. I blame the Spawn. I'll always blame the Spawn for everything and anything.

I should have posted in last month's thread about the last 3-4 books I read in August but I didn't have time. Of all of them the one that I should mention is Dust by Hugh Howey, the last book in the Wool Trilogy. While it was rather enjoyable to read it wasn't as good as the very first book of the series. The writing was off and it all felt a bit rushed. You could see what was going to happen miles away, that kind of ruined the ending for me.

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Well, I'm going to be reading the Sundering Duology, The Monarchies of God, and The Way of Kings. After that some literature in the form of War & Peace and Moby Dick. Then, on to some YA in the form of Divergent [which I decided to give a shot after hearing about it] and Bitterblue [read and liked the first two books]. I also have the last two Septimus Heap books. Yes they are for kids but since I started when I was young I feel I should at least finish them, not to mention a good story is a good story, no matter for what age it was written. Once I'm done with all that I'm going to be reading some biographies and Greek plays before heading to the bookstore and buying some new books. Thinking maybe of buying then the Broken Empire, Prince of Nothing, The Red Knight, Dune, Bloodsong, and The Name of the Wind. By the way what do people on the board think of the Iron King [considering buying it] as well as And the Mountains Echoed?

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Classes start again, I'll have much less reading time now :(

I'll be finishing The Blade Itself, and based on that decide whether or not to continue with the series. Will probably read The Way of Kings after, and then start Malazan. All this would probably last me way longer than just September. I also have Blood Song by Anthony Ryan on my to-read list.

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I'm finishing with Wool now, and I'll surely move on to Shift. I have to finish Gardens of the Moon as well. Prince of Thorns is, as usual, on my to-read list, and I haven't read Cat's Cradle or The Sirens of Titan yet. A Lord of the Rings reread is also in my plans. And I want to read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

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I just finished The Ill Made Knight by Christian Cameron which was pretty good but does have some slightly thin characters in places. Before that I read The Black Guard by AJ Smith which was fairly disappointing, the constant references to 'true fighting men' and showing that characters were evil by their 'cackling' or looking at the protagonists 'imperiously' was pretty annoying. That'll teach me to buy a book because the cover looked quite good I suppose.

I've just started Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian which I've heard good things about.

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Over the summer I've read the following-

The Day Of The Triffids-John Wyndham.

Very moving book. Nothing cosy about it at all.

Wide Sargasso Sea-Jean Rhys.

Lush,evocative and very atmospheric. Wonder if I'd enjoy it even more if I'd read Jane Eyre.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold-John Le Carre.

Possibly my favourite book of the year so far. Brutal and often depressing it's still fascinating, completely authoritive and very readable.

Perdido Street Station-China Mieville.

Good prose, a wonderful setting and interesting musings on the human condition. It is however far too long with rather tedious pacing. The Weaver is a brilliant creation though.

Next up is The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex-Mark Kermode. Fifty pages into this very enjoyable rant about the state of film today. Then after that The Maids Version by Daniel Woodrell. He's my favourite author at the moment and I've heard this is his best work. When people are comparing it favourably with Faulkner then expectations are pretty high.

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I gave up on The Black Guard about 30% through, as I was finding the prose unreadable. Disappointing, as the premise was good.

Just finished Unfettered, the short story collection gathered for/by Shawn Speakman. It was ok, though I many a huge fan of the form generally.

Nearly finished An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain Pears which is brilliant.

Enjoying The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffinbaugh. The writing is clear and crisp and evocative. This will be a very quick read I think.

I've also picked the Aleran Codex books back up as Sunday night bath books. I'm enjoying Captain's Fury at the moment.

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I'm about a third of the way through Sasha by Joel Shepherd. As side from all of the info dumping, the story is pretty interesting so far.

Will continue on with Petrodor, the next book in the series.

I haven't thought beyond A Trial of Blood and Steel series for my next read.

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Summer is coming to an end, as is my reading time. Boo!

I'm still reading Shadow and Betrayal by Daniel Abraham, not far off finishing the first book. I am enjoying it, but as I feared it's not quite hitting me as much as The Dagger and the Coin. I'll keep going with it, as it is continuously getting better, but it's not a good sign when I pick up another book while already being in the middle of one.

ETA: I also picked up a shitload of books the other day from various charity shops and cheap bookstores, despite my promise to not pick up any more books until I'd finished my to-read pile :laugh: There's quite a few in there that I'm keen to read, including The Lovely Bones, The Reader and The Rivers of London.

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buying some new books. Thinking maybe of buying then the Broken Empire, Prince of Nothing, The Red Knight, Dune, Bloodsong, and The Name of the Wind. By the way what do people on the board think of the Iron King [considering buying it] as well as And the Mountains Echoed?

If you really want to get the most out of the bolded series, plan on spending some serious time on them - Prince of Nothing, especially. It's not something to pick up lightly and hope to toss it off. IMHO, it's worth the time investment. Others may feel otherwise. ;)

The Name of the Wind is an introduction to a puzzle. Clues are dropped along the way, which you may or may not pick up on. Again, another start to a series that is worth the investment of time.

Dune, of course, speaks for itself. It is one of those books that inspired many that came after. but sometimes when you read such a work (that inspired so many others) it may feel cliched, simply because so many others copied it.

Over the summer I've read the following-

The Day Of The Triffids-John Wyndham.

Very moving book. Nothing cosy about it at all.

Wide Sargasso Sea-Jean Rhys.

Lush,evocative and very atmospheric. Wonder if I'd enjoy it even more if I'd read Jane Eyre.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold-John Le Carre.

Possibly my favourite book of the year so far. Brutal and often depressing it's still fascinating, completely authoritive and very readable.

Perdido Street Station-China Mieville.

Good prose, a wonderful setting and interesting musings on the human condition. It is however far too long with rather tedious pacing. The Weaver is a brilliant creation though.

Re: Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre - two very different experiences.

Always wanted to read The Spy who came in from the Cold. Le Carre is a great writer - I've enjoyed many of his other novels. Don't know why I haven't read the one that started it all yet.

My favorite character from Perdido Street Station was Lin, the Khepri who was Isaac's girlfriend. :bawl:

Summer is coming to an end, as is my reading time. Boo!

I'm still reading Shadow and Betrayal by Daniel Abraham, not far off finishing the first book. I am enjoying it, but as I feared it's not quite hitting me as much as The Dagger and the Coin. I'll keep going with it, as it is continuously getting better, but it's not a good sign when I pick up another book while already being in the middle of one.

ETA: I also picked up a shitload of books the other day from various charity shops and cheap bookstores, despite my promise to not pick up any more books until I'd finished my to-read pile :laugh: There's quite a few in there that I'm keen to read, including The Lovely Bones, The Reader and The Rivers of London.

Oh, put down The Long Price Quartet at once then, and pick it up some other time. Sometimes you've got to be in the right frame of mind to really get into the mood of a book or series.

The Lovely Bones, while I didn't read the book but merely saw the movie, kinda pissed me off. there's some parts in it that rang so false to me that it ruined the experience.

I'm still on Book 3 of the Dagger and Coin series by Abraham. I'm giving it all the time it deserves, going back and forth to previous books, and stretching it out as much as possible. :thumbsup:

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Today I finished The Price of War by Daniel Abraham, it's the second omnibus of The Long Price Quartet. An Autumn War is just excellent, Balasar Gice is one of those characters that just pops off the page. He might have been the enemy of Otah and Maati, but given what the reader learns in the first two volumes of the series Gice point-of-view concerning the andat is well founded and you understand why he's doing what he's doing. The Price of Spring is just as good, but instead of fighting a war it's fighting to "win the peace" and I love that Abraham shows the consequences of a bad decision by Gice and how it reverberates over time. Of the two volumes, I preferred An Autumn War and I think its the best of the series.

Tomorrow I'm going to start reading Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair.

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