March Reads

[Starkess]

I started Dust by Elizabeth Bear. I was a bit hesitant about the description, but then I tore through the first 15% and had to force myself to stop for food. So. Odd and interesting so far!

[YellowDogJen]

Just finished Words of Radiance - really enjoyable! Now on to Blood Song.

[aceluby]

In the middle of the First Law trilogy. VERY good so far (about 1/2 way through the first book). If I finish it this month I'll move on to Words of Radiance, then I think I'll finally crack open the newest Dexter book I got for Christmas.

[Alytha]

I have finished Kushiel's Dart. Really liked it. I want a Joscelin too. Any volunteers?

Next, Words of Radiance :)

[HexMachina]

After finding the DVD Cloud Atlas that someone must have bought for me and watching it, I'm tempted to read the book. Anyone who has read it that can tell me whether its any good?

[Alytha]

It's pretty good. I haven't seen the movie, but I've heard that the structure is different...in any case, in the book, you get half of each story before it switches.

[HexMachina]

Well the movie flits between the various stories. I think i will give the book a try

[williamjm]

After finding the DVD Cloud Atlas that someone must have bought for me and watching it, I'm tempted to read the book. Anyone who has read it that can tell me whether its any good?

I thought it was an excellent book, one of the best I've read in the last few years. I liked the film, it was a good attempt at adapting a book that seemed virtually impossible to adapt, but although it does a decent job of summarising the plots it has to inevitably cut a lot out and loses a bit of its effectiveness as a result, it also loses the impact of the book being written in six completely different styles. Although it's a relatively accurate adaptation you will notice some significant changes in the way some of the plots turn out.

[Garett Hornwood]

Here's a general update of my reading so far this month

Friday I finished The Portable Greek Historians and started Royal Assassin.

I finished 2nd Samuel and a 1/3 of the way through 1st Kings of The Bible.

I finished Venus and Adonis and thought it was really good, I read The Comedy of Errors and thoroughly enjoyed it, and now I'm wading into The Rape of Lucrece of my read through of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

That's all for now.

[Kat]

It's pretty good. I haven't seen the movie, but I've heard that the structure is different...in any case, in the book, you get half of each story before it switches.

I have this book and have wanted to read it, but I didn't like the movie mainly because of the way it was filmed. I'm hooping I'll like the book more.

[deleted01]

After finding the DVD Cloud Atlas that someone must have bought for me and watching it, I'm tempted to read the book. Anyone who has read it that can tell me whether its any good?

I really liked the book. As others said, it was excellent. I also really enjoyed the film, and for once struggled with which one was better. I think they both stand up well on their own. Definitely give it a try :)

Affinity is starting to pick up, thankfully. I did order some more books the other day though, and picked another up in the shop yesterday. Oops again :laugh:

[HexMachina]

Thank you for the advice everyone, guess I know what my next read is :)

And I have a 30% off coupon that I can use on *most* ebooks that are compatible with my ereader throughout March. Unlimited uses. Oh dear, this is going to be an expensive month. I might finally give Joe Abercrombie a try

[Maester Llama]

Starkess, about Elizabeth Bear: I'm glad Dust has started well! If you enjoy Dust's mixing of sf with fantasy signals / concepts, Bear's All the Windwracked Stars and sequels might also work out for you -- though, if I had to pigeonhole them, I'd say they're maybe better thought of as fantasy using some sf toys, as opposed to the Jacob's Ladder books, which are sf using some fantasy stuff. All the Windwracked Stars, and the other books in the Edda of Burdens series, also do what I find to be some really cool things with Norse mythology: they really capture the doom-laden but hopeful grandure of it, for me, but they twist it all around and play strange riffs on it. They assume a lot of knowledge about Norse myth, though -- knowledge I don't have; I had Wikipedia open through at least half the second book. I think they're worth it, but if that way of reading isn't your thing [it usually isn't mine] that might be something to take into consideration. The Eternal Sky series, starting with Range of Ghosts, is Bear working somewhat more recognizably within epic fantasy, and also working a little more to make her complex writing and worldbuilding reader-friendly. The first two volumes might be my favourite works of hers I've read so far and might be a good choice if you like epic fantasy and want to read more of her work. Looking forward to hearing what you think of the rest of Dust.

Oh, one more thing: I noticed that you mentioned a tendency toward very rushed endings in the Atevi books [which I haven't read yet]. I personally often find that Bear's writing has issues with these too, and Dust -- and certainly its sequels -- is one of the places I remember thinking that was the case. Endings that blitz their way through important stuff tend not to match my personal taste, so while she's probably one of my favourite writers currently working in sff the ending thing is a notable bummer.

Also finished Pierce Brown's Red Rising. I ... don't quite know what to say, or indeed to think. I enjoyed it; I would be totally lying if I said it wasn't fun. And yet...

It's very much in the amazing-young-man-does-badass-things-and-impresses-people mode; in really recent work I think it might be comparable to Ryan's Blood Song and some of Weeks' stuff in terms of its appeal, though those are fantasy and Red Rising is kindasorta sci-fi. The story of Darrow's rise through corrupt Martian society includes a lot of angst and moral problems and "so I must become a monster in order to overcome monsters" naval-gazing, and I don't want to discount that 'cuz some of it's done well, but so far as I can tell the takeaway is that Darrow is the best. If you like that kind of thing then yes, line right the fuck up, because Brown has got that down -- particularly in the last hundred pages, which are basically a non-stop Darrow is better than everybody no really I mean everybody except that one time where he messes up and someone dies so he can feel guilty about it extravaganza in which this kid just beats the shit out of everyone. Maybe I'm just a little bit weary of this kind of story -- still very entertained while reading, just a little less prone to being really transported.

Some other disconnected points: The book wants to have its cake and eat it too in regards to its women characters, insisting that it is presenting them as competent fighters and political thinkers but merrily fridging them or consigning them to damsel-in-distress roles when it counts -- I imagine the book's really insecure about this, because the text itself hangs a big lampshade on it. The corrupt caste-based society the book imagines feels less savvy in its highlighting of the ways oppression works than, say, the portrayal of the Capitol in Collins' Hunger Games, and if that's the level of subtlety on which you're operating ... well, I just don't know, but it's colourful and theatrical and feels like a good operatic villainous regime, which I think is the register in which it is trying to work. Speaking of the Hunger Games, the book feels to me like it owes that series some pretty significant debts, but it diverges enough, especially later, that this didn't bother me very much. It won me over, at least partially, and I'll probably read the next one and enjoy it, but ... it's another young man growing up to be the awesome story, you know? And I don't wanna complain about the kind of story the book is; it's pretty good at being that kind of story. It just feels like these are the stories that get much of the noisiest adulation when new instances of them come out, and there are other fish in the sea.

[Snowborn]

Finished American Gods, it was really good, but I didn't fall in love with it. I liked that it was set in the real world, Shadow was an interesting character, but there was something that made me just like it very much.

Currently reading Dust of Dreams, the first three chapters are so good. I want, and at the same time I don't want to finish the Book of the Fallen. The ending of Toll the Hounds left a hole in my Malazan heart. It's not going to end well, and I'm going to miss it so much. I might have said this before, but it's definitely the best fantasy series I've read so far, and some of the books are among my favorite books ever. I'll still have most of Esslemont books left, I'll read Stonewielder after DoD, or, if I can't wait, after The Crippled God. I might start a reread as soon as I'm done with TCG anyway.

[SkynJay]

Llama, I felt much the same about Red Rising. Enjoyable, but the early reviews raved about it(it already has a movie deal) and I just didn't see it. It took as much suspention of disbelief as Divergent (better than that book though) and could not pick what kind of story it was. All pretext of saying something about a caste society was dropped for a only slightly interesting Lord of the Flies with superhumans and swords.

[Zar Lannister]

I started reading Daniel Abraham's "The King's Blood". So far, I'm liking it a lot more than the first book.

[End of Disc One]

I started reading Daniel Abraham's "The King's Blood". So far, I'm liking it a lot more than the first book.

You're in for a treat as it keeps getting better.

I still need to read the third book.

[Borque]

Just started The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati.

I have been curious about this one for a while. Picked it up due to having read books by Nassim Taleb, who recommends it highly.

[Bolivar]

I started reading Daniel Abraham's "The King's Blood". So far, I'm liking it a lot more than the first book.

The King's Blood is such a stellar follow up to a good if not outstanding first installment. The Tyrant's Law is even better in some ways, but TKB still shines as my favorite in the series so far.

Not sure why we're still waiting for The Widow's House, it was completed last year from what I remember.

[3CityApache]

The Long War. It's a slow read for me, I'm afraid. Even slower than The Long Earth, which wasn't an express read either. So far, a few reasonably interesting observations as for consequences of the main idea of the series for humanity and civilization, practically no Pratchett brand humour and no action whatsoever.

Edited spelling.