September 2014 - Reading Thread

[Darth Richard II]

And they go to class together...to learn Latin.

[Peadar]

As REG predicted, I really enjoyed The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Up next: sample chapters.

[Night's_King]

Kind of sounds like shitty writing if the only way you can make two people seem close is having them grow up together and be the same age.

Not that I want to compare Iggulden and Shakespeare, but in Julius Caesar are many historical inaccuracies, too. Is that shitty writing as well?

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I hate to quit a book, but I'm tempted to quit Anubis Gates. Really just not interesting me.

That being said, I'm thinking of picking Infinite Jest back up which is utterly insane because the first 70 pages felt like 200 when I got through them. But for some perverse reason I just kind of want to finish it to see WTF.

I struggled through Anubis Gates as well. It was just not my thing at all.

I finished Deathmaker. I really like Lindsay Buroker's steampunk worlds which are full of wit and action.

Up next is Komarr. I'm looking forward to going back to the Vorkosigian world and seeing Miles fall in love!

[Nicomo Cosca]

Sadly, I'm losing interest in Royal Assassin 😟 I don't know what it is. It was getting better at the halfway point but now I just don't "feel" it anymore. It sucks because I really loved the first one and I only have 150ish pages left to go of this one.

[HexMachina]

Sadly, I'm losing interest in Royal Assassin I don't know what it is. It was getting better at the halfway point but now I just don't "feel" it anymore. It sucks because I really loved the first one and I only have 150ish pages left to go of this one.

The ending of Royal Assassin was my favourite of the trilogy. Everything just seemed to happen so fast. Goes without saying that I was heart broken at the end though.

Started reading Pride and Prejudice today.

[MisterOJ]

So I am about a quarter of the way through Half A King by Joe Abercrombie. So far, it is pretty straightforward paint-by-the-numbers fantasy. Nothing new or interesting at all really.

I am reminding myself that it is Abercrombie, though, and that all these standard tropes will get turned on their head in due time. (I hope.)

[Serious Callers Only]

I hate to quit a book, but I'm tempted to quit Anubis Gates. Really just not interesting me.

That being said, I'm thinking of picking Infinite Jest back up which is utterly insane because the first 70 pages felt like 200 when I got through them. But for some perverse reason I just kind of want to finish it to see WTF.

Tim Powers books always take a while to build up to explosive endings. Stick it out and you'll see.

I've read the Ari Marmell Widdershins YA trilogy, in preparation for the 4th (the second one has a p good monster)

Seanan Mcguire Winter Long, which i'm sad to report seems to have lost momentum again as something else than a boring romance series, after the ok last book (for me)

Now i'm reading the last Alex Verus book by Benidict Jacka, Hidden. Seems pretty equal to the rest.

[Buckwheat]

About three quarters through The Inferior. It is ... still strange. It sure is quick-paced and the world described is so different that I am anxious to know what happens next, but there are also quite a few things that bother me.

Started reading Pride and Prejudice today.

Enjoy! One of the funniest books in my opinion. ;)

[Darth Richard II]

Not that I want to compare Iggulden and Shakespeare, but in Julius Caesar are many historical inaccuracies, too. Is that shitty writing as well?

Well, this is subjective, but no, because Shakespeare is awesome, and Conn Iggulden sucks donkey balls.

Also, the idea of historical accuracy in things like that didn't even exits yet, Shakespeare isn't market as historical fiction, and even then, Julius Ceasar is still probably 80 percent or so more accurate than Iggulden. The only thing that makes that book about Caesar is that the main character is Caesar, otherwise there is nothing in that book that resembles history at all.

[HexMachina]

Enjoy! One of the funniest books in my opinion. ;)

Helena, I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice. Hope you do too.

Thanks! Enjoying it so far.

[williamjm]

I'm getting into Book 12 (Wheel of Time) now. I rescind all previous comments about Sanderson taking over from Jordan :P Can't complain, this is easily on par with some of the earlier ones for me. After all this time shouting ''needs more Rand!'', I'm starting to think I could really do with some more Egwene, Mat or Perrin :laugh: Ah well. I picked up book 13 in Waterstones today, I look forward to being able to read it from a real book again.

Egwene gets plenty to do in the latter stages of that book, I'd say 12 is the highlight of her entire story arc. There's very little Perrin and Mat in the book, I think it was a deliberate decision to make 12 focus on Rand and Egwene and push the other plots mostly into book 13. I think this helps makes 12 one of the best of all the WoT books, although I think the decision did hurt book 13 a bit.

[Buckwheat]

Finished The Inferior this morning.

I like the characters of Stopmouth and Indrani, and it is very action-packed to the point that the story somehow cannot breathe ... but it does not describe a world I would love to visit in my spare time.

I particularly liked the ending with the plan to leave - I really hope Stopmouth manages to escape that terrifying world some time.

I still do not believe living on a diet of meat exclusively is possible. :ack: Please learn to grow vegetables, people.

Now time to wait till whoever has it returns Ship of Destiny to the library.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

The Damnation Game-Clive Barker.

Mixed feelings, it's his first novel and I think it shows here. Despite being intermittently brilliant with those extraordinary passages of prose he comes up with from time to time,this drags and sags at times and some of the dialogue is risibile. He'd go on to much better work with Weaveworld and The Great And Secret Show.

[Toblakai]

Egwene gets plenty to do in the latter stages of that book, I'd say 12 is the highlight of her entire story arc. There's very little Perrin and Mat in the book, I think it was a deliberate decision to make 12 focus on Rand and Egwene and push the other plots mostly into book 13. I think this helps makes 12 one of the best of all the WoT books, although I think the decision did hurt book 13 a bit.

Agreed with all here. Egwene's thread in Book 12 is one of the best arcs in the entire series.

[Night's_King]

Agreed with all here. Egwene's thread in Book 12 is one of the best arcs in the entire series.

No. Her best is in Book 14. In chapter 37 all my wishes regarding her came true.

[First of My Name]

Started Assassin's Apprentice, enjoying it so far.

[D_P]

this has been a very slow reading year for me unfortunately but i am trying to finish the year strong. i'm currently reading lock in by scalzi and half a king by abercrombie. I was thinking that afterwards I might pad my stats with some easy reads like butcher and aaronovitch but there is a copy of quicksilver that is calling to me.

[RedEyedGhost]

Finished The Inferior this morning.

I like the characters of Stopmouth and Indrani, and it is very action-packed to the point that the story somehow cannot breathe ... but it does not describe a world I would love to visit in my spare time.

I particularly liked the ending with the plan to leave - I really hope Stopmouth manages to escape that terrifying world some time.

I still do not believe living on a diet of meat exclusively is possible. :ack: Please learn to grow vegetables, people.

Now time to wait till whoever has it returns Ship of Destiny to the library.

Did you miss the explanation that their bodies cannot metabolize the vegetation on that planet? I can't recall if it was just inedible or if it was actively poisonous, I think it was the latter.

[Denvek]

I've just finished The Human Division by John Scalzi, and I'm now making a start on The Atrocity Archives, the first book of The Laundry Files by Charles Stross.

I'm not sure I liked The Human Division as much as I liked the previous Old Man's War books. The book was released episodically in e-book format before it was published in print, so when reading it all at once the way the focus jumps to a completely different set of characters between episodes can be a bit jarring, and you also get episodes like The Dog King, which while good on it's own, doesn't seem to add much to the main plot.