September 2014 - Reading Thread

[HexMachina]

Just brace yourself. You'll know what I mean once it hits ya. :(

I can't even... :crying: :bawl:

[Maester Hodor]

Just got my hands on the Tawny Man trilogy. Been at it less than a week and am about half way through the first book. Hobb is in great form.

I loved Tawny Man. I read the entire trilogy in less than a month!

As for myself, I just started The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. Looks like it's shaping up to be another great and bloody book.

[Maester Llama]

Yep, that bit just before the end of Fool's Errand ... ow. Ow. Right directly in the feels.

I too was -- and remain -- very sad about the whole Valente's Dirge for Prester John situation. It sucks; they're beautiful books, in their structure and their writing and their characterization and the riffs they play on history and Christian traditions and just everything, and deserve an ending. I did hear about the Kickstarter possibility. One day, hopefully! My impression based on interviews and suchlike is that Valente finds herself fully loaded with contracted novels to write. I think her Fairyland contract had five books on it, which means there are two left to come out -- though the first of those, The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, might be done at this point, since it's scheduled to come out in March. I believe she's also signed up to do two novels for Tor: A companion piece to Deathless, and Radiance, an sf novel. Which is *awesome!* I'm a huge Valente fan. More books yay! Hopefully she'll find a way to make the last Prester John work in a way that's realistic for her and compensates her reasonably for the time spent writing it one of these days, though.

Best / favourite Valente work? I'm going to wholeheartedly agree with everybody else: Orphan's Tales. Orphan's Tales is where it's at. The very intricate weaving of many tales into a grand tapestry, rather than drilling down into one group of characters, places Valente's greatest strengths as a writer at the forefront, I think: I find the books to be beautifully written, and the crazy wondrous fantasy settings / ideas are a mile a minute; the richness of the imagination is just huge. They're extraordinarily generous books; they contain multitudes. I love Palimpsest and Deathless and the Fairyland novels, but have just one or two reservations about each of them that I do not have about Orphan's Tales. I think Valente's stuff is ace just in general, but Orphan's Tales, or the first book of it, would certainly be my "if you can only read one" recommendation. [if for some reason Orphan's Tales was not an option I might actually go for The Habitation of the Blessed, particularly if it was a little more complete unto itself.]

Finished A. M. Dellamonica's Child of a Hidden Sea. It's a portal fantasy about a young woman named Sophie who discovers she has a connection to the ocean world of Stormwrack. There is sailing and adventure and shipboard intrigue, but there is also family struggle and emotional growth and social navigation. The book is paced very smoothly, and reads as gripping and page-turny, at least to me, even when the action is emotional or intellectual rather than physical. Sophie is a wonderful character, always curious and active; I could read about her for a very long time. The novel relies heavily on a great, warm bond between Sophie and her brother, and I found that sometimes their banter overstepped the bounds into precious territory; it's a great character relationship though. If you like portal fantasy this one is the good shit. Apparently there's the prospect of a sequel to this; if Tor could see their way clear to not sitting on that book too long that would be really cool of them. This one really grabbed me.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Finished A. M. Dellamonica's Child of a Hidden Sea.

If you're interested there are 2 short stories set in the same world :

http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/02/among-the-silvering-herd

http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/03/the-ugly-woman-of-castello-di-putti-a-m-dellamonica

[Yersinia]

Just finished Barrayar, by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is the second Vorkosigan Saga book I've read, and I enjoy reading them in between grimmer, darker things but don't necessarily feel compelled to binge-read them one after another. Does that change later in the series?

Now I'm starting a reread of The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands, by Richard Morgan, to refresh my memory before The Dark Defiles comes out. I don't normally do rereads, but I'm making an exception for these because they're relatively short, and I have a soft spot for this series.

[Bolivar]

I purchased the collection of the first three Bauchelain and Korbal Broach short stories. I decided to read all the Malazan releases in chronological order so I'm reading the first one, Blood Follows. I'm a big fan of Erikson but I'm surprised at just how much I'm enjoying this one.

[deleted01]

So Apple Tree Yard kicked it up a notch, and I'm almost done with it.

I was wondering what they were up in court for. A little bit of me did cheer when I realised Yvonne's lover had killed her rapist, but now I'm wondering what will happen to them.

I have a new Anne O'Brien novel coming at some point soon to review, so I may go for a short book next. A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore seems like a nice easy read.

[Serious Callers Only]

More comics. Read the Jennifer Blood comics trades.

Jennifer is like Batman + 'dark' punisher + ex-mafia princess + soccer mom, and this is a fairly boring character design considering that Garth Ennis initiated the series. Once Al Ewing and (now although this is just beginning) Steven Grant take over, she becomes slightly more interesting in that her life falls apart and she's really shown to be the evil psycho she obviously is (thereby inducing a lot of hurt feelings in naive reviewers). I like the character development, it's rare that a punisher like character even has a life to be ruined. But to be honest she didn't need the 'motivation' before anyway... she's just a serial killer, plain and simple, it's the right direction for development.

[williamjm]

Thanks for the Valente recommendations. I might pick up The Orphan's Tales at some point since they sound like the most commonly recommended.

Just finished Barrayar, by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is the second Vorkosigan Saga book I've read, and I enjoy reading them in between grimmer, darker things but don't necessarily feel compelled to binge-read them one after another. Does that change later in the series?

The books are mostly standalone in terms of plot so I can understand why you might not be compelled to read them one after another (although I find them very addictive). I liked Barrayar a lot, but the best books are probably in the middle of the series when you get to Mirror Dance/Memory/Komarr/A Civil Campaign.

[Paxter]

Recently finished A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, and I can't recommend it enough. Probably the best novel I've read for a couple of years. The four main characters will live long in the memory.

Now checking out the graphic novel series Saga, and considering starting Blood Meridian.

[Starkess]

Started The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley. Been hearing great things about it and I like her work, so I decided to pick it up even though I dislike starting series before they are finished. I am excited, although the prologue left me a little flat (that's as far as I've gotten!).

[Snowborn]

Currently reading the Dune novels, I'm halfway through Children of Dune. I had read the first novel two years ago, in Spanish. While I liked it a lot, it didn't love it, and never got around to reading the sequels. About ten days ago, I decided to reread it, this time in English, and it hooked me right from the start. Awesome books, hadn't felt this way about a series since the Book of the Fallen.

I've started many series this year, I currently have about eight to finish. It wasn't intentional :lol:

Along with Dune, I'm reading Sandman, the Dolls' House was awesome.

[UtherDoul]

Along with Dune, I'm reading Sandman, the Dolls' House was awesome.

Doll's House is my third favourite Sandman arc, second only to Brief Lives and the Kindly Ones. You have a great journey ahead of you :).

Finished The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Very,very well written, and the author manages to give her own spin and lend her own voice even as she mostly follows the original tale. The very few, very small changes she makes to the story I feel serve the economy of this more personal interpretation well, though there is one (minor) divergence that I am not that sure about.

Using Patroclus as the narrator was an inspired choice, though at times both him and Achilles seemed overshadowed by the well-crafted secondary characters -- I especially enjoyed Thetis, Chiron and Odysseus. I don't usually like love stories, and this book was unarguably a love story, the first half in particular, but it was done tastefully and knowing what happens gives it all a fitting Greek tragedy element. And of course, no matter how many times and how differently it is retold, the scene between Achilles and Priam remain, to me, one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the history of literature.

Finally, the classicist in me is pleased that English, at least, has a more elegant translation of polytropos than the ones available in Italian ;).

[Buckwheat]

I finally got my hands on a copy of Hobb's Ship of Destiny yesterday. I am only a few pages into it by now, and as expected, enjoy it.

[jaimereborn]

ha you've read WOT bloody fast! i'm only 200 pages into book 1 and it's been over a month... slightly struggling. is it worth the journey?!

[aceluby]

I finally got my hands on a copy of Hobb's Ship of Destiny yesterday. I am only a few pages into it by now, and as expected, enjoy it.

Love the Liveship Traders trilogy. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I haven't read anything from Hobb that wasn't excellent, though I haven't started the rain wilds series yet.

[Buckwheat]

Love the Liveship Traders trilogy. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I haven't read anything from Hobb that wasn't excellent, though I haven't started the rain wilds series yet.

I enjoy Liveship Traders way more than Farseer. It has more than one storyline, so the story is more dynamic and livelier. And I like the main characters (Althea, Brashen, Kennit especially) more than Fitzy.

[Yersinia]

The books are mostly standalone in terms of plot so I can understand why you might not be compelled to read them one after another (although I find them very addictive). I liked Barrayar a lot, but the best books are probably in the middle of the series when you get to Mirror Dance/Memory/Komarr/A Civil Campaign.

I was thinking maybe the books with Miles in them might be more compelling, since he's the character people really seem to love, and he's barely introduced in Barrayar. Thanks for the tip.

[aceluby]

I enjoy Liveship Traders way more than Farseer. It has more than one storyline, so the story is more dynamic and livelier. And I like the main characters (Althea, Brashen, Kennit especially) more than Fitzy.

I hate Kennit. He's one of my most despised characters that I've read, which says a lot since I don't get all that emotional about fictional characters, so the reaction is a testament to her writing ability. He's like the abused child that ends up abusing his kids himself as an adult.

I also LOVE Fitz, the Fool, Burrich, & Kertricken, so the Farseer books edge out LT for me, though not by a whole lot.

My goal is to finish Hobb's Tawny Man trilogy by the end of the month. I'm just a couple hundred of pages into Fool's Errand, so I don't quite know if I'll get there, but I have this weekend blocked off for nothing but reading.

Man... now I might do that this weekend too. Got about 200 pages left in Fool's Errand.

But then again I'm not sure if I could handle it emotionally to read that much Hobb so quickly. She's draining.

[Buckwheat]

I hate Kennit. He's one of my most despised characters that I've read, which says a lot since I don't get all that emotional about fictional characters, so the reaction is a testament to her writing ability. He's like the abused child that ends up abusing his kids himself as an adult.

I also LOVE Fitz, the Fool, Burrich, & Kertricken, so the Farseer books edge out LT for me, though not by a whole lot.

Man... now I might do that this weekend too. Got about 200 pages left in Fool's Errand.

But then again I'm not sure if I could handle it emotionally to read that much Hobb so quickly. She's draining.

I find Kennit fascinating. But then I was told that he gets worse and worse, so there is still time for me to start hating him.

On the other hand, I started with completely hating Malta,

and then she turned out okay.

She is indeed draining. I cried a lot at the end of Farseer

when Molly ends up with Burrich, it felt so wrong. Now I cannot wait to see what came of Nettle, somebody told me she appears in another book, I really wonder about her. Please do not spoil me. :P