September Reading Thread

[Stubby]

I have now finished TLOLL.

In short, I loved it. A cracking good crime caper set in a fantasy realm. Like many others here, I cannot wait for the follow up. More Gentlemen Bastards please!

Now I'm having a crack at the first of the Soldier Son series by Robin Hobb, Shaman's Crossing. I could never get into the Fitz based series so I'm hoping this one works out. After only a few pages, it has me interested.

[Mr. X]

Officially, I am still reading books for grad classes.

But I did just pick up the new Danielewski book today, along with a copy of "House of Leaves" since Xray never read that and my old copy disappeared around the time I moved to NYC.

I just finished Daniel Abraham's "A Shadow In Summer," which was enjoyable. The prologue was nice, then it slowed down for a bit, but the final quarter was quite good.

Also working through the "Transmetropolitain" and "Sandman" graphic novels, the former for the first time and the latter for (at least) the 4th or 5th time.

[pat5150]

Just read Raymond E. Feist's INTO A DARK REALM. . .

At times entertaining and at times very dull, the book is not a worthy sequel to FLIGHT OF THE NIGHTHAWKS. Plus, it sports one of the ugliest covers in years!

Check out the blog for the full review. . .

Patrick

[Amalric]

Currently halfway through "Capetian France 987-1328" and so far very interesting, also going to start reading Duncan´s "Vellum" and a re-read of AFFC.

[saint777]

I decided to wait on Midnight Tides and The Bonehunters and begin my horror book marathon.

Here is my horror list:

Song of Kali by Simmons: Two thirds of the way through.

Silk by Kiernan

Fevre Dream by Martin

The Dante Club by Pearl

The Club Dumas by Perez-Reverte

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson

She Wakes by Ketchum

The Loveliest Dead by Garton

Live Girls by Garton

Anno Dracula by Newman

On Stranger Tides by Powers

Cellars by Shirley

Reiko the Zombie Shop Vols 1-3 by Mikamoto

Mr. Monster: Books of Forbidden Knowledge Vol 1 by Micheal Gilbert

Finally six H.P. Lovecraft stories I haven't read to finish it all off:

At the Mountains of Madness

The Dreams in the Witch-House

The Statement of Randolph Carter

The Shunned House

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

The Shadow Out of Time

I decided to wait on Midnight Tides and The Bonehunters and begin my horror book marathon.

Here is my horror list:

Song of Kali by Simmons: Two thirds of the way through.

Silk by Kiernan

Fevre Dream by Martin

The Dante Club by Pearl

The Club Dumas by Perez-Reverte

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson

She Wakes by Ketchum

The Loveliest Dead by Garton

Live Girls by Garton

Anno Dracula by Newman

On Stranger Tides by Powers

Cellars by Shirley

Reiko the Zombie Shop Vols 1-3 by Mikamoto

Mr. Monster: Books of Forbidden Knowledge Vol 1 by Micheal Gilbert

Finally six H.P. Lovecraft stories I haven't read to finish it all off:

At the Mountains of Madness

The Dreams in the Witch-House

The Statement of Randolph Carter

The Shunned House

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

The Shadow Out of Time

[Annelise]

Following up on some recommendations I tried as a result from this thread: Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.

TLoLL is a lot of fun, thus I'll add my endorsement to the pile whilst I look forward to the next GB book. I'd just caution folks who've not read it yet, but have read the tLoLL recs and/or threads, to try to keep their expectations somewhat in check, as the hype can (obviously) make it harder to satisfy.

Anyone who likes gothic should definitely give, The Shadow of the Wind a shot. Wonderful read. To snatch from from a review, "if you love the short stories of Borges, The Name of the Rose, the Club Dumas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Falling Angel, Possession or One hundred Years of Solitude.. Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling.. pick up Shadow."

It's set in Barcelona in the years following the Spanish Civil War.

[Doppelganger]

Currently hopping between The Lies of Locke Lamora & Crime and Punishment.

[Red Sun]

I finished Thud. I rather liked it. The political message is a bit too obvious, but the "horror" aspect was intriguing. Good writing of a character who is possessed but doesn't realise it.

I'm wondering, however, about the Chicken that haunted the painter of the "Battle of Koom Valley". Was it a chicken that was not a chicken? The mystery was never ressolved.

[The Red Wolf]

Well I am going to amend my earlier post as I recently discovered an interesting book I found on amazon and thought I'd share. Murder Most Medieval. It is a collection of murder mysteries in various settings in medieval times. The mysteries arn't real involved seeing as the stories are 20-60 pages but they are very interesting. The is a tale of a Cleric investigating a priest accused of murder set against Thomas Beckett and Henry II's battle over the clergy and secular law. The is a soldier turned Bard and his blind protoge on the borders of Scotland. That is one of my favs but it is hard to explain with out ruining it. There is also a tale of with Robin Hood and a Cadfael mystery.

[Klegane the Kinhater]

Im reading The Dragon Reborn Now. When I finished The Great Hunt I vowed never to read another wheel of time book but I caved. I forgot much of why I hated the WOT so so far, it isn't all that bad.

Next up is most likely going to be either The Gunslinger or Ender's Game.

[Mr. X]

I just started reading Tom Stoppard's "Travesties," which I've had for over 10 years but never read. It's not bad, though nowhere near as good as "Arcadia" or "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." The scene done in limericks and the scene mimicing the second to last chapter of James Joyce's "Ulysses" were fun.

[Happy Ent]

Currently hopping between The Lies of Locke Lamora & Crime and Punishment.

Now that's an interesting combination. "If Dostojevksij had written TLoLL…" would be a great thread. Two immoral protagonists finding (different) ethical justifications for their criminal ways!

[IheartTesla]

Currently reading Antartica by Kim Stanley Robinson. It makes me want to read about the original explorers, but the story itself? Meh.

[Analu]

I'm just finishing up The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell, and damn, that was a great read. Best book I've read this year, other than TLoLL. I can always tell when I really like a book when I sneak in a chapter or two during a class lecture or work. That's like the golden standard for me. Can't wait to go out and get the sequel.

I tried (yet again) reading Gardens of the Moon by Erikson. Got thru almost the whole thing, then had to put it down out of frustration. Don't care anymore, and not sure I ever did. It really surprises me that so many people I consider well-read are such fans of his. I just... wasn't. Maybe I'll give it another chance, but that was like the 5th chance I've given it.

[WhiteQueen]

I am on Sharon Penman kick right now. My mother-in-law gave me The Prince of Darkness last Christmas, knowing that I LOVED the Sunne in Splendour (my third favourite Ricardian book of all times). It turned out that The Prince of Darkness is the fourth book in Penman's medieval mysteries' series. So, I just finished the first two books The Queen's Man and Cruel as Grave. Just started the third book Dragon's Lair. Once I am done, I will start the Prince of Darkness. I also wanted to re-read Marcel Proust In Search of Lost Time, because I read it like 15 years ago and loved it, so I wanted to see if I still would love it.

[Ser Mosh]

So far this month I've read Perdido Street Station and TLOLL and i just finished Homeland by R. A. Salvatore because a friend of mine agreed to read ASOIAF if I read the Drizzt series.

TLOLL was definitely the best thing I've read this year, and I found Perdido Street Station to be enjoyable yet overrated.

I had purposefully stayed away from the Forgotten Realm books due to my hatred for the conventional dwarves and elves and wizards fantasy plots, and never would have given in had I not had such an opportunity to convert a friend to the glory that is GRRM.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. My friend is definitely getting a lot more out of this trade than I am, but I'm not dreading the next two books as I did the first one.

I'd like to finish them quickly though, so I can get back to my overflowing TBR shelf. I'm still considering what to read next. I've narrowed it down to A Shadow in Summer, The Darkness That Comes Before, Dread Empire's Fall, or Memories of Ice.

[AutumnEvenings]

I just finished Poison Study by Maria Snyder. I really liked it, and since my library doesn't have the sequeal, I just might fork out my dollars at Barnes and Nobel. I think this is probably going to be a trilogy (I know, right?), and it's unfinished as of yet (even worse, right?). I don't think this book was so wonderful that you should all run out and read it immediately or else your lives will be that much bleaker, but it's a good read nonetheless.

[RedEyedGhost]

Big time lurker here. Thought I might finally come out and play...

So, I spent most of last month reading Viriconium, and finished early this month. Wow, I would do anything possible to avoid reading that book. I read over and over how wonderful the prose was and that the story was brilliant. Well, the prose was just run-on after run-on. And in these wonderful flowing sentences MJH would liberally use pronouns that could be applied to the subject, direct object, or indirect object -- this lead to either rereading or my eyes glossing over in apathy. The stories were not that intriguing, and the concept was not explained until Virconium Knights (one of the short stories after the novellas). This lack of explanation lead me to believe that MJH didn't know a time-line from the hole in his ass; which isn't the case, but it would have made the stories more enjoyable if I had known the concept behind them.

I can't recommend Viriconium, but if you are planning on reading it, I would suggest this order: "The Pastel City", "Storm of Wings", all the shorts except "A young man's journey...", "In Viriconium", and then "A young man's..."

Next, I read The Blood Knight. This was much, much more fun then Viriconium. It's pretty standard fantasy, but Keyes does it so well. I liked this one more than the previous two, and am eagerly awaiting the final installment. I absolutely love the character Leoff -- he's very original.

Then came The Prestige. This book kicked some serious ass! The story was wonderful, and I loved the presentation -- reading the 'diaries' of two feuding stage magicians -- you can't help be feel symapathy for both. As I was reading Rupert Angier's 'diary' I kept getting a feeling of deja vu. After a while I realized it was because the atmosphere presented felt like an original Sherlock Holmes story; which were written during the time period Christopher Priest was portraying. I will be reading more of Priest's book in the future. Read this now!

Bonus: They've started playing previews for The Pestige movie on tv. The sets look wonderful, and you gotta love the Batman vs. Wolverine thing the've got going. It does look like they've changed the back story, but if the movie is even half as good as the book it will be the best movie I've seen this year.

And today I finished The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce. I really enjoyed this book, also. The concept is cool, and the execution was masterful. It was scary, whimsical, disgusting, and touching. Highly recommended.

Up next is Forest Mage...

[davos]

Finished Erikson's House of Chains, which I enjoyed despite finding it to be the weakest of the 4 Malazan books I have read to date. I've been very impressed with the prior books, particularily DHG and MoI and this just didn't quite stand up to the quality. It was still a good read though despite its flaws.

Next up I is probably going to be Midnight Tides.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

I'm just about finished with Kiss of Darkness by Heather Graham. She does a lot with adding a touch of the supernatural into normal suspense books. This one she goes way overboard and it was what prompted the Vampire thread. Needless to say I found it disapointing. Hopefully I will get something worthy of post about before the month ends.