January 2015 Reading Thread

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm really enjoying Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon. I find in the hands of a very good author, traditional, Tolkein style epic fantasies are compelling reads for me.

[Bjornbert]

Started City of Stairs after reading the second book of the Django Wexler series(an improvement over the first book in every way possible, I love me some political intrigue). City of Stairs is delightful so far

[WarGalley]

Finished Leviathan Wakes and was underwhelmed. Maybe I went in with too much hype -- it was an acceptable debut novel but that's about it. It needed more detail and characters and scope. My initial reaction was 'This is supposed to be a space opera? It needs more... opera.' Perhaps I have a different or wrong interpretation of 'space opera' (I don't think I can name any novel that is supposed to fit into this category except maybe Dune). Altered Carbon felt more grand and rich and solidifies my gold standard for debut science fiction. Still, Leviathan Wakes was a good entertaining start and I hope the Corey team progress and improve.

Went to the library to pick up Shogun but on the way to the checkout, felt like I was more in the mood for a Western. So I swapped in Lonesome Dove instead. It's kind of funny, I usually don't care how big a book is, and actually prefer longer stories to shorter ones, but the size of Lonesome Dove was offputting (3 inches thick at least) especially since I bypassed East of Eden for reasons of length and commitment. Oh well.

Reading through the December thread, I've added The Martian to my reading list. Looking forward to it.

[williamjm]

I've read about the first half of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, so far it's been good. I read Ken Grimwood's Replay last year and thought that did a good job of exploring all the possible consequences of repeatedly living the same life over and over again so I'm impressed that Claire North has managed to find some new twists, having a reasonably large number of people experience the repeated lives does increase the possibilities.

I hadn't realised before I read the inside cover that Claire North was a pseudonym. I did see Catherine Webb speaking at a SF convention a while ago and had vague intentions to read her Urban Fantasy series at some point (I have seen some recommendations around here of the books she writes as Kate Griffin), if those books are a similar quality to Harry August then I should probably get around to trying them at some point.

i ended the year with blood song by anthony ryan. it was a nice surprise and certainly in the conversation for best book i read last year. currently i am reading guns of avalon by RZ and the ace of skulls by chris wooding. both are good in the way you'd expect them to be. i'm sad that i will be losing the crew of the ketty jay after this story so i may give the braided path by wooding a shot next...just to see if the magic crosses over to a different type of story.

I wouldn't expect The Braided Path to be too reminiscent of The Tales of the Ketty Jay, it's much darker in tone. I don't think it's quite as good as the Ketty Jay books but it is a good Epic Fantasy trilogy with an interesting setting. Wooding's standalone The Fade is also worth reading, I liked it better than The Braided Path.

[benpeek]

I am finishing my year and starting my year with Haruki Murakami's 1Q84.

I have long loved Murakami, though he can be hit and miss. This book though, it's a struggle.

[Little Valkyrie]

Miles Cameron's Traitor Son books...my god what an absolute pleasure to read something written by someone who knows a great deal of history and logistics. And can handle a complicated plot where the economics really are one of the huge driving factors.

[Darth Richard II]

Miles Cameron's Traitor Son books...my god what an absolute pleasure to read something written by someone who knows a great deal of history and logistics. And can handle a complicated plot where the economics really are one of the huge driving factors.

I kind of hated the second one, but the battle scenes are definitely top notch.

[Teng Ai Hui]

I've recently finished Welcome to Promise City, a The 4400 tie-in novel. It was enjoyable but nothing special. I was glad that it handled the Marked storyline much better than the last season of the tv show. I was also hoping that the book would resolve the tv series' cliffhanger about Tom Baldwin and his promicin shot but was disappointed on that issue.

Just started City of Stairs. Based on the first 10% that I have read, the loved everyone around here is giving it is not misplaced.

[Er Rn]

Finished Assassin's Quest and I loved the ending. It was satisfying and bittersweet.

Going back to the Black Sun's Daughter series with Killing Rites.

[RedEyedGhost]

I've read about the first half of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, so far it's been good. I read Ken Grimwood's Replay last year and thought that did a good job of exploring all the possible consequences of repeatedly living the same life over and over again so I'm impressed that Claire North has managed to find some new twists, having a reasonably large number of people experience the repeated lives does increase the possibilities.

I hadn't realised before I read the inside cover that Claire North was a pseudonym. I did see Catherine Webb speaking at a SF convention a while ago and had vague intentions to read her Urban Fantasy series at some point (I have seen some recommendations around here of the books she writes as Kate Griffin), if those books are a similar quality to Harry August then I should probably get around to trying them at some point.

I'm glad you're enjoying Harry August! Her next book under the Clair North name looks great too. Touch - synopsis:

He tried to take my life. Instead, I took his.

It happened so long ago, I've forgotten the details. But he was desperate, hungry enough to kill. As I died, my hand touched his. That's when my first switch took place.

I looked through the eyes of my killer in time to see my own body die.

Now switching is easy. I can jump from body to body, have any life, be anyone.

All it takes is a touch.

I wouldn't expect The Braided Path to be too reminiscent of The Tales of the Ketty Jay, it's much darker in tone. I don't think it's quite as good as the Ketty Jay books but it is a good Epic Fantasy trilogy with an interesting setting. Wooding's standalone The Fade is also worth reading, I liked it better than The Braided Path.

I agree with this, but I did really enjoy The Braided Path.

[HexMachina]

Finished Assassin's Quest and I loved the ending. It was satisfying and bittersweet.

Going back to the Black Sun's Daughter series with Killing Rites.

Buttersweet is a good description of pretty much all of Robin Hobb's endings I feel.

I'm about halfway into Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I think I enjoyed Gone Girl more, although there is still tine for Sharp Objects to edge ahead.

[gordonah]

Reading Susanna Gregory's The Killer of Pilgrims. My sixth (of 21) of the Matthew Bartholemew series. Haven't been reading them in order (depends on what I can pick up cheap or is in the library on the day), but as they are all self contained mysteries that's not an issue.

I also have The Vicomte of Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas on my phone. I reading this in snatches where I'm waiting for someone, queuing up, etc, so I'll get through it slowly.

I downloaded it from Project Guttenberg, and think that it's a fourth part of the original large tome. I'll eventually proceed with the whole book, as I'm particularly looking forward to The Man in the Iron Mask, which is the last part.

[williamjm]

I've recently finished Welcome to Promise City, a The 4400 tie-in novel. It was enjoyable but nothing special. I was glad that it handled the Marked storyline much better than the last season of the tv show. I was also hoping that the book would resolve the tv series' cliffhanger about Tom Baldwin and his promicin shot but was disappointed on that issue.

I did read the two tie-in novels (there's a second called Promises Broken) in case they provided some closure missing from the TV series because of its premature cancellation. I wasn't expecting much from the writing but it was annoying that the authors of the two books apparently couldn't agree on which way the plot should go - there are some characters whose motivation in the second book is the exact opposite of their motivation in the first. The second book does provide some more information about what happens with Tom Baldwin and does resolve some plotlines but despite the odd interesting scene it often felt like bad fanfic.

[scotcat]

I'm currently reading River Marked by Patricia Briggs and Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb.

[unJon]

I'm glad you're enjoying Harry August! Her next book under the Clair North name looks great too. Touch - synopsis:

I agree with this, but I did really enjoy The Braided Path.

thanks! Just preordered Touch. Loved First 15 Lives. Touch synopsis is reminiscent of a character in the old Octavia Butler Patternist series.

[Er Rn]

Buttersweet is a good description of pretty much all of Robin Hobb's endings I feel.

I'm about halfway into Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I think I enjoyed Gone Girl more, although there is still tine for Sharp Objects to edge ahead.

Sharp Objects is my least favorite of Gillian Flynn's books, it's good but almost more depressing than I can take. I liked Dark Places best.

[King Tyrion I]

Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith - "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"

So hilarious! :lol:

[Iskaral Pust]

I finished Wolf Hall. It was good but not great. The prose was very good, it had some nice poignant insights, tried to be "observant" of historical characters and had some playful back and forth in dialogue. But it lacked any character development, any plot or narrative arc beyond the well known history, and most character interaction and dialogue was parceled into very short glimpses.

I quickly read a comedic fantasy Critical Failures 3 for a quick interlude. Still funny but the series is running out of steam.

I just started reading City Of Stairs. Only OK so far but will hopefully improve. Lots of positive recs for it here.

I also have the Narrow Road To The Deep North on my pile for my next Booker read.

Picking up on a couple of books mentioned recently in the thread:

- I thought the Martian was very well done. Taut, tense, good science, felt realistic, POV "voice" was engaging

- 1Q84 was a struggle for me although I did finish it. I think a lot of his characters are quite similar and the story itself meandered without sufficient quality in the prose or insights to make up for it.

[Little Valkyrie]

I kind of hated the second one, but the battle scenes are definitely top notch.

I really liked the second one because I started to see how all the threads are tying together--the time off with Nita Qwan in the north, what the heck the Galles are actually up to there and how closely it actually does impinge on the Morean plot, the metaplot of Ash behind things, the little bits of details on religious schism.

[Darth Richard II]

I felt the whole thing was actually very sloppy. Sections named after one pov would suddenly change or just be labeled wrong, characters would be referred to by different names in the same paragraph, not to mention one characters names just completely changed for no reason. I actually liked seeing what the galles and such were up to but they had maybe 50 pages total. Instead we get 100s of pages of characters sitting around in Rome waiting for the plot to happen. Not to mention the parts with the black knight, which seem complete pointless.