February 2015 Reads

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished Crown of Renewal last night, the last book in the Paladin's Legacy series by Elizabeth Moon. I felt the concluding volume felt very rushed and anticlimactic. The villains that were hyped throughout the series died very quickly and almost comically. Despite that, It was a very good series overall and if you liked The Deed of Paksenarrion, then you will like this series too.

Now started What If? by Randall Monroe. It is quirky, fascinating and funny all at once.

[Seasick Shrimp]

So, finished Still Alice, and although it was a good read I didn't love it as much as most people seem to do. It became a little too repetitive imo, the forgetting got kind of boring after a while. With that being said, it was a decent read with some very touching moments.

Now, I've just begun reading A small place, written by Jamaica Kincaid, a book that I would never pick up for fun, it's for my english-class and seems to be some kind of "White people suck"-text.

[Iskaral Pust]

I read The Norseman Vol. 1 by Jason Born. Pretty good viking historical fiction from a similar period to the Strongbow Saga. Between both series I've read 5 books in recent months on viking historical fiction. It's definitely not all about horned helmets and big axes. Both series look at the political, cultural and economic structure underlying the peak expansion of viking culture, although they are both very focused on the Norse POV (rather than Swedish or Danish).

I'm in the middle of All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I gather this was a big seller and critically acclaimed. So far it's ok. Some saccherine sentimentality about innocence lost and potential wasted and how the little people are unwillingly drawn in and exploited/abused by the war. It tells us about a huge story (WWII) by showing us the effect on two very small personal stories. Werner's arc reminds me slightly of Peekay in The Power of One, although PoO was much better. The style, sentimentality and historical setting is reminiscent of some recent Booker reads.

[YellowDogJen]

Those names arnt that weird. Look up what Protestants in England used to name themselves.

Yes, I know that virtues were often used as names in the past. The names just reminded me of Robin Hobb's characters. Forgive me.

I dug the GV novels

Don't sweat the names. In a genre with shit like Whiseyjack, Tyrion, and Aragon I don't think you should get to spun up about RH's name choices. They make sense in the grander scheme of things.

Also, popcorn wouldn't be how I'd describe her novels.

I'm not "spun up". The names make sense. The books were popcorn for me - fast, fun, and good. That is how I describe the novels.

Maybe if its popcorn soaked in tears.

Tears? I guess you and peterbound are more ... sensitive than I. I didn't get teary at all. :dunno:

[peterbound]

Yes, I know that virtues were often used as names in the past. The names just reminded me of Robin Hobb's characters. Forgive me.

I'm not "spun up". The names make sense. The books were popcorn for me - fast, fun, and good. That is how I describe the novels.

Tears? I guess you and peterbound are more ... sensitive than I. I didn't get teary at all. :dunno:

Yup. That me. Teary.

[mashiara]

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron was Ok. I wanted to love it more and there were lots of moments that it was really fun, but overall I wasn't blown away by it.

I'm now reading -for the first time- Colleen McCullough's The First Man in Rome.

[Maester Llama]

ATB, re Providence of Fire: Okay, thank you. It's good to know going in that

Valyn continues to be a muppet. It does bother me immensely so it's good to know I shouldn't spend energy hoping it'll go away.

Today I finished Traitor's Blade, the first book in the secondary world fantasy swashbuckling-style series The Greatcoats by the fabulously-named Sebastien De Castell. Overall I agree with SkynJay from earlier in the thread: I quite like this. Solid fun, with lots of well-described sword fights -- specially duels -- and banter and stirring speeches about justice. It seems to be trying to balance being truly earnestly felt on the one hand with being tongue-and-cheek and funny and a little bit grounded and grim on the other, and I think De Castell mostly pulls this off, puncturing the characters' ability to swash and buckle with expert ease just often enough to keep things tense and making sure that something unheroic happens now and then.

Some real first novel unevenness, though: The plot pivots abruptly several times without any of the characters seeming that bothered or surprised, and large parts of the book are propelled by what feel to me like some truly jaw-dropping coincidences -- and this is coming from someone who usually just accepts the occasional contrivance like this as the cost of doing business. Also, this is one of those fantasy stories in which several characters surrounding the leads know more about the larger picture than do the leads themselves, and delight in mentioning this early and often. This is fucking annoying; it makes the book feel like it's hiding plot balls unnecessarily and creating confusion thereby. There are also a couple of interludes that don't really feel like they've got much to do with the rest of the book. Most of these, like a wicked and amusing fight with a sect of assassins who never appear again that slips in some interesting world-building, are still totally fun, but unfortunately there's one about two-thirds through that is absolutely godawful. I also think there's a minor but persistent pacing issue where the book has trouble blocking out fast reactions in scenes of confrontation, leaving the bad guys hovering menacingly post-ultimatum while the good guys hold minutes-long conferences more than once.

The characters are fun, or at least the main swashbuckling Greatcoat dudes are. I found that only the protagonist feels to me like he gets much development. His two buddies seem to thus far be fairly firmly slotted in as Jokey Friend and Serious Friend, albeit fun versions of each. They've got enough hints to them to suggest depth to be mined in future installments, though. Said main dude has one of those backstories where he's locked all his misery and anger and burning need for vengeance inside himself and when it comes bubbling out in a huge torrent of manpain he just starts to kill people, and I'm incredibly tired of this character type [there's a fridging in his past, as you might expect, and as SkynJay points out above he is really awfully hung up on the death of his King, although to be fair said king does seem to have been a pretty cool guy.] I found him mostly fun to hang around in spite of this -- he is a great dexterous talker, and I enjoy that kind of protagonist -- though unfortunately his manpain does make several scenes a slog, and is integral to that one previously mentioned interlude that I think is such a mistake, a healing sex episode of remarkable tropeyness and stupidity about which the less is said the better. The three main Greatcoats are kind of thunder-stealers and they eclipse the characters around them a bit. As is so often the case in these things a couple of the women suffer particularly, though there's one woman villain who is absolutely two-dimensional psychologically but chews some great scenery, one persistently tough young teenage girl who gets some great moments, and a wise irreverent old woman whose integral to the plot and also gets to disrupt the Greatcoats' awesomeness, so the book manages to partially compensate for the mystical healing sex and the fridging to come off at least better than it might have here.

Fun swashbuckling fantasy with a focus on justice for those disenfranchised by class and/or gender in a fairly morally clear-cut way that still keeps things a little bit grounded and muddy with dashes of wit and violence. Overcomes some mid-sized plot problems with flare and engaging voice and sword fights. Would read next one readily if it came my way -- Traitor's Blade ends at what feels like a very reasonable pausing point, but is clearly the start of something larger.

[Teng Ai Hui]

I recently finished Red Rising and just started Golden Son. I'm about 10% into it, and I'm anxious for Sevro to come back on screen.

[gordonah]

Finished Brave New World last night, it wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. The World State and the society were interesting constructions, however the story and the characters were just not that memorable.

I've begun reading Eric, looking forward to seeing what's going to happen in this Discworld book.

I have to agree with you on Brave New World. It's a few year since I read it, but I thought it was a very interesting premise, but the story within was not great.

Hope you enjoy Eric,a good one in the Discworld series.

[gordonah]

Fatherland is probably the best of the "serious" Nazi AH books I know.

I enjoyed Fatherland. I thought the story worked well and that the AH setting added flavour without being distracting (or making no sense).

I haven't read Dick, but did read SS-GB by Len Deighton a few years ago, and enjoyed that.

[First of My Name]

Finished Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. The last 200 pages went by in a blur, I couldn't stop reading. An excellent book. I loved how it all played out.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished What If? by Randall Munroe. It was ok as some parts were really interesting and others made my eyes roll and ended up skimming it. Some of the hypothetical questions were just so absurd and others were really quite fascinating.

Now reading a collection of short stories in the Pakesnarrion universe by Elizabeth Moon called Deeds of Honor.

[Garett Hornwood]

Finished Eric on Thursday, it was a good short story but it wasn't really a full book so it was somewhat disappointing especially how quickly the ending happened.

Starting my first re-read of The Return of the King in 16 years, already have covered things I completely forgot about.

[Happy Ent]

Woot! It turns out that Houellebecq’s Submission is already available in German translation, for Kindle. (My French is insufficient for this, so I need a translation.)

Acquired. Let’s see what this is.

[First of My Name]

Started Red Country by Joe Abercrombie, which I'm sure I'll enjoy.

[deleted01]

Almost finished Mothers and Daughters by Leah Fleming. Not her best, but 1950's/60's Britain was an interesting time, in many ways, so I'm still enjoying it.

[Buckwheat]

Finished Fool's Fate last night. I enjoyed the whole trilogy very much, but less than Liveships.

I have read some criticisms regarding the end of Fool's Fate on the forum before, and I do agree that the last third of the book strains credibility (Burrich conveniently dying and telling Fitzy to take care of this children, Molly and Fitzy getting together, everybody getting married and having cute little babies together, and most of all, Fool's resurrection) and would have needed some thorough and possibly cruel editing. I am very happy that Fitzy is content now, of course, but the ending is a bit overly sweet and not something I have come to expect from Hobb.

Still, I enjoyed reading very much because of well-developed characters, fast-changing plot and mysteriousness and am looking forward to reading the rest of her books.

[peterbound]

Finished Fool's Fate last night. I enjoyed the whole trilogy very much, but less than Liveships.

I have read some criticisms regarding the end of Fool's Fate on the forum before, and I do agree that the last third of the book strains credibility (Burrich conveniently dying and telling Fitzy to take care of this children, Molly and Fitzy getting together, everybody getting married and having cute little babies together, and most of all, Fool's resurrection) and would have needed some thorough and possibly cruel editing. I am very happy that Fitzy is content now, of course, but the ending is a bit overly sweet and not something I have come to expect from Hobb.

Still, I enjoyed reading very much because of well-developed characters, fast-changing plot and mysteriousness and am looking forward to reading the rest of her books.

I think that was the point. It was unexpected. Hasn't the dude been through enough (at that point) to deserve a little bit of good fucking luck.

I love it.. I actually think I shed a tear when I read it.

[Buckwheat]

I think that was the point. It was unexpected. Hasn't the dude been through enough (at that point) to deserve a little bit of good fucking luck.

I love it.. I actually think I shed a tear when I read it.

Oh, he definitely has. I cried like a baby in the end of Assassin's Quest when it looked like his life was ruined. He definitely deserved a break. Shed a few tears reading Fool's Fate too, but not in the end.

I just think the ending was a bit too convenient for everybody. Not limited to Fitz's story.

[kairparavel]

I've finished Sharp Objects and The Cuckoo's Calling this month.

Now onto a new series I've only recently acquainted myself with - Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache, taking place in a small town just outside Montreal.

First book in the series is Still Life.