March 2015 reads

[First of My Name]

Now reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Not quite as funny as the first Hitchhiker, but still hilarious.

Also started The Perks of Being a Wallflower and I'm loving it. I don't know how long I would've kept reading if I hadn't had to go somewhere. There are few protagonists that I can relate to as much as this one. It's funny and sad and (mostly) realistic and I haven't even reached page 50 yet. This might well become a favorite of mine.

[Inevittable]

Finished City of Stairs earlier this week. I liked it well enough but it didn't rock my world. Didn't know until I was nearly finished with the book that a sequel is in the works; guess I'll read that when it comes out.

Started the other night on Assassin's Apprentice (my first Hobb) and devoured roughly a quarter of it in one sitting. This one seems right up my alley.

Ah, excellent! Assassin's Apprentice was one of the first mature fantasy books I read in my early twenties. I hope you enjoy it and are encouraged to finish the trilogy and read the next two trilogies too. I find the world that Hobb created to be one of the more unique ones in fantasy (excluding the usual castles/road trip/battles tropes.

I started my first re-read of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan last month, and still haven't finished the first one. At this rate it will take me over a year to finish the series. I'm re-reading them so that I can finally read numbers 13 and 14 in the series, which I've been holding onto for a while until I had the courage to start a re-read so I could fully appreciate them in sequence.

[benpeek]

Godless is going slowly. Partly because I'm too busy to get much reading time, partly because it's proving quite dull and poorly written. Who recommended this again?

I did.

Now, be a mate a buy fifteen copies, will you? I need to make millions and millions. I want to buy a small nation and use it to invade a larger nation.

(Not much to recommend for reading, aside. Slow couple of weeks due to construction, deadlines, and other stuff. Half way through Gaiman's collection which is, like most collections, a mix of good and forgettable.)

[Larry of the Lawn]

Jingo = finished. This is quite probably my favourite Terry Pratchett book so far (although I'd have to read Guards! Guards! again to be sure).

Nevermind being as consistently hilarious as Pratchett usually is, I think it works fantastically as a political statement/satire. A clear and brilliant response to bigotry, it really made me smile.

No idea what to read next. I want something to read tomorrow, but nothing long since hopefully on Friday I'll have received ''The Judging Eye'' by Bakker.

Taking the plunge, eh? Nice! And good move staying away from the thread until you've finished WLW, it's definitely spoilerific. The short stories are also good reading.

[Garett Hornwood]

I finished The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory at the beginning of the week, overall I found that the book had an intriguing plot and interesting character buried under too much exposition. I'm not going to look for the rest of the series unless I get it free from somewhere.

I'm currently reading Imager by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., so far I'm really into the book and how Rhenn's training is going, including how it's different than others supposedly (but is a neat way of worldbuilding without info-dumping). The only thing I see as a problem right now is how much Rhenn is progressing "through the ranks" so to speak, but maybe his previous career might have refined his "powers". And the industrial technological culture is something new in my personal reading and am enjoying that aspect.

[TheRevanchist]

Now reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Not quite as funny as the first Hitchhiker, but still hilarious.

Yep. I liked mostly the parts with the depressing robot.

Anyway, I stopped reading the serie after the third book, which I didn't found that much funny.

[TheRevanchist]

Btw, starting today The Chronicles of the Black Company. I am planning to read the books of the North, before I jump somewhere else and then return for the books of the South.

I guess this way would be better than reading the entire 10 books in a row.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Iskaral Pust, on 26 Mar 2015 - 12:54 AM, said:

Godless is going slowly. Partly because I'm too busy to get much reading time, partly because it's proving quite dull and poorly written. Who recommended this again?

I did.

I did too .IIRC, Darth Richard ,polishgenius and SkynJay thought it was very good/awesome :)

[polishgenius]

Missed this before, but:

Jingo = finished. This is quite probably my favourite Terry Pratchett book so far (although I'd have to read Guards! Guards! again to be sure).

Nevermind being as consistently hilarious as Pratchett usually is, I think it works fantastically as a political statement/satire. A clear and brilliant response to bigotry, it really made me smile.

What amazes me is that Jingo was written before 9/11, yet reads as a perfect response to the aftermath.

Similar experience for me. I haven't read many crime mysteries since Agatha Christie as a pre-teen but the first Strike book was pretty solid and an enjoyable read. The second was similar and OK quality but felt slightly weaker to me.

Yeah, I read the second one in the week and it was fun, but not as good as the first. It was more ludicrous right from the start and it was also less well-structured as a whodunnit.




I also read The Black Dream by Col Buchanan, which had a slightly clumsy beginning and a slightly clumsy end but in between was just as good as the previous two while adding a whole bunch of new elements that give the series a completely new perspective.

[deleted01]

Helena, I'm so pleased you're enjoying the Poldark books! I need to start the third one soon.

Had to travel into London yesterday, so I managed to read The Spider in the Corner of the Room by Nikki Owen pretty quickly. It was a pretty good psychological thriller, not completely my cup of tea, but I can see its appeal. Will review it for Lovereading soon.

Up next I have Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris to read and review for Gollancz, ahead of the next book coming out. I love her books, so i'm really looking forward to this.

[HexMachina]

Leap: Oh, I'm sorry! That spoiler was ... pretty big! I feel bad. The books do have troublesomely similar names.

Helena: Thanks for your thoughts on Fool's Assassin and Masquerades. I've definitely kept on enjoying Fool's Assassin; I just don't want it to be over. And I have a hard time finding time for older stuff because I'm somewhat obsessed with "keeping up" with new material, but Pratchett is worth carving out time for, so I'll probably go with Masquerades sometime soon! I haven't read much Witches outside of Tifany Aching, so this is new for me]

Yeah, very similar names, a trend that looks to continue with the final two books in the new trilogy

Fool's Quest and Assassin's Fate. So yeah, very similar :p

ETA: Still reading Poldark, but already thinking about what I want to read next. Think I'm in the mood for something pretty heavy on the fantasy front next, I'll have to take a look see what I can find. I was thinking of Kushiel's Dart but not sure, so if anyone has any thoughts on that I'm all ears.

[olenna123]

Finished The Raven by Poe. I've been reading a lot of his short stories and he really is an amazing author. I'm about to start To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.

[King of the Bastards]

I'm reading Crime and Punishment, but it's a little dragging

[Maester Llama]

SkynJay: That's a very good point about it being Tor's biggest books / debuts in a year that seem to be swinging-and-missing with some of us, while other books from them reach for the sky [Emperor's Blades was indeed last year; Unremembered was iirc 2011.] If I'm reading the signs right Tor's big debut book this year seems to be Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which looks like my jam, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out [though it seems to be pitching away from the BIG NEW EPIC SERIES! money pit that the ones we've been kvetching about here have gone for.]

It's also a good point that Orbit have printed their share of duds; I didn't mean to imply that they were stomping Tor completely, though I suppose I did end up mostly doing that. In addition to the ones you mention they've got Karen Miller's early books [i thought The Falcon Throne was solidly okay, but some of that early stuff is, well, ooph], and John Gwynne, whose stuff seems to have a mixed reception [genuinely mixed, but including some very negative responses.] I think that, based on limited data, what contributes to my sense that Orbit's out a bit ahead here is that there's been one or two from Tor that, even while struggling to keep my lack of knowledge as a very amateur internet commentator firmly in mind, I just could not understand the logic behind: Not only did I not like them, but they were just so bad on a mechanical level that I just couldn't begin to fathom the editorial process that led to the decision that "yes, we will publish this and make a big thing about it." Orbit's published a decent little clutch of things in the epic ballpark that I don't like at all, now I think about it, but I don't think I've yet encountered one from them where I flat didn't understand how they could possibly have picked up the manuscript and thought it would do well for them.

Helena: Oh, I didn't know the last book had a title, thanks! That is ... appropriate, and yes, very reminiscent and symetrical. I had a guess and it was close to that [but not as good.]

Leap: Yep, Jingo's a wonderfully and depressingly great commentary on 9/11, I agree. Should probably have been assigned in school and among policy-makers in the US at the time or something [naïve, but hey, Pratchett makes life better]. Sad. Glad you enjoyed it! It's not my favourite City Watch book, but it's up there.

Re 2312, Leviathan Wakes, etc: In my opinion 2312 absolutely does not suck donkey ass, not even close. It is massively flawed, works very poorly as a plot-driven novel, and contains numerous sections that are one-hundred percent opaque to me, but I think that to suggest that it is entirely shitty would be to ignore a lot of really incandescent writing, characterization, and plotting / world-building ideas [even if these last are unevenly successful.] The opening scene with the sun on Mercury is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring scenes I've personally read in recent science fiction, and the tunnel sequence and the ring-surfing scene and one or two others aren't that far behind -- it's not just that I think they're fine writing; I think they're excellent sf writing in particular, evoking that sense of wonder and of joy in the universe. Much of the plot pretty much bites, for sure, but the book's got huge, huge merit.

If fun plot-driven science fiction with a crunchy universe and good characters but also some good shit-blows-up is what you're looking for, though, Leviathan Wakes all the way. Great damn book.

[Er Rn]

I finished Ship of Destiny yesterday. It was a great book, another perfect conclusion from Hobb. I loved Paragon, I loved ther serpents, I loved how everything came together in the final confrontation. Just a beautiful story.

Now for something different, I'm starting The Girl With All the Gifts by MR Carey.

[Darth Richard II]

The thing with Tor is a lot of the duds we mention are actually hugely popular outside this website. The Unremembered even won some awards and the emperors blades has a ridiculously high rating on most sites. Intetesting aside to that, of my 1700 plus books on GR, Wrath of kings is the highest rated, and my lust includes all of Shakespeare, the Iliad and Oddessy, and more stuff that apparently just isn't as mind blowing. Humanity is doomed.

Ahem, end of rant

[First of My Name]

I finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower in three sittings, which is rare for me except when I'm on vacation. I enjoyed it immensely, it's both sad and funny. There's a plot twist at the end that was highly unusual but also very fulfilling, in a weird way. I'm sure I'll read this again someday.

Also still working my way through the Hitchhiker series, and starting my omnibus version of the frst volumes of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. I've watched the anime three times now so I figure it's time I gave the source a try.

[Seasick Shrimp]

Finished Prince Caspian today, and I'm starting to see a pattern in Lewis's writing. He always builds up pretty decent stories, the first halves of the books always tricks me into thinking there will be a great climax, but it always ends pretty much the exact same way;

Aslan rides in and saves the day, every goddamn time... If Lewis could come up with any other climax for once, I would find the Narnia-books to be overall good fairytales worth to spend some time on.

In between jumping right into book nr 5 in the narnia series, I'm reading a book which I picked up at the library, just stumbling randomly across it. It is a book about the gnome in the Swedish culture and history (Den svenska tomten, by Ulla Ehrensvärd). It is a factual book, and the reason for why I picked it up is that a gnome plays a big role in the novel of which I am currently writing on, so I got really excited when I stumbled across a book about gnomes haha. Should be a pretty fun read, has already learnt some fun gnome-trivia in just the first couple of pages.

[HexMachina]

^iirc, Aslan is less present in The Silver Chair, but I guess I could be wrong. From what I remember of that one:

Rillian slays the Lady of the Green Kirtle with Puddleglum's help and they escape by themselves...they actually ignore Aslan's advice so things are trickier. Aslan's role is telling Caspian to sail home to see his son, and then helping Jill and Eustace deal with the bullies back home. I could be wrong though. Also, aren't the Underworld creatures in this book gnomes too?

[SkynJay]

SkynJay: That's a very good point about it being Tor's biggest books / debuts in a year that seem to be swinging-and-missing with some of us, while other books from them reach for the sky [Emperor's Blades was indeed last year; Unremembered was iirc 2011.] If I'm reading the signs right Tor's big debut book this year seems to be Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which looks like my jam, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out [though it seems to be pitching away from the BIG NEW EPIC SERIES! money pit that the ones we've been kvetching about here have gone for.]

It's also a good point that Orbit have printed their share of duds; I didn't mean to imply that they were stomping Tor completely, though I suppose I did end up mostly doing that. In addition to the ones you mention they've got Karen Miller's early books [i thought The Falcon Throne was solidly okay, but some of that early stuff is, well, ooph], and John Gwynne, whose stuff seems to have a mixed reception [genuinely mixed, but including some very negative responses.] I think that, based on limited data, what contributes to my sense that Orbit's out a bit ahead here is that there's been one or two from Tor that, even while struggling to keep my lack of knowledge as a very amateur internet commentator firmly in mind, I just could not understand the logic behind: Not only did I not like them, but they were just so bad on a mechanical level that I just couldn't begin to fathom the editorial process that led to the decision that "yes, we will publish this and make a big thing about it." Orbit's published a decent little clutch of things in the epic ballpark that I don't like at all, now I think about it, but I don't think I've yet encountered one from them where I flat didn't understand how they could possibly have picked up the manuscript and thought it would do well for them.

It is a good point. Much as I don't understand Emperor's Blades is loved in other forums and by many bloggers I enjoy. Unremembered? Not sure I have seen more than one or two good reviews, and it's rerelease with editing suggests to me that maybe they are not given up on something they believe in but no one else did. Or I could be wrong, I am as amateur as you and don't have contacts feeding me info.

FWIW I do agree that Orbit has a leg up on the epic fantasy front as it applies to my personal taste at the moment. Next year? We shall see.