January Reads: Setting the Tone for 2016!

[peterbound]

Me too! 

Good book.  I gave some money to her kickstarter a while back. 

 

REG, she's from around here, I see here at the MileHiCon on occasion, and I think she might be down here next week.  I'll find out.  

[peterbound]

Just finished 'The Library at Mt Char'.  Holy fuck!  Where have you been my whole life?  The image of David pouring the blood of his victims heart into his hair, making a blood helmet is still wriggling around in my mind.  Great fucking book.  Read it if you can. 

[Darth Richard II]

I finished Uprooted tonight and it was *happysigh* good. The kind of book that reminds me of why I fell in love with reading in the first place, that takes you to another place entirely and you don't need to nitpick it or tear it apart because it just is. That probably makes no sense but oh well. I greatly enjoyed it.

Next I want to tackle one of the books weighing down my nightstand, but I'm not sure which one yet.

Don't look at some of the one star reviews on GR, you'll end up turning into a Sith Lord(Lady?). I had no idea the book had generated that kind of...erm...hatred?

(Also FFS how does it keep getting labeled as YA. Yes I know I Rant about that a lot but I'm tired and can't sleep)

[RedEyedGhost]

Good book.  I gave some money to her kickstarter a while back. 

 

REG, she's from around here, I see here at the MileHiCon on occasion, and I think she might be down here next week.  I'll find out.  

I did the kickstarter too.  I believe she lives in Boulder, my media mail shipment of the physical books from the kickstarter showed up ridiculously fast - I think it was only the day after she sent the email saying they had shipped.

[Puntificator]

On 1/17/2016 at 5:52 AM, Bearbert said:

For those who read The Fifth Season, is the sequel supposed to be more connected to it than the books in either the duology or the trilogy. Those feel more like connected standalones than a series.

     

Yes, the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, is most definitely very closely connected to The Fifth Season. It's a direct continuation of it. 

[red snow]

I seem to like giving Daniel Abraham money this month as I'm now reading "Nemesis Games" alongside "the widow's house". Money well spent, as always.

[Puntificator]

On 1/15/2016 at 1:27 PM, Sheep the Evicted said:

Damn, you're definitely still talking about The Library At Mont Char right ? Was really looking forward to this one, loved the premise and it won the Kirkus reviews best fantasy of 2015. But i hate nothing more then getting to the end of a book and realising it wasn't internally consistent, feels like i've been conned by the author somehow..

Personally I thought The Library at Mount Char was an incredibly good novel. The only thing that bothered me at all was that it had sapient animals, and I had a hard time accepting that, until I realized that real-world science had little to do with the story's foundation, despite the contemporary setting. There were lots of good Easter eggs and literary references hidden in the book too, which made for a fun read beyond the actual fun of the story itself.

[Puntificator]

On 1/12/2016 at 0:24 PM, Goldhand said:

Need more help deciding what to read:

The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier.

 

WBMS kinda slipped under the radar of most non-Australian readers, and the preview is pretty damn good. Both books are of solid length (not looking for a tome right now). Thoughts?

Tough choice. I've been recommending the Children of the Black Sun trilogy (of which Winter Be My Shield is the first book) whenever I can. As you indicate, the series very much fell under the radar outside of Australia, and whenever I comment about it, people seem unaware of the series, so I was surprised to see mention of it here. WBMS has very high level magic, slavery, a small number of POVs, torture, some romance, and a very complex story line. With all the place names and people names, it's easy to get lost at the beginning; it took me several pages before I could figure out what was happening and who was on which side. The map in the book is unhelpful. The magic systems are interesting, with the most important one being blood magic, the power for which comes from either leaching pain or pleasure from people. All in all, I liked the book a lot, but it does end suddenly in the middle of the overall story, so if you read this one, you'll need to read the rest of the trilogy too.

The Steel Remains (Book 1 of A Land Fit for Heroes) remains one of the grittiest, darkest, grimmest of novels. If you don't like such books, you'll hate this one. If, like me, you instead enjoy such books, this will probably be one of the best fantasy reading experiences you'll ever have, should you choose to read it. There are sci-fi elements in the series, and that bothers some fantasy purists; I think they are pure nuts.  

[HexMachina]

On Gaiman; I really liked Neverwhere,and it was the first novel by him i read. I just found it a lot of fun and whimsical. Not his best work at all,in fact it is probably my least favourite of what i have read, but I didnt find it "bad." 

American Gods is very different though. Aside from being significantly longer, it feels like it flows more and has a more thought out plot. Whereas Neverwhere seems more about Richard(is that the right name? Drawing a blank) growing as a person,with plot points thrown in to showcase that and show off the idea of London Below. Of course, its worth remembering it didnt start out as an idea for a novel, but is pieced together from bits that didnt make the cut for TV.

my favourite Gaiman remains Ocean at the End of the Lane though.

I have finished Sovereign by C.J. Sansom, #3 in the Shardlake series. Again, very much enjoyed this, I find this series as a whole a nice easy read that i can switch off my brain and enjoy. I preferred this one to Dark Fire as I got a bit tired of the London setting in that book, and I found the secondary characters much blander.

Not sure what I want to read next. I'm feeling an urge to re-read Farseer so i might do that. I have made a nice dent in my downloaded but unread pile so i dont feel so bad doing that. I also have Stephenson's "Anathem" and Newman's "The Vagrant" which i'm toying with at present but inwill start one of the 3 tonight

[peterbound]

On 1/15/2016 at 1:27 PM, Sheep the Evicted said: Damn, you're definitely still talking about The Library At Mont Char right ? Was really looking forward to this one, loved the premise and it won the Kirkus reviews best fantasy of 2015. But i hate nothing more then getting to the end of a book and realising it wasn't internally consistent, feels like i've been conned by the author somehow..

Personally I thought The Library at Mount Char was an incredibly good novel. The only thing that bothered me at all was that it had sapient animals, and I had a hard time accepting that, until I realized that real-world science had little to do with the story's foundation, despite the contemporary setting. There were lots of good Easter eggs and literary references hidden in the book too, which made for a fun read beyond the actual fun of the story itself.

There was demigods, walking icebergs, and what was more than likely some horror out of s love raft novel, and your beef was that there was talking animals?

[Jo498]

To my recollection I read "American Gods" and "Neverwhere" within a year or so (ca. 2004/5) and do not even remember which one came first. American Gods may be better and is more complex but it is also lengthy and I found the "parallel world" of London below (this is much better than Aaronovich's attempts at similar things in his Rivers of London) and the hapless protagonist fairly well done; overall I do not see a huge gap in quality. I saw the TV series much later and was disappointed despite the charming young Laura Fraser.

I started Vance's "Lyonesse" and while it is somewhat slow going I like it quite a bit so far.

[mgambino]

I just finished up The Dire Earth series by Jason Hough. It's a hybrid of science fiction (it has aliens and a space elevator) and zombie       survival fiction. Other than a mildly disappointing ending, I'd recommend it.

I also read The Conqueror's Shadow by Ari Marmell. It was poop. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Helena - read Anathem.

I just finished Benioff's City Of Thieves. I enjoyed it and would recommend it: part Odyssey, part Bildungsroman, part survivor's history; it's well written and uses the author's grandfather as a first person POV. It feels a bit like All The Light We Cannot See but with more agency and participation, less dreamily waiting on the periphery.

I just started on Mandel's Bring Up The Bodies.

[beniowa]

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 8:41 PM, RedEyedGhost said:

Me too! 

I did her kickstarter too so I'll be reading the third book sometime soon.

[Richard Writhen]

I need to find Coraline somewhere, I really loved the film. And I was searching for Mirrormask before I realized it never was a novel lawl.

[Spockydog]

Finished Fool's Quest. Hmmm. I think I'm going to give this 3 out of 5 stars, simply because, well, not a lot happens. There's far too much repetition, it almost feels as if Hobb is spinning her wheels alongside Fitz and Amber.

Also... So. Much. Angst. It got a little tiring in the end.

Two thirds of the way through this trilogy, I'd rank it as the weakest of them all so far. Shit better get real in the final book, or this is going to turn out to be something of a damp squib.

 

[First of My Name]

I finished Ender's Game, which was as good as I remembered, maybe better. Battle School is a great setting and the final chapter is perfect.
When I first read that I decided not to continue the series, but I might do so now. Has anybody read Speaker for the Dead, and if so, is it worth reading?

I'm now diving back into the Six Duchies with Fool's Errand, and am really looking forward to it. I have high expectations but I'm confident Hobb will match them (though Spockydog's comment does make me wonder about her FatF trilogy).

[Darth Richard II]

Don't listen to him, FaiF is awesome sauce.

Also I don't read any more Card, ever. Save yourself.

[First of My Name]

8 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Don't listen to him, FaiF is awesome sauce.

Also I don't read any more Card, ever. Save yourself.

Good. Though atm I'm so in love with Hobb's prose and characters that I probably wouldn't mind of nothing actually happened.

That bad huh? SftD at least had good reviews, even if the plot doesn't look very interesting. Though I'm kind of hesitant after learning more about the guy's views.

[Darth Richard II]

I didn't ahe speaker for the dead, but I read it in the 90s. Xenocide is where it starts to get..morman,,,istic? IS that a word.

The homophobia does't creep in til the late 90s earlier 200s, then uh, 9/11 happened and he lost his shit. But a lot of it is still there, just less obvious.