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September '18 Reading - A Labor of Love


aceluby

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13 hours ago, Kyll.Ing. said:

Pretty much my reaction to the book too. Slow read, gets interesting at the end, but didn't bother with book two. Mostly because I haven't found book two in the same size paperback as book one. Whoever came up with the practice of printing books in the same series in different sizes? Has it something to do with which editions they are? If you pick up a series halfway through its publication, you're likely to get them in smaller sizes, in which case you can forget buying the next installments as soon as they are released, because they will be printed in this bigger format, and the smaller one won't be available for half a year or so. Or however long it will take McDonald's publishers to realize the two books will just look awkward next to another on any bookshelf.

 

I thought I was the only pedantic one about things like that.  I personally was highly irritated when ASOIAF switched cover art styles from murals to animal emblems.

 

Anyway, I just finished Rivers of London.  Currently, I'm halfway through My Life as a Goddess, a memoir by American comedian Guy Branum.  I just received Record of a Spaceborn Few, so I will be starting that in a day or two.

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On 9/16/2018 at 10:43 PM, Starkess said:

I started Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. So far it is...fine? Reads like a mythology book I had has a kid. I'm enjoying it fine but not really sure why it exists.

It's definitely a book that delivers exactly what its title promises. I think one reason it may exist is because Gaiman likes doing readings of the myths. I saw him in Dublin earlier in the year and he did a reading of the story of Freya's wedding, and they are stories that are really meant to be read out loud.

I'm about halfway through Novik's Spinning Silver. I think it's been very good so far, although I do almost feel like I should be reading it in the middle of winter while its snowing outside.

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On 9/17/2018 at 12:31 AM, Errant Bard said:

Uh, because Mythology is awesome? I loved my greek mythology books, isn't that enough?

Me too, I'm just not sure what this is offering, it doesn't seem to be a retelling or a scholarly work, it's just kind of collecting myths. I just find it odd is all.

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I finished Red Rising by Pierce Brown on Sunday.  The headline for my Amazon review is literally: Sorry, I already read The Hunger Games (it was better).  To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement and the less said the better.

I've started reading The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party by Michael F. Holt, I've been wanting to read this book since seeing it on the shelf in my high school history teacher's office my senior year almost 20 years ago.  It's a very detailed look at the 20+ year existence of a political party and as a history nerd I don't know what can be better.

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I carried on straight through to With Blood Upon the Sand after finishing Twelve Kings in Sharakhai. I'm enjoying the series quite a lot but there is one thing that's bothering me.

Spoiler

I'm not quite sure why the Moonless Host seem to have so much popular support. Yeah, the 12 kings are tyrants but the Moonless Host are way worse. So far in the first 2 books they've burned a bunch of innocent people alive in a failed attempt to assassinate one of the kings, brutally murdered Ramahd's family and associated other innocent people, kidnapped some students and turned them into living chemical weapons and attacked the aqueduct that provides water to a desert city (which you'd think would be a particularly good way to alienate pretty much the entire population). After they kidnap Amalos' favourite student his response is start working against the kings because, er, I don't really know and Meryam and Ramahd help them with the attack on the kings, after Macide personally killed their family, at the end of the book for no apparent reason.

Next up I'll probably try and whip through Ben Aaronovitch's The Furthest Station before Chris Wooding's new book comes out tomorrow.

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Man... 2 books arrived today that I really want to read instead of The Black Company.... Shogun and The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time book 2).  I'm thinking I put it down and start Shogun this weekend.  Should last me through my trip to Ireland in October.

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29 minutes ago, aceluby said:

Man... 2 books arrived today that I really want to read instead of The Black Company.... Shogun and The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time book 2).  I'm thinking I put it down and start Shogun this weekend.  Should last me through my trip to Ireland in October.

Shogun is very good.  Enjoy your trip to Ireland and feel free to ping me if you want any recs.  We have some other assorted Paddies around here too.

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1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Shogun is very good.  Enjoy your trip to Ireland and feel free to ping me if you want any recs.  We have some other assorted Paddies around here too.

We're infested with them... Oh, wait!

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Paul Andrew Hutton's The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History. Interesting and detailed read. I liked the author's approach of centering the story and history on Mickey Free, from his abduction by Apaches, to living with them and eventually becoming an Apache scout for the U.S.

I'll be reading W.J. Eccles The Canadian Frontier, 1534 - 1760 next.

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8 hours ago, aceluby said:

Man... 2 books arrived today that I really want to read instead of The Black Company.... Shogun and The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time book 2).  I'm thinking I put it down and start Shogun this weekend.  Should last me through my trip to Ireland in October.

 

7 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Shogun is very good.  Enjoy your trip to Ireland and feel free to ping me if you want any recs.  We have some other assorted Paddies around here too.

 

Shogun is phenomenal, enjoy every second of the ride, aceluby!

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19 hours ago, ljkeane said:

I carried on straight through to With Blood Upon the Sand after finishing Twelve Kings in Sharakhai. I'm enjoying the series quite a lot but there is one thing that's bothering me.

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm not quite sure why the Moonless Host seem to have so much popular support. Yeah, the 12 kings are tyrants but the Moonless Host are way worse. So far in the first 2 books they've burned a bunch of innocent people alive in a failed attempt to assassinate one of the kings, brutally murdered Ramahd's family and associated other innocent people, kidnapped some students and turned them into living chemical weapons and attacked the aqueduct that provides water to a desert city (which you'd think would be a particularly good way to alienate pretty much the entire population). After they kidnap Amalos' favourite student his response is start working against the kings because, er, I don't really know and Meryam and Ramahd help them with the attack on the kings, after Macide personally killed their family, at the end of the book for no apparent reason.

Next up I'll probably try and whip through Ben Aaronovitch's The Furthest Station before Chris Wooding's new book comes out tomorrow.

Spoiler

You could say the same about any terrorist organisation. Sure, people are killed in markets, mosques, churches, planes... well, anywhere really, but they rarely lose popular support when they fight against a constantly, violently oppressive force.

Also, let's not forget the choice is globally between that band of thugs and tyrants WHO UNLEASH WRAITHS UPON YOUR PEOPLE EVERY YEAR.

Besides, without spoiling much, what they did does indeed end up having consequences in the next book.

 

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Eagerly/impatiently awaiting my copy of Chris wooding's "ember blade" to arrive. It's reminding me why I should just buy from a brick and mortar when the price is similar/the same as Amazon. I usually kindle/audio most books but some I still like to have physical copies for. 

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Finished Malice by John Gwynne, someone sold it to me saying it was a blend of Robin Hobb and Abercrombie... I thought: what the heck, how bad can it be even if Stanek wasn't mentioned as a third reference?

Well, let me tell you: it's more like a mix of Eddings and the Bible, with less gender essentialism. It reads easily, but it's... I don't know, such a caricature of Fantasy tropes.

See , there is this boy who's a prophecied hero chosen by angels, and there are these bunch of eeeevil guys waylaid by the devil, from bullies (lots of them being assholes just for the sake of it, actually), to mass murderers, and this book is really just a training montage of what everyone does before the fire nation attacked.

About that, the world supposedly has several realms and lots of people, but it really feels like it has one village and a lot of neighbours call themselves king of a handful of farmhands.

Having said that, for a training montage where nothing happens, it's written unobstrubsively, it plants the seeds of a story by slowly showing us how main characters got into their role for the real plot.

I still have no idea why Hobb or Abercrombie were evoked in comparison.

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All done with Baldwin's masterpiece Giovanni's Room. I had a deep personal connection with this novel, given my own experience of growing up with a repressed sexuality and its consequent shame. There are some scenes that felt ripped out of my own life (for example, when David first walks in to one of Paris' quasi-underground gay bars.) But I do think this is a very worthwhile read even for those not personally invested in the LGBT perspective. What a credit to Baldwin that he came up with this some 70 years ago. 

Now to continue the Harry Potter re-read with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I also intend to knock-off VanderMeer's Borne

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