November 2018 Reading - remember, remember the blade of Ember

[Iskaral Pust]

6 hours ago, Rorshach said:

Just finished Ressurection Men, by the board's @Derfel Cadarn

You should, too.

There are several books with that title.  Is the author David Craig? (That looks like a recent publication)

[Derfel Cadarn]

14 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

There are several books with that title.  Is the author David Craig? (That looks like a recent publication)

Yes, by David Craig.

 

Thanks for the recomendation, Helena and Rorshach.

For those curious, the book is sort-of Sherlock Holmes meets Vampire The Masquerade. Except the two main protagonists are body snatchers rather than private  detectives.

[Iskaral Pust]

8 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Yes, by David Craig.

 

Thanks for the recomendation, Helena and Rorshach.

For those curious, the book is sort-of Sherlock Holmes meets Vampire The Masquerade. Except the two main protagonists are body snatchers rather than private  detectives.

Purchased.  I’ll post a review on Amazon when read (there’s only one there so far). 

Best of luck. 

[HexMachina]

17 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Purchased.  I’ll post a review on Amazon when read (there’s only one there so far). 

Best of luck. 

Amazon U.K. has more reviews. I suspect it might skew that way dueto the setting and author being U.K. based

[Derfel Cadarn]

4 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Purchased.  I’ll post a review on Amazon when read (there’s only one there so far). 

Best of luck. 

Thanks! Another review has been added to amazon.com, albeit for some reason its only registering the first.  There are 3 reviews on amazon.co.uk. The Amazon.com review is also on Goodreads, and was posted by a reviewer/blogger.

Thanks to whoever on this site posted the new review! 

Due to the printer's US partner going out of business, until a new one is found, US readers would need to order the paperback from the UK. The Amazon.co.uk marketplace often gives wildly unrealistic timescales; my brother-in-law was told there would be a 1-3 month wait!  But really the books are dispatched within a few days by the publisher.

On topic, I'm re-reading Robin Hobb's Fitz novels. Up to Fool's Errand. I always end up skipping the Liveship Trader trilogy for some reason, when re-reading the series. Never bothered with the Dragon keeper books.

[Peadar]

I have just started The Kassa Gambit by M.C. Planck.

[john]

On 11/17/2018 at 10:33 AM, Derfel Cadarn said:

Yes, by David Craig.

 

Thanks for the recomendation, Helena and Rorshach.

For those curious, the book is sort-of Sherlock Holmes meets Vampire The Masquerade. Except the two main protagonists are body snatchers rather than private  detectives.

Nice one, I will definitely check this out.  The world needs more fantasy books set in Glasgow. 

[Peadar]

Starting The Green Man's Heir by Juliet McKenna.

[Iskaral Pust]

On 11/18/2018 at 4:25 AM, Peadar said:

I have just started The Kassa Gambit by M.C. Planck.

 

1 hour ago, Peadar said:

Starting The Green Man's Heir by Juliet McKenna.

It seems like you report a lot of starts but I need to pay attention now to see if you follow through with your review of each.

Do you generally have multiple simultaneous reads?

[aceluby]

On 11/17/2018 at 3:37 PM, Derfel Cadarn said:

On topic, I'm re-reading Robin Hobb's Fitz novels. Up to Fool's Errand. I always end up skipping the Liveship Trader trilogy for some reason, when re-reading the series. Never bothered with the Dragon keeper books.

I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed the Dragon Keeper series.  First book is slow, but each book is successively better with a lot of backstory on the Elderlings and dragons.  If the lore interests you at all, I'd recommend at least one read through them.  

[john]

5 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It seems like you report a lot of starts but I need to pay attention now to see if you follow through with your review of each.

Do you generally have multiple simultaneous reads?

That Planck book must have been either really bad or really really good.

I finished Lies Sleeping by Aaronovitch, latest in the Rivers of London series.  It did wrap up all the preceding plot lines, which was welcome, but I’m not sure I was totally satisfied with the ending.  To be fair, dealing with the Faceless Man’s final scheme, after seeing his various criminal exploits throughout the books, and making it sufficiently wowing, was always going to be a big ask.  Anyway, it was entertaining as always. The final chapter seems to hint that there’s going to be a time jump for the next book (this one appears to be set in 2014 but they were contemporaneous when it started in 2011) which is good because Peter might actually know some decent magic by the next one.

Next I might read Derfel’s Sooty Feathers book then. Also have Zafons latest Cemetary of Lost Books book and Boris Akunin’s Black City on the backburner.

[Peadar]

14 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

 

It seems like you report a lot of starts but I need to pay attention now to see if you follow through with your review of each.

Do you generally have multiple simultaneous reads?

I don't usually finish books unless they really grab me or I have some other reason I need to get to the end, i.e. I know the author personally, or I have to discuss them in an upcoming panel. A lot of people here will be horrified 

 

But it's important to say that the person who gave me "The Kassa Gambit" is an accomplished reviewer who enjoyed it a lot. My likes are probably not a good guide for anybody.

[Iskaral Pust]

Finished The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris, a non-fiction history of England and Normandy from ~1020 under Cnut (Canute), through Edward The Confessor, onto Harold from the rise of the Godweinesons, then William The Conqueror and a couple of chapters on his successors through to the next Edward.  Interesting and well written, but not a page turner.  It also includes a cast of adjacent characters in Denmark, Anjou, Flanders, France, Wales and Scotland.  The political events involve many repeated  rebellions, invasions, harrying, submissions, appeasements, and (temporary) reconciliations as the balance of power shifts from year to year.  Reading can feel like a recitation of a litany of repeititive events but that was the reality of political power then. The book does also address some big picture interpretation and is scrupulous about explaining the primary sources used and weighing their reliability and biases.  A good read for anyone who wants a deep dive into this period, whether for a power struggle or just a pivotal change in political power in English history. 

Now started on Resurrection Men.

[Garett Hornwood]

I finished several books this week, the first was Legends: Tales from the Eternal Archives #1 edited by Margaret Weis.  This is a collection of 19 stories and vast majority of them were at least okay but a large number of them were very good.

The second was Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, which I found really fascinating especially in seeing a younger Dalinar and comparing him to the older Dalinar that we've already met.  Some of Dalinar's interactions with Lift, Cultivation, Odium, and various others were also good.  I think Sanderson did a good job to change things around to build the overall world while still progressing the narrative.  Obviously the length of the book was a bit of a drawback and some of the open-ended stuff in which you couldn't tell if Sanderson was creating mysteries to be solved later or just plain mysteries that will never be solves was a bit concerning, yet I really enjoyed the book.

I also read another straight-forward nature book meant for children with Paddletail the Beaver and His Neighbors, this nothing more than something light on the weekends to read so as to have a change of pace to my reading.

So the current primary book I'm reading is a ARC of The Reign of the Kingfisher by T.J. Martinson, which is about man taking hostages demanding the Chicago PD release information about the supposed death of a real-life superhero/vigilante (the titular) Kingfisher and several characters working on their own (for different reason) to figure out what happened 30 years before.  So far it's a cliche filled but engaging read that has a mystery feel to it and I think there are three ways it could end.

I'm working my way through the preface and analysis of my edition of The Guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides that I'll really get into after finishing the Kingfisher book.

And I'll be finishing up another weekend read of another children's nature book, Wild Creatures in Winter.

[Darth Richard II]

On 11/19/2018 at 3:31 PM, aceluby said:

I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed the Dragon Keeper series.  First book is slow, but each book is successively better with a lot of backstory on the Elderlings and dragons.  If the lore interests you at all, I'd recommend at least one read through them.  

I enjoyed them too, particularly the later 2.

 

[williamjm]

I finished "Robert Galbraith"'s Lethal White. I enjoyed reading it, I thought the main mystery worked well, although I was less keen on some of the surrounding subplots - Robin's marital problems were tedious. Rowling also seems convinced that every finale has to have her protagonists in mortal danger, even if that requires some contrived plotting.

From a detective story written by an author most famous for writing about wizards, I've now moved on to a story about wizard detectives in the form of Ben Aaronovitch's Lies Sleeping. I've enjoyed the series a lot so far so I'm looking forward to reading this.

[Starkess]

40,000 in Gehenna was even better than I remembered. Cherryh is a genius. I was tempted to jump right into re-reading Cyteen (one of my all-time favorite books), but I decided to take a bit of a break. This time of year always makes me want to re-read LOTR, so I decided to do that. I've read these books gods know how many times. At least 15, possibly upwards of 20. It's still enjoyable! I just got to the part where they are defeated by Caradhras.

[red snow]

Heroes by Stephen Fry is proving to be just as enjoyable as mythos. What i like about the greek heroes is that their heroism is different to modern day heroes. They actually fit "anti-hero" in many ways or at least are far more flawed and real than our ideal of "heroism" today

[Iskaral Pust]

Finished Resurrection Men by @Derfel Cadarn   It’s very enjoyable and really well written for a debut novel.  Another good sign: I flew through it in just a few days after several recent books have dragged on for weeks.

It’s a Victorian gothic story of hunting vampires and breaking shadowy cabals, with several intersecting factions in uneasy alliances.  Although it resolves well, there is plenty set up for the next in the series.  Well worth a read.

[Derfel Cadarn]

11 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Finished Resurrection Men by @Derfel Cadarn   It’s very enjoyable and really well written for a debut novel.  Another good sign: I flew through it in just a few days after several recent books have dragged on for weeks.

It’s a Victorian gothic story of hunting vampires and breaking shadowy cabals, with several intersecting factions in uneasy alliances.  Although it resolves well, there is plenty set up for the next in the series.  Well worth a read.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it

There are another three books planned in the initial series, with a further two trilolgies planned; one set in other parts of the world, and another back in Glasgow to explore the consequences of the first quartet's resolution.  I'm about a quarter through book 2.

I've also mostly finished the first book in a contemporary supernatural police procedural set in the same universe with some recurring characters. The first draft is done, but the last third needs expanding.

Re-reading Fool's Errand, enjoying it as always. My wife's reading Assassin's Quest, so trying to stay at least a book ahead.  Planning a Kitty Jay re-read soon.

Recently read the latest Strike novel, Lethal White. Better than the previous Strike book imho, maybe not as good as the second.