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First Quarter 2019 Reading


Garett Hornwood

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On 2/13/2019 at 6:32 PM, Peadar said:

I have just started New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Neat book, but I found it becoming really, really heavy-handed with a political message in the end (not that I don't agree with that position, but I don't think it was elegantly presented). In a similar vein, I found it a little too on the nose that all the characters kept referring to events from the turn of the millennium that they knew in detail from memory. Isn't a century and a half supposed to have passed? It'd be like two people in contemporary conversation illustrating their points with examples from the lead-up to the Franco-German war. I get that the author wants to draw long lines from the present to his imagined future, and that it's easier to draw on knowledge (both the author's and the reader's) of present events than making up plausible future ones, but it kind of gets in the way of immersion for me.

Again, though, a neat book. Wouldn't mind reading it again some day.

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Winding Stair by Douglas C. Jones. Interesting and entertaining Western novel that takes place in 1890s Ft Smith, Arkansas and the Indian Territories. I've read comparisons to True Grit and there are similarities, namely setting and ever, ever so slightly, plot. Classic western mixed with legal thriller(Judge Isaac Parker, the Hanging Judge plays a role).

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Finally got around to Bank's Culture books.  Read Consider Phlebas and Player of Games this week, couple chapters in to Use of Weapons, loving it and can't wait to read more but going to take a break after this one to read some other stuff in the TBR pile.  Next up are The Fifth Season, Jemison, and Dead Boys by Gabriel Squalia.

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I read Josiah Bancroft's The Hod King. The book is structured differently to the previous two Babel books, most of it is split into three sections showing the same events from three different perspectives (Senlin, Voletta and Edith). The pacing did feel a bit slow at the start, and I think Senlin's part of the story is (at least initially) the least interesting of the three. However, I thought the story did get more compelling as it went along and the last 100 pages are as good as anything in the series so far. It does a good job of building up plotlines so that things which initially seem like minor details turn out to be significant plot points. I do like the eccentricity of the setting and it's interesting to see some new parts of the Tower of Babel, although there are occasional bits where it feels like it's getting a bit too silly. It is also nice to finally meet again a character who has been the focus of much of the plot despite not appearing in the series since the first chapter, although I think it could have been more interesting if there had been some chapters told from her perspective.

I've now started Ian Esslemont's Kellanved's Reach. So far most of the characteristic elements of the Malazan series are present with its usual cast of superhumanly good swordsmen, enigmatic mages and the occasional character trying to pretend they're not actually an Elder God.

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I think I spent about 5 or 6 weeks reading A Veil of Spears by Bradley Beaulieu which is a long time for me. I didn't dislike it but I've had other stuff to do and it didn't really hold my attention.

At the moment I'm reading Miles Cameron's Dark Forge which I'll hopefully get through a bit quicker.

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So far this year I've finished:

The Witcher: Blood of Elves - picked this up in anticipation for the Netflix show, book was ok but decided to hold off on reading more of The Witcher books

The Long Price Quartet - enjoyed these four very much, will likely try The Dagger and the Coin series in the future

 

Currently reading Dune, never read it so figured I'd give it a go. 140 pages in and I'm liking it.

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I finished Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe on Monday, this was an omnibus of the first two volumes of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy.  I thought The Shadow of the Torturer was very interesting even though I didn't like the first-person point-of-view narration, but I was looking forward to The Claw of the Conciliator.  Unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the second story for numerous reasons, but the nonsensical play that took up an entire chapter just to set up something in the next short chapter didn't sit well.

I've started reading the last book in Zecharia Sitchin's ancient astronaut series, The End of Days.

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54 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I'll say something about Dagger and Coin that echoes my thoughts on Long Price:

Abraham, in my opinion, gets better as he goes along.  Very much so with Long Price where each book was easily better than the one before it.  

Not quite as pronounced with Dagger and Coin, but I did feel like book 1 was easily the weakest and then it kicks up a notch and becomes a fine series.  My recommendation would be that if you don't love D&C after book 1 you should wade into book 2 a bit and then decide where you're at.  

Oh interesting. I love LPQ but put down D&C after just a couple of chapter because I wasn’t getting into it. Maybe I’ll pick it back up. 

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I loved Dagger and Coin from the beginning but the series definitely improves with each subsequent book. I assume it was pretty comprehensively planned out at the start becausevit doesn’t lose focus or anything mid-series. 

I much prefer it the LPQ which I haven’t finished yet. I don’t find long price nearly as interesting and the characters aren’t as good, imo. Not that it’s a bad series though, it just doesn’t quite click with me

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17 hours ago, Triskele said:

I'll say something about Dagger and Coin that echoes my thoughts on Long Price:

Abraham, in my opinion, gets better as he goes along.  Very much so with Long Price where each book was easily better than the one before it.  

Not quite as pronounced with Dagger and Coin, but I did feel like book 1 was easily the weakest and then it kicks up a notch and becomes a fine series.  My recommendation would be that if you don't love D&C after book 1 you should wade into book 2 a bit and then decide where you're at.  

I agree, I was disappointed in The Dragon's Path after I had really enjoyed the Long Price books, I felt it took a long time for the plot to really get interesting. The rest of the series was much better.

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On 2/25/2019 at 8:22 AM, larrytheimp said:

Finally got around to Bank's Culture books.  Read Consider Phlebas and Player of Games this week, couple chapters in to Use of Weapons, loving it and can't wait to read more but going to take a break after this one to read some other stuff in the TBR pile.  Next up are The Fifth Season, Jemison, and Dead Boys by Gabriel Squalia.

Welcome to the Banks fan club. I am glad you are enjoying them. 

I just finished The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dik. I thought I had read it in the 70's when I was reading all kinds of stuff by Dick, and I sorta remember bits and pieces but I really don't think this was his best work. Next up is more Dick as I am reading Ubik. Again, i think I read it before in the 70's. We'll see.

Larry, Use of Weapons is a fantastic book, and was my introduction to Banks. Tip of the hat to you.  (That's a joke. You'll understand when you are farther along.)

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21 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I loved Dagger and Coin from the beginning but the series definitely improves with each subsequent book. I assume it was pretty comprehensively planned out at the start becausevit doesn’t lose focus or anything mid-series. 

I much prefer it the LPQ which I haven’t finished yet. I don’t find long price nearly as interesting and the characters aren’t as good, imo. Not that it’s a bad series though, it just doesn’t quite click with me

Really?  I adored LPQ.  Something about it really touched my heart AND mind.  D&C, while having very interesting characters, didn't arouse the same emotions in me.

 

Spent two weeks cruising the Caribbean, so I got in some reading time.  Finally jumped on the bandwagon and read "Educated," the best-seller that's burning up the book lists (by Tara Westover.)  Must say I greatly enjoyed it.  She's led quite a fascinating life so far.  It'll be interesting to see if she can follow it up with anything. 

Read "THE FALL OF GONDOLIN" also, which I adored.  It was really intriguing to see how hard Christopher Tolkien worked to bring some of these bits and pieces of stories his father had written into a cohesive whole.  I don't know if he gets enough credit.

Also read one of the later books from the "Sword of Shannara" series by Terry Brooks.  It was mildly interesting. 

 

 

 

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On 3/1/2019 at 12:03 AM, Triskele said:

I'll say something about Dagger and Coin that echoes my thoughts on Long Price:

Abraham, in my opinion, gets better as he goes along.  Very much so with Long Price where each book was easily better than the one before it.  

Not quite as pronounced with Dagger and Coin, but I did feel like book 1 was easily the weakest and then it kicks up a notch and becomes a fine series.  My recommendation would be that if you don't love D&C after book 1 you should wade into book 2 a bit and then decide where you're at.  

Thanks for the advice, when I get to that book I'll definitely keep that in mind and push through to book 2

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On 3/1/2019 at 10:54 PM, williamjm said:

I agree, I was disappointed in The Dragon's Path after I had really enjoyed the Long Price books, I felt it took a long time for the plot to really get interesting. The rest of the series was much better.

I recall dagger and coin and the expanse books initially following a pattern where they alternated in being the better series by Abraham. Expanse 1 better than D&C 1, D&C 2 better than expanse 2, expanse 3 better than D&C 3, D&C 4 definitely better than expanse 4. Then they were equally fun. D&C certainly engaged me more on an emotional level but the expanse has some great action and scope. Not sure if it's the genre or ty franck influence that results in the differences. I'm hoping we get more solo abrahams fantasy in the future though.

 

On 3/1/2019 at 5:59 AM, Triskele said:

It majorly picks up in my opinion somewhere in the 2nd book.  I feel sort of compelled to recruit @RedEyedGhost on this topic.  

Book 3 and book 4 take the series from being decent with a unique magic system to being a top tier fantasy series. 3 and 4 takes the intrguing concept and leaves you thinking "shit, that's where this story was going". Following the central characters over decades works excellently and makes fir an emotional finale.

Dagger and coin hits its stride much sooner and resolves/escalates conflicts in surprising ways. I just didn't think the races of engineered humans were as cool as the poets/andat. 

Usually if a fantasy series ends in a satisfying way i'd rather the author doesn't risk it with a follow up but the concept of the poets/andat is one where i'd love to see them in a more technological future in which new "spirits of " can be enslaved eg electricity, magnetism, gravity, genetics etc

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I don't post here much but often read these threads for book recommendations, so thought I'd share my reads as well. I read pretty much only great and excellent SciFi-Fantasy nowadays, thanks to you guys!

So far this year I've read 

The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey which I thought was okay. Liked the beginning but lost interest when the story changed focus. The ending was mildly interesting, though.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. Got this one in translation as a Christmas gift. Thought both the book and the translation was excellent. It has a warmth and humanity about it that made it a joy to read.

The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore by Ursula Le Guin, also in translation. I adore Le Guin, and these were no exception. The translation was also absolutely wonderful. Possibly the best translation I've ever read.

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. I bought this one on impulse and it was a bit of a let down. The whole book is told as a set of interviews by a behind-the-scenes-manipulator sort of character. The author didn't really pull it off though, and it mostly resulted in a lot of telling, not showing. 

And most recently finished Pride and Prejudice. Haven't read Jane Austen before, but I will again. The language was a bit of a challenge at first, but I loved it once I got used to it.

Now onto All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, I think.

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Well it definitely took me a lot less time to read Dark Forge. I thought Cameron was going for more low key, low magic series with the first book, that's not really the case with Dark Forge though, which is a bit closer to his Red Knight books in style. Still, I really enjoyed it.

Next up I think I'll read one of the books in the new releases thread which seem to be receiving positive reviews. I've bought both The Ruin of Kings and The Priory of the Orange Tree, I'm leaning towards The Ruin of Kings.

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In late 2016 I started keeping track of the books I read and I don’t know how I never really peeked into this thread but seems like a good place to gather recs, so I’ll share some of my opinions as well.  I tried goodreads and don’t really like it.  I like my little google sheets spreadsheet better (nerd alert).  

Lately I’ve also been doing a bit of a round up of classic SF/F and sprinkling it heavily into my rotations so I’m sure most of these will have been read by many here.  Anyway, so far this year I’ve read:

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein.  I had forgotten that I actually HAD read this before and realized it about 5 pages in but decided to keep going becuase I couldn’t remember what actually happens.  Honestly, I didn’t really care for tgis book.  Didn’t like the slang that the entire book was written in and found the plot a little tedious.  Kind of had to force myself to finish it.

2. Small Gods - Terry Pratchett.  My first foray into Discworld.  Really liked this one.

3. Aethelstan - Tom Holland.  I have read most of Holland’s books, this one was part  of a series of short books on English Kings which I didn’t realize when I ordered it.  I thought it was going to be a little broader in scope for some reason.  Ok read.  Not particularly memorable.  

4. Shogun - James Clavell.  In the last few years I have found myself avoiding 1000+ page books like this one.  It’s just such a big time investment and I always feel obligated to finish the damn thing which can turn into a helluva slog if you aren’t clicking with a certain novel.  I think this book was probably longer than it needed to be, but I liked it a lot and it didn’t take too long to get going either.  The setting of fuedal Japan was unique and outside of the realm of things I normally read about.  So in addition to being a good adventure story, I absorbed a lot about Japanese culture and that was really good.  Found myself looking up all kinds of shit on Wikipedia as I read Shogun.  I don’t know if I would go out of my way to rec. this book to anyone and everyone, but I personally enjoyed the experience of reading it.  And since it was like 1100+ pages, thank God I did.

5. Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke.  My first Clarke novel, enjoyed it and will read another.  I gather this is part of a sort of a series about these mysterious Raman vessels but I doubt I’ll pursue all the Rama books immediately.  Gonna check out some of his other works and maybe circle back if I’m still feelin it.  Enjoyed it though.  

6. The Color of Magic - Pratchett.  Since I liked Small Gods I decided to tackle Pratchett from the beginning.  I havent actually finished this one yet, probably about 50 pages to go.  So far I don’t think it’s on the level of Small Gods, but I recognize this is the first one and I’m still enjoying it.  It’s certainly not giving me any reason not to read another Discworld novel.

 

Next up - gonna work through some stuff I’ve already got in stock at the house.  Likely to be Hammer of God by Clarke or Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror.  The latter is a brick of a tome but I’ve been meaning to read it forever so I might just do it and I like to read a history book every 2 or 3 novels.  

 

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