First Quarter 2019 Reading

[HexMachina]

@S John just in case you are unaware, The Colour of Magic actually has a direct sequel with The Light Fantastic, continuing the story of Rincewind, the Tourist and the Luggage. One of the few direct follow ins I think (as opposed to series within Discworld, Witches is still my favourite)

[Mexal]

I finished Colour of Magic a little while back and it was fun. I moved on to Guards! Guards! and loving it. Better written then Colour of Magic and I'm really looking forward to the Night Watch books.

Last night I finished The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft and it was excellent. Highly recommended for anyone who has enjoyed Senlin Ascends and Arm of the Sphinx. 

[S John]

On 2/25/2019 at 5:22 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.

I read Consider Phlebas last year and it was easily one of my favorite of the year.  Player of Games is definitely on my list to read, but I have so many fucking books I have not read sitting around the house that I'm really trying to reign in the book purchases until I've reduced my queue a bit.  I've made a deal with myself that I'm not allowed to buy Player of Games new or from Amazon.... but if I happen to stumble upon a copy at a used bookstore?  Well, that's just fate.  

26 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

@S John just in case you are unaware, The Colour of Magic actually has a direct sequel with The Light Fantastic, continuing the story of Rincewind, the Tourist and the Luggage. One of the few direct follow ins I think (as opposed to series within Discworld, Witches is still my favourite)

I was not aware, thanks for the tip!  Gonna make a note to look for that one next when I return to Discworld.  

[Mr. X]

3 hours ago, S John said:

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).  

4. Shogun - James Clavell.

Speaking of nerd alerts, I do Goodreads, but mainly I've got this text file I keep updated in Emacs. 

Shogun was one of those books I remember my dad reading when I was a kid, but just before I was old enough to read the same things he did. Never gone back and read, but your comments make me want to do so.

[Larry of the Lawn]

I love Shogun, have read it several times and I also listen to the audiobook a lot.  It's almost 50 hrs ircc (makes me feel like it's a great deal on audible)

3 hours ago, S John said:

I read Consider Phlebas last year and it was easily one of my favorite of the year.  Player of Games is definitely on my list to read, but I have so many fucking books I have not read sitting around the house that I'm really trying to reign in the book purchases until I've reduced my queue a bit.  I've made a deal with myself that I'm not allowed to buy Player of Games new or from Amazon.... but if I happen to stumble upon a copy at a used bookstore?  Well, that's just fate.  

 

Player of Games was great but I'm liking Use of Weapons even more.  

On 3/1/2019 at 7:04 PM, maarsen said:

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

<Snip>

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.)

Thanks!  And hahahahahaha,  nice!- I read that part yesterday!  

[Peadar]

I have just started The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson. A sort of Hunger Games with Dinosaurs. YA/MG. Looking forward to it.

[john]

18 hours ago, ljkeane said:

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.

I know I’m begging up Priory of the Orange Tree in the other thread (and I think it’s fantastic, although I’ve only read half) but yeah, I’d read Ruin of Kings first, it’s much pacier and generally from the thriller-like end of the fantasy spectrum. Priory is more traditional, 4 narrators, slow world building. Plus it’s like twice the length to start with.

Otoh, it might be a stand-alone, not sure yet since I haven’t finished but Shannon still has 4 books in her YA series The Bone Season to put out (I read the first one of those when it came out and wasn’t particularly impressed). Anyway, a stand-alone is always a bonus imo and Ruin of Kings seems like another long series.

[S John]

14 hours ago, Mr. X said:

Speaking of nerd alerts, I do Goodreads, but mainly I've got this text file I keep updated in Emacs. 

Shogun was one of those books I remember my dad reading when I was a kid, but just before I was old enough to read the same things he did. Never gone back and read, but your comments make me want to do so.

If you already have some interest, you should definitely go for it.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.  I blasted through it, despite its length.

One word of warning, it is loosely based on true events.  If you don't already know that story (I didn't) and were to google the real guy that it's based on - it would ruin some of the suspense of the book.  Immediately after I finished  Shogun I did a little research on the guy and it was very interesting but I'm glad I didn't look it up while I was reading b/c it would've spoiled one of the major plot points of the book. 

 

 

[Ormond]

6 hours ago, john said:

Otoh, it might be a stand-alone, not sure yet since I haven’t finished but Shannon still has 4 books in her YA series The Bone Season to put out (I read the first one of those when it came out and wasn’t particularly impressed). Anyway, a stand-alone is always a bonus imo and Ruin of Kings seems like another long series.

I haven't read any of it myself, but it doesn't seem to me that The Bone Season has usually been marketed or reviewed as being a "YA series" in the USA. 

[Darth Richard II]

10 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I haven't read any of it myself, but it doesn't seem to me that The Bone Season has usually been marketed or reviewed as being a "YA series" in the USA. 

Lots of stuff that isn't shelved or advertised as YA in any country gets labeled YA, and I've never been able to figure it out,

[john]

13 hours ago, Ormond said:

I haven't read any of it myself, but it doesn't seem to me that The Bone Season has usually been marketed or reviewed as being a "YA series" in the USA. 

Interesting. It’s definitely marketed as YA in the UK, it was the “next Harry Potter” by a wunderkind author and recent Oxford University graduate (I can’t think of another book in the fantasy genre in the last ten years that was so heavily marketed).

But I’d say it is in fact YA, it has a teen girl protagonist, a dangerous liaison with a stern young supernatural type man. And just generally teen angst abounds. That was the reason I didn’t really get on with it.

[Kyll.Ing.]

On 3/4/2019 at 11:17 PM, S John said:

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.

I found The Color of Magic to be a little strange, and really lacking in cohesion, so after reading it (and finding that its preface promised the rest of the series to be written like that too), I put it away and didn't feel like continuing. But then one day I saw The Light Fantastic on sale, decided to give it a try (hey, might as well find out what happens with Rincewind), and found it leaps and bounds better. I've bought one Discworld book per month since, there should be enough of them to sustain me for another two years.

So yeah, even though you like the first one, just rest assured the series will be even better later on.

[Jo498]

On 3/4/2019 at 11:17 PM, S John said:

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

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.

This was an unfortunate order. "Small Gods" is the best of the 15 or 16 Discworld novels I have read. (It is also together with "Paladin of Souls" the best treatment of religion in fantasy I have encountered.)

Whereas the first handful or so, especially the Color of Magic and The Light fantastic are rather different from the later "standard" (and many readers find them considerably weaker, a position I can understand but don't quite share). Some are rather episodic and/or heavily dependent on making fun of fantasy tropes. I still found them quite enjoyable and actually preferred the "raw" first two to Wyrd sisters and a few more somewhat early ones. For closure you should still probably read "Light fantastic" but then jump either to "Mort" or the first Guards novel ("Guards! Guards!")

 

I am almost through with Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris" (Hunchback of) I saw a movie or two of this one ages ago but never got around reading it. Except for one occasion where Hugo inserts a 20 page essay on cultural history and a few more lengthy passages it is quite good (rather grimdark at times as well).

[Astromech]

6 hours ago, Jo498 said:

This was an unfortunate order. "Small Gods" is the best of the 15 or 16 Discworld novels I have read. (It is also together with "Paladin of Souls" the best treatment of religion in fantasy I have encountered.)

Whereas the first handful or so, especially the Color of Magic and The Light fantastic are rather different from the later "standard" (and many readers find them considerably weaker, a position I can understand but don't quite share). Some are rather episodic and/or heavily dependent on making fun of fantasy tropes. I still found them quite enjoyable and actually preferred the "raw" first two to Wyrd sisters and a few more somewhat early ones. For closure you should still probably read "Light fantastic" but then jump either to "Mort" or the first Guards novel ("Guards! Guards!")

 

I am almost through with Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris" (Hunchback of) I saw a movie or two of this one ages ago but never got around reading it. Except for one occasion where Hugo inserts a 20 page essay on cultural history and a few more lengthy passages it is quite good (rather grimdark at times as well).

That chapter in which Hugo describes  medieval Paris is my favorite of the novel.

[Jo498]

I have usually no problem with colorful descriptions like in the very beginning with Gringoire's silly play being disturbed all the time etc. or the chatting women later (who "accidentally" reveal Esmeralda's backstory to the reader).

The chapter that I found too long was not an actual description  but really an essay about printed books replacing (usually sacred) buildings as memory of mankind (book 4, chpt. 2). It was an interesting thesis but the exposition simply too long for insertion in a novel.

[Iskaral Pust]

Shogun was a very enjoyable read.  I even reread it at some point a few years later.  It's up there with King Rat as Clavell's best work.  His Noble House series set in Hong Kong was a bit soapy, but the first, Taipan, was decent.  I could not get into any of the others.

Color Of Magic and Light Fantastic are two of the earliest and weakest in the Discworld.  Small Gods is one of the best, but a standalone.  I'd suggest next reading the Guards series (Guards, Guards, Men At Arms, Feet Of Clay, Jingo, Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, and then don't bother with Thud or Snuff) or else the Witches series (skip Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad and instead jump to Lords And Ladies, Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum) then experiment with some of the smaller side series like Death, Tiffany Aching, etc.

 

For my own reading, I finished John Dies At The End by David Wong, in which David Wong is the first-person POV narrator and character in a Lovecraftian horror story set in current day midwest America and told with a lot of dry humor.  It has some fun features with time loops, like The Final Days Of Jack Sparks.  I enjoyed the humor but the narrative was bit too jumbled and the main character wallows too much in his emo angst and self pity.  Enjoyable but could have been executed better.

Then I read Stiger's Tigers by Marc Edelheit, first in a fantasy series broadly based on Roman legions in a slightly magical setting: elves and dwarves exist but are extremely rare and not overtly magical.  I like this for the central narrative of a military commander organizing and leading troops in a military campaign, which I also enjoyed in the Sharpe and Hornblower series (somewhat in Aubrey/Maturin too, but much less focus there).  I plan to read further in this series, even if everything turns out a little too neatly for the central character.

[Rorshach]

11 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Color Of Magic and Light Fantastic are two of the earliest and weakest in the Discworld.  Small Gods is one of the best, but a standalone.  I'd suggest next reading the Guards series (Guards, Guards, Men At Arms, Feet Of Clay, Jingo, Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, and then don't bother with Thud or Snuff) or else the Witches series (skip Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad and instead jump to Lords And Ladies, Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum) then experiment with some of the smaller side series like Death, Tiffany Aching, etc.

I'd echo you but for Witches Abroad. Include that, but skip Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters.

[Kyll.Ing.]

Why is everyone recommending to skip Wyrd Sisters? It's my favourite of the Discworld books so far (I'm reading them in publishing order, and am currently three-quarters of the way through Jingo). It does have the problem of featuring certain characters that don't return later in the series, but it also nicely introduces many of those who do. 

I can see why you'd skip Equal Rites, as it has the above problem while also not introducing characters that well (Granny Weatherwax is the only one, but she is a little out-of-character if you compare her to later books), but Wyrd Sisters is definitely on my recommendations list.

[Jo498]

When I read (in some cases re-read after decades) early discworld (the first 8 without "Mort") I was somewhat positively surprised by the two very first ones despite their roughness and somewhat disappointed by Equal Rites, Sourcery and Wyrd Sisters (especially the last one, if one ist not well versed in Shakespeare). I guess I would still recommend reading them all in order, but give the early ones some slack, they are still funny and often pretty good. I did not re-read "Mort" (one the first ones I read a long time ago) but I remember this as very good.

And Guards! Guards! is certainly way above the general average discworld and probably among the top 10 or better. So it would also be a good place to start although then one is bound to be somewhat disappointed by others because it does not get much better.

[williamjm]

I finished Ian Esslemont's Kellanved's Reach. I enjoyed reading it, but at the same time it felt like it wasn't as good as it could have been. Some of Steven Erikson and Esslemont's previous Malazan novels have sometimes felt too long, but this one felt too short for the number of major events happening in it and it often felt a little bit rushed. Since this is a prequel to the main Malazan series and is focusing on some of the most significant events in the backstory of the series I did know a fair amount about how some of those events were going to turn out, but Esslemont does throw in some interesting additional details (such as Kellanved's relationship with the 'Army of Dust and Bone'). However, some of the climactic events in the book feel like they are resolved a bit too easily, particularly some of the battles in the latter half of the book. I feel that if Erikson had written this book rather than his fellow Malazan author then he might have made the more epic moments in the story more compelling, although it would probably have been twice the length and parts of the story may have been more difficult to follow. I think Esslemont's characterisation has improved since his earliest books and despite the number of characters being a bit excessive for a relatively short book they do generally get some good character development, and it is interesting to see the younger versions of many of the major characters of the wider Malazan series. Overall, it's a good addition to the Malazan series but I think falls some way short of the best books in the series, I thought Esslemont's first book in this prequel series was significantly better.

Next up I think I'm going to read Tim Powers' Alternate Routes.