First Quarter 2021 Reading

[Wilbur]

This morning I finished off Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles.  The audiobook reader was very good, and technically the writing was fine, but I cannot recommend it.

Her POV character is Patroclus, and she portrays him as a reticent, slightly dim, feminine character whose only real desire in life is to be Achilles' lover.  She also retells the story to make him younger rather than older that Achilles, and subservient to Achilles in every way. Yet she also suddenly has him take strong action to betray Achilles to Menelaus when he has seized Briseis.  Finally, she has Patroclus continue to tell the tale of the arrival of Pyrrhus and the fall of Troy even after his death. 

Finally, her story is told with a minimum of world-building.  The actions and daily life of people in Golden Age Greece and Anatolia was not similar to that of the citizens of Riverside, California, yet the story has almost none of the "furniture" to show us that ancient world.

For all of these reasons I found the story, the retelling of the tale itself, to be disappointing, less good even than Conn Iggulden's efforts with ancient or historical Greek work.  Not even close to the Mary Renault standard.

[TheLastWolf]

17 hours ago, Peadar said:

Sounds pretty great, thanks.

Cool 

Plus I forgot other good Indian origin English authors. VS Naipaul, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Chandra etc 

And a small warning. The language used in the book to depict conversations between characters is heavily researched to be as original as possible to the pidgin slangs, anglicized languages of the Indian Ocean, Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Malay, Arakanese, Rakhine desh etc. Apart from Arabic, Urdu, African languages and usual French stuff. Will be a little difficult, but since iam a linguist of sorts, I was able to follow 3 of the languages. Especially since I know only the abuses by heart 

[Wilbur]

16 hours ago, Wilbur said:

This morning I finished off Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles.  The audiobook reader was very good, and technically the writing was fine, but I cannot recommend it.

Her POV character is Patroclus, and she portrays him as a reticent, slightly dim, feminine character whose only real desire in life is to be Achilles' lover.  She also retells the story to make him younger rather than older that Achilles, and subservient to Achilles in every way. Yet she also suddenly has him take strong action to betray Achilles to Menelaus when he has seized Briseis.  Finally, she has Patroclus continue to tell the tale of the arrival of Pyrrhus and the fall of Troy even after his death. 

Finally, her story is told with a minimum of world-building.  The actions and daily life of people in Golden Age Greece and Anatolia was not similar to that of the citizens of Riverside, California, yet the story has almost none of the "furniture" to show us that ancient world.

For all of these reasons I found the story, the retelling of the tale itself, to be disappointing, less good even than Conn Iggulden's efforts with ancient or historical Greek work.  Not even close to the Mary Renault standard.

As a follow up note, I had planned to load Circe by Madeline Miller onto my hiking/biking iPod for my next group of audiobooks, but I was wary after the disappointment with The Song of Achilles.  The story of Circe is not exactly a ripping yarn to begin with, so as an audiobook it really needs to hold my attention in some manner - I don't want to spend 16 hours listening to a story that doesn't captivate / educate / stimulate.

So I randomly pulled up chapter nine and gave it a brief preview listen.  Again, the fifteen minutes I heard while cleaning up the breakfast dishes and setting out my gear for the day could have described the morning routine of a housewife in Ames, Iowa - nothing in it contained the "furniture" of ancient Greece.  I don't usually pile onto an author, but be aware that if you read Madeline Miller's work set in mythological or ancient Greece, it won't be particularly mythological or ancient.

If you DO want that setting and to be immersed in that world, the classic answer is Mary Renault - just ask John F. Kennedy.  Mary Renault's stories of ancient Greeks and Alexander are FANTASTIC as middle-brow literary output and as captivating stories.

Or maybe you want a manly-man version of heroic Greek tales - then try the currently-active writer that will give you the ancient world, Christian Cameron - both his Tyrant series and The Long War series are fine reads, and much more to my taste than Madeline Miller.

[End rant]

[Zorral]

On 2/11/2021 at 9:12 AM, TheLastWolf said:

Anyone finished Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy? 

Best Indian author after Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie. 

Sea of Poppies was the best 

River of Smoke okayish 

Flood of Fire fantastic 

Opium trade. Slavery. Eng vs China wars and British India's role. Sea battles. Love. Redemption. Addiction. Octoroon mullato ambitious sailors and French botanists, pirates and opium traders, peasants and outlaws. 

The series delighted me for many reasons.

No novel has come along to appeal to me to read in months, other than The Searcher, which was way back already.  

So Imma gonna take the plunge -- try and read Alex Ross's Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music.  It wagnerian in scope.  Two of the many sites that reviewed it back last fall:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/if-ever-there-was-a-moment-for-richard-wagner-it-is-2020/2020/11/03/0ecd5664-1d23-11eb-ba21-f2f001f0554b_story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/06/wagnerism-art-and-politics-in-the-shadow-of-music-by-alex-ross-review

Nominated for awards, of course.  Plus, you know Alex Ross, so he's automatically at the top for consideration in the categories for which the book qualifies. 

https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/alex-ross

 

[Peadar]

Next up, Colleen McCullough's The First Man in Rome. 

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Peadar said:

Next up, Colleen McCullough's The First Man in Rome. 

I am not qualified to ascertain how historically correct her series is, but she sure did immerse herself in the material and got constant advice and criticism from the scholars.  The series is wonderfully immersive.  It will get you reading satisfaction throughout this long, locked down winter, and depending on where you live, winter has a long time yet to run.

[Astromech]

Finished Pekka Hamalainen's Comanche Empire. Excellent revisionist history of the Comanches and the American Southern Plains. I'll be looking for his new work, Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power.

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Mr Gordo said:

[rant]
 

 Conn Iggulden makes Disney’s Hercules look like a goddam documentary.

[end rant]

 

[Vaughn]

On 2/9/2021 at 6:44 AM, Teng Ai Hui said:

 

Just started a reread of City of Stairs.  From there, the plan is to read City of Blades and City of Miracles, which I haven't read yet.

Just checked these out of the library. So far I like City of Stairs better than the Founders series (which I liked to start but petered out after a bit) - does this series hold up through the end?

[Lord Patrek]

Just finished L. E. Modesitt, jr.'s Fairhaven Rising, the latest addition to the Recluce saga.

Like the last three Recluce installments, this one is filled with filler material and it's obvious that there wasn't enough material to warrant a full novel. Here's to hoping that whatever comes next will be a return to the standards established by many of the previous standalone titles and two-book sequences.

Full review here if anyone is interested.

[Plessiez]

6 hours ago, Vaughn said:

Just checked these out of the library. So far I like City of Stairs better than the Founders series (which I liked to start but petered out after a bit) - does this series hold up through the end?

City of Blades is really good, I think; probably the strongest part of the trilogy.  City of Miracles I liked a bit less than either of the first two books, but I think the series as a whole is pretty consistent in quality.

[mushroomshirt]

I just finished S.A. Chakraborty's Empire of Gold.  Loved it!  I enjoyed City of Brass, wasn't so hot about Kingdom of Copper, but wow was it worth it o get to Empire of Gold.

While the first book was interesting with it's new settings, it was the twists near the end that I didn't see coming that I really enjoyed.  I thought the second book was much more predictable.

But the third book, wow. It is an expected fantasy trope that the hero / heroine becomes king of everything at the end.  The secret orphan who is actually heir to a ten thousand year old legacy and all that.  I expected this to be the same thing, replace the bad king with a good queen.

Anyway I was very happy to have my expectations subverted.  What an incredible trilogy, taken as a whole.  I can't wait to read what Chakraborty does next.  I am severely fanboying out here.

[williamjm]

9 hours ago, Vaughn said:

Just checked these out of the library. So far I like City of Stairs better than the Founders series (which I liked to start but petered out after a bit) - does this series hold up through the end?

The different point-of-views for the three books do make them feel a bit different to each other so I wouldn't be surprised if there is some variation in opinion but I liked all three of them, possibly the third is slightly weaker than the first two.

[Zorral]

On 2/13/2021 at 11:11 PM, Mr Gordo said:

I also quite enjoyed Song of Achilles. Not sure how much detail you were expecting about imaginary people from a time we know nothing about but it certainly didn't strike me as anything like Iggulden who might as well have Ceaser and Jesus fighting off Mongols with AK-47s.

Here's another novel in the vein of reframing Homer's Trojan War -- though you may well be aware of it already: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes; 2019 pub in the UK, more recently in the US.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/23/a-thousand-ships-natalie-haynes-review

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-thousand-ships-book-review/2021/02/08/4885ae7c-60d2-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html

 

[Vaughn]

On 2/9/2021 at 6:44 AM, Teng Ai Hui said:

Just started a reread of City of Stairs.  From there, the plan is to read City of Blades and City of Miracles, which I haven't read yet.

I enjoyed City of Stairs a lot, on to Blades.

Bennett really has put out some decent books in a short time frame. I guess when it flows, it flows for some people.

[aceluby]

Finished up the extended version of The Stand last night.  Can see why it's so highly regarded.  The first half of the book talking about the virus and the characters was engrossing.  Definitely goes a bit downhill once it gets into the God vs Devil stuff, but it was still good given all the ties to The Dark Tower.  Next is finishing Shogun.

[Zorral]

Ha! Scored A song For The Dark Times from the library today, Ian Rankin's 2020 Rebus novel.  Guess the geezer retired cop is still bangin'.    Don't know if this one will be good or not -- the series is particularly even. But I always like the milieu, and Rebus himself, well, have gotten used to him being around, so to speak.  So it will be comfort reading no matter what, perfect for what are these endless dark winter days.  Though! Maybe in honor of Mardi Gras? Unlike so much of the country, we are having beautiful day, sunny and blue and for the first time in days above freezing. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 hours ago, aceluby said:

Finished up the extended version of The Stand last night.  Can see why it's so highly regarded.  The first half of the book talking about the virus and the characters was engrossing.  Definitely goes a bit downhill once it gets into the God vs Devil stuff, but it was still good given all the ties to The Dark Tower.  Next is finishing Shogun.

I have been debating if I should order this for a bit now, but my queue is rather large so I figured I'll get to it whenever. 

I'm about halfway through Watchmen. It continues to blow me away. I never would have guessed.

[ljkeane]

The Land Beyond the Sea was really good. It's a bit of a slow burn and it's got a bit of a melancholy feel given the subject and, for me anyway, since it was Penman's last book. It's definitely worth a read if you've liked her other books.

Next up I'm a bit late to the party but I'm going to try Hugh Howey's Wool.

[Inkdaub]

Took a break from all the comics I've been reading to read a book that compiles a series of interviews with Mark Frost. 

Conversations with Mark Frost by David Bushman.

4 hours ago, ljkeane said:

Hugh Howey's Wool

I really liked this one.