First Quarter 2021 Reading

[ljkeane]

The Return was reasonable. I'll probably give another one of Harry Sidebottom's books a go. Oddly the last historical fiction book I read was about the Achaean League and I didn't realise it beforehand but this book features the Achaean War from the Roman perspective.

Next up I'm going to read Alix E. Harrow's The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

[Peadar]

S.J. Morden's Gallowglass was enjoyable. I'd recommend it to lovers of The Martian and to anybody who likes stories of the type where a clever young person uses science and logic to survive. If you're interested, S.J. Morden has two other good books in that subgenre: One Way and its sequel, No Way.

[The Marquis de Leech]

After seven months' effort, I can finally report that I have finished The City of God, by Saint Augustine. The edition in question was a two-volume translation; I finished the first volume in September, and the second tonight.

It's one of those books that feels less like literature and more like a Himalayan Peak, which seeing as the book helped define the Middle Ages is only appropriate.

It also wasn't quite what I was expecting. I went in expecting a synthesis of Neoplatonism and the Bible. In actuality, the thing starts off with a prolonged argument about the evils of Roman Paganism, before coming to the genuinely interesting middle section, where Augustine has a go at Neoplatonic theurgy (he takes the existence of non-human spirits as a given). The second volume starts with his interpretation of Original Sin, and the consequences thereof, before running through his analysis of Biblical History. He ends with a detailed consideration of the Last Judgement. But that rather ignores the glorious weird and wonderful side-tangents. At one point, he informs us that diamonds can be dissolved in goats blood.

There is Neoplatonism in there, of course, but it's implicit (except when he's arguing against Porphyry, for whom he actually has plenty of respect). The text itself is as dry as Aristotle, but Augustine lacks Aristotle's analytic pedantry. He's at heart a very, very intelligent polemicist.  

[Zorral]

On 1/3/2021 at 10:38 PM, Starkess said:

ast of Eden is so good. I usually list it as one of my favorites, although I haven't read it in a decade and have only a vague memory of it at this point.

I agree, so have re-read this book several times. The film with James Dean is also very good and I've re-watched it about 4 times. I think right now it's on amazon P?

[Peadar]

Reading The Last Greek by Christian Cameron. You pretty much know what you're getting with these...

[Plessiez]

Halfway through my planned January books so far.

After bouncing off it quite hard when I first started it in September, I was surprised by how much I ended up liking The Priory of the Orange Tree.  It's definitely not without its flaws: it's perhaps a bit too long, the ending is a bit of an anticlimax and the central protaganist is probably not as interesting as some of the other POV characters.  But I guess I'm willing to overlook a lot for a decently written epic fantasy novel that isn't part of a trilogy (or a multi-volume series with no end in sight...).  For all the book's length, the plot moves along at a fairly brisk pace once things get going, too.

Honestly most of Event Factory probably went well over my head: it's not something written to be easy to understand and it's not like anything I've read in a while.  I'm not even sure I know what it was about, other than the surface level reading of the narrator visiting a foreign city and being constantly rebuffed in their attempts to understand the "crisis" that the city may or may not be experiencing.   The whole thing is written in an almost stream-of-consciousness style and frequently skips over important subjects and events as the narrator insists that they don't merit further explanation. 

Spoiler

At one point the narrator encounters, and is baffled by, people who communicate by making sounds with their mouth, speaking "in gaps and air".  Does this mean that she and the other characters were actually communicating solely through gestures and signs all along?  Maybe?  At the time I assumed it did, but I don't know if that reading is supported by the rest of the text.

But ... well, I said I wanted to read something a bit more experimental than usual, and this certainly was that.

And finally I enjoyed Jade War a lot, though it's pretty bleak at times.  As in the previous volume of the series, there's a really well done tension between Hilo's self-image, as seen through his inner monologues in his POV chapters, and the objectively horrible things he actually does. 

Spoiler

I was becoming slightly irritated by Bero's apparant plot armour for a bit.  It made sense from a narrative perspective to keep him alive as a window on non-clan goings on, but it wasn't very credible that he kept surviving all these closes brushes with death.  But then I completely believed that he'd managed to get himself murdered halfway through the book, which at the time I thought was a pretty bold move.  Still not totally sure how I feel about him managing to survive against the odds yet again, but at least it's looking like he'll be more central to the story in the final volume.

Looking forward to Jade Legacy, which I think is meant to be out later this year.

[williamjm]

I finished S.A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass. I thought it was a good book, particularly for a debut novel. I think the world-building was a highlight, it's not the first fantasy story I've read to use an Arabian Nights-inspired setting but I thought it did manage to feel quite different to the typical epic fantasy novel. Early on it does feel like it could turn into a simple good-vs-evil story but once it gets to Daevabad it does get more complex since there are a number of different ethnic and religious factions among the djinn who live there and it isn't immediately clear what side some of the characters are on or what their motivations are. The two main characters were both likeable even if they can be a bit exasperating at times when they sometimes say or do things first and think about the consequences later. The ending of the book did bring in some twists and I'm sure I will pick up the other two books in the trilogy soon.

[Derfel Cadarn]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

I finished S.A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass. I thought it was a good book, particularly for a debut novel. I think the world-building was a highlight, it's not the first fantasy story I've read to use an Arabian Nights-inspired setting but I thought it did manage to feel quite different to the typical epic fantasy novel. Early on it does feel like it could turn into a simple good-vs-evil story but once it gets to Daevabad it does get more complex since there are a number of different ethnic and religious factions among the djinn who live there and it isn't immediately clear what side some of the characters are on or what their motivations are. The two main characters were both likeable even if they can be a bit exasperating at times when they sometimes say or do things first and think about the consequences later. The ending of the book did bring in some twists and I'm sure I will pick up the other two books in the trilogy soon.

Just started City of Brass, enjoying it so far.

 

[C.T. Phipps]

My Reading Plan So Far?

* Bones of the Past by Drew Hayes
* Dragon Mage by M.L. Spencer
* Nanoshock by K.C. Alexander
* Blackstone Heart by Michael R. Fletcher
* Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams

Just finished Bones of the Past, which is the sequel to Forging Hephaestus and I really enjoyed it. I love its kind of slice of life supervillain world.

 

[Jo498]

On 1/4/2021 at 8:47 AM, The Marquis de Leech said:

Finished off The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. I found the collection weaker than its predecessor, though The Final Problem is, of course, excellent. I've been ranking the stories as I go. So far seven of my top ten are from Adventures, while only three (The Final Problem, The Greek Interpreter, and The Musgrave Ritual) make it from Memoirs.

Aren't these collections secondary anyway? Until a few years ago when I reread two of the collections (I think, apparently I have only the "Adventures" on my kindle now) I had not even been aware that they had been published in that way. I had read all of them so long ago as a teenager or even younger (I think the first few at 11 or 12) in translation in all kinds of mixed or omnibus collection. The last few times I re-read a couple or a dozen (I think the last one was prompted by having watches the Brett movies almost 10 years ago and then getting a kindle reader a year later or so) of them, I usually find them rather inconsistent in quality. They are rarely less than entertaining but nevertheless some are quite cheesy or extremely implausible. I am usually not bothering anymore with the four novellas I loved as kid because I think they are all rather weak, except for Hound of the Baskervilles which in turn suffers a lot if one remembers the main plot twists (which I sometimes forget in less famous stories although I often remember them then during re-reading). But as I said, Holmes was among the first "adult" (in the innocuous sense) literature I read as a kid which will probably prevent me from a fair assessment. (I also already loved back then how in some cases Holmes solves them from "home office", just sending and getting a few messages and telegrams, otherwise just smoking, relaxing in a frayed dressing gown and thinking in his lair in Baker Street 221B.)

I finished another of Biggers' Charlie Chan Novels (CC carries on) and also liked this one although it is among the more implausible ones (needing a fairly elaborate construct to involve Chan at all) and a bit too long as well. For light entertainment without the typical depressive moods and topics of more recent mystery/crime novels they are still recommendable.

[ljkeane]

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is really good. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't already read it.

[Peadar]

It's been years since I tried a Peter F. Hamilton novel, but the good word on here lately has convinced me to give Salvation a go. Let's see...

[The Marquis de Leech]

2 hours ago, Leap said:

I also read The Merchant of Venice, which was interesting enough and struck me as one of the weirder Shakespeare plays I've read. 

As a comparison piece from the same era, try The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe. His Jewish protagonist does not have the depth and complexity of Shakespeare's Shylock, but Marlowe plays with the inherent anti-semitism by having the (Catholic) victims largely deserve it, after the manner of modern slasher films. Think of the protagonist as a non-magical Renaissance Freddy Krueger.

If you're after weirder Shakespeare plays, there's also Cymbeline. It's not very good, but it is weird. 

[Valandil]

Never seen much coverage of her on this board but was surprised to find last night that Katherine Kerr has a new deverry book out so promptly downloaded it and started it in the kindle. Very much enjoyed her stuff in my teens early twenties, although the last series, with Rhodri as dragon, didn’t blow me away. 
nice familiar feeling for dark and cold January nights. It’s called the silver sword. 

[ljkeane]

I just finished The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri which was quite good, although a little depressing to be a reading at the moment.

Next up I'm going to read The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso.  

[Winterfella]

Read Revival a few months ago.  I've read a lot of King, and this is up there among his best in my opinion.

[Inkdaub]

On 1/10/2021 at 1:31 PM, Peadar said:

It's been years since I tried a Peter F. Hamilton novel, but the good word on here lately has convinced me to give Salvation a go. Let's see...

I also just began Salvation after not reading Hamilton for a bit.  So far so good...I think I was in the mood for some sci-fi.

I was going to read Sanderson's Oathbringer but made a terrible mistake and read Edgedancer first.  I liked the first two Stormlight books  but didn't like Edgedancer at all.  I'll go back to Oathbringer at some point I'm sure.

[ljkeane]

The Obsidian Tower wasn't anything special but it was ok, readable enough.

Spoiler

I have to say though that considering Ryx's family have apparently been successfully guarding the gate to hell, or whatever it is, for 4000 years they're pretty shit at it.

Next up, sticking to the tower theme, I'm going to read Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower. I quite liked her sci fi books so hopefully this'll be good.

[Wilbur]

I am working through the Peter F. Hamilton Salvation series currently, and just finished up Salvation Lost.

In this second of the three books the plot and ideas are very interesting, but in a similar fashion to the first book, the characters seem flat to me.  The one set of characters with the most depth, and who I was most interested in, were drug-addicted gang members in London, and their story seemed to be an adjunct to the main thrust of the tale.

I think that Peter F. Hamilton has written some of the best SciFi of the current century, but so far these books don't have the spark for me of some of his earlier works.

[ljkeane]

17 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

The one set of characters with the most depth, and who I was most interested in, were drug-addicted gang members in London, and their story seemed to be an adjunct to the main thrust of the tale.

Really? I thought that was the worst part of the books. It goes to show how differently people can read the same books I suppose.