Second Quarter 2021 Reading

[Starkess]

Okay, I gave up on Black Leopard Red Wolf at the 25% mark. I just didn't care enough to stomach another 18 damn hours of that audiobook.

Now I'm giving The Midnight Library by Matt Haig a shot.

[polishgenius]

Quite aside from the issues you evidently had with the graphicness and with the meandering, I feel like BLRW is a particularly tough choice for an audiobook coz there's so much narrative deception going on with the unreliable narrator. Seems like a book that really lends itself to being able to pause, assimilate, tick back a sec for a second look.

[Zorral]

It works quite nicely in a round table, real life reading, whether in 'real' space, or via zoom.  The readers take turns, and people stop and discuss parts and pieces.  Quite like when doing a read aloud event of Joyce's Ulysses or something like that.

But by oneself in a room, not so much.  I don't care for it that much just to read it on the printed page either.  It really does seem to work much better in situations that are more like story-telling in an oral culture.

 

[TazerFace!]

On 5/21/2021 at 2:13 PM, Starkess said:

Okay, I gave up on Black Leopard Red Wolf at the 25% mark. I just didn't care enough to stomach another 18 damn hours of that audiobook.

Now I'm giving The Midnight Library by Matt Haig a shot.

Tazerface bounced off Black Leopard Red Wolf hard. It was just unpleasant, and way too dense. And I read Gene Wolfe.

[Wilbur]

I knocked out Stephen Fry's Mythos this weekend, and I would just repeat my comments for his work Heroes.  His choice of versions is good, he uses a light touch on the references to current events, and as a reader he is not nearly as over-the-top as I was afraid he might be.  This was an enjoyable experience all the way around, and it gives me a greater appreciation for Stephen Fry.

[Starkess]

On 5/21/2021 at 1:41 PM, polishgenius said:

Quite aside from the issues you evidently had with the graphicness and with the meandering, I feel like BLRW is a particularly tough choice for an audiobook coz there's so much narrative deception going on with the unreliable narrator. Seems like a book that really lends itself to being able to pause, assimilate, tick back a sec for a second look.

True, and probably exacerbated by the strong African accent of the narrator combined with a lot of unfamiliar words which contributed a lot to my confusion!

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

@Ser Scot A Ellison,

Check out Robert E. Lee and Me. I'm only 30 pages in, but I think you might really like it.

[ljkeane]

I finished Matthew Ward's Legacy of Ash. It was a bit of a strange one. I quite liked it but it wasn't really holding my attention and it was fairly long so it's taken me about 3 weeks to read it.

Next up I'm reading Mark Lawrence's The Girl and the Stars.

[shortstark]

On 5/20/2021 at 6:43 PM, Leofric said:

Finished The Fall of Koli, the final book in the Rampart Trilogy by MR Carey.  An outstanding climax to a wonderful journey through a dystopian Ingland.   Liked both the PoVs carried over from the second book and their separate stories, Koli, with Cup, Ursula, and Monono, dealing with what they find at the end of their search for the Sword of Albion and Spinner dealing with the aftermath of battle with the Half Ax and the impact on everyone in Mythen Rood.  The addition of a third PoV was great, not entirely unexpected, but had some surprising insights.   

Thanks for bringing this this book to my attention, I got through the trilogy in a week or so and thoroughly enjoyed it, the third book had some section that dragged but overall it was a triumph, gonna check out M R Carey other stuff now.

[dog-days]

Finished The Assassins of Thasalon, the new Pen and Desdemona book from Lois McMaster Bujold. It was very readable, though not in the same league as The Orphans of Raspay or The Physician of Vilnoc. A little slow with minimal sense of hazard. That said, I did enjoy

Spoiler

the appearance of the revenant Methani, 

and the fisherman saint. 

I've also finished listening to the Temeraire series in the German Audible editions. I feel guilty using Audible so much because of its dodgy business practices, but no other service seems able to match it. : (  I never felt passionately involved in the series - I never had the equivalent of that "stay up all night to find out what happens next" feeling. Partly because with a few small deviations (well, quite big ones sometimes e.g. the independent and powerful empire of the Incas), I broadly knew what would happen. But the audiobooks were relaxing to have on while I was walking/cleaning the bathroom/cooking dinner etc. I admired the care Novik took to suggest the style of literature of the era - Jane Austen with dragons - even if I felt that Novik herself was feeling confined by the style as the series drew to a close. 

It's almost as if Temeraire is her huge sprawling prentice work, while the really good stuff is what she's been producing over the last few years: Uprooted, Spinning Silver, Deadly Education. 

[Rorshach]

Someone in a game I play reccomended I read Ian Irvine. So I' have been reading A Shadow On The Glass. Wasn't expensive, so I thought I'd see.

Don't. 

It's bad.

[Derfel Cadarn]

39 minutes ago, Rorshach said:

Someone in a game I play reccomended I read Ian Irvine. So I' have been reading A Shadow On The Glass. Wasn't expensive, so I thought I'd see.

Don't. 

It's bad.

Struggled through the four books; never bothered with the sequel series’

[Starkess]

@dog-days, I felt similarly about the Temeraire series. It was good enough to read the whole thing, eventually, but I never felt super gripped by it and was left wishing it had been just a little more than it was. Her standalone works are definitely much better!

[dog-days]

30 minutes ago, Starkess said:

@dog-days, I felt similarly about the Temeraire series. It was good enough to read the whole thing, eventually, but I never felt super gripped by it and was left wishing it had been just a little more than it was. Her standalone works are definitely much better!

Yes - I mean, there are definitely things I liked about the series, or I wouldn't have kept listening all the way through. Iskierka was reliably entertaining, and I wish there was a Temeraire meme in circulation - just Temeraire reacting to humans being dumb and unethical with puzzled incomprehension. 

I only started reading Novik this year, but I feel that I've 'discovered' her at a really good time as she's hitting her stride. 

[williamjm]

7 hours ago, Rorshach said:

Someone in a game I play reccomended I read Ian Irvine. So I' have been reading A Shadow On The Glass. Wasn't expensive, so I thought I'd see.

Don't. 

It's bad.

I did read that about the time it was released but was never tempted to read more. I seem to remember most of the characters being annoying.

[mix_masta_micah]

Damn I've had rough go it here with recent releases. I pre ordered both the Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Beuhlman and Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne but both ended up being DNFs. I like Beuhlman a ton from his previous work but this new novel sounded amazing. However it is very slapstick which isn't what I wad expecting and the main character is gratingly annoying. As for Gwynne, ive decided im just not a fan, no matter how hard i try. 

[Rorshach]

12 hours ago, williamjm said:

I did read that about the time it was released but was never tempted to read more. I seem to remember most of the characters being annoying.

Well, they are. And his writing style. And just about anything. I've yet to find something I like about it.

[Peadar]

I'm very much enjoying The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen -- a pen name for Nick Harkaway, which is a pen name for... Never mind. A fun book for people who like reading about psychopaths exacting over-the-top revenge.

[polishgenius]

Nick Harkaway has a book I didn't know about? Ooooh.

 

edit: in fact he has two, since The Price You Pay already has a sequel

[williamjm]

On 5/28/2021 at 9:18 AM, dog-days said:

Finished The Assassins of Thasalon, the new Pen and Desdemona book from Lois McMaster Bujold. It was very readable, though not in the same league as The Orphans of Raspay or The Physician of Vilnoc. A little slow with minimal sense of hazard. That said, I did enjoy

  Reveal hidden contents

the appearance of the revenant Methani, 

and the fisherman saint.

I also finished this today. It's always good to have a new Bujold story, particularly the first novel in a few years. I liked it, although after having read so many Bujold stories some of the plot developments did feel a little bit familiar. Despite that there were occasional surprises as well.

I did also like the subversion of expectations where the story spends the first half building up Methani as the main antagonist but as soon as Penric and company arrive in Thessalon they find out he's been murdered.

One of her strengths has always been the characters and I thought Iroxi was a good addition to the cast of returning characters from the previous stories. It's perhaps not my favourite out of the Penric and Desdemona stories but still good.

Now I've started S.A. Chakraborty's final book in her Daevabad trilogy, The Empire of Gold.