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Third Quarter 2021 Reading


williamjm

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Trying a reread of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series,  which is, by his own admission, Roman Legoinnaires with Pokémon. Im up to the third of six books.

As with his Dresden Files, his writing can be really grating to me. Anachronistic dialogue and page long internal monologs abound. Seems like every third page, Butcher hammers it in to readers exactly how righteous his heroes are, though they are wracked with internal conflicts. It gets tiresome.

About 60% of each book seems to be action scenes, which he does have a knack for. Again, though, there are only so many swordfights,  fistfights,  and aerial battles to describe.

As with my first read through years ago, I find myself skimming entire swaths of many chapters. There are some good payoff moments, and rather like Sanderson, Butcher writes fun characters despite iffy presentation. 

I wanted a paint by numbers epic series written to completion, though, and here it is. Does the job for light summer reading.

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Dave Duncan's second book in The Seventh Sword series is The Coming of Wisdom.  After looking at the link, I realize that I have seen this book many times in bookstores over the years, but I was always put off by the ridiculous cover.

As a follow-up to the portal fantasy The Reluctant Swordsman, (also featuring a terrible 80s cover illustration), this second book expands upon the first quite nicely, giving the opportunity for the apprentice to the Seventh Swordsman to grow and mature, and giving the reader more insight into The World and its cultures and technology.

The book also comprises a mystery of sorts, although not one that most readers won't have figured out at least partially fairly early.  Moreover, the scene of the story is mostly set on board a river trading vessel, and the boat's characters and the challenges they face are also interesting, as are the various ports of call.  While the first book had a strong sense of claustrophobia and the need to escape the confines of the temple, this second book gives the characters a chance to breathe and explore, so the sense of freedom and discovery are refreshing.

While I found The Reluctant Swordsman to grow on me and that I enjoyed it more as the story progressed, The Coming of Wisdom was easy to like right from the beginning.  However, the ending is abrupt - the mystery is uncovered, but the protagonist(s) is(are) in danger, so the cliff-hanger ending points to yet a third book, The Destiny of the Sword, which I guess will be a part of my next month's reading.

Note: The Sword motif makes it easy to think that these books are sword-and-sandal slash-em-up violence-glorifying action yarns.  However, The World is a pre-literate bronze age environment where the inhabitants are classed by profession, and the sword acts more as a social signifier for the protagonist(s) than anything else.  There is some sword fighting, but the author also makes some interesting commentary on social mores, political processes, and economic systems made along the way.  This is a more intelligent and thoughtful book than the silly cover illustrations would suggest.

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I'm currently listening to 'The Magicians' by Lev Grossman. The language is quite thick, perhaps overworked but perhaps not and overall I do enjoy the language ... but, and hopefully it's a conscious choice, the main character's constant commenting about and lusting after the women in the book is obnoxious, gross and distracting.

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I finished The Ten Thousand Doors of January and I was...whelmed. I think in many ways it was just not a book for me, for personal taste. Others seem to love it, and I can see why, if you like flowery prose (I do not) and if you agree with the rather heavy-handed moralizing (I sorta do but also find it irritating).

I enjoyed The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey much more! Had no clues about this one (another library book), but it turned out to be a fun/depressing/amusing story about a post-climate-apocalypse world. The author has fun playing around with the concept of someone who doesn't even know how to read explaining genetics and such things. Looking forward to the sequel, which I have on hold.

Next up I am reading The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. I really enjoyed Sower so I am looking forward to seeing what this one does.

ETA: Oh, and I finished my re-read of Babylon's Ashes. I think this is a weak entry in the series. I found the focus of the book very offputting the first time through and not much better this time. 

Spoiler

I just can't get behind the idea that after the largest mass murder in history--literally BILLIONS of people and possibly all of humankind wiped out--the main concern would be making sure people didn't get too mad at the population that supported and sheltered the terrorists. You would think that one of Holden's parents using the word "skinnies" was worse than the rocks, it's a bizarre way to frame things. Also far too much time spent trying to redeem Filip. It's an uneven book for me.

BA is the last book I read of the Expanse, so I'm looking forward to reading books 7 and 8 prior to the release of the final book later this year.

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7 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

I'm currently listening to 'The Magicians' by Lev Grossman. The language is quite thick, perhaps overworked but perhaps not and overall I do enjoy the language ... but, and hopefully it's a conscious choice, the main character's constant commenting about and lusting after the women in the book is obnoxious, gross and distracting.

The commentary on female bodies and sex just keeps going and doesn't get better. It's a significant burr in the narrative for me.

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I've had quite a lot of stuff on recently so I've just been trying to read quick and easy books. Since the last time I posted in this thread I've read The Late Show by Michael Connelly which was fine, pretty much what you'd expect, and Knight's Shadow by Sebastien de Castell which wasn't great. I wasn't expecting it to be brilliant but the antagonists in the book are 'evil' in a way that really makes no sense, it's a bit a annoying.

Next I'm going to read Network Effect by Martha Wells.

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13 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

The commentary on female bodies and sex just keeps going and doesn't get better. It's a significant burr in the narrative for me.

I had to stop reading (listening to) it. Guy went to a party and this girl was hot and that one was hot and he kept forgetting how hot his girlfriend was and that dress made her breasts stand out and ... I'm not 16. Too many other good books in the world to keep wasting my time.

The Magicians is now on a quite short list of books I voluntarily gave up on part-way through.

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I finished Adrian Goldsworthy's Pax Romana. Well worth the read. I may continue with Rome by reading Alberto Angela's The Reach of Rome: A Journey Through the Lands of the Ancient Empire, Following a Coin. Maybe I'll read some fiction first, though.

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Moby Dick, still a slog. 

@IFR, IIRC you had asked about The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I'm close to halfway through now and I would highly recommend it. Just read it next to your laptop because you're going to need to Google a lot of things. Also, keep a translate tab open. German really is a fascinating language. 

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On 8/22/2021 at 12:20 PM, Ser Not Appearing said:

The commentary on female bodies and sex just keeps going and doesn't get better. It's a significant burr in the narrative for me.

My memory is that The Magician's Land improved on this (though it has been a bit of a while since I read it), but it's absolutely understandable to not want to wade through that to get to the third book.

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7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

@IFR, IIRC you had asked about The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I'm close to halfway through now and I would highly recommend it. Just read it next to your laptop because you're going to need to Google a lot of things. Also, keep a translate tab open. German really is a fascinating language. 

Title’s a bit of a spoiler ffs!

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9 hours ago, Mazzack said:

My memory is that The Magician's Land improved on this (though it has been a bit of a while since I read it), but it's absolutely understandable to not want to wade through that to get to the third book.

Maybe if I ever finish my own book (I won't) and regret the very intentionally sterile nature of relationships, I'll go in search of inspiration.

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Just finished Warriors of the Storm, book 9 of Cornwell's Saxon Tales.  It was just as fun, exciting, and fast paced as the tv series.  Book 10, The Flame Bearer, is now at the top of my TBR pile.

However, I am 20% into The Scavenger Door by Suzanne Palmer.

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I finished listening to The Queen's Gambit and thought it was just okay. It was a little too focused on the technical aspect chess, which I don't really have much appreciation. But worse than that, it was BORING from a storytelling perspective. The MC is stupidly good at chess and basically never loses in ways that were both unrealistic from what I know of competitive chess and inadvisable for constructing a good story. The MC dabbles in addiction but again in ways that never felt substantial. Her character doesn't develop or change at all. She's also incredibly unlikeable. I dunno. It wasn't terrible, I finished it pretty quickly (listening on 1.5x), but I don't really get the hype. (And I've not seen the show.)

My next listen is How to Stop Time by Matt Haig.

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I read Katherine Addison's The Witness for the Dead. I really enjoyed The Goblin Emperor when I read it a few years ago so I was looking forward to its semi-sequel. It is only loosely a sequel since it follows Celehar who was a minor character from the first book and is set away from the capital. The protagonist is now employed a 'Witness for the Dead' in a provincial city, his responsibilities involve dealing with the affairs of the dead, whether it be investigating their cause of death, supporting their heirs or occasionally dealing with those who won't stay dead. Celehar has a special aptitude for this since he can communicate with the dead in a very limited way. Throughout the novel he takes on various cases, with the main focuses being on a couple of murders (particularly the violent death of an opera singer) and a disputed inheritance.

The plot may be quite different from the court intrigue of the first novel but they do have some things in common, both featuring protagonists who might be quiet outsiders by nature but who have a great deal of determination to try do what they think is the right thing. One thing that is slightly weaker in this novel is that the stakes aren't as high, while Celehar does sometimes face some serious consequences after some of his investigations annoy some powerful people it isn't as compelling as the battle for control of the imperial throne in the first book. It is however interesting to see more of the world beyond the Imperial Court and how the ordinary people of that world live, it's a fairly short book but seems to pack a lot of world-building into those pages and manages to make it feel like this is a place with a long history even if most of that isn't being shown. Occasionally it can be slightly hard to keep track of all the names and titles and unfamiliar terms but for the most part I didn't find it too confusing. The various cases Celehar takes on are varied and interesting, and the conclusions are mostly satisfying even if the conclusion to one of the murder mysteries does feel a bit abrupt.

I then read Neil Gaiman's Stardust. I've seen the film adaptation multiple times but never read the book before. I think in recent years there has been a bit of a trend of modernised fairy tales, this was perhaps one of the first of those. It is an entertaining story although I found the supporting cast more interesting than Tristan himself who is a bit dull, particularly early in the story. The premise of a more adult take on traditional fairy tales does work well, although I think some other novels have perhaps done better at capturing the skewed logic and mixture of wonders and horrors of Faerie. I liked the book, but perhaps not one of Gaiman's greatest works.

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