Fourth Quarter 2021 Reading

[Inkdaub]

18 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

lovely style of writing even when his plots/narrative goes awry

I think this often. Not to imply I don't enjoy the plot, but Pullman's prose is clearly the star. It just sounds right as you read.

[Fragile Bird]

Wow. Piranesi was not what I expected. It’s such a head game, it really does sound like someone’s madness.

Maybe I’ll try reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell again. I bought it when it first came out in paperback. I looked at it, sitting on my bookshelf. I got as far as the start of Chapter 6, page 80. Then I put it down and never picked it up again.

[williamjm]

I finished the final Expanse book, Leviathan Falls, which I thought was a good conclusion to the series. I think the last few books haven't quite been the best in the series because after nine books it's a bit hard to find much new to say about the characters and the new characters introduced (or given a more prominent role) weren't as interesting as some of the previous characters. Coming into the book it felt like there was a lot left to resolve but this did a good job of bringing the major plot threads to a conclusion and while parts of the ending could have been predicted there were a few new twists thrown in along the way. I think the ending managed a balance between dealing with the main plot and still leaving some space for speculation about what would happen next, even if there aren't going to be any more novels. It's also nice to have a long-running series with a timely resolution with all the books having been released in slightly over 10 years.

Now I've started Katherine Addison's The Angel of the Crows. From the blurb I was expecting a Sherlock Holmes-inspired story in a London with both steampunk and supernatural elements but I didn't realise quite how Holmesian it was going to be, the two main characters may not be called Holmes and Watson but they still share a house in Baker Street and get cases from Inspector Lestrade and the initial case is a variation on A Study in Scarlet. So far it seems entertaining although I think not as good as Addison's The Goblin Emperor.

[Fragile Bird]

51 minutes ago, williamjm said:

Now I've started Katherine Addison's The Angel of the Crows. From the blurb I was expecting a Sherlock Holmes-inspired story in a London with both steampunk and supernatural elements but I didn't realise quite how Holmesian it was going to be, the two main characters may not be called Holmes and Watson but they still share a house in Baker Street and get cases from Inspector Lestrade and the initial case is a variation on A Study in Scarlet. So far it seems entertaining although I think not as good as Addison's The Goblin Emperor.

I set it aside because it was too much Sherlock Holmes for me, though I have put a hold on it at the library again for another go at it. I read a number of reviews afterwards and, yes, she closely tracks Doyle’s plot.

[polishgenius]

16 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Wow. Piranesi was not what I expected. It’s such a head game, it really does sound like someone’s madness.

Although the seeds of it apparently existed before, she wrote it while struggling with serious illness that left her effectively housebound for years (per one interview, also taking inspiration from an aunt who was bedbound),  and it does feel like that really fed into the story, that feeling of someone connecting to a world while confined to one place. Hard to know for sure, though.

(we do have to be careful framing this though- this feeling led Wired into one epically awful article/review/author profile that essentially implies her illness was a blessing for us because we got this out of it (also trivialises her illness as a trip to faery, and at one point describes her as 'addled'. Seriously it's so bad)


But anyway yeah the book is great. Very very different to Strange and Norrell, but great.  

[Peadar]

Christopher Buehlman's "The Blacktongue Thief" was tremendous fun. The worldbuilding was closer to D&D than my more preferred pseudo-realism, but huge amounts of thought and creativity had gone into it. The author even wrote some decent lyrics. Highly recommended.

[Wilbur]

I collected all ten of the Blackstone Audiobooks versions of the first ten Penric and Desdemona short stories / novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold and loaded them onto my iPod for the festive period.  Listening to them while I hiked or rode my bike, and occasionally having a surreptitious listen while ostensibly attending long social events, I knocked them out right in a row these past couple of weeks.

While LMB likes her positive outcomes and sweet relationships, and her characters' trust in Providence is well above anything we might expect, it is still difficult not to enjoy the experience of spending time in the World of the Five Gods.  It is like slipping into a hot bath after a long day of physical labor, soothing sore muscles.

From Penric's Demon to The Assassins of Thasalon, the works can sort of be divided into three types of stories.  The first are stories of the empire, in which Penric and Des interact with his wife and brother-in-law the general (Mission, Last Dance, Prisoner of Limnos, Assassins).  The second are stories of shamans, in which Penric and Des interact with old animal magics of the far south (Fox, The Shaman, Physicians).  And the third are stories of local affairs, a sort of grab bag of smaller challenges and conflicts around Penric and Des (Penric's Demon, Orphans, Masquerade).  In general, listening to them in publication order means that I switched around from one type to another to provide good variety, and listening to them in a short period of time meant I clued into the links between the stories better than my first reading.

I haven't yet laid my hands on Knot of Shadows in audio form, although I am waiting on its appearance on Overdrive.

[mix_masta_micah]

Has anyone read any good self published books within recent years? I follow SPFBO and feel some titles like Black Stone Heart by Michael R Fletcher, Kings of Paradise by Richard Nell, Of Fire and Blood by Ryan C Cahill, and Rise of the Ranger by Philip C. Quaintrell sound interesting. Has anyone read these or have recs? 

 

It's interesting to see people like Josiah Bancroft and Anthony Ryan take off from the indie world. 

[aceluby]

Finished the 10th Cradle book by Will Wight last night and really enjoyed it. Really easy reads that we’re hard to put down. Apparently some are turned off by the first book, but I was hooked pretty much immediately. It’s kind of hard to describe, but kind of a sci-fantasy progression martial arts series. Started up his first trilogy and plan on reading his other series after that while I wait for the last 2 books in Cradle to be released

[Derfel Cadarn]

6 hours ago, mix_masta_micah said:

Has anyone read any good self published books within recent years? I follow SPFBO and feel some titles like Black Stone Heart by Michael R Fletcher, Kings of Paradise by Richard Nell, Of Fire and Blood by Ryan C Cahill, and Rise of the Ranger by Philip C. Quaintrell sound interesting. Has anyone read these or have recs? 

 

It's interesting to see people like Josiah Bancroft and Anthony Ryan take off from the indie world. 

The author thread on this page has info on authors on the board, most of whom are either self-published or published by small presses.

[mix_masta_micah]

1 hour ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

The author thread on this page has info on authors on the board, most of whom are either self-published or published by small presses.

Thanks! Will give it a look. Didn't see a specific thread that seemed to fit but will look for that thread. 

[mix_masta_micah]

6 hours ago, aceluby said:

Finished the 10th Cradle book by Will Wight last night and really enjoyed it. Really easy reads that we’re hard to put down. Apparently some are turned off by the first book, but I was hooked pretty much immediately. It’s kind of hard to describe, but kind of a sci-fantasy progression martial arts series. Started up his first trilogy and plan on reading his other series after that while I wait for the last 2 books in Cradle to be released

That's a very popular series. Unfortunately, I'm not big on lit progression type books. The prose was a bit too Sanderson-like for me too. Just not my cuppa. 

Glad you enjoyed it! 

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

4 hours ago, mix_masta_micah said:

Thanks! Will give it a look. Didn't see a specific thread that seemed to fit but will look for that thread. 

Here are the links.

Full disclaimer: I am one of those aforementioned self-published authors.

[Fragile Bird]

Well, I am stunned and shocked. A number of years ago I opened a thread here about a book I really loved called The Bone Season. I don’t think even one person posted in the thread. I felt sort of squashed. 
 

Well, I was looking at my reading list and I want to tackle The Priory of the Orange Tree this 2022. I tried before but I had so much on my lists I didn’t have time for it. Looking at my bookshelf at some of my books I haven’t read in a while I decided to see if the The Bone Season was available as an audio book and damned if the first book under the author’s name wasn’t The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Man oh man I feel so vindicated for my belief in the writing of the author of The Bone Season! See you next year!

[dog-days]

I've listened to the first two books in Samantha Shannon's Bone Season series. Meant to write about them in this thread, but unfortunately, Audible didn't have the next books. I still intend to read the full series. 

I was lukewarm about the first book - I think I may have accidentally bought the abridged version, though, so I think I would have liked it a lot more if I'd listened to the whole thing. And I was just getting properly into the series in Book 2, which pulled off a very impressive finale, when I found out that there was no audiobook for the next instalment. 

[Fragile Bird]

I liked The Bone Season so much because I had for years had a plot for a novel that was along the same lines as the book. It made me regret not trying to write a novel of my own. I said that in the OP of my thread, the one nobody responded to. 

[dog-days]

7 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I liked The Bone Season so much because I had for years had a plot for a novel that was along the same lines as the book. It made me regret not trying to write a novel of my own. I said that in the OP of my thread, the one nobody responded to. 

Maybe they'll get adapted for TV and you can start your own Bone Season forum... 

[Teng Ai Hui]

I just finished a biography by comedian Katherine Ryan.  Also, I wanted to read the Hugo winners.  I read Network Effect when it was first published.  I read Metal like Blood in the Dark during my work commute on Friday.  I'm planning to start the new year with Two Truths and a Lie and then The Last Wish, The Witcher #1.

I read 12 books this year.  I'm happy to have maintained my usual pace of 1 book a month but disappointed that I didn't reach my goal of 14 for the year.

 

ETA: This series starts with a sex scene 

[Fragile Bird]

On 12/30/2021 at 7:05 PM, Wilbur said:

I collected all ten of the Blackstone Audiobooks versions of the first ten Penric and Desdemona short stories / novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold and loaded them onto my iPod for the festive period.  Listening to them while I hiked or rode my bike, and occasionally having a surreptitious listen while ostensibly attending long social events, I knocked them out right in a row these past couple of weeks.

While LMB likes her positive outcomes and sweet relationships, and her characters' trust in Providence is well above anything we might expect, it is still difficult not to enjoy the experience of spending time in the World of the Five Gods.  It is like slipping into a hot bath after a long day of physical labor, soothing sore muscles.

From Penric's Demon to The Assassins of Thasalon, the works can sort of be divided into three types of stories.  The first are stories of the empire, in which Penric and Des interact with his wife and brother-in-law the general (Mission, Last Dance, Prisoner of Limnos, Assassins).  The second are stories of shamans, in which Penric and Des interact with old animal magics of the far south (Fox, The Shaman, Physicians).  And the third are stories of local affairs, a sort of grab bag of smaller challenges and conflicts around Penric and Des (Penric's Demon, Orphans, Masquerade).  In general, listening to them in publication order means that I switched around from one type to another to provide good variety, and listening to them in a short period of time meant I clued into the links between the stories better than my first reading.

I haven't yet laid my hands on Knot of Shadows in audio form, although I am waiting on its appearance on Overdrive.

Have you read The Hallowed Hunt? It takes place about 150 years before the Penric books and now that I’ve finally had a chance to finish it I want to go back and re-read Shaman, one of my favorite books in the series.

[Wilbur]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Have you read The Hallowed Hunt? It takes place about 150 years before the Penric books and now that I’ve finally had a chance to finish it I want to go back and re-read Shaman, one of my favorite books in the series.

Yes, I really enjoyed The Hallowed Hunt.  For me, it is the least like any other Lois McMaster Bujold books in terms of tone, yet it is still a terrific book.

In my perception, the tone is a darker, less comfortable one, and the quest tale and the constant call backs to an earlier age and defeat of a high kingdom place it in a much more High Fantasy milieu than most of her books.