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What Are You Reading? Second Quarter 2022


Starkess

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1 hour ago, Underfoot said:

I think you're spot on comparing them to the Penric and Desdemona novellas, VERY similar in both types of stories told and in method of storytelling. There's something cozy and comforting about both series that I can't quite explain

I think there's something about a protagonist who is quietly competent and dedicated to their vocation that can make it comforting to read about them.

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I just tore through these books (Goblin Emperor, etc etc) and when I explained to Mr. X that I was "reading a cozy mystery series about crime-solving gay depressive magical elf priest who can talk to the dead," Mr. X remarked that he could not imagine a book more up my alley. (I submit that this series needs, like, a trans goblin who performs autopsies to be absolutely my jam, but I'm not complaining. Also for Ulis' sake somebody buy Celehar a non-threadbare coat.)

I agree that the first Celehar book is stronger than the second narratively, but I do like some of the themes that the second one digs into (grief, power, loss of faith, etc.) 

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2 hours ago, williamjm said:

I think there's something about a protagonist who is quietly competent and dedicated to their vocation that can make it comforting to read about them.

100%. Good people doing good things well for the right reasons.

53 minutes ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

I just tore through these books (Goblin Emperor, etc etc) and when I explained to Mr. X that I was "reading a cozy mystery series about crime-solving gay depressive magical elf priest who can talk to the dead," Mr. X remarked that he could not imagine a book more up my alley. (I submit that this series needs, like, a trans goblin who performs autopsies to be absolutely my jam, but I'm not complaining. Also for Ulis' sake somebody buy Celehar a non-threadbare coat.)

I agree that the first Celehar book is stronger than the second narratively, but I do like some of the themes that the second one digs into (grief, power, loss of faith, etc.) 

Please! his poor coats! 

I will say, I burst into tears on the final couple of pages of Grief of Stones. I was very surprised, as I wasn't expecting such a visceral reaction.

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Currently enjoying A Master of Djinn, but had to take a break to read A Dead Djinn in Cairo, as it became clear the novel was very much a sequel rather than a standalone story. All the essential info for understanding the story is there, but it feels like a recap.

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Currently reading Dark Hollow by John Connolly (Book 2 of his Charlie Parker series).  Really enjoying this dark thriller with hints of the supernatural.  Puts me in mind of Laird Barron's Isaiah Coleridge series.  Anyone read either?  

 

Also thinking of reading Wanders by Chuck Wendig.  Kind of in a beach read/summer blockbuster feel right now.  Recommended?

 

Speaking Bones by Ken Liu is in the future for me as well.  

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9 hours ago, felice said:

Currently enjoying A Master of Djinn, but had to take a break to read A Dead Djinn in Cairo, as it became clear the novel was very much a sequel rather than a standalone story. All the essential info for understanding the story is there, but it feels like a recap.

I also did the same when I read A Master of Djinn. The two plotlines are heavily connected so I think the novel does work better having read the short story first.

I had previously read the The Haunting of Tram Car 105 short but I think that was less essential since there are a couple of references to it but nothing important to the plot.

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I'm not reading it, yet, but when searching to see when Mark Alder may be releasing the next Banners of Blood book I discovered that in 2020 he put out a book about Julie D'Aubigny.

 

The story of Julie D'Aubigny is well known. Her tumultuous childhood, her powerful lovers, her celebrated voice. Connected to most of the nobility of 17th century Paris, feted for her performance, unwilling to live by the rules of her society, she took female lovers, fought duels with noblemen and fled from city to country and back again.

But now the real truth can be told. She also made a deal with the devil. He gave her no powers or help, but he kept her alive for only one reason. To take revenge... 

 

Some publishers are just horrible at marketing. I bought it on the spot, and skipped it to the top of the heap once I'm done with my Black Company reread.

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Since I last posted I've read The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport and The Last stand of Mary Good Crow by Rachel Aaron. The Blood Trials didn't really work for me. The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow was a fun light read like Aaron's books tend to be.

Next I'm going to read Miles/Christian Cameron's new book Against All Gods.

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12 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Next I'm going to read Miles/Christian Cameron's new book Against All Gods.

I picked this up like an hour ago, my TBR pile is getting ungainly. I had no idea he had a bronze age book coming out. Cameron can pump, man.

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Reading George Monbiot's Regenesis. It's a manifesto about the future of farming. Astonishing and brilliant so far. No, I am not a farmer. No, I have never successfully grown anything. But it has still managed to enthrall me. Recommend reading the sample chapter to see if it's for you.

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Finished The Cartographers (2022) by Peng Shepherd, a combo twist-up of portal fantasy, time travel and alternate universe.  It's location is mostly NY state and NYC, with a long section supposedly at the University of Wisconsin, where most of the figures meet while college students, though two of them, the core, around whom the others aggregate, were already friends, growing up together.  There are many scenes in the NY Public Library's main building:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library_Main_Branch

How could I not read this?

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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Enjoyed very much, especially the holy pedantic innocent who provides the narrative voice. Beautiful atmosphere. My reading was frequently interrupted by the thought that the setting would make for a brilliant indy-exploration game, if one very similar hasn't been made already. 

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch. It was nice to be back reading a Peter Grant novel again. I've missed him. At the same time, both this Rivers of London instalment and the last are starting to feel a bit bloated. Peter knows so many people now, and the narrative checks in on all of them. Also, because he's so well-established and comfortable in his milieu, they lacked a sense of real danger or pressure. I think this is why Terry Pratchett sent Sam Vimes off to Klatch, Uberwald and his own past in the later City Watch books - it moved him back into the unknown, away from all the resources and connections that could help him. At this point, I'm looking forward more to the next Abigail novella than to the next Peter novel. That said, it was good to meet

Spoiler

Lesley again, and the gathering of the ghosts sequence was appropriately eerie. Loved the touch of the raven becoming a painting on the fuselage. 

 

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Ha. I came here to remind people that The Grief of Stones has come out and I see a few people have already read it. It will be some weeks before I get my audiobook from the library.

I love the The Goblin Emperor so much that I constantly have a copy out and listen to chapters of it every night before I go to bed. I also just did a re-listen to The Witness for the Dead to get back into the frame of things.

Still deeply into the werewolf books and there are some absolutely excellent authors on Dreame, some of whom have moved to Kindle or GoodNovel, or have published their books through Amazon. I’ll do a post on a really top notch series worth looking up.

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Haven't managed to read much this month. 

I finished Max Gladstone's The Ruin of Angels, which I liked quite a lot.  (I still think it's a shame the series abandoned its earlier naming system though.) 

Jason Sanford's Plague Birds was fun but by the end of the story the world seemed awfully small.  And T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone was well done, but not quite up to the level of the only other two Kingfisher books I've read (The Hollow Places and A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking).

I did enjoy P. Djeli Clark's A Master of Djinn, although (vague spoilers)

Spoiler

I thought that the identity of 'AW' was telegraphed a little too heavily; it felt that Fatma should have figured it out a bit sooner than she does.

That means I've read four of this year's Hugo nominees now (the other three being Akardy Martine's A Desolation Called Peace, Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became The Sun and Becky Chambers' The Galaxy, and The Ground Within), and honestly while I didn't dislike any of them I'm not sure any of them are particularly great either.

On 6/21/2022 at 9:49 AM, felice said:

Currently enjoying A Master of Djinn, but had to take a break to read A Dead Djinn in Cairo, as it became clear the novel was very much a sequel rather than a standalone story. All the essential info for understanding the story is there, but it feels like a recap.

I had sort of the opposite reaction.  Not knowing anything about the author or setting before I started, the first reference to what was clearly a previous story in the same universe made me think 'I should go and read that once I've finished this', but utlimately it feels like the novel ends up summarizing everything that happens in enough detail I didn't feel that I'd missed out on not having read it.  Although I now see there are several earlier stories, so I might try looking out for them.

(Oh, and I've read a couple of hundred pages more of Dhalgren since I last posted in this thread, but I'm nowhere near finishing it yet.)

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12 hours ago, Plessiez said:

I finished Max Gladstone's The Ruin of Angels, which I liked quite a lot.  (I still think it's a shame the series abandoned its earlier naming system though.) 

I think it was one of my favourite books in the series. It would be nice if he did more in the setting.

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After watching Winning Time, I was anxious to read the book that it was based on, Showtime by Jeff Pearlman.  I couldn't get my hands on it, so I opted for Pearlman's other biopic about the Lakers -- Three Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil And The Crazy Years Of The Lakers Dynasty.  I'm 50% done at the moment.  Really enjoying it so far.  Has anyone read any of Pearlman's many sports biographies?

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