What are you reading? First Quarter 2023

[williamjm]

I read Brandon Sanderson's The Lost Metal, the last book of his second series set in the Mistborn world. In many ways it was a good conclusion to the series. The three main characters who the series has been following have all had quite a lot of character development since the first book and get some more here. The climax to the main plotline also worked well with some good set-pieces and how the characters have changed since the first book is crucial to the resolution (and not just in terms of new powers they have gained). However, I also thought there were some negatives. In this book Sanderson does seem to be a bit obsessed with tie-ins to his other books and the wider Cosmere setting. I mostly haven't read his other books (aside from Elantris) and perhaps fans of his other works might appreciate the references and the hints at an over-arching plot but it did distract a lot from the main plotlines in a series where hitherto there had only been hints at connections with other worlds. It also means there has to be a lot of exposition, admittedly not unusual in a Brandon Sanderson book, but as well as the usual exposition about how supernatural abilities work in the Mistborn world we also get exposition about supernatural abilities from other worlds as well. Some seemingly significant plotlines carried over the previous book and features in the early part of this one also get abandoned with no conclusion, presumably a future series in the setting will return to them but for now they are just left dangling. It was still a enjoyable book to read, but I think it would have been a better book if it had been a bit more focused.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Just finished my Malazan re-read (started about 3 years ago, includes the ICE books), and almost finished my Belgariad/Mallorean re-read (a palette cleanser). 
About to start a re-read of The Silmarillion and first-time read of some of the other books (Fall of Gondolin, Fall of Numenor, Chikdren of Hurin) and a re-read of the Broken Empire series (Prince of Thorns etc inc the Red Queen books).

I’ll also soon after be starting a re-read of the Osten Ard books. I’ve got the later series but have been waiting until the last volume comeS out in November before starting.

And next year, I plan to re-read The Witcher and Forgotten Realms books.

(will also be reading other books in parallel)

Also jist finished the 2nd Darkwater book. Good but preferred the first a bit

[Starkess]

Finished listening to Assassin's Apprentice, Hobb just kills me with how much she tortures Fitz. Needed another audiobook for my run so I picked up the audiobook of Dune, which I've read several times. Good thing, too, because it's a lot harder to follow as an audiobook. Also it's the type of audiobook where all the dialogue is acted by different voice actors (different from the narrator), which I do not really like much. But it's okay.

[ljkeane]

I was going to watch Daisy Jones and the Six but I've seen a few things saying the book was good so I decided to read it first. I was a bit uncertain about it but I ended up really enjoying it. The faux oral history format works surprisingly well.

Next I'm going to read S.A. Chakraborty's The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi.

[Fragile Bird]

6 hours ago, Starkess said:

Finished listening to Assassin's Apprentice, Hobb just kills me with how much she tortures Fitz. Needed another audiobook for my run so I picked up the audiobook of Dune, which I've read several times. Good thing, too, because it's a lot harder to follow as an audiobook. Also it's the type of audiobook where all the dialogue is acted by different voice actors (different from the narrator), which I do not really like much. But it's okay.

Years ago I plunged into reading her books after bumping into her at a Worldcon. I had no idea who she was, I was reading more science fiction and less fantasy at the time.

While Robin Hobb is a very nice person, I always reach a point where I just have to stop reading her books. Yes, people have sadness in their lives and burdens we don’t always know about, but after reading a series for a while I find her cruelty to her characters too much to bear, the pain in their lives too relentless. I think the Greeks and the Romans created gods who were both wondrous and heartless to explain the bad things that happen in our lives, to explain the senseless and the random and the pointless events, but damn it all, it hurts. It just hurts to read Hobb. Or, too much Hobb. Small doses might be better but you get wrapped up in the world and want more.

Maybe cruel is the wrong word? GoT is filled with terrible events, other books and series I could name as well. But Hobbs is like no one else.

[Wilbur]

This weekend I listened to the Librivox recording of Mack Reynold's The Mercenary.

In case you aren't familiar with Mack Reynolds, he was a Socialist Labor Party member from California who wrote science fiction (along with a lot of other stuff) that was published primarily in the 60s and 70s.  He fought in WW2 and then lived a lifestyle similar to Jack Vance, writing enough to afford to travel the world.  He wrote a bunch of socially-conscious and economically-questioning stories that ostensibly are about military heroes or space explorers, but in fact question the status quo.  He also predicted a lot of the realities of daily life today such as access to the internet.  He also wrote everything from sex novels to memoirs to travelogues under a variety of pen names, although I haven't read any of those, despite their availability on Librivox.

The reader is Mark Nelson, who reads A LOT of Golden- and Silver-Age science fiction and pulp on Librivox, and does a good job.  (I am constantly surprised at how much SciFi of fairly recent provenance is available in the public domain.)  He also reads a bunch of P.G. Wodehouse, although his voice isn't right for that.  But if you are looking for a good American reader of American pulp, he should be at the top of your Librivox readers' list.  His voice is very smooth, very middle American, and I think of him as the Michael Pritchard of Librivox.

And the story is...fine?  The premise of Reynolds' Frozen Fracas stories like this one (a future in the Cold War where arms agreements reduce all conflict technology to that of a pre-1900 level) is frankly silly, and in many of his stories the protagonist fails to achieve his or her aims.  But the means to attempt them are always clever, and the social commentary is interesting, if a bit overt.  You can always feel and see the WW2 vet author struggling to reach out and convince the flower children of the late 60s that they need to work harder to change the world.  But I would imagine that the parents of the kids reading the science fiction of the day had no idea of the scandalous socialist ideas their children were imbibing along with the war stories of Mack Reynolds.

And yet in real life the Socialists kicked Reynolds out of the Party because he not only questioned the American Dream, but also the realities of world socialism at the time.  So reading his stories as an adult is particularly interesting, as his characters are clearly WW2 types, but set in the future, and arguing about whether the current economic system makes sense as they re-load their ray guns.  I liked his stories as a kid for the action and adventure, so they work on that level, at least for a YA audience, as well.

[peerlessly]

Just starting Memory, Sorrow, Thorn and really liking it! Heard it was partly an inspiration for asoiaf so I had to try it

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

nvm

 

[Starkess]

On 3/27/2023 at 4:10 AM, Fragile Bird said:

Years ago I plunged into reading her books after bumping into her at a Worldcon. I had no idea who she was, I was reading more science fiction and less fantasy at the time.

While Robin Hobb is a very nice person, I always reach a point where I just have to stop reading her books. Yes, people have sadness in their lives and burdens we don’t always know about, but after reading a series for a while I find her cruelty to her characters too much to bear, the pain in their lives too relentless. I think the Greeks and the Romans created gods who were both wondrous and heartless to explain the bad things that happen in our lives, to explain the senseless and the random and the pointless events, but damn it all, it hurts. It just hurts to read Hobb. Or, too much Hobb. Small doses might be better but you get wrapped up in the world and want more.

Maybe cruel is the wrong word? GoT is filled with terrible events, other books and series I could name as well. But Hobbs is like no one else.

Yeah it's very heartwrenching. I have to take her stuff in small doses!

[Larry of the Lawn]

On 1/14/2023 at 6:07 PM, LongRider said:

For me, yes, but many readers can parse the writing so for them, they could spoil it I guess.  The bummer for me is I would like to read about M & D but there are few books about them and only the Pynchon one at my library.

Missed this- I enjoyed Edwin Danson's Drawing the Line - How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America.  

The author is a surveyor and some parts are quite technical, but it has great info on the instruments used, and the practical challenges involved in cutting an 8yd visto across the Allegheny plateau.

I'm saving up to buy a copy of Mason's journals but they're like $250 last I checked so it's gonna be awhile.  

 

[LongRider]

21 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

Missed this- I enjoyed Edwin Danson's Drawing the Line - How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America.  

The author is a surveyor and some parts are quite technical, but it has great info on the instruments used, and the practical challenges involved in cutting an 8yd visto across the Allegheny plateau.

I'm saving up to buy a copy of Mason's journals but they're like $250 last I checked so it's gonna be awhile.  

 

I'm glad you wrote back as I couldn't remember whom I talked to about this.  Well, you and Zorrall.  Anyway, tried again with my library and found this title, Boundaries by Walker, Sally M.  It was informative but a little dry.  Just checked and the library doesn't have the title you mentioned.  Been thinking about giving the Pynchon book another try some time, but no timeframe for that.  This book also discussed the surveyoring and it's tools, plus the tools used by Mason for his star gazing.  Not being familiar with this all this, I think it was a good introductory book in case I get the chance to read further.   Gotta find the books first!  At any rate, good luck on acquiring the journals.  I really felt their story is quite interesting and glad I got to learn more about them.     

[Ser Not Appearing]

Somewhat offtopic but related to the thread:

I'm currently listening to a book that a buddy is reading. We've been texting back and forth about it a bit.

I'm honestly surprised how difficult it is to guess the spelling of character names and equally surprised how much confusion this lends to our discussions.

 

[Fragile Bird]

22 minutes ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

I'm honestly surprised how difficult it is to guess the spelling of character names and equally surprised how much confusion this lends to our discussions.

 

Oh yah. The books usually have a description that names the main characters. If the name I want isn’t there, I search the internet for a Wikipedia description or a book review.

[IFR]

On 3/27/2023 at 5:10 AM, Fragile Bird said:

Years ago I plunged into reading her books after bumping into her at a Worldcon. I had no idea who she was, I was reading more science fiction and less fantasy at the time.

While Robin Hobb is a very nice person, I always reach a point where I just have to stop reading her books. Yes, people have sadness in their lives and burdens we don’t always know about, but after reading a series for a while I find her cruelty to her characters too much to bear, the pain in their lives too relentless. I think the Greeks and the Romans created gods who were both wondrous and heartless to explain the bad things that happen in our lives, to explain the senseless and the random and the pointless events, but damn it all, it hurts. It just hurts to read Hobb. Or, too much Hobb. Small doses might be better but you get wrapped up in the world and want more.

Maybe cruel is the wrong word? GoT is filled with terrible events, other books and series I could name as well. But Hobbs is like no one else.

That's an interesting perspective. I love Robin Hobb's works - she's one of the best character writers out there. But I never found her work particularly sad or bleak. I think her world is far, far more optimistic than our own world.

I do think she's very adept at creating characters who feel real, and so when they are affected it strongly resonates.

Wonderful author.

[Lord Patrek]

On 3/27/2023 at 7:10 AM, Fragile Bird said:

Maybe cruel is the wrong word? GoT is filled with terrible events, other books and series I could name as well. But Hobbs is like no one else.

Jacqueline Carey, especially in the first two Kushiel's series, is as bad. It hurts, but at the same time it's so good!

[Lord Patrek]

I'm almost done with Michelle West's The Shining Court, third volume in the Sun Sword, and this series continues to blow me away!

I've been reviewing books on the Hotlist for nearly 20 years, and three installments into a fantasy series only 3 of them were as good as the Sun Sword: GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire, The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson, and the first Kushiel trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. It feels as though Michelle West could be the genre's best kept secret! You can read my reviews of the first 2 books:

The Broken Crown

The Uncrowned King

This is some seriously good stuff, folks! Think of the worldbuilding of Bakker and Erikson with the superior characterization of Hobb, GRRM, and Carey.

[beniowa]

I've read two YA books since last time.

The first one is The Nightland Express by J.M. Lee, a fantasy western about two sixteen year-olds, one a biracial guy and the other a woman pretending to be a man, who take a special job for the Pony Express on the eve of the Civil War.  The package and job are not what they expect.  They end up dealing with all matter of things from estranged family to fae and other supernatural creatures.  It does do a good job of character relationships and characters navigating a world not meant for them.  It also lacks almost all the usual tropes of YA fiction so I wasn't constantly rolling my eyes.  On the other hand, I never really got into the writing and felt it lacked polish.  And, perhaps this is a little unfair, I almost thought the story would have been better without the supernatural elements.

The other book was Travelers Along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi.  This is is a feminist retelling of Robin Hood told from the Muslim side of the Third Crusade.  The concept actually works surprisingly well.  The writing and narrative were very strong.  The character relationships between each member of the gang were great.  Like the other book, it has very little of the usual YA tropes and those it does have, it handles it well.  The thing I would say against it is that it tries too hard to fulfill the Robin Hood mythos to the point of borrowing bits and scenes from previous stories and films.  A couple of characters from the Christian side didn't come off too well, but given the events in question, perhaps that's not surprising.  I quite enjoyed this one.

[Spaßvogel]

Started reading Andrew Cartmel's "Vinyl Detective" series.  First book was okay, but had some weird issues with tone.  (I.e. the narrator has a light and airy tone even though things are happening that should horrify him).  The first book also reads like it was a television outline turned into a novel.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but noticeable in this case. I'm more than halfway through the second book and the experience seems a bit smoother.  There's also a lot less random murdering. 

Also read a comprehensive survey of the films of John Boorman by Brian Hoyle.  The author wrote a ton about the movies I was less interested in, and not quite as much about the ones I really wanted to read about.  (Excalibur and Hope & Glory).  A little too much psychoanalysis for my tastes as a movie nerd.  I'm definitely going to check out his autobiographies next.

Also did re-reads of LA Confidential and White Jazz by James Ellroy.  Ellroy has been on my mind lately.  I keep hoping HBO or someone will pick up his LA Quartet and produce them as written.  The machine gun language is still exciting and I love the structure of three characters who don't get along each having a piece of a puzzle and ultimately their reasons for becoming allies aren't because of plot convenience, but because of character development. 

[JoannaL]

On 3/29/2023 at 4:40 PM, IFR said:

That's an interesting perspective. I love Robin Hobb's works - she's one of the best character writers out there. But I never found her work particularly sad or bleak. I think her world is far, far more optimistic than our own world.

I do think she's very adept at creating characters who feel real, and so when they are affected it strongly resonates.

Wonderful author.

Thank you I was just about to write the exact same thing. I never found her world sad or bleak.  To reread her work is like visiting old, real good friends, which are near to your heart.

[Ser Not Appearing]

I don't know if sad is the right word but I do think the way in which characters deal with their emotions comes across as ... mopey?

I'm not sure if that's the right word either but it does drag me, personally, down as a reader. The effect is parallel to sad in some way.