What Are You Reading? Third Quarter, 2023

[Wilbur]

6 hours ago, dog-days said:

Perhaps he's just not for you?

That could be it, although I can't figure out exactly why.

I don't actually have any complaints about the three of his books I read.  All of them were recommended here in these threads, and all of them are well written and include neat ideas.  From a form criticism standpoint, they are good books.  So very likely the cognitive dissonance between "book is quality writing" and "I am not enthralled by it" is my problem.

Certainly the reasons for the recommendations are all valid, and I will probably read some more.  As you say, we all individually and uniquely empathize with certain authors or books better than others, and perhaps more familiarity will help with this.

[Starkess]

I felt similarly about Tchaikovsky. I read the first couple books in his insectoids series and they were fine, solid books but they just didn't have a spark for me, and I didn't really care much about the characters. I keep meaning to check out his Children of Time stuff since I've heard it's better...one of these days, maybe!

[dog-days]

Starkess, if you do try Tchaikovsky again, you might like Guns of the Dawn – it was the first book I read by him, and is still probably my favourite. I think it's a bit more disciplined than his sci-fi. 

[IlyaP]

Been powering through this book called, uh, Fire and Blood, by some indie author with a penchant for suspenders. Like, JR Martin, or GR Maartin, or something? It's pretty wild read. Even has a couple of dudes named Elmo and Kermit, because, uh, reasons? 

(Seriously, frelling terrific read, this book is.)

[Ser Not Appearing]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:58 PM, Ser Not Appearing said:

Just started re-reading the Dragonlance Chronicles series in preparation for a podcast next month. Moderately excited, haven't read it in decades

Hope it carries as much fondness as our Belgariad re-read did.

Only a few chapters in at this point, but I've been pleasantly surprised by a few things in the structure ... and have already started confirming my own suspicions about how the interplay of the different races will feel.

[Fragile Bird]

Are there fans of Mistborn here? I’m trying to get through the first book and it feels so, I don’t know how to explain it, corny. 

[Ser Not Appearing]

It's the only Sanderson stuff I've ever read. It was really interesting in some ways and bubblegum in others.

[briantw]

16 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Are there fans of Mistborn here? I’m trying to get through the first book and it feels so, I don’t know how to explain it, corny. 

I enjoyed the original Mistborn trilogy for the cool magic system, the fight scenes, and the crazy twists, but in general Sanderson isn’t a great writer and he absolutely sucks at writing relationships.  It feels like no one in his books fucks.

I also originally read it prior to burning through a lot of the other contemporary authors in the genre like Abercrombie, Abraham, Hobb, Lynch, and Bakker, so I didn’t have much to compare it to outside of Martin.

Edited July 14, 2023 by briantw

[Ser Not Appearing]

2 minutes ago, briantw said:

I enjoyed the original Mistborn trilogy for the cool magic system, the fight scenes, and the crazy twists, but in general Sanderson isn’t a great writer and he absolutely sucks at writing relationships.  It feels like no one in his books fucks.

Something of a tangent:

If you read a fantasy novel that "hit" on all sorts of levels but completely ignored sex and love and those sorts of relationships, how much would that detract from the overall feel of the world.

[briantw]

3 minutes ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

Something of a tangent:

If you read a fantasy novel that "hit" on all sorts of levels but completely ignored sex and love and those sorts of relationships, how much would that detract from the overall feel of the world.

It depends on the story.  The Lies of Locke Lamora has no real sex scenes that I recall and the love story with Locke and whatever her name was is largely just hinted at in flashbacks and not elaborated on until later books.  It’s still a wonderful novel. 

The issue with Sanderson is that his books almost always feature relationships that are very childish, like awkard high school relationships rather than those of consenting adults.  And the characters all act like they’ve never fucked before, even the ones with kids.  

[Ser Not Appearing]

1 hour ago, briantw said:

It depends on the story.  The Lies of Locke Lamora has no real sex scenes that I recall and the love story with Locke and whatever her name was is largely just hinted at in flashbacks and not elaborated on until later books.  It’s still a wonderful novel. 

The issue with Sanderson is that his books almost always feature relationships that are very childish, like awkard high school relationships rather than those of consenting adults.  And the characters all act like they’ve never fucked before, even the ones with kids.  

 

They did feel like highschool (maybe even middle school) relationships. I'm definitely cool with, as a general matter, young adult characters who haven't been sexually active or experienced ...though the world building would need to justify it somehow.

It's an interesting thing to consider.

Edited July 14, 2023 by Ser Not Appearing

[briantw]

39 minutes ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

They did feel like highschool (maybe even middle school) relationships. I'm definitely cool with, as a general matter, young adult characters who haven't been sexually active or experienced ...though the world building would need to justify it somehow.

It's an interesting thing to consider.

I thought Abercrombie handled YA relationships significantly better in his Shattered Sea books.  

Then again, he's pretty good at writing realistic sex scenes.  I thought all the scenes in his First Law series were pretty spot.  There weren't a ton, but they were well-written and funny and really captured that mix of lust and awkwardness that real sex typically involves, especially between lovers who are unfamiliar with each other.

Edited July 14, 2023 by briantw

[Ser Not Appearing]

3 hours ago, briantw said:

I thought Abercrombie handled YA relationships significantly better in his Shattered Sea books.  

Then again, he's pretty good at writing realistic sex scenes.  I thought all the scenes in his First Law series were pretty spot.  There weren't a ton, but they were well-written and funny and really captured that mix of lust and awkwardness that real sex typically involves, especially between lovers who are unfamiliar with each other.

 

You won't find me disagreeing with Abercrombie praise.

[williamjm]

5 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Are there fans of Mistborn here? I’m trying to get through the first book and it feels so, I don’t know how to explain it, corny. 

I enjoyed the series, but I wouldn't say Sanderson's writing is really anything special. It does get a bit corny at times, particularly when he is trying to be funny - although that's probably more of an issue for the Wax and Wayne books than the original trilogy.

17 hours ago, Starkess said:

I felt similarly about Tchaikovsky. I read the first couple books in his insectoids series and they were fine, solid books but they just didn't have a spark for me, and I didn't really care much about the characters. I keep meaning to check out his Children of Time stuff since I've heard it's better...one of these days, maybe!

I think Children of Time excels at its world-building and how to portray how alien non-human characters could be. On the other hand, the human characters in it are bland. I agree with @dog-days that Guns of the Dawn has more compelling characters and it's much more about the characters than the world-building. For two novels released the same year by the same author they've not really got anything in common.

[Durckad]

13 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Are there fans of Mistborn here? I’m trying to get through the first book and it feels so, I don’t know how to explain it, corny. 

I read it for the first time a few months ago as part of a book club that I'm a part of and I really enjoyed it. I do echo some of the other complaints here about the relationships in the book and there are some plot-related developments near the end that I found... eye-rolling. Also, a lot and I mean, a lot of Sanderson's "funny" dialogue absolutely sucks.

That said, overall I liked the world-building, plotting, and most of the characters, at least enough to continue on with the series. Not perfect, but the things I liked were enough to make me overlook the things I didn't. Hope that continues.

13 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

If you read a fantasy novel that "hit" on all sorts of levels but completely ignored sex and love and those sorts of relationships, how much would that detract from the overall feel of the world.

I would not care and, in some cases, I think this might actively benefit some novels. I don't give a shit about sex scenes in books and only tolerate them at the best of times and, I detest the need that many authors seem to feel about inserting relationships or romance into novels. Not every novel needs a love story or romance for fucks sake.

[Inkdaub]

I finished Frost's Secret History of Twin Peaks and moved on to Carrick's The Liar's Knot, which is the second Rook & Rose book. Each of these were likely sure things and I enjoyed both a bit more than expected.

 

[Ser Not Appearing]

10 hours ago, Durckad said:

Not every novel needs a love story or romance for fucks sake.

 

Just for the record - fucks sake is maybe the only reason they're needed.

[Jaxom 1974]

On 7/7/2023 at 11:14 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

 

Silk Road by Colin Falconer is a medieval historical fiction about a Templar knight who journeys across the Silk Road.  

 

This one, and the rest of the series, kept popping up into my Facebook feed as a recommendation/ad. It seemed mildly intriguing, but I was having trouble trying to distinguish if this as a series that was legitimate...maybe I'll look into it now...

***

Copies of Victor Milan's Dinosaur books were only a quarter at the library book sale...was it worth the pick up...?

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

f this as a series that was legitimate.

Here's a review from the Historical Novel Society Journal:

https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/silk-road/

Falconer (not the only pseudonym Colin Bowles writes under) has written a lot of books, in several genres.

https://www.colinfalconer.org/

 

[Durckad]

13 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

 

Just for the record - fucks sake is maybe the only reason they're needed.

Hah! I figured someone would make a joke a joke out of that. 

Though, to be fair, you don't really need romance or a love story for fucking, if that's your jam.