What Are You Reading? Third Quarter, 2023

[IlyaP]

On 7/15/2023 at 1:05 AM, 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.

I've started Final Empire today. So far this book is...barely keeping my attention. I assume the pace picks up within a 100 pages or so?

[Britton]

I've enjoyed everything I've read from Sanderson including Mistborn, but they aren't really books I'd recommend others read.  A lot like WoT it contains a lot of things that can be absolute deal breakers for some people and you have to be able to ignore those things.  I'm actually surprised I can ignore them because as has been said his relationships are not good and neither is his dialogue but he still manages to be entertaining in a way very few other are.  I think Mistborn is his prototypical work and that if it's not working for you it's unlikely anything his other work will either. 

[Kyll.Ing.]

On 7/14/2023 at 5:18 PM, briantw said:

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.  

Classic Mormon morals and self-censorship, I've heard. There can be intricate descriptions of people being maimed and mutilated in the most horrible ways, the novels can delve into twisted minds that take gleeful pleasure in gruesomely depicted suffering and mass destruction, or feature blood-dripping scenes where soldiers and civilians are slaughtered like cattle (even by the good guys). But on the other hand, nobody speaks a single word more nasty than "darn", or even imagines doing anything more intimate with their loved ones than a little peck on the cheek, and that's only if the characters are like madly in love, alone, and destined for each other. Flaying the faces off characters while they are alive and conscious is a-OK, but the line is firmly drawn well ahead of acknowledging that some characters may have genitals.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Kyll.Ing.

[dog-days]

Read Hippolyta Napier number 7 by Lexie Conyngham, the latest in her series of books set in Ballater, a spa town in Aberdeenshire, during the reign of William IV of England/III of Scotland. I imagine the author wrote it with a certain amount of glee since it is announced at the end that the old King has died, to be replaced by Victoria. Ballater is eight miles from Balmoral. I bet Conyngham has plans. Probably involving the epidemic of complex murders that plagued the area on an annual basis during the 1820s and 30s, about which unaccountably few historical studies exist.

That said, we still have five years to go, and maybe five books, till Victoria's first visit with Albert. 

I'm fine with that. The murder plots are fun, but they're also largely an excuse for some entertaining social observation and a light but precise attention to the details of the period. 

I toy with the idea of giving Sanderson or Tad Williams a go now and again. I mean, if I like them, that's my reading plans sorted for a few years!

Edited July 16, 2023 by dog-days

[williamjm]

28 minutes ago, dog-days said:

I toy with the idea of giving Sanderson or Tad Williams a go now and again. I mean, if I like them, that's my reading plans sorted for a few years!

I think Williams is the significantly better writer out of the two, even if he does have a tendency to be long-winded.

[briantw]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

I think Williams is the significantly better writer out of the two, even if he does have a tendency to be long-winded.

I finished The Dragonbone Chair for the first time recently and I agree that Williams is a superior author, and it’s also doubly interesting because you can see the huge influence he had on GRRM.  

[IlyaP]

7 hours ago, Britton said:

I've enjoyed everything I've read from Sanderson including Mistborn, but they aren't really books I'd recommend others read.  A lot like WoT it contains a lot of things that can be absolute deal breakers for some people and you have to be able to ignore those things.  I'm actually surprised I can ignore them because as has been said his relationships are not good and neither is his dialogue but he still manages to be entertaining in a way very few other are.  I think Mistborn is his prototypical work and that if it's not working for you it's unlikely anything his other work will either. 

I've gotten to the point where Kel has saved Vin, and there's barely any acknowledgement of the physical abuse she's been suffering and then suddenly we're off with people knowing Common Information (I guess?) about allomancy and, uh, sure! OK! The world that he's created feels a bit so far like Dunwall in Dishonored, which is cool, I guess?

[IlyaP]

3 hours ago, williamjm said:

I think Williams is the significantly better writer out of the two, even if he does have a tendency to be long-winded.

God yes. Even though I am constantly irked that Williams has made it his goal in life to shatter my wrists, I cannot deny the quality of his prose. 

[briantw]

22 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

God yes. Even though I am constantly irked that Williams has made it his goal in life to shatter my wrists, I cannot deny the quality of his prose. 

I’m starting The Stone of Farewell tonight.  

[IlyaP]

7 hours ago, briantw said:

I’m starting The Stone of Farewell tonight.  

It's a goddamn masterpiece in world building. There's so much of everything in that book. Including the ability to burn a few calories by just trying to pick the damn thing up!  

[briantw]

3 hours ago, IlyaP said:

It's a goddamn masterpiece in world building. There's so much of everything in that book. Including the ability to burn a few calories by just trying to pick the damn thing up!  

Well, I got the Kindle version, so it’s the same weight as any other book. 

[IlyaP]

3 minutes ago, briantw said:

Well, I got the Kindle version, so it’s the same weight as any other book. 

*huffs indignantly*

Well fine. Break the rules like that!  

[briantw]

I read Hunter S Thompson's Hell's Angels over the weekend.  It was an interesting look at a period in history that I wasn't alive for.  I was honestly shocked that the book was from the sixties.  I had no idea that motorcycle outlaws were a thing that early on.  I'd always assumed it was a 70s and 80s thing and not a lifestyle that sprung out of the aftermath of World War II.  

I'd only ever read Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas prior, but this book has certainly inspired me to track down some of his other writing in the near future.  Hell's Angels doesn't really have much in the way of a narrative, but Thompson's writing style is consistently entertaining and engaging.  It made it easy to knock the book out in three days, especially since it was hot as fuck all weekend and I was all too happy to spend some time inside with the AC cranked to 68 or 69.  

I also finished the audiobook for Stephen King's The Dead Zone, which was narrated by James Franco.  Franco's narration was somewhat inconsistent.  There are times when he's great and a few characters that he really excels with, but he'll also seem to zone out during long, slower sections and drone on unenthusiastically.  A bit more good than bad on the whole, though, and the book, which I read back in high school but didn't really remember, is a solid selection from King's massive library.  It's also one of the rare King novels that more or less sticks the landing.  

[ljkeane]

M.R. Carey's Infinity Gate was really good. A very good use of a multiverse setting for a different slant on an Earth based sci fi story. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

I also read Anthony Ryan's The Traitor. Ryan has a bit of tendency to have strong starts to his series and then not really stick the landing in my experience but this wasn't bad. Definitely a better effort than the ending to his Raven's Shadow trilogy anyway.

[IlyaP]

On 7/17/2023 at 2:19 AM, Britton said:

I think Mistborn is his prototypical work and that if it's not working for you it's unlikely anything his other work will either. 

You ended up being correct. Final Empire has gone into the Put Down to Try Again Later pile, as the book just didn't work for this here reader. Ended up picking up a book that I'd been wanting to read for a while now that's insanely interesting: Stars & Spies: The Astonishing History of Espionage and Show Business by Christopher Andrew and Julius Green.  

[Ser Not Appearing]

I'm of the opinion that Tad Williams is a top-tier writer with low-tier sense for where to linger.

[IlyaP]

6 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

I'm of the opinion that Tad Williams is a top-tier writer with low-tier sense for where to linger.

For where to linger? In what respect?

[IlyaP]

10 hours ago, Madame deVenoge said:

THANK GOD that the new Daniel Abraham Kithamar book was released, or I would be rather joylessly reading either Book 4 of Michelle West’s “Sun Sword Series” or the Accounting Standards Codified and / or the Code of Federal Regulations (which I shall soon be referencing both of the latter seriously once again, it’s earnings season), take your pick.

 

Wait, what? Blade of Dreams is officially out?

[IlyaP]

6 minutes ago, Madame deVenoge said:

Yass, as of yesterday 

Man, 2023 is just such a reward of a year after everything from 2016 onwards.

[Ser Not Appearing]

14 hours ago, IlyaP said:

For where to linger? In what respect?

I often feel that where he luxuriates in the story, where he expands and builds the world, the emotions and character arcs that see time ... it's out of balance with my own interests as a reader. Moreso than most authors, I'm often admiring the writing while wishing he'd just move on.

Certainly, that's just me and it's also worth considering whether or not and to what extent he really cares or even should care to try and align what he produces with the intuitive pacing and flow that a reader like me (or even all readers) might find most enjoyable ... but it's palpable to me.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Ser Not Appearing