Max the Mostly Mediocre Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Finished the first two Garret, PI novels by Glen Cook. If you want noir detective stories in a fantasy realm, you can't go wrong. Though, ah, I guess that's a pretty specific crowd to cater to, I liked 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat5150 Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Just finished Brandon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension. Sorry to say that this one didn't do it for me. Not at all. A letdown and my biggest disappointment of the year so far. Check out the blog for the full review. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duchess of malfi Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 With Fatal Revenant due out next week, I have been rereading the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson. Thus far I have gotten through Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, Gilden-fire, The Power That Preserves, The Wounded Land, The One Tree, and about half of White Gold Wielder. So, in order to be ready for the new book, I have the other half of White Gold Wielder and all of Runes of the Earth to go. I am a long time (for more than twenty years) fan of Donaldson. I have been addicted since I was 16 years old, and am now in my forties. It has been a couple of years since I last read through them, and I want the plot and characters fresh in my mind for the new book. The thing is, though, that reading all of these somewhat depressing (good!! but depressing) and deep books in a long stretch is making me want to put them down for awhile and pick up something light and fluffy and fun. It is also making me realize once again how bloody long so many fantasy series have become over the years, and how many series the authors (and myself as a reader) are in the middle of writing/reading. I am in the middle of so many partially completed series right now, that if I took the time out to reread the previous books everytime a new one comes out, I would have no time to do anything but rereads. And Donaldson's books are relatively short in comparison to Robert Jordan's or Stephen Erikson's. I know that I should reread Erikson in particular...but how do you find time to reread books that are so lengthy, with new books coming out to read all of the time, and with family and work responsibilities? Heck, the only reason I am able to reread the Donaldson is because I am off of work for medical reasons for a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Pat Sorry to say that this one didn't do it for me. Not at all. A letdown and my biggest disappointment of the year so far. Worse than The Wanderer's Tale even? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat5150 Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Pat Worse than The Wanderer's Tale even? Cali: In a way, yes, for I didn't have such high hopes for The Wanderer's Tale. At least Sanderson doesn't have a character farting the national anthem! Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyrehead Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Just finished Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Last Rituals which I really enjoyed. Next is wading back into McCullough's upcoming Antony and Cleopatra as I'm trying to hold off on reading Imprimatur as long as possible. I've also received a couple of slim arcs from Tor and from the next Wizards of the West Coast Discoveries imprint to try and get done this weekend if I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Finished my reread of Blood Music. It gets better every time I read it. I'll get the review up tomorrow. Now reading Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley. Was rather gratified to receive my first review copy from Orbit, Kate Elliott's Spirit Gate, which I'll try to get to next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Gyre Shouldn't you be starting a blog with all that you read? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted October 7, 2007 Author Share Posted October 7, 2007 Finished 'Witch Ember' by John Lawson, there's a lot of potential for a decent read but the author's insistence on including everything (leave nothing to the reader's imagination...) makes it very stodgy in places. Tasty but sometimes indigestible! Have a look at my full review Here. I'm just finishing Laurell K. Hamilton's 'Micah' and it's actually pretty good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talyn Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 I'm just finishing Laurell K. Hamilton's 'Micah' and it's actually pretty good... After I read this book I had some hope that she might be returning to the sort of stories that she originally told. To bad that I didn't like the sex, or the charter Micah and then she followed it up with that terrible doorstop. Oh well. :sick: ETA: Oh, I just started reading Maledicte by Lane Robins, I haven't seen it mentioned on this board yet. Will see how good it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawrence Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 I just finished reading "No Dominion" by Charlie Huston and I really liked the novel (my review). It combined the good things of its prequel "Already Dead" with a better storyline (at least more complex) plus Joe visits the Hood! That were some memorable scenes, when Joe met up with Dj Grave Digga. I would love to re-read those parts soon. It was kind of a clash of styles, Joe's badass style versus Digga's hiphop, barbershop style. Can't wait, I simply can't wait for the next one Half the Blood of Brooklyn published in late december of this year. Especially since Joe Pitt ends up making some pretty surprising choices at the end of No Dominion so I am curious how things will work out. Thank god this casebooks will be around five novels long. Now, I am well into R. Scott Bakker's The Warrior Prophet which is of a completely other nature. Gripping and unrelenting stuff so far, with Kellhus already manipulating Achamian. Argh, I want to see more of Cnaiur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyrehead Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Gyre Shouldn't you be starting a blog with all that you read? But that would cut into my reading. ETA: Oh, I just started reading Maledicte by Lane Robins, I haven't seen it mentioned on this board yet. Will see how good it is. I rather liked the book. a bit rough in places but rather inventive. Reminded me a bit of Kushner and even ever so slightly of McKillip in the characterizations. Definitely an author whose work I'll be keeping an eye out for in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 At the end of August, one of our local used book stores went out of business. During their final days, all paperbacks were $1, so Xray and I went there to use up a bit of the book credit we had accrued. My most recent reads come from our purchases. Fugue For A Darkening Island by Christopher Priest. The best I can say for this is that it was short. I absolutely loved The Prestige, and was interested to check out Priest's earlier work. While this gets shelved in the sci-fi section, it reminds me more of the unrelentingly bleak sort of stories that fill many Literature sections in bookshops. Maybe it's just a product of its time - it was published in 1972. I just could not bring myself to care about the narrator in any way. Idoru by William Gibson. Have you read William Gibson before? Yes? Good, then you have a decent idea what this is like. Okay, maybe the plot is a bit different, but you know the general feel of the story, the stark prose, the travels to odd bits of a futuristic Tokyo. If you like his stuff, I imagine you'll enjoy this as I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven The Dark Tower 7 Stephen King The Man in the High Castle Philip Dick Fevre Dream George Martin Toshimingo Blues Elmore Leonard In no certain order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted October 8, 2007 Author Share Posted October 8, 2007 Just finished reading Laurell K. Hamilton's short story collection 'Micah & Strange Candy'. As a rule, I can't stand Laurell K. Hamilton's books so instead of venting my spleen in the normal way I thought I'd set my review to verse! In a weird stroke of fate, I actually ended up really enjoying the book, a whole load of short stories seems to be better than just a long one about sex... My review is Here. I'm now working my way through Robin Mckinley's 'Dragonhaven' and Naomi Novik's 'Empire of Ivory'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zach Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 I just finished count zero. like most gibson books, it was really good, but I think I have to go back and reread the whole thing again to really "get" it... though I did feel like the ending for this one was kind of rushed. still, I'll move on to mona lisa overdrive some time soonish. also on the list: shriek and shadow and claw, in addition to the mountains of books I'm reading for school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 I just finished up Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman, which I liked a lot. Next up is Postsingular by Rudy Rucker. Friedman’s Feast of Souls (Book One of the Magister Trilogy) begins what is so far an excellent new fantasy trilogy, distinguished from others with its life-stealing magic system and sharp gender relations. This was my first exposure to the writing of Friedman and it won’t be my last. Highly recommended – 8/10. (full review) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duchess of malfi Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Just finished reading Laurell K. Hamilton's short story collection 'Micah & Strange Candy'. As a rule, I can't stand Laurell K. Hamilton's books so instead of venting my spleen in the normal way I thought I'd set my review to verse! In a weird stroke of fate, I actually ended up really enjoying the book, a whole load of short stories seems to be better than just a long one about sex... My review is Here. I'm now working my way through Robin Mckinley's 'Dragonhaven' and Naomi Novik's 'Empire of Ivory'... Now, I have come to hate Hamilton as a writer. But I will say that earlier in her career, some of her stuff was enjoyable. Strange Candy is an anthology of stories from quite early in her career, and some of them are quite good. In fact, two of those stories - the one with the merman killer, and the one with the cupids, were among the most enjoyable short stories I read last year. The first one is creepy and haunting, and the second one is fluffy and cute. I have a special grudge against Micah, though. It actually had a bit of a plot, and Anita Blake was actually working (raising zombies) rather than spending the whole book having sex or whining about having sex. Yes, there was an obligatory icky sex scene, and the size of her boyfriend's penis was an important plot point - but there was plot! I was ready to give up the Anita Blake series after some really bad books in the latter part of the series, and after reading Micah, I thought that perhaps the author was starting to pull her head out of her butt, and actually (gasp!) have plots and action in her stories again. Because of that novella, I went on to read the next novel, Danse Macabre, and it is one of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune to read! No more Hamilton for me! I am continuing to do my Donaldson reread. I am halfway through Runes of the Earth, and am trying to get it completed before Amazon delivers Fatal Revenant...I had forgotten how annoying this book can be. The other Thomas Covenant books are sort of stand alones, even though they are part of two trilogies. The first time I read them, in fact, I read them out of order - and still comprehended enough for them to make sense. This is not a complete novel on its own, and I hate cliff hanger endings on a general principle. (I'm OK with Martin's chapter endings, as they are usually taken care of later in the book...but that is not the case here). Plus he (Donaldson) throws in all sorts of mysteries both in our world and in the Land, and very few answers. I am hoping some of those answers will arrive in FR - and please, no more cliff hangers, OK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellis Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 I'm reading War and Peace. Which means I won't be posting as often as I usually do It's been slow getting into it, but a few hundred pages in, it's beginning to pick up. I'm terribly bored by the "war" sections, but the family drama is alright. I can see myself growing to care for the characters by the time page 1400 rolls around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peadar Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Just finished Splinter by Adam Roberts. I don't know what it is about him, but his books always interest me. Next up, Daniel Abraham's The Long Price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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