oneeye Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 I'm reading First Betrayal now, Patricia Bray, pretty gritty and realistic but nothing epic so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyrehead Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Reading The Jewish Messiah by Arnon Grunberg. Not sure what I think. Already a few heavyhanded efforts on the author's part to shock and perhaps even outrage. Something that when done in such cringeworthy style can be a turn off. It's a fine line between thoughtful controversy and shock tactics. Perhaps if the main characters were identifiable in any way, I might be falling in line with where I think Grunbery obviously wants the reader to go. Still it is interesting and not just because I look forward to seeing pundits fall all over themselves either tongue bathing the book or distancing themselves from it entirely. Not sure I will read next. I'm hoping to see some more 2008 releases from Tor soon and I keep trying to stagger my reading to fit in with various holiday junk and travel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Gyre, have you read any 2008 releases sofar that you find appealing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyrehead Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Well I liked David Keck's second book-- that really doesn't help you one bit I'd imagine. I actually thought Redicks's book was okay but I wasn't blown away with it. But in being blown away the last two years? Rothfuss, Ruckley and Abraham, yes. Abercrombie, Lynch and Durham, no. I'm not sure if you can use that as a measuring device or not. I can see Redick being the next big thing. But I can also see the McRib being popular when it comes back -- doesn't mean I want to send one through my colon anytime soon. I think sometimes the element of populism can be a bad thing and not just as some kind of elitist stance. There are times when I read an author and feel that the there is such a strong reach on the author's part to go for the greatest common denominator that nothing but dreck comes out. I don't think Redick is dreck mind you. I'm just not sure I would say it is good though either. Readable. And a bit raw -- which does bring me hope as I much perfer raw and rough in places than smoothly bland, glib and heavily tailored to appeal. I read a couple of books in the new Wizards imprint. sadly I found them similar in quality level if distinctly different in style to the efforts of other new fantasy labels from the past year (i.e. Solaris and some of the books that Orbit put forth for the new US efforts -- Jeff Church and Jennifer Rardin both pretty bad authors in my opinion). I enjoyed Shadowbridge though it was anything spectacular and though Gilman's Thunderer was okay if perhaps a bit overly ambitious at times in terms of style. Both of those though are annual cusp books. They have a street date of 2007 but an imprint date of 2008. And I believe I actually saw Shadowbridge in hardcover at an airport bookstore the other day, but I could have been hallucinating from the free airline booze. Nicole Galland's book I found a bit too syrupy in the plotline even if it is a romance. Revenge of the Rose wasn't even as treaclely as Crossed was. Still the actual story was well written in terms of pace and detail. I guess the short answer would be "no". Nothing really stands out for me yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Rothfuss, Ruckley and Abraham, yes. Abercrombie, Lynch and Durham, no. I'm not sure if you can use that as a measuring device or not Well yes. I've enjoyed Rothfuss and Ruckley but am also very fond of both Lynch and Abercrombie. I have yet to read Abraham. Durham turned out to be not so much my thing as the novel progressed. On the other hand I know you like JV Jones' series and the last one, and I think that is a superb series. Same for the Book of Joby, which I'd say is one of the three best books I touched this year. As for new books, I am always on the lookout for great new authors, but I do think people sometimes forget that there a lot of good books written quite some time ago that are just as worthy, or moreso, but just aren't in the spotlight anymore. But that can be mended by good recommendations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Currently I'm reading (on and off) Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others and loving it. Audiobookwise, I was cheap and desperate, so I went to the library and grabbed the first thing that sounded sort of interesting. It's The Greener Shore by Morgan Llywelyn and I don't know if it's the text, the narration, or both, but this book seems cheesy. Even so, I'm listening. I guess I admittedly have no taste. Should have picked up AFFC on CD instead but there were too many discs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuenjato Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Finished so far: No Country for Old Men (now need to see the movie) Current: Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World Eve -- Aurelio O'Brien Desert Solitare -- Edward Abbey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talyn Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 A have just finished reading a few books. Due to a library due date I finished The Blade Itself and read Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. I found them to really great books and I am looking forward to the last book in the series. Now I'm going to have to read their threads on the board. I also read The Runelords, the first book in his series by David Farland. I liked it didn't think that it was great. Considering the opinion that the series gets worse as it progresses I doubt that I will keep reading it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WinterPaysForSummer Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Just finished Before They Are Hanged by Abercrombie this morning, it was great. I liked it better than The Blade Itself. Can't wait for the next one to come out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Desert Solitare -- Edward Abbey Always an excellent choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Targaryen Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 I recently started The Armageddon Rag by GRRM and The Darkness that Comes Before by Bakker. I like TAR. It is the always excellent GRRM writing. But I can see why it didn't take off at the time it was published like it was supposed to. I enjoyed the prologue of TDtCB. I'm getting bogged down now in this Mandate guy. I hope he's not the main character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthem Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Just finished The Pact by Jodi Picoult. It portrays characterisation absolutely amazingly - for the first time, teenagers were depicted as teenagers, not some weird mini-adults who are more responsible than any real teen I've ever known (right, GRRM?) The weak points: didn't describe the motives of Emily's suicide enough. It's not a spoiler, it's on the blurb and it's what the whole story's about. It was a weak point that was only enlarged because of the overall high quality; an infuriating litle flaw that ruined what could've been a magnificent book. I'd give it an 8.5/10 - recommended only if you like a good tear-jerker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Just finished reading 'Inside Straight', the new 'Wild Cards' collection from George RR. Martin (and assorted other authors). Superheroes in Reality TV and saving the world at the same time! I'd never read any of these books before but found this one really easy to get into and hard to put down once I'd started. A book that had me guessing all the way through and thinking about it long after I'd finished, great stuff. My full review is Here. I started reading 'The Charon Covenant' (Brenda Munday Gifford) but gave up in the face of a dull read and some really bad typos ('no' and 'know' do not mean the same thing!) so I reckon it's back to 'A Sword from Red Ice'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anomandaris Dragnipurake Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 I'm currently halfway through Tales of the Dying Earth, that is before Cugel's Saga, and based on opinions on this board I couldn't resist buying Altered Carbon when I visited the single bookshop that imports books from the UK in my city. I'm about a hundred pages in, and it's a great book that will probably keep me from returning to Vance until I've finished it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rakehell Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Just finished up Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams. Gonna burn through this week's stack o'comics then get started on Mythago Wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhogo's Evil Twin Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Just finished reading 'Inside Straight', the new 'Wild Cards' collection from George RR. Martin (and assorted other authors). Superheroes in Reality TV and saving the world at the same time! I'd never read any of these books before but found this one really easy to get into and hard to put down once I'd started. A book that had me guessing all the way through and thinking about it long after I'd finished, great stuff. My full review is Here. i just started this too (ARC) and i have never read any of the previous issues very good so far i love how the very first words i read are SPOILER: spoiler but not much of one"Who the fuck was Jetboy?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Callers Only Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Reading "first among sequels" the fifth (sixth? Damn meta author, now i can't tell) book of the Thursday Next series. Looks like a return to form so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Targaryen Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 i love how the very first words i read are SPOILER: spoiler but not much of one"Who the fuck was Jetboy?" Really? That's awesome. The WFC party and Inside Straight coincidentally match each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 I've just finished "Dying of the Light" by GRRM. It's a book i've tried to read several times before, and despite the awesome setting i've been unable to get into it, and i've always become distracted and picked up something else instead. This time I managed to get past the hook, and after that it was awesome. I've found this with GRRM several times - When I first read A Game of Thrones, for example, I was fairly ambivalent until the "things I do for love" chapter, after which I couldn't put it down. The same thing happened with Dying of the Light - It was the part where we first meet Bretan which hooked me in, and now i'm tempted to say that it's my favourite of GRRM's novels (although I haven't read Armaggedon Rag yet). First the setting. Worlorn is by turns beautiful, eerie, melancholy and brutal. It's the best sci-fi world i've ever read, although admittedly I haven't read huge amounts of sci-fi. The premise of worlorn is brilliantly original, and the way that GRRM builds on it and weaves it through the plot is masterful. Most of the plot is excellent, too, and there's a strong sense of Pathos running through the whole thing. The title fits perfectly with the book, and the ending is great. I'm not sure how the ending is received by most, as it seems like an ending which will split a lot of people. But I loved it. The main twist is a slight problem for me, in that I saw it coming a mile away. I'm not sure if that's intentional or not, but it doesn't really matter. It's a great book. Read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeech Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Slogged through 100 pagef of A Fire Upon the Deep and disliked it as much as I thought I would A Farewell to Arms, though--wow. What a wonderful novel, and talk about a bittersweet ending--mostly bitter, though. The female love interest, I thought, was written in strict adherence to the submissive wife cliche, but it might have been intentional, as it made the novel a lot better. The Sun Also Rises has jumped to the near-top of my reading list. Next up is probably Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo. It's about a soldier, severely wounded in WWI, who wakes up in a hospital to discover he's been almost completely destroyed. No arms. No legs. No ears. No nose. No mouth. He's a torso and a brain, and they're keeping him alive. He can't kill himself, and he can't communicate. Probably need some lighter reading after that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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