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What are we reading?


Ser Barry

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I finished The Dark Glory War by Michael Stackpole. The first 3/4 of the book was a very standard fantasy cliches with 3 youths that are coming of age and central to fighting against the evil queen in the north. The last 1/4 was so unpredictable. Without giving away spoilers, it was like the Red Wedding for all of the characters. Even the main character, who survives gets royally screwed over. :eek:

About 1/2 way through Fortress Draconis by Micheal Stackpole. It is pretty good and I'm hoping the author will keep things unpredictable. This book takes place 25 years later from the events in The Dark Glory War.

After the ending of The Dark Glory War that was enough for me. I just didn't care about any of the characters or the story, and there was no way I was going to read any further.

Based on what you're reading now, I guess we had different reactions to the ending ;)

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I've started Robert Charles Wilson's Axis, which seems fairly good so far. I really liked Spin so I'm interested to see if the sequel will be as good.

It's not, but it's not a bad read either.

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I just finished Haruki Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which I absolutely loved as I was reading it, better than Kafka on the Shore or Hard Boiled Wonderland, the other two books I've read by him. But there's a lot going on in this one, lots of paranormal activity, mysterious women, and symbolism. I'll need a couple days to digest on whether he tied up all the loose ends.

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I'm finishing up Dorothy Dunnett's The Disorderly Knights and loving it. Fantastic book in a fantastic series.

I have the 4th book but I'm not sure I want to read it. I might need a break from the series as I've plowed through the first 3 books relatively quickly.

I'm sitting on The Name of the Rose as I really want to read it but I don't want to start it for another 2 weeks. In the mean time, I might read The Religion, a historical fiction book about the Siege of Malta in 1565, or start the Death Gate Cycle as a friend of mine sent me the first two books.

I don't know :(

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After the ending of The Dark Glory War that was enough for me. I just didn't care about any of the characters or the story, and there was no way I was going to read any further.

Based on what you're reading now, I guess we had different reactions to the ending ;)

To tell you the truth, this came from a friend's recommendation. His tastes are quite erratic. This same guy gave me the great novels such as Lions of al-aRassan, Tigana, and the Sarantine Mosiac by G.G. Kay and at the same time loaned me Eragon :sick:. He said the trilogy was better than the Dark Glory War and I'm hoping that it is the G.G Kay tastes than run true, not the Eragon taste.

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Moby Dick

The story is told in a pretty weird way, but it's interesting reading. Unfortunately, encounters with slash fangirls have completely ruined the first couple dozen chapters.

Continuing with Persius and Juvenal's Satires

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Duchess

Re; Territory

Does anyone know when the next book is due out?

Since you asked I did some digging on this one on the Net. What I could find was that she was writing the sequel last year already, and that the current title is "Claim". It's not on TOR's schedule for this year.

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Those anthologies are definitely worth reading, although sometimes there are WTF? moments and choices. One thing that strikes me when reading them, though, is how glib and formulaic magazine writing can be. This is one reason why I don't read magazines outside of work hours -- I'm not going to give up my free time to something I find frustrating. But the anthologies (Best American Magazine Writing, Best American Science Writing, etc) vastly improve the signal-to-noise. :)

</mag geekout>

There was a lot of reaching for the human element going on but thankfully most of these writers were good enough to bring a unique slant on their stories as opposed to the cut and paste jobs you get in a lot of places.

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I've started Bakker's The Darkness that Comes Before.

Pleasantly surprised so far. But the 70ish pages I've read have been very slow. Whatever, I've been impressed so far.

Also reading Seife's Decoding the Universe. It's information theory for the layperson, and I don't think he's the most engaging of writers.

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I just finished Haruki Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which I absolutely loved as I was reading it

The other day, one of my students asked me what was the weirdest book I ever read. That book was the first thing that popped into my head.

Now finishing a quick re-read of Last Call in honor of Tim Powers' birthday (which was Friday the 29th) and then going back and finishing Before They Are Hanged.

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I've started Bakker's The Darkness that Comes Before.

Pleasantly surprised so far. But the 70ish pages I've read have been very slow. Whatever, I've been impressed so far.

It definitely picks up. I was a little hesitant at first myself b/c of the Erickson recommendation (I don't like the Malazan series), and was very pleasantly surprised. Just finished the Thousandfold Thought yesterday. Bakker is one of the best I've read that brings the reader into the story, and makes his characters relateable.

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Now finishing a quick re-read of Last Call in honor of Tim Powers' birthday (which was Friday the 29th)

Somehow February 29th seems a strangely appropriate day for Tim Powers to be born on. I can imagine a Powers novel in which there was some hidden supernatural significance to a day that only existed every four years.

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Finished Mark of Ran (Paul Kearney) on saturdey - a great pageturner, but falls short of brilliant. reminds me of Erikson on some points (Rol=Crokus?)

Now onto a classic - The Forever War (Joe Haldeman) thumbzup

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Reading

The Chronicles of The Black Company-Glen Cook

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay-Michael Chabon

Marvel: 1602-Neil Gaiman

To read after

The Blade Itself-Joe Abercrombie

Before They Are Hanged-Joe Abercrombie

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It definitely picks up. I was a little hesitant at first myself b/c of the Erickson recommendation (I don't like the Malazan series), and was very pleasantly surprised. Just finished the Thousandfold Thought yesterday. Bakker is one of the best I've read that brings the reader into the story, and makes his characters relateable.

This bodes well, as I don't care for Erikson either. I'm something of an oddity. I'd rank GotM just below MoI, and well above DG and HoC. So actually, I like about half of what I've read.

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