June 2008 Reads

[The Pita]

Rian Healn - I mean Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori. finished the second this morning, on page 100 and something of the third now.

[The Wolf Maid]

Will be reading Ruckley's [i]Bloodheir[/i] tomorrow as soon as I pick it up from the store. Also planning to read Vance's [i]Lyonnese[/i] or perhaps Zelany's [i]Chronicles of Amber[/i].

[pat5150]

Just finished David Ambrose's [i]The Man Who Turned Into Himself[/i], part of the Picador imprint's list of "The Best Books You've Never Read." It's about the many worlds theory of quatum physics, and it's an entertaining read. Check the blog for the full review.

I'm almost done with Richard Morgan's [i]The Steel Remains[/i], and I've begun Steven Erikson's [i]Toll the Hounds[/i]! ;)

Patrick

[Deornoth]

Just counting off the days until I can get hold of a copy...

I've just finished reading Melinda Snodgrass' 'The Edge of Reason', a tale of warfare between the forces of science and superstition and a (policeman caught up in the middle). What seems, on the surface, to be a straight fight between doctrines ends up as a celebration of humanity in it's own right. Not as controversial as it sounds once you see what the author is actually saying. And it's got a great little plot as well, plenty of twists and turns that kept me wanting to read more. A really engaging read and well worth a look. My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url]
I'm now reading Brian Keene's 'Ghost Walk', it's not quite as good as 'Dark Hollow' but it's still looking good so far.

[burnt hound]

I've got a few pages left of [i]The Name of the Wind[/i] by Patrick Rothfuss. It is every bit as good as I have been told :thumbsup: .

Next is Blood Music by Greg Bear...

[dornish prince]

i'll soon be finished with "a dirty job" by chris moore; it's been superb. after that, i'll probably juggle "snuff" by palahniuk and "gardens of the moon" by erikson...

[duchess of malfi]

This morning I finished up Sara Gruen's [i]Water for Elephants[/i], which I greatly enjoyed. :)

Now about to start the latest mystery in Neveda Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery series, [i]Winter Study[/i]. Anne Pigeon is a ranger, and the books are set in a variety of US National Parks. The earlier books in the series were great fun in magnificent settings, but the last three (not counting this one, as I have not read it yet) have been pretty bad edging into the outright disturbing (sexual abuse of children, etc.). I am thinking that the author has jumped the shark, and this might well be the last chance I give her to get out of her depressing funk. :stunned:

[Annelise]

I finished Michael Mello's [i]The Wrong Man[/i]. :thumbsup: A compelling, revealing read. It follows a particular case ("Crazy Joe" Spaziano) and provides an intimate view of the capital punishment in America. The book is not about the morality of capital punishment. Instead it focuses on the holes and pitfalls in the system which enable and contribute to the execution of innocent people. The author was a public defender for capital appeals. Lawyers might particularly enjoy this book for its legal-ese, however Mello does a good job of breaking it down for laypersons as well.

[hadaad]

This month looks like I'll struggle to finish "The Outstretched Shadow" by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.
I am also reading "The High Window" by Raymond Chandler,
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum,
and I'll either get into "Farthing" by Jo Walton or "The Return of the King" by Tolkien.

[sparky]

In a true showing of will, I finished Kay Kenyon's [i]Bright of the Sky[/i], the first in her 4-part series detailing a planet-like universe adjacent to our own. It had some interesting worldbuilding ideas, but when you're talking about a landscape that's the size of the universe, it's hard to make the idea of it work, and I don't think she fully succeeded. Characterization and plot were both incredibly thin - all the elements of storytelling just felt oddly detached. I'm sure Kenyon knows where the overall story is headed, but this first volume was very much a prologue, and one that goes maddeningly full-circle.

Anyway, yeah. Probably not reading the second. And, like your mom and dad always said, you can't judge a book by its cover; these books have glorious cover paintings, but the pages underneath don't do them justice.

[Gormenghast]

[quote name='pat5150' post='1379810' date='Jun 2 2008, 15.08']and I've begun Steven Erikson's [i]Toll the Hounds[/i]! ;)[/quote]
Ah, keep us updated. I track your one-liners on Malazan forums.

[Calibandar]

Sparky

[quote]Anyway, yeah. Probably not reading the second. And, like your mom and dad always said, you can't judge a book by its cover; these books have glorious cover paintings, but the pages underneath don't do them justice.[/quote]

Same experience here, and you should see the cover for book 3, it is awesome. Sadly the series is not to my taste, I found the characterization thin as well, and the story, well it just didn't grab me. She tries for a personal perspective on a grand scale conflict but then you have to empathize with the characters don't you?

[Dr Adder]

currently reading Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks and Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke

[Bellis]

My last read in May was a novel that has not been much mentioned at all, around here, and definitely deserves to be read and I'm sure will appeal to many of you good SFF fans. :) See below.

A couple weeks ago, I heard an NPR (public radio) interview with an author that I'd never even heard of before. In fact, I have a hard time even remembering his name. Rabih Allemedine. The interview was so interesting I immediately added his latest novel to an Amazon.com order and, undeterred by the accolades from Amy Tan on the back cover ( :o ), consumed it over the course of 4 days last week.

[b]The Hakawati[/b] is the story of a middle-aged Lebanese-American man from LA who returns after an absence of many years to his father's sickbed in Beirut. We meet his colourful extended family, and as they keep watch in the hospital, we switch back and forth from many different story threads (for Hakawati means storyteller). Some of these threads piece together the main character's childhood in Lebanon and the histories of his aunts and uncles, cousins, family friends and other relations. We also hear about his Druze, Christian, Armenian, and European parents, grand-parents and great-grandparents. So far this sounds like standard post-colonial fare, or even Amy Tan.

Interwoven among the more realist family drama are other story threads taking place in a pre-modern, fantastical somewhere-in-the-middle-east. These fantasy stories feature the adventures of a servant of an emir's wife, the magnificent Fatema, who consorts with evil jinn and other demons of mythology. The emir himself also related the many adventures of a boy destined to be caliph and his merry band of friends and the evil vizier who plots against them. I have to say these stories are awesome! As good as anything in the Arabian nights and as creative in their own way as Valente's Orphan's Tales.

My only issue is that the family drama is not tied together in any obvious way with the interspersed fantasy tales. Any connections that I caught were very subtle. Perhaps it will make more sense after a re-read. Looking forward to someone else reading this and telling me what they thought.

[Gold Storm]

Just finished Bernard Cornwell's [i]Sharpe's Waterloo[/i] I love his books, he can put you right in the battle it could be a Saxon shield wall or a firing line battling Napoleons best troops. Cornwell knows a lot about what he is writing about and it shows in his writing. He can describe the action without getting bogged down in a lot of technical details.

[gyrehead]

I really enjoyed [u]The Hakawati[/u]. It had some flaws but overall I thought it was really well done.

[quote]Anyway, yeah. Probably not reading the second. And, like your mom and dad always said, you can't judge a book by its cover; these books have glorious cover paintings, but the pages underneath don't do them justice.[/quote]

My take was different. I thought Kenyon did a great job of writing material that did justice to the Martiniere covers. I thought her worldbuilding and plotting was rich and complex and that her characterization, while the weakest aspect of her work, was still quite strong. Looking forward to the third book immensely.

Just finished Stephenie Meyer's [i]The Host[/i] for our reading group. Well written but the story itself was rather weak. Way too much of the mundane worked in over and over again with nothing but the slowly developing romance as the bulk of the story's foundation. Meyer is good with words but her first foray into adult fiction doesn't make me want to go out and read something that is aimed at a possibly less emotionally complex readership or something that might treat relationships in such an overly-simplistic manner. No love at first sight but more than once Meyer simply adopts a "Done" approach to some key emotional elements that drive the plot instead of working through them in a logical and incremental manner that a better storyteller could manage. This combined with the meandering length made it seem a slow read. And yet oddly it really wasn't thanks to Meyer being able to nonetheless deliver simple but tight prose. What kind of book she could deliver if she had a stronger plotting ability almost staggers the mind.

Next up is Erikson's Toll of the Hounds if I can skip work for a day and visit some friends over at Bantam. That and if I can schedule a good massage for the next day as sitting and reading an unbound galley under a time constraint of a single day is awkward at best. But as I have all the first editions trades from Bantam, I'm not too keen on waiting for Tor to send a proof as the last one I got from them of Erikson's was less than a month before the release anyway, let alone waiting until October when I buy my shelf copy.

[Eponine]

Since I had a week without internet, I got two books read in one week (this used to be common before I got addicted to the internet). At the recommendation of the board, I read The Name of the Rose and Lord of Light. I really enjoyed the first and will read Foucault's Pendulum as well, as soon as I get around to it.

I thought Lord of Light was fantastic through the middle parts, but the end left me cold. I usually like ambiguous endings, but the final battle felt abrupt and the open ending seemed like an afterthought. Several of the interesting characters became somewhat one-dimensional as their story lines wrapped up. So it was a good read, but not destined to become one of my favorite fantasy books ever.

Currently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude for the first time. Just never got around to it before now. So far it's considerably better than Love in the Time of Cholera, although that was a great book too.

[Thrashalla]

Started Daniel Abraham's [i]A Shadow In Summer[/i] a few days ago, as I threw it on my Blackberry for when i had downtime at work...100 pages in and I'm pretty well hooked; definitely interesting and a nice break from the normal stuff.

[AutumnEvenings]

I'm reading, and have been reading, and [i]will[/i] be reading [i]Quicksilver[/i] by Neal Stephenson. I do like it (and do plan on reading its equally huge sequels), but I feel like I've undertaken a serious task here. It's the length, but it's also...well, some parts of it are really slow-going for me.

[Larry.]

[quote name='Bellis' post='1380670' date='Jun 2 2008, 18.35']My last read in May was a novel that has not been much mentioned at all, around here, and definitely deserves to be read and I'm sure will appeal to many of you good SFF fans. :) See below.

A couple weeks ago, I heard an NPR (public radio) interview with an author that I'd never even heard of before. In fact, I have a hard time even remembering his name. Rabih Allemedine. The interview was so interesting I immediately added his latest novel to an Amazon.com order and, undeterred by the accolades from Amy Tan on the back cover ( :o ), consumed it over the course of 4 days last week.

[b]The Hakawati[/b] is the story of a middle-aged Lebanese-American man from LA who returns after an absence of many years to his father's sickbed in Beirut. We meet his colourful extended family, and as they keep watch in the hospital, we switch back and forth from many different story threads (for Hakawati means storyteller). Some of these threads piece together the main character's childhood in Lebanon and the histories of his aunts and uncles, cousins, family friends and other relations. We also hear about his Druze, Christian, Armenian, and European parents, grand-parents and great-grandparents. So far this sounds like standard post-colonial fare, or even Amy Tan.

Interwoven among the more realist family drama are other story threads taking place in a pre-modern, fantastical somewhere-in-the-middle-east. These fantasy stories feature the adventures of a servant of an emir's wife, the magnificent Fatema, who consorts with evil jinn and other demons of mythology. The emir himself also related the many adventures of a boy destined to be caliph and his merry band of friends and the evil vizier who plots against them. I have to say these stories are awesome! As good as anything in the Arabian nights and as creative in their own way as Valente's Orphan's Tales.

My only issue is that the family drama is not tied together in any obvious way with the interspersed fantasy tales. Any connections that I caught were very subtle. Perhaps it will make more sense after a re-read. Looking forward to someone else reading this and telling me what they thought.[/quote]

This intrigues me, especially since I'm set to begin reading Naguib Mahfouz's [i]Voices from the Other World: Ancient Egyptian Tales[/i] tomorrow at work. I've been wanting to read some good Arabic fiction and this sounds promising.