November 2008 reads

[chitman13]

[quote name='Mandiric' post='1592812' date='Nov 18 2008, 17.52']I read Richard Morgan's [i]Altered Carbon [/i]yesterday. All in one day. I didn't much feel like going to work, so I stretched out on the couch and started reading around 9am, finished sometime in late afternoon.

It was a very readable three act type book. Definitely an above average whodunnit, with some fun sparkly future-tech ideas incorporated (I want to get my hands on some Merge Nine). The plot raced along and Morgan did a great job of advancing the story by using all the hyper-cool gadgets, drugs, etc. that he'd introduced. I never felt cheated or insulted by the mini-conclusions or the final conclusion, which can happen with these types of tales.

Great lit, it is not. Plot is king, and the prose, setting, and characters suffer for it. But it was a fun read. Perhaps a bit too pulpy for my tastes. I'll definitely be checking out Black Man though.[/quote]

Nice to see your thoughts - I've got it up next and looking forward to it :)

[Argon]

Can someone tell me why some threads are being closed?
e.g. Brandon Sanderson and now The Richard Morgan Thread.

[Mandiric]

Threads close around 400 posts.

On topic: I started Ink by Hal Duncan. I think I might put it off for a while though. Vellum took me over two weeks to read. That's a long time, percentage-wise, given my finite life span.

I might pick up Reaper's Gale. It's been a couple years since I read Erikson.

[Deornoth]

I've just finished reading 'The Stealer of Souls', a collection of Michael Moorcock's 'Elric' stories. This was a real 'book of two halves' for me, I love 'Stormbringer' but some of the tales within 'The Stealer of Souls' (from which the book takes it's name) just didn't work for me... My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url].
I'm now well into Rebecca Levene's 'Anno Mortis' (the Roman Empire under attack from the undead!) and am on the lookout for something nice and short in the reading pile which will take me up to the weekend...

[mashiara]

I read [i]Running with Scissors[/i] by Augusten Burroughs. I'm not sure what I expected from it. It was very funny in a dark way at times, but mostly it was bizarre and kind of freaky. It's not the best thing to read while you're eating, I'll tell you that. I like twisted books and this was a very twisted one but I'm not sure I'd actively look for another of his books.

I also read [i]The Afghan Campaign[/i] by Stephen Pressfield. I've liked all of Pressfield's books so far and upon starting this I was afraid I would be disappointed. For some reason it put me off at first, especially the use of military slang. But it's a book about soldiers, there should be slang, right? Once I accepted that I became lost in the book, even though the story is very familiar to me. It portrayed the grimness of war and the state of mind soldiers end up in perfectly, imo.

Finally, I saw [i]SPQR II: The Catiline Conspiracy[/i] by John Maddox Roberts at the library a few days ago and it seemed interesting so I checked it out. It was.. ok. Kind of meh, actually. It gives a lot of detail about public and private life in Ancient Rome but it wasn't very entertaining as a book. I sort of regret taking out another book from the same series. I was going to read that next but it can wait a little bit.

The reason? I was convinced I've been blacklisted by every internet bookstore on the planet, since my Amazon order of October 1st has not arrived (probably lost) and Book Depository was taking its time. But I finally got my books from the book depository and I'm excited because I get to read [i]The Well of Ascension[/i] by Brandon Sanderson.

[Mexal]

I ended up putting down my reread of [i]The Darkness That Comes Before[/i] and picked up [i]World War Z[/i]. I'm halfway through the book and hooked. I love the way he uses interviews to tell the story and I'm very aware of the parallels to modern society. It's a brilliant book and I'm not even done yet.

[Deornoth]

I've just finished reading Rebecca Levene's 'Anno Mortis' in which the undead attack Ancient Rome! I found the pacing to be a little off (okay, a lot off...) which led to me skim reading what felt like an awful lot of filler. When things got going though they really kicked off with zombies riding chariots, a unique approach to zombie siege warfare and lots of heads being chopped off. And the line 'Shoot them in the head' is used! An enjoyable light read for the tube to work... My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url].
I'm now well into Paul Kemp's 'Shadowrealm'...

[Nous]

Lately I've read [i]Life and Times of Frederick Douglass[/i], by Frederick Douglass, [i]Elfslayer[/i] by Nathan Long, some insipid paranormal thriller by a writer who is clearly card-carrying Democrat, [i]Darkly Dreaming Dexter[/i] by Jeff Lindsay and [i]The Scarlet Pimpernel[/i] by Baroness Orczy. [i]Darkly Dreaming Dexter[/i] was actually worse than the insipid paranormal thriller.

Now starting Ibsen's [i]Enemy of The People[/i].

[Larry.]

I just received Jorge Volpi's latest book, [url="http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/jorge-volpis-latest-novel-el-jardn.html"]El jardín devastado[/url]. Read this link and tell me if you don't wish this were translated into English right now.

[Deornoth]

I've just finished reading Paul S. Kemp's 'Shadowrealm', third book in the 'Twilight War' trilogy. I got the sense that Kemp peaked with the second book and hit a plateau here but 'Shadowrealm' was still a mightily entertaining read that I had a lot of fun with. My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url].
Next up is James Barclay's 'Ravensoul'!

[Larry.]

Finished three books and one genre magazine today:

1) Jorge Volpi, [i]No será la Tierra[/i] - one of those "let's talk about the changes of the late 20th century via the lives of three characters across the globe" books, but in this case, it works because of how well-drawn the characters are and how there's a unified thematic element in each of their stories. Volpi is an impressive writer and I hope this book will be translated into English shortly (the fact that he now seems to have a Spanish-language US rights deal with Random House's Rayo imprint is encouraging for that).

2) John Ruskin, [i]The Lamp of Memory[/i] - This is part of the 60 volume paperback series from Penguin called [i]Great Ideas[/i]. Very thought-provoking read, as one might expect.

3) Kelly Link, [i]Pretty Monsters[/i] - this is a collection of 9 stories, with a couple each from her first two collections and the rest being new to a collection or written specifically for this one, that is intended for the YA market. It's Link, y'all...it's good, damn good.

4) September/October issue of [i]Weird Tales[/i] (International Issue) - the stories in this issue ranged from outstanding to competent, with the median being somewhere around solid to good. Well worth the cost of my $30 subscription so far (have two other backlog issues to read/review first).

[BookWyrm]

[quote name='Nous' post='1595449' date='Nov 20 2008, 14.25']Now starting Ibsen's [i]Enemy of The People[/i].[/quote]


I'm also reading An Enemy of the People. What do you think of it so far?

[Cuchulain]

Finished China Miéville's [i]Perdido Street Station[/i] yesterday. It's original, intelligent and very readable. The scientific explanations may put off some readers, but I enjoyed them. Miéville has created something special with the city of New Crobuzon and I'm definitely going to check out his other Bas-Lag novels in the future. Bottom line, the flagship of the new weird delivered.
For my next read, I'm going to try Gene Wolfe's [i]Book of the New Sun[/i].

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm back from my vacation and polished off [i]Sky of Swords [/i]by Dave Duncan. On the whole, the Tale of the King's Blades trilogy was good, not great.
I'm in the middle of [i]Here Be Dragons [/i]by Sharon Kay Penman. Phenomenal! I can't stop reading that book. Thanks to all of you boarders who recommended her.

[Deedles]

I'm two thirds of the way through Sapkowskis Blood of the Elves and enjoying it, though not as much as I did "The Last Wish", which is odd, as I generally amn't a huge fan of short stories. It's fun though.

I 've just started Kushiel's Mercy, and realised I've already torn the dust jacket. Pah! I've enjoyed Imriels stories quite a bit, so am hopeful this will be a worthwhile conclusion to the trilogy.

[Larry.]

Finished reading the English translation of Turkish author Ahmed Hamdi Tanpinar's [i]A Mind at Peace[/i] this morning. This 1949 novel is set in 1920s/1930s Turkey and interspersed among the character studies is a really good examination of the human condition.

Currently am a little over halfway through Jeremy C. Shipp's upcoming (next month) short story collection, [i]Sheep and Wolves[/i]. It's billed as "bizarro fiction" and it certainly is living up to that. Might write a short review of it in the near future.

Also am almost halfway through Jeffrey Ford's [i]The Drowned Life[/i], his third story collection, and it pretty much has a place reserved for it on my year-end lists.

[Turinqui-Calima]

I finished reading AJ Jacobs "The Year of Living Biblically - One man's quest to follow the Bible as literally as possible". It was better than expected; I thought it would be a fun book in the spirit of "look at all these stupid rules", but it's actually a pretty deep book in its places (although also very funny).

I am looking to read something by [b]Richard Dawkins[/b] next. I've been wanting to for a while and after having seen the documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" this weekend I'm really looking forward to it. Anyone have any suggestions to which book to pick up? Haven't read any Dawkins before but was looking at The Blind Watchmaker or the God Dilusion.

[beniowa]

A few days ago I finished [i][b]Wild Cards II: Aces High[/b][/i]. I was slightly surprised to find that the second Wild Cards volume continues some of the plotlines and characters from the previous book. [i]Aces High[/i] didn't seem quite as strong as the first book, perhaps because it lacked the novelty and historical tone of the first. However, it did have a quite a bit of character development as well as a solid finish. 8/10.

I'm now reading [i][b]The Wolfman[/b][/i] by Nicholas Pekearo.

[UndergroundMan]

This month I have read "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway, "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess, and "Slaughterhous 5" by Kurt Vonnegut. As far as fantasy goes I am continuing to read "Fool's Fate" by Robin Hobb and "The Dragonbone Chair" by Tad Williams.

[Larry.]

Well, I made a separate post devoted to Ford's collection and to John Langan's debut collection, [i]Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters[/i]. Both were excellent. Might re-read Modris Eksteins' cultural history of WWI book, [i]Rites of Spring[/i], during lunch break this week.